Transcripts For CSPAN FBI 20240706

Welcome to order. Without objection the chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time. We welcome everyone to the subcommittees hearing. Ill begin by recognizing myself for an opening statement. Wed like to welcome our witness today, the honorable christopher wray, director of the federal bureau of investigation. Director wray has served in this role of august since 2017, overseeing an agency of over 35,000 people. Including special agents, intelligence analysts, language specialists, scientists, and Information Technology specialists. The 24 budget request for fbi salaries and expenses is 11. 3 billion. With 6. 7 billion of that amount to about 60 . Thats designated as defense spending. Thats a 6 increase above the fiscal 23 elected level for salaries and expenses. The fbi budget request includes 196 million in program increases and 409 million adjustments too base representing the substantial increase cost of continuing the fbis current activities. The Largest Program increases requested art for fbi cyber investigative an increase of 6. 3 million. Followed by an increase of 53 million for the and a lab support. With federal debt surpassing 31 trillion dollars, its imperative that this committee ensure that every dollar provided to the agencies are spent efficiently and appropriately. Director wray, we welcome you to the subcommittee. Thank you for giving us this amount of time with you, we look forward to the opportunity to discuss with you today the major cost drivers and threats challenging the fbi. Such as the crisis at our southern border. And other challenges, such as the erosion of public trust in that bureau. Perhaps unfairly, faith in the fbi seems to be at an alltime low. Like it or not, many believe the fbi sometimes employees unnecessarily aggressive tactics. Those doesnt, hold itself to the same standards holes to the subjects of itsmi2 pursuit of these efforts and many, sadly, have given their lives and service to our nation. Americans need the fbi to remain focused on its mission, and do all it can to stay above the political fray. I hope to learn more about the fbis efforts to combat transnational organized crime and the introduction of synthetic opioids to the u. S. Markets. Including fentanyl and fentanyl and along. I also want to hear about the fbis efforts to combat the wide range of illegal activities along our southern border. Mr. Wray, once again, we appreciate you being here to answer our questions and your hard work on behalf of the American People. Let me now recognize Ranking Member cartwright for any remarks he may have. Thank, you chairman rodgers. I would like to join you in welcoming our witness, fbi director wray. To the subcommittee again. We all know the fbi dust just enormous amount of work to help protect the American People. To that end, fbi employs 37,000 people and 56 field offices. 350 resident agencies, special facilities and Analytical Centers across the country, as well as over 60 legal attache offices in 80 countries around the world. The fbi works to investigate and disrupt crime. Everything from violent gang networks, cybercriminals, white collar crime, human trafficking, and domestic and international terrorism. Since russias brutal and unprovoked aggression, its invasion of ukraine last year, the fbi has also worked successfully to disrupt criminal, cyber, and hostile intelligence activities from russia that in danger ukraine, our partners, and american citizens. This has included investigating and supporting the indictments of individuals and corporate entities engaging in sanctions of asian, export control violations and other crimes as well as identifying hundreds of millions of dollars in yachts, airplanes, and luxury homes belonging to russian ogallala oligarchs, leading to warrants for their seizure. As chairman of the subcommittee in the last congress, i am proud of our work to provide Additional Resources for the fbi, including for its ukraine related work. And for various other efforts to protect the American People. But biden administrations of requesting funding for further fbi enhancements in fiscal year 2024, including investments to combat Violent Crime and cybercrime, and to enhance the fbis Counter Intelligence and counterterrorism capabilities. At the same time, i must continue to express my very strong opposition to the house majorities plan, as included and legislation that barely passed the house last night and on partisan lines, to implement drastic cuts in discretionary spending. These proposed cuts would translate to the equivalent for the fbi of losing 11,000 positions. Our a third of its workforce. Greatly damaging the fbis ability to protect our American People and keep our community safe. Director wray, i look forward to discussing these issues and hearing more from you about the fbis fiscal year 2024 budget request. And i thank you for being here. Mister chairman, i yield back. Our witnesses time, and will follow up, should we have additional questions. The rector wray, you are recognized for an opening statement, without objection, your written statement will be entered into the record. I will ask that you try to keep your statement up to five minutes or so, so we can have additional time for questions. You are recognized, sir. Thank you. Good afternoon, chairman rogers, Ranking Member cartwright, members of the subcommittee. There is no question that todays threats are more sophisticated and move more quickly than ever before. And to stay ahead of them, we have requested important enhanced mints to our budget that will allow us to tackle the wide range of threats we face. I look forward to discussing those with you today. Let me start as you did, mister chairman, with cyber. Todays Cyber Threats are more pervasive, with a wiser variety of victims in carrying the potential for greater damage than ever before. You take china a key part of the Chinese Governments multipronged strategy to lie, cheat, and to steal they are way to surpassing assess the global superpower its fiber. The scale of but chinese Cyber Threats is unparalleled. It got a bigger Hacking Program than any other major nation combined. And have stolen more of our personal and corporate data that all other nations, big or small, combined. To give you a sense of what were up against, if each one of the fbis cyber agents and intel analysts focused exclusively on the china threat, on nothing but china, chinese hackers will still outnumber fbi cyber personnel by at least 50 21. But of course, china is not the only challenge in cyberspace, not even close. Who are investigating over 100 different ransomware variants, each variant with scores of victims, as well as a host of other novel threats posed by both cybercriminals and nation state actors. In addition to china, countries like russia, iran, and north korea. It is getting more and more challenging to discern where that nationstate threat and and the cyber state criminal threat begins. Recently, weve seen cyberattacks targeting the Critical Infrastructure and services that ordinary americans rely on every day. Im talking about places like hospitals, schools, 911 call centers, and the fbi has got investigations into destructive attacks like these all over the country, in communities large and small. Which is why in this years budget request, you will see our need for 192 more cyber positions and a little over 63 million. We will put those Critical Resources towards ensuring the fbi remains the worlds premier cyber investigative agency. By taking the fight to our adversaries, through joint sequenced operations and rapid information sharing with the private sector, by building our model cyber squad, speech tackling multiple threats in more field offices, placing investigators, analysts, and other key professionals close to the victims that need us, and by providing our workforce with critical cutting edge training. Our opponents in this space are relentless. And we need your help to ensure weve got the resources to keep responding in time. Switching gears, almost every week, im speaking with chiefs and sheriffs all over the country to discuss the threats that we are fighting together. I can tell you, in those discussions, the number one issue is always the same. Which is Violent Crime. Last year, working with our state and local partners through our hundreds of fbi led Violent Crime task forces, we arrested more than 20,000 violent criminals. Thats an average of 55 bad guys taken off the streets per day, every day. Support of our fy budget requests, we are requesting an increase to build on our efforts to request the combat the violent rising crime attack on communities over the country. A big part of that will also go towards our investigation of crimes against children and human trafficking. Every year, the fbi and our partners identify and locate thousands of victims, of Child Exploitation and human trafficking. The enhancement weve requested will allow us to add even more personal to that vital effort. Finally, ive described the threat of gangs and cartels moving fentanyl and other deadly substances across the border and into communities all over this country as a threats of epidemic proportion. We are now suing investigations against Transnational Organization critical groups and also 56 fbi field offices and have more than 300 and, close to 400 now, active investigations into Cartel Leadership. On top of, that were leveraging International Partnerships through our legal attache offices to investigations and gather and share intelligence. We are actively participating in six hosted Strike Forces along the border. And although we are not the agency tasked with physical security of our borders, we are committed to doing our part to work with our partners to tackle these very real and very serious threats. As part of, that weve asked for 53 million in part to keep pace with the seven fold increase in dna samples for individuals crossing the border. That we are testing on behalf of dhs. Over the past couple of years, weve provided critical dna testing support to 223 investigations, including more than 100 sectional Sexual Assault and a dozen homicides, based on matches from dna samples collected at the border by customs and border protection. We expect that volume to increase as Border Crossings increase, and we need your support to continue to process those samples, which, so often, provide the missing piece of the puzzle to solve serious Violent Crimes that might otherwise go unsolved if we are not able to process those Border Crossing dna samples. I barely scratched the surface of threats and depth of the threats the American People look to us to protect them from. Its staggering. And i am proud to be here today, representing close to 38,000 men and women of the fbi who work tirelessly and selflessly to meet that challenge every day. Thank you for your support of our men and women in helping us carry out that mission, and i am happy to answer any questions that you have. Thank you, director. We will not proceed under the five minute rule, with questions for the witness. I will begin by recognizing myself. The Opioid Epidemic continues to ravage communities in my home state of kentucky and of course, across the country. As you highlighted in your testimony, the fbi is doing extraordinary work. Disrupting opioid Trafficking Networks on the dark net. What are some of the most significant actions the fbi is currently taking to curb the deadly Opioid Epidemic plaguing the u. S. , and are you keeping pace with the emerging leaders and marketplaces . Well, thank you, mister chairman. As you and i have kids discussed, this is, i, think sometimes hard to come up with a Strong Enough word to capture what a significant crisis this is. Epidemic is the word i keep coming back to. I really think that is accurate. This is an all hands on deck approach. The fbi is trying to do our part, along with other agencies and partners outside of government. I will list several things that we try to tap into what we can uniquely bring to the table. First, we have a Prescription Drug initiative, which testing to our health care program, expertise, where we go after pell pill mills and a lot of professionals who are fueling the crisis, in particular, in the appalachian region, we have significant efforts there against providers who abused their oath and are a part of the problem. Second, through our safe streets task forces all across the country, we target the gangs who are distributing fentanyl and other dangerous drugs all over the country. Third, through our transnational organized crime west programs, we target the cartels, the transnational criminal organizations, that are the supply, the source of supply. Fourth, as he referenced in your question, we have a Significant Initiative called j code, which is the fbi lead but involves 12, i think about 12 agencies, which is focused on disrupting and dismantling dark net traffickers and market places for fentanyl and other synthetic dangerous substances. Weve had a number of major operations, operation dark hunter, for example, not that long ago, which took down what was, at the time, at least, the largest illicit marketplace on the darknet. But we are also doing other things behind just our investigative work. From and awareness raising perspective, we got something called operation protector, which is designed to reach out to schools, both middle schools, high schools, colleges, military service members, wellness centers, things like that, to raise awareness about that problem. It falls on the heels of a similar kind of effort that we did, jointly, with dea called chasing the dragon, which is, again, trying to see what we can do, what we can uniquely contribute to kind of get the problem that multiple levels on the continuum of this really, multiple disciplinary threats. Which, if any of the program increases that you request, would be used to enhance or increase your transnational organized crime efforts, including but jay coat and issued the . Well, a number of so, our Violent Crime peace would be relevant to that problem. Some of our technology pieces would be relevant to that. Really, its across the border, because in some ways, the Opioid Crisis and the organized crime problem that goes with it and its up permeating almost every program that the fbi addresses these days. By all accounts, the fact that the drug cartels occupy places all across our country, not to mention internationally, what are you doing to go after the cartels . So, as i mentioned, we have about 380, i think it is, investigations specifically into Cartel Leadership. Leadership, we are working with our mexican Law Enforcement partners through vetted teams and things like that to go after some of those. There have been some key indictments announced recently. Also, we are trying to cut off sources of funding for the cartels, and also trying to hit their Distribution Network here in the u. S. Those are a few things on the list. The dea director testified this morning before our subcommittee, and to help with the somewhat 2028 people charge from the cartels, and the dea has an ongoing effort, along with how is that Partnership Working . Well, i can tell you, mister chairman, we have a Great Partnership with the epa. In fact, having been in a lot enforcement throughout my career, when you look at the relationship between the fbi and the dea these days compared to what it was like when i was a line prosecutor in atlanta, years and years ago, its nightgowns they. I think a lot of that is just a recognition of how significant the threat is and how much more productive we can all be, working together as a team. We do it on things like assad Strike Forces, for example. And so, its been a very, i think, affective partnership. And i have a lot of respect for the men and women of the dea who are just fantastic partners. What are some of that more troubling criminal enterprises on the dark nets that your agents and analysts are working to defeat . Well, the thing about the dark net that is so challenging is that these marketplaces have become a place where people can come shop for really, every kind of dangerous criminal product or service thats out there. I mean, everything, certainly things like fentanyl, as we already talked about. But also, all the way over to stolen credentials, to log into someones network. Or, you can hire hitmen. Weve even had a w and d type product, if you will, being marketed on the dark nets, so it really is a kind of soup to nuts place of just unbelievably dangerous criminal activity and the key to taking Something Like that down is both technical expertise, which is why we have the cyber piece that is so significant in our budget request, but its also the international piece of it. It is we are most effective, in order to avoid a whackamole effect when we take down one of these marketplaces, we have to work with our foreign partners. For example, we had a very good success against a market called alpha bay, where we worked closely with the dutch, among others, and we timed it so as we took down one market, we knew that bad guys were going to flock to this other market. So, we took down one they fled to the other one, they basically fled right into the arms of the dutch Law Enforcement. We were able to take down to at one time in, effect. Its oversimplified, but thats the basic idea. Both the high tech expertise and the cross border cooperation with our foreign Law Enforcement. My time has expired. However, i wanted to reemphasize with you the utter importance of taking down the cartels. On all accounts, the main vehicle for bridging fentanyl another to the table. So, thank you for that work. Mr. Cartwright . Thank you, mister chairman. Director wray, i want to express my agreement with the chairman about the importance of working together. The importance of having an all of government approach to fighting the Opioid Crisis, the fentanyl coming into our country and poisoning our citizens. 107,000 dead last year from this crisis. Working together is what we need to do, and putting aside professional jealousy and envy is, we have to do that. Here in the house, just yesterday, we passed a bill utterly on party lines and just barely. That would impose significant cuts and discretionary outlays for fiscal year 2024. Thats what were up to here on the appropriations committee. Funding your agency. Then, im going to ask you, and im going to ask you all at once. A bunch of different questions. To illustrate how a 22 cut, thats what this would mean. A 22 cuts across the four non the fans discretionary programs. How would a 22 cut what impact the fbis ability to fight Violent Crime, to fight the espionage and influence efforts of others, such as the the r c, to help fight the Opioid Epidemic, to enhanced the fbis own cybersecurity, to fight Cyber Threats facing our nation, and to help fight transnational crime . What would a 22 cut in your budget due to those things . Well, let me take those entering. The Violent Crime, we, as i said, arrested 20,000 violent criminals last year in dismantled 370 violent gang since the beginning of last year. 22 reduction would mean hundreds more violent criminals out on the streets. Doesnt more violent gangs terrorizing communities. I should also say that our Violent Crime work is also heavily focused on crimes against children. And we arrested Something Like 3000 child predators and saved 2000 kids from abuse and exploitation last year. 22 reduction would be hundreds more predators on the loose and hundreds more kids left at their mercy. You mentioned espionage. My principal focus, my priority has been since early during my time mr. Rector, the Chinese Government, a Chinese Communist party which i think represents the greatest threat to our country. Weve grown the number investigations into the Chinese Government and there are actors. By about 1300 percent. We have well over 2000 active investigations into that threat as we speak. 22 reduction would be scores of threats to china left unaddressed. The Chinese Government is not dialing it back. You mentioned cyber. We are investigating 100 different types of ransomware. You could look at china alone as i said their Hacking Program is bigger than that of every other major nation combined. 22 reduction in cut incapacity gets more and more attacks which hit Critical Infrastructure. Schools, hospitals, 911 call centers. Our innovation, our Economic Security. A cyber security. The fbis own cybersecurity. We bloc Something Like 15 million unauthorized connections. There is people during external systems try to get into our systems. Her week and we know cyber adversaries want to hack government systems. Especially ones that have Sensitive Information like we do. 22 reduction of almost certainly be significantly more of those efforts that we get through. You mentioned opioids and fentanyl. We have in any given seizure, i can think of a few off the top of my head. California, phoenix, albuquerque. Individual seizure is where we seized more fentanyl and one seizure then would be enough to kill entire states including the entire state of pennsylvania. 22 reduction there are would mean fewer seizures of fentanyl. More fentanyl on the streets. More Overdose Deaths, i assume. You mention organized crime. I think i mentioned to the chairman we have 390 investigations in the Cartel Leadership. These are sophisticated very well funded dangerous adversaries. That need a team of fruits and lots of resources to take them down. 22 reduction with significantly weaken our ability to fight back against the cartels. Each one of these things, in my view, we need more money for, not less. We need to make sure that were not just doing right by the hardworking men and women of the fbi who are career a lot enforcement professionals. Devoted their lives to serving the public. 22 reduction would have drastic impact on them, their spouses, their kids. But it would also have an impact on our state and local Law Enforcement partners who are dealing with every week. Who are most of them are down significantly in terms of their workforce in their head counting their depending on us more and more to fight Violent Crime and the scourge of drugs. 22 cut to us means 22 last that we can do to help them. A slew of ways we do that. I guess ultimately, at the end of the road. You are talking about the impact on the American People. The public and the neighborhoods that were protecting from a chinese spies, hackers, violent gangs, terrorists, predators. The cartel was. So i guess thats my answer to your question. Thank you, director wray. I will yield back at this point, mister chairman. Judge carter . Thank you very much, mister chairman. Thank you, director wray for being here. My first round question is this. The fbi has drifted ferments reputation as a non federal Law Enforcement agency. How can the fbi repair their reputation so all americans see them as an organization and committed to law and order . And what standards have you put in place to ensure the fbi is not used as a weapon of political prosecution . Judge, i appreciate the question. This is a subject that is near and ear to my heart. I accepted President Trumps nomination to be fbi director because they believe deeply in the men and women of the agency that i work with for so many years earlier in my career. And i think are the finest professionals in this space on the planet. My time as director has only reinforce that assessment. I have been to all 56 of our field offices twice. Ive met with Law Enforcement from all 50 states. I talk to business leaders, start to judges, i talk to community leaders. And the fbi that they tell me about, fei that they describe is one that is appreciated, trusted, respected. That they describe. But these were exact phrases i hear from them all the time is better than ever. I wouldve stuck our workforce up against anywhere in the world. You may be reassured a bit to know that during the time that ive been director, the number of americans all across the country applying to join us to spend their careers working with this has gone up significantly. 2019, it tripled the pace. And you may be more pleased to know that weve got more applicants from the state of texas didnt from any state in the country and its i think an 86 increase in texans applying to join the fbi since ive been in the seat. I also know that the relationship that we have with our state and local Law Enforcement partners in texas are superb. I visited all of our offices there on multiple occasions. Each time, i meet with our partners to try to make sure that we have the fbi doing right by them. Thats such an important part to me of what i think our role is. As to the question of what im doing internally. The message that i try to communicate since day one at the fbi is that were going to not just do the right thing but do it in the right way. Were gonna follow the facts wherever they lead. No matter who likes it and the reality, unfortunate reality is the kind of work we do is that theres always gonna be somebody who doesnt like the outcome of what we do. At that suggest i dont have an argument with you. Im not gonna go into names. For the last 18 months, we turned on the tv about the russia story and everybody said russias then we find out that it originated with a couple of fbi agents. And all these things come out across the board. And the question is those people are doing a tv appearances on television. They were and arrested by the fbi. Im not sure they were investigated by the fbi. They were political appointees working for the fbi. I dont fault you for that. I dont know if you even knew about that. Thats not my issue. My issue is the reputation is that there are political appointees in the fbi that even interfering or at least working towards the political agenda. In the agency. For quite some time. We need to fix that. I look forward to working with you. I will say that just to be clear. There are no political appointees in the fbi. Everybody in the fbi is a career civil servant. Unless you count me and i am a nominee. There are no political thats different from most other agencies in the federal government. As to some of the individuals that you diplomatically referred to, these are individuals. Ive turned over the entire Leadership Team since i joined the fbi. I put in place all kinds of new policies procedures, trainings, systems in hanzmans. All to reinforce that top line message that i was describing to you a minute ago. Which is that were going to follow the facts wherever they lead it. No matter who likes it. Individual cases, individual investigations we could engage on those but my experience has been that a lot of times because for someone hamstrung and our ability to talk about some of the things we do, we may not do ourselves any favors in our ability to explain whats really going on. I appreciate your concerns. I have dealt with the fbi. I know you dont comment on pending or impending cases. Ive heard that many times. Thats not my issue. It sounds like you did what im just asking about. Thats exactly what i want to hear. As you internally look at this. And you found people carrying about politics more than Law Enforcement. I hope they have found someplace else to hang their hat besides the fbi. Thats with the question i was answering. I think you answered it fairly well. And so ive got more to ask you later. Thank you. Mr. Ruppersberger . I thank you for being here. Mister chairman, thank you. Im gonna focus on its an important tool that you have. Director wray reauthorizing fisa as a top priority for this administration. From my time as the Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee fully understand the importance of this program and the need to make sure we will have the authority to be able to keep our country safe. At a march eight senate Intelligence Committee, dni director haynes reaffirmed that seven crucial role in Mitigating National Security saying section 702 permission televisions gathering in foreign target city speed in a raid i United States cannot replicate with any other authority. February of this year. Letter was sent from the administration to congressional leadership. Let me read some of those successes and let her reach over the last 15 years section 702 has proven invaluable again and again and protecting american lives and u. S. National security. Section 702 has been used to identify and protect against National Security threats the United States and its allies to include both conventional and Cyber Threats posed by people republic of china russia iran and democratic peoples republic of korea. 702, acquired information that has been used to identify multiple foreign Ransomware Attacks on u. S. Critical infrastructure. This intelligence position the u. S. Government to respond and mitigate these events. Some instances, prevent significant attacks on the u. S. Networks. Section 702 required information related to the sanction armed adversaries was used and u. S. Government efforts to stop proponents from weapons of mass destruction. Im reaching foreign actors. Almost there. Section 702 has been identified as a threat to the u. S. Troops and disrupted plan theresa tax at home abroad and contributed to the state Successful Operation against those of us that even around and know who he is and what he was. Section 702 has a result of the notification of destruction of hostile foreign actors attempt to recruit spies in the United States for orson them opportunities to the United States. 702 information. Identified key Economic Security risk. Including strategic investment by foreign actors and a certain u. S. Companies. Here is my question. Its in three parts. If the Intelligence Community including the fbi loses access to 702, how would that impact our ability to counter the growing threat from china . To, also have seven out to impacts the fbi ability to fight back against cyberattacks. Three, you talk a little about 702 reforms have been implemented since last reauthorization. Four, can you talk a little about piece of note to reforms that fbi supports. Thats a lot but thats it. Thank you, congressman. Needless to say i strongly agree with what an indispensable tool 702 is. Ill try to answer as quickly as i can. On china, in a World Without 702, the fbi would have lost one of its most powerful tools to detect attempts by chinese hackers to preon our cyber and Critical Infrastructure systems. And to root out those hackers before they can act or to stop foreign cyberattacks while in progress. Almost every day, through our 702 intelligence, we see evidence of chinas efforts to surveil and steal information about our military, a better advanced technologies. To hack our Critical Infrastructure and even to run influence and intimidation campaigns against americans and chinese dissidents here. Without 702, the Intelligence Community would be blinded in an ever evolving digital world. Much of what i just said would apply to cyber more generally because the chinese although they had the biggest Hacking Program in the world are hardly the only cyber threat. Its a very important tool for us against the russians, against the iranians. And other dangerous foreign adversaries. As to the reformist, i have put in place a slew of reforms. Especially on 702. Especially over the last 18 months or so. Those includes all sorts of new policies and procedures. New changing, new system changes. New over six new safeguards your prove owes. New double checks. I set up a new office of internal audit. There was no such thing at the fbi before we had an Inspection Division that those great work and we sort of an office of internal audit. Brought back a retired agent who had gone on to be partner at big florida counting form to help stand up and were working with another Big Four Accounting Firm to help make sure that the auto program we built out is best in class. It is specifically focused on fisa compliance. The reason i bring those things up is that almost every report that members of the subcommittee wouldve seen about compliance violations and incidents that weve had in the past. Even some of those reports came out in the last would say six months to a year. They all covered to time periods that predate those reforms. And so i am confident that the reforms that weve put in place as we start getting more and more new information more recent information will show that weve made significant progress. I also want to be clear that this is not a one and done for me. This is something i take very seriously. This is a long term project. Were gonna be constantly improving. Constantly looking for ways to tighten up and improve our compliance. This is thats part of being a High Performing Organization on a program that is so important. I cannot underscore enough the importance of 702 to the American People in terms of foreign threats. As somebody who in a past life, when i served in the Justice Department, in the bush administration. I was in fbi headquarters on 9 11. Spent time with the families of the 9 11 victims during my time as an assistant attorney general. I never want to have to look at families and tell them there was something we couldve done that it was fully constitutional. We chose not to do to help keep them safe. Thank you, sorry about the over, mister chairman. Mr. Garcia. Thank you director wray. Good to see you. Who i want to thank you for your service and the service of the agency in your department. Very Important Mission you have a. Want to talk about things National Security is important for me. Taking care of our military base pay is important. May 21 hoping to get them to minimum wage of 31,000 a year everywhere i go to remember i talked about this. Its important. A give for a speeches. Ill be doing it again because its important to. Me every Committee Hearing i talk about military base pay because its important to me. This is what we do when things are important to us. We make sure that were talking about them consistently and were chasing funding for those missions. Whatever we consider to be important. Im concerned the president in a year where he is of the top line asked for about ending a 12 increase across all federal agencies. Only asked 4. 3 increase for your budget. That to me messages to congress that he doesnt value the mission of the fbi frankly. Especially relative to other federal agencies. Im concerned also with regards to this fisa conversation. You havent mentioned fisa, told my colleague for mel we had attorney general garland hearing. And weve had discussions of the Intelligence Committee about how important it is. I understand how important it is. I dont get the sense. You said we can underscore the importance enough of 702. I think you need to underscore the importance of it a little bit more. You cant go to 435 members or six different committees suggest say its important. I can guarantee you wont have the votes in december. This policy, this tool turns into a pumpkin in december. Its been in place since 2008. We all understand the value and the importance of it. Ive seen the data that youve shown us in the tank. Its extremely important. Unless you execute a capture plan. Ive communicated this to director haynes at the end insa as well as their counterparts at and communicated this to the attorney general. This renewal isnt just gonna fall on your lap. Its not our job to be your Business Development guides on the policy side. Its not the job of the endo committee to be here. Your spokespersons on the policy side. We need you to do the following three things in a way to capture point out for you. Just like i did the other enemies i just talked about. You have to educate every member of congress. San juan its important the different flavors of fisa and the products that these products feed into. Thats a won pillar two is what i call repent remedy there needs to be a public acknowledgment that fisa has been abused and in either a classified or unclassified environment explain what protocols have changed what policies have changed. How are Holding People accountable weve talked about some of these things and appropriate spaces. Demonstrate to members of congress that changes have been implemented as such that the abuses that weve seen that we acknowledge that we admit to will not happen again. Very important that the second pillar is executed between now and december. The last pillar which i think is just as important as the first two is the accountability piece. We need a pound of flesh. We need to know that someone has been fired. My understanding is no one has been arrested for the abuses of abuses of fisa. Of any flavor in the past. No one has been fired or arrested because of these abuses. Weve had investigations have been going on for years. We havent seen any conclusion of those things. Im telling you that if all we do is try to educate members of Congress Everyone will recognize its important and no one will vote for the extension before december. If you dont also repentance show the remedy and the protocol changes that have taken place because of the abuses then you dont also demonstrate the people havent held accountable for i can almost assure you someone who sits on c. J. Asked, intelligence, that we wont have the votes as much as we try. We wont be able to support the extension. Feel free to comment. I take it as. Counsel and telling you if its important to you, you guys need to be proactive and bringing this up in every single Committee Hearing. Every single engagement with member of congress. Included the senate. Show us that its important to you. Otherwise, were gonna be in december telling you we dont have the votes. He didnt make it seem like it was important to you. Respectful of the time. All say that i look forward to working with you and the rest of the members. Especially on the Intelligence Committees. And i appreciate you flagging the possibility it might not mentioning it in your earlier changes could be misconstrued in some way. Obviously, i was trying to be responsible with question of fentanyl which is something i also know is very important to you. An organized crime which i also know like me is very important. And so its one of the challenges of time limit in these kinds of settings. Certainly point taken. We look forward to working with you on this. Thank you, mister chair. Mr. Thank you, mister chairman. And thanks for having us here today. Director, thank you for your service. I appreciate it. Its tough sometimes but thank you very much. Ranking member card rights already spoken about the whole issue of cutting 22 back. We hear what the talking points out there. Its really two things. Fentanyl and our countrys less safe. The fentanyl side hundred 8000 deaths overdoses 80 or fentanyl. Talk about how they infiltrated the u. S. Which you can say and unclassified setting. A string and how its going from and to enter our country. That ability, again, mr. Curry talked about, the work with local and state Law Enforcement. As your partners. I appreciate the question. A couple of things. First thing i would say and chairman and i had a conversation about this point which is as alarming as the hundred and 7000, hundred 8000 overdose number eight. It should be to everyone in america. The untold story is that because of greater ability of narcan and better first response. Which is a good thing for america. That number is actually in some ways better than the problem really is. There is more overdoses that are being adequately responded to and people are being resuscitated. And thats a good thing but if you are trying to measure how serious the problem is. How big the threat is. In some ways the Overdose Deaths as shocking as 107,000 is in some ways doesnt quite do it justice. The cartels. We just had a major indictment of the related to the cartel. Obviously very significant to you. I mentioned that we have Transnational Organized Crime Task forces that our focus specifically on that threat. We work on the Strike Forces against the threat. I think part of the reason what you have is precursor is very heavily coming from china. And there is actors in china that seem all too happy to send these chemicals to mexico where there than produced by the cartel laws. Sent across the border. And distributed by gangs here in the United States all over the country. One of the challenges about Something Like fentanyl is that the cartels no longer require acres of farmland. Or to wait for a harvest or Something Like that. These are things that can be done all year long in very small spaces that are harder to detect. Easier to get across the border and then if you combine that with the potency the lethality of the substance. And you combine that with the fact that its now finding its way into all sorts of other drugs including prescriptions that are adulterated. You start to get a sense of why this is such a ethically and historically challenging problem. We got this product 30 times cheaper to make for kilo than heroin. 50 times more potent than heroin. Would you give me a yes or no answer. These budget cuts. Will that mean we have many more dead americans . I just dont see how it could be otherwise. As i said in response to an earlier question. We have caesars especially from our offices that touch the border but not exclusively. All the time. And one seizure are seizing enough fentanyl that if distributed wouldve been enough to wipe out entire state in terms of the dosage. You take away five or six seizures and youve got a significant impact. I think your point about the deaths being prevented by narcans a really good point. Were looking at things are thousands of patriotic agents trying to protect us from all the threats. Talk about morale. Morality of the fbi and the unfounded political attacks. How does that affect your ability to recruit and retain . Our people are humid like anybody else. Nobody likes to see the work the organization they dedicated their careers to, their lives, to their families to unfairly criticized. I will tell you that our people are focused on the mission. On the, work on who they serve, are recruiting as i mentioned in response to judge carters question is been growing very well. Its gone up significantly since ive been in this role. After the first couple years where it was sort of it started when, up significantly. This here are, applications are coming in faster than they did last year. Were at an alltime high in terms of the unborn agents. Law enforcement professionals, third to 40 of them that are former Law Enforcement. 50 of them have advanced degrees. These are people with a lot of choices in the shop market. Theyre registering their view of the fbi. Devoted their lives are attrition rate. By that i mean people retired early. Less than 1 . Which is better than probably any private organization out there. And so at the number of people applying for extensions mandatory retirement age. Its high. Again, in this pretty competitive job market. What i wish that we werent unfairly criticized . Of course. Everybody at quantico gets asked what is your y. Nobody is why is i dont want to get criticized. Everybody is why is what i want to serve the American People. As long as we can keep doing that and working with the great people you get to work with, will be okay. Thank you for your resilience. I yield back. Mr. Clyde. Thank you, chairman. Director, i guess this is our first meeting. I hear your from georgia, my home state. Regarding the raid the Justice Department filed an application for a search and seizure warrant maralago citing probable cause. That additional president ial records and records containing classified information were made in varying parts of the residents. The fbi executed the search and raided maralago has been investigating President Trump for alleged improper handling of classified information and president ial records ever since. Director, are you familiar with the president ial records act . Only in the most general sense. Im not a subject Matter Expert norma currently practicing as a lawyer. Only in the most general of sense. The president ial records act 44 usc 20 201 is the controlling statute for president ial records. I have a copy of it right here or if youd like to see it. Was the president ial records act referencing the request for a warrant. I would refer you to the warrant. Im asking you a question. I dont have the one in front of me so i cant sitting here right now tell you exactly what statues were referenced in the warrant from this is one of the most historic rates and warrants ever done in this country. Never done before. And you dont know what the warrant says. I didnt say i did know the one says. I dont have the specific details and frenemy of exactly which statutory code references are in the warrant. Are there any criminal penalties attached to the president ial records act. Again, i think thats a legal question. My general recollection is not directly but im not certain. Youre correct, there are no criminal penalties attached to the president ial records act. Under the president ial records act, the president is allowed to have all his records from his time as president. Is that correct . Again, now youre asking me for a legal opinion about the scope of the president ial records act. I would refer you to the special counsel conducting the investigation. According to statute, president ial workers are defined as any document created or received by the president or his staff. It does not exclude classified documents either. Thats right from the u. S. Code. Right here. President trump had complete authority to unilaterally declassified documents, correct . Again, now youre asking me for a legal question and youre asking me for a legal question relates to an Ongoing Investigation being led by special counsel. I certainly understand why youre asking the question. I respect that. Its not something that i can answer. My understanding, the president has that authority. The Vice President and the senator does not. Is that correct . Same answer. According to the president ial records act personal records are excluded from the preservation requirements. Are you familiar with the 2001 in which plane to finish in the court to consider whether tapes found located in president clintons sock drawer many containing conversations with foreign leaders and their foreign born classified worry to be considered personal records or official records . Are you family without case at all . Even in the Department Justice for a very long time. I cant recall a case involving a sock drawer. I know there was a case involving the former National Security adviser who had served in the clinton administration. Involving classified documents. This is dealing with president clinton himself. At least sitting here right now, i dont recognize it. Moved by saw something i could come back. Judge amy jacksons opinion in that case citing 44 usc 22 or three bravo. Judge action ruled that in the courts view under the statutory scheme established by the president ial records act. The decision to segregated personal materials from president ial records is made by the president. During the president s term in his sole discretion. Considering jacksons judge actions ruling, why do you believe the white House Counsel jonathan with president bidens approval away to President Trumps executive privilege when according to the president ial records act, only President Trump had the authority to determine president ial versus personal records . Respectfully, theres a couple of things that go to your question. One is you are asking for a legal opinion and im a very careful as fbi director to stay in my lane. Legal questions to be referred to the Justice Department. Second, it sounds like in this particular instance are asking me about with somebody else was thinking when they did or didnt waive the privilege. I cant speak for them. What did a cause for the fbi to pursue this case and execute this raid . I dont have a cost figure for you. Can you provide that for me . I can see this information we can provide you. Ill follow up with you. Ill look into it. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you director wray for being here. Id like to thank your family for carrying the families of folks like you. With the administrator, folks the military. Families bear the burden just much as the member dies. In your role for the last six years director of fbi, you are the target of many threats overseas. And here at home as well from organized crime to drug cartels to foreign militaries. I thank you for your sacrifice and your service in that regard. Sometimes i open these questions are because the fbi ill open these questions up to my constituents. See if they have a question for the director when i might be having a chance to talk to him. Ive got one right here. The fbi has properly earned our respect over the years amazon has protection the rule of law. Do you perceive the degree to which Many Americans feel that the fbi sometimes qasem negative ion people and groups for political reasons. I think the men and women of the fbi are dedicated principled objective Public Servants and patriots. We are 38,000 person organization. And weve been around 415 or so years. Like any organization that, weve had people that i made mistakes. We have taken action where we can with the tools that we have. To deal with those mistakes. I think your constituents questions goes to a broader phenomenon that i see and todays world which is that all too often in todays world, peoples standard for whether they think something was fair or objective or independent boils down to whether or not they like the outcome or not. Maybe their side when our loss. There could be Supreme Court decision. It could be any number of trials around this country. If we get to a place where people decide something was corrupt or lacking integrity because we dont like the outcome, then were in a bad place. Especially when more and more of those kinds of feelings turning to violence. Then we got a real problem where we see some of the threats against Law Enforcement. Unfortunately, all over the country. I hope that we have the fbi are trying to make sure that were doing the right thing in the right way. Can earn the trust of your constituents. Thank, you thats a great answer lets. Get some explosive. Title 42 is roldan with the removal of Illegal Immigrants were in Infectious Diseases present. Its enforced by the border patrol. Stops Illegal Immigrants from entering the United States on the grounds of a Public Health emergency. President biden wants to repeal title 42 anyone to do so by may 23rd. The fbi handles the collection of dna from federal criminal cases. And its already backlogged as it is. If title 42 is lifted, how does that affect the volume of dna that you will have to process. That cant be good. I dont have the figures right in front of me. I can assure you i can assure you that the sheer number of these dna samples that were processing that people coming to the border. More than testing in order to potentially solve any number of Violent Crime. Were talking about Sexual Assaults, homicides, this is important work. Often, the dna is the secret sauce. Its the critical piece that solves the crime. The number has been going up significantly. Significantly which is why we made the request that we did. I think this year, its so dramatically from last year. If title 42 goes away. Your question anticipates in the way were anticipating. I think the number is going to go through the roof. Hence the budget request enhanced wind that weve made. When were talking about a border. Not gonna ask you anything under your purview. When we talk about the threats that were facing overseas. The chinese often come up. Asymmetric warfare is a part of what theyre accomplishing here. The cartels dont css customers, they see us as the enemy. Theyre killing us at a rate not seen since world war ii. 287 overdoses a day. 200 coming from fentanyl. 305 americans lost their lives every day. In world war ii. As we talk about china and their threat. In the time i have left. The Chinese Police stations. We closed down a facility in houston and the Chinese Police stations are coming up significantly and a lot. Are yall are working very hard to shut those down where you can find them . You mentioned two things. Theyre both reflections of the Chinese Governments in my view contempt for the rule of law and International Norms. In houston, we worked with secretary pompeo at the time. And close to the houston consulate. Which was being used by the Chinese Government for all sorts of activities that were not gonna tolerate in this country. Secondly, there are the socalled police stations. That have been set up in a number of countries without proper coordination that are in many instances is illegal. We recently i called a sudden testimony early last fall. We recently were able to conduct Law Enforcement actions. One in new york was shut down. Weve announced some arrests. They last week it was. Then included among other things obstruction of justice charges. Its outrageous. That the Chinese Government would think that it could set up shop here on our soil. And conduct uncoordinated, unsanctioned, illegal Law Enforcement operations. Unfortunately, it fits in with a pattern of the Chinese Government trying to run willynilly disregard for the rule of law and threaten harass dissidents. Many cases, Chinese Americans here in the United States. Its not just happening in the United States which is why the fbi is working closely with some of our counterparts in other countries where the Chinese Government has shown us similar contempt for International Norms in the rule of law. Mister chairman, ive gone over, i apologize, i yield back. Mr. Cline. Thank you, mister chairman. Thank, you for being here. Lets talk about contempt for the rule of law. Americans are willing to accept outcome with they dont agree with. Contrast your answer to mr. Ellzey. Whether or not willing to accept what, im not willing to accept, with the American People are not willing to tolerate, when im not going to tolerate, when outcomes are influenced by actions of your agents. There are outraged and so am i. Lets talk about face the. But he says sections of known to at the senate Intelligence Committees worldwide threats hearing in march. He noted the warrantless searches american syndications inspections of not to dinner or down a 93 year over year. Fbi officials told the New York Times that the numbers around 204,000 searches per year. Compared to as many as 3. 4 million in 2021. Let me ask you. To deter National Security threats drop 93 or had the fbi been conducting millions of unnecessary warrantless urchins of americans private communications . First, i would disagree with you that what was described in the report were warned with searches of american communications. 702 is a tool that is consistent with the Fourth Amendment. And the report in question does not find that the searches, the queries were in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Well talk about that. As to the other party or question. When the biggest chunk of the number of query terms. Again, each of these quarry terms are not individual people. But for instance, one person, multiple email addresses. Something like that. Or from helping to identify victims of cyberattacks. Particularly that a year an awful lot of cyberattacks were coming from the russian. Some cases, in chinese. I think the safeguards, the procedures we built and have all led to a more surgical use of the authorities that we have. Not necessarily eliminating some queries that themselves were violated from a rules but it does mean that the effect of all of the changes that we put in place a think has brought a more surgical approach to how i think its important people understand that these queries are running queries through information that is already lawfully collected. Its not unlike anybody can relate to this. If you have your email inbox. You run a hurry to find out all emails from congressman cline, for example. Former nsa general counsel has been telling the press that the fbi can only do this if there are some foreign connection involved in the investigation. Not just for some routine domestic crime. When asked for clarification, fbi released a statement saying that generally there must be some nexus to a foreign power or from some factual connection to international terrorism. Espionage or foreign computer intrusions for the fbi to run the searches for evidence of a crime. The fbis query guidance that year doesnt include this requirement. The guidance says the queries related investigations related crimes target collection or crimes that have a factual Connection International terrorism espionage foreign computer or examples of situations that will tend to qualify but nowhere does it say that connections are required for these queries. Can you confirm that the fbi does not require analysts to have evidence of an access to a foreign power foreign crime before researching 702 section 702 data for americans complications. I think i would have to you in order to give you a comprehensive answer to that question. I would have to have our subject Matter Experts follow backup with you. Its precision here is very important. I dont have the guidance in front of me. I want to make sure that we give you the complete answer to your question. Im happy to follow through with you. Dont you think they should and shouldnt congress codify that next system . In order to protect americans Fourth Amendment rights . Im not gonna get into individualize slate of fixes here. Im gonna work with the office of the director of national Intelligence Community and the Justice Department. And with the congress on potential adjustments if any. I look forward to that. I yield back. Mister chairman. Good to have you here today. I appreciate the fbis efforts in addressing Illicit Activity in the u. S. And the increased emphasis on the adversaries intelligence threat against the United States. Namely china. That said, the department of justice and the fbi continue to fall short of mitigating our adversaries intelligence threat. 2019 for example, the fbi estimated that the United States incurs annual losses ranging from 200 and 25 to 600 billion dollars annually in illicit activities by china. To put that in perspective, according to the budget. All across all agencies. The u. S. Invested 142 billion in research and development. If you look at those numbers. In 2019. China stole at least twice the amount of money we stand spent on federal research and development. In looking at your fy 24 budget request increase of Counter Intelligence budget is increased by 4. 5 million. At the same time, the bureau requested 14. 1 million 40 emission vehicles. While i applaud your incredible efforts to address the chinese threat i guess really what many of us are having a hard time is reconciling these priorities when china steals our entire research and Development Budget annually. Understanding this is an unclassified environment that were in this afternoon. Can you share us your parties to address these chinese espionage . I guess i want to start off by being Crystal Clear that and as ive said consistently for years now. My view, there is no country that presenting more significant threat to our innovation or ideas or our Economic Security, our National Security, the Chinese Government. Thats why weve grown for number investigations into threat about 1300 percent. Wasnt that long ago when i checked new investigation related to a Chinese Government. About every 12 hour. These are folks working hard on the threat. That is for me at the top of the list. Talking with my people every single day. The budget requests, little bit of apple to orange there. We have hundreds of milledgeville dollars in counterintelligence initiatives. The share of those are focused on china and as far as the increase enhancement. The number that he referenced comes on the heels of last year. Which were very grateful to the subcommittee for. An increase of 34 million and 88 positions. Part of a multi year or growth bias. The zero missions vehicle thing is simply the fbi following an executive order that some apply to every agency so we had to have that in our budget. You can be confident that any resource is that the Congress Sees voluntary send our way to fight the Chinese Government threat, we will put to good use. Our folks are opening when i see their opening investigation. They were last time i check every 12 hours. It sure is because they have Something Else to do with their time. As we discussed here, with all the other threats were facing. Were working very hard but the reality is if there is one thing the Chinese Government can bring to the table, its scale. There is a second thing they can bring to the table, its centralize control. You put scale and centralized control together, its a significant challenge for everybody than hodgins community. For us, the key to fighting back is partnerships. Partnerships with the other agencies Intelligence Community our allies. With the business community. In the hands of the business community. With academia. Theyre trying to steal our research. Working with the universities. The way for us to meet them on the playing field, if you will, is three partners. Thats been a big part of our focus. Were not a single handedly gonna be able to investigate our way out of this particular threat. As i mentioned my opening statement, on the cyber side. The Chinese Government. Even if all of our cyber personnel did nothing but china. There is a lot else in the cyber world besides just china. The Chinese Government hackers would outnumber us 50 to 1. Its a significant asymmetric to use a word that was used before issue. We are growing and i wouldnt read too much into the difference between 4. 5 versus the 4. 1. 14. 1 is simply us implementing an executive order that we require. Certainly i know i want to stress the importance of that doing everything we can to protect our investments. I yield back. Mister director, we want to be mindful of the demands that facie you. But we have members here who would like to ask a few more questions if you are able. And i will open and yield myself time to talk about something you mentioned in your opening statement. Mr. Elsie came through with it as well. Thats the dna collections. In 2020. Dhs mandated and expansion of dna collections to all nonu. S. Persons detained under the authority of the United States. Including individuals detained for removal proceedings. Migrants seeking entry to the u. S. For asylum purposes or individuals apprehended after crossing into the u. S. Dhs put for the clock to dna samples to the fbi. Which processes them. Stories them the resulting profile list and the combined dna index system. How many samples is the fbi currently receiving four dhs per month . And how was that expected to change from the ending of title 42 . Thank, you mister chairman. These are the numbers i was looking for an response to congressman ellzeys question. Ive now managed to find them. We during just the First Quarter of fiscal year 23 received more than 130,000 samples collected by the ehs order. We expect once title 42 is rescinded at the number will jump by around 30,000 additional samples per month. That gives you a sense of the fairly blistering pace that our folks are having to engage in to test all the samples. Again a, time is of the essence. In many cases. These are leading to and solving Sexual Assaults, homicides and other serious crimes. Does the budget request fully cover the estimated funding needs assuming title 42 ends. And what will be the impact of the ending of title 42 on your crime lab capacity . We have put forward budget requests that will help us meet the need that were trying to project. It is obviously a bit of an educated guess as to the pace. But we put for the bush requests that is assigned to meet that. I can assure the subcommittee. And you mister chairman that if whatever resources the subcommittee sees willing ceasefire to send our way on this issue. Will be put to good use because in addition to processing the dna samples. Caused by this collection. Of course, our folks are solving crimes left and right from samples that are submitted by state and local Law Enforcement. By federal investigations over the country. There is always a certain amount of backlog in its own right. We are concerned to the last part of your question. That the effect of title 42 being rescinded will be a dramatic increase in the number of samples that will have to test. Hence the enhancement request. How many facilities do you have for processing samples and whats the backlog current backlog . In order to be that information, i have to have my staff follow up with you on that. I can certainly have them do that. Please do. Is the situation impacting your ability to time we analyze crime scene samples and how is processing those samples prioritized . I would have to ask our lab directory to give you how we handle the privatization. I think maybe a little bit complicated. As to explain that adequately. It is certainly impacting the pace in which we can get through the samples. There is no question about it. At the numbers been growing. We anticipate that growth to kind of go like this ones title 42 are there any other agencies that could help handle that workload . I think where the main answer to the problem. Where the main place in which the samples are tested. There are other labs around the country that do dna testing. I think the law ensure the work falls on our laboratory division. Skipping back again to the cartels. What is the answer to the question about the ability to track down analyze plot and diagram the response to the huge profound problem that we face with fentanyl. What, it is a multi disciplinary problem requiring multi disciplinary solutions. I think it requires not just the Intelligence Community working together, the Law Enforcement community, federal, state, and local working together. But also leon forsman and mexico working with us. We have very good relationships at the working level of our Law Enforcement counterparts. Lets be clear, i think there is more of the Mexican Government that can and should do to help us with this problem. We hope they will. And obviously, the flow of precursors from china to mexico, every time is one that gets listed as a controlled substance, theres another one that pops up in it stead. That is part of the problem. Of course, we have the whole Distribution Network here in the u. S. Were routinely taking down, dismantling gangs, violent gangs, often neighborhood gangs that are distributing this stuff, peddling this dangerous stuff to, you know, communities all across the country. At the end of all of, that you have the awareness raising piece to try to help deal with the demand side of it as well. So, it has grown, hence my use of the word epidemic. Its grown to such a scale that it really does require a whole lot of different tools, Law Enforcement, intelligence, diplomacy, financial health, social services, education, i mean, its kind of the whole waterfront. Thats just how gigantic the problem is. Its gonna take a government attack. More than government even, its really a whole society response. Yeah. On the cartels, specifically, are you satisfied that we have an all government attack on the problem . I think the government is, the federal government, i think its working well across agencies to try to go after the problem. The cartels are sophisticated adversaries that are well funded from all of their illegal activity. And they have their own share of advantages where theyre located. So, more needs to be done to go after them. But were constantly coming up with new strategies, ways to try and cut off their funding to penetrate their organizations, to get information about them, to develop cooperators, sources, to collect intelligence on their activities, to figure out how to maximize impact against them. Weve had some successes, some important successes. Some key extraditions that have occurred. They show that they do have to have a credible fear or threat from u. S. Courts and u. S. Prisons. And there is nothing that makes me smile more broadly than seeing a Cartel Leader in an orange jumpsuit. Amen. Thank you for your service. Mr. Cartwright . Thank, you mister chairman. I echo everything the chairman just said about an all government approach. We have to engage in all out war on this heinous problem, that is infecting our nation. And i thank you for your efforts in taking on that war. In fact, in my own congressional district, in 2020, under your tenure, the fbi insisted in the rust and prosecution of a man who was caught selling fentanyl that resulted in a fatal overdose in northeastern pennsylvania. We understand that. Its something that goes all over the country. Director wray, you got a question earlier about political appointees, political agendas at the fbi. Just to make it very Crystal Clear, how Many Political appointees are there at the fbi . One. And that would be you . Yes, i dont think of myself as a political appointee, i guess, technically, i am the one political appointees since i was nominated by President Trump and confirmed by the senate. In fact, what was the name of the president who nominated you to be the assistant attorney general for the Dojs Criminal Division in 2003 . President george w. Bush. And what president nominated you to be the director of the fbi . President donald trump. Well, one thing that you didnt get to near testimony, you gave us a very wholesome written statement before that couldnt possibly be read in five minutes. One thing you didnt get to integrate detail was the high of ransomware, you mentioned theres all kinds of varieties of ransomware. But in january 2023, the doj and the fbi announced the success of an fbi investigation against hide ransomware, tell us about that. The hive ransomware takedown is a very significant operation for a number of reasons. First, i should say, the hive ransomware hit victims all over the country, and to some extent, all over the world. Many of the victims were in the health care sector. To me, its a particularly pernicious type of ransomware. Youre talking about putting not just hospitals or other types of health care facilities, finance, youre talking about putting patient care at risk in Ransomware Attacks. The reason the hive takedown was so important is that we were able to essentially hack the hackers and get into their infrastructure. And while they didnt realize it, every time there was a new encryption key available in their infrastructure, we could essentially take it and make it available to the victims. That then mend the ransomware victims to the tune of i think Something Like 1300 victims, these are all organizations, you know, hospitals, medical clinics, specialty clinics. Didnt have to pay the ransom. Didnt have to pay the ransom. In some cases, they had already paid ransom, we are able to unlock it. Other cases were able to get them the key so they didnt have to pay it, i think it ended up saving these Health Care Institution Something Like 100 and 30 million. Some of these are small clinics to. I mean, we had one, i can remember we had an fbi case agent and computer scientists who raced out, the clinic was so small that the doctor was also the guy that ran i. T. For the clinic. So, we were able to help them. This is a very scary problem for american businesses and hospitals. All sorts of entities that rely on computers. Well relenting peters. So, the fbi was able to step in and interrupt them being held for ransom, saved 100 and 30 million and ransoms being paid. But the problem is not enough businesses report being stuck up for ransom because of ransomware. Something like 70 or 75 of businesses dont report it. Why is that . And what can we do about that . The good news, is more and more businesses are reporting, theyre starting to realize why it makes sense for them to do that. It is true that hive helped expose that an awful lot of victims were not reporting. I think in some cases, it is that the organization thats been targeted, whether its a hospital business, what have you, is worried about reputation will harm, Something Like that. Where because theyre worried theyre gonna be in trouble for paying the ransom. What we say, look, will we discourage paying the ransom, we understand its a hard decision, whats most important is that you contact us a soon as you get hit. I like to use the analogy, weve all seen the move these, a different kind of ransom, like, the kidnapper, weve all seen the scenes where the parents of the kids been kidnapped. The traffic at whether to pay the ransom. Theyre on the phone with the kidnapper, you have the fbi agent there with the headset and so on. This is the cyber equivalent of that. We want the company, the hospital, school, whatever it is thats been hit, whether theyre gonna pay the ransom or not to contact the local field office, there are things we can deal, and congressman clydes home state of georgia, my home state as well, with the pipeline, because colonial did the right thing and reached out to us early, we were able to work with colonial and essentially claw back a big chunk of the ransom before it got to the bad guys and get it back to colonial. That, we cant do that in every case, but thats the kind of thing that we can do for contacted early. Of course, the irony is that a couple weeks after we did that with colonial, again, they really were stunned up and were smart about how they handled it, there was another company that had quietly paid the ransom somewhere, essentially called us and said, hey, we understand you could maybe get our money back . Thats really not how it works. Wed like to be able to help the other company, but once theyve paid, time is of the essence. And it kind of, you know, its paid in cryptocurrency, it scatters quickly. So, if were gonna follow the money and disrupt the attack, we need to be contacted quickly. My time is up. The moral of the story is contact the fbi. Yes, sir. I yield back, mister chairman. Miss carter . Thank, you mister chairman, and thank, you youre doing a good job. I appreciate that. One quick question, the zero emissions same thing of the drug focus this morning, how is that in line with the purposes of the irs . I mean, of the fbi . You know, those things are electric its about 300 miles an hour, after 300 miles. How does that does that help or does that hurt . Of course, the whole country is to some extent moving in a direction towards more of these types of vehicles. The reason its in our budget is quite simply because theres an executive order and return of all the executive order. I can assure you that my priority for our people is to make sure that the Mission Comes first. So, theyre gonna use whatever vehicles allow them to accomplish the mission. Overtime, if we have to transition into different kinds of vehicles, were gonna follow the law and follow the executive order. But our priority is mission first, but the American People first, whether thats on the border, whether thats against the chinese, whether its any number of the other threats we talked about here. I wouldnt expect otherwise. Thank you, i just didnt think through that executive order when it comes to Law Enforcement. First of your conversations, you talk about arrests and indictments, so forth, not all indictments are in an arrest. You have people that are not even in the country are inviting all over the world. On the arrests that you make, how many of those arrests are in jail, roughly, and how many of those arrests are because we have a real issue of the debate about cash bond right now in the country . I dont have the statistics for you here, i can tell you that the problem here alluding to is something violent offenders and bring it back out on the streets, on bond. It is something that i hear about from chiefs and sheriffs constantly, all over the country. The only thing more frustrating to the hardworking men and women in Law Enforcement that arresting somebody who should have been behind bars in the first place is having to arrest the same guy over and over again. Right. And on the federal side, happily, the, were less subject to some of the things weve seen going on in communities around the country in terms of the impact on bail, bond, certain prosecution practices. For the most part, under federal standards, federal magistrate judges, or able to detain violent criminals. Relatively reliably. Again, i dont know the statistics for you. But the problem youre looting to was a real one. Its just, it tends to be more in the state system. I think thats part of why our budget request of Violent Crime become so important. When i hear from jusan sheriffs all the time as they need precisely because of the problem were bringing up, they need more of these cases taken federal. They feel they can count on bad guys staying locked up if theyre taken federal. Good answer. Thank you. Mr. Raffensperger . I want to focus on Violent Crime, fentanyl, and the Serious Problems it has caused. Some of us, we were former prosecutors formally. When you come from local government, youre dealing with the issues, and then if you get involved and if you dont go to the fbi, you cannot follow through with an investigation because you dont have the money. I think itll last five years, and under leadership, the lack teamwork approach has made a difference. Thats really important that we have teamwork and the trust. Also, i think it deals with a lot of problems weve had in the past, especially with respect to drugs, fentanyl, whats going on and the corruption issue. I think you always have to be aware of that. If youre gonna have a federal state, you need to trust the people youre working with. How can the fbi be a force multiplier . Do we need more strikeforce type investigations . Because they seem to really work well in the end as the leadership a lot of feds get a lot of good intelligence, they cant act on. If it goes up the chain, or the fbi has the money and the State Government how do you focus as the head of the fbi, i think youre doing a good job, by the way. Men and women also, how, do you think we need more straight force . Do you think it would help us better . We have jurisdiction internationally to. How would you compare your mission internationally versus your mission internationally. I appreciate the kind words, i strongly strongly believe that partnership is the way to go and is with all these threats. The strategy are ruled out for our workforce fairly early on is making partnership with our Law Enforcement partners. With our Intelligence Community partners, business community, et cetera, to me the key. Were trying to put our two fbis with somebody elses two, it could be a local police department, sheriffs office, it could be a foreign partner, whoever it is. Our two plus there to, it will have equal five or six or seven. The whole being greater than the sum of the parts. Thats with the task forces represent. On Violent Crime, we have, i think Something Like 300 unique fbi lead task forces with, like, 3000 members or something, just on the Violent Crime side of things. With that include gangs . Absolutely. Gangs, in some cases you also have ones focus on child predators, that kind of Violent Crime. We have the organized crime task forces but focus on the cartels. And theres a couple things that come out of that that i think are critical ingredients. So, the short answers, yes, we need more of that. But one is, it is having everybody on one team, one fight. Its using intelligence to figure out where you can make the inevitably limited resources, even when were all put together, make them count, make the maximize impacts. What you see on Violent Crime as you go around the country, in almost every community, there is going to be something, some tail that wags the dog, if you will, in terms of driving the Violent Crime rate and homicide rate. It could be particular neighborhood, you have to gangs fighting with each other. It could be a particular court or. In some cases, its for five blocks in some community. It could be a particular set of gang members who keep getting back out on the streets. But if you figure out what are the two or three things in that community that are disproportionately driving, especially the homicide rate, and then team up and tackle that in a disciplined strategic way, you can have an impact on the statistic that we really care about, the actual Violent Crime rate, especially the homicide, right and drive it down. You can use federal tools, like rico, like viking are, things like that, where you can really dismantle the enterprise. As happy as i am about the 55 guys a day that are folks who are arresting last year, in some ways the more important numbers the 370 or something gangs that we dismantled. Now youre talking about it and entire gang. Now youre not just cutting off the tops of the blades of grass, now youre getting into the roots of the problem and ripping it out. So, thats what i think is ultimately the key. But, were very humbled by the Task Force Officers that all of these chiefs and sheriffs all over the country are interesting to our task forces. That to me speaks volumes about what they think of the fbi. And i want to make sure that they see the value from it, and that where the of their trust. I yield back. Mr. Clyde . Thank you, mister chairman. Director, in your written statement here, you say that which is under the direction of the fbi, national, year 2024 request includes an additional 27 positions and eight point 4 million. A nics check is valid for 30 days, right . You mean in terms of the background check. Well, we have to turn them around more quickly than that. Correct. Once you turn it around, its good for 30 days . I think thats right, i cant remember the exact one. It is. Youre asking for 27 additional positions, i assumed because you see the need for knicks checks going up . The answer, yes, thats the short answer. The reason for that, in large part is because weve seen the number of, the volume of background checks coming in from f f l is going up. On top of that, the bipartisan community, the bs ca that was passed, it increases the number of checks that we have to do. I get that. Wouldnt it make more sense to have a background check be valid for longer than 30 days . If you had it longer than 30 days, wouldnt that require fewer background checks . Therefore you wouldnt have to spend the next section . 30 days is a pretty short period of time. I think its something im happy to take a look at, that the impact would have. Okay if you look at a concealed carry permit. Its good for five years. And the concealed carry permit negates the need for a background check. Look at the disparity of 30 days and five years. You go, there has to be some middle ground here where we can help you out with knicks and not spend more money that we dont have. Just a thought for you. Yeah, ill certainly take on and take a look at, it will follow back up with you. Okay. Thank you. I have a question for you regarding the 2017 Las Vegas Shooting. Did the fbi find any legally possessed or illegally possessed enough i restricted firearms in the rooms occupied by mr. Paddock during the timeframe of the Las Vegas Shooting . I mean, you are the director at the time. Yeah, i went out, in fact, i went to the crime scene, met with the people on the crime scene, you know, who are working hard, exploiting the scene. I went into the hotel room he wasnt, met with the team up there to see the angles he was shooting from, that kind of thing. As to the eu legalities of the different weapons and ammunition that he had, as i sit here right now, i dont member the answer. We can certainly follow backup with you. Okay, great, everything ive, seen including the Las Vegas Police report showed no National Firearms act weaponless whatsoever. And the fbi report, it says, Stephen Paddock a legally possessed prohibited firearms in violation of 27 u. S. Csection 50 8 41. He used the prohibited firearms in the mass shooting incident. So, im just kind of questioning the disparity there. Not seeing them on any inventory, enhancing the fbi actually, you know, the fbi reports all stating they were there and were used. Yeah, well, i seem to vaguely recall that this is now dating back a ways, i seem to vaguely recall that there was some purchase that ran afoul of one of the various criminal provisions that applied to firearms in this country. I remember something related to one of the nfl, as i would have to go back and figure out what it is there referring to. Okay, would you mind following up with us on that . Okay, great. I guess thats all the questions ive got for. You i yield back. Mr. Thank, you mister chairman. Mr. Director, i want to talk more about fentanyl in the u. S. What im trying to really get is, you cant really stop fentanyl from coming into the u. S. We think about with china, as he said over and over, no cooperation whatsoever. There is saying no to the precursors and the mexican ports of the west side. If china does get disrupted, if somehow they found the desire to help us, would not be just as easy to go to india and so many other chemical manufacturers, so many Chemical Companies in the world that, to my understanding, those precursors coming from china can be replaced from somewhere else, is that your understanding . Well, i, it is certainly the case that most of the precursors that were seeing are coming from china, and theres other places but supply them. Its not a complicated formula. You understand why im more sanguine about our ability to work with the Indian Government on the Chinese Government. Got it. Gonna be pretty hard theres lots of chemicals out there. And the problem is, you mentioned, you can make it easy, a chemical to make fentanyl, a small space, no agriculture product needed, really cheap to make, 5 to 7 tons that will supply the country for the whole year. The death rate we have. Thats all it is, 5 to 7 tons, 73 million cars across that border, 200,000 cars every single day on that border. It is a needle in a haystack. It is a job thats pretty close to impossible. So, i guess, thinking about it again, those cartels, roughly one third of the Gross Domestic Product to mexico. Gdp in mexico as 1. 2 trillion dollars. The cartels control through all the other things, tobacco, gasoline, autos, retail, and the illicit piece, roughly 300 billion dollars of the gdp and mexico. So, kind of a reason why they chose hugs not guns. Are we on the same page i agree with what youre saying. I understand youre saying. Yeah. Scary thought. One third of my country is controlled by armed cartels, armed as well as he is, as well as he is in many cases. So, we will use any method of extortion, bribery, and violence savagery, you know, beyond what anybody would think possible. Thats the mentality were up against and the profits are so huge, do we really think were gonna be able to stop this at the border . Or we better off to start saying, yeah, lets do all we can, lets not give up the fight. I, mean were all in, but we have to focus on the demand side. How we work on research of the brain, dopamine, how we work on education, how we work on treatment, and all the prevention pieces. On the demand side, we dont slow the demand down, my belief is remarkable to stop the supply. Interrupted . Yes. Stop it . No. Your thoughts . Well, as i think i said to the chairman, its the whole continuum. Certainly you can only deal with the demand side, nor can you only deal with the supply side. I do think theres a lot more work to be done on both. The, you know, you mentioned the border, ive been to multiple locations on the border, talks with the c vp folks, seen firsthand what theyre dealing with. They have a heck of a challenge on their hands. We have to, i think aggressively take on the cartels. We have to aggressively take on the Distribution Networks. We have to work with the Mexican Government, and we have to is needed. The government that so infiltrated from the top to the bottom. So corrupted, so much power in the cartels of the entire country. Im with you, keep at it, its a pretty tall order. We have to think about more and more on the demand side. Thats where we have to get a budget to help folks that have an addiction. I yield back. Mr. Elsie . Thank you, mister chairman. Thank you for being here today. The 38,000 folks that work for you, i think you brought up a good point, a few of them can poison the well. That has happened in the past. The vast majority of those 38,000 people who volunteer, served in your agency, defending our nation, and have a servants heart, for that im very grateful. Those who are, or get rid of them as quick as you can. They hurt the reputation of everybody else. Job one of any government, state, municipal, or local, its to protect their citizens. Our government is responsible for the american citizens. So, looking at the border, the cartels control everything in mexico. And everything that comes through border is controlled by a number of capitals. The illegal immigration in the millions, the human trafficking, which is pure evil, modern day slavery for the sex trade. Finally, the drugs infiltrator country, they come from other places to, but from mexico, the cartels control everything. As im listening to my colleague, talk about the government of mexico, it almost sounds like a failed narco state. Just last, year 70,000 americans died from fentanyl. Overdose, they were poisoned. Thats with the dea administrator today said. This is poisoned, not an overdose. They see us as the enemy. Put another way, if 2 30 7 30 sevens crashed every day in this country, we would shut down that airline. Thats how many people are dying every day from fentanyl. As a military, man i look at whats going on on our southern border, if the government of mexico has filled, its become a narco state. Im not saying that it has, but it almost looks like it. And were losing americans named 18 to 45, people who should be getting married, we should be having jobs, serving in our military, to defend us against overseas, that pull shrinking every day with these wartime numbers that were losing, would an authorization of use of military force, 81 year effort to stop this poison this clay americans every day . Well, i think the authorization, the authorization to use military force is a better question for some of the agencies that would be designed to implement it. I do believe that the cartels pose a tremendous threat to americans and the fentanyl trafficking thats coming across the border. Its not just a border problem, its a threat to everyone in the country, really, at least every community in the country. And more needs to be done to try to dismantle those cartels. So, i think we should be considering whatever tools may be out there. You will, i think, itll be hard to find an fbi director who wouldnt welcome more tools in the tool box. The cartels doocy as an enemy, theyve shown, that theyre killing us, were not a customer, theyre killing americans with their product. Its being used its being done with chemicals from china. Everything china does is a military operation, complete control of the top in asymmetric ways, they dont want to find us on the battlefield, they dont to fight us on the seas, but if they can diminish or military by killing our young people, they will do it. Theres not 100,000 other people, other countries dealing with this problem like the United States is, thats because where their primary threat and we agree that china is our primary threat. So, everything they do is controlled at the top. If its being controlled, theyre allowing those chemicals to come to our nation, we need to recognize that, we need to talk about that more often because this is being done on purpose. They dont have to fight is on the battlefield if they can defeat us here at home. Young men and women going to school, not trying to take, get overdosed, thinking theyre taking Something Else because this poison looks like other things, to include candy, that is pure evil. So, what the cartels doing, with the chinese are doing, its pure evil. All weve up the rest of my time here, but its time that we stood up, a lot stronger, hope you do your job, and the threat of authorization of use of military force with so my seal buddies, only a, buddies f18s, i think it would bring the Mexican Government to the table to do more to support you and your mission to stop what is going on. And it might make people start to shrivel up a little middown in mexico and stop doing what theyre doing. Thank you very much for your time today. I yield back. Do you have questions briefly . I do, briefly, mister chairman, thank you. I wanna wrap up a couple questions. Back in 2021, the doj Inspector General conducted an audit of the fbi is Due Diligence or lack thereof when requesting permission to wiretap, otherwise spy on courts. That report detailed why its red noncompliance with woods for seizures, as you know, an internal fbi process to minimize factual not currencies and applications by requiring fbi to maintain supporting documentation for each assertion on the application. Over 7000 applications approved in january 2015 and march of 2020. 183 applications for which the wood swell was missing in whole or in part, correct . Its been a while since i reviewed the report, i know a number were missing. I think we are ultimately, as i recall, able to find all of the documents, supporting those woods applications. But the problem was they were not in the same file they shouldve been. The report made eight recommendations for the fbi into for natural security division, correct . I dont remember the number, the recommendations, i dont member the number. Can you give us an update on the status of those recommendations . I believe weve implemented all of the recommendations. I know we agreed to implement all the recommendations they had. I will say that while on the subject, it is important to know that the report youre talking about, the woods file issue, that goes not anything to do with 702, that has to do with socalled title i fisa. So, these are two completely distinct parts of pfizer and different processes. But to confirm, youve located all of the missing wood swells identified in the report . Its been a while since i looked at, it but my recollection of the last time i did look at it was that we had been able to find all over the relevant documents, but they had not, again, they had not been kept in the way they shouldve. That is not acceptable in my bill. Its been addressed. Okay, moving on, in march, he said the fbi previously bought americans personal geolocation data without getting a warrant, you dont do that anymore, and you have no plans to resume. In another hearing back in march, Inspector General horowitz told me that after the Supreme Courts decision and carpenter, the fbi should not be obtaining this geolocation job without a warrant. Can you confirm that that is not happening and would you support legislation codifying that prohibition in the governments purchasing geolocation dot or other similarly Sensitive Data and communications . Well, ill take it into parts. Its a two part question. I think its the first part, i can confirm that at least as my understanding, and ive asked lots of questions, we do not currently purchase commercial database information that includes location, data derived from internet advertising. We previously, as i testified before, we previously did that for a limited National Security purpose in the past, that is no longer true. It has not been true for a while now. As far as the legislative piece of it, as with any legislative idea, i can pose or oppose legislation, but im happy to take a look and give you operational input on how Something Like that would affect us. Thank you. Did the fbi purchase or use a commercial license to access phone geolocation data without a warrant after the carpenter decision . You, know the specifics of the National Security program that i was describing are classified and probably the best thing to do their, if you have specific questions about, it it is to get the right subject Matter Experts so that you can get the broader legal analysis and details. Thank you. As the fbi purchased, have a purse just from individuals . Is it doing so . If not, how can you reassure us it wont happen in the future . Can you, im sorry, can you just restate, repeat . Sure. So, has the fbi purchased any other data from a commercial vendor that could reveal, other than internet advertising based, that would reveal private information about an individual american citizen without a warrant . Youre talking about other than location that is what youre talking about . More broadly is what youre saying . In order to be sure that im giving you an accurate answer, let me follow back up with you, i really want, that is a broad enough category that i actually want to be careful and how answer that. I appreciate that. I yield back the remainder of the time. Mr. Director, you have been overly generous with your time and answers, commentary. We thank you so much for giving us this large amount of time, of your time. We will stay in touch, of course. But thank you for your service to the country, you have given a lifetime of service, a brilliant career. We thank you for that profoundly. This concludes todays hearing, without objection, all members will have seven days to submit additional written questions for the witness or additional materials for the record. And with that, the hearing is adjourned