At keeping our country safe. It is due in no small part to f. B. I. Vigilance in concert with the Intelligence Community partners that our nation has enjoyed a peaceful and safe Independence Day celebration 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 witnessed the islamist state, also referred to as isil, agenda attempt to inspire a wide range of individuals to conduct attacks against innocent civilians. The number of u. S. Based individuals seeking to conduct attacks in the homeland or overseas has already exceeded the combined number of individuals attempting activities in 2013 and 2014. Unfortunately, the threats faced by our nation are not limited to terrorist actors. Foreign governments remain intent on stealing National Security secrets. The f. B. I. Is charged with confronting all of these threads threats as well and is continually challenged in addition to these fairly unique jurisdictional issues the f. B. I. Conducts routine investigations of drug trafficking, robbery, murder, and the list goes on and on. These criminals are turning to encrypted communications as a means of evading detection. These two issues that might appear unrelated are in fact closely linked. Communications between a terrorist organizations operational commander and field soldiers require enabling technology. In both cases, the Technology Used by terrorists is increasingly secure, encrypted communications. Both of these adversaries are taking advantage of the Rapid Advances in security communications. They are employing advanced commercially available encryption. As i understand the issue, even when lawenforcement as the Legal Authority to act as theintercept 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 have described it as one of the Biggest Challenges facing your agency and Law Enforcement. This challenge falls at the intersection of technology, law, freedom, and security. It results from the adoption of universal encryption. These applications are designed so that only the user has the key to decode content. In these cases, when the f. B. I. Or any other Agency Requests access to a users communication via a lawful warrant, it does is inaccessible. It does not matter if the suspect is a drug trafficker, lawenforcement is blind. As a result, we are less safe. I, like all americans, like desire privacy. As americans, we are guaranteed security in our persons and effects. I am also concerned, as are my fellow members, about the terrorists counterintelligence and other criminal threats to those very same things. I strongly believe we must identify a solution that first protects american privacy, but also allows for lawful searches under valid court orders. Director, you have said the now readily 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 turn to the vicechairman for her remarks i would like to ask unanimous consent to enter several documents into the record. The first is a Computer Science and Artificial IntelligenceLaboratory Technical report entitled keys under doormat. The second letter from the American Civil Liberties union 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 four documents will be entered. I now turn to the vicechairman for any remarks she might make. Vicechairman thank you, mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing. There was a crowded hearing this morning in judiciary. I think the number of people here today is evidence that this is a subject of great interest. I thank you for holding this open hearing. Director comey, welcome back to the committee. Let me repeat what i said this morning in judiciary. I want to thank you and the men and women of the f. B. I. For unparalleled service to protect this country and prevent attacks. We are very grateful. I hope you will say that to your people. Thank you. Last month, there were arrests almost every day as the bureau worked to thwart attacks around the fourth of july holiday. Counterterrorism has been at the top of the f. B. I. Priority list since 9 11. Never has included so many operations and threats to our country. The assistant attorney general for National Security said last week in london that the United States government was running hundreds of counterterrorism investigations involving every state. In addition to the growth of terrorist incidents the nature of the threat has changed significantly. Hundreds and perhaps thousands of americans at home are in contact with isil members and affiliates, ranging from those taking direction to those inspired by isil messages on social media platforms. As you know, i have been particularly concerned about terrorists use of the internet to instruct, recruit, and inspire terrorism inside the United States. 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 home 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 described in detail how isil members use twitter and other services to recruit a young woman over months to support a militant brand of islam 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 has direct access to the United States like never before. Foreign terrorist groups, as well as adversarial nationstates today have greater awareness of how the United StatesIntelligence 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 f. B. I. , the National Security agency, the National Counterterrorism center about how terrorist groups in particular have moved to form s of communications that are harder or impossible for the Intelligence Community and Law Enforcement to access. The increased use of endtoend strong 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 penetrations of our government and private Sector Companies 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 f. B. I. Has briefed this committee on cases where it knows of communications involving ongoing terrorist s by isil inside the United States, but it has no way to obtain those indications even with a court order based on probable cause. It seems to me that if companies will not voluntarily comply with lawful court orders for information, then they should be required to be able to do so through legislation in a way that protects 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 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. We will accommodate you on that. 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 have as a country and this is a great opportunity to begin having it. I sometimes hear people talk about the crypto wars. We are fighting the crypto wars today. I dont like that metaphor. I am not fighting anything. I am not here to win anything. I am here to explain the ways in which the change in technology affects the tools the American People, through this body, have given the f. B. I. 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. We all care about the ability to keep folks safe in this country. 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 n inflection 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 change has been accompanied by an explosion in apps that offer endtoend encrypted communication. Those things have put us at an inflection point. This committee knows from close d sessions what the American People may no less well, that the terrorism threat today is very different. It has changed in my two years as director. It is not the al qaeda of old. That was interested in the multipronged national landmarkbased careful, long planned attacked. We still face that challenge. The al qaeda of old is very different from what we see today. The al qaeda of old wanted to proselytize and did so by posting magazines on websites. If someone wanted to consume propaganda, they found the website and read the propaganda. If they wanted to talk to a terrorist, they sent an email to the magazine. Here is what has changed. Isil thinks about their terror in a different way. Theyre not focused on the national landmark. Multipronged, longtail event. 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 have a physical safe haven. They broadcast a message which is two pronged. Come to the islamic state. Join us here in our version of paradise, which is a nightmare. Second, if you cant come, kill somebody where you are and videotape it. Please try to kill Law Enforcement and military. Here is a list of names. This message is pushed, and pushed, and pushed. Social Media Companies are worth billions of dollars because pushing to someones pocket works. Isil has invested in this for the last year. They have about 21,000 english language followers right now. They are pushing this message. It is as if a devil is sitting on someones shoulder all day saying kill kill, kill. They are in the device. Theyre reaching, and calling and it is having an effect on troubled souls in the United States. I have hundreds of these investigations in every state. We have disrupted just in last few weeks very serious efforts to kill people in the United States. The challenge is isil will find the live ones on twitter and we can see them say here is my encrypted mobile messaging app. Contact me there. So our task to find needles and in a nationwide haystack becomes complicated by the fact that the needle goes invisible. We cannot break strong encryption. People watch t. V. And think the bureau can do a lot of things. We cannot break strong encryption. Even if i get a court order under the Fourth Amendment to intercept that communication, i will get will be good g obbledygoop. The needle remains dark to me. Isil does something al qaeda would never imagine, they task people. Kill someone, and we will see if youre really a believer. These people react in ways that are very difficult to predict. What you saw in boston was with experts call flash to bang being very close. You had a guy in touch with these recruiters. He woke up one morning and decided he would go kill somebody. Thank goodness we were able to confront him. He confronted our people with a knife. They had to use their weapons. That is an example of the unpredictability of this. If you combine the blindness with his broad reach and we face , a challenge if not seen before. This is not your grandfathers al qaeda. This is a very new threat that we face. Some people say you have all kinds of other information. We live in the golden age of surveillance. I think of it differently. I think we live in the golden age of communication. Osama bin laden would never have dreamed that he could speak simultaneously to hundreds of americans, find them, and the n task them in ways that Law Enforcement could not see. The golden age of communication is posing enormous challenges for us. Im not here to scare folks for us. Im here to tell people there is a problem. I do not know the answer. A whole lot of good people that have said it is too hard. It will all fall down and we will have a disaster. Maybe that is so. But my reaction is, im not sure we really tried. I think Silicon Valley is full of great people that were told their dreams were too hard. Thank goodness they did not listen. I think we have the talent to think about this in a good way. My hope is that folks will realize that this really matters. The f. B. I. Is not the source of innovation. We are just telling people we have to talk about this. I see the present, and the future, which in many ways is more troubling because the logic is inexorable. The f. B. I. Is not an Occupying Force imposed on the American People from abroad. We belong to the American People. We only have the tools have they have given us through you. Im here to tell the American People that the tools you have given us are not working the way you expect them to work. I need help figuring out what to do about that. Companies are run by good people, they see the challenge. They want to help. We have to figure out a way to solve this. Maybe it is too hard. But i think this country has never been made up of people who say it cant be done. We really ought to talk about it more. I appreciate the opportunity to discuss that with the committee. Senator burr i think it is safe to restate that we are at the start of the debate, even though we have had the conversations for some time privately. We have watched encryption grow more dominant. Really, as you said, it is become the default. It is almost automatic now. It places a huge challenge on your ability to fulfill your mandate. And our challenge is to work with you as an extension of the American People. To provide you what tools america is comfortable with. I think as we go to this debate , we will figure out where that sweet spot is. I will turn to the vicechairman for her questions. I would share with members of the order. Vicechairman . Senator feinstein thank you very much, mr. Chairman. I think you spoke very eloquently. Can you quantify this . Can you tell us how often the f. B. I. Acting pursuant to a warrant or other lawful process encounters encrypted information you cannot access . Director comey thank you, senator feinstein. The answer is i really cant at this point for a couple of reasons. We are the beginning of this. We will work to collect that data. The other thing is it is a bit like proving a negative. When my folks see something is encrypted, they move on and try to find another way to assess the potential bad guy. We have incidents where wiretaps were issued and then encryption was encountered, but i dont have good enough numbers yet. Senator feinstein i think it would be helpful if the department could gather some numbers to quantify this. The next question is, bsa, known as the software alliance, send a them sent a letter to this committee stating that call