The dedication of the dwight d. Eisenhower memorial live online at cspan. Org or listen live on the cspan radio app. The House Homeland SecurityCommittee Hearing just wrapped up with fbi director crist mer wray taking questions. Acting Homeland Security secretary chad wolf subpoenaed to testify in todays hearing but did not appear. The committee is chaired by congressman bennie thompson. As i said, the committee of Homeland Security will come to order. Without objection, the chairs authorized to declare the committee in recess at any point. Good morning. Before we good morning. Begin, i want to say our thoughts with those americans dealing with devastating natural disasters, including the wildfires in the west and Hurricane Sally in the south. As chairman, i remain committed to ensuring they receive the federal help needed to respond, recover and build back stronger. Today the committee on Homeland Security is meeting for its annual hearing on worldwide threats to the homeland. Our nation recently observed the 19th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of september 11, 2001. Nearly two decades later, we continue to mourn the nearly 3,000 lives lost that terrible day, and keep their loved ones in our prayers. This committee and the department of Homeland Security were established in the wake of 9 11 to help prevent future attacks on our soil. Regardless of who was chairman weve held regular hearings examining worldwide threats with leaders from the department of Homeland Security, fbi and National Counterterrorism center, and regardless of who was occupied in the white house, whether democrat or republican, weve received cooperation in that effort. Today was supposed to be no different. Unfortunately, as we see from the empty chair in front of us, mr. Chad wolf is not here to represent the department of Homeland Security. Let me be clear about how we got here. The committee began engaging with the department over three months ago on june 10, 2020, to secure mr. Wolfs participation in this hearing, alongside his colleagues from the fbi and National Counterterrorism center. Any assertion that the administration committed to having dhs, fbi and nctc testify before this committee as a worldwide threat hearing in july is false. Dhs tentatively offered a couple of dates, but then could not agree with its fbi and nctc counterparts on date for the hearing in june or july. In fact, it was the department of Homeland Security that conveyed to the committee that september 17th was the earliest mr. Wolf would be available to testify at this hearing. In the interests of receiving mr. Wolfs testimony, the committee agreed to the awkward date. It was not until last week that the department informed the committee that mr. Wolf would be reneging on the commitment to testify in anticipation of being nominated for secretary of Homeland Security. I would note despite his refusal to testify today, mr. Wolf has spoken to the media on multiple occasions since President Trump announced he intended to nominate mr. Wolf to be secretary of Homeland Security, including no fewer than four appearances on fox news. Mr. Wolf has run the department of Homeland Security for the last ten months and has been responsible for numerous decisions directly relevant to the subjects the committee intends to explore. With that in mind, last week i wrote mr. Wolf to make clear that there is no legal prohibition barring a nominees testimony, and to urge him to honor his commitment. In response, the department, again, declined to provide mr. Wolf to testify at this hearing. Faced with continued refusal, on friday i issued a subpoena for his appearance in accordance with house and Committee Rules. Regrettably, he has chose ton defy the subpoena. That he would refuse to come before the committee after committing to do so should appall every member of this committee. Insisting there wolf keep his commitment to testifying before congress isnt playing politics. Its doing our job. Congress has the authority and obligation to execute its constitutional oversight responsibilities regarding mr. Wolfs decision and the departments action during his tenure. As chairman, its my responsibility to ensure the committee fulfills its constitutional responsibilities. 19 years after the attacks of 9 11, we continue to face grave threats to the homeland, including the rise of domestic terrorism, ongoing foreign interference in the 2020 elections, and a coronavirus pandemic that has claimed nearly 200,000 american lives. As a person running the department of Homeland Security, mr. Wolf should be here to testify as secretaries of Homeland Security have done before. Instead, we have an empty chair, and an appropriate metaphor for the trump administrations dereliction on so many of these critical Homeland Security issues. Mr. Wolf may attempt to evade oversight and the department may try silly stunts to distract from this hearing, but we will not waiver. The sta waver. The stakes are just too high. The administrations only political appointees are coming forward to sound the alarm that our National Security is being compromised in favor of the president s political interests. Americans who care about securing the homeland and upholding our most sacred values expect their representatives to hold the department of Homeland Security and this administration accountable. Be assured under my chairmanship i will not waver in my commitment to doing so today or in the future. To that end, i am pleased that director wray and director miller are here today. I look forward to their testimony, and the members questions. The chair now recognizes Ranking Member of the full committee the gentleman from alabama mr. Rodgers for an Opening Statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Before i get started i wanted to acknowledge our newest member of the mountaicommittee, mr. Garciw will be a great addition to our work in the future. Since the heinous attacks of september 11th wee have made Great Strides towards global jihadist operations and stop threats before they reeach our shores. However, to date, global jihadists are joined by cyber hackers, tribal nation states and trends, National Criminal organizations. Together they present incredible new risks to our economy, safety and our way of life. Make no mistake, the threats to our homeland have never been more real than they are today. Thats why its important that we as members of this committee understand those threats. It is our job to ensure that dhs, fbi and our Intelligence Community have the resources and authorities they need to continue to dismantle terrorist organizations and protect our homeland. I look forward to hearing more about the administration, how the administration is countering the threat from al qaeda, china, iran and others who seek to do us harm. Mr. Chairman, im also disappointed that dhs is not here today but i want the record to be clear on why dhs is not represented. It is not the bulk of the department or this Administration Acting secretary wolf offered to testify before this committee in both july and august. Unfortunately the majority refused to make either of those dates work. Now due to his nomination, mr. Wolf is prohibited from testifying under a policy in place under both republican and democrat administrations for decades. Nevertheless, due to the significance of todays hearing the department offered to have mr. Cuccinelli testify, second highest ranking and perfectly qualify are and informed on todays subject matter. I ask unanimous consent to include his testimony for the record. Without objection. Thank you. He should be here today providing the departments perspective on those threats we face and what dhs is doing to counter them. But instead of having productive hearings with mr. Cuccinelli, the chairman chose to subpoena and then empty chair mr. Wolf. This is a political stunt. It is a huge disservice to our committee and to the public. This is the single most important hearing we hold in this committee. But unfortunately as with most things this congress, majority has chose ton play politics. As a result, the public is being deprived of critical information from dhs. Perhaps thats the real reason why this majority didnt want mr. Cuccinelli here. Having the public hear about all the good things dhs is doing to protect them might undermine the radical lefts latest rallying cry. Dismantle the dhs. Unfortunately, director wray and director miller are sorry, fortunately, dr. Er wray and miller are here to provide us with their valuable perspectives. I look forward to hearing from both of you. About the threats we are facing, and with that i yield back. Thank you, very much. The committee does not want to hear testimony from the department. Therefore, after mr. Wolf declined our invitation, we issued a subpoena to obtain his testimony. The socalled Standard Practice by which the Department Says mr. Wolf cannot testify is the administrations own selfimp e selfimposed limitation. I also note this is an administration hoop respect for socalled president s and even laws is highly situational. If the minority wanted to hear testimony from mr. Kuch nellcuc that have every right to invitt him here today. Im not aware of the minoritys requesting his testimony. Other members of the committee are reminded that under Committee RulesOpening Statements may be submitted for the record. Members are also reminded that the subcommittees will operate according to the guidelines laid out by myself and Ranking Members in our july 8 colloquy. I welcome other panel of witnesses. First witness director of the federal bureau of investigation, christopher wray. Director wray began his Law Enforcement career in 1997 serving in numerous positions at the Justice Department before assuming his current role in 2017. Next we have the director of the National Counterterrorism center, christopher miller. Director miller serves in the United States mill frear 1983 to 2014, and in numerous civilian National Security roles before assuming his current position. Without objection, the witness full statement will be inserted in the record and i now ask each witness to summarize his statement and in five minutes or the best you can do within that time. Beginning with director wray. Good morning, chairman thompson, Ranking Member rogers and members of the committee. Im honored to be here today on behalf of the men and women of the fbi to discuss our nations top threats from the fbis perspective and what were doing to counter those threats. I know we all share a lot of the same concerns about topics ranging from international and domestic terrorism to cybersecurity, to the violence in our streets and particularly this year to the threat of foreign influence in our elections, and thats just to name a few and i look forward to updating you on these and other important topics this morning. But id like to begin by covering quickly a few items particularly top of mind for us at the fbi over the past few week. First, terrorism remains the fbis top priority, although the nature of that threat has evolved significantly since 9 11. We are ever vigilant in our efforts to prevent attacks by International Terrorist groups like al qaeda and isis. Those groups pose a threat not just to americans overseas but also here at home. Most knowably by those we call homegrown violent extremists often lone actors inspired by Foreign Terrorists selfradicalized and line and motivated to attack soft targets with readily available weapons. Were also working around the clock to prevent attacks by domestic terrorists inspired by one or more extremist ideologists to commit violent acts. In recent years laser focused on throats by racially or ethnically, often too radical e radicalized online and mobilized quickly to carry out plans. Our denver task force arrested on hate crime charges just last year while planning to blow up a synagogue in pueblo, colorado. As with any terrorism case were focuses on disruption, on making arrests before a criminal can act. Just this year alone through the hard work and dedication of countless men and women both at the fbi and across our Partner Agencies weve successfully thwarted potential terrorist attacks in kansas city, tampa, cleveland, oklahoma city, boston, phoenix, and other locations. Now, in recent months weve witnessed protests in various places around the country and many members of congress have raised questions about those protests. Although the majority of protesters have been peaceful, we have opened investigations on individuals involved in criminal activity at these protests, some of whom adhere to violent extremist agendas designs to sow discord and upheaving. To be clear, we do not investigate groups or individuals based on ideology or the exercise of First Amendment protected activity alone, but when the ideology leads someone to commit criminal acts and pursue violence, the fbi will not hesitate. Weve been working closely with federal, state and local partners to ensure the safety of all of our citizens including, i should say, safety of those trying to exercise their First Amendment rights peacefully. We in Law Enforcement must keep our communities safe and secure while safeguarding our citizens Constitutional Rights and civil liberties. As ive said before, one of those need not and must not come at the expense of the other. We also remain focused on other threats. In less than two moss, of course, americans will exercise one 6 their most cherished rights to vote in a free and fair election. Americans must have confidence in our Voting System and our election infrastructure. Thats why the security of our elections is and will continue to be one of our highest priorities. We will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections and are working closely with our federal, state and local partners as well as the private sector to share information, bolster security and identify and disrupt any threats. Just recently, for example, we shared threat indicators with both facebook and twitter that allowed them to take down fake accounts created as part of a Russian Disinformation Campaign before those accounts could develop a broader following. Turning to the cyber arena, were focused on an increasing threat cyber intrusions, by nation states like china, russia, iran and north korea, to sophisticated cyber criminals seeking to exploit technical vulnerabilities primarily for personal profit. Just yesterday i announced the fbis new Cyber Strategy leveraging unique expertise and authorities imposing risk and consequences on our cyber adversarieses, focusing on results and meaning were working to enable our partners operations as well as our own. One example. The fbi and nsa recently joined to expose highly sophisticated Russian Military intelligence malware providing private sector and other government partners the indicators they need to disrupt that tool. We also face increasing blending threats of state sponsors economic espionage facilitated by cyber intrusions. In july based on fbi work were indicting two chinese hackers working with ministry of state security for carries owl a global computer campaign targeting hundreds of victims including, i should note, Companies Developing covid19 vaccines, Testing Technology and treatment. With that kind of behavior, china continues to undercut their own claims of being a trusted and effective partner in the international community. Just yesterday we unsealed charges against five chinese hacker whose were targeting victims around the world from their safe haven in china. With our partners, weve arrested two of their coconspirators in malaysia and seized or took down hundreds of the hackers accounts, servers and domains. Ive touched on a handful only of important thets we face and quickly at that and of course, there are many significant others. As the threats evolve in scale, impact, complexity and agility, were relying on our dep well of expertise, intelligence and partnerships. Im committed to ensuring that the bureau does great work while adhering to our core tenens of fidelity, bravery and integrity. In these challenging times, i tell my folks that weve got to keep calm and tackle hard. Remaining faithful to our core values and best traditions while making sure that were always doing the right thing in the right way. Thank you, and happy to take your questions. Thank you very much for your testimony. I now recognize director miller to summarize his statement for five minutes. Thank you, sir. Chairman thompson, Ranking Member rogers, distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to pa appear before you today discussing the global terrorism environment and highlight the tireless work of the pr