I represent the committee is on and will come to order. [inaudible] the committee of Homeland Security will come to order. Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare the committee in recess at any point. Good morning. Again i want to say our thoughts with those americans dealing with devastating natural disasters including the wildfires in the west and hurricane is in itself. As the churning, i remain committed to ensuring they receive the federal health needed to respond, recover and deal back stronger. Today the committee on Homeland Security is meeting for its annual hearing on worldwide threats to the homeland. Our nation recently observed the 19th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of september 11, 2001. Nearly two decades later, we continue to mourn the nearly 3,000 lives lost that terrible day and keep their loved ones in our prayers. This committee and the department of Homeland Security were established in the wake of 9 11 to help prevent future attacks on our soil regardless, we held hearings examining worldwide threats with leaders from the department of Homeland Security, the fbi and the National Counterterrorism center. Regardless of who was occupied at the white house, whether democrat or republican, we received for publication in that effort. Today we are supposed to be no different. Unfortunately, as we see from the empty chair in front of us, mr. Wolf isnt here to represent the department of Homeland Security. Let me be clear about how they got here. The committee began engaging with the department of her three months ago on june 10, 2020, to secure the participation in this hearing alongside his colleagues from the fbi and National Counterterrorism center. To having the dhs, fbi and in ctc testify before the committee is a worldwide threat hearing in july is false. Dhs also offered a couple of dates but then could not agree with its counterparts on the date of the hearing in june or july. In fact, it was the department of Homeland Security that conveyed to the committee that september 17 was the earliest mr. Wolf would be available to testify at this hearing. In the instance of receiving the testimony, the committee agreed to the date. It wasnt until last week that the department informed the committee that mr. Wolf would be reneging on the commitment to testify in anticipation of being nominated for secretary of Homeland Security. I would note that despite his refusal to testify today, mr. Wolf has spoken to the media on multiple occasions since President Trump announced he intended to nominate mr. Wolf to be secretary of Homeland Security, including no fewer than four appearances on fox news. Hes run the department of Homeland Security for the last ten months and has been responsible for numerous decisions directly relevant to the subjects the committee intends to export. With that in mind, last week i wrote him to make clear there is no legal prohibition barring a nominees testimony and to urge him to honor his commitments. In response, the department again declined to provide mr. Wolf to testify at this hearing. Faced with continuous refusal on friday i issued a subpoena for his appearance in accordance with house and committee rules. Regrettably, hes chosen to defy the subpoena, that he would refuse to come before the committee after committing to do so should uphold every minut mef this committee. Insisting mr. Wolf keep his commitment to testify before congress isnt playing politics, its doing our job. Congress has the authority and obligation to execute as constitutional oversight responsible for these regarding the decision and the departments action during his tenure. As chairman, it is my responsibility to ensure the committee fulfills its constitutional responsibilities. 19 years after the attack from 9 11, we continue to face grave threats to the homeland including the rights of domestic tourism, ongoing foreign interference and the 2020 elections into the corona virus pandemic that has claimed nearly 200,000 american lives. As a person running the department of Homeland Security, mr. Wolf should be here to testify as the secretary of Homeland Security have done before. Instead, they have an empty chair, and the appropriate metaphor for the chandigarh administrations dereliction on so many of these critical Homeland Security issues. Mr. Wolf may attempt to evade oversight and the department may try different stunts to distract from the hearing, but we will not waver. The stakes are too high. Indeed the former department officials, the administrations political appointees are coming forward to sound the alarm that the nations security is being compromised in favor of the president s political interest. Americans who care about securing the homeland and upholding our most sacred values expect the representatives to hold the department of Homeland Security and this administration accountable. The issue under my chairmanship i would not waver in my commitment to doing so today or in the future. To that end, i am pleased that the director ray and miller are here today. I look forward to their testimony and the members questions. The chair now recognizes the Ranking Member of the full committee, the gentleman from alabama, for an Opening Statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Before i get started, i want to acknowledge our newest member of the committee, mr. Garcia who i know is going to be a great addition to the work in the future. We have made Great Strides towards Global Operations and to stop threats before they reach our shores. However, today, global jihad is so joined by hackers, nationstates and transnational criminal organizations. Together they present new risks to the economy, safety and way of life. Make no mistake, the first to the homeland has never been more real than they are today. Thats why it is important that we as members of the committee understands those threats. Its our job to ensure dhs, fbi and other Intelligence Community have the resources and authorities they need to dismantle the organizations and to protect the homeland. I look forward to hearing more about the administration and how they are countering the threats from al qaeda, china, and iran and others who seek to do us harm. I am also disappointed dhs isnt here today but i want to record to be clear on why dhs isnt represented. It isnt the fault of the department of this administration. Acting secretary wolf offered to testify before the committee in both july and august. Unfortunately, the majority refused to make either of those dates work. No he is prohibited from testifying under a policy that has been in place under both republican and democratic administrations for decades. Nevertheless, theyve offered to have the secondhighest ranking official at the dhs and perfectly qualified and informed on this subject matter. And i would ask unanimous consent to conclude his testimony foinclude thistestimo. Without objection. Thank you. They should be here today providing fo the departments perspective on those threats we face in front dhs is doing to counter them. Instead of having productive hearings, the chairman chose to subpoena. This is a political stunt and its a disservice to the committee and to the public. This is the single most important hearing beholden this committee but unfortunately, as with most things, the majority has chosen to play politics. As a result, the public is being deprived of critical information from dhs. Perhaps that is the real reason why this majority didnt want him here. Having the public hear about all the good things they are doing to protect them might undermine the radical left is the latest rallying cry, dismantling dhs. Unfortunately, the director, im sorry, fortunately director ray and director miller are here to provide valuable perspectives. I look forward to hearing from both of you about the threats we are facing and i will yield ba back. Thank you very much. The committee doesnt want to hear testimony from the department. Therefore, after mr. Wolfs decline on the invitation, we issued a subpoena to obtain his testimony. The socalled Standard Practice by which the Department Says mr. Wolf cannot testify is the administrations own selfimposed limitation. I also note that this is an administration whose respect for socalled precedence and law is highly situational. If the minority wanted to hear testimony, they had every right to invite him to appear as the witness at this hearing today. Iem not aware of the minorities oppressing this testimony. Other members of the committee are reminded that under committee rules, Opening Statements may be submitted for the record. Members are also reminded that the subcommittees will operate according to the guidelines laid out by myself and thinking members in our july 8 they debate could colloquy. First this is the director of the federal bureau of investigation, director ray began his lawenforcement career in 1997 serving in numerous positions at the Justice Department before assuming his present role in 2017. Next, we have the director of the National Counterterrorism center. Director miller served in the United States military from 1983 to 2014 and in numerous civilian National Security roles before assuming his current position. Without objection, this full statement will be inserted in the record and i now ask each witness to summarize his statement in five minutes with the best you can do within that time. Good morning chairman thompson, Ranking Member rogers and members of the committee i am honored to be here today on behalf of the men and women at the fbi to discuss the nations top threats from the fbis perspective and what they are doing to counter those threats. I know we all share a love of the same concerns about topics ranging from international and domestic terrorism, cybersecurity to the violence in our streets and particularly this year to the threat of foreign influence in the elections and that is just to name a few and i look forward to updating you on these and other important topics this morning i would like to begin by covering a few items that have been particularly top of mind over the past few weeks. First, terrorism remains the fbis top priority although the nature is evil to significantly. We are ever vigilant in our efforts to prevent wa those likl qaeda and by this. Those groups pose a threat not just to americans overseas but also here at home, most notably by those called homegrown violent extremists inspired by Foreign Terrorists self radicalized online and motivated to attack soft targets with readily available weapons. We are also working aroundtheclock to prevent attacks by domestic terrorists inspired by one or more extremist ideologies to commit violent acts and in recent years weve been laser focused on threats by racially or ethnically motivated extremistss that they are also radicalized online and mobilized quickly to carry out their land. While he was planning to blow up a synagogue in colorado with any terrorism case we are focused on disruption. On making arrests before a criminal can act. Just this year alone for the hard work and dedication of countless men and women with the fbi and across our partner agencies, we have successfully ported to have thwarted the attacks in kansas city, tampa, cleveland, oklahoma city, boston, phoenix and other locations. In recent months we have witnessed protests and many members of congress have raised questions about the process. Although the majority of them have been peaceful, we have opened investigations on individuals involved in criminal activity some of whom would extremist agendas and discord. To be clear we do not investigate groups or individuals based on ideology or the exercise of the First Amendment protect activity alone. But when it leads someone to criminal acts and to pursue violence, the fbi will not hesitate to take appropriate action. Thats why we have been working closclose with federal, state ad local partners to ensure the safety of all of our citizens including i should say the safety of those trying to exercise the First Amendment rights peacefully. In Law Enforcement we must keep our communities safe and secure while safeguarding our citizens Constitutional Rights and Civil Liberties and as ive said before, one of those need not and must not come at the expense of the other. We also remain focused on other threads. In less than two months of course americans will exercise one of their most cherished rights to vote in a free and fair election. Americans must have come since in the Voting System in the election infrastructure. Thats why the security is and will continue to be one of the highest priority us. We will not tolerate foreign interference and we are working closely with our federal, state and local partners as well as the private sector to share information, bolster security and identify and disrupt any threats. Just recently for example, we shared threat indicators for facebook and twitter allowed to take down fake accounts created as a part of the Russian Disinformation Campaign before those accounts could develop a broad following. Turning to the cyber arena, we are focused on an increasingly diverse array of threats from the adversaries from statesponsored cyber intrusions and nationstates with china, russia, iran and north korea, sophisticated cyber criminals seeking to exploi exploit the tl vulnerabilities primarily for personal profit. Just yesterday, the newspaper strategy leveraging the unique expertise and authority is to impose risk and consequences on our cyber adversaries. We are focusing on results and that means we are working to enable our part as operations as well as our own. To take one example, the fbi and nsa trying to expose highly sophisticated Russian Military intelligence malware providing the private sector and other government partners the indicators they need to disrupt the tool. They also faced increasingly blended threats of statesponsored economic espionage facilitated by cyber intrusions. In july that doj indicted to chinese hackers working with the ministry of state security for carrying out a Global Computer Intrusion Campaign that targeted hundreds of victims including i should note Companies Developing covid19 vaccines, Testing Technology and treatment. With that kind of behavior, china continues to undercut their claims of being a trusted and effective partner in the international community. Just yesterday five hackers were targeting victims around the world from their safe haven in china. With our partners we have now arrested two of their coconspirators and russia and took down hundreds of the hackers accounts, servers and domains. With the complexity and agility we are relying on our deep expertise, intelligence and partnerships. Im committed to ensure that you does great work while adhering to the tenets of the fidelity, bravery and integrity. In these challenging times, i tell my folks that weve got to keep home and tackle hard. Remaining faithful to our core values and traditions and making sure we always doing the right thing in the right way. Thank you and i am happy to take your questions. Thank you very much for your testimony i know recognize Victor Miller to summarize his statement for five minutes. Chairman thompson, Ranking Member rogers, distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the global counterterrorism environment and to highlight the tireless work of the professionals of your National Counterterrorism center. I am truly honored and humbled to meet such an Extraordinary Group of patriots. As my statement for the record reflects, this threat to the United States and our allies is less acute the more ideologically diffuse emanating from groups and other places than it did in 2001. Isis and al qaeda operate in more than two dozen countries worldwide. Iran and the allies increasingly threatened the centrist overseas include actors inspired by the range of ideologies imposed in the threat on u. S. Soil. Our focus remains defeating al qaeda. Its affiliates and other terrorist doctors while defending the shores from diverse countries. We believe this will only grow more complex over the coming year as technological advances, changing dynamics and the instability resulting from global pandemics create more opportunities for terrorists benefits. However, the u. S. And rct partners worldwide can exploit some of the same dynamics to our advantage. The complex landscape requires thoughtful responses that evolve along with our adversaries, and we apply the lessons we have learned over the last 19 years to adapt for the future. At the National Counterterrorism center, we are innovating new ways of gettin doing business te we are best outlined to connect the dots in the flood of everchanging information. Through technological innovation and organizational realignment, we are positioning ourselves to mitigate the threats of today and preempt the threat of tomorrow this will require greater resources to the analysis and enhance the abi