Good morning. This hearing will come to order. This is the hearing of the title can is the resources needed to protect and secure the homeland. I will review the budget of the department of Homeland Security. We have the acting secretary of Homeland Security, honorable Kevin Mcaleenan to testify. Appreciate and thank you for your long service to this country, in particular at this moment where we are grappling with so many issues. The aftermath of an unprecedented level of disasters with hurricanes and fires in california, hurricanes, obviously, on the gulf coast. The disaster that is occurring at the border right now. And if we could, just quick put up our chart. I think we have our chart. Not only do we have it on the chart, but we had an event in oshkosh over the weekend that required a giveaway so i quick produced out of my factory some cups with that exact same chart. What it shows it how out of control this problem is. In the first seven months of this year, we had over 300 the total is actually 312,000 individuals coming either as over the border illegally, being apprehended either as unaccompanied child or as part of a family unit. I know these are not for public release yet, so they are initial numbers, but in the first 3 months of may another 65,000 unaccompanied children, again, primarily people coming in as family units, and, were apprehended at the border in between the ports of entry and over 97,000 total apprehensions. So were on path of breaking, again, you know, from i guess was march, 103,000. I believe it was april, 109,000 or 106,000. And now well be beyond that in may. So this is a growing problem. It needs to be taken seriously, and it is what you and the men and women that you lead are grappling with. You know, just god bless you for doing it. I mean that in all sincerity. I know because ive been to the border. Going to be going to the border with the Ranking Member and a couple other senators later today. We know what youre having to deal with and its an impossible task. So, again, i just appreciate your dedication, your willingness to zemserve. With that, ill turn it over to the Ranking Member. Thank you, mr. Chairman, acting sec tar mcaleenan, we appreciate you being hefor bein today. I will defer on my comments. I know we have members with a meeting coming up and i know you are on a hard stop as well. I know members of the Committee Want to ask questions. So i will ask unanimous consent to put my Opening Statement in the record. Without objection. Ill ask the same request. That sounds good. Well turn it over to you. Mr. Secretary, it is the tradition of this committee to swear in witnesses so if youll stand and raise your right hand. Do you swear the testimony you will give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god . I do. Please be seated. The honorable Kevin Mcaleenan is acting secretary of department of Homeland Security and has been serving in this position since april 2019. Prior to this appointment, mr. Mcaleenan had a distinguished career at the u. S. Customs and Border Protection where he recently served as commissioner of cbp since january 2017. In 2015 m. Mcaleenan received the president ial rank award. The nations highest Civil Service award. He holds a bachelors degree from Amherst College and jd from the university of chicago law school. Mr. Mcaleenan. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, Ranking Member peters. Distinguished members of the committee. Senator portman. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today. It is a sincere honor to serve as acting secretary and to represent the dedicated men and women of the department of Homeland Security. I really do believe that dhs has the most Compelling Mission in government to safeguard the American People, our homeland and our values. As acting secretary i intend to work with this committee and i have been in the last six weeks and served as an advocate for the department to ensure our people have the resources and authorities they need to carry out their Critical Missions on behalf of the American People. As were highlighting the president s 2020 budget, i do want to point out a few of the key areas where theres critical investments across dhs in the multi missions that we carry out. I want to ensure this committee we will not lose any momentum on our multiple missions from cybersecurity to Disaster Response as we see what is happening this morning with the floods in oklahoma, the tornado that touched down in missouri. We will stay on top of all of these mission sets and i want to highlight some of the investments there. Of course, i will speak to the Border Security crisis, which this committee is very focused on and understands very well. The president s budget requests funding for Critical Missions across the department. For our cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, the budget requests 1. 3 billion to assess evolving cybersecurity risks, protect federal Government Information Systems and critical infrastructure. The budget also supports the launch of project 2020, a new initiative designed to get all states to a baseline level of election infrastructure cybersecurity well before the National Elections of 2020. The budget supports additional transportation Security Officers to enhance Security Effectiveness and stay ahead of increasing costs and growing traffic at airports nationwide. The 3. 3 billion for tsa also includes funding for an additional 700 screeners and 350 computed tomography units. For fema this budget provides a significant increase in Disaster Relief fund, begins implementation of new requirements in the disaster recover reform act and provides critical positions. And for the u. S. Coast guard, this budget continues ifrt s efo fund the offshore patrol cutter. With regard to Border Security and immigration enforcement, as you are well aware, we are in the midst of an ongoing security and humanitarian crisis at the southwest border. I think your chart puts that in stark context, stark relief, mr. Chairman. Almost 110,000 migrants attempted to cross without legal status last month, the most in over a decade. And over 65 , as you highlight, were families and unaccompanied children. That means over 40,000 children entered our immigration system in a single month. The president s budget will help address this for 2020. First, it requests 523 million for the humanitarian crisis. This money will allow us to provide better care for those we come into contact with through apprehension, custody, detention and removal. Second, to address the Border Security aspects of the crisis, it requests 5 billion in funding for construction of approximately 200 miles of new border wall system, a proven deterrent requested by our front line agents, and it also calls for 750 Border Patrol agents, 273 cbp officers and over 660 i. C. E. Frontline and support personnel. The budget requests will make much needed upgrades to sensors, commanded control system and aircraft to help our men and women combat criminals profiting from human suffering. While our 2020 budget will help address this crisis, we will need additional funding much sooner. Given the scale of what were facing, well exhaust our resources before end of this fiscal year, which is why the administration sent a supplemental funding request to congress over three weeks ago. In addition to the 3 billion in that request for health and Human Services to care for unaccompanied children, the request includes 1. 1 billion for the department of Homeland Security and would provide 391 million for humanitarian assistance including temporary migrant processing facilities at southwest border, 530 million for Border Operations to include our surge personnel expenses and increased transportation and detention costs and 178 million for operations and support costs including pay and retention incentives for our operational personnel as well as upgrading our i. T. Systems. The supplemental request is critical, but unless Congress Addresses the pull factors, namely our vulnerable Legal Framework for immigration, children will continue to be put at risk during a dangerous journey to our border. Without these authorities and resources the situation will remain untenable, and while dhs will continue to do all it can to manage the crisis in an operationally effective, humane, safe and secure manner, every day that congress does not act puts more lives at risk and increases the burden on the system. Mr. Chairman, mr. Ranking member, ive been doing this for a long time. This is the third time ive been in a leadership role during migration surge at the border of families and children. Both in 2014 and 2016, at the end of the last administration. We have more than doubled those two crises combined in first seven months of this year and were still in the middle of that effort. Were doing everything we can to address it. As youll see, as you go down to the border, again, today, on the medical front we had about ten people providing medical care at our top Processing Center as of a year ago. We now have 50 in that center, alone. 24 by 7 coverage in the highest sectors we are expanding. We have health and Human Services, Public Health service, commission corps, on the ground with us, working to protect, especially children, that come into our custody. Weve expanded our facilities. Weve already put up a thousand spaces of softsided facilities in two locations. Were going to have 10,000 by the end of next month to address this growing crisis. Weve gotten tremendous support from the department of defense, National Guard, from our state and local partners and were working closely with our nongovernmental organizations and charities to try to help those in need but none of that will be enough. Were still seeing too much tragedy and this week and this month has been no exception. 40 of our agents are off the line doing processing, transportation, care, hospital watch, and feeding and cleaning of migrants in our custody. This leads to significant Border Security risks that i dont think we can tolerate given the drug epidemic and the dangers to our communities across the country. On my second week in this job i went to see the 9 11 Memorial Museum to get reinspired at the origin of the department of Homeland Security. And it was a good reminder that Homeland Security when we started was nonpartisan. It was a nonpartisan mission allamericans supported, and i know this Committee Works in that spirit. Through your prior hearings to become expert on this and help inform the American People, for your efforts to go to the border, and i know youre going again, this is a unique approach the committee is taking to actually grapple with the problem based on a shared set of facts and solve it. I want to work with you and the Ranking Member and both parties. Our frontline agents and officers need it. They deserve that support from this committee. The children being put at risk do as well, and security of our border and the future of our region depend on it. So i appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today, and i look forward to the dialogue this morning. Thank you, mr. Secretary. Im happy to defer my questioning to you or to senator portman to just keep things moving. Did you want to ask your questions now . Yeah. Okay. Go ahead. Senator peters. Well, thank you, commissioner mcaleenan, for your comments. I know you mentioned in your opening comments the challenges, the medical challenges, in particular, that youre having along the border. But last evening it was reported that a young girl from el salvador died last year while in custody, but her death was undisclosed publicly until last night, which made her the now the sixth migrant child to die after crossing the southern border in less less than a year. Now, we all agree we must absolutely secure our borders, but the death of children and i know you agree with this the death of children in custody is simply unacceptable, but first we must identify what went wrong and ensure this doesnt happen again. So some brief questions. Yes or no. Does every child in cbp custody have access to a pediatrician . No. Does the cbp have clear protocols regarding the transfer of children to a hospital when presenting acute symptoms, especially when we look at the aggressive nature of this current flu outbreak that were seeing along the border . Yes. And as commissioner i directed that all children coming into our custody be screened by a certified medical professional, and thats what weve undertaken steps to accomplish, both with our extension of our contract to get medical professionals into our facilities as well as partnering with u. S. Coast guard and the Public HealthService Commission corps and that effort is extensive and ongoing. With 65 people being brought to the hospital aevery day, watche and supported by agents and officers. This is a massive effort going on on the border to protect children and i know we saved dozens and dozens of lives over the past several months. Although theres been cases, a rekent case of a 16year old who passed away who was not so there are obviously gaps that have to be filled. He was both screened and offered medical care. Were going to look to the findings of the Inspector General to see if we can do better. Does not have enough funding for bed space for teenage males. Thats the main arriving unaccompanied child right now. So we are not able to move teenage males as expeditiously as we should be to the better situation for care within health and Human Services. And we need that support from congress in the supplemental. Ive asked many of your colleagues and in prior dhs leadership and ill ask again today. How long is too long to detain a child. Detention for a child is for the safety of the child. Thats the only reason to do it. We dont believe that dhirn should be detained in Border Patrol stations long at all. Wed like to move them as swiftly as possible to health and Human Services to a more appropriate setting for unaccompanied children. Where they can be placed with an appropriate sponsor through hhs processes. And i think thats the best approach. Id like that to 24 to 48 hours and try to comply at all times with the standard and the trafficking victims reauthorization protection act which is 72 hours. I get the sense you are saying any time to too long. The unaccompanied child. The child with a parent, i do believe we should be able a appropriate setting with access to educational recreational space, and medical care, and in a courtroom where we can finish the immigration proceeding upon arrival at the border as opposed to. As quickly as possible. Not finishing that as quickly as possible. There is no desire to detain children in any capacity for very long at all. Its been reported that dhs is requiring fema krissa tsa and other components to contribute staff to various Border Security missions. Securing our northern around southern borders must be our top priority. We have a northern border in this country as well two borders im concerned about the potential impact on readiness in my state in michigan as well as other northern border states. So my time is short. But could you give me quickly a brief synopsis of the specific duties that these folks are being asked to do on the southern border, fema, krissa, tsa. As in any crisis we do call on volunteers from across dhs to respond. Last year or 17 during the crisis in hurricane harvey, harvey, mary. We had 2,000 people deployed across the department. Right now we have 250 volunteers deployed. What ive asked all leaders to do is make a Risk Assessment and carefully decide who is available to come support in crisis. But theyre doing all kinds ever duties, from attorneys to commercial drivers license holders that are helping transport migrants to folks just simply helping with food service, and care of people in our custody. So its a variety of missions. And we are very fortunate to have volunteers that are willing to help out in a crisis. Obviously a shortage of personnel is an issue for you. And even before the recent increase in migrant traffic at the southern border it was clear that cbp was not adequately staffed to secure our borders and facilitate the other mission which is to move legitimate trade and travel at our ports of entry. The cpb workload staffing model developed under your leadership as the cpb commissioner identifies a short fall of thousands of cpb officials, again prior to the Current Situation even. To help address this gap in personnel senator cornyn and have introduced bipartisan legislation, also senator portman joined as well to give Clear Authority and direction t