Good morning, this hearing will come to order. I would ask that my written Opening Statement be entered into the record. Without objection. I want to welcome secretary kelly for a hearing on the Homeland Security fiscal year 2018 budget. This is the third time secretary kelly has been before this committee, the second time as secretary. We appreciate your service to this country, your many years of it. I just want to make a couple of comments. By vocation, i am an accountant so i have gone through budget meetings many, many times. I want to talk about the history of the budget of the department of Homeland Security. When you take a look at total Budget Authority, when the department was first stood up, the first fiscal year was 2004. Wasdepartments budget 36. 5 billion. Had that budget just grown by inflation, todays request would be a little under 50 billion. The total Budget Authority is 70. 6 billion, a 93 increase. From my standpoint that represents on a bipartisan fashion, president bush, president obama, and now President Trump recognizes that the environment america faces is more severe. The Department Needs more resources to keep its homeland safe. As much as im concerned about the longterm budget situation in this country, the 20 trillion we are in debt, we cannot be penny wise and pound foolish. I have seen an accurate assessment of how much Economic Loss we suffered because of 9 11. We have to do everything we possibly can, and the defense of this nation, our homeland is the top priority of government. I want to be completely supportive of the secretarys request. We needdget times but to allocate the resources to keep this nation safe. ,he next point i want to make the dramatic change we have had in terms of total apprehension. We really only have three months worth of history under the new administration. I have gone back and have my staff prepare a three month apprehensions of along the southwest border. It is incredibly revealing. ,rior to the last three months on average we were apprehending a little more than 122,000 individuals coming into this country illegally. The last three months total it was just under 56,000. Previousout 46 of the four to five years average. That is a pretty remarkable result. Since taking over this chairmanship i have been looking at the problem of our illegal entry into our southwest border, i have been saying repeatedly that we need to be committed to securing our border and eliminate the incentives for illegal immigration. Ack of enforcement has been huge incentive for people to come to this country. Under the new administration we have committed to securing our border. I was a little concerned when people were taking credit for this reduction. I think after three months, we will see what happens after four months. That signals that we are committed to securing this border and has had a powerful effect. We are seeing the results right now so i commend the secretary for standing strong against severe criticism and enforcing the laws of this nation. I will turn it over to our Ranking Member. Thank you mr. Chairman and thank you, secretary kelly for being here. You appeared for the first time a couple months ago after being confirmed. Then, youpments since have had to be all hands on deck due to serious issues with national and Homeland Security. May 11 you met with Airline Executives about your concern about Large Electronics band in international travel. He had a ransom ware cyber attack that struck more than 200,000 computers in 150 countries, shutting down Police Departments in india and closing doctors offices in britain. On may 22, a terror suicide and ankilled children adult. These are a few examples of why we are counting on you and respect the job you have to do every day and how difficult it is. The importance of your work speaks to the critical responsibility this committee has in providing oversight. I have never known a Government Agency that worked better with asking hardht, and questions is the way you do progressive oversight. I am particularly pleased that you are not afraid to answer tough questions. It is kind of who you are. You have been that way throughout your career. I noticed in your speech he gave to the coast guard cadets tell the truth to your seniors even if it is uncomfortable and they do not want to hear it. They deserve that. Tell the truth. I look forward to your honest assessment of what we can do to help you. Well none of the three terrorists over the weekend would have been impacted by the travel ban, a lot of the discussion in the United Kingdom is about the conservative partys cut in Police Resources over the last decade, and how many fewer resources were on the ground to prevent those terrorist attacks. I am concerned the president s tsaet plans to cut reticle programs critical tsa programs. Intermotive prevention and Response Teams are deployed all over the country to provide critical assistance securing airports, subways, and bus terminals, some of the most attractive soft targets for terrorists. The president budget the president s budget plans to cut it. Because of the large populations, those also have been cut. Budget willts completely eliminate the Law Enforcement officer Reimbursement Program which provides assistance to local lawenforcement who secure our airports. Hundreds of airports across the country take part, and particularly for smaller airports, this is critically important. She budget will also sla other tsa programs. The Port SecurityGrant Program will be cut in half. The president is calling for complete elimination of the terrorist attack Grant Program. I am concerned these priorities are not getting the attention they deserve, especially in light of what is going on around the world. We may be focused on a shiny object which has come to be known as the travel ban when we need to be focused on how many people we have, in your terminology, boots on the ground in terms of being able to identify, track, and prevent terrorist attacks. We are being asked to find Additional Border patrol officers and air marine officers but theres no budget for cbp officers. As you know, the majority of drugs and other contraband come through our country through the ports of entry and the cbb officers are responsible for finding and stopping them. We cannot neglect our ports of entry as we try to increase resources for Border Patrol and ice agents. I am glad you are here today, secretary kelly. I have a lot of questions that i know the rest of the committee does too. I cannot tell you how much it means that you are willing to come here and answer our questions. I hope the rest of the administration follows your example. The tradition of this committee to swear in our witnesses so if you would please rise and raise your right hand. Sworn]tness is please be seated. Theetary john f. Kennedy is fifth secretary of Homeland Security callie is the fifth security secretary of Homeland Security. He worked closely with Law Enforcement and dhs personnel to combat the flow of drugs and people from across the southern border. Secretary kellys career includes Extensive Service in the marine corps where he and served under two secretaries of defense. Less than a year after his retirement of service he returned to serve the American People as secretary of Homeland Security. Retiredkelly is a fourstar general, goldstar parent, and america could not be more appreciative to have you serving in this capacity. We look forward to your testimony. , Ranking Member, mccaskill every day the men and women of the department of Homeland Security protect america against the threat we face so it is a great pleasure to be before you to talk about the terrific men and women of the department and the Critical Issues they carry out. If there is anyone who fully er mans understands anyone who fully understands the role of our government understands that it ends with the protection of our people. No other mission is more important, no other issue more pressing. Will018 budget request make it possible for us to continue and expand in many ways on our ability to protect our nation and its people. The world is a different place today and we can no longer think in terms of defense, but must thek of the security of homeland across the numerous domains of potential a fact attack and defense. The department of defense fights andaway game, and together because of the dedication of the fbi,agency integration, desk and another others, America Today is safe. America today is safe and secure in a way that people could not have envisioned on 9 11. We need a fully funded budget that matches our mission. I think this budget does that. Request,18 budget 44. 8 billion in net discretionary spending. When you are talking about numbers like this, it is easy to lose sight behind what is lucite what is behind lose each behind what is behind dollar. Every dollar invested in the men and women of dhs and in the tools, infrastructure, equipment, and training to get the job done is an investment in prosperity, freedom, and the rule of law. It is an investment in the security of the American People. Recent events show you cannot invest too much insecurity. Terrorist attacks on innocent are horrific reminders of the dangers we face globally. They also illustrate the need to do everything we can to keep our people safe. That means Getting Better about verifying identity, aching sure people are who they say they are , and working with International Partners to raise awareness and defenses, to force them if need be to at least operate at the levels we work at. One of the most important one whichis the most of our states and territories have taken seriously and have already adopted. Many others are working hard at compliance. In those 12 years, some elected positions who have the fundamental and sacred responsibility to safeguard the nation have chosen to drag their feet or ignore the law passed by congress. I will not. Real id will make america safer and will be enforced at our airports, ports of entry, and federal facilities. 9 11 a 911 Commission Recommendation that others were willing to ignore, that i will be sure will be implemented. Territoriesates and that cannot or will not make the january 2018 deadline, they should encourage their citizens to acquire other forms of id compliant with the real id law, like passports, available from the state department. Actors to prevent bad regardless of religion, race, or nationality, from entering our entering our country. There are more terrorist hotspots and foot soldiers now then it almost any time in modern history. In syria and iraq we have thousands of jihadist fighters and verging more than 120 countries. Military machine acting in coalition with likeminded partners, as they succeed on the battlefield these jihadi fighters are returning home to europe, south asia, southeast asia, australia, and the western hemisphere, and who knows what they are up to that we can guess. Havense hiding in safe to spread their toxic ideology , and in tolerance wherever they are allowed to hide. We expect some will travel to the United States to carry out attacks. The president has issued clear direction in the form of an executive order to prevent the entry of aliens who seek to do us harm. With the current code injection prevents us injunction prevents us from taking steps until we see how the court action plays out. Label,ome argue the professional men and women like me are in the business of implementing the president s attempt to secure the nation, and we are doing that. Congress seesat the wisdom of what the president is trying to do, to protect america and its people, and that congress are willing to work with those of us in the business of securing the nation. It has been my experience in less than four months on the job that congress is committed to that. The injunction has prevented us from implementing a temporary ban on travel from aliens by six sponsors who are state of terrorism, fail states. They are the same countries identified by congress in 2015 as nations of great concern. At the time, the expectation was that those in the business of securing the nation lawfully would focus additional attention on these nations and others in similar circumstances for venting. It had venting. Vetting it is all about security for the United States and nothing else. These countries are unable or unwilling to help us validate the identities of persons within their borders. The cousin the injunction i am not fully confident we are doing all that we can to weed out potential wrongdoers. The injunction events may from looking into the information prevents me from looking into the information that we need. It also prevents me from conducting a review on the executive order with the goal of improving the security of our refugee program. Ed from doingnjoin these things and i anxiously await the court to complete its action so i can get to work. Canwill do everything we and always within the law, to keep the American People safe. The delay has prevented us from doing what i and those most familiar with the reality of the threats we face, believe we need to do to protect our homeland. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before the committee today and i thank you for your continued support, and the committees continued support for the men and women of the department and the mission we take so seriously. I look forward to working with congress to protect the American People. I have made changes to do exactly that, to increase responsiveness and availability of witnesses, and we have done that in a big way. I am glad to answer any questions you have. I really appreciate the attendance by my colleagues. I know everyone has a tight schedule, so i will defer my questioning so other people have the opportunity. Starting with senator mccaskill. I appreciate the note you ended on, secretary kelly, and while i condemn the leak and the person who leaked it, we now have in the Public Domain verified information that the russians made an aggressive attempt to access not only a vendor of voter software in this country, but also what number of states, the voter file databases in the months prior to our election. In any other circumstances this would be an earthquake but because of Everything Else that is going on i dont think enough attention has been given to something that is your responsibility as the secretary of Homeland Security, Critical Infrastructure including the election system. I have asked for a number of pieces of information and this is one area we have not gotten a response. I appreciate that you have not frozen us out. A lot of my colleagues are being frozen out across the government. I am not being frozen out and i deeply appreciate it. I am anxious to get more information about what we know about these attempts, whether or not they access tabulation, it is clear they were trying to get into that voter file. And i dont think they were trying to go there to just hang out. Gine the disruption talking about voter id imagine the disruption if thousands of people showed up to vote and their names were no longer on the voter people showed up and they were not on the voter files. What would we do i guess my question is are you deferring this to the fbi, or is the department actively engaged in investigating the penetration or attempts to penetrate elections in this country . Sec. Kelly thank you, senator. I will not dodge any question that anyone in the nonstate say ups asks, but i will front because of the allegations of the things that have been allegedly released ourselves have a classified, i would not want to confirm or deny anything in there. I think we have to wait for the investigation. Happy to send people over to talk to you to the level they can about what actually took place. I share your concern. I dont disagree with anything you said relative to the sanctity of our voting process. Clearly, it should be an interagency investigation and that is taking place. Dhs will be part of that. Leaving, jeh his johnson went out and declared the voting infrastructure was, in fact, Critical Infrastructure. I have had a large amount of pushback on that from states some members many members of congress. It was done before i took over. We are looking at that, trying to help the states understand what that means, and it is voluntary, entirely. We are here to help, so to speak. But i meeting with the state Homeland Security professionals, i think next week here in the city, and i will put that question to them should we back off on the . I dont think we should, but should we back off on that . Do you see us as helpers, partners in this to help down inside the states, and help make sure your systems are protected . But there is nothing more fundamental to our democracy than voting. in following up with that, i hope you convey it would be one thing for the states to say we dont want the federal government i like that our elections are decentralized. I dont think the federal government should tell each state how to run elections or what vendors to use,