Ms. Gross was nominated by President Clinton, and was confirmed by the
U.S. Senate to become NASA Inspector General on August 11, 1995. Under
her leadership, the NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG) performed
audits, investigations, and inspections to combat crime, fraud, waste,
abuse and mismanagement and to assist NASA management in promoting
economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the administration of the
agency’s programs and operations.

Ms. Gross was the first Inspector General to initiate a computer crimes
unit, and built an organization that served as a model and a mentor for
other computer crimes units in the inspector general community and
throughout the federal government. The OIG’s Computer and Technology
Crimes Office and Technical Services Office perform criminal and cyber-
counterintelligence investigations in response to attacks against
NASA’s information systems networks, computer communication systems,
and advanced technology programs. Both offices are widely respected
in the law enforcement community and are frequently called upon to
train law enforcement personnel in advanced computer-related crime-
fighting techniques.

Another area of focus for Ms. Gross was security. Under her
leadership, the NASA OIG led government-wide efforts to improve the
implementation of the Government Information Security Reform Act and
the Presidential Decision Directive on Critical Infrastructure
Protection. In a series of reports over several years, she alerted NASA
management to numerous physical and information technology security
risks.

Ms. Gross also succeeded in diversifying the skills of NASA OIG
personnel. By hiring specialists in procurement, safety, information
technology, communications security, and space technology, she
increased the scope and improved the quality and efficiency of the
OIG’s activities. By reducing the number of administrative positions,
she increased the number of OIG staff directly working on audits,
inspections, and investigations.

Robert Watson Cobb has been nominated by President Bush to succeed Ms.
Gross. Mr. Cobb is currently Associate Counsel to the President.
Prior to joining the Office of the Counsel to the President in January
2001, Mr. Cobb worked for almost 9 years at the United States Office of
Government Ethics. He is an expert in the application of Federal
ethics laws, standards of ethical conduct and financial disclosure
requirements. Mr. Cobb’s confirmation hearing is scheduled for
March 13, 2002, before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation.