Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, grew irritated with the ignorance of the Department of Energy’s Chief Financial Officer, who refused to “guess” at how many vehicles the DOE owns.
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“I don’t normally ask civil servants to resign,” Barton said during a House hearing today, but, “that’s inexcusable.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t know the number but my job is to review the overall budget request,” Christopher Johns, the DOE’s Chief Financial Officer explained, noting that his staff can provide such details. Prior to receiving the information from staff, Johns was willing to estimate that the DOE owned between 10 and one million vehicles, at Barton’s prompting.
Johns later confirmed that the DOE — which has about 15,000 federal employees and another 100,000 contractors — owns about 15,000 vehicles (including vehicles used for logistical purposes, such as transporting nuclear materials and other maintenance, which are used by some of the contractors and employees as needed). Energy Secretary Steven Chu hopes to cut the fleet by 35 percent by 2013.
This story has been updated with information pertaining to the DOE fleet.
