Television companies and more including comcast. You think this is just a Community Center . No it is much more than that. Comcast is partnering with Community Centers to create wifi enabled areas. Comcast supports cspan as a Public Service along with these other television providers, giving you a frontrow seat to democracy. Asked, a hearing on National Security threats with Homeland Security secretary mayorkas and fbi director Christopher Wray and National Counterterrorism direct your christine abs aid. They were in front of the home when security and Governmental Affairs committee to answer questions about immigration at the southern border, Domestic Violence stream is him, global terrorism, and Cyber Threats. Sen. Peters the committee will come to order. First off, i would like to thank our witnesses for joining us and for your continued service to the American People. This hearing is an important opportunity for this committee to hear from our nations top National Security and Law Enforcement officials about the threats facing our nations, and how congress can ensure the federal government is prepared to protect our communities from them. More than 20 years ago, the september 11th terrorist attacks changed our nation forever. In response, congress created the department of Homeland Security, and our entire National Security apparatus focused on keeping americans safe from International Terrorism. However, in more than two decades following those attacks, the threats to our community have evolved and have become increasingly complex. While we must continue to monitor International Terror threats, there is no question that we must be better prepared to defend against what our top National Security officials, including those before us today, have called the most lethal terrorist threat to americans, domestic terrorism fueled by White Nationalist and antigovernment ideologies. Yesterday, i released a report detailing the results of my investigation and alarmingly, my investigation found that dhs and the fbi are not adequately addressing the evolving domestic terrorism threat. Despite a requirement in law written by myself and senator johnson, dhs and fbi have failed to effectively measure and share comprehensive data on the threat posed by violent domestic extremists and specifically White Supremacists and antigovernment violence. Without this comprehensive data, it is impossible for congress and this committee to determine whether our nations counterterrorism resources are effectively aligned to tackle the domestic terrorism threat. We need a datadriven approach to prevent deadly incidents like the january 6 capitol branch, breach the tragic shooting in buffalo, and countless other domestic terrorist attacks that have been fueled by hateful, extremist ideologies. I look forward to hearing from our Witnesses Today about what resources and tools their agencies need to effectively collect data on domestic terrorism and to prevent these crimes. Today, well also have the opportunity to discuss the significant threat that Cyber Attacks pose to our national and Economic Security. Im proud of bipartisan work. Sen. Portman and i have led this congress to enact some of the most significant reforms in our nations cybersecurity policy in history. Our reforms will ensure that dhs has the tools, resources, and authorities needed to protect Critical Infrastructure, state and local governments, and other targets from Cyber Attacks. However, there is more that must be done to continue securing our vulnerabilities from criminal hackers and foreign adversaries, and i look forward to discussing these topics today. One of the most serious threats, and one of the toughest to tackle is the threat posed by increasingly severe natural disasters and climate change. This is an existential threat to our planet, and unless it is addressed, it will have a Significant Impact on our Homeland Security. Today, we will hear more about how our National Security agencies are tracking these challenges and how they are planning to address the security threats they present now and into the future. We also have a challenging situation at our southern border, and today, we will discuss the administrations work to secure both our northern and southern borders, and prevent illegal trafficking and stop the flow of deadly illicit drugs like fentanyl into our communities. Those are Difficult Missions that must be accomplished, ensuring that lawful International Trade and travel can continue to flow smoothly at our ports of entry and keep states like my home state of michigan a hub for international commerce. As our National Security agents continue to tackle these longstanding threats, they must also be prepared to counter emerging ones. Over the last few years, threats proposed by Unmanned Aerial Systems or drones has become increasingly perilous. Small drones which can be purchased off the shelf at any Electronic Store can be weaponized by malicious actors to damage our nations Critical Infrastructure or inflict mass causalities. Todays drones can be used to launch remote attacks on everything from government buildings to crowds at public events, including large sports stadiums. We cannot let the current authorities that help address this grave threat expire in december. I will continue working to ensure those important authorities are extended and they are updated. Similarly, weaponized biological, chemical, nuclear, and radioactive materials also remain a significant threat to our Homeland Security. I have introduced Bipartisan Legislation with senator portman to reauthorize and strengthen the office of has charged with office of dhs charged with overseeing these threats and will continue working with my colleagues to pass it as soon as possible. The scope and the volume of these and many other National Security threats, requires congress and this administration to Work Together to ensure that we are doing everything we can to keep americans safe. Today, im pleased to welcome back each of our witnesses to hear more about how each of our agencies are working to carry out this daunting and essential mission, and i look forward to a ducted productive discussion. Before i turn things over, i want to take a moment to recognize my colleague senator portman who is retiring this year. Rob, it has been an absolute pleasure to work with you over the past two years in this committee. Im grateful for all of your hard work and your diligence to help us pass such meaningful and Bipartisan Legislation through this committee from providing important Financial Relief to the Us Postal Service to strengthen our ability to detect and deter Cyber Attacks, and working to make our nation more secure and more effective for taxpayers. It has certainly been a real pleasure, and i wish you godspeed in all your future endeavors. But all the work you did here will certainly never, ever be forgotten. Sen. Carper mr. Chairman would you yield to me for just five seconds. I want to say, im tom carper, and i approve that message. [laughter] sen. Peters i would also like to thank staff director tom thiessen or pam. Hi, pam. Did i say tom . Youre pam. I know that. I know you so well. You just have an exceptional team. M, youve been exceptional. You have put together an incredible team. Weve worked together, accomplished a lot together. Maybe not agreeing fully, but always trying to find Common Ground. We wish you godspeed as well in your future as well, pam. Thank you so much for that. What that, Ranking Member, portman, you are recognized for your opening remarks. Sen. Portman thank you, mister chairman, and just to respond to those comments, we appreciate the relationship we have had and the work we have gotten done. This committee has done a lot on a bipartisan basis. Some of it does not get any notice because it is noncontroversial by the time we finish our process, but in the process, i want to thank you and all the members of the committee for working with us to pass dozens of bills that are making an important difference to our constituents. And to you and to David Weinberg of your staff, not tom but david, we want to thank you for your willingness to work with us. We have not agreed on everything, but we have been able to find Common Ground where possible move the country forward. So, thank you very much for that. Today is my last hearing as Ranking Member, and it is appropriate that it would be this hearing because it is so important to the oversight responsibilities of this committee. And more importantly, important to our country right now, we unfortunately have a proliferation of threats facing the homeland. And i appreciate the fact that the right people werent here are here today before us to be able to address those concerns. Talk about what the administration is countering the threats. We look forward to hearing from you. As the respective leaders of your agencies, you are pursuing responsible for overseeing thousands of career employees men and women who went up every , day at dhs, and the National Counterterrorism center of what the mission to safeguard our nation. On behalf of the entire committee, i want to thank those employees who are patriots doing their best for that mission. Every fall since the terrorist acts on 9 11, we have had this hearing. We are a little late this year because of scheduling issues, but i think it is important that we hold it. It is a time to stand back a little bit and reflect on where we are and Work Together to address these potential and active threats. I can think of no greater priority for this committee. I am going to start with the crisis at the southern border. Sadly, i am leaving at a time when we really have not made the progress we should have on a bipartisan basis. But again, we have to raise these issues and attempt to solve some of these very significant problems. The failed border policies from this administration have ensured that not only do our nations borders remain unsecure, but foreign adversaries, transnational organizations, and other nefarious actors can too easily interact and therefore enter our country now and therefore threaten the safety and security of our public. This issue has gotten better, it has gotten worse. The past year the Border Control , apprehended 2 million unlawful migrants. That is up 143 since two 019. That chart behind me shows in color the blue, green, and read of where we have been. 21 and 22 figures on the right, we just got the final figures for the fiscal year 2022, and it tells a very dramatic story of failing to secure the southern border. This does not include the number of data ways, got aways. We hear from the Border Control that that number has increased as well. These are criminals who often engage in Human Trafficking and often involve themselves in the drug trade. This is about people, but is also about the fact that we have a Record Number of fentanyl shipments coming through the border, both the ports of entry and between the ports of entry now. We know this from anecdotal evidence, but also because there is a Record Number of seizures of these deadly fentanyl shipments into our communities. Fentanyl is what is causing the most number of deaths at a time we have a Record Number, sadly, of Overdose Deaths in our country. In ohio, we think it is between two thirds and three quarters of the deaths related to this one drug, deadly fentanyl which is primarily coming across the Mexican Border now. So, this has been a tough couple of years, the worst two years of unlawful migration in the worst two years of drug seizures in our nations history. We had this unfortunate, chaotic, and precipitous withdrawal that cause a lot of issues. One was nine people into our country who are not properly screened. There have been three reports from two inspectors general documenting the failures of dhs vetting, so, President Biden requested and received an additional 15 million from the fbi to conduct counterterrorism investigations among the afghan evacuees, released into our country by dhs. In other words he asked for 50 million to give to the fbi to do this additional vetting. And yet, the Administration Says it is not a problem, those two are, of course, inconsistent, perhaps we can talk about those diverging views on this panel this morning. We all recognize a great threat posed by our adversaries, such as russia, iran, and china. Who rely on disinformation tactics to weaken our democracy. I think there is a consensus about that, but, at home we have to be much more careful around issues of domestic speech, we must respond to imminent threats of violence, of course, i dont think anybody in this Company Committee disagrees with that, but censoring constitutionally protected speech is an entirely different manner. To be precise, that should be a redline and i hope that we can all agree that the u. S. Government should not censor the speech of our own citizen. Speech, differences of opinion and political viewpoints are not a threat to democracy but actually the bedrock of it. We know that dhs has disbanded is disturbing disinformation governments board after significant public outcry, but we know it has continued its efforts to curb speech under the guise of countering ms. Information. The entanglement of the fbi and the dhs with social media platforms for the purpose of controlling the narrative is something we need to talk about today. Think it is a deep concern that all americans have that we would not cross that redline. Recent reports allege that dhs is colluding with big tech to moderate content in a way that conforms with the biden administrations political views, including on the afghanistan withdrawal and things like the origin of covid,. Our democracy is also under threat because congress and the administration have been unwilling to confront the systemic threat of u. S. Intellectual property theft by china that is undermining arson nationals Economic Security. Secretary wray has been outspoken on this, his quote is there is no country that poses a broader and more Severe Threat to our ideas and Economic Security than china, i could not agree more. But, every day china reinforces the findings of our various investigations this committee. Showing the staggering extent of the Chinese Governments efforts to conduct influence and espionage operations in our country, and to steal american technology, research, and formation for their own military and economic benefit. So, addressing what the communist party of china is doing is more urgent than ever. And yet, the safeguarding american information act has been blocked from becoming law because of the unwillingness of congress to confront this issue. Cyberattacks are another significant issue facing every sector of our country, we talked about this a moment ago with senator peters, we have made some congress in this committee and i appreciate that, but, cyberattacks are growing and they are a multiplier for our adversaries. We have to understand this is an issue that they are going to continue to use. Our Economic Security is dependent on technology and we have to be sure we are not vulnerable here. Compounding that problem is the inherent difficulty of specific nation states and criminal groups. Terrorism and targeted violence also remain a serious threat to our country. Islamic terrorist attacked a synagogue in texas. A separate an ohiobased operative plan to attack former president bush. I remain convinced that we can deal with these issues on a bipartisan basis as we have in the past, but i am concerned about the threat posed by foreign terrorist organizations in the wake of our withdrawal from afghanistan, alqaeda continues to pose a threat, the Islamic State continues to mobilize. Iranian sponsored terrorist groups target key interest and officials consistently, we must remain vigilant as these groups organize and organizations regroup and evolve. We must restore confidence the American Public t