Today, we are very pleased to be joined by acting secretary of the department of Homeland Security, chad wolf. Secretary wolf, thank you so much for taking time out of your incredibly busy schedule to be with us today. Mr. Wolf thank you, suzanne, for having me. I appreciated the opportunity to discuss these important issues with you today. You are right about the important issues. The scope of your responsibility is quite daunting. I was thinking about what i knew as a layperson and also preparing to talk to you today, reading about that scope is remarkable. So many facets of our nations security, from aviation, infrastructure security, to cyber security, immigration and border protection. As a chamber, we think about these issues because they are so linked. Economic security and National Security are so linked. We know we cant have one without the other. We are always delighted to find someone with your talent and experience to share with us what is really going on in efforts to keep our nation safe and secure. We know these efforts have taken on a huge level of complexity given this pandemic, and we appreciate your efforts to keep our country safe and secure. Really, that is kind of where i want to start this conversation. We talk about a whole government response to this pandemic. Could you talk to us a little bit about what it is like on the task force coordinating with the hhs secretary and others . Mr. Wolf you hit on an important point. At dhs, Economic Security is Homeland Security. We are part of keeping that economic engine moving every day, whether it is our transportation, keeping Aviation Systems going, whether it is the coast guard, 90 of what comes into the country comes or waterways, making sure we keep those open, save, and secure. Keeping the borders safe. There is a lot of department does. Too often, we talk about the departments mission from a security perspective. That is our core competency. A lot of what we do in a covid19 environment is in Economic Security, making sure we can keep the economy running and get the economy back up and running as we come out of this pandemic. To answer your question, there is a lot what the department does responding to covid. Our agency is leading the full response and coordinating that response. They are doing that out of the coordination center. They have departments working with them handinhand. A lot of expertise are there. They have seven or eight Different Task forces within. They have different areas they are focusing on from the preservation of ppe, making sure hospitals, nursing homes, and other care facilities are taking care of their ppe. We have introduced technology to sanitize that equipment to get multiple uses out of them. The air bridge, we are getting medical supplies. We are also expanding it using our authority. Getting businesses here in the u. S. What we call onshoring. Trying to get them to make more and more of these materials. But we have dug into initially is we see 85 to 95 of ppe is made outside of the u. S. Making sure we have that availability, not just on ppe, but from a pharmaceutical standpoint as well. That is been the focus of that supply chain, led by d. O. D. , making sure we hit the hotspots of the country who need the ppe the most. There is a lot of efforts fema is doing across the board. Our cybersecurity and infrastructure security agencies are heavily involved in our covid response. They put together Critical Infrastructure workforce guidance the governors and states can use, putting in shelterinplace orders. Which indrustries have to get those workers to work every day. We are proud of the work we have done. We see 34, 35 different states and governors use language directly out of that guidance in their orders. We are incredibly proud. Cdc, we are doing a lot on Border Security perspective. Making sure we are only letting essential travelers in. We have travel restrictions on 30 different countries. Our science and Technology Director is doing work on the virus as well. Characteristics from a surface and aerosol perspective, how long the virus can live. We are doing a lot of different efforts on helping the u. S. Government respond to covid19. My focus is not only responding. Making sure the department is able to support the restoration of the economy as we open it back up. There are a lot of different efforts going at the department every day to make this a whole of america response. As i mentioned, i started out saying, it is daunting how much you all are covering at one time. So critical to the response, not just of covid19 good as you said, getting the economy up and running again. I think a lot of our audience is curious how you stay on top of that huge portfolio, and coordinate with government officials, who also have huge portfolios . How are you coordinating across agencies . Mr. Wolf it really starts obviously, i sit on the Coronavirus Task force with other Leaders Within the government. We are talking about testing, supplies, travel restrictions, but within that fema model i talked about at the beginning, but that is where the sausages is being made. Between all the Government Agencies helping us in coordinating and responding. Within the department itself, it is a large management challenge to keep track of all the different lines of effort, and how we are all moving in the same direction. We do that every day at the department. I start off every day with a Coronavirus Task force call into the department, making sure we are all linked up and all Senior Leaders know the lay of the land and has the latest intelligence so we can make coordinated decisions as we go forward, but again, it all funnels back up through that Coronavirus Task force the Vice President has been leading superbly in making decisions there, and that filters out. Has been heavily involved in our response power 45 days ago, we had a large number of cruise ships in the water that had coronavirus cases on it. How do we get those individuals back into port . At one point, we had over 400 cruise ships on the water that had over 400,000 individuals out there. Getting those back home was quite a feat. Ok. That all sounds like a job and a half already, right . That is an amazing amount of work. And yet, the department has to keep up with its Traditional Mission about stopping Cyber Attacks and terrorism. Talk to us about your precovid mission and how you keep your eye on that ball. Mr. Wolf what i talked about prior to covid what keeps you up at night or what are you most concerned about . A couple of different threats we were following then i continue to follow now, and something i talk with Senior Leadership about, is as we look at covid19 is how we are responding, making sure we dont lose sight of our traditional response and are counterterrorism response, so we know our adversaries are continuing to probe and to see if we are on guard. We have to do covid, but you have to do Everything Else we are focused on. Prior to covid, i talked about nation state threats and how those manifest in different ways, whether it is china, iran, or everything in between. From a cyber perspective, we are concerned about that. I talked also about the immigration challenges we continue to have, and we have seen that manifest itself during the covid environment, making sure our borders stay secure, and we restore integrity to that system. Finally, i talk about the rise of terrorism in the u. S. So, after 9 11 and the years right after 9 11, we talked about a foreign terrorist threat to the u. S. And how do we guard against that . A lot of measures we put in place have done just that. What we have seen over the last several years are homegrown terrorists. How do we adjudicate that . How do we look for individuals prone to violence . How do we offramp them . How do we get them the help they need . There are a lot of Different Things we continue to push. We continue to try to publicize what we do, but covid19 is obviously getting most of the attention these days, but all the effort i talked about, Senior Leaders inside the department are doing that every day in addition to their covid responsibility. Truly remarkable. Lets drill down on one of those noncovid priorities, Border Security. You mentioned clamping down on nonessential travel. What is next for those restrictions . Will they be eased . What is the timeline for that . Mr. Wolf sure. What we have there has been a Successful Partnership with our team, canadian and mexico mexican counterparts. We wanted to limit nonessential travel over those land borders. We put that in place. What we have seen is anywhere from 60 to 70 reduction in that nonessential travel, while keeping the essential trade, the cargo, the commercial supply chain open, and we see that traffic we see that increase in that legitimate trade and commerce. We are proud about that that we are able to limit the nonessential travel of individuals coming and going that dont have an essential purpose while still making sure we keep the supply chain strong, robust, secure, and growing. Those restrictions come up for renewal midweek. Travel restrictions, that is important. We really have to see what is the Health Care Situation like in mexico and canada. How are their cases . Have they hit their curve . Where are they on flattening the curve . We have to factor all of that in. What we dont want to do is try to open up parts of the economy, and have a lot of full scum in people come inf from across the border we have not seen in the past 50 or 60 days, and having to adjust for that and make course corrections. We want to be prudent about this. We want to get the economy back up and running. We will do that in phases. We are likely to see an extension of those nonessential travel restrictions continue. You talk about the decrease in trouble over the border with the increase in trade. That impacts cdp funding. How is that impacting your revenue . What does that make you think in terms of dhs funding overall . Mr. Wolf we got a couple of different agencies we are concerned about when we talk about fee collection. The three that im most concerned about is our shift immigration services. They are run most closely to how a normal business would run. They are 90 fee funded. We have seen them take a very dramatic decline. We are talking with them. We put out guidance on friday. We will be discussing with congress. We will need to work with congress on making sure they do not have to furlough individuals and keep them running. We expect those receipts to come back when the economy reopens, and we will pay that money back to the treasury. We are working with congress. I am concerned about cdc and ice. Both are not nearly as in need of the fee funding for their budget. The large majority comes from annual appropriations, but we will have to adjust within dhs and refund money into those departments. We will be talking to them about how we make them whole. But it is a concern. A lot of our budgets are built off of not only annual appropriations, but the collections of fees. We have seen fees across the board be reduced. It is becoming a challenge for leadership here. While we are thinking about trade, you mentioned earlier some of the pressures on the supply chain, and getting the supply chain right for future issues. One of the things we worry about at the chamber is debate is not always wellinformed. 3m has always made n95 masks in the u. S. , for example, or the amount of spinal pharmaceutical products that have come here from china is less than 1 . Yet we understand about getting this debate right. So, how do you think make sure there are really smart policies coming out of this, solving the right problem . Mr. Wolf i think one of the Lessons Learned coming out of this experience will be to what extent do we need that on shoring of certain, critical commodities, Critical Pharmaceuticals here in the u. S. The u. S. Needs the ability to manufacture those goods, and perhaps those drugs here domestically in any will be a and it will be a tradeoff in how we do that. The president and Vice President talk about that quite often because we dont know when the next pandemic is going to be, and the next set of travel restrictions are going to be, and how do we get those goods and services here . We are dealing with that from that perspective. We are very concerned about cybersecurity as well. Traditionally, we have looked at Financial Services industries, and other industries that of the focus of our cybersecurity efforts. We see bad actors and bad individuals targeting the healthcare industry. Like any other bad actors, they will take advantage. Getting better inside around the cybersecurity measures of our health care suppliers, pharmaceutical companies, i think is another lesson learned. We are doing a lot of great work there. We have operation warp speed that hhs has announced. We are taking a look at all the companies and individuals that are going to be involved in that effort. We know the bad actors will come after. So, we need to be, from a cyber perspective, to make sure those entities are on the federal side of privatesector side have shields up. That have those best practices in place, cyber hygiene in place to protect themselves as we move forward. Those are two good examples of why i am glad we have such a great relationship because the business realities of the supply chain, and boots on the ground knowledge of Cyber Attacks really plays well when we can have the Public Private partnership we have been able to have with dhs over the years, so thank you for that. I know we are running out of time. I am a fan girl of all of these questions i have been asking. You brought up bad actor. We are reading about counterfeit ppe. What a terrifying thought. It underlines something we have been working on for years, stopping of counterfeit products. Tell us about the highlights next steps. Will we be making Public Comment soon . Mr. Wolf the department has been focusing on pirated and counterfeit goods for some time. We put out a strategy several months ago before covid which the department focused on that. What we have seen with covid as i indicated, bad people and bad actors will try to take advantage of situations. We have seen fraudulent ppe equipment, fraudulent test kits, internet scams, we see a number of things that are going on in the cyberspace as well is the physical space on things that should not be occurring. Dhs is the largest Law Enforcement department. We have a number of entities within dhs, from stopping goods from import export perspective, that are fraudulent. We have ice, our Homeland Security investigations has launched an operation called stolen promises, taking a look at counterfeit goods coming in and out of the country, working with the department of justice. Looking from a cybersecurity perspective. We have the secret Service Looking at a number of financial cybercrimes occurring out there as they relate to covid. So, trying to marshal all the departments resources to look at the counterfeiting environment that we see in covid. It is increasing. We see more and more fraudulent activity, fraudulent goods, that we are addressing. We want to make sure americans, whether they get tested, or putting on a cloth face mask or an n95 respirator, we want them to have the assurance that it is the real deal, and it is not a fraudulent piece from an unknown actor. I appreciate the question because i dont think we talk enough about the work. Along with the fbi and others, of investigating these fraudulent practices and trying to put a stop to them. We have initiated a number of investigations, and made a number of arrests, starting to prosecute individuals trying to take advantage of this covid environment. Listen, i hope you will come back soon because i have so many more questions i want to ask you. The country is grateful for your service, and you can count on a Business Partnership as we tackle these complicated issues together. Thank you so much, acting secretary wolf, for being with us today. Mr. Wolf i appreciate the opportunity to talk about a little what the department is doing. The chamber has been an absolutely great partner over the years, and continues to be. We value that relationship, that partnership, and hope that tonight on the communicators, by google has betrayed the internet. Google is steering all this traffic to itself and it is deoxygenated the web. Ands stifling innovation the consumers and not getting access to the best information. Watch the communicators tonight at 8 00 eastern
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