Id like to call this hearing on world live throats order and id like to welcome our distinguished witnesses today, director of National Intelligence dan coats, director of the Central Intelligence agency mike pompeo, director of defense Intelligence Agency general robert ashley, director of the federal bureau of investigation chris wray, director of the National Security agency Admiral Mike Rogers and the director of the geo spacial Intelligence Agency robert cardale. Weve got a long day in front of us and i thinkal of you for being here. I now how forward you look to this one occasion on an annual basis. Since 1995, this committees met in open forum to discuss the security threats facing the United States of america. This has never been nor will it ever be a comfortable conversation to have. The threats this country face are complex, evolving, and without easy answers. They exist in multiple domains. Theyre asymmetrical and conventional. They can be launched from across the ocean or planned in our homeland. None of less, this conversation serves a vital purpose and its essential that it takes place in the Public Square with as much detail and candor as is possible. In my view, that is the true value and Public Service of this hearing. It provides the American People with insight that they just dont normally get. Those insights are about the spectrum of threats were up against as a nation, but importantly, those insights are also about the work that the Intelligence Community does to push back on those threats. This is work that both time are both time and labor intensive. It can be frustrating, heartbreaking and dangerous. Its often thankless, but because of the tireless dedication and patriotism of men and women who make up our Intelligence Community, it gets done on behalf of the American People every single day. To this point, i encourage all the witnesses this morning to not only address the threats to our nation, but to talk about what their organizations are doing to help secure this country and to the degree they can, in an unclassified setting. Director coats, your testimony for the record ties together the expertise, capabilities, and wisdom of the entire Intelligence Community. I encourage everyone to familiarize themselves with its content. Its lengthy and its detailed and its a testament to the broad range of talents our ic brings to the table. Its also a compelling reminder of high this country invests so substantallily in his intelligence apparatus. Director pompeo, when we held this hearing last year i asked you to share your ideas on the Korean Peninsula. Im going to ask you again for your instates on the state of Koreas Nuclear program and whats going on with their political leadership. Perhaps you can help us deliver eight between a genuine effort to remembering son kyle with north korea and driving a wedge between south korea and seoul. General, the work never seems to end four our department. I would value your thoughts on the battlefield. Last week we had u. S. Advisers and kurdish allies come under fire in eastern syria. This prompted a strike that killed dozen of proregime forces. In afghanistan a string of attacks in cab bull left 150 dead last month suggesting that after 16 years of war, the insurgency is nowhere near fold gd and the government remains hard pressed to supply the protection for its own people. I would ask your insight on where progress is being made and where its not. Admiral rogers, cyber is the most challenge threat vector this country faces. Its also the most concerning given how many aspects of our daily lives in the United States can be disrupted by a wellplanned, wellexecuted cyberattack. Id appreciate your assessment of how well were doing when it comes to protecting the nations most critical Computer Networks from the system of our military to the networks thaen sure the Nations Energy supply. They are all essential to a functioning functionality of a modern america. And i fear that theyre increasingly vulnerable to state and nonstate actors. Director ray, im keenly interested in hearing your assessment of the threat posed by the spread of Foreign Technology in the United States. This committee has worked diligently to sound the alarm bells when it comes to the counterintelligence and Information Security risks that come prepackaged with the goods and services of certain overseas vendors. The focus of my concern today is china and specifically Chinese Telecomthat are widely understood to have extraordinary ties to the Chinese Government. I home youll share your thoughts on this and i also ask you to provide your insights into how foreign commercial investment and acquisitions are jeopardizing the nations most sensitive technologies. Lastly, id like to spend a moment on the counterintelligence threat to our National Academic research and laboratory construct. Whats the scale of the problem and whats the fbi doing to fight it . And finally, director car dilla, weve come to associate nga with the modernization of the Intelligence Community. The adversaries of this country are investing in innovating faster and with fewer constraints than we are. The threats we face are multidimensional, decentralized and goble. Ng sanction playing a central role and pushing the envelope with new ways of tackling problems like having more data than you can feasibly analyze. As we move closer to Machine Learning, and eventually Artificial Intelligence. The computer learning and vision work at nga will be a bridge to help us get there. I look forward to your thoughts on whats next at nga and how the Intelligence Community as a whole can make better use of innovation and technologies to advance intelligence disciplines that have not changed much in the past 60 years. Our adversaries arent going to wait for us to catch up. Ill close there because we have a lot to get to, but i want to thank you and more importantly i want to thank those who are not here with you. Those who carry out the lions s share of the work on behalf of the American People, the Intelligence Community, the foctio folks you represent are important to this to this commit tie and we cant do our work without the work they perform. Before turning to the distinguished advice chairman, i would like to say we will reconvene at 2 30 this afternoon in a closed session to hear from the same witnesses in a classified setting. I would ask members to please reserve anything that remotely gets into a classified question for the afternoon session. With that, advice chairman. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And let me also welcome all of you here and echo the chairmans comments. Thank you all for your service. And we hope you will convey back to all the brave men and women who work for you that this committee will always have your back. I think this open hearing comes at an extraordinarily important time. Our nations intelligence agencies stand at the forefront of our definition against continuing threats from terrorist groups, extremists ideology, rogue regimes, nuclear p proliferation, and regional instagt. We all know and weve discussed this, weve also seen the rise of nation whos view themselves as least as competitors if not as adversaries of the United States. Theyve began to use utilize new asa metric weapons to undercut our institution rrss to steal our most sensitive intellectual property. Let me start with russia. Certain questions remain with respect to the true extent of the russian interference in the 2016 elections and well work through these, continue to work through these in a bipartisan way on this committee. However, i think youll find a broad bipartisan consensus on this committee on a number of critical issues. First, that russia engaged in a coordinated attack to undermine our democracy. Second, that effort included targeting of state and local elections electoral activities in 21 states. Third, the russian effort in a new area utilized our social media platforms to push and spread misinformation at an unprecedented scale. Now, weve had more than a year to get our act together and address the threat posed by russia and implement a strategy to deter further attacks. But i believe, unfortunately, we still dont have a comprehensive plan. Two weeks ago director pompeo publicly stated that he has had every expectation that russia will try influence our upcoming elections. Secretary of state tillerson just last week said that were already seeing russian efforts to med he widle in the 2018 ele. But i believe were no better prepared that he we were in 2016. This threat did not begin in 2016 and it certainly didnt end with the election. What we are seeing is a continuous assault by russia to target and undermine our Democratic Institutions and theyre going to keep coming at us. Despite all this, the president inconveniently continues to deny the threat posed by russia. He didnt increase sanctions on russia when he had a chance do so. He hasnt even tweeted a single concern. This threat, i believe, demands a whole of government response and that response needs to start with leadership at the top. At the same time, other threats to our institutions come from right here at home. There have been some aided and abetted by Russian Internet bots and trolls who have attacked the basic integrity of the fbi and the justice department. This is a dangerous trend. This campaign of innuendo and misinformation should alarm all of us regardless of our partisan affiliation. In addition to this ongoing threat from russia, im concerned that china has developed an all of society, not just all of government, but all of Society Approach to gain access to our sensitive technologies and intellectual property. Im paying a great deal of attention to the rise of chinas tech secretary tore. In particular im worried about the close relationship between the Chinese Government and Chinese Technology firms, particularly in the area of commercialization of our Surveillance Technology and efforts to shape tell mun occasion equipment markets. I want to ensure that the ic is tracking the direction that kmoo chinas tech giants are heading and especially to the extent which they are beholden to the Chinese Government. In recent years weve seen major technologies firms whose rise is attributed in part to the u. S. Technology and ip. These companies now represent some of the leading Market Players globally. Most americans have not heard of all of these companies, but as they enter western economic markets, we want to ensure that they play by the rules. We need to make sure that this is not a new way for china to gain access to sensitive technology. Now there are a number of other concerns i hope to raise both in the hearing this morning and in the closed hearing this afternoon, let me just briefly mention two. First, how is the ic poised to track foreign influence that relies on social media and misinformation . Just last week the chairman and i had a good meeting with our uk parliamentary colleagues investigating this issue. Russian trolls and bots continue to push device civil content both in the United States and against all our allies in europe, not only the uk, but as weve talked before, france, germany, netherlands, and weve also heard recent indications of russian activities in mexico. The ic needs to stay on top of this issue and im worried that we dont have a clear line of assignments. Let me also raise another issue. I believe we need to do more to reform the broken security clearance system which gao recently placed on its list of highrisk Government Programs in need of reform. Weve seen close to 700,000 folks now waiting in line, folks that need to serve our country will in government or in the private sector who have just been waiting way too long to get their security clearances. Its obviously hampering your recruitment and retention and its costing us millions of dollars in inefficiency. Again, thank you to all of you for your service. Please convey our best wishes to the men and women who work with you and i look forward to our hearing. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, advivice chairman. Im going to recognize director coates and he is the only one who will give an official testimony. All members of the panel are open for questions. I will recognize our members by order of seniority for up to five minutes. With that, director coates, the floor is yours. Mr. Chairman, thank you. I raspy voice. Ive been fighting through some of the crud thats going around that several of us have endured. I may have to clear my throat a few times, which i apologize for. But it strikes me listening to your opening remarks and the vice chairmans opening remarks that excuse me that we have continued to have a very interactive presence with this committee. The issues that you and the vice chairman have raised and that others will raise are issues we talk about continuously with you and we want to continue to work with you carefully on both sides of the aisle as we go forward looking at what the Intelligence Community can provide for this committee and the issues we find in common. Vice chairman warner, members of the committee, we thank you for the opportunity to be with you here today. There have been some changes on the panel since we were here last year. This will be admiral rogers last visit before this committee on the threat assessment issue. He deeply regrets not having to come before you in the future years as hes enjoyed this process very much. Considering status so he can come back. We have two new members, director ray and general ashley, who have been looking forward to this day, im sure, with great anticipation. So i say all that because what youre looking at here is a team. A team that works together in terms of how we provide the American People and our congress and policymakers with the intelligence that they need. So its an honor for us to be here, and i think this team reflects the hard work the Intelligence Community in their testimonies and their answers to questions today. Before i begin the sobering portion of my remark, let me take a moment to acknowledge a positive development for our Intelligence Community and express our thanks to members of this committee for their support in the renewing of the authorities, the recent 702 authorization. This is, as we have told you, our more important legislative issue because it is our most important collection issue against foreign terrorists. And we appreciate the work the committee has done and others have done, particularly this team has done in reaching that goal. As you will hear during these remarks, we face a complex, volatile, and challenging threat environment. The risk of interstate conflict is higher than any time since the end of the cold war. All the more alarming because of the growing development in use of weapons of mass destruction by state and nonstate actors. Our adversaries as well as the other maligned actors are using cyber and other instruments of power to shape societies and markets, International Rules and institutions, and International Hot spots to their advantage. We have entered a period that can best be described as a race for technological superiority. Against our adversaries who seek to sew division in the United States and weaken u. S. Leadership. And nonstate actors, including terrorists and criminal groups, are exploiting weak state capacity in africa, the middle east, asia, and latin america, causing instability and violence, both within states and among states. In the interest of saving time for your questions, i will not cover every topic in my opening remarks. I think thatll be a relief to the committee. We are submitting a written statement, however, for the record with additional details. Let me turn to global threats. Id like to start with the cyber threat, which is one of my greatest concerns and top priorities. Frankly, the United States is under attack, under attack by entities that are using cyber to penetrate virtually every major action that takes place in the United States. From u. S. Businesses to the federal government to state and local governments, the United States is threatened by Cyber Attacks every day. While russia, china, iran, and north korea pose the greatest cyber threats, other nation states, terrorist organizations, Transnational Criminal Organizations, and evermore technically capable groups and individuals use Cyber Operations to achieve strategic and malign obje objectives. Some of these actors, including russia, are likely to pursue even more aggressive Cyber Attacks with the