T the committee is meeting today to receive testimony on ministry request for the department of Homeland Security. Without objection, the chairs authorized to declare the secrei committee in recess at any point. Acting secretary wolf, you are here today on an extraordinary troubling circumstances. Americans are rightfully concerned about the coronavirus that spreads across the blue of globe and claims the lives of thousands, including at least work six here at home. Theyover are looking to their government for leadership and guidance. Ualunfortunately, the Trump Administration has not been equal to the task so far. Oin the face of this potential pandemic, the president hase toa downplayed his threat, overstated high close scientists are to developing it ad vaccine, and muzzle experts in administration who continued disagree with him. Po as a crisis unfolds, the president has continued to hold political rallies including ax. Recent one where he called the coronavirus a hoax perpetratedaw by democrats even for a president who has a casual relationship with the truth,incr this is not only an outrageous lie, but also incrediblyonsibil. Dangerous. Perthe president must not shirk his responsibilities. The country needs him to step up at a time of crisis like m president seans of old parties he done throughout our nations and history. That curimeans acknowledging the threat, prioritizing the health and security of the American Peoplecons above political considerationand allowing doctor scientist similar othersituatiod qualified experts toir offer candidello assessments of thehe situation federal response. As for the department of Homeland Security, ship ai reman concerned about the lack of steadylly leadership and persistent vacancies, person especially during this critical time. Mr. R. Rough wolf is the fifth peo serve a secretary doing three years of Trump Administration. Second secre328 days since the department of Homeland Security has had a Senate Confirmed secretary. It is not even certain that mr. Wolfs appointment is valid. Moreover, a federal court ruled in recent days, that the acting deputy the of secretaryso quesn appointment as u. S. C i. S. Director was unlawful, calling intotion question his position t the department. Unfortunately, the president appears to preferxp edchaos to order in political expediency to government. Make l no mistake, the home goia vacanciest a and lack of study legal leadership have11, the consequences. Especially at a time like this. I for example, since 9 11, the federal government has invested heaven heavily in developing no doctrines to define rules andatn responsibilityty where incidents response, but no one in the administration seems to be familiar with that. As americans face a potential corona virus pandemic, the administration appears to be caught flatfooted, scrambling to figure out who is in charge. Meanwhile, the president s proposed budget prioritizes his draconian Immigration Campaign promises at the expense of our a core Homeland Security activities and responsibilities, including agencies and programsm that are inen trickle to the Coronavirus Response. I remain committed to ensuring the department receives the funding it needs to carry out similar its mission on behalf of American People. Similarly, members of bothon partiesavir objected to the havingents recent lowball coronavirus emergency supplemental request. Apparently, u. S the president is happy to spend an unlimited amount of u. S. Taxpayers money on a useless border wall, but faced with the prospect of global pandemic, he would have a nickel and dime response. This is the unacceptable. Nciesnow is certainly not the te to leavee engaged in a response short of resources. In the coming days, we will president providing funding necessary to fight the coronavirus. Before i close, i want to address the challengesees associated with theorts departments. Refusal to adminit cooperate with the committees oversight effort. Prunder the trump administratio, the department has failed to as provide the documents,ted requested by this committee as part of this constitutionaloes e mandated oversight efforts. Even under subpoena, when a committee does receive documents, they are incomplete or heavily reductive so as to render them useless. The behavior of the department gives oversimpression that is seeking to evade oversight or t. Have something to hide. I hope this is not true. If we cannot trust of Trump Administration to be to be transparent with regularple congressional oversight, how can we trust it to be honest with American People at a time ofstra crisis . In the past time for the president and his administration to be the leaders the American People need and deserve. They arehe counting on the administration to secure the accounta nation and on congress to hold you accountable. Please res know that we will upd our responsibilities, mistertr actingat secretary. I sincerely hope the president and now his administration uphod theres. The chair now recognizes the Ranking Member of the fullning st committed gentleman from alabama mr. Rogers for an Opening Statement. Thank you mister chairman for holding this hearing. Thank you we look for to hearing from. In this past years been a challenging one. Last year this country saw a Record Number of virus crossingl our southern our borders, millions of women men and children systems up for months. Risis that the men and women vhs responded to the crashes would that occasion and professionalism. O essact but wew to finally provided supplemental resources to address the and las crisis. It was a crisis. When year ago, in the last week my democratic colleagues tweeted quote, there is noct nationalions emergency at the borderersa close quote, becausef this administrations boldt actions we are no longer seeing record breaking levels of the southern border so far this year im deeply disappointed that forprep political reasons folks wont simple fact that fully funded President Trump succeeding where other administrations have failed. The president s budget fully funds he suggested more cborder strategy and rivals down on the wall. Facesr, the departmentt more challenges in the year head. Election security,nd man cybersecurity and the Coronavirus Response will testmt dhs resources and management. Im ken starr and about cuts for fema Grant Programs and cpacs program and remove the secret or service from dhs we agree on this those cuts021 directly impede importing efforts to secure our country. Twilight disagree with the 2021d Budget Congress ise also failed the hst. Co we owe itmp to provide direct action. And we cannot expect the department to function with half hazard direction and funding authorizations from 2002. I understand the majority intends to perform part of dhs knit quarters next month. Mister chairman you and i are called for both robust differeno authorization i hope this is wet what this community considers in april. We t may have different approaches and proposals but we want the same ly. Thing. We want this department to function correctly. I look forward to discussing this chairman i hoalso wanted to adjust the coronavirus outbreak are were cur hearts go out to td who lost their n loved ones in those arel going under treatment. This pandemic is a global event concerned with our both public aand the global response. Im concerned that chinesenation crit officials knowingly withheld officials for both public and Te International Health Community in the most this outbreak. Es of im sure in the early days of outbreak will be intense crucially once scrutiny once l the crisis is. Over my deepestocalal the local level. K help here from the secretary today and from witnesses over the next week about our prepared communities. Last week i urged the house toto act in a swift and nonpartisan thank y fashion forou emergency hoping the yel house can live up to ths moment and act quickly. Thank you again mister secretary for joining. Us i yield. Thank you very much under the committee rules, Opening Statement may be submitted for the record. I want to welcome my witness actingsecuri secretary of homeld securitye n chad wulf. Mr. Wolf has been actinghe secretary since is november 201. Dhe is the confirmed undersecretary of the department of office of strategy and policy and ser pla. Previously, he served as acting under secretary and chief of staff to secretary of homeland. Security christian nielsen. Without objection the witnesses full statement will be incited in the record. I now recognize acting secretary wolf to summarize hish statement. U mthank you chairman and members of the committee. Situation indress an issue this morning and share some Additional Information depar regarding the evolving situation in thee state. Ington late last night, thee andut dept a situationare of involvingfo a dhs employee out g abundance of caution falling recommended procedure, i ordered a dhs facility in king county Washington State to close beginning today andats ofs directed those employees to inin order to reduce the threat of Community Spread of the coronavirus. At atthis time the affected tof offices will remain closed. 14 days all employees have been directed to self quarantine ford 14 days. We vismade this decision to clo washinficesf because of an employee had visited a man Family Member at the life care facili security in kirkland coronaviru washington. Toore it was known that that. Facility was impacted by the f corona virus outbreak. Fthough the employee did notancf report to work though they felt ill, we are still taking stepss abundance of caution. Pleased to report this is what it means to lead byby example. Ollowemployees and their familis took every precaution to follow. The guidance of Public Health officials. They stayed home from work when they fell ill, if only self quarantined and reported the exposure in their condition to their officials. And otherho asme the sunlaity i folds, i kny of the department of Homeland Security, myself included, wills be thinking about and praying t for ourhe employees and families and all americans affected by the coronavirus. Again, i think ice before everyone when i think the employeeamil and their family fr taking arethe advice and directn ofmploye health care profession. Asct o an employer, it is our utmost responsibility to protect our workforce in addition to the traveler eng restrictions an enhanced medical screen which will put in place which will talk aboutw. Later dhs continually engages our workforce on preventative measures. And from the headquarters levelg we will be we began sending allo messages on january 22nd regarding coronavirus regarding procedures they need to takeo as this continues to unfold and will continue to do so. At this time a Rapid Response team back at the age desk headquarters, working with the cdc further guidance regarding thiss particular incident i will be sure to keep the committee updated as this unfolds. So thank you for allowing me to do that. Let me jump into my prepared oral. Ss tdistinguished members of thd committee it is a privilege to appearurit before you today to discuss the department of Homeland Securitys mission to keep the nation safe f, tot. Present the president s fiscal mn 21 budget for the department. As acting priorities r are guided by determination to ensure that the department is robust, resilient and fourth leading to. Prepared to address todays p threatsre as well as those of tomorrow. Fiscal year 21 president s not only a reflection ofing th those priorities but ah to achieving them. As this subcommittee knows, the department of homeland commuted. Securities fans air land sea domains are now our workforce forks 200 for the nation 24 hours a day 365 days secu a year. We serve a unique dual imperative. Keeping our nation safe and afton said eng it prosperous by facilitating lawful trade and travel. Economicntsayity security is Homeland Security,s plays a Critical Role in this mission. The president s budget ensures that ouritic workforce has the resources needed to execute these critical discretion responsibilities. 49. 8 billion and net this dictionary funding 5. 1 billion for the disaster relieff fund. Consistent with years past Budget Priorities remain securing our borders, andce forcing our immigration laws, securing cyberspacehreat to transportation security andd isd american preparedness. Recognizing that are threats to the homeland are more dynamic than ever before. The budget positions respond to emerging threats including government those emanating from nation states. The Department Also continues to help manage the governments response to the coronavirus. Clear the lead fifth federal agency of this response is and remains the department of health a ssand Human Services. Dhs remains focused on air, mar assisting travelers that are arriving at ourmini land, air ld and maryland maritime ports ofvo entry. Administration took early action to Foreign Nationals who traveled to china from entering the United States. Lingthe same restrictions now py to Foreign Nationals traveling from iran. Every day the men and sur womenf dhsre are making sure that these also ens travel restrictions arezens of t properly enforced. They are also american citizens to the region traveled toodepartment china orr funneled through me11 airports with the department has stood out and continues to do an and monitoring cical screening on behalf of the cdc and others. The department is also closely monitoring cases of the virus that have appeared here in our hemisphere on friday. Last friday, first case of coronavirus was confirmed in une mexico with five additional cases reported since. That same day unfortunately, al misguided court in california suspended migrant protection ins protocols. Hours later, private attorneys and ngosalie demanded entrance f over 2000 illegal aliens causing cbp and mexican officials to temporary close a handful ports of entry for uncen several hours. Thankfully the court entered a temporary stay xperi will say mb has an uncertain future. N vwe know from experience that the journey into the u. S. A very poor conditions often travl arrive with no passports, no medicallth histories, no trouble manifest. Administration will continue to closely monitor the virusl a globally as well as oue hemisphere and will adjust our proactive measures as things i necessary. Letry. Me highlight a few specic priorities also included in theo budget. The rowdepartment must continueo grow our digital Cyber Threatspd grow and scope and severity. Watching security remains a top priority and to secure our invet systems against interference. President budget invest 1. 7 billion in cybersecuritycurity s Infrastructure Security Agency to strengthen our depart infrastructure security measurements. The security of our neighbor border always saw remains a primary focus for the constru department the budget includesdc a few billion for theonstru construction of approximately is 82 miles border wall systems, as well asdvan funding for advad technology andurin staffing. Whilered t securing our bordersw vital, the integrity of our own immigration be forced the law as written. It remains a priority of the department to detprotect our coun citizens by then to find,d, over detaining and removing criminal aliens from our country. The budget includes over threed billion to ensure that our line forsman officers have theay, int resources they need tohe execute the law. As true today as it was in thenh brink ofas 9 11,g counterterrorism is our departments mission. Importantly the president has increased funding for targeted violence and terrorism programs bythis 500 for a total of 96 million in the fy 21 budget. Pthis funding is critical to identifying individuals and preventing rattlethe united sta radicalization to violence. The budget invests in modernizing the fun fleet United States coast guard. 550 million 555 million to Fund Construction of security qatar which supports our National Techno interest in the polar region. The while physical security zone technical capabilities remains ording workforce. Theecur budget provides funding. 500 new cybersecurity employees across the p department cbp, 750 new board patrol agents, 126 new support staff as well as funding to sustain the 300 Border Patrol process and coordinators that iccongress provided in fy 20. Ic erthe budget calls for 2800 new line new forsman officers, approximately 420 new iceta attorneys andined nearly 14000 support staff. In4700tation a tsa the funding s over t 47,000 transportation Security Officers ensuring that wey a continue to match pace wih the passenger volume growth. Dhsthese priorities are only as included in the budget. Dhs as the committee knows, ashe one of the most diverse and complex missile missions sets and all ofna lsthe government. Yby the dedication of our professionals. Hetherefore ask you support ande providing them with the resources they need to keep ther Homeland Security to the president s fy to 21 budget request. Againay. I thank you for the opportunity to address you today. I thank the acting secretary for this testimony. Emin i remind each member that he or she will have five minutes to question the panel on our records. We one of the responsibilities as a secretary we have, is the oversight of the department. For 14 months, the committee has been trying to get custody, information from the department about the death of two childrene in cbp custody as well as the separation of children from their parents among other 2019, topics on. He january 4th 2018 i sent a letter to the department requesting quote any documentsro related to the care of children in cbp custody. Including documents relating tou the death of jacqueline mcqueeng and gomez. The department produced someavam documents including lots of publicly available documents, but clearly did not comply with the requests itte on november 20th the committee issued a narrowly tailored subpoena a vote fore po documents relating toth the got kids who died, and the kids whom areor separated from their parents, among other topics. Last week more than a year after the first request the department produced philippe mel medicall records. Clearly felipes medical records were responsive to myes first letter as well as the committee subpoena. While we are there why were felipes record medicals producededre to the committee jt last week, one year after the request. Thank thank you chairman, the fully respect congress and small in oversight, i think wee. You talked about this when we first met in november, and you have my you continue to have myll commitment in providing the committee in all documents. I will say, regarding those two children, Inspector General has an open in investigation that concluded recently can regarding those dress as soon on tas othershey , an independent investigation had all the invite information that they had. I will say that we have o times responded a number of times,me not only to the originala january request, but also, as youve mentioned, the subpoena, we produced over 11 document productions, thousands of pages, i think specifically, we have addressed three of the four Major Concerns of the subpoena, we provide thengcont on the fourthe which is a in production. Ocumenwe will continue to produe that, we will continue to work 70 hoursommittee documents. I tapbelieve we have also provd incamera reviews about 70 hours of tape which the , wetitee requested continue toon make ourselvesafte available to provide thatr, we w information. Ili thank you, but the point is, after a year i want to put on screen two pages of of information that weve got. And i think that just from theao redaction it is of no used to us, either when we get it. Can you explain why those two pages are redacted like that. The obv exact two pages that you are referring, to but i see them on the screen. Obviously we go through a there arrocess of all the information that we turn over, because executive branches interests that not only y thisin administration but previous administrations adhered to, soo we can. Redact certain information, but again, weprovii provide any and all Information Co the congress that we can, again we will continue to do, that we will continue to provide the video, which i know the committee is interested in as. Well. We have done that we will continue to provide. That who would know what thi. Privilege is being claimed witho redactions like this. I am sorry, what was the question . Nsib you provide these redacted documents. Who gthyis responsible . Of that goes to a lengthy reviewed process of the department. Anviously councils are office, also several other officers is within the department depending on the subject matter. Again i am not sure what that kw document is. That is just a sample, but if think myor point is that we neee to know what privilege is being claimed when we ask for the documents. Its just redacted. So we do not know. We can take that back and share that information. Or t so you do not know what person is responsible for the final push out on this . That would be responsible again, that would go through our orgy see our office of indil general counsel. Ourimat acting general counsel would be the individualon ultimately responsible. Theyxecu coordinate with the administration on executive branch interests there. So this is a coordinated effort, bute t yes our general counsel f the department would ultimately approve those redactions. Thank you. We will follow up with it. Wewe will probably have a second round of questions. I want to talk to you a little bit about the committees interest in this potentialt in pandemic we are addressing. You have addressed some of it in your w eOpening Statement. But in order for us to do our yu job, we will have to have access to certain information. So are you prepared to provide a committee that information that is in your jurisdiction . Yes. Thank you. Yield. Thank you mister chairman, i understand your concerns those g examples were unacceptable we cant do oversight. This is not Something Limited just to the dhs, as you know on Services Committee we have the sameclas problem with cod. Broad overclassification is just arrunacceptable. Secretary wolf, how have you arrived at these Budget Priorities, and what drove your priorities . Ocesi would say that the budt process is a labourious process. It gets filled many months in wf advance. I 2 was in a different position at the department with some of the 21 Budget Priorities were formulated in transitioned over in transitionedies back. In so ied would say, again, our priorities remain outlined at the beginning of the oral cyber, continue Border Security,ericans immigration laws, cybersecurity, americanies. Preparedness, transportation security, so we have someprio rihighlevel prio, and we haveunde to look at the resources we have andgoals and g prioritize specific programs under each of the overall strategic goals and our funding goals as well. So it isrogrt a given take. We fun have to look at our progs that perhaps have been funded that and wort to see if they wil continue to be useful. We base that against the threat and will continue to evaluate that and work with congress to set those priorities. You rightly cited somethingrity in that list of priorities. Tihairman dont understand whyu would count ceases budget. Of the chairman and i expressed dismay about. When you compare it to thease president s fy 20 budget request fr and the fy 21 budget is a decrease from what was enacted in last year by congress. We willion say that it fully fus all of dhs missions sets includingwere Election Securitys we look at fy 21. We are in the middle of a president ial Election Year so 20 we thank congress for the provided. Nd secuobviously sisters been doina lot of work now on on the front. It does issifully front theiran. Mission and their requirements as we lookk funding that they have received over the past fiscal years will continue to 2 be made available to them is a look at as youd 12s know today 21 as well. Super tuesday inaving alabama about of 12 other states have bg election. Election tell me about the state of our Election Securityo. Today and as we go Iranian State militias towards november. I would say that what wen saw ine 2018 was one of the most secure elections i believe that we situations we have had and we are continuing to continue build on that private progress that will this continue to build into 2020. Iunder the leadership leadershp of director crowds has been veryry say the relationships housesnd that we have now in all 50 states0 is over 2300 jurors addictions is really night andin day from what we saw in futures fishes 2016 when we had very few relationships, verying t few contact informations relationships and more talking to them. We share a number of here officials information talk we push we proe intelligence as we can to the ct state and local Election Officials. Sharing nation we also provide they canh any allergens cans number of no cost tools thatsmea they can any utilize, cans Penetration Testing numbernitusw vulnerability, being assessments a variety of initiations others, so we continue to work with the state and local doe election officialy suffocate those are the officials the federal government does federal government is not, we want to make sure that to nation they have all the resources resource ands tools that they tools need to do that, of c is tcouri would say vital component of this is snowy scene is also the voters. Sure the voter has information also years nation nation, continuing to continuing push information for me t haveto the voters to perhaps mightizeze be disinformation my informationbl ewere not or not d reliable informationthat if you information, continuing tolar educate e the voter, continuing to educate and if you havee. Questions about the appalachians election go to trusted source. Goir to which is going to a stae local stateeth election officias Election Officials and get on information directly from information there. Do you runnwitt now rely on for information that youre seeing on years social media or facebook or or face twitter account. Twitter account make sure that they nation onti the tcontinue o continue go to the trusted sources to burlington interest sources also also it is verydoit important. Our number things is very shrinking that we are doing i think we are doing better position today than what we were oday wfour years ago. Very physician today ei recognize that health and Human Services highranking as well ashe Disease Control wherevirus, helping uses these countries league agencies when it comes to dealing with need agencies coronavirus fires r,ol have. But any if any does the dhs have . Cdc. Bviously we are reporting or so we take our lead from the medical obviously personally take our leave professionals from both hhs and sessionss tme. Primarily changes primarily responsible for responsible for screening passengers screening passengers as they come into our airports of into our airports entry land ports ofnd imports entry and maritime entry symmetry maritime ports of entry. Financially as of today, to the winds airports of our our medical staff that we have t set uphe screened over 50,000 also works, yes they cdc to make sure that a individuals on the do not bored liststap run by cdc are purposey not allowed to travel. Weve seen a number of folks ja, from the cruise line that wasrha quarantined outside of japan, perhaps not repatriated back in the u. S. , or go elsewhere. And trying to travel to the u. S. Again our primary mission is making sure that sick individuals are not traveling to the u. S. S. We that weve identified ands and certain parts of the world. We will continue toutd do that,b not only ator airports eventual, but land ports of entry role inr northern border, southern border, and chris card is very prominent role in our maritime entry. Ff and there in back facility is also working to characterize the virus and theyre doing that atat thank you for your service i yield. Back the chair recognizes the gentleman from rhode island for five minutes. And thank yu mister wanme chairn acting secretary wolf. Ome welcome thank you for your testimony and the job youre doing at homeland. Acting secretary, i understand that you served as chief of staff as former secretary to nielsen is that correct . She yes. So as a secretary, she warned about the threat ofch cyberattacks exceeding the risk describe a of physical attacks back in a march 2019. She described the cyber domain as quote, a target, a weapon, at threat threat factor all at the same time, and she warned that quote nations state criminal wet syndicates activists terroristsr were preparing to quotebosses as weaponize the web. Do smyou agree with your former assessment regarding the nature of the Cyber Threats to the United States . I i do. I do. The worldwide threat i assessment identified cyber threat as among the top threats facing in the United States and yet as i understand it, the president s fy 2021 budget request would cut the cybersecuritypr andnc infrastructureies security ageny which is our nations premier Cybersecurity Agency by nearlycy 250 Million Dollars, including 150 Million Dollar cut to its cybersecurity division,ence and additionally the budget would cut funding, the Science Technology science and information analysis at work is that correct . Yes sir. Those are the reductions. So obviously over the pastts year it has become clear asthat the russian government is going to inf continue its election as, where its efforts to gain access to ourush networks in inn addition the Chinese Government continued to push for the integration of why white technology and 5g networks and china continues to engage in Cyber Espionage and property theft cyber intrusions. Under these circumstances, howis with the cuts that you proposed dhs site cybersecurityst activities make americans safer . Again as i indicated as, yout look at the fy 20 budget request, what we see in the fyls 21 budget budget request is an increase for assistance overall budget. I mentioned earlier i recognize it is c a decrease, a reduction in funding from what washa enacted,t in fy 20,. What i can tell you is that i talked to director jabs very about the budget, and he is fully confident, i amy confident, that for sister to do their the full mission in fy0 the fy 21 budget request fully flown funds all their Mission Requests where they need to. Be being proposed here clearly, on its face, dont meet the threats that t the country is facing. I am deeply troubled, knowing that not only is the a greater demands for protecting the countryurit and election securie sister is not just the Election Security, which is an important part of its mission, but it is the Cyber Security agency, and it critical infponsible for detecting and working with private sector, and protecting our Critical Infrastructure. Being asked to do much more. The threats to the country have gone up proportionally,t exponentially, yet these types of a deep cuts are not helping that agency do its job for the country. I do not understand the deepshud cuts that have been proposed, and just shuffling the deckce doess not make the agency have thef resources that it needs to do itsightin job. N , thank you for highlighting yes it does much more than Election Security, supply chain security, and a number of areas that theyre focused on, again i ove will say that some of the funding this is a has gotten over the lastrying several years again, and thank you for providg that, o it is carrying over and were able to find some of theire mission sets as we look at 21. As well, so we continue to look at the totality of what sister is funding at. As we look at 21, 20 isthe secun obviously a Election Year, a lot of focus on Election Security, the budget sustains that, workrk continues that, wok asy well as in their otherust wo missions sets. Michelin i know my time is is expiring, i just want to make it clear for the record firmly disagree with the active as secretaries alo assessment. Over the past year i have served as a cyber Celebrity Commission alongside Missions Including the jazz including a, dick director crabs, and they have and made it clear to me tht we need to strengthen the system and the report could call for that. For the record i am deeply disappointed that the administrators budget, that thee administrations budget continues to be prioritized, we will for over desperately needed investments. Thank you very much. Greei think there is a little he disagreement at cyber sisters budget, should not have been cuttth, as you know we justh approved a bio authored by mr. Richmond, additional money just for that purpose, because of some shortcomings. Ntlewe now recognizes the gentln from new york mr. Cain ou for thank you mister chairman. Mister fsecretary thank you foh your appearance here today. Thank you for cir doing a good b on a very tough circumstances. E coroim the first to acknowlee that the coronaviruss majorback cybersecurity are majr problems, crises faces this department. I also go back to the reason we formed in the first play. Without taking anything away from the other issues the fact is the terrorism is still a major issue and i see the cuts there in this budget, 25 3 almost 240 Million Dollars, the fact the local governments are asked to kick in 25 of the costs, i can tell you in tha new york and in other cities toa regions have their own expenses, their own programs, more than pe 1000 Police Officers working entirely new york city. In addition to that Police Officers state police all working on counterterrorism. Its extremely expensive. I air are the areas i representn mr. Clark miss vice t mr. Payne, we have millions of people onn thesyst subway system, commuter lines, we have city subway system, we have eight amtrak, we have the long island we, we have the ports of new york in new jersey. We are the major terrorist target in therns, country. I am not trying to diminish typ anyone else is concerns. Ee this is where the major attack words. Whenforc and i see these major i dont see law how line forsman and Fire Department personnel can handle them. Weand always focus on the issuef the day, and i but the underlying issue is still there, and we can be doing everything that we can for the to coronavirus and immigration in cybersecurity,k s we have, to but if we lose three or 4000 people and theres annt attack of new yorka boston los angeles or new york, that would be the front page,lo. Again tremendous casualties ande losses, human, loss economic, last. That bothecur administrations he done this submitted a budget withuts drastic cuts. Homeland security and then Congress Puts it back. Then i with am afraid with all e other things going on thatnd up somehow, maybe not this year, maybe its not going to work. And we will end up short changed, and the time will come then people will say why did itd happen. When we see coronavirus itoristr brings back the issue of germ warfare Chemical Warfare and how easy it would be to have terrorism mirror pollen area to detection we robberies or a local issues, wev are talking abouter an attack, which if it comes, will be the responsibility it of the federal governmente]. But local governments are being asked to pay for it, and now we are being cut back. I cant accept that. What is the justification for that . Congressman over the life of the department i believe wee i have provided over 53 billion dollars in grant funding, as you know new york city metropolitan areas are top provn recipient zippy and year after year,o so we continue to providi capabilities, and overtime what we try to dot is build up capabilities of certain jurisdictions, and not have be a sustaining part of their budget. Again, building up capabilitiese across the country, across the nation, making sure that thoset communities are more coresilien, but we need to make sure that we have the rightl g cost chair, that we have the right shareddi responsibilityng between then federal government and state, locals and make sure that grant. In funding does not become baseline in their, budget its there to build up their abilities and capacity. Not just bt you see reflected in this 21 budget request. Just building a wall ornot building a structure, in fact this is ongoing, it requires on going balance on ongoing citys monitoring, ongoing cooperation, feeling the states and cities, some cases dealing with other countries, the expenses remain. You can just build something its over. The threat goes, on the threats change, in many ways the Terror Threat is not the front pages, i understand, our but the Terror Threat is seriously as it was on september 10th 2001. Tthe enemy is has adopted and e continue to adopt with them, asl and if we we has to be cast as sharing. Youre asking local governments to pay for what the federal government should be doing, and secondly as far as cast, not as if theyge have stopped, in fact they are changingg their tactics and methods every day every monthou every year. Wer have to be ready for it. I si am saying i think this is very dangerous, could involve the loss of life, and againde majormo metropolitan areas, anda democrat republican blue or red, the fact is the air americans whose lives will be at risk. Gentleman years back. We reckon nice gentleman from louisianaas b for five minutes. Al representing your islands have been home to manyector reah disasters. Inin tennessee, have you fema directed reached out to the people in tennessee to offer assistance and what would you all be on the ground . There ls yes were moderateoui monitoring that, not only that s fema but obviously its a primary state is there asec well. O were not only looking at it from a fema perspective, butou e also from an Election Security i just n perspective. Im gonna ask you some very direct questions not to get you in trouble but i just need to know it will lead to my otherd question. It is the budget document just a statement of principles and du we needed to cut money so we listed a whole bunch of cuts in there . T w cuts ineve in those your budget that you are there are presenting . I support the administrations fy 21 budgetleu request for the department. There are trade offs it is a big budget but we have a big if we e mission. Let me ask you this veryhat pointedly. If we enacted that budget as mr. Wolf to us, would americans be more or less safe . Saf i strongly believe they would be more b esafe. Te d you think they would be more safe if we eliminated the chemical facilities antieliminan Terrorism Standards Program . Because your budget proposesprog eliminating sea fats. It proposes transferring that to a voluntary Program Just Like ctsa operates and a it wouldf other sectors sea fats is the only mandated program that sat operates ando so we which runs addition that to mandatory programs that reaches 3300 facilities. A voluntary program that we to e could reach up to 40,000 chemical facilities. The 3000 of the ones you deemed to be the highest risk in theave country, that is why e have not followed certain standards in fact, the program was implemented under secretary shirt off based on thecould conclusion from Intelligence Community thatte chemical the facilities could be weaponized by terrorists. Ondhs,n january 15th of this yem dhs issued an alert warning about heightened threats fromies iran, specifically for the chemical sector. Those chemical facilities areich located smack in peoples neighborhood. My the district is home to proby the largest petrochemical country mr. Higgins hasncrease, petrochemical facilities in his. Now, there is an increase volund heightened risk. But we are going to move it the peandatory to voluntary and assume that we are protecting those facilities and the people who live in and around them . In the budget request i would not view it as a lessening of interest or priority of the department on chemical security. The idea here is to move to a voluntaryt now program so that f 25 million dedicated to can reach more individuals. Right now we have a budget of io 75 million dedicated to the. 3300llion looking atat facilities. What we would like to do is beei able to reach moret facilities again and that voluntary manner just like secede this, Critical Infrastructure, election it t security and a number of other mission sets to transition it to that type of program moving forward. Look, you are a great peoplea soldier for the administration, but i think people up here are kind of talking aboutut is, there are some areas where we could keepld we need to do more talk with le . But there are some areas whereew that does not y work. When we talk about terrorism, you are talking about officers on the ground in new york. Protecting chemical facilities, youre talking about response to coronavirus. More with less. T we can do thsometimes you have to have the resources to protect the American People. I do not want to put you, my goal is notvers to put you in mr adversary position with thewe ur administration. My goal is, to make sure that we understand that we are talking about protecting american lives, whether it is in virus, whether it is a for terrorist threat, and that is real. Letetquic me just switch for a k in you second tor coronavirus. In your written testimony, yous said the to rest of the American Public remains low. Th e viand we are taking measures o keep thesten threat low and pre. Viruses from spreading. That is not consistent with with the cdc is saying. I would just hope that the administration rough hhs, dhs, everybody can get together and get the American People some reassurance that we know thispe isak serious. Wewe that we are going to markeinvee resources to make sure we protect the American People there. People theirt t children to school. Or their sponsors off to. Work i believe weo owe it to went to them, im not trying to score points but we owe it to them for you allone to give one message, one plann and start the implement i yield mister chairman. Thank you chair recognizes gentleman from texas mr. Mccaul. Thank you mister chairman and mr. Secretary thank you so much forues your service in difficult times. I want to echo my colleagues across the aisle. Law the cyber infrastructureto hisurity agency. With the threats i see all overi the world in w cyber i do not think this is the right time tot be cutting that agency, and i willt join the chairman Ranking Member in and on that issue t. Coronavirus, let us not forget where this came from. We can do a lot of political fingerpointing, but it came out of china, and it was the veryer i irresponsible move on e part of the communist party trying to cover it up, a detaining eight prisoners, having them rtinretract statemes and make apologies, or reporting the truth, and then it just got worth worse. Hat i put the sole blame on china in the way they handled this crisis. Andethis crisis is becoming notn epidemic but a pandemic. When we chair the ability hearings chairman thompson and of i authorizedfi into law the chif medical officer within dhs to workin corn coordinate with hhs. He told me howowso this workingn thisicer crisis . Our chief medical officer ist doing just that. They are in daily contact twice daily i believe. Certain meetings telephonicop of contract with age as us in cdc,e specifically as i mentioned at the top of the hearing with dhsg facilities they, were on the phone last night with cdc professionals addressing that. I would disagree a little bit. The administration is talking with one voice on this issue. As secretary azar has said, and as the Vice President has said, the threat continues to remain low, and m we continue, low to americans, some of the marriages we put into place we work we will continue to put into men place continue to do t. Things that i mentioned at the top, closing facilities if we is need to, at least from a departmentallear perspective. I think the administration has e been very clear on that. Vice president pence is holding almost con daily press conferens and news conferences and pushing information to the public. Fere we brief Congress Weekly if not by ali white weekly. We are pushing as much we information being as from deparm transparent as possible, sharing what we know and what we dont know, and of course from the apart departments perspective making sure we work in the land ports of entry, sea ports of entry, chief medical of officer is obviously involved with hhs medic in cdc, trying te some ofof not only for our workforce but alsot in the mission that we, dg snt, is also involved. Working the way we envision that. K i think we saw this coming back then. I know that the governors tax fork as actually recommended the idea that the vice i think e president we put in the charge of the epidemic or pandemic i which is what has happening now. In ambassador to the tech froms wer which is age ideas factiouss eases a very wise choice as well. Can you tell me about the specific travel bans in screening as it relates to affected areas like china, south korea, and italy . We have two specific to 12 fa orders fromt the president regarding china and iran. That is any in individual how has been inn those areas in the last 14 days or has traveled to those places. In as you know some individuals come into the u. S. With broken travel is not necessarily come directly from china or around and othersstops in between, and again through cbp and a national targeting center, are you with the i airlines in the othersirec we are identifying te individuals who have may not have come directly from china or iran but prefer hats have that broken channel. When they arrive at one of the 11 followed airports they see a cbp officer. Thatsre a normal immigration officer that will do that immigration. Work they are thennster referre. Medical contract staff that ares is at the un be office to add up all those individuals then tn go and take a screen by that medical staff, and then they referred too cdc if needed for additional evaluation and then a numbersi onof quarantine decisions are made by cdcsimi professor nails. We are doing that in airports of entry and also similar although lesser numbers and obviously our land ports of entry and our maritime ports of entry it d the threat im seeing this cause a panic and terrifies people but they want to haveni assurances that ourte d governmt is protecting them from people,e threats coming into the United States. Last question, border ide secury trust. Flynn we propose this idea andas a billt last congress failed acting secretary Michael Meighen and supported itt in return a greater percentage to the border for infrastructure and technology and i needs at the border. Travel trade you agree with this idea . T i dohi agree with that concept. I think a lot of our ports and treat the infrastructure idown there not only former perspective but the treated facilitation is outdated and it certainly needs additional resources. Thank you sir i yield back. Chair recognizes this rice from new york. Thank you mister chairman. Acting secretary wolf, just a few days ago the District Court judge ruled that Ken Cuccinelli was not lawfully appointed to serve as the acting secretary of u. S. Citizenship and immigration services. In light of that ruling, is mr. Cuccinelli still the senior officer performingta teduties of the director at uscis as stated on the departments website . He is. I think he is the first assistant, i will sayy sothat tl case is currently in litigation so im going to limit what i say, but i will say that the o. J. Nba chess is currently to make sureat that we fulfill our obligations there and also looking appealing that decision. That decision had to do with tht certain decisions that he made in that position and were mr. Wolf looking at that as well. Is he still the senior performing duties of the secretary of the department stated on the departments website . Yes. Erst an how i understand this is litigation and you are proactively sayingep you cannot say anything inaboutc this butou how is it that you ae keeping him in a position that the court found violated his appointment to which violated the federal vacancies format . Deci again i will limit my d comments but i will say that is ontrt decision specifics decisions that he signededli out at uscis, and tht litigation is about and so we are addressing that. Educ are you internally revieg and looking to set aside the reduced time to consult mr. Wolf directives that mr. Cuccinelli introduced yes. Were looking at to see what to do twith those limited decisions that he has signed. Up i want to turn to you or are you r isprecludeing him frm making any such determinations about any other issues and. Mr acting any kind of certainlyse we will. Do that with the advice of attorneys. Ourur ing have you been advised to stop mr. Cuccinelli from implementing anything like he did with the reduced time to consultant prohibition on extends making thosegain he is noting o specificiclook calls that uscise i said at the beginning. A look at our yes obligations and our ability to appeal that decision so yes given that are you putting ai halt on his decisionmaking . Again at the advice of our council which is a verye, on position tocus of that case on specific decisionsha that he mae at the uscis, it does not affect his current positionon fulfills at the department. Imp you cannot kind of say hes not doing thatect stuff when hes actually implementing rules that are having an effect on people to real people. I would like to turn out to your own appointment. Mister actor i think secretary on november 8th 2018 you were fifth perscretary of homeland secure security which may do theecurit fifth person to lead e department of Homeland Security in less than three years of the Trump Administration. I want tto understand whether that you rappointment was withie law, because at the time you are named acting secretary. Mr. Mcaleenan who is himself acting secretary of homeland not conf security which in of and of itself is a persistent problem. There t hohas never been anyone that has confirmed to run an Homeland Agency of such importance. But he himself was acting secretary ofcces homeland secury at the time. He had to sign an order amending the order of succession to name you to the new position. As i am sure you are aware, mr. Comm maclean change the order of succession despite his sitting i testimony before this committeer just days earlier sitting in the same chair that you are in and response to my question it may that he had no plans to do so. Now it appears as if it has i changed toss the order of successionhe may not have beenpt valid given that mr. Mcaleenan issued the amendment after his e own appointment as acting secretary i appears to have sine expired. I think theit begs the questior are you legally the acting secretary of the department of Homeland Security . I am. Is that your ownhs attorneys determination . No that is the by not onlyou dhs attorneys but other attorneys in the administration. How can you be the acting secr secretary if mr. Mckinley is no ag longer acting secretary when he changed his order of succession . Ltered again i dont believe e that was he a case. Io believe that he altered the orders of succession before he left that position. If it turns out your appointment is in fact invalid, what all would that mean for al. The actions that you have taken asr acting secretary. Iusti would certainly defer o not only dhs attorneys but the. Department of justice to determine what actions that we need to take. Last month and intelligence officials warned members of congress that russia is interfering in the 2020 president ial election. Do you condemn these attacks from the russian government to interfere in american elections . Absolutely. We see an ongoing influence campaign by russia. We would not be surprised if other adversaries are not also looking at what they are doing. T hetheir ultimate design is to sw discourse, distrust, in theo th. American democracy and our institutions of government, and so yes, i continues to see that, andfrastr from assist system perspective we continue to take a number of actions to address. Have you spoken to the a numbent about these recentt attacks. Yes. O we have spoken him about Election Security in a number of a occasions. What was his response to him or informing him that the russian government is interfering . I will not get into but discussions with the president but he is a informed of all the threats, the same information icy, he sees more, but he is aware of the threats to our election, specifically as it relates to foreign interference. The democrats has beenthink o wonderful if think in terms ofta what he has done regarding Election Security, i just want to be assured that you are doing for active outreach at leastte, now because the only primary were having is a democratic primary to absolutel candidates to share what you share, which is something that crab said wasiciu going to. We are not onlyly campaign sharing this election with state local in officials but also both political parties, also every campaign that asks c for it as well. Since the directoror been attach with all of the exp. Campaigns, sharing that information, sharing the new call services. His time is expiring. Secretary wolf would you please provide us with a the letters the tierney certifiedn t that you are illegitimate put in a position. Yes i yes take that back and provide that information bych that information that back. Ill give you an exact date we would like to have it by the 15th of march. Okay. Thank you. Chair recognizes the gentleman from north carolina. Mr. Walker. Thank you. Thank you for testifying today. I appreciate your work over the last couple of months to protect american safety. And he turned over to the has been frustrating there is no bearing on you. J hope you do the very best job. Re that wevess seen so far and certainly be commended some thank you very a llmuch. Weve heard a lot about the resources being calculated to screen overseas traveling throughhth designated airportsys however there is still 700,000 travelers who arrive daily through land ports tens of thousands of others onoast guarg passenger vessels. How is dhs, including cbp and u. S. Coast guard working with the cdc to detect individuals here in the u. S. Through land ports and waterways who may be carrying either this virus or Something Else . Its very thes, as similar te procedures that we have at the 11 airports again as you come into the land port of entry or even the maritime port of entry and you go come into the u. S. , l will see a cbp officer from an immigration perspective, then you will go through this enhancement of his screening that we do at the 11 airports ro we do a similar procedures that the land portt referred to the cdc if needed, but again our cbp officers do this on an everyday basis soualt outside of coronavirus going back two years years ago, they look at every individual not only for immigration purposes but to or determine whether or y a main not be sick. Of course we refer them to plac1 secondary, again to answer your question specifically the passe measures we have in place of the 11 airports thato co are screening as i mentioned earlier, there were 50,000 passengers. We continue to refuse entry to e passengers that are on that to 12 orderrco. We have the same procedures in place at our you. Land ports of entry of course the coast guard is doing that is armed at our maritime. Thank you for that. There is strong accusations that iran certainly china and maybe otheraybe countries are full extent of the coronavirusn outbreak in their higher country. The numbers, as well as the numbers infected and death tolls ares. Significantly higher than recorded by the Government Health officials. And what ways is dhs competing this. Information coverup froms other countries to ensure both the u. S. Agency officials to make sure they have the t necessaryak information to take the necessaryur reactive and proactive measures to ensure the outbreak does not occur and i guess the second part is to warn u. S. Citizens about the risk of traveling to these locations . D pill take the second part first. Nu a number of tribal advisories that ministration is put in to a number ofthey countries, so those are just advisers that at the moment those are voluntary individuals who can t tostill travel to those locations, but they are being advised not to. Essential travel only in some cases are no travel in other cases. We continue to work with cbc and hhs, making sure the professionals there understand what is occurring in china. I know cdc, my understanding from cdc is they have several. Individuals on the ground and china as part of the wto team looking at that i think there is alwaysnder rea question of te number of deaths are being under reported by china and thee Information Coming from china is as transparent as we would like, again i would refer you to the cdc. They are the ones that are in Constant Contact with the medical professionals and china trying to ascertain that information and again, what we eed change the medical strategies, we change as a result of that. Their team is closely monitoring the coronavirus working with Critical Infrastructure and possible disruptions that may stem from widespread instances. 2017, systems or networks used as Critical Infrastructure and has since been part of the highest priorities straight with elections today and many more in the coming weeks, you have plans for the times of disruption . We are not only doing that, they continue to look at the supply chain and the Critical Infrastructure and any slowdowns in that supply change and we will continue to look at that. As we do across the board, not only the, we continue to have all options on the table. We look at what we can do and proactively take measures where needed. Does the fact that errors affect United States have seen outbreaks, does it change your strategy in preventing the spread . We converse daily with cdc and hhs, we continue with the strategy in place, i would think we have a number of them spread persontoperson transmission as well. The cdc onsite monitoring dose from a dhs perspective, we are concerned about what is coming into the country and a tsa, we will continue to trevor inside the system so theres nothing we are doing today but we continue to plan on all fronts for worstcase scenarios. We continue to look at different procedures that we may have to put in place across our Transportation System and across dhs facilities until this continues to worsen. Thank you. One question. He talked about those people traveling, what about our land ports . We have the same robust capacity at our land ports of entry . We do. I mentioned we have the same screening procedures we have at the 11 airports of entry, the same procedures occurring out of land ports of entry. We have more land boe than the 11 airports. We continue to transition that type of care, cdc is not on site every man port of entry. We have grown phone calls with them, theres a consult we have with cdc. We have medical professionals on our largest land ports of entry looking at individuals as they come into the country. So this might not be as robust as we need. I think thats what im hearing. It is very robust and will continue to keep it that way. Not only in the airports of entry but we also have medical professionals from coast guard and other parts of the department are land ports of entry. We are still confident in the procedures we have there. Gentleman from california. Thank you for holding this important hearing, or to welcome you, im going to follow up on your question and mr. Walkers question on Border Security prevention of coronavirus. You mentioned low threat right now ashley, is that where we are at . Thats what the cdc continues to communicate with the public. Sunday i was at mass, all those coughing, sneezing, please leave. Go home, dont come until your better. There is concern out there that we are talking out of a lot of messages being essentially put out there. We are talking right now about Border Security, checking people coming into the country. Last time i went two weeks ago, a lot of folks coming through that border. Trying to put your finger, trying to stop International Travel is probably going to be difficult at best. Are you coordinating internationally with trading partners . Canada and mexico to make sure their agencies are prepared and they are watching, monitoring and Holding Immigrants at the border and turning them back, its probably not going to stop this virus because we still dont know how it spreads. Can you give me a bit of information here . I would agree with you. Our busiest land ports of entry can be a difficult assignment. Will continue to screens the individuals. I have much time, sorry to cut you off. Lessons learned, are we coordinating right now with other countries to make sure Border Security extends to working with other International Healthcare agents . We reached out over a month ago, not only canada but also mexico understand the procedures they were doing, not only on their border but generally so yes, we continue to communicate with them in canada and mexico have been a partner, trying to understand the virus, obviously. Into canada and mexico from the affected areas as well, where lesson learned. Next year we will come up with another virus. Are we putting together, implementing a system where we can react a whole lot faster, more coordinated and we have been this time around . Yes. The department has had a Pandemic Response plan we executed. Will continue to execute. Obviously not every pandemic is the same. Im saying, you have a program in place to react, get the early messages, a little bit confusing and not clear to a lot of folks. I would say the department was on the forefront along with the president s instituting travel restrictions earlier than any other country out there so we continue to do that and we have to enforce that and make it reality, change our targeting rules, do a number of things and make sure im going to interrupt you again, i would like to see your agency to see what your plan is, you contact, who you are working with internationally in terms of coordinating International Response to this. Not only decisions but the world is looking to us for leadership and coordination. We have the best pharmaceutical industry in the world, we have the best research and develop an Healthcare System is really good as well. I just want to see us continue to be leaders when these kind of pandemics break out. I agree. Well continue to do that. Thank you. Port of water if i could. Ill be brief and its about the virus. I want to make sure we are all speaking on the same language, he mentioned that we didnt know how it spread. Thats a very specific term, terminology. We do know heart spread. It is respiratory droplet if not they confirmed it is legal oral spread also. We just want to say we are saying correct things. We do know how it spread. My reference was we have a lot of people that are infected. We have not mapped it out. We have that contact which is still not clear. Physically they do spread in the way described but we dont know how people are infected in our community. People not internationally. We are not infecting International Travels. But to say people are safe because you cut off the border and quarantined yourself, thats essentially now not in danger. Your points are taken but the language was unclear. Thank you. Thank you. Check recognizes the gentleman from louisiana for five minutes. Thank you. Secretary, here voluntarily today. Voluntarily. I commend you for being here voluntarily. The title of todays hearing, tuesday march 3, a rebar review of the fiscal year 2021, but at request of the department of home and security that the hearing intended today, my colls have used this hearing to launch partisan attack after partisan attack against our president and feet administration across every imaginable spectrum has anything to do with the department of Homeland Security. Earlier the chairman posted a couple of heavily redacted pages, you recall that . I do. Procedures are federal documents that have some level of ratifications before you send them to congress and procedures are common across dhs and under your supervision . Not only common across the department but across the government. You responded to those pages because why do you think those two pages were selected with over 6000 pages with documents you provided to this committee . Why were those two pages selected . There were more redacted, or less redacted . What you think . I dont know,. The answer is because they are more redacted. I hope america is watching because this is exactly the kind of favor the town has reduced. My colleagues said we cant cut the budget, i disagree. Our Youth Mission focused . Absolutely. This town under republican and democratic leadership, the establishment of this room has accumulated 22 trilliondollar deficit. To broaden our nation from general insurance yet on board, this body were to run a 1 billion surplus, which it will thought, american, his body will never decrease deficit spending. Well never visit the budget unless the body wants to run a one filling dollars surplus. When billing dollars. Federal expenditures and we took in revenue. It would require 22000 years of a one filling dollars surplus to address the 22 trillion debt. May i say on behalf of many americans, yes, good servant, not only should we decrease our budget but we must for the future prosperity and sustainability of our republic. Mr. Secretary, you advise your mission focus, you stand by that statement . I do. If you had a mission that recalled 100 asians and you have 97, would you take it . Damn straight. 2. 8 less than last years outlay. 2. 8 . American families and businesses from sea to shining sea. After know what it is to deal with a 2. 8 decrease and budget if they have deficit standing that they know is unsustainable. Thank you, mr. Sec. First of all, forming courageous enough to appear before this body without the subpoena. You are a better man than me. We have a duty to secure our border. Regarding the budget, your budget, you feel confident as a secretary home and security thought the 2. 8 decrease budget and fiscal spending, you feel confident as the secretary that you can perform your mission and secure our home and . The department across many commissions can fully not only support but we can excel in our Mission Space with the budget request as requested. You can perform your mission . Absolutely. Its not just my opinion or my statement, its the statement of the entire permit leadership. Ive had discussions with all of our heads, operations and support opponent hugs about their budget and ability to do this mission and they all agree they can do their mission, support the mission and that budget request. Thank you. I yelled. Thank you. Just for a record, those documents that were redacted were not classified documents. You have that, right . I am aware that some were not, yes. This notion that they are redacted because they are classified for the sake of my request, we did not request classified. So we are clear. The other incident is for the last three years, we have had budget way out of balance by this administration. I dont understand Ranking Members about a balanced budget when we are way out of balance. Those of us who came from other units of government, we were mandated to have balanced budgets anywhere. It was the law. The last three budget. I will not. I will not yield to the gentleman. Weve not had balanced budgets. Beyond that, to be sure that we invited you to come, to present your budget, which is the normal course of action and you accept it. I did. Will you subpoena . No thank you. Check recognizes the young lady from new mexico. From new jersey. Thank you. Sorry. Id like to talk about the Trump Administration policies that resulted in the intentional separation of thousands of Young Children from their parents. The summer of 2018. Im concerned many of these children have not been reunited with their families a year end half later. The Department Still cannot even accurately account for the total number of children separated from their parents. 3014 children dhs was able to identify and court order, only 2100 had been reunited with their parents according to a november 2019 dhs Inspector General report. There are still children separated from their parents. All the remaining children now been reunited with their parents . This is an area we report to the court periodically through the department of justice on whether status is on each im asking you that question. Theres a number of children in a number of parents who have refused unification, there are a number of reasons why not all of those children have been reunited. Some for the health and safety of the child, they have been united. You have a number beyond that 2155 number has to how many of the children im asking about . How many of those have been reunited and how many of them are still run not reunited . Again, we report through the court to the judge specifically where the individuals are when was your last report. Periodically, ill get you the exact date, i dont have the exact date on the last report. Thank you. The department of justice we do that. We do have the numbers and i would like to see them. The children not reunited for health and safety reasons, i specifically want to know how many are in that category. We outline where they are. And i want to know. Inspector general found an additional 1369 children dhs separated from the pants and accurately recorded and reported to the court. How is it that the Department Apparently lost track of the fact that it took 1359 children from their parents . We continue the department continues, in some cases, with the health and safety of the child and a number of instances we do separate a child from a parent from health and safety this is an issue that is necessary drilling in two separating children, this is the fact that you are apparently lost track or failed to report to somebody else. 1369 children separated from their parents. My question is, how did we lose that many children. The department has not lost any children. Will then you failed to report them. We have not failed to report, we have not lost any children. They are in dhs custody, they are all referred, transferred to custody. Are you familiar with that number of children . Remark i am familiar. On behalf of this committee from thousand 1369 children separated from their parents, the information was not reported by your department when asked. Id also like to know, when do you think these children will be reunited and when weather status be aired, clarified, verified, if for some reason they cannot be reunited and then what will you do with them . The status of those 1369 you referred to, obviously they expanded the scope of that so we all continue to report to congress to the court but will provide you an update as well. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Particular interest to me, the president s budget does increase as it relates to dealing with those things that happened on the border. Like for us to be able to respond in timely manner because we have to respond in timely manner and weve know what the budget should like. I want to thank you for clarifying that the issue in regard to production is not just what the department does, its what the administration does with every request from the congress. Thank you and with that, i yield back. Congresswoman, the 15th also, we will do our very best. Believe we can. Chair recommend us the gentleman from pennsylvania. Thank you. For your testimony and the work you and your department do for us, secure our border, enforcing our immigration laws every day, the brave men and women go to work and defend this nation from grave threats, under too often criticized or disparaged for doing the job that simply keeps us safe. The president s budget request again contains a strong commitment to Border Security and while i know Border Security has not been in the news as much recently, its still so critical that we secure our border and this remains a primary focus area, specifically the president s budget makes investment by hiring an additional 750 Border Patrol agents, 300 Border Patrol processing coordinators and over 2800 new Law Enforcement officers and ice. Also, extremely important, a request for nearly 2 billion for 82 miles of border wall system. Secretary wolf, can you please speak to have these new resources will be deployed . When we talk about securing the border, talk about a number of different ways. Not only physical infrastructure we need from of the capabilities we have with the border wall system that we are constructing but also additional technologies and resources and the people and the staff there to do that job. We talk about, its a three legged stool separate border wall system, on the southwest border, we have a completed over 300 miles of all, over 200 under construction and another 400 in the preconstruction phase. What it is designed to do, make areas of that order that are difficult for Border Patrol to patrol. That infrastructure up, but a little slow to areas that are Border Patrol and better patrol and use resources accordingly. Obviously we have a number of technology outside of the border wall system that Border Patrol and cdp uses to secure the border and we continue to ask for in the 21 quarter request. At ports of entry with inspection technology. So we continue to do that and we need to resource, resources not only to interject the number of illegal individuals coming in but the narcotics, contraband and felt like but i think art emphasize you not only need the individuals to apprehend the information you need to investigate and Law Enforcement officers to actually look into, if they see a car at the border with drugs, we need to investigate that. Its not enough to see that we need additional staff in the investigation and other places i can investigate that and follow leads continue to go down that road. With this increased funding, is there a positive effect on the drug crisis affecting so many counties, states throughout the United States right now . Absolutely not. The whole of government approach from dhs is involved and many others as well. When i talked to local Law Enforcement, they talk to me about not only the illegal flow but what that needs for the community range of narcotics are a major concern for them. Human trafficking is a major concern for them. Theres a number of issues they deal with because of that illegal flow on our southwest border that we are certainly concerned about. The president s budget request, continues to get affect, not only for the border wall system but the official resources and staffing we are asking for as well. Thank you for your testimony, your hard work and your leadership. Mr. Chair, i would like to yield back my remaining time to the gentleman from louisiana. Thank you. My chairman was unable to yield to my request earlier, that he expressed some wonderment, that i might can be concerned about 22 trillion debt and my voting record has clearly expressed my concern when we want a majority and my colleagues were in the majority. The spending is out of control but he expressed his own concern, i ask you, you support a balanced Budget Amendment to the constitution . I yield. Thank you, i appreciate hearing today. Acting secretary, i wanted to do a followup, you mentioned earlier that you were dhs employees in washington office, had to close. So quarantine and you said they would telework. What happens to those who dont have the wherewithal to telework . They want. Theyll be self quarantined, laskos able to work from an artistic, they are able to telework, please do so. Those who dont have the abili ability, theres a certification process have you have done that . If youre self quarantined from a he will do that, if you dont have the ability to work due to the department, we are not going to force you to telework in those cases. We would ask individuals who arent thick are they on sick leave, do they get paid, how does it work . They would get paid but i will get back to you specifically. You recently announced a massive expansion, this time banning nearly all nigerian, visas and ending for eligibility for leave. Last month, i let a letter for my colleagues demanding congressional briefing on this new policy. Today is march 3 and i have a hard award from here. Sixty members of congress, more important, approximately 300 Million People are banned from the United States under this latest span, clean genocide countless africans simply seeking to connect with Family Members already here in the u. S. Have you ignore this letter, have you received this letter . When will we be getting this briefing . Im happy to provide a briefing, unaware specifically about letter and thought request. Im happy to talk to you, i think the department has news story about what we did to institute these. All i need is a response and update for the briefing. Sure. Thank you. This committee, along with Oversight Committee requesting documentation fight every 20th regarding the departments justification and residents of new york state from a trusted Traveler Program including global entry. Along with that, i coconut a letter to you demanding answers. By what date will all of the documents requested by the committee, as well as us be produced to us . I know its underway, i can get you an exact date. It seems like you were very quick and making this determination but slow in getting a rationale. Theres no rationale behind it, right . Absolutely. Upfront and public about i i should get a response. Happy to do that. Appreciate that. An intimate response to our request, secretary states that the decisions to barr residents of new york the program involves the Department Primary objective of ensuring our homeland and all of those within our secure. Can you please explain how it makes the u. S. Safer to allow residents of Foreign Countries to enroll in the program . The specific law that new york enacted prohibits information sharing specifically with ice and in this case, Traveler Program an individual applies for the trusted traveler global entry,. No standards of the Foreign National what i would say is that the information we required to vent a trusted traveler from new york state, you do not have all the information. We understand. Id like to do a comparative analysis with all of your foreign folks who come in. Id be happy to provide that. Thank you. A drivers license is not needed to participate in the trusted Traveler Program. Addresses can also be verified through other means such as being appraised, background checks, interviews, trusted traveler applicant have to go through in order to participate in the program. Prior to the appropriate letter to new york state, what outreach efforts does this department undertake to inform new yorkers about this security concern . York pasta their law, there are specific for the loss of a clearly knew he reached out to them, we indicated we have concerns and we are shutting down the program. Making sure all global entry system was not compromised and continue to invest and enroll there is no other way of doing that other than panic the . Theres not. Or two urge you for that decision and avoid using your authority as the record in secretary of dhs for retaliatory action against the state. Different viewpoints moving forward. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you braden. Can you provide us with that information that you hughes to cancel the trusted travel program . I think theres a medicine you referenced, if there are other documents, please provide those documents along with the letter. May i respond . I just say new york law specifically prohibits them from going into the database. They need information that they can only get better through trust the travelers. They dumped that above and beyond, theres no other state that prohibits the information. Thats specifically why we took the action with new york and the action alone. When you found that out, what kind of engagement did you do with new york . Did you call . Did you send emails, did you check . What did you do once you found that out . I think thats what the young lady was trying to get. Chair recognizes the gentleman from north carolina. Thank you. On the news to congress, was an extraordinary thing for someone to watch what youre going through. We are all presumably interested in the same objectives, particularly at this time when we face prices that we face with coronavirus. I would think dhs in particular about the mission dhs would want all of us, a more cooperative town. Further the comments of my friend from louisiana about the overall picture, graphic 22 trillion that amounts to 176,000 for each american household. Two federal programs over the next 30 heres anticipated to run a deficit of 103 trillion, 824,000 for each household. I would take with respect to the budget we are having this meeting to discuss, i am appreciative of the efforts of the administration to identify ways to accomplish efficiency. Mr. Richmond commented when he was still in the hearing that there is these idea of efficiency but we expect the American Private sector to accomplish improvements in productivity every year. That is key to our private sectors so the Public Sector can be fed from the private sector. As a general proposition, if you believe achieving new of agencies is a necessary part of effective governing of the department . Absolutely. We have to make sure we have the taxpayer money and we are using that money provided by aggressive effectively and continue to look at the threat in our programs to see how they involve and make sure the resources are lined up without the and make sure a variety of different considerations going into that budget, they are a tradeoff. We dont have unlimited resources so we do have to make sure we continue to work with congress. They have the final say on the department so we continue to have this discussion and continue to talk about this tradeoff. I wonder if you could speak to ways in which robust Border Control, which this Congress Seems sometimes by some portions of the congress to oppose how robust Border Control contributes to the united stat states, capacity to mitigate harm from the coronavirus. Covid19. I think specifically what youre referring to, not only the measures we put in place but also land ports of entry. I look specifically at the southwest border and today we are seeing 1200 to 1300 individuals coming across the border illegally. As the virus continues to grow, that is the concern. Individuals usually are not showing up, they are not providing in most cases truthful answers to our Border Patrol when asking them questions. Whether they are trying to hide their health history, as a concern and it will continue to talk regarding another question i received with mexico to increase their capacity and determine what they are doing to control cases they have in mexico and being reported what they have. We will continue to do that but the nature of the southwest border in the fact that we continue to see over a thousand individuals a day crossing the border illegally is certainly concerning to me. I want to yield my remaining time. Thank you for healing time. I have to go back, im going to ask a quick question. Is a decrease, and the Ranking Member on the transportation and Security Committee which deals with tsa. Decrease in funding, 58 million from this years budget to tsa and reduced funding for ct scanners, it kind of concerns me. Can you tell me why you did that . When you talk about the ct scanners i believe in previous years, including the fiscal 21 budget request from about 521 systems deployed so we are continuing to look at how we continue to affect number. Honestly we want to see more ct scanners at airports. They are expecting the right type of material that we need them to do so we will continue to push, but i will say if they received a lot of money for those symptoms, just getting those units out, it will be a challenge. Well likely see in future budgets to come back with further and additional test. We are making sure we spent the amount of money that is appropriated in a timely manner and pushing the systems out. Thank you. Chair recognizes you from florida. Five minutes. Thank you so much. Thank you for what you do every day to keep our nation safe. I have to be reminded that we are the committee on Homeland Security and the department of Homeland Security and yes we should all share a common goal and a common purpose, to keep the nation safe. I believe that you said that was your mission. I am completely disappointed as some of the conversation im hearing today because i so late with politics. True leaders dont need to be praised everyday. They dont need members of congress to every time they open their mouths, say what a great job the administration is doing. I think truly, leaders are much more interested in getting results. That directly benefit the American People. I just come up before i get into it, i just want to make one thing clear, with the coronavirus, i thought we would dominate the times talking about your budget and how we can better respond to the coronavirus. Talk about the wall and that amazes me and you started off your comments earlier, you are talking about your employees and particularly looking at travel from china or iran, you talked about illegal aliens and that took me by surprise because i want to make sure you are surely not suggesting that the problem we are seeing in this country with the coronavirus is the result or was caused by undocumented immigrants coming across the south border. Is that what you are saying . No, i did not say that. Okay, what did you say . If we stay on that truck, what im hearing from some of my colleagues, we are not going to do this correctly. Weve got to get it right. Please say what you are saying. Specifically to the question i just got was the concerns we continue to see, so we continue to the number of concerned specifically about our land ports of entry, not only south but north water from how do we control illegal relation coming in and oftentimes, they dont travel with medical history so that is a concern for individuals coming in at the 11th airports, we have good information of their travel history and medical history, were not going to have that same set of fidelity for the individuals if this continues to grow. Did anyone give you instructions to tie the coronavirus to undocumented immigrants coming across the southern border . No. Let me ask you this, do you believe the president obsession with this Campaign Promise to build a wall jeopardizes critical programs to dhs . I believe president obsession with this campaign to build a wall jeopardizes critical programs. No, it does not. We all represent that in our concern is not praising the administration during a crisis but making sure men and women that we represent are safe and secure. Is that your mission weve seen increase in public threat, that would keep me up every night. But anyway. Ive also noticed that funding for it has been cut. We know how critical it is to local communities and to airports, for example. But i know that some of those funding response abilities shipped to local and state jurisdictions. Could you talk a little bit about that, please . The same discussion i had with congressman im sorry, i missed that. We look at all of the security grants they provide in the Department Discussion is about 53 billion we provided the state and local to build up the capacities. What we are concerned about is making sure state and locals build their capacity but they dont build the grant into their budget so you want to make sure we continue to build capacity not only metropolitan areas and others but for super recipients as well. Capacity by cutting the budget . Part of that Budget Proposal is between the federal government, state locals and shared responsibility. That is part of the Budget Proposal. Not only reducing that but also the sharing part. Thank you. Im out of time, i healed back. Chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey. It is good to have you here. Im sure you are having a lot of fun. I just want to say from my viewpoint, maybe we shouldnt just be saying what a great job they had ministration or the people who work in the various functions do but i would also like to say what a bad job everything is and how wrong everything is and how terrible everything is because theres a lot of good that was done, whether its at the border, i was there recently. They still need to get better. We do need the rule of law, whether it is, i like to associate my viewpoint, the comp we need to correct during this coronavirus. The fact that we were the first to have travel restrictions up, that we were sure to work and we are working with Drug Companies if there are vaccines that can be created and we can be isolated immediately. If it wasnt for america or the United States of america, this world and this globe in this crisis would be and must much worse shape. Thats due to your people and what you have done. Lets talk about what america does and what you have done. I thought this was going to be about the budget and budget issues. Im interested in the coast barr. Going to make a statement and hopefully have time to ask you a few questions. In atlantic city, the largest air station in the coast guard. We know the Training Center is the coast guards exclusive training facility. The coast guard in my community, its important about nation, to. To everyone. Need to make sure that the resources they need. Testifying before the Senate Subcommittee on Homeland Security, the readiness of the coast guard continues to be an issue and a concern and that was limited budget you have focus resources. One of the questions on to go through the whole thing, the coast guard adequately funded to perform its missions, which are so important to have resources . The second thing is, ive been told the coast guard has large infrastructure cap, what vulnerabilities does the gap create . Are they serious . What is the coast guard strategy for addressing this with a limited budget . Again, i thought this was about the budget. Thats what im focusing my issues on. Next, i want to commend the Trump Administration, additional 386 million in 21 budget for requests with coast guard operations. Authorizing the funding request will help the coast guard to address urgent problems of infrastructure cap which is serious. Between falling victim in the infrastructure cap, they need to authorize an appropriate fund for the renovation for the facilities. To recapitalize it, we need modern standards and accommodate both male and female coast guard training. Its the most valuable part of the organization that people work. I like to advocate for the funding, inclusion and authorization in this budget so there are coast guard men and women and start their careers with the resources they need. As you know, these are great men and women who serve this country and sacrifice for this country. I would agree with all of those points. The coast guard is obviously really some of the unsung heroes. They often dont get the attention they rightfully deserve. We look at the president s budget request, theres a couple priorities the coast guard specifically but they are fourth leaning on. Theres funding for that but also the patrol cutter program, funding and therefore three or four other patrol credits which will push forward. Those are Capital Assets they are pushing. The third one is readiness. Making sure not only their aging infrastructure but also their budget that supports all other Capital Expenditures so the project continues to match pace. What we see with the coast gua guard, some of the popups we see on the dod start, we dont often see that on the coast guard side. Over time, that starts to add up. My technical readiness we need to make sure we address that. We start at that the budget request, theres some assistance and help requesting that but its not complete to be solved in one fiscal here. I know, lets get on the road. I love to talk and even have the president look at this but its important as well. There men and women who sacrifice. Get the short end of the stick. Thank you for your service. Time is expired. Thank you for being here today. Lets talk about entry. Transnational criminal organization continues to struggle drugs, the primary driver of the Opioid Crisis through our ports of entry. Only about 15 to 16 of commercial vehicles and to present Passenger Vehicles entering our currently scanned and detect contraband. I appreciate your comments about how we need, our infrastructure part of entries are outdated and we need to invest in them. Its a bipartisan issue and we would all like them to prioritize. When debate intend to reach one 100 of technology at our ports of entry . The Funding Congress provid provided, 570 million in additional funding will give us about 660 and i i, thoughts large, small and medium. When are we planning to get to one 100 . Im getting there. By 2022 thats great half im sorry, i appreciate it. You have a comprehensive plan for how youll get to one 100 by 2022 . Will not be at one 100 , the point of the infrastructure, yes. We have a deployment plan. When we get deployed by 2023, you mentioned Passenger Vehicles being screen, we have to go from want to do , up to 40 by 2023. 15 , up to 72 . Utilizing the Funding Congress provided for the large, small and medium and i i systems. Thats great. Im pleased to hear is a clear plan for getting to 70 of the commercial trust and 40 their present Passenger Vehicles. You have a longer term plan for getting to one 100 . We do. Obviously that depends on appropriation and support, we are happy to share that. Thats fantastic. I love to get a copy of that. If you could supply that in addition to your testimony later on. Thank you so much. The reason why its important we have one her present, when we get to 73 they ship their product to underutilize ports of entry and infrastructure. I look forward to getting to one 100 . Just shifting to Border Patrol processing coordinators, last year, i worked with members of this committee to draft legislation and authorize hiring of the processing hoardings. They started that process to hire the first tornadoes. This position will be particularly important and the fy 20 an appropriations bill to brief congress on the training and processing coordinators. When you plan to brief us . Any time he would like. Okay, wonderful. You have the heavy information now. I dont have a specific training. I can tell you 300 processing officers 200 at least. Will be on board between may and september this year. I know weve gone through a few secretaries and multiple points of juncture where they have requested information about the training plans from former secretary and others, we all recognize the need. We need that information on how they will be trained. How have you ensured that the coordinators will get that type of training . I am happy to provide the training that they will receive, obviously we build the training with the Training Program and im happy to get that for you. Thank you so much. Continuing on the training and the important work that we need for them to do, one of the key reasons we needed them is to help transport migrants. Especially on long rural routes, the transportation duty can take Border Patrol agents off the field but i recently learned that coordinators with transportation tax tax, can you please confirm that the plan. I cant but ill take that back and let you know. That is something im concerned about, as we know part of the reason we authorizes money is so we can keep Border Patrol agents on the line so continuing to use the Border Patrol agent to help escort underlines the efficiency of that. Let me discuss with cdp and will discuss. Thank you. The chair recognizes the gentleman from tennessee. [inaudible] i just want to make everybody aware that they and announced 19 dead in tennessee, if you can keep tennessee in your prayers i greatly appreciated. Thank you mr. Secretary for being here youre doing a great job. When we cobbled dhs together at 9 11 we took 22 agencies and put all together, unfortunately we do not change the requirements for reporting mechanisms to congress so you report over 100 committees and subcommittees, can you tell me how much your budget is wasted reporting to so much committee. That is a tough question to answer, theres a lot of time that goes into responding to all the different committees and different letters at headquarters alone we received anywhere between 40 and 50 letters a month, that is just at headquarters, or individual components received similar amounts and having to respond to research, it does take individuals off the front line of their primary security responsibility to produce documents to go back and make sure thats presentable to various members of congress. Its a very heavy lift, were happy to provide the oversight but yes i would certainly encourage trying to shrink down the amount of oversight the department has. Its not that we want to minimize oversight, we want to streamline it. If you look at dod they report to 40 committees and three or four times probably four times the size of dhs, i just want us to provide fncs for you. Also the same with your Task Organization, we have 22 different agencies are reporting to you, is there some kind of streamlining that you could do to save money, make your department more efficient in terms of Task Organization . We have a number of operational components, they obviously report to the front office, they do that not only with a secretary but with the deputy secretary at dhs. As of right now the organization of the department is solid, i have not looked at it, previous secretaries have made changes over the years but worried that now we can know is fine tune and do a little bit better but i dont see any wholesale reorganization of the department in my view. Okay, on those reactions i assume that migrants are eligible for the protections of hipaa, i know theres other medical personnel of the committee and maybe they can comment on this that i would suggest that that may be the reason why the Health Protection act may be why theres so much redaction on the medical forms. Im guessing thats with the Legal Counsel is doing. The me going to Something Else, the chairman mentioned increasing screenings of covid19 patients at the boerner yet others on the committee have beaten you up for mentioning that the southern border is a risk for covid19. I just want to say thats a little bit hypocritical and i agree that the screenings need to be increased. Can you clarify does this budget increase cdp positions, it does okay do you have cdp vacancies right now questioning. I am sure we do, i can tell you over the last two fiscal years we have been able to hire more Border Patrol agents then we have lost. Goodyear on the net positive. Yes, that was not always the case we had a difficult job hiring and bringing those individuals on board so i would say were in a good trajectory. Your net positive and thats to be commended by the way because its a relatively new thing at cdp. My question, it may not be necessary but what are you going to do to ramp up recruiting efforts and it sounds like you have done so and you have a positive response. We do, we have a fairly expensive recruiting effort, Retention Bonuses, a whole plan to not only bring a Border Patrol agent but to make sure that we keep those that are there. And we do that through change of where they operate obviously sitting and being on the border yearoveryear some individuals in the Border Patrol want to get a different location we provide that. We also have Retention Bonuses and the likes. We have Aggressive Campaign to make sure that we hold our best and brightest but also bring in new Border Patrol agents. I would just say i was in artesia new mexico three weeks ago and had the opportunity to preside over a graduating class at the Border Patrol. There was 25 or 30 folks really excited to be part of the department and Homeland Security and to be part of securing our nation. Thank you coul good job toda. Thank you very much. Just for the record, hiba does not apply to congress. It doesnt . It does not. Let me recognize the gentleman from missouri. Thank you, mr. Chairman if i can i would take 30 seconds to say, we create problems because meanspirited or something but we dont know. Ive been here while and if i had to leave this committee i would be the third person in seniority on this committee and so will we have secretaries, no matter what Department Congress members republicans, democrats, San Francisco 49ers, everybody asked questions about the department and if they have specific questions about the budget, they will ask those questions. So this baby a fight we dont even need to have, this is been going on long before any of us came to congress or maybe born. We had a lot of this tripping today and theyre going to ask questions that they want asset secretary. Mr. Secretary, thank you for being here. From whom do you need approval to make a statement, issue a press release, do whatever about monopoly and core herself price gouging also knowing as monopoly. There are report that Hand Sanitizers and other products that americans are using that the prices being raised all over the country bring and i dont know it unimaginable to me t they walking, talking, breathing human being can do something so nasty at a time like this for money. Is there short answer you can give me. I would not again for my position i would not specifically, you asked if i could issue a press release or statement, i would not specifically do that, when i issue statements or press releases or anything else from the department its specifically to our mission and our authority in our budget to make sure that we do that. I would work with obviously the lodges task force i believe you referring to coronavirus in the medical issues there in the Hand Sanitizer and likes, we work with the task force to make sure we address that. Thank you. We dont have any federal law, theres been an attempt to do it a number of times but a number of states do have those laws because like florida, hurricane hits and prices go up. Which i think is obscene. The other thing, i will do this quickly in a you can answer quickly. My Congressional District includes Kansas City Missouri and what we find of the funding has been cut and if you look at the kid list of the cities and the funding, the general is the largest in the state. Except when you come to missouri. I dont know if someday fail to look, kansas city is significantly larger than any of the cities in the state of missouri we have 116 communiti communities, 3800 square miles with the second largest realtor in the country. Our funding is 0. And i dont understand it. Maybe you could check or have somebody on your staff check. I would have the individuals of fema server complex decisionmaking matrices that they go to to identify those jurisdictions in those areas that are available for the funding. Im happy to have them come up and walk you through, they will talk about different categories and how your specific area, kansas city, ranks against others and what theyre looking for to make that list. I think that will be the best thing i can do. That will be helpful because i ask answer questions from business communities and others. Theres a number of reports that detail racist and sexist comments posted by cdp, some personnel on facebook and i think its called on chan 15, Something Like that and then article in the Washington Examiner quoted some of the Border Patrol leaders making various nasty statements and a gentleman named individual, did cbp or dhs investigate this issue surrounding facebook into 15. I believe that what occurred last year so investigation has been completed and the noble of individuals have been removed from office. I would say what i saw of that from my position in the department is not representative of 99. 9 of border virtual agents so i want to say that on the outside, the vast majority are not involved so i want to make sure we always have a few bad apples and we will deal with that and address it, and investigate and will take appropriate personnel action against it but it does not reflect on the entire Border Patrol. I didnt suggest that, im interested about the situation and looks like been handled. If i can get information on that it would be helpful. There will be privacy issues but we will share everything were able to about specific individuals obviously. I didnt call the name. I was down on the border three weeks ago and i did not tell them i was a member of congress and i did not where my pin, i think they thought i was an attorney. I have to say the security personnel down there were 100 respectable and i share my thoughts with them when i was leaving because somebody walked in and saw me and said congressman cleaver and blew my cover but i think i needed to say. Which port of entry. We were in brownsville. I will pass that along thank you. Gentleman time for missouri has expired. Thank you. Mr. Secretary i think they will tell you the privacy law does not apply to congress either. So try not to get an answer back with a bunch of reductions, i am trying to get mr. Cleavers information so mr. Cleaver im sure you will get it, can we get a by the 15th . I will check term in. My intention will be by the 15th. The chair recognizes the gentlelady from illinois mr. Enter ms. Underwood. I will follow up on something that secretary wolf disclosed in his Opening Statement, the dhs facility in Washington State and response to the coronavirus to self quarantine for the next two weeks. This morning the Washington Post reported that dhs employee in newark reported to work on her bosses orders and violation of a coronavirus quarantine. Dhs had been on the front line responded to airports in the border and helping to prepare and Risk Management over it fema incarnating outbreak response with other agencies. These front line had elevated risk of exposure. As of today, do you expect further closing of dhs facility or facility wide quarantine due to the core in a virus . Will take them on a casebycase basis, i can tell you we continue to provide our officers all of the information, training with the protective equipment. Certainly you have a scope that exceeds, im looking for yes, sir no, do you expect to make additional closing . I am not going to contemplate on what could be potential closing we will take the on a casebycase basis. At anon for Public Health and a former senior advisor, i know the whole government approach is necessary to the coronavirus. Last week you were asked about the coronation with cdc can you provide a detailed update on how dhs is working with the center for Disease Control and state and local Health Department to respond to the coronavirus. We are working every day, we have task force meetings, not only at the senior level to level the individual. We talked about earlier about the chief medical officer talking with and collaborating not only with hhs but cdc and other individuals collaborating with asper as well, we are teamed up with hhs, cdc and others on making sure if we need to change your operational tempo, are Operational Requirements and the decisions we take which ive outlined that we do so for making sure the medical strategy want the changes as it evolves, we change our operations at our land and airport of entry, we continue to support an arm role, hhs, science and Technology Directorate at the impact facility is also characterizing the virus on behalf of the cdc so were providing support to them and will continue to do that. They tell us to change direction, we will change direction. This weekend when i was at home and illinois i heard concerns from families to kids had been studying abroad in italy and korea with active outbreaks, what is your Department Role with a 90 with cdc to bring these can some safely. We will continue through the task force, theres a number of travel advisories that we have put out and were part of that process and collaborative process to inform the administration and certainly there administration. Im think about the experience of these americans being repatriated, is anything specifically you are doing with young people . You are talking about specific students that are overseas studying and then coming back. We will continue, as we saw in china we repatriated individuals from china specifically. Mainly through the state department, dhs will play a role as we process individuals coming to the country. But that is mainly estate Department Role as they repatriated a number of individuals from china on specific flights. What is the dhs employees on the front line of the Coronavirus Response, their job is to keep us safe and to require them to violate cdc best practices to keep themselves safe from the coronavirus, not only do they interact with thousands of overseas travelers but their conducting screenings and pat downs and extremely close quarters, what measures have you put in place to minimize the risk of dhs employees from the coronavirus. Im not sure i would agree with characterizing the not following cdc procedures prethats what we provided them and specifically to cdp as well as tsa officers and were providing them not only the literature from cdc but the trading in the protective wear. Specifically when we talk about gloves and masks and the like, were doing optional prewe do not require them, they can do that if they choose to do so. We have several unions at the department that were working with as well, the union issue is well and we continue to work, provide them the materials and all the protective gear if they choose to use it, they certainly have it. The information we receive does not suggest its incomplete alignment. If you would be willing to provide the copy of the guidance documents that you have offered to your employees that would be helpful to do oversight work. We can do that through c wdm office specifically with cdp and dhs. The chair recognizes the gentleman from mississippi. Thank you mr. Chairman. First i want to thank you for being here, i want to thank the men and women that serve under you for their service to our country. Over last year you and your department have faced a growing and continued crisis of illegal immigration along the southwest border and now your department is providing some of the frontlines response activity as we battle the coronavirus. I know that you spoke earlier on the chief medical examiner for the department of Human Services had been incarnating with cdc and you have also correlated with other partners. What do you see his role continue to be as we move forward in making sure that we are properly screening individuals in the country. We used chief medical officer in a variety of ways but his title suggest our chief advisor that comes to any medical issue not only with our workforce by how we protect the American Public. He is the primary interface with a number of cdc specialist, hhs specialist and looking at how this virus spreads, the impact, how to protect the workforce, this individual and his staff is involved in all the discussions and advising Senior Leadership about that and also in tune with what the task force is advising as well. Can you talk a little bit about dhss role in coronavirus screening at point of entry . Sure, as i mentioned earlier, specifically where we see the largest number are at the 11 airports that we are funneling passenger stupid cdp has referred over 50000 passengers to our medical professionals to screen and they cleared over 21000 passengers in referred 30000 for selfmonitoring and we refused entry to 14 passengers at u. S. Airports and refused entry for another 102 passengers at preclearance airports. Those are overseas that we do clearance procedures. The department has an everyday role making sure that we keep sick individuals from coming into the country on the travel restrictions and those that do come here, americans are to come here get the right medical screening and right treatment to making sure that themselves are safe but also their communities are safe. Thats our operators and we have a whole support mechanism that supports them through the science and Technology Director in the chief medical officer as well as others support what they do every day. Mr. Secretary you mentioned earlier you and your agency are taking all the steps possible to mitigate any risk to any of her Healthcare Providers in our frontline officers who were involved in the screening process in my question to you, do you believe the use of technology such as telehealth can be helpful as were going to see the screenings increase at ports of entry . I do, i would obviously differ to cdc and hhs but i think any and all options should be on the table. As we continue to see, i mentioned the offset we have a facility in king county Washington State that has shut down and we can see more of that depending on how the situation unfolds. Any ability that were able to not only telework but do the telemedicine as well, i think would be helpful. Mr. Secretary would you agree just from a Public Health perspective, it is important for the United States to adequately screen those entering the country. And would it be for coronavirus or other contagious healthcare issues that were only able to screen those individuals that come through ports of entry. So if you have individuals who are crossing into the country illegally, assuming that those individuals are not apprehended by Border Patrol or Law Enforcement to enter the country, it is at that point impossible for us to screen those individuals in those individuals could then enter the country and they could intentionally or most cases unknowingly impact hundreds if not thousands of individuals with the coronavirus before they came ill and started showing symptoms and later hospitalized. Obviously thats a very real concern and we talked about earlier. Obviously maritime point of entry are much easier to corral individuals and funnel individuals into the appropriate places. When we look at our land ports of entry, at ports of entry is where we would like to do the screening and they have the infrastructure and staff available, as i mentioned earlier we are seeing 1200 1300 individuals continue to cross the board illegally and thats not the port of entry, those are individuals that Border Patrol is picking up and have to process and as this expands the ability for those individuals to be screened and screened appropriately is a concern. Thank you, mr. Chairman i yield back. The chair recognizes the gentleman from texas for five minutes mr. Crenshaw. Thank yothank you, mr. Chair. I commend the work of dhs to combat Human Trafficking, i was a pleased to attend the roundtable in january and the implementation of the federal Law Enforcement Training Center. I look forward to the consideration and the passing of enhancement act and i want to think my friend representative Ranking Member rogers and representative Sylvia Garcia in joining me on that important legislation. Can you prickly discuss some of dhs effort to combat Human Trafficking . We issued a strategy in the middle of january which is the first time they have done that, produced with forced labor. We continue to be forward leaning and the reason it was important to produce that to send it to the rest of the department to prioritize and build the budget they need to do that with Human Trafficking in mind devoting their appropriate resources to that. Again the first time the department has ever done that and made Human Trafficking a priority and will continue to do that inside the strategy is about 40 different action items that were continuing to put into Implementation Plan and anything and everything from full threat assessment on Human Trafficking to continuing to hire victims and specialist to make sure we have an approach in our work in Law Enforcement officers assigned to Technology Looking at what they can do so theres a number of actions within the strategy throughout the department. That was very cross functional. Can you discuss ice role in combating Human Trafficking. They the largest role in the Homeland Security through hsi. Thats important to know because everybody talks about banning ice, not everybody of course a lot of my colleagues talk about banning ice and i think its not always pointed out that ice plays the biggest role in combating this gorge of Human Trafficking and we should absolutely note that. I want to move on to disaster relief, thats a big issue coming from houston. My constituents after disaster often face a web of different options on where they can get relief from. Whether fema or hud or sba and it can be extremely confusing when youre trying to rebuild your home and i want to get your take on this breed rather than having posted Disaster Recovery in longterm housing split among the agencies, would it be beneficial to consolidate under fema. I know fema has started to do the under the former administrator as well as continuing today they are trying to streamline that in trying to make it easier for individuals that are affected by natural disasters, what we have heard over time if your house is destroyed by natural disasters you may have three or four different inspectors, one from dhs, one from fema, hhs, housing all coming out and asking similar questions. They are currently assessing and putting together a strategy on how to consolidate and make it easier for the individual that has been affected to perhaps only getting one or two instead of the three, four and five. So yes i would agree anytime we consolidate or streamline im sure theres a lot of bipartisan support for such a thing, disasters dont strike in my district, they strike a lot. Last year when we did this hearing we were in a crisis, we were seeing over 100,000 illegal crossings per month in many cases, sometimes much more than that. A lot of that was family units to which made the problem all the more difficult to deal with minors coming across the border. Since then illegal crossing has decreased dramatically, a large part of that is because of the protocols and increase cooperation with the Mexican Government. What else can we do, what would be your top items that you need from congress to get a handle on our southern border finally once and for all. I would say we still remain in crisis mode along the southern border. The numbers have dropped pretty substantially however, not only myself but the predecessors would say if youre apprehending over 1000 folks a da day thatsa bad day in your new crisis progress apprehended between 121300 today still. The crisis is still there, the impact on cbp, ice resources are still there, the strategy we put in place over the last 4 5 months is working, six months is working, partnerships are vitally important with the northern triangle in mexico. But some of the programs like mpp and enb and the other programs we put in place are absolutely making a difference in allowing us to control the flow coming in and allowing us to process individuals quicker, providing immigration hearings quicker for the meritorious claims and those that dont were trained to root out the fraud. It address the crisis and search we had. Thank you. Gentlemens time has expired. For questions made for a second round questioning and Ranking Member a question you want to ask . I do. Thank you for diving a little deeper into your budget. I suspect mr. Secretary, this is reflective of many isolated sections of the total budget request that you stated on page seven, about halfway through the page. Regarding the need for increased detention beds, due to historically high numbers, a statement reinforcing the need for increases in detention beds, 260,000. You want to state that the budget includes 3. 1 billion in this capacity increase in if i calculated this correctly, perhaps misunderstanding a statement, it would equate to 51600 each bed, if it encompasses the entire amount of beds, 3. 1 billion been dedicated for the beds. Is a lot built into that. Single bed daily rate is about 12500 a day, family beds are other bit more expensive than that. It includes not only that but the administration. All the personal. We were at 56000 beds in august of last year. We continue to look at our modeling, past events, and where we go, the 60000 requests in the 21 budget request, hit very real last friday when we had the decision, it was stated several hours later but we had thousands of migrant lining up to come into the country. We will have to detained them as we process them, making sure we have enough space to detain their immigration proceedings is absently critical. Their menstruation has done a number of things to speed that process up so that we can give folks the need to protect, or any other protection, give them that hearing quickly while at the same time rooting out the fraud. Id like to close on a positive note. In her statement, he clarified that he United States and immigration services, 833,000 new citizens last year, which is an 11 year high, can you confirm that that is an accurate number . That is accurate. 833,000 american citizens sworn an oath of citizenship and become naturalized citizens in our great country, correct . It is. Laugh and say its absolutely accurate where one of the most generous countries out there. We continue to process individuals coming in for a variety of different benefits and we ask that you do that the legal way and correctly. We will continue roger that. We support that. Welcome to 33000 new american citizens. Thank you for the job youre doing. I yelled. Thank you. Check recognize the gentleman from california. I want to thank you for being here today. We are going to talk about an important issue, the real id. Two weeks ago, three hours at the local dmv office to get my real id. I got there at 633 a. M. , people were already waiting. Three hours later, i had my completed real id process. October 1 is the deadline. With not only estimated 35 of americans dont have real id in california, estimated 20 million drivers still dont have real id. We may be looking at a real train wreck care october 1, people cant fly. Any thoughts on this . Are you going to move the deadline . Any suggestions . I think 2005, we are trying to comply with it by october 1. It continues to be a priority for the department, the departments main responsibly is to make sure we continue to educate folks about this. Individual states produce real ids, there compliant and start issuing that. The 14 to 15 here implementation can is sufficient but you mentioned 35 of the ids in circulation Free Estimates are real id compliant. Thats one third. October 2020, we are what i request for information, the industry not only has the airline industry, how can we streamline this process . So we instituted a major a couple weeks ago that allows individuals once there state submit there documents electronically to the state dmv. We hear often is that individuals show up and they have the wrong idea. They didnt bring a utility bill, that i have the right underlying documents. Wait in line for two hours and are sent home and have to come back. That happened to me. I was asked for my original Social Security card. That presents challenges. Specifically the law is very descriptive on what documentation is required. So again, it will say we do not have smart phones at that time, we have evolved. What we could do electronically i think is a question perhaps we can talk to the committee about, see if we can have law that we can submit documents electronically, secure environment and speed this up. We continue to get information from every state every month on their compliance rate little help us make a number of them important decisions as that date gets closer. We continue to monitor the situation in the next few weeks. I think we are going to have a train wreck october 1. We make the changes you said and submit electronically yet, knowing what i know, i think we are going to have to re ask this question in a few weeks after we see what happens, people trying to get the information. We get updated information every month that we look at, its all volunteer by the state. We continue to work with state and state dmvs so we understand how many licensing licenses they are entering on a monthly basis. Its a daunting challenge. The dmv and local officers, nobody has that, we have to wait at 6 30 a. M. And still its a long line. We continue to make sure we push out real id, the best ids you have. There are alternative forms should you choose to travel after that october date. You can have a passport, military id, theres a list of alternatives and documents so individuals who cant get in for whatever reason, there are alternative forms of documents they can use. They can continue to fly. Thank you. I look forward to asking this question again in the next few weeks. In light of that, do you anticipate some kind of directive on dhs after october 1 . We continue to assess that. As of right now, october 2020 date is the date, we seen that successful in the last few years. Getting states to comply with the real id requirement so the question is, we have almost all states compliant how many are issuing real ids . How many will be in circulation . Information we receive from estates are a month will give us information to make an informed decision. As we get closer into the spring and summer, probably talking with you and others about that date and based on the number we see. Let me give a problem, some individuals license dont expire for two to five years and theres been no information other than you need to be real id compliant october 1. That specific direction should come from the state dmv to the entire id population that says even though you may not have a renewal base for two years out for a year end a half out, be compliant with real id, you need to comment and get a real id. Its not being pushed out. Thats what motivated me to get my real id. My license expired. Prefer those, thats a motivator, if you get it two or three years out from your spending three hours at the dmv. You have an alternative form, okay. If i dont travel but its a good. If you would, can you tell us if all states are compliant under this now . I believe they are. Our just need to check on one conditional statement. There are some states that have not issuing issuing any of their real id step. They can be compliant but not issuing ids, i believe thats the case with these states. Every other state is compliant in one phase or another, started issuing real ids. I have a couple of questions. The president made reference to paying for the wall. Are you familiar with any of this . A Redemption Fund . New hampshire, this month, Redemption Fund and the wall. They looked at a variety of different sourcing Funding Sources fourth the wall. I know what we are appropriated for an obviously funding the dod providing asthma so thats what i am familiar with. You are not familiar with the redemption . Im just familiar with our appropriated funding. The dod funding. So its not under dhs . Its not. Thank you. Thank you very much. Id like to thank the acting secretary for his testimony. Gentleman from texas. Thank you. I want to continue on that last and final question, we ran out of time as we are talking about what congress can do to secure the border. We talked about, he spoke about more than a thousand illegal crossings a day and it constitutes a crisis and of course, that is true but is another magic i believe is just as important or maybe more important, which is how we process those people after they crossbreed you cant control who decides to walk through the border and turn themselves in. Well never be able to control that. Only the Mexican Government can control that. But we can control that catch and release policy thats been occurring the last couple decades so i want to get your statement on what weve done to better combat the catch and release process thats been happening. The catch and release, the individual coming across the border today, if you are to go back to may in june last year, huge numbers coming across the border, some are over 100,000. Releasing post individuals in large amounts, over 80 , 85 of the individuals. Today, any individual coming across the border illegally is 90 to 95 immigration pathway. We talk about mvp or a number of other initiatives to put into place speed up that process and review at the department and our departments of d. O. J. Speed that process up in the individuals seeking protection, get their production sooner in the process. Today was extremely different, almost 90 day from what we saw last year. As far as what congress can do, the budget request is supportive of that process. We need to make sure we have the right number of Border Patrol agent and also the number of ice agents as well, making sure when apprehending people but as we apprehend people, we find others, that we are investigating this so if they dont do it that investigation, isaac does that. As we continue to increase prosecution and do a number of things, ice attorneys help that process. You have to look at duffel immigration continuing, not only because of the product but also in the interior, fall out of status or the like. The budget request is outlined and resources to do that. I introduced hr 1609, and i border corruption, a polygraph requirement for Law Enforcement requirement in military, establish a public trust and we have good news, and the increase in hiring but what help in the hiring process we had some authority from Congress Several years ago to take that up. The last Congress Took it up again, talk about i want to hear from you again, our cybersecurity defend will still be upheld with the president s budget. Absolutely. Its their initiative and their priorities, as we look across the board, they do cybersecurity for the daca sector and also Election Security, supply chain security, 5g security, across the sectors, the 21 budget request and leadership is what they need to sustain their activities. Are we able to hire this hyperactivity experts that we need and allow better for equipment and right personal . Is a specific type of person . They do have a number of unique individuals, there beginning, theres ongoing hiring, its a challenge. These individuals obviously can make a lot more money in the private sector but they are bringing new individuals, theres 500 in the 21 budget question. Across the department. We need Cyber Capabilities across the department. This is the largest about but tsa has capabilities. Theres a lot of other nations and u. S. Government and i say, cyber comps, you think the lanes are adequate understanding of whos in what lane . There certainly is an the federal government perspective, it may not be as clear as how the public is looking at but specifically, we have different individual roles and we all talk about how we address the specific issues or threats within those responsible is so again, this is looking at federal networks, making sure the primary interface and sharing a lot of information with our private sector of partners. The individuals and companies out there that are in the Financial Sector in a variety of other sectors to cyber attacks. I believe the lanes are quite clear from the government perspective. We could probably do a better job in explaining the American People who specifically doing what. Thank you. Thank you very much. Id like to enter into the record, National President , national treasures, employees union without objection. I want to think secretary for his testimony and numbers for the questions. Members of the committee may have additional questions and we ask that you respond expeditiously and friday to those questions. Without objection, the committee record shall be kept open for ten days. During no further business, the committee stands adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] and more conversations. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]
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