Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) slammed the head of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on Wednesday, suggesting that a recent hack that compromised millions of Americans was the result of a “management problem.”
“Congress can certainly look at the funding angle, and I know we will, but as we learned yesterday, it wasn’t just the old stuff that was breached. It was the new stuff to. More money isn’t going to solve a management problem either,” he added. “Let’s be honest, this appears primarily to be a management problem. This appears primarily to be a management problem.”
{mosads}OPM Director Katherine Archuleta testified before a congressional committee on Tuesday. McConnell said lawmakers got “world-class buck passing. … The tired and predictable excuse that the absence of leadership can be solved by throwing a few more dollars at the problem.”
Archuleta pushed back against a “flash audit” that criticized the agency’s network modernization plan. The OPM also rolled out 15 steps aimed at tightening its security.
The breach has put Archuleta under Congress’s spotlight, with Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) becoming the first senator to call for her resignation.
The administration official is expected to testify before another congressional committee on Thursday. McConnell said that she should “better address the legitimate concerns of the American people.”
“You’d think she would have come with a detailed action plan. You would think she would have announced that heads were rolling. You’d think she said this could never ever be allowed to happen again under her watch,” the Republican leader said.
The breach comes after Senate Democrats blocked a cyber proposal from being included in an annual defense policy bill. McConnell said that he would continue to work on getting the legislation passed.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) added that he remains “committed” to considering cyber legislation.