It helps describe his message, it helps drive the news of the day which he can do every day and does every day. Hes constantly driving the message and therefore having us around really allows him to do that. Q a, sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan. Homeland Security Officials talked about what theyre doing to combat threats to the u. S. , focussing on interagency communication and efforts to improve efficiencies. They spoke before the Senate Homeland security and Governmental Affairs committee. Good morning. This roundtable of the Homeland SecurityGovernmental Affairs will come to order. I want to welcome our participants, well call them, i guess theyre witnesses. We have the honorable elaine duke, the honorable claire grady, the honorable george scott and the honorable john kelly from dhs, the gao as well as the office of the Inspector General. This roundtable discussed the attempt to reauthorize dhs. The house passed their bill. They have a memorandum of understanding to consolidate that entire process under the committee of Homeland Security in the house. Its a little messier here in the senate, which is not unusual. The Customers Committee has taken up and passed authorize for tsa and coast guard. The judiciary has a number of components. We have my staff keeps telling me somewhere around 40 to 50 of dhs thats really what were here to talk about today. I think its accurate to say that with the house authorization does, and this is what you need to do in these authorizations, take what dhs currently does and codify it. Take the recommendations from the gao and the i. G. Reading your testimony, its pleasing to see how many recommendations the department has made over a number of administrations to improve their operation. Lets also admit that this has not been an easy department to establish and operate. 22 agencies cobbled together, divot missions trying to development that Different Missions trying to development that unity of mission. We helped a little bit in the last Congress Working on some of that effort, unity of effort but, again, were trying to codify these things. There are i think a couple of key changes or new departments that want to codify the countering weapons of mass destruction office. I think we want to figure out some way to take nppd, focus its mission, do the renaming and weve talked a little bit about do we do that on a mustpass piece of legislation . Do we do that on this authorization . Think there is a great deal of desire to do it. Its just a matter of how do we get those efforts signed into law . A couple of items need to be worked out, authorization for fema grants. What are we going to do with the federal protective service . We continue to have those discussions. Maybe thats something we can determine and come to conclusion with voting in a markup. My last point, is i do want to talk about, think, the one glaring omission out of the house authorization and something that maybe its too controversial, but its something that i think the department really needs is a very serious look at all the committees jurisdiction to have that youre responsible to. In my briefing, we got this little chart of all the committees and, you know, ive never got because nobody really completely knows, i dont think, how many committees and subcommittees you actually do have that responsibility to report to and that have jurisdiction over you, but some of the information is pretty interesting. The number of hearings that dhs personnel have participated in prior congresses, 304, 219 in the 113th. 211 in the 114th congress. Witnesses in the 400 levels. The briefings, thousands. 4,000 in the 111th congress. Now, as the oversight committee, we strongly believe in Agency Responsibility in terms of reporting to us and transparency, all those types of things, but it needs to be more streamlined. So i think one of the things were suggesting is generally not real nuts about commissions. Im not sure any other way to do this. Open to other ideas, but establishing some kind of commission to work with house committees and Senate Committees to reduce that burden, because from my standpoint, i want to make sure that the department and focussing on its primary mission, which is keeping america safe and secure. With that, i ask unanimous consent that my written Opening Statement be entered into the record. With that, i open it up to our Ranking Member, senator mccaskill. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Im a little confused as to why this is a roundtable instead of a hearing. I hope someone can speak to that. This is an administration that prides itself on getting rid of senseless regulations and im being told the reason that we did this is because you didnt have time to get testimony approved by omb. Is that right . Is that why its not a hearing . I think it was a conversation between staff and dhs in term office what would be the best form to have these discussions to prepare for a markup. To actually pass this peace authorization. To me, its not a big difference one way or the other. Well, it, you know, i think its really important, the reauthorization of dhs. I think it rises to the level of a hearing. You and i may just have a disagreement about that. I didnt know that i was under the impression that it was something that the department didnt have ample opportunity to prepare for a hearing because of the approval of omb, but if it was just a choice of the chairman, then you and i just have a difference of opinion about whether or not this rises to the level of a hearing. Ive got a number of things id like to take time to talk about today. I probably wont have time to talk about all of them. Obviously i continue to be very concerned about acquisition. And how well the department handles acquisition. We see press about the most egregious examples, obviously the recently one, we have a contractor who clearly has a very troubled history with the federal government. Yet we entered into a contract for them to deliver meals and clearly they did not deliver on that contract. They did not perform under that contract. I think weve got to really drill down about debarment and suspension and why is that such a hard thing to do in the federal government . I can assure you my colleague, the chairman, if it was his company, if it was a private business and you had somebody that was a supplier and they screwed up time after time after time, you know what that business would do . Theyd quit doing business with them. But the federal government seems to never quit doing business with anybody who screws up and i dont get it. I would like us to get to the bottom of that. I also obviously have questions that i will spend some time on. Im very concerned about the privilege dispute in the i. G. Report. This is groundbreaking. It is unprecedented. It is very, very bad. And i want to get to the bottom of it. I also will put my written statement in the record, since we have great attendance this morning and i think everybodys got questions. Lets move to questions, and i will ask my written statement to be put into the record. Again, it is my understanding you each should have an Opening Statement. Why dont we start with the honorable elaine duke. The deputy secretary to the department of Homeland Security. I will thank you. And we just have one opening want to get closer if you can. Thank you. I will just give one Opening Statement for the department. Thank you for having both of us here. Claire grady, as the undersecretary for management, as our chief management officer and i as the deputy secretary am acting as our chief operating officer. There is a strong linkage to that. Hopefully with the two of us we can cover all the areas today. You have been great partners and were really looking forward to having some open and honest dialogue. Purpose for dhs is clear. Its even clearer now with the threats against our country, and we welcome an authorization act that would give us updated authorities, updated support and updated accountability, even, for the country which we support. We recognize that we have to ensure that we carry out the mission on behalf of the country and that were serving even our employees, our 240,000 employees right. When we think passage of the authorization act would be helpful in us executing our authorities and our responsibilities. Over the past year at dhs, ive been working on a unity of effort effort at dhs and this is critical, and hopefully well have time to talk about it today, but its really looking at how we as the headquarters operate to enable and support the headquarters. And i see three roles for the headquarters elements, leading a community of practice, being subject Matter Experts and servicing the headquarters. And i think that your proposal, mr. Chairman, of consolidating some of the committees would really be a great parallel to what were trying to do in headquarters and to line and streamline even better. Weve made great progress. We have to do more in this area. What were looking for in an authorization bill overall is something that does what you say and codify some of the efforts were making already, the leadership commitment, but doesnt go so far as to dictate legislate areas that really would be difficult to change or take away key and essential flexibilities of the secretary and the leadership of the department. So finding that right balance. We do feel like areas in an authorization bill that would help us with personnel, things such as hiring retention and separation flexibilities and management of our employees would be helpful and we can discuss those in a level of detail either now or in subsequent discussions with you or the Ranking Member later. Also, the departments cyber and infrastructure security. We do have the senior official performing the duties of the undersecretary, chris crebs, with us here today to talk about the nppd area and the countering of weapons of mass destruction. So we are looking forward to coming up with some agreements that can or providing you information that will help inform your authorization bill. Thank you. Well go to plo george scott. Mr. Scott . Thank you, chairman johnson, Ranking Member mccaskill and members of the committee. Im pleased to be here today to discuss opportunities to further strength the department of Homeland Security. Over the past 15 years, dhs has implemented a range of Homeland Security operations while making significant progress in addressing the highrisk area of transforming the department and strengthening its management functions. We now consider dhs to be a model for how other agencies should address their highrisk issues. That said, there are a number of key areas the Department Needs to continue to improve. Reauthorization provides an opportunity to reflect on the progress the department has made and also how best to align the dhs missions, roles and responsibilities to better counter new and emerging threats to the homeland. Id like to briefly discuss some specific examples where we think legislation to reauthorize the department would help. In terms of departmental organization, codifying the roles and responsibilities of the National Protection and programs directer renaming the office to better reflect those responsibilities would be a positive step. In the area of protecting Critical Infrastructure, congress could require dhs to evaluate the assistance and information it provides to stakeholders regarding Cyber Security protections, particularly those sectors that work with the department on a voluntary basis. It is important for dhs and the congress to better understand to what extent those efforts are yielding positive results. While the department has made progress addressing Financial Management issues, including receiving a clean audit opinion on its Financial Statements for five consecutive years, significant challenges remain, in particular, the department continues to struggle with its Financial System modernization efforts and additional oversight is warranted. Dhs also needs to continue to develop a Financial Management workforce with the skills necessary to uphold a strong internal control environment and the congress could require the department to develop a comprehensive strategy for doing so. Finally, no discussion of the department would be deplete without touching on the area of Acquisition Management. The department has taken a number of important steps in response to general recommendations to improve oversight of its acquisitions. For example, it reestablished the joint requirements council, codifying the role of the jrc as recently proposed by senator mccaskill and that the department continues to follow sound practices will help increase accountability for the billions of dollars the department spends each year. This concludes my statement and i look forward to answering any questions you have. Thank you. Our final witness is mr. John kelly. Acting Inspector General for the office of the department of Homeland Security. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for inviting me to discuss dhs reauthorization act and positioning dhs to address new and emerging threats. Since its establishment, dhs has progressed in addressing challenges to accomplish its mission, however, to fulfill its Vital Mission of successfully protecting and securing our nation, dhs must continue to overcome challenges that hinders its effort. Over the last few years, my office has issued numerous reports that address the challenges that face dhs. Many of those challenges congress addressed in h. R. 2825, the dhs reauthorization act. With implementation of our recommendations and 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 this to effectively and efficiently address new and emerging threats to the homeland. In our last two annual reports on dhs Major Management and performance challenges, we highlighted the two of the most significant longstanding challenges. First, dhs leadership must commit itself to ensuring dhs operates more as a single entity rather than a confederation of components. The Department Leadership must also establish and enforce a strong internal control environment. The current internal control environment is relatively weak and affects all aspects of the departments missions, including border protection, immigration enforcement, protection against terrorist attacks, natural disasters and Cyber Security. Fortunately, the dhs authorization act reenforces the need for the Department Unity by streamlining oversight, accountability and eliminating redundancy. Another important area is Acquisition Management. In fiscal year 2017, dhs spent more than 33 billion on contractual conservatives, supplies is services. Thus, the Acquisition Management is critical if fulfilling its mission. Implementing an effective Acquisition Management system is inherently complex. Dhs annually spends tens of billions of dollars on a broad range of assets and Services Including ships, arab, surveillance towers, Nuclear Detection equipment, financial and Human Resources systems and technology systems. To its credit, dhs has improved some of the acquisition processes, however, challenges remain. Provisions of the dhs authorization act which strengthen the role of the undersecretary of management implement efficiencies across components and better ensure oversight and accountability, this safeguarding billions of taxpayer dollars. Dhs must also strengthen aviation security. Nowhere is at symetric threat of terrorism more evident than the area of aviation security. Tsa cannot miss a single threat without catastrophic consequences. Terrorists need only to get it through once. The detection of dangers items on people and baggage our work has identified vulnerabilities in tsas screening operations. Weve conducted nine covert Penetration Testing audits on passenger baggage and screening operations. I cannot provide the results in an unclassified setting but can characterize them as troubling and disappointing. Tsas failures were caused by a combination of technology and human error. I am pleased that tsas leadership understands the gravity of our findings and is moving to address those. We recently audited the federal air marshals serves contributions to tsas security. Although the detailed results are classified, i can state that some of the funding could be discontinued and reallocated to higher priority areas. Finally, a primary focus of dhs is the integrity of the roughly 240,000 departmental employees, while the vast majority of dhs employees and contractors are honest and hardworking public servants, much of our investigative case load concerns allegations of corruption on part of dhs Law Enforcement personnel and government contractors. While the dhs authorization act implicitly grants the oig the right to first refusal, we suggest the act explicitly grant that right to us. Inspector generals play a Critical Role in assuring transparent, honest, effective and accountable government.