Having known you for years, you believe in both. You want to protect our National Security and our Civil Liberties. You are no stranger to the struggle. You describe a hospital bedside encounter with officials who were urging an ailing John Ashcroft to reauthorize the nsa surveillance program. The Justice Department concluded that it was illegal. The deputy as a Deputy Attorney general, you showed independent against the attempt to circumvent the law. Congress in the last collection of all data, it was phone records. I am glad the house representatives have a revised version to the freedom act. My main concern is important reforms. I hope you will work with me as the senate takes up this important issue. We will look at ways to address Cyber Security concerns. We have faced many fronts from abroad. The fbi has a key role in preventing extremist violence here at home. In 2009, i was part of the Matthew Shepard hate crime defense act. The fbi was collaborating with the Antidefamation League to train state and local Law Enforcement agencies to protect the rights of all americans. I plug the fbi for doing that. I look forward to hearing more about those efforts. Thank you for joining us for the first oversight hearing. Men and women work hard every day to keep us safe. We can talk later. You are also about to have your Training Program at the capital. I have gotten to know it because it has been part of the president pro tem. I will yield. Welcome to your first oversight hearing. I know you have been in office 10 months and a lot of things i talk about, we have seen takeover. My hope is that you will help us get to the bottom of some of these issues. First of all, i think you and your organization for helping us and for protecting the American People from so many different front. Im a start as i often do. When the fbi director is before this body, it was only on monday that we received answers to her questions. That was our last day oversight hearing 11 months ago. The answers we received our marks current as of august 2013. That means they have been laying around the black hole of the Justice Department after the fbi forwarded them for approval. I do not know why take so long when the fbi had gotten on their on august 20 6, 2013. I told the attorney general in january when he appeared for oversight, without having responses to the previous hearings and responses, but that is not acceptable. In addition, when we met before the confirmation, i provided the director with a binder of all the questions for the records. They were still pending with his predecessor. The fbi has a dismal record of responding to questions. I wish i could say that all those unanswered issues have been fully dealt with, but they have not. I would like to ask the director to make an effort to improve the levels of communication. I hope with all offices. Ignoring my questions is not make them go away. They have to be answered fully and completely. As we turn fbi priorities to counterterrorism, it remains at the top. That is since the september 11 attacks. I think it is fair to say that our country is safer. I am not prepared to discuss the. Im Glad Congress is in the process of considering reforms to some of the authorities. Even as the president keeps changing his view on what is needed to keep us safe. Director comey pointed out that some of these reforms will actually make it harder for terrorism investigations than even bank fraud investigations. I hope we will have an opportunity to discuss that today. Those types of reform seem unwise. The threats to our nation are broader than terrorism. Crime is on the rise. Last weeks events illustrated. I plug the fbi efforts to hold the Chinese Government accountable for stealing trade secrets of u. S. Companies. Consequently, american jobs. I congratulate the fbi on its work to hold Developers Accountable for unleashing a Computer Program that can steal passwords and files. As well as activate webcams. That is all without knowledge. Crimes are increasingly hightech. The tools available to the fbi to combat them must be as hightech as well. These tools have the potential for misuse. It could jeopardize the privacy of innocent americans. I know to discuss that with the department of justice and the Inspector General. Recommendations that the fbi develop special guidelines concerning drones, i would like to inquire about the proposal by department of justice that would make it easier for the fbi to hack into computers for investigating purposes. Despite the external accesses successes. I find the lack of cooperation with the Inspector General significant. They have delayed the offices work. They deem it necessary from one of the reviews. As you know, the Inspector Generals actions are very clear. They must access these records. However, the Inspector General in wants me informed me that all of the departments provided full access to the material sought with a notable exception of the fbi. The fbi, with respect to the production of grand jury material, is a change from his longstanding practice. From 2001 until 2009, the fbi routinely provided misinformation. I would like to know, why has the fbi been stonewalling . What change after 2009 cut off the flow of information from the fbi. In addition, i have questions about the status of the Justice Department reports on the fbi whistleblower. 19 months ago, president obama release information directed to the whistleblower or teachers. It produced a report within six months on how well the fbi follows its own procedures. That report was also to examine the effectiveness of the procedures and whether they could be improved. The report is now more than a year overdue. Once again, i have to say that that is unacceptable full they are in dire need of an update of these provisions. I have asked the bureau about specific whistleblowers who came to my office. That these back to the 1990s. Time and again, ive heard from whistleblowers that the fbis procedures are ineffective against retaliation. The attorney general posture or did not come out at the sixmonth mark. I asked the Government Accountability office to look at this issue. The fbi needs to cooperate. Finally, as the director points out in his testimony, the fbi is actively investigating wrongdoing and getting results every day. That is why it is so perplexing to hear nothing at all concerning the investigation it has been just about a year since then investigation was opened. I hope we will have the time today to discuss the status of that investigation. Thank you for coming in for the hearing. \ thank you. Director comey was sworn in as the seventh director of the fbi. He also served as Deputy Attorney general for the department of justice. He was a u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york. We are delighted to have you here. Please go ahead. Thank you. Senators, let me start by thanking you for your support of the people of the fbi stop when i became director, one of the great him issues was the impact of sequestration. Thanks to you, we now have the resources to rehire and fill those positions, to be the nsa National Security organization that we need to be. National security remains our top priority. Counterterrorism and intelligence. I want to offer a few thoughts about cyber. It has been in the news. It touches everything that the fbi is responsible for. I tried to explain to folks that it is not a thing, it is a vector. We have connected our entire lives to the internet. It is where our children pay and where our banking is stop health care and critical infrastructure. Soon it will be where your refrigerator is and things you wear in your car. Because we have connected our whole lives, the people who would do is home harm, that is where they come. For our children, as secrets, our infrastructure. It cuts across every responsibility that the fbi has. I was in indiana and someone was responding reminding me of the great vector change of the last century. It was the combination of the automobile, which introduced a new kind of crime to this country. Criminals can travel very quickly. It was important to have a National Resource to respond to that. I was reminded of it while they were talking to me about John Dillinger. I said in response, John Dillinger could not do 1000 robberies in the aim day in all 50 states in his pajamas halfway around the world. That is the challenge we now face. With the internet, it is a challenge that we are trying very hard to respond to and attract and retrain great people and given the technology they need to build relationships with the private sector that are vital to us. They will get the training and equipment that they need to respond. You saw this week, two of the products of that work. The hard work being done and the scope of the challenges. The charging of people over the world, and collaboration with 18 different Law Enforcement organizations. The challenge we face is that it blows away normal concepts of time and a. Space. It requires us to shrink the world. Both of these cases illustrate our commitment to reach around the world and make clear to people that we will not put up with this and that although the neighborhood has become dangerous, we will treat these burglaries for what they are. We will treat them as seriously as someone kicking in your door to steal your stuff. We are very hard to make sure that that is a rarity. I already priority. Counterterrorism is something that this committee knows very well. I continue to focus on al qaeda and its off spring. Its progeny throughout the middle east and africa are viral and best purulent virulent and intent on doing harm to americans here and abroad. Purulent virulence across the continent and syria. Droves of jihad these are coming to serious to build new relationships at some point, they will flow out of syria. There will be a terrorist diaspora. I know everyone on this committee remembers the diaspora we faced out of afghanistan after dj howdy involvement with the soviet. You can connect it directly to 9 11. We in Law Enforcement and the Intelligence Community are determined not to allow lines to be drawn between an outflow from syria and future 9 11 incident. The big change i discovered in coming back to government is the emergence of homegrown violent extremists in the United States. Those people who can be inspired by al qaeda to kill innocents. The internet offers them in access to poisonous information. In this form, i cannot say much about counterintelligence it remains a huge part of our work. We saw a reflection of it in the work we did to reduce the indictments. Our Counterintelligence Mission remains at the forefront of our work. Because we face nationstates that are determined to steal our information and because they can do it through the vector that i mentioned. We are a National Security and Law Enforcement organizations. On the criminal side, we are working with corruption and whitecollar crime. We are trying to protect kids and fight gangs and violence. The last thing i will say is that i worry about the wake of recent disclosures about government surveillance. It is hard for me to find the space and time to talk about what i do and why i do it. I believe people should be suspicious of government power. I am. I believe this country was founded by people who were suspicious of government power. People should ask me, what are you doing and why. I hope i can explain why i need the ability to execute lawful court orders to intercept communication and why i need the ability to track a bad guy through a cell phone will not it helps me save children and rescue kidnap victims and a number of other things. Those details are involving the courts and congress and tremendous amount of oversight. It is hard for us in the current windstorm to find a decent time, i am determined to do that. Let me close by thanking you. The magic of the fbi is its people. We cannot have a lot of stuff. We have amazing people. They are working National Security all over this world, 24 hours a day. That is the great joy of my work. I can see them men touched the work they do. I know you feel the same way. I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you very much. I was struck by a number of things that i would like to ask you. Ill open this session. It may make sense not of the hearing, but as a general briefing. We will find a time when you and those senators on both sides of the aisle can meet in a secure room and go over some of these issues. I would be open to that. You talked about cyber. That is something that worries me. Theres no question that you are example of John Dillinger today could be sitting offshore. It is still huge amounts of money. Earlier this week, the department of justice indicted five Chinese Military operatives. They were stealing trade secrets. Proamerican companies, several bus wreck were in the white house, and we discussed several things. There were increasing that the rats. Everything from our Steel Company store hightech companies. They were trying to figure out a way to improve. They ordered a hearing in which they testified. Several of our members on both sides of the aisle worked on a proposal. Can you elaborate on your efforts to curb trade secrets and steps. Can you tell us, are the tools that you have, are they adequate . Thank you. I agree very much of what you said. We face an enormous challenge. It was illustrated well on monday. A nationstate was engaging in fact. Why build it when you can steal it . As i have learned, from talking to the private sector in my time on this job, there are two kinds of companies in the United States. Those who have been hacked by the chinese and those who do not know they have been hacked by the chinese. It is a problem we are responding to with a lot energy and working with a lot of partners across government. In terms of statutory tools, i have the authority that i need. The challenge of these cases is that they are resource intensive. They require technology and training. That is why i focus on those things. The committee discussed at length National Security agencys use of parts of the patriot act. Putting aside the nsas use of section 215, National Security is based on the same relevance. They do not require judicial approval. I would hope that nsa letters are not being engaged bible collection. Basketball bulk collection. Can you confirm that they are not doing bulk collection . The reason for the basic Building Block records of counterintelligence. May are not used to collect records and bulk. You have any intention of changing that . Non. I understand that you are planning to move the director of intelligence. Youll do analysis for the bureau as a whole. The only question i raise is that the investigations are broader in scope. They may rely on expansive data collection. I am concerned about whether privacy and Civil Liberties and those sort of questions. Traditional domestic policies may not warrant such a shift. Newer agents have not developed basic criminal investigation skills necessary for more traditional crime solving. Are you addressing Civil Liberties concerns . Are you ensuring that this emphasis will not involve the expense of trading agents to fulfill basic Law Enforcement . I can assure you on both counts. To start with the second piece first, i intend to direct that all new agents do criminal work at the beginning of their careers so that they develop both the tools and techniques of Law Enforcement and also the mindset. One of the great gifts of the fbi is that we have a respect for the rule of law and the Fourth Amendment and the fifth amendment and the sixth amendment. There is nothing like criminal work to drive it into the fiber of an agent. That is with respect to what i intend to do on the intelligence side. I will make sure that we are using intelligence, whether it is criminal intelligence or National Security intelligence in the appropriate way with due regard and careful regard for Civil Liberties protections that we are so passionate about. For me, it is about making sure that my criminal investigators are being thoughtful and taking advantage of the same smart people in my panel and to see what they might be missing a network. One last question. I mention this to the other senator. Since 9 11, federal prosecutors have successfully convict the more than 500 terrorism suspects in our courts. That is a big number. We have a small handful in a military commission. That has been mired in controversy. A military Commission Defense lawyer is defending someone at guantanamo. Illicit fbi agents alleges fbi agents were representing september 11 defendants. They had some questions about the defense team. I have a very serious question. Was it the fbi who try to recruit somebody on the defense team . Do you have anything you can tell me about this . Is a matter i am aware of. I do not mean to hu