Transcripts For CSPAN Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20240622

Former sanctions. Think about that. Thats something we ought to talk about. A similar scenario could be observed at the u. N. Security council. A unanimous vote by all 15 u. N. Security councilmembers would be need for sanctions to be put back in place. How many of us in this room believe that will actually happen . Do you believe that would . I dont. China and russia, both permanent members of the u. N. Security council have the most to gain from having unfettered access to iranian markets. Its been widely reported that russia is selling weapons to iran that makes the potential for israeli or american air strike just that much more difficult to carry out. Russia whorks own economy is hurting as a result of the sangs is looking to diversify its investments in other economies that show strong potential for growth. China is always looking for new sources of energy and with the elimination of internangs international sanctions, theyll have the ability to sell more oils on the international market. Then theres the issue of possible military intervention. It is imperative to know how close they got to developing or have got ton develop agnew clear weapon. It is only after we can determine if iran ever developed a Nuclear Warhead or triggering mechanism can the International Community actually know irans breakout time, irans p. M. D. Must be made known to the International Community prior, prior to any permanent sanction relief is instituted. This pending bad deal makes the region and the Greater National and the greater International Community worse off. What ive heard in this Chamber Tonight is very disturbing. What i have heard from leaders in this administration is even more disturbing. They have willingly determined in my mind to throw israel under the bus. And i believe maybe for a peace prize. Mr. Kerry, maybe you didnt make a mark in the senatoring make you didnt make a mark as secretary of state you may be looking for a peace prize. If you want to be recognized in the world for doing what is right walk away from a bad deal. No one wants iran to have a nuclear weapon. Theyre not capable of handling one. Theyre the biggest suppliers of terrorism around the world. Yet were talking about talking to a country that says just recently just in the last two days, their leader has said its now time for us to spout hatred at the zionists and were negotiating with them . They dont want to say israel has a right to exist and were sitting at the table with them. We want to let 5,000 centrifuges kept spinning and keep spinning and keep spinning and were going to negotiate with them . You do not negotiate with unstable people, mr. Speaker. You negotiate with people who want to live in the bonds of a Civil Society in a civil world and irans leadership is not that person. Were fooling ourselves. This administration has become just completely tunnel vision toward legacy. When you have a demest exagenda that has been as terrible as this administration, i dont blame you for looking overseas. Your domestic agenda is no comparison to the failure of Foreign Policy when World Leaders ask, what is americas role . Because they dont even know. Tonight i hope the cre zen crescendo of voices reach aross to vienna. The last words id like to hear sec id like secretary kerry to hear before the sits down with the iranians are a bad deal is worse than no deal. Not shouted on the streets here in washington, it was shouted in the parliament of iran just recently. When they said were not going to allow inspections. And were sitting down to negotiate with them . Death to america and were sitting down negotiating with them as if theyre reasonable people . Have we lost our focus. Have we lost our vision . Of being the shining light to the world for free come and freedom and hope and decided that its much better off maybe for our political world or maybe our personal achievements to sit down with a government that says israel should not even have the right to exist and if we could we would annihilate them tomorrow. Were going to continue funding those who would lob bombs on innocent men and women in israel and well sit down at a negotiating table and say were not going to allow you to inspect wherever you want. Were going to keep what we want to keep. By the way, even the administrations own belief is were going to keep 5,000 centrifuges spinning. You know what some of said, time is irans friend. I agree. As long as they can keep our secretary of state at the table those centrifuges spin. As long as they keep us tied up debating this, the centrifuges spin. Its time to put sanctions back in place because theyre spinning. Its time to tighten the screws on iran because the centrifuges are spinning. Its time for us not to let up again because the sent are i fuges are intinningism do not want to see a world in which my children grow up and people in israel grow up knowing iran has the bomb when theyre ready to take out them. Tonight is important. Tonight is important. Mr. President , i play that you listen. I dont think you will. Mr. Secretary, maybe youre looking for a peace prize. How about winning a prize in the hearts of the freedom las vegas loving people across the world and walking away from a bad deal. With that i yield back. Ms. Roslehtinen thank you very much, mr. Collins. I think you laid it out in a thoughtful manner. No deal is better than a bad deal. With that, id like to yield such time as he may consume to mr. Zeldin of new york who has been calling out for rigorous inspections the speaker pro tempore the gentlelady will suspend. Members are reminded to address their remarks to the chair. The gentleman is recognized. Mr. Zelidni mr. Zeldin i appreciate that. I know my constituents up in new york are more sequre and free due to your work through the years here in the halls of congress so i thank you for your leadership this past weekend we celebrated the fourth of july. 239 years since america delair declared its independence. What makes America Great is what we stand for. Freedom and liberty. Then theres iran. The Worlds Largest state sponsor of terror. A nation overthrowing foreign governments unjustly imprisoning United States citizens including a United States marine. Iran blows up mock u. S. Warships. Develop icbms, they pledge to wipe israel off the map. And in their streets and their halls, they are chanting death to america. And none of and none of what i just described is even part of the negotiations. Think about that. The president says the only alternative to whatever deal he presents us with is war. I reject that. The deal the president is finalizing may actually pave the path to more instability in the northeast and a in the middle east and a Nuclear Arms Race triggered in the region. Will the agreement be accurately translated between both languages . If the president presents americans with a version in english, and the iranians are interpreting any different terms, refuting our interpretation of this agreement in english, then theres no agreement. Theres no meeting of the minds. Will iran continue spinning centrifuges enriching uranium and maintaining any of their Nuclear Infrastructure . Will weapons inspectors have unfettered access to irans Nuclear Infrastructure . Honestly, i doubt it. I believe that were propping up the wrong regime in iran. Six years ago, the green revolution, millions of iranians took to the streets protesting after an undemocratic election. The economy in iran was doing better at that time than it is today. Oil, twice the value as today. The president said that what was going on in iran was none of our business and look where we are today. I unapologetically love my country and i am proud to be an american. As elected officials who took an oath to protect and defend our constitution, we have a responsibility to protect our country. We must fight on behalf of our great nation which generations before us have fought and sacrificed so much to protect. That is how we celebrate another 239 years of american exceptionalism. The president when sitting down at the negotiating table inherits the good will of generations centuries of of of men and women who have come before them that sacrificed so much to make america the greatest nation in the world. When someone says they want to run to be president of the United States with that you inherit all that good will, all that american exceptionalism, and when sitting at the table, you have no business trying to equalize yourself with the person you are negotiating with. That isnt your good will to expend. Its important for american greatness to grow. Im concerned that we are on pace to enter into a bad deal with iran here with the leadership of colleagues like the gentlewoman from florida, who im very grateful for putting together this special order tonight and other colleagues like the gentleman from florida who will be speaking right after me, there is so much passion amongst my colleagues for wanting to do the right thing to protect our nation. Understanding that its a fundamental basic that the United States strengthens our relationships with our allies and treats our enemies for exactly who they are. I used the analogy a couple of weeks ago of playing Texas Hold Em and the president inherits pocket aces every time he sits down at the table. The iranians, they inherit the 72 offsuit, the worst hand you could have in poker. The president , for whatever reason as a negotiating style will offer to switch hands. We saw in it cuba. Where dozens of good faith concessions were made asking for nothing in return. Why is that . One, the president isnt a very good negotiator. He still has a year and a half left on his second term in office and i want him to strengthen his hand. He has it. He inherits it. Thats what comes with being president of the United States. Thats what he signed up for. And what did we sign up for here in the halls of congress . To hold this president s feet to the fire. If he chooses to sign a bad deal with iran. I thank again the gentlewoman from florida for her leadership looking forward to hearing mr. Yoho and his passionate words to follow and i would encourage the president and secretary kerry, the leaders of the Obama Administration, do the right thing. Take a walk. Strengthen your hand. And dont sell out americas good will. I yield back. Ms. Roslehtinen thank you so much to the gentleman from new york. Id like to yield such time as he may consume to my colleague from florida, dr. Yoho. Mr. Yoho thank you, mr. Chairman. I appreciate this opportunity and i appreciate you mitigating circumstance Dear Colleague from florida, for bringing this important topic to light. This is something the American People need to weigh in on. This is something you heard the passion tonight, people talking about how this is not a good deal. This is not a good deal for anybody but iran. And you know, id like to do, if you want an exchange back and forth, but id like to do a chronological anthology of Irans Nuclear weapons program. If you go back 30 years ago, theyre working on gaining the technology and the material to develop Nuclear Weapons. John bolden in his book surrender is not an option, talked about the cat and mouse game iran has played over the last 30 years of saying no, we are not developing Nuclear Weapons, and they wouldnt allow the inspectors in, the u. N. Had resolutions and sanctions and eventually the iaea inspector, the International Atomic Energy Agency was allowed to come in. They caught iran redhanded with nuclear developing Nuclear Weapons so they apologized. They said, im sorry, youre right, were bad, were not going to do it again. Then it start over again and over again and over again. For 30 years weve been playing the cat and mouse game it hasnt gone away. When i look at george bush, when he put sanctions in the 2000s on iran to say, you know, enoughs enough, the sanctions were in place and they started, and to president obamas credit, he tightened them up. And it put more pressure on iran. And then it brought them to the negotiation table. But when you negotiate on a deal, any deal, there should be mutual benefits to both sides. And at the end of this, youll see there is no benefit to america, to the middle east, and to world peace. Because when those negotiations started as my colleague from new york, mr. Zeldin, brought out there was no negotiation to release our four american hostages. And if you think that the sanctions were bad enough to put iran in this great economic tragedy or pressure, that was just crippling iran and they couldnt do anything and they came to the table to release the sanctions so that they could move on but during that time period this is what the American People need to know, during that time period iran was extending their arm and their reach into the western hemisphere. Through bolivia, through venezuela. And they were funding terrorists, their terrorist arm, hezbollah, that caused two terrorist attacks in argentina in the 1990s, that was responsible for over 100 deaths and over 300 injured people. Iran was doing this at the time when the sanctions were on them and they were supposed to be under this great economic stress. But they were doing that because they were funneling money through venezuela and getting money for fuel, plus armaments that they were selling. And so during this time, when we think our sanctions are working, iran is working against us. And ive been here in the house for 2 1 2 years and i sit on foreign affairs. And during those 2 1 2 years, weve had experts come in over and over again telling us about the threat of iran, creating Nuclear Weapons iran creating Nuclear Weapons. Over and over again they said that iran would have enough nuclear enriched material to have within six months to a year to have five to six atomic bombs. That was over two years ago. So one could only reasonable expect that reasonably expect that iran has enough material for five to six nuclear bombs. This was backed up by Henry Kissinger and bob shuments. They claim that iran was about 2 1 2 months to three months from having Nuclear Material. Then we moved down to the negotiation. , the negotiation was started the negotiation was started fromed administration from john kerry, and he said, negotiations are started and they are started and that the whole purpose was iran cannot and will not be permitted to have a nuclear weapon. Now its a delay, were just going to delay for 10 years. As my colleague, mr. Collins from georgia, brought out, the snapback, if they break if they break any part of this deal, theres going to be snapback. I mean, youve got to be from another planet to think that that is going to happen. Because were going to rely on china and russia to say, yep, were with you. And russias already sold 800 million worth of antimissile defense systems. In addition, during this period, when iran had all these tough sanctions blocking their economy, iran has been developing an icbm program. An icbm Program Stands for an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile system. Thats not for their neighbors. Thats for europe, thats for the United States, its for people way outside of iran. And theyve done this with the economic sanctions. In addition theres evidence that they have detonated a trigger device for a nuclear weapon. They have gone through extensive remediation, covering up the site covering up the soil paving it, and not allowing our inspectors to go in there and inspect that. The iaea inspectors that were supposed to depend on to prove that what theyre doing is for peaceful purposes. And then i look at what iran has done over the years, when weve been in the middle east, with our brave young men and women in the middle east, fighting for security for this country and for the neighbors in the middle east 70 of our soldiers damaged by i. D. s or 70 of the wound i. E. D. s owes or 70 of the wounds have come from i. E. D. s. 90 of those i. E. D. s were created by iran. As we talked about in this nuclear negotiation, iran has got to be limited to the amount of centrifuges for their Peaceful Nuclear program. Get this, for Peaceful Nuclear program, you need tens of thousands of centrifuges to produce Nuclear Material to run nuclear reactors. But yet in this deal, were limiting them to 5,000 nuclear reactors. Or i mean, 5,000 centrifuges. You only need a few thousand centrifuges to create Nuclear Weapons. And so it just doesnt match up. And as we we talked about in a negotiation there should be a winner, there should be a mutual benefit. I see no benefit for america. And again, talking to the experts in foreign affairs, i asked them this question. With our negotiation with iran, where weve given in to everything, and we got nogs, keep inman nothing, keep in mind were supposedly the lone superpower of the world. When you go into negotiations like this and youre operating from a level of weakness and not strength, how does that affect us arm the World Community . The experts told me that it has weakened americas standing in the world it has weakened our negotiation power in the world, it has weakened and threatened our security in the western hemisphere. And i agree with mr. Collins, i hope the president s listening, but im sure hes not. I hope mr. Kerrys listening, but im sure hes not. But i hope this message gets to them. That if theyre going to negotiate for america, they should negotiate from a point of strength a point of for whats right, not just for our country, but for the middle east and the rest of the world. Because if americas not strong and if we dont stand strong, there is not a secure world. With that i want to thank my colleague from florida for bringing this up, because this is a debate the American People need to hear and i hope they put pressure on the people in charge of this and bring this negotiation, as they have said over and over again a bad deal they will not stand for. This is a bad deal and this is something they need to walk away from, we in the house of representatives need to block this any way that we can. I will not, i shall not and i cannot support this because what i see is we are trying to prevent that which we cant instead of preparing for that which we will be. And i yield back. Ms. Roslehtinen thank you so much dr. Yoho. I think you laid out the chronology of the long timetable of the seat that iran has been dealing with in terms of their Nuclear Program. I thank all of my colleagues mr. Speaker, who joined tonights special order to discuss the Iran Nuclear Negotiations that are going on in vienna as we speak. After missing deadline after deadline, and allowing for extension after extension, we are now hearing that these negotiations may be openended. It is our job in congress to conduct proper oversight on any proposed deal. And to reject any deal that is not in the best interests of our National Security or the security and stability of the entire region. As current law stipulates, if a deal is submitted for congressional review before tomorrow, then congress only has a 30day review period. However, if this deal is submitted after tomorrow, we will have 60 days to review the terms of the agreement. But why should the administration fear an additional 30 days of review . If this deal is so good, as the administration keeps telling us, then it should be Strong Enough to stand up to congressional review and congressional scrutiny. But the Administration Knows just how weak this deal will be. Mr. Speaker lets review, as my deleegs colleagues have done, how far back weve slid from conditions that we placed on iran when we started and how much the p5 plus one countries have caved through its concessions to this rowing and dangerous regime rogue and dangerous regime. Lets start with this. There are Six United Nations Security Council resolutions against iran and its Nuclear Program and each one, each one of these resolutions puts restrictions on iran and calls for a complete stop on uranium enrip. Enrichment. Complete stop. The Supreme Leader argued that it had a right to enrich under the nonproliferation treaty, the n. P. T. To which it is a signatory. But of course all of these alleged rights should have been forfeited one for fitted forfeited once it had been discovered that iran was in violation of the nonproliferation treaty and other International Obligations for decades. Because it has been operating a covert Nuclear Program. Yet the p5 plus one countries inexplicably ceded the socalled right to iran. In fact, in 2009 the president clearly stated, quote iran must comply with u. N. Security Council Resolutions and make clear it is willing to meet its responsibilities as a member of the community of nations end quote. That ended up not being true, as the president has caved on that commitment. The president has repeatedly stated in the past that iran doesnt need to have a fortified, underground facility , a heavy water reactor in iraq arak, or some of the other advanced centrifuges that they currently possess in order to have a Peaceful Nuclear program. Yet now, where are we now . Iran will maintain the capacity to produce and store heavy water while continuing to not just operate advanced centrifuges, mr. Speaker, but to also test and conduct research and development on them as well. How far weve moved those goal posts. Theres also a serious and dangerous issue of the possible military dimensions p. M. D. , and irans past Nuclear Activity. Just three weeks ago secretary kerry confirmed what we long suspected. That disclosure of past Nuclear Activity is no longer a musthave for this administration in this nuclear deal. How would any agreement that doesnt demand that iran at least come clean about the extent of its Program Going to be a good deal mr. Speaker . Dont forget that the Supreme Leader has also repeatedly stated that irans military sites would not be accessible to international inspectors. So lets forget lets not forget one of the most important things here. The ultimate gift we have given iran. This deal will help legitimatize this rogue regime that will not only allow iran to be viewed as a responsible nation, but, no, its no longer going to be the pariah state. Were going to say its a trusted member of the International Community. And we have done that. We have granted that legitimacy with these conversations. Also the reports indicate and dont hear any words to the contrary, that iran may receive a 50 billion signing bonus, as if this is the nfl draft, a signing bonus which it will then use to support terror, which it will use to to meant instability, which it will foe meant instability, which it will use to foment instability, which it will use to continue to threaten israel, which it will use to continue to undermine u. S. National security interests. Thats what their signing bonus will do. Thats what sanctions relief will do. If the United States is willing to overlook all of these transgressions, all of these crimes and negotiate a deal with iran without pressing for changes in its actions, then it will be seen as an endorsement of those actions. Mr. Speaker, we have every indication that we are not going to get what any of us would remotely consider to be even a halfway good deal. The requirements for a good deal had went out the window good deal went out the window when the negotiators allowed iran to maintain its entire Nuclear Infrastructure and continue to enrich uranium. It is our obligation then to conduct proper oversight and review and reject any nuclear deal we feel is not in the best interests of our u. S. National security. If we do that, we must move swiftly to reimpose any sanctions that have been suspended, any sanctions that have been waived against the regime, and to ensure that all sanctions are fully and vigorously enforced. Then we must move to enact additional sanctions on the regime until it meets the International Obligations and abandoned its pursuit of an ill list Nuclear Weapons program. Once upon a time that was the goal. And from the very beginning, mr. Speaker, ive been saying that iran is following the north korean playbook, offering to negotiate in return for concessions, but never delivering on anything tangible. Only to break off when they no longer need what we have been giving them. And i wrote this oped on october 19, 2012. Roslehtinen obe ma still trying to sweet talk iran out of building the bomb and i was talking about the north korea deal and how that dove tails with the iranian deal. And i wrote of the dangers of the Obama Administrations naive view that if we keep talking and if we keep engaging with this rogue regime, iran will stop its drive for nuclear capability. I stated then and i believe now that this is what we are witnessing today, mr. Speaker. That the iranians will give the impression that a deal will be likely only to then pull away. That iran benefits from dragging out the negotiations as long as possible because as mr. Collins said, the centrifuges are still spinning. They want to provide its Nuclear Program extra time in order to convince the world that an agreement is possible leading the administration and the e. U. To quietly ease sanctions enough to revive the stagnant iranian economy that had been on the brink of collapse thanks to the sanctions that congress placed on them, because that was the intent and the purpose and the objective of the sanctions. Not to get them to negotiate, but to collapse their economy so that they could not pour money into their terrorist activities and their covert Nuclear Program. But what were seeing now is the administration and other p5 plus one countries will allow the terms of the jpoa and thus the easing of sanctions to continue to be in place. Despite having overextended several deadlines. Iran never had any intention of coming to a real agreement. And we would be foolhardy to believe it does now. Not when its already getting everything it wants. Why should they concede anything now . The only way that iran will say yes to a deal is if it is so bd and so weak that iran would be stupid, silly, to walk away from it. Yet that is precisely what were looking at right now, mr. Speaker. Either iran keeps dangling an agreement in front of the pfive plus one and continues to get more sanctions relieve leaf or the p5 plus one completely and utterly capitulates to iranian demands. It is incumbent on us, mr. Speaker, to reject any keel that we view to be weak. Any dole that we perceive to be a bad deal. Any deal that is not in the interests of our u. S. National security interests. We must also continue to push back on this false buynary notion that tells you that its either this deal, no matter how bad it is, or going to war. That has been a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of the iranian sanctions themselves. The fact that some believe iranian sanctions were designed only to get iran to the negotiation table could not be further from the truth. The iranian sanctions were designed to forth the regime to abandon completely its Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Weapons ambitions, to give up and dismantle its Nuclear Program. I should know, mr. Speaker, because im the author of several iran sanctions bills including the toughest set of sanctions against this terrible regime that are currently on the books right now. Sanctions, i might remind my colleagues and the American People that the Obama Administration fought us every step of the way or until it was clear that the administration cowl not stop our sanctions from becoming law and then they said, ok, well accept them. So there is an alternative to these misguided talks and thats how im going to conclude my special order tonight, mr. Speaker. We must abandon these talks that are just patently a farce. We immediately reinstate all sanctions against iran that have been eased, that have been waived, that have been lifted that have been ignored by the Obama Administration. And enact even tougher sanctions on the regime. We were on the brink until iran received the lifeline that it needed. We gave it to them. And now were the ones dangling on it as irans economy is being brought back to life because of sanctions relief and the regime has been gaining concession after concession while never once making any change that would substantially and significantly set back its nuclear ambitions. So mr. Speaker, in the end, i will conclude with this reinstating and strengthening these sanctions coupled with the credible threat that all options are on the Table Including the military option could act as a deterrent but only if iran recognizes that we are in a position of strength. Thats why it is important that this body speaks up, thats why its important that we reject any deal we find to be insufficient, but we must also not let billions of dollars flow to the iranian regime. We must start passing legislation that would impose tougher sanctions. This is a matter of utmost concern to our National Security. I urge my colleagues to remain engaged on this issue and with that, mr. Speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady yields back. Ms. Roslehtinen i move that the house do now adjourn. The speaker pro tempore the question is on the motion to adjourn. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. The ayes have it. The motion is adopted. Accordingly the house stands adjourned until 10 00 a. M. Cspan when the house gavels in tomorrow. The house and senate are working on the rewrite of the 2000 no child left behind law. We are joined by maggie severn, the education reporter of politico. Why is Congress Taking this law up now to change it . Guest the law passed in 2002 with a lot of bipartisan support. It was a signature issue for president bush, and the goal was to refocus education that had to focus on educating the most disadvantaged students and the students most in need. The law expired in 2007 but it was never reauthorized, never updated. It has been waiting for an update until last year. This is the first time we have seen both the house and senate take up the bill since it was passed. Host we saw the house attempt in february, but the bullet the bill was from the floor. You write about the efforts this time, what house leaders are doing, the headline saying that house leaders are scrambling for support on the education of bill. What is different this time for house leaders that gives them confidence that they think they can pass it . Guest this bill passed the house in 2013 call the Student Success act. It was brought up for a vote, but i think people think this is a more serious attempt to reauthorize no child left behind. There are common core standards and other changes that have made i think parents and constituents really eager to get more local control and education. What we saw in february was pushed back, especially from conservatives, who really do not think this bill would do enough to resume local control. I think house leaders are a little bit caught offguard by that. They pulled the bill at the last minute. Since then, the sponsors of the bill, namely john kline, has been working hard to get more votes. He has been meeting with lawmakers and they have been talking about what is in this bill and what is not in it and why they think it is a good conservative bill. House leaders this week decided they would bring the bill up. What they will do now is try to offer three amendments two of which are quite conservative. Theyre hoping to get the party behind the bill. It still has no democratic support and has lost some votes from moderate republicans who think it is too far to the right. The goal is to get more support from the right wing of the republican party. Host what would the three amendments do . Guest the first one focuses on testing, which is a huge issue parents and concerned about kids being tested too much. It would make it easier for schools to have a large number of students opting out of standardized test. That is opposed by civil rights advocates, who think it will make it easier to not count how poor minority children are doing in school. On the other hand, republicans and Many Democrats there is a similar bill to the one taken out of the house today republicans and a lot of democrats thinking there needs to be less testing in school. There will be a bill that shortens the operation from six years to three years, so the bill if pastor they would only be a threeyear bill. There will be a third amendment called a plus. This was first brought up by the heritage foundation. The goal is to allow states to opt out of the law entirely. All of the requirements, while still receiving federal money. It is the one that is really meant to be eight for the right wing. House, if they pass the amendment, will lose votes from the middle. I think that is the calculation leaders are making today, are the votes therefor that amendment and what happens if it passes. Guest host no democratic support for the bill. In the senate, the measure was introduced with bipartisan support by the chair of the committee, the Education Committee in the senate, lamar alexander, and the ranking democrat, senator patty murray. Is the path smoother in the senate, and what is different about the bill . Host the senate will and a lot of ways is pretty similar to the house bill, but it lacks some key provisions that are deal breakers for democrats. One is called portability, which would let the dollars that come from the federal government follow students from one school to another. Language like that that helps increase School Choice is a tougher sell with a lot of democrats. Really what you saw happen in the senates Lamarr Alexander who recently became chair of the Health Committee when the senate changed hands released a conservative bill early this year and decided he did not want to move the bill. He teamed up with the Ranking Member of the committee, patty murray, and they started hashing out a deal. A spent weeks working on a bill that they felt bridge the biggest divide between democrats and republicans on this law. What you wound up with was a bill that i think some republicans like to see move to the right democrats would like to see it move to the left, but more a less people have been able to kind of swallow those concerns and they passed it out of committee with a unanimous vote. A couple years ago people would have thought that was difficult, considering the divides between democrats and republicans on education. That is the state in play with the bill. As it was getting to the floor. On the floor there will be a lot of an amendments, dozens of ideas for how to improve k12 education. This was last taken up 15 years ago, so that is the last time, add it was july when the senate was debating this hill. There has been a lot of turnover, a lot of senators who have not staked out positions on this before, people who want to bring ideas to the floor, so i think you will see a lot of amendments and ideas that are all over the map over the next week. Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell said they are planning to pass the chamber early next week. Host they goes with president ial support, a mixed reaction on the house of bill on the house bill, a veto threat. They say that the administration looks forward to continuing to work with congress on a bipartisan basis to make critical changes. It sounds like the white house if they had their druthers would like to see the senate hill. Guest exactly, the fact they do not issue a veto threat was a reflection of the conversations with senate republicans. Not that they have not also been talking to house republicans, but i think they are trying to get the senate leeway to do its work and see what they come out with. A couple of things the white house will need to see in the final bill, in particular this provision that is in the law about the lowest performing 5 of schools. What it says is states need to be working to improve the bottom 5 . I think the white house and Senate Democrats would like to see language like that. A couple of relatively minor changes, but they are controversial with republicans. There will be a lot of backandforth, both on the senate floor where democrats are planning to offer amendments, and later if the bill goes to conference or somehow is otherwise negotiated with the house and president to get key obama provisions in there so the president will sign it. That is also something that i think is too early to tell exactly what will happen, but the fact that the white house did not balk at the senate bill is a good sign. Though they are not fans of the provisions, they are emphasizing they are trying to finally get a law signed at the end of the day. They are signaling going back and forth on both sides, that people are going to be up for compromises down the line. Host maggie severns, reporter for politico, thanks for the update. Guest thanks. The house went on to pass that k12 Education Bill rewriting the no child left behind law with no democrat supporting the measure, 27 republicans voting against it. On the next washington journal, phil roe on efforts to reform the no child left k behind. And Loretta Sanchez on the strategy against isis and a rack and iraq and syria. And the results of the report ranking the fiscal condition of state governments. Washington journal is live each morning at 7 a. M. Eastern time. Tonight on cspan, Homeland Security secretary jeh johnson on Computer Network security. Then fbi director james cody testifies on capitol hill about difficulties imposed by encryption for counterterrorism efforts. And greaseseces Prime Minister speaks in front of european parliament. Today, the New York Stock Exchange come United Airlines, and the wall street journal website experienced computer malfunctions that disrupted normal operations. Homeland security secretary jeh johnson said the government had not found evidence these computer glitches were related or that they were caused intentionally. His comments came during a speech on Cyber Security at the center for strategic and international studies. He also talked about the recent data breach that compromise the personal records of millions of federal workers. This is just under one hour. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and what did center for international studies. I am Senior Vice President for external relations. Im standing in for john, who is traveling. A couple of housekeeping announcements. First, we have to do this, the smokey the bear thing. If there is an emergency, we have blue jackets outside who will direct you to the way out. We dont expect there to be an emerson c but we have to say that. So will be very easy to spot where to go if there is. Second, at the end of the program today please stay in your seats until the secretary can leave. But then and this is a little unusual please leave as soon as you can. [laughter] we happened to have another secretary visiting today, the secretary general of the communist party of vietnam. We have pretty high security b here a couple highsecurity events in a row. We do a lot of events, as you know, but this is a bit of a juggling act today. With that, it is my pleasure to welcome my colleague, the very distinguished and honorable sean okeefe. Seans former secretary of the navy, former director of nasa, and being a tulane graduate, i feel compelled to say former chancellor of lsu, and he is wearing lsu tigers today, so go tigers. Sean is here as a Senior Advisor with the maxwell school. Some of my favorite people are in the front row. So good to see you all. Thank you for being here. With that, i would like to produce the honorable sean okeefe. [applause] mr. Okeefe thank you, andrew. I appreciate the opportunity to be here to moderate this particular session on such an important occasion. While some of that may be in reference to this mornings events, which we will hear more from the secretary in a minute, i think the other thing we need to reflect on a bit is we just emerged from yet another uneventful National Holiday this past weekend, with absolutely no incidents whatsoever. Yet the reason for that is not accidental. It is a consequence of the diligence of extraordinary people, thousands of them on our behalf, who dedicate themselves to assuring that freedom to do the kinds of things that we did this past weekend, celebrating the birth of this nation and also to recognize the extraordinary opportunities we have because of what they do. They get virtually no recognition for those nonevents. The gentleman who represents all of them here as a distinguished Public Servant who asked spent a considerable amount of time in public service. Having started, certainly being involved as a professional attorney, he has risen through a number of different positions as the general counsel of the air force, the assistant u. S. Attorney of the Southern District of new york as the general counsel of the defense department, prior to becoming the secretary of Homeland Security. He is the fourth to occupy that together capacity. In each of these roles, he has distinguished himself as an exemplary Public Servant who has focused on the challenges of the kinds of jobs and issues that ultimately have been brought to head in this capacity, protecting all of us as the secretary of the department of Homeland Security. The honorable jeh johnson. [applause] secretary johnson thank you very much, sean. Can everybody hear me . Thank you very much. Its great to be back here at csis. Thank you for allowing me to speak here today. I want to open my remarks by talking about todays events. The topic of this speeches Cyber Security, related to Cyber Security it appears that today we had system malfunctions at united at the New York Stock Exchange, and the wall street journal. I have spoken to the cfo of united myself. It appears, from what we know at this stage, that the malfunctions at united and the Stock Exchange were not the result of any nefarious actor. We know less about the wall street journal at this point except that their system is up again, as is the United Airlines system. Cyber security is a top or deformity is a top priority for me, the president , and this administration. It is my personal mission to significantly enhance the department of Homeland Securitys role in the Cyber Security of our nation. Today i provide a status report on our efforts for the federal civilian. Gov world in particular. I also emphasize the importance of passing new Cyber Security legislation, and soon, in this congress. I applaud the congress for their bipartisan efforts so far. I will begin this speech like i end most of them. I tell audiences Homeland Security is a balance. Balance between basic physical security and the freedoms we expect as americans. As i have said many times i can build you a perfectly safe city, but it will look like a prison. We can build more walls, install more invasive screening interrogate more people, and make everyone suspicious of each other, but not at the cost of we are as a nation of people who cherish privacy, value to the value the freedom to travel in associate, and celebrate our diversity. The same is true of Cyber Security. Cyber security involves striking a balance. I can build you a perfectly safe email system, but it will but your contact will be limited to about 10 people. And you will be disconnected entirely from the internet and the outside world. This, too, would be like a prison. The reality is we live in an interconnected networked world. Cyber security must be a balance between the basic security, all mine information, and the ability to communicate with and benefit from the networked world. In the meantime, the reach of the internet is growing at an exponential rate. Today, there are more connected devices than human beings on the planet. In just five years, the number of devices connected to the internet is estimated to exceed 50 billion. At the same time, Cyber Threats are increasing in frequency scale, sophistication, and severity. The ranges of cyber threat actors, methods of attack, and targeted victims are also expanding. This affects everyone, both in government and the private sector, Cross Country and across the globe. Not a week goes by without a news report of another organization being hacked. These threats come from a range of actors, including nationstates with highly sophisticated capabilities, profitmotivated criminals, and ideologically motivated hackers or extremists. In the case of the breach of the office of personnel management, a large amount of highly personal and Sensitive Information was taken by their sophisticated actor. We have determined that federal personnel rectors were in fact taken by this actor. Dhs, the fbi, and nsa have also determined opm system containing information opms system containing sensitive Background Information was compromised. Opm provided notice to approximately 4. 2 Million People impacted by the data breach involving employee personnel records. Opm is still working with an Interagency Team to address the total number of people affected either breach involving security clearance Background Investigation information. The opm breach also remains the subject of an ongoing investigation. We have strong evidence about the identity of the actors behind the breach. As we said last week, there is a leading suspect. But we are not prepared to publicly identify those actors at this time. To be frank our federal Cyber Security is not where it needs to be. But we have taken and are taking accelerated and aggressive action to get there. In response to the opm breach, on june 12, the white house announced the establishment of a Cyber Security sprint team, comprised of omb nsa, dod personnel to conduct a 30day review of the federal governments Cyber Security policies, procedures, and practices. On a reprioritized basis, we are deploying teams to assess the highest value systems across the federal civilian government and hunt for and remove ever series identified in the system. This response to the opm breach is part of a much broader federal Cyber Security effort that has been underway for some time. There is a great deal that has been done and is being done now to secure our networks. We do in fact block a large number of intrusions, including those by state actors. But we can and must do more. As ive said before, congress can help. By law, each head of the federal department or agency is primarily responsible for his or her own Cyber Security. The department of Homeland Security has overall responsibility for protecting federal civilian systems helping agencies better defend themselves, and providing Response Teams to assist agencies during significant incidents. National Security Systems such as those used by the military and Intelligence Community are secured by the department of defense and dni. There is no one Silver Bullet for Cyber Security. The key is to install multiple layers of protection to best secure our networks. The department of National Security integration system is the u. S. Governments 24 7 hub for Cyber Security information sharing, incident response, and coordination. 13 u. S. Departments and agencies and 16 private sector entities have regular dedicated liaisons while over 100 private sector entities collaborate and share information with nkik on a routine basis. Given the central importance to the mission, i have elevated it within our structure so its leaders have a reporting relationship directly to me. They share information on Cyber Threats and incidents and provides onsite assistance. In this fiscal year alone, they have shared over 6000 alerts and warnings and responded onsite to 32 incidents. Over double the number of onsite responses for the entire prior year. It is also the place where we manage the einstein system. Einstein is the first basic layer of protection. We provided the network or matter of each federal civilian department and agency. Einstein consists of three programs. Einstein one and to sit at the perimeter of the Agency Networks. Einstein one observes and records basic information about all activity entering and exiting an agency network. It is like a recording camera sitting on the perimeter fence to be reviewed when or if a certain individual enters or exits the compound. Einstein two the text known prohibited adversaries that have entered or exited, and alerts us to them. Einstein one hand two detect and identify malicious activity. We share that information with all departments and agencies. This affords those agencies the opportunity to take appropriate actions to protect themselves. By the end of 2005, einstein one and two were deployed to protect only three federal agencies. Today, both protect all federal civilian traffic routed through a secure gateway to the internet. Then there is einstein three accelerated, also known as e3a. E3a resides with Internet Service provider serving the federal government. E3a has the capacity to both identify and block known malicious traffic. Like the system that protects the department of defense, one key value of e3a is that it is an intrusion Protection System that uses classified information to protect unclassified information. E3a was first employed in 2013. By december 2014 e3a protected over 237,000 department personnel. Today a protects over 931,000 federal personnel, or approximately 45 of the federal civilian government. I have directed that dhs make e3a fully available to all federal departments and agencies and have challenged us to make aspects of e3a available to all civilian departments and agencies by the end of 2015. E3a has demonstrated its value. Since his introduction e3a has blocked over 550,000 requests to access potentially malicious websites. These intense are often associated with adversaries who are already on federal networks, attempting to communicate with their home base and steal data from Agency Networks. Importantly, einstein three3a is also a platform for future capabilities and technologies for stop this includes technology that will automatically identify suspicious internet traffic for further inspection. Even if we do not already know about the particular Cyber Security threat. As an additional line of defense, the department of Homeland Security helps federal agencies identify and fix problems in near realtime using continuious diagnostic and administrative programs. Once fully deployed, cdm will monitor networks internally for vulnerabilities that could he exploited by bad actors. It will allow them to identify, prioritize come and fix the most significant problems first. It will also provide dhs with Situational Awareness about government wide risk for the broader or Cyber Security mission. It is divided into three phases. The first phase, being deployed now, checks to ensure that all computers and software on Agency Networks are secure. The second phase will be monitoring users of Agency Networks and ensure they do not engage in unauthorized activity. The third phase will assess activity happening inside Agency Networks to identify anomalies and alert security personnel. To date, we have made the first phase available to eight agencies covering 50 of the federal civilian government. I have directed and we expect dhs make the first phase of cdm pools available to 97 of the federal civilian government by the end of this fiscal year. Im also requesting authorization from congress to provide additional funding to speed up cdm phase two. As our detection methods continue to improve, more of them will come to light. In fact, opm was able to detect the recent breach as a direct result of implementing new tools and best practices recommended by dhs. As we are able to see unblock more events, we will thereby identify more malicious activity and frustrated and never cherries attempts to access Sensitive Information and systems. In cake also provides onsite assistance to federal agencies as well as private Companies Operating Critical Infrastructure. We in effect may cast calls. When an incident like the opium breach occurs, it helps us find the adversary, drive them out and restore service. It also coordinates responses to significant incidents when other Government Agencies give them the information they need to respond effectively and ensure unity of effort. By the Authority Given to me by congress and the federal Information Security modernization act of 2014, i can now as secretary of Homeland Security issue binding operational directives to federal departments and agencies. A binding operational directive is a direction to agencies to mitigate a risk to their information system. I issued the first binding operational directive on may 21 this year. This directive required agencies to properly fix critical vulnerabilities identified by our program on their networks. We know that we must drive change from the top. Thus, working with omb, we notified departments and agency heads so they are aware of the status of their own Agency Efforts to comply with my directive. Department and agencies responded quickly and have already reduced critical vulnerabilities covered by the binding operational directives by more than 60 . Next information sharing is also fundamental to achieving our mission. In order to sufficiently address the rapidly evolving threats to our cyber systems, we must yield to share cyber information as quickly and in as close to real time as possible. To accelerate the speed and expand the breadth of information sharing, we are taking three actions. First, we are supporting the development of information sharing and analysis organizations, as called for in the president s executive order 13691, which he signed on february 13 they share. Next month, we will as directed by the president select the organization that will develop test practices best practices. By supporting the development, we want to help companies regardless of size, location, or sector share information with their peers and with the department of Homeland Security. Second, i have directed an aggressive schedule for deployment of nextgeneration information sharing techniques. Dhs itself now has a system to share cyber threat indicators, and we are working to share those capabilities across the federal government and across the private sector so we can send and receive information in near realtime. One agency is already receiving cyber threat information from the Automated System over a month ahead of the original schedule. We expect multiple agencies and threat sector partners will begin sharing and receiving information through this Automated System by october of this year. Third, we are working closely with other agencies of our government to stand up to Cyber Threats, intelligence integration centers, or ccic. It provide timely a for mission to share with our partners. Finally, there is more congress can do. Congress has a role in Cyber Security to ensure that we have adequate resources and budget and the Legal Authority to pursue our mission. Last year, in addition to passing the federal Information Security monitors asian and monitors asian act, Congress Gave us and codified the role of ncic as a federal interface. But there is more congress can do. The recent breaches in Cyber Security demonstrate years and see of acting now. We appreciate the good bipartisan work on Cyber Security legislation now underway in congress. We believe there should be three basic things in any cyber legislation. First, congress should expressly authorize the einstein program. This would eliminate any remaining legal obstacles to its deployment across federal government. The house has passed hr1731 which accomplishes this by ensuring agencies understand they are legally permitted to disclose Network Traffic to dhs for neroliarrowly tailored purposes. Second, we must incentivize the private sector to share in a manner that provides protection from civil and criminal liability for private entities that share threat indicators with us and protects privacy. Third, we need a National Data breach reporting system in lieu of the patchwork, and enhanced criminal penalties for cybercrime. Meantime, were moving forward. As we improve our defenses, cyber adversaries will continue to improve their own efforts to break through. This problem is not unique to the government. It is shared across the global Cyber Security community. Our adversaries are constantly evolving. So most articles to combat them. We cannot detect and stop every single intrusion. That is not news. So often the most sophisticated actors penetrate the gate because they know they can count on a single user letting his guard down in an active spearfishing. But my message today as we have increased and will continue to increase the instances in which attempted intrusions are either stopped at the gate or rooted out from inside the system before they cause damage. We are taking action. We are aggressively strengthening our defenses. We are accelerating the deployment of the tools we have an working to bring new ones online. Thank you very much. [applause] mr. Okeefe thank you, sir. Appreciate that. Secretary johnson thank you mr. Secretary. Mr. Okeefe thank you, mr. Secretary. Secretary johnson secretary of the navy is a lot cooler job. I did not have aircraft carriers. Sean, can i take a liberty and recognize the admiral and director . I saw your portrait. Thank you for being here. Mr. Okeefe outstanding. Its a great pleasure to see you. Thank you wall for being here. It was a next ordinary commentary mr. Secretary, that you offered on a variety of different elements of the cyber challenge. How would you characterize the nature of u. S. Vulnerability right now to cyber . Secretary johnson well, what i said at the end, what amazes me when i look into a lot of intrusions, including some really big ones, by multiple different types of actors, they very often start with the most basic active spearfishing where somebody is allowed in the gate, penetrates the network simply because an employee clicked on something he or she should not have. The most sophisticated actors count on penetrating a system in that way. Which means that a lot of our Cyber Security efforts have to be rooted simply an education of whatever workforce we have. Second there are some really sophisticated actors out there with varying different motors. I think we all know them with varying different motives. I think we all know them. And we have right now underway what i consider a very aggressive effort to raise the number of instances in which we are successful in blocking the efforts to infiltrate the system. As i said in my remarks, we are not where we need to be, and i have made a personal mission of getting us to raise that bar to a better place. Mr. Okeefe fascinating. Part of the commentary that you offered, too in terms of mitigating against this is to act as the primary federal Department Agency for the purpose of broader cooperation of information, the einstein system was the example. That has gained great coverage in the course of the opm breach. How so many of your team have testified as to how that works and how effective it is. It has been a very broad press coverage there that i think has educated the public more broadly to understand what the scope of that system is and how useful it could become. Beyond the point of simply beyond the point of coordinating this important information, it then highlights more abilities to each federal agency, when you look at the fullscope of all the federal interests that have ascribed the role in the Cyber Security challenge, ranging from the Intelligence Community and the defense department, of course, but also the Treasury Department through the fbi, a wide range of agencies all have a stake in this how do you coordinate that wideranging set of efforts beyond simple information sharing . Secretary johnson that is on us to do, that is on dhs to do. You are correct there are a number of federal departments and agencies with a Cyber Security role. Each agency and department has its own Cyber Security responsibility respective to its own system. But there are a lot of federal Agency Departments that have a broader Cyber Security mission and its on us in government most prominently the Intelligence Community, dhs and fbi, and dod, to coordinate our efforts to effectively partner. Dhs is the civilian interface for Cyber Security. Fbi has the Law Enforcement investigative mission. The Intelligence Community has their mission, obviously. But the way we see it in the way we are setting this up, dhs and nccic in particular is the primary portal for the civilian private sector and the federal civilian dotgov world. It is encouraged to effectively work with and partner with other agencies who have a role in this process to coordinate the efforts. The nccic is essentially a multi agency and today. As i mentioned in my prepared remarks, one of the things that we are doing with considerable urgency is getting to near realtime information sharing. So when something comes in the door, we can do the proper vetting for privacy and so forth and get it out an automated fashion to the players who need the information. Mr. Okeefe and your final comment on the role of congress in this, i assume, is in part to highlight the fact that we are consistently looking for the authorities of the department of Home Security to direct the priorities to the appropriate challenges. Is that a pharisee can as well . Secretary johnson is that a fair assumption as well . Secretary johnson yes. We got some Cyber Security legislation last year, but there is more we can do. Im encourage there is a lot of bipartisan support. The house passed by a wide bipartisan margin, 350 votes in the house, for a difficult subject. So im encouraged by that. A lot of activity right now in congress. Im hoping we get cyber legislation. It really is to codify our Legal Authority and to encourage information sharing by the private sector. A very significant component of that, which the president supports is limiting potential criminal and civil liability for those who share cyber threat indicators with us. That was a big threshold across. We support it. We think it is good. From my corporate lawyer days, i know how board of directors think. Limiting liability for sharing cyber threat indicators is meant to be strong encouragement and inducement to help us in the Cyber Security mission for the country. Mr. Okeefe i want to followup on that last comment that you made, because you are far more aware of this and probably anybody. Industries help us in various markets, widely diverse markets. They have been progressively making choices of our own to erect our own defenses and Cyber Security systems. Secretary johnson right, and they should. Mr. Okeefe before they go down the path to spend the and normas amount of money to do that, because it is often varied and uniquely positioned, what would be your best advice to any ceo our board of directors prior to making those investments on how they all to think about going about structuring their own defenses . Secretary johnson well, i will start with an observation. One observation is in the private sector there are companies and sectors that are very sophisticated when it comes to Cyber Security, then there are others in the food chain that are not. It requires a lot of learning. There are ways for some of the more sophisticated players to encourage the less sophisticated to do that. My advice would be invest in the latest and best technology. There are lots of Cyber Security firms out there that are in a position to advise. It are some good ones. But also, the key to Cyber Security even if you have the best technology in place, is information sharing. That is where dhs can come in that is where part of the private sector can come in and play a role. Information sharing is key, even among the most sophisticated actors. You dont want to be out there all alone. And effectively partnering within the federal government and with the federal government. Those are the three tenants. Mr. Okeefe excellent, thank you. Secretary johnson one other thing i like to add sean mr. Okeefe sorry. Secretary johnson you touched in your remarks about july 4. Very often, in public reports we see a lot of concern expressed about specific events emanating from statements made by us in government. But very often we dont finish reading the entire paragraph or the entire sentence. And so i gave a statement the week before july 4, and it was consistent with many statements ive made, which is the public needs to continue to be vigilant around holidays, Public Events but we encourage people to continue to go to Public Events celebrate the country, and not be afraid. We are a free society. As i said, we cherish the freedom to associate, the freedom to travel, and we should continue to do that. The Homeland Security threat is definitely there. But i dont want to see people run and hide. I dont want to see people stay in bed all day. I think we need to and should continue about our daily lives participate, support large Public Events. One of my best lines is terrorism cannot prevail in people who refuse to be terrorized. I have seen just in my time in office, 18 months, when an attack occurs, americans whether Oklahoma City or boston or the United States military anyplace else, come back stronger. I think that is part of who we are as americans, and we need to continue to do that. Mr. Okeefe thank you, thats very helpful. Secretary johnson ok, turned me over to questions. Mr. Okeefe yes maam . Thats you. Thanks for your speech and discussion. The u. S. And china agree to further explore initiative to carry out Group Communication and coordination on Cyber Security issues. What other initiatives is the u. S. Expecting, and are there any concrete ideas for the next round of operations between the two countries and your expectations on Cyber Security issues discussions in the september visit . Thank you so much. Secretary johnson i went to beijing in april. I met with a number of Chinese Government officials. I have encouraged us to find Common Ground where we can in terms of information sharing. In my time in office, we have done that to a limited extent. But it is also a work in progress. I think we have differing views on a lot of fundamental issues and a lot of fundamental understandings about the nature of Cyber Security. So it continues to be a work in progress, but i think that dialogue can be good and is good. Mr. Okeefe yes sir . I have to agree with all your statements, especially the one about the urgency for bringing in the latest technology especially the networks that are much more secure than the antiquated systems. My colleagues at itac have said the up to me of that is the acquisition process. Can you talk to us about dhs efforts to speed the need at removing barriers to goals . Secretary johnson the answer is, yes, we are doing that. As part of our unity of Effort Initiative on my watch, which i announced and created last spring, we are reforming our acquisition process. And we have an initiative to do that, to remove a lot of the barriers. Part of the initiative we have taken and acquisitions is consult the private sector. In my professional life, i actually have lived most of that professional life in the private sector as a service provider, meaning a lawyer. And so we have an Acquisition Reform Initiative underway right now. It was recently formed. We have a terrific new undersecretary for management confirmed by the senate of a vote of 952, who was my former client. He used to be the executive Vice President for administration at johnson johnson. In many ways, they resemble dhs. It is a large, decentralized conglomerate of health care companies. Russ was the vp for administration and oversaw a lot of their aspects of their business. So he is with us now, out of retirement to take this job. Acquisition reform is part of his mission. Thank you. A number of senior dhs officials have identified the susceptibility of the signal to jamming and have called it a single point of Critical Infrastructure. Can you tell us about dhss efforts to limit that the liability that the vulnerability . Secretary johnson i am not in on a particular topic. I know we spend a lot of time with the secretary on it we spent a lot of time with Critical Infrastructure and those businesses we consider Critical Infrastructure on single points of failure and the like. We are in a collaborative discussion and exercise on these types of vulnerabilities. When the back way in the back . As you mentioned dhs has the responsibility for protecting the. Gov. What would you say in terms of the authorities that you have . I know you got some last year, but in terms of the departments ability to illumine countermeasures issue directives to agencies who may know thee up to the minimum standard in terms of Cyber Security secretary johnson legally each agency and department has responsibility for their own system. Legally. I stress that my colleagues. We have the responsibility for the overall protection of the federal civilian. Gov world as art of a baseline. As i see it, and we see it, will make it help with Cyber Security is met making expressed Legal Authority to receive authority from other departments and governments. We encounter an agency lawyer, i used to be one. I metric agenda that with you i am not sure i can share that with you. Wane want the expressed Legal Authority to make it plain that when we utilize things like Einstein Einstein 3a, it gives us access to our network. As i mentioned i issued what is called a binding operational directive. It was quite helpful because that basically is a direction to another agency, here is your vulnerability, you must tell us how you are cleaning up your act. That plus educating people at the top of the agencies, i think, was pretty effective. We will do a lot more of these. We saw there were able to clean up 60 of the vulnerabilities with identify in a very short. Of time. Mr. Okeefe yes sir, when the far end. Way in the far end. Is there a difference in the way the government has responded to the two . Secretary johnson good question. I think the only thing i could say is that there are many different factors that go into whether you are at a point at which you can, and should, identify the actors who you think hacked you. As i said in my statement the dni said delivery leading suspect, but are not prepared to identify them, the sony situation was a different type of situation. There are a lot of different factors that go into the populations. It was in many other respects a different type of episode. A different character, a different nature. Mr. Okeefe yes sir . Can you clarify in verbal form what constitutes the difference between somebody innovating from outside the country invading from outsdie the outside the country versus someone doing more damage in the cyber round realm . Are we going to leave this gray area undone, or will we start formulating something concrete around it . Secretary johnson from my dod lawyer days, my view is that when you are talking about overseas acts, when you are talking about state actors, it is less significant whether we characterize something as an act of war. More significant is the response being proportionate. Not necessarily of the same kind, but proportionate. That is a basic law of war tenant. So i dont know that we necessarily need to put a label act of war on something in order to respond proportionately. But, i do believe that appropriate responses are important. Mr. Okeefe we have time for a couple more. Do you have time for two more . Secretary johnson sure. I had the privilege of working when they created the whole it thing at the dod. What is your relationship to Cyber Command at the nsa . Does it affect all government, or just you . In the defense department, we were buying computers, aircraft carriers. Secretary johnson my acquisition reform is for thdhs. Correct you havent done it for all government . Secretary johnson im not all government. Collects i get that. But the question is so much a part of secretary johnson we can, and have, when it comes to Cyber Security recommend various Cyber Security tools. That is part of our mission. Sometimes we even buy them for them. If you are asking but dod acquisitions dont get me started. But think about the size, and the time. And what the cost could be as you have to keep repeating it. Not just you. Secretary johnson there are smart ways to do acquisitions in my view. Not beyond our reach. I am a big believer in not necessarily going with the biggest, most expensive tool. Sometimes the actor who is smaller, leaner, hungrier, can do the job better. We you know, my department its only 12 years old. In many respects, we are far too stovepiped, the way the department of defense used to be. Then they had goldwater nichols. I am trying to get dhs to a place where we, and a more collaborative fashion function in terms of our acquisition decisions and budget decisions. Early in the cycle, earlier in the process. Now whenever 13th year, not weight 40 years wait 40 years. Mr. Okeefe final question right here. I am formally with the office of inspector general. I have experienced both systems. However, i may be dissenting from the sublime to the ridiculous. You mentioned private sector partners and gateways, and how people tried to intrude upon various gateways. I wondered if dhs has communication with ebay. It appears ebay has numerous attempts at spearfishing . Secretary johnson if we are not, then we probably should be. That might answer your question. Mr. Okeefe on behalf of csis, and all of us, thank you much for being with us. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] work tomorrow paul ryan talks about trade, and the u. S. Economy. That the event is hosted by politico. Conservative pollster on the trends and technologies the millennial generation and how the Political Parties are vying for this voting block. When you take a look at where peoples eyeballs are going these days, and used to be the people were focus on television. Technology has changed so that now if you walk into a room of 20yearolds or 60yearolds, theyre looking at their phones. For people who want to reach the next generation, understand what the future of political advertising will look like, things like candy crush or whatever the latest game is there was always something new that is popping up. Finding ways to get your message in front of people, where they are paying attention. Fbi director comey testified on new Encryption Technologies and the challenge they pose to cap terrorism operations. He talked about encryption and social media. Senator richard burr chairs this committee. Senator burr i would like to welcome director call me. Comey. I want to thank you for joining us now. I know the vice chair has had the chance to have a bite at you. I would like to think this opportunity to publicly commend the director and the men and women of the fbi at their efforts at keeping our country safe. It is due in no small part to fbi vigilance in concert with the Intelligence Community partners that our nations enjoyed peaceful and safe Independence Day celebrations this past weekend. As you are well aware extremists remain intent on inflicting harm on u. S. Interests at home and abroad. Over the past year we witness the islamist state of a rock also referred to as isil agenda inspire a wide range of individuals. Largely as a result of their media savvy usbased individuals seeking to conduct attacks in the homeland or overseas has already exceeded the combined number of individuals attemptings activities in 2013 and 2014. Unfortunately, the threats faced by our nation are not limited to terrorist actors. Foreign governments remain intent on stealing. The fbi is charged with confronting all of these threads as well. And is continually challenged in addition to these fairly unique jurisdictional issues the fbi conducts routine investigations into Drug Trafficking these criminals are turning to encrypted communications as a means of evading detection. These two things are closely linked. Medications between operational commander and feel soldiers require enabling technology. They also require enabling technologies. In both cases, the Technology Used by terrorists is increasingly secure, encrypted communications. These adversaries are taking advantage of the rapid advances. They are employing advanced commercially available encryption. As i anderson the issue even when lawenforcement as the Legal Authority to act as communications, pursuant to a court order you may lack the technical ability to do so. This is what you have referred to as going dark. You describe it as one of the Biggest Challenges facing your agency. This challenge falls at the intersection of technology, law, freedom, and security. It results in the adoption of universal encryption. These applications are designed so that only the user has the key. In these cases when the fbi or any other Agency Requests access to a users communication via a lawful war meant warrant, it does not matter who they are lawenforcement is blind. As a result, we are less safe. I, like all americans like privacy. I am also concerned, as are my fellow members, about the counterintelligence and other criminal threats to those very same things. I strongly believe we must identify a solution that first protect american privacy but also allows for lawful searches under valid court orders. Director comey using the encryption now available is equivalent to a closet that cannot be opened, or a safe that cannot be cracked. You have an opportunity today to speak to the committee and the American People, and convince us that in order to keep the American People safe you need to be able to open the closet. There are no easy answers, and we are embarking on a robust debate. I think it was initiated by you. I think that is a good thing. Director, you wrote that part of your job is to make sure the debate is informed by a reasonable understanding of the cost. I look forward to your testimony. I appreciate you being here. Before i turned to the vicechairman, i would like to ask the animus consent to enter several documents into the record. The first is a Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Technical report entitled keys under doormat. The second on the topic of this hearing. The third is a letter from the Business Software alliance to this committee on the topic of todays hearing. The fourth is a transcript of the directors remarks to the brookings institute. Without objection those for bank four document will be entered. Thank you, mr. Chairman, for holding this evening. I think the number of people here today is evidence that this is a subject of great interest. Director call me comey welcome back to the committee. I want to thank you and the men and women of the fbi for grateful for you and your people. I hope youll pass that along. Counterterrorism has been the talk of the fbi since 9 11. Never has included so many threats to our country. Last weekend remarks in london said the United States government was running hundreds of counterterrorism investigations. In addition to the growth of other terrorist incidents in nature of the threat has changed significantly. Hundreds if not thousands are in contact with isil. Ranging from those taking direction to those inspired by isil messages on social media platforms. I have been particularly concerned about terrorists use of the internet to instruct, recruit, and inspired terrorism. You very graphically pointed that out. I hope you will again this afternoon. I believe that United States companies, including many founded and headquartered in my own state have an obligation to do everything they can to ensure that their products and services are not allowed to be used to foment the evil of isil. Last week i read a lengthy feature in the New York Times the title was isis and the lonely american which describe in detail how isil members use twitter and other services to recruit a young woman over monthsd to support a militant brand of his long and try to get her to marry an isil fighter and travel to syria. As director comey notes in his Opening Statement the foreign terrorist now is direct access to the United States like never before. Today, have greater awareness of how the United States Intelligence Community conducts its business to collect intelligence needed to protect the people of this country and to inform National Security decisions. This committee has heard from the fbi, the National Security agency the National Counterterrorism center about how terrorist groups in particular have moved to form communications that are harder or impossible for the Intelligence Community and Law Enforcement to access. The increased use of endtoend encryption by both new and established Communications Companies has exacerbated this trend. I understand the need to protect records. Encryption is one way of doing so. Especially in this area of cyber penetration, and our private sectors. Encryption is an important safeguard. That doesnt mean that companies should configure their services in a way that denies them the ability to respond to a court warrant, or a similar Legal Process from the government. This is not a theoretical issue. The fbi has briefed this committee and cases where it knows of communications involving ongoing terrorist movements by iso isil but it has no way to obtain those communications. Even with a court order based on probable cause. It seems to me that if companies will not voluntarily comply with a lawful court orders for information, then they should be required to be able to do so through legislation and a way to protect security of consumer data against unauthorized access. As director comey has said, we are not looking for a backdoor into american companies. Were looking to be able to use the front door. I welcome todays hearing and look forward to the directors testimony on the ongoing threat of terrorism against the United States and the need to acquire lawfully, and quickly information necessary to stop those threats from becoming real attacks. Thank you very much. Senator burr thank you, vice chairman. Members will be recognized for five minutes based upon the order of attendance today. I would like to remind all members that we are in an open session which is unusual. Therefore i would ask you to be particularly careful in the questions you ask. I trust, director, that if you have an answer that cannot be given in an open session you will just tell the vicechairman and i that we will carry this over into a closed session at an appropriate time. With that, let me turn it over to you for any of your comments. Director comey thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for this opportunity. I really do like the use of the word conversation. I think this is a conversation we have to happen is a country. I sometimes your people talk about the crypto wars. We are fighting those words today. I dont like that metaphor. I am not finding anything. I am not here to win anything. I am here to explain the ways in which the change in technology affect the tools the American People, through this body, have given the fbi. I think we all care about the same things. We care deeply about the security of our information, of our health care, of our finances of all the great things that travel over the internet. We all care about public safety. I dont see it as a war, but an opportunity to talk, and what we should do about it. I believe we stand at a reflection point. I felt, not long after id become director, that technology has moved to a place where encryption, which was always available, has become the default. That changes been accompanied by an explosion in apps that offer endtoend encrypted communication. Those things that put us at an inflection point. This committee knows from close sessions that the threat today is very different. It is not the al qaeda of old. That was interested in the multipronged national landmarkbased careful, long planned attacked. We still face the challenge. They are very different from a we see today. They wanted to post magazines and websites, if someone wanted to consume propaganda, they found the website and read the propaganda. They sent an email to the magazine. Here is what has change, isil thinks about their terror in a different way. Theyre not focused on the national landmark. They want people to be killed in their name. Theyre coming to us with that message with their propaganda and their entreaties to action through twitter and other parts of social media. That is a very different thing than al qaeda ever did. They come into our country through thousands of followers of isil tweeters who are based in syria. They broadcast a message which is two pronged. Come to the islami state, islamic state. Second, if you cant come, kill someone where they are, and videotape it. Police tried to kill Law Enforcement, and military. This message is pushed, and pushed, and pushed. Social Media Companies are worth billions of dollars because pushing to someones docket pocket works. Isil has 21,000 and language followers right now. If a devil to someones shoulder all day and says kill, kill kill. Theyre reaching, and calling and it is having an effect on troubled souls in the United States. We have disrupted justin last few weeks very serious efforts to kill people in the United States. Isil will find the live ones on twitter and we can see them say