[inaudible conversation] morning. This hearing of the senate communit committee is called to order. I this is our annual threats to the homeland committee. I want to welcome eyewitnesses and acknowledge the victims of the hurricane and houston texas, florida, throughout the caribbean and puerto rico. Im sure we will be discussing that quite a bit. Maybe it wasnt contemplated when we first set up and schedule this hearing on the other enormous threats, but there are real threats to human life occurring now throughout our nation and we will certainly knowledge that all those individuals are in our thoughts and prayers. Im sure everyone on this committee joins me on that. We are pleased to welcome the acting sector of Homeland Security, diane duke, Christopher Ray the director of fbi, the National Counterterrorism Center Director niclas rasmussen. We want to thank you all for your service. These are perilous times. The threats that face us are growing and metastasizing. I do not envy any
And we will feature contributors of the books from democracy and freedom and no wall they can build. Watch our coverage of the 2017 baltimore book festival today on cspan2s booktv. Ray, actingtor for Homeland Security director elaine duke, and Nick Rasmussen give updates to the u. S. Federal response to puerto rico after Hurricane Maria from the Senate Committee of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee. This is about two hours and 15 minutes. Senator johnson good morning. This hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, Government Affairs committee, is called to order. This hearing of the Senate Committee and Homeland Security Governmental Affairs committee is called to order. This is our annual threats to the homeland hearing. I want to welcome our witnesses. I like to start by acknowledging the victims of the hurricanes and in houston texas, florida, throughout the caribbean but particular puerto rico. Im sure we will be discussing that quite a bit. Maybe it
We begin with remarks by the judiciary chair. This is 20 minutes. We have a vote pending and some people who were scheduled to speak might arrive as we go along and some might come afterwards. We wanted to go ahead and get started because of the uncertainty of the vote schedule. Thank you all for being here today. The House Judiciary Committee has primary jurisdiction over the foreign intelligence act in over the past several years we have had tremendous bipartisan success in ensuring our National Security tools are checked american lives and their Civil Liberties. In june 2015, the usa freedom act, a product of the how she she or he committee, was signed into law. This law reformed section 215 of fisa, and the people collection of data, protected Civil Liberties and National Security, and provided robust oversight and transparency of our vital National Security tools. This year the House Judiciary Committee has been hard at work again on crafting legislation to reform and reauthorize
Nchi dont know whether the e is 10 30 or 10 35 but theres a vote scheduled on the senate floor. Its my intention to keep the meeting going during that vote and well take turns going. So, somebody needs to be he preswpr presiding while i go vote. Ill run over and run back and well do the questioning according to the fall of the gavel or early birds. So whichever rule applies. Director comey, welcome. We thank the fbi for what it does to keep america safe. Theres been a lot of controversy surrounding the fbi since the last time you were here in 2015. In march, you publicly acknowledged that the fbi is investigating allegations of coordination between the Trump Campaign and russias efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. Under president obamas order, former dni clapper had been in charge of the Intelligence Communitys review of that inferns. Mr. Clapper testified that president obama asked the Intelligence Community to compile all available information. After he left office, mr. Clappe
Especially the one im lucky enough to lead is essential. John adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson that power always thinks it has a great soul. The way you guard against that is having people ask hard questions. Ask good questions and demand straightforward answers. I promise i will do my best to give that kind of answer today. I appreciate the conversation i know we will have today and over the next few about reauthorizing section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act you mentioned mr. Chairman. This is a tool that is essential to the safety of this country. I did not say the same thing about the collection of telephone dialing information by the nsa. I think thats a useful tool. Tool, and ifential it goes away we will be less safe as a country. I will be happy to talk more about that. Thank you for engaging on that so we can tell the American People why it matters so much and why we cannot let it go away. The magic of the fbi you oversee is its people. We talk a lot about the