Amen. Thank you. [applause] let us pray. Father, we continue to thank you for this day. Lord, this is a day that you have made, and we shall continue to rejoice and be glad in it. Father, we thank you for the privilege of being able to call on your name. For youryou, father, love and protection, for the president , for his family. For thed, we thank you seed of life, and we pray that , andontinue to restore continue to strengthen his family. We rank you for cedric and his family we thank you percent of and his family and the precious gift of friendship, and we ask you that you will continue to bless major smiley and his wife tiffany as they stand on your word, which is for do all thingsan through christ who gives me strength. Fromlord, as we depart this place, we know that we will not depart from your grace. Is sufficient for any obstacle, any barrier that may try to stand between you and us. Father, we pray that you will continue to strengthen the tie that binds our hearts together as a nation, and binds our heart together to our friends and allies around the world. Prayer in pray this the name of the only one who can keep us from falling. Thank you, lord. Amen. [applause] sunday on cspans q a, New York TimesStaff Photographer doug mills talks about the photos he took while covering president trump. He enjoys having us around, i really believe, despite his constant, you know, comments about fake news in the media and so forth, i really, really feel like he enjoys having us around because it helps drive his message and drives the news of the day that he can do every day and does every day. He is constantly driving a message, so therefore, having us around billy allows him to do that. Q a, sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan. Next weekend, the cspan sadiq khan detour takes you next week in, cspan takes you to virginia to see historic sites. Watch nextkend p. M. Working00 with our cable affiliates as we explore america. Homeland Security Officials sat down and because members of the Homeland Security committee to discuss Department Operations and potential security threats to the u. S. Among the participants, deputy Homeland Security secretary elaine duke from the homelands Inspector General, representatives from the Government Accountability office. From capitol hill, this is just under two hours. Good morning. This is a roundtable of the secretary of Homeland Security welcome to order. I want to welcome our participants. We had the honorable elaine duke from the honorable clare grady, george scott, and john kelly from dhs and the office of the Inspector General. His roundtable will discuss this roundtable will discuss the attempt to reauthorize dhs. The house has passed their bill. They had a memoranda to consolidate the entire process committee of Homeland Security and the house. The committee has passed authorization for the coast guard. They have a number of components. 50 of dhsys 40 to is under authorization. That is what we are here to talk about today. It is accurate to say what the house authorization does is take what dhs currently does, take the recommendations, and by the way, reading your testimonies, it is pleasing to see how many of the recommendations the department has made over a number of administrations to improve their operation. Lets get bent this has not been lets admit this is not been an easy department to establish and operate. 22 agencies cobbled together with Different Missions trying to get the unity of a mission. We were working on some of the authorization of the unity of effort. But we are trying to codify these things. There are a couple of key changes, or a department that int to codify the encountering weapons of mass destruction. We want to figure out some way to focus its mission into the renaming and we talked about do we do that on a mustpast piece of legislation . There is a great desire to do that. It is a matter of how we get those efforts signed into law . A couple of items need to be worked out, like the authorization for fema grants. My last point is i do want to talk about the one glaring omission out of the house authorization, and something, maybe it is too controversial, but something i think the department really needs is a very serious look at all of the committees and jurisdictions that you are responsible to. In my briefing, we got this little chart of all the , i dont people know how many committees and that you have the responsibility to report to and have jurisdiction over you, but some of the information is pretty interesting. The number of hearings that dhs members to dissipate it members participated. 211 and the 14th congress. 211 in the 14th congress. As the oversight committee, we strongly believe in Agency Responsibility in terms of reporting to us and transparency. But it needs to be more streamlined. One of the things we are suggesting is i am not quite sure of any other way to do this, but establishing some kind of commission to work with house and senate committees. From my standpoint, i want to make sure the department is focusing on its primary mission, which is keeping america safe and secure. That, i would like my Opening Statement to be admitted into the record. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I am a little confused as to why this is a roundtable instead of a hearing. I hope someone could speak to that. This is an administration that prides itself on getting rid of census regulation, and i am being told that we are being and im being told that we are doing this because you had to get permission from omb. We felt this would be the best way to make this discussion. It is not a big difference one way or the other. You know, i think it is really important for the beyond authorization of dhs. It rises to the level of a hearing. I did not know i was under the impression that the department did not have ample opportunity to prepare for a hearing because of the approval , but if it was just the choice of the chairman, you and i just have a difference of opinion as to whether or not this rises to the level of a hearing. I got a number of things i would like to take time to talk about today. I probably wont have time to talk about all of them. I continue to be very concerned about acquisitions, and how well the department handles acquisitions. We have seen press about the most egregious examples. Obviously, the recent one, we have a contractor who clearly has a very troubled history with the federal government, but yet, we entered into a contract for them to deliver meals, and they did not deliver on that contract did not perform under that contract. We have to really drill down about department and suspension, and why that is such a hard thing to do in the federal government . That mysure you colleague, if you had a private business and someone was a supplier that screwed up time after time, you know what that business would do . They would quit doing business with them, but the federal government doesnt seem to quit doing business with anyone who screws up, and i dont get it. I would like to get to the bottom of that. And i have questions about that i will spend some time on. I am very concerned about the privileged dispute in the i. T. Report. This is groundbreaking, unprecedented, and it is very, very bad. And i want to get to the bottom of it. And i will put my written statement in the record on the record. Lets move to questions and i will ask my written statement to be put in the record. It is my understanding that each of you have an Opening Statement. Why dont we start out with the honorable elaine duke from the department of Homeland Security. Will thank you, and we just have one opening, ok. Thank you. One openinggive statement for the department. Thank you for having both of us here today. Clare grady as the under secretary for management, and i is the deputy secretary, acting as her chief operating officer. There is a strong linkage to that, and hopefully we can cover all the areas today. You have been great partners and we are really looking forward to having some open and honest dialogue. S is cleare for dh and it is clever with the threats to our country, and we welcome an authorization act that would give us updated authority, updated support, and updated accountability even for the country, which we support. That we have to ensure that we carry out the mission on behalf of the country, and that we are serving our employees. When we think passage of the authorization act would be helpful in us executing our responsibilities. Over the past year at dhs, i have been working on the unity of effort at dhs and it is critical and hopefully we can talk about it today. It is really looking at how we at the headquarters operate to enable and support the headquarters. And i see three roles for the headquarters element Meeting Community of practice, being subject matter experts, and servicing the headquarters. I think your proposal, mr. Chairman, consolidating some of the committees would really be a great parallel to what we are trying to do at the headquarters in streamlining it better. We have made great progress. We have to do more in this area. What we are looking for in the authorization bill overall a something that does what you say and codifies some of the efforts we are making already. But it doesnt go so far as to dictate and legislative areas that really would be difficult to change, or takes away flexibilities of the secretary in the leadership of the department to finding the right balance. We do feel like areas we do feel there are areas in authorization bill that would help us, like management of our employees would be helpful. We can discuss it in detail now on subsequent discussions later. Department Cyber Infrastructure security, we have a senior official performing the duties of the under secretary that is here today to talk about this area, and weapons of mass destruction. We are looking forward to coming , providingeements information that could help inform your authorization bill. Thank you. Managingis the ector george steam george scott is a managing director. Thank you. Tom pleased to be here today discuss opportunities to strengthen the department of Homeland Security. Over the past 15 years, dhs has implemented a range of operations while making progress in addressing transforming the department and strengthening its management functions. We consider dhs to be a model of how other agencies should work to address their high risk issues. There are a number of key issues with the department can improve. The authorization provides us an opportunity to reflect on the progress the department has made, and how best to align the dhs missions and responsibilities to better counter new and emerging threats to the homeland. I would like to discuss some examples where we think legislation to authorize the department would help. In terms of department organization, codifying the roles and responsibilities of programs would strengthen the focus and responsibilities on Cyber Security. Too, renaming the Office Better reflect those responsibilities would be a positive step. In the area of protecting Critical Infrastructure, congress could require dhs to evaluate the information you provide stakeholders protections. Those sectors that were the department on a voluntary basis, particularly. It is Important Congress and dhs understand what degree they are yielding positive results. Significant challenges remain, and the department continues to struggle with its Financial System and additional oversight is warranted. Continue tods to manage its workforce with the skills to uphold a strong internal control environment, and congress could require the department to develop a comprehensive strategy to do so. Finally, no discussion of the department would not be complete about touching on the issue of acquisition management. The department has taken steps to improve oversight of its acquisitions. Example, it reestablished found they follow ensuring they follow sound practices. This concludes my statement and i look forward to answering any questions you might have. Thank you. Our final witness is the Inspector General. Good morning. Me toyou for inviting discuss the dhs we authorization act. Dhs hass establishment, progressed to addressing challenges, but to fulfill its vital mission, dhs must continue to overcome challenges that hinders its efforts. My officeast years, has issued reports addressing the challenges that face dhs. Many of those challenges congress addressed. With implementation of our recommendations in your legislation, dhs can continue to improve its operations and reduce fraud, waste, and abuse. However, if the department ignores these challenges, it will be difficult for dhs to address reemerging threats to the homeland. The last two annual reports on the challenges, we highlighted two of the most longstanding challenges. First, dhss leadership, committing that it operates more as a single entity rather than a consideration of components. They must also establish a strong control environment a strong internal control environment. Of thects all aspects mission, including Border Protection, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, and Cyber Security. The dhs authorization act reinforces the need for Department Unity by streamlining accountability and redundancy. Another important area is acquisition management. Dhs spentyear 2017, more than 33 billion on contractual services, supplies, and assets. Their Management System is critical in fulfilling its mission. By implementing an effective system, it is complex. Spends tens of billions of dollars including aircraft, financial and human resources, systems and Information Technology systems. To its credit, they have improved some of the processes, but challenges remain. Provisions of the authorization act, which strengthens the role of the undersecretary of management, addresses and deficiencies. Deficiencies. Dhs must also strengthen aviation security. No more is the threat to aviation security. We cannot afford to miss a single threat without potential results. Rophic we require libel equipment and welltrained transportation security officers. Our work has identified vulnerabilities. You have conducted nine covert penetration audits on passenger baggage and screening operations. I cannot provide you with result in an unclassified setting, but can characterize them as troubling and disappointing. Tsa failures were caused by technology and human error. Am pleased that they are moving to address those. We audited air marshals, tsa security, although the detailed results are classified, i can state some of the funding could be discontinued and reallocated to higher priority areas. Finally, our primary focus at dhs is the integrity of roughly 240,000 departmental employees. Dhse the vast majority of employees and contractors are hardworking public servants, much of our investigative caseload concerns allegations of corruptions on the parts of dhs Law Enforcement personnel and contractors. While the authorization act grants them first refusal, we suggest the act grant that right to us. Inspector generals play a Critical Role and being transparent. The American Public must have a damental trust mr. Chairman, this concludes my comments and im open to answer questions. The reason i like this roundtable approach is that it questionseflowing and answers. We do have a timer set for five minutes. Accept, but if you have a question pertinent to what another member is asking for of the topic right then and there is opposed to 15 minutes, halfhour later and rehash it, just raise your hand. I really want to do this in one shot per member on a particular topic and it has to be pertinent. That would just add to the discussion. I will turn it over to senator mccaskill. Mccaskill i am a little confused about the process here, but we will forge ahead. It will be good. Senator mccaskill if this is a roundtable, i hope we are not cutting people off to ask as many questions as they want. Lets start about the thing that concerns me as a former auditor. Inspector general conducted an extensive review of the departments travel ban. Roadblock when the Inspector General refused to release his findings. Only did it take months for the department to respond to the Inspector General regarding privileged claims, in the end, the departments decided to assert a privilege that it never been asserted before, invoking a deliberate process privilege. Is you are invoking a deliberate process privilege and information of the travel ban. If there was ever anything that wasnt deliberate, it was that because it occurred without adequate notice to the department, without adequate preparation. Anybody with common sense could look at it and see that. Are is aony is you deliberative process, privileged to block information from the public. Are we allowed to see this information, ms. Duke . Over the concern delivery process is that it has to be protected. We have to be able to have discussions with the president , the administration. Additionally, it is under litigation, and that is the issue here. It is important that we protect this. We will provide the report as it is to the congress. I think the important thing to know is even with the redaction, it does state what the process was. And we believe that even with the deliberative process, it gives adequate information about what happened at the travel ban. Mccaskill i just think it is outrageous. I dont understand it. We cannot use litigation as an excuse to stop information from the Inspector Generals. We can do that because in every other department will say, we are under litigation. Is this an executive privilege or deliberative process privilege . Is this your department . Ms. Duke there w