Orwell. Watch our coverage on cspan2s booktv. This week, Homeland Security secretary john kelly talked about priorities for his department while testifying on the president s 2018 budget request. Topics include Border Security, lawts for local and state enforcement, Human Trafficking and the president s executive order on immigration and refugees. This hearing is two hours. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] i asked consent that my written Opening Statement be entered into the record. I want to welcome secretary kelly, this is a hearing on the department of Homeland Securitys fiscal year 2018 budget. This is the third time secretary kelly has appeared before the committee. Second time as secretary of the department. We welcome you and appreciate your service to this country. In the of my Opening Statement going to make a couple of comments. By vocation i am a accountant our talk about the department of Homeland Security budget. When you look at total Budget Authority, and the department was first it up it was 2004 and the departments budget was 36. 5 billion. Had that budget grown by inflation todays request would be under 50 billion. Instead, total Budget Authority is 70. 6 billion, but a 90 increase. That represents on a bipartisan fashion president bush, president obama now President Trump realist the threat environment that america faces has become more severe. Its growing and evolving in the Department Needs or resources to keep us safe. As much as im concerned about the longterm budget situation in this country the money that we are already in debt we cannot be penny wise and pound foolish. Ive not seen an accurate assessment of how much Economic Loss we suffer because of 9 11. We have to do a we can. I want to be supportive of the secretaries request. It is tough budget times but we need to allocate the resources to keep us safe. The next point i want to make is the dramatic change in terms of total apprehension. We have a chart here. The only of three months of history under the new administration. Come back and have my staff prepare a three month moving average of apprehensions along the southwest border. This incredibly revealing. Prior to the last three months, on average were apprehending around 122,000 people coming in illegally. The last three months total it was under 56000. We are about 46 of the previous for five years average. Thats remarkable. Since taking over the chairmanship that the problem of our illegal entry into the southwest board ive been saying the first thing we need to do is speak being committed to securing the border and then eliminate incentives and i was a lack of enforcement has been a huge incentive and under the new secretary we have committed to securing our border. I was concerned when people taking credit for this reduction after three months well see what happens. I think just that alone has had a powerful effect and were seeing the results now. I commend the secretary for standing strong against severe criticism and enforcing the laws of this nation. I now turn it over chart Ranking Member. Thank you. You appear before the committee a couple months ago for the first time after being confirmed. When i look at the developments that have occurred where you have had to be all hands on deck for serious issues facing the national Homeland Security. A man 11th he met with the Airline Executives about your concerns about large electronic bands with international travel. I may 12 we had a cyber attack that struck more than 200,000 computers and more than hundred 50 companies shutting down tragically a may 22, a tear suicide bomber killed 22 innocent children and adults in manchester, england on this past weekend terrorist killed seven in london. These are a few examples of why we are counting on you and why we respect the job you have to do and how difficult it is. It also speaks to the critical responsibility we have been providing oversight. Ive never known of a Government Agency notes work better with less oversight. Asking her questions is how you do aggressive oversight. I am pleased that you are not afraid to answer tough questions. It is who you are. You have been that way. In fact, i noticed in your speech you get to the coast guard cadets come i will tell quote you, tell the truth to your seniors even those uncomfortable and you they may not want to hear. They deserve that. Tell the truth. I know you will continue to speak truth to power and i look for to your honest assessment that regard. Some of the most attractive soft terrorist in our country. The aim to cut it from 31 to 18 to cover the entire country. The urban Area Security initiative, just been a lifeline for urban areas to have so many soft targets because of the large population, those also have been cut. Additionally, the president s budget will eliminate the Law EnforcementReimbursement Program, which provides assistance to Law Enforcement agencies, which help secure airports. Hundreds of airports take part in this program and for smaller airports, this is important. Particularly for smaller this is important. They provide security to the transportation system. Im concerned they are not getting the attention they deserved in light of what is going on in 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 had to prevent these attacks we are asked to fund a different object of additional agents and offices but there is no provision Additional Office officers. The officers of the one responsible for finding and stopping them. We cannot neglect as we try to increase resources. I cant tell you how much it means to both democrats and republicans. I hope the rest of the administration follows your example because our setting a very good one. Please rise and raise your right hand. Gees were the testimony is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god . Secretary kelly is the fifth Homeland Security prior served as commander of the Southern Command where he worked closed with Law Enforcement and dhs personnel. The reserve and reinforces more than served as senior military assistant to secretary gates. After his retirement, secretary kelly returned to the secretary of Homeland Security. Hes retired fourstar general in america couldnt be more appreciative. Distinguished members of the committee every day the men and women in the department protect americans from the threats we face a and the missions they carry out 24 7 365. The department will make it possible to expand in many ways the ability to protect the nation and the people. The world is a different place today across the domain of the attack they are making a difference while the department of defense fights the away game and it together because of the dedication and Effective Agency a million state and local professionals America Today is safe. Secure and prepared to. Its a budget that manages the mission i think that this budget does that. Being 2018 budget requests 41 billion for the major disasters and to the relief fu fund. Behind each and every dollar they protect the American People. In the freedom and the rule of law above all its investment in the security of the American People as far as i am concerned you cannot invest too much in security. They are horrific reminders of the challenges we face daily to keep us safe that means Getting Better about the identity and making sure people are they say they are. Force them to offer great at the levels work at an we work at ant is the real Idea Initiative which most of the states and territories have taken seriously and are working hard at compliant. Someone elected in the position to have the fundamental responsibility to safeguard the nation and have chosen to drag their feet or ignore the law i will not. We will make america safer than it already is. Real idea for all federal facilities. There is a critically important Commission Recommendation others have been willing to ignore with no extension for states that are taking the efforts egregiously. For the states and territories but cannot and will not make the january 2018 deadline, they should encourage citizen now other forms of id are compliant with the law like passports available from the state department. We need to prevent benefactors regardless of race and nationality from entering the country. In recent years we witnessed an unprecedented spike. There are two servic service tos in the foot soldiers now than almost any time in history in iraq for instance we have thousands of jiha jihad fightert have converged. As our superb military should be to veto machine, other like minded partners as they succeed in the battlefield in iraq and syria, they are returning home to europe, south asia, australia and who knows what they are up to. Theyre heading to what they think are safe havens to get about hate, death and intolerance and whatever they are too high. Someone will carry out the attacks. The president issued direction in the form of the yeshiva to the entire branch to prevent the entry of those that seek to do us harm. The current junction. Some discuss debate and the professional men and women like me are in the business of implementing the president intends to secure the nation, and we are doing that. Selfappointed critics talk about the name and i see the wisdom of the president is trying to do to protect america and its people. To congress willing to work in the business of securing the nation and its been my experience with less than four months on the job congress is committed to that. The quote where why aliens with they have the same countries that identify in the congress in the Previous Administration in 2015 that are of great concern. At the time the expectation was those are in the business of securing the nation would focus additional intention on the nation and others similar circumstances or supplementary interactive betting that has nothing to do with religion or skin color or the way they live their lives but all about security for the United States and nothing else. These are countries that are either unable or unwilling to help us identify the identities and backgrounds. I am not fully confident that we are doing all that we can to weed out the potential wrongdoers to conduct proper screening not just those identified in a specific order it from every country across the globe also prevents me from conducting the review. I await the court to complete the action one way or another so i can get to work. The delay has prevented us from doing that. We need to protect our homeland. I didnt, appreciate the opportunity to appear today and i think you for your continued support and committees continued support for the men and women in the department and the mission we take this seriously. I remain committed and made changes in the Organization Since ive been a Department Head to increase responsiveness, availability and we have done all of that in a big way and i am pleased to answer any questions im going to be for my questioning. Hispanic thank you mr. Chairman. I appreciate the note you ended on, secretary kelly, and i, while i condemn the leak and the person that leaked it we have verified information that they not only accessed a vendor of the voters software but the databases in the months prior to the election. In circumstances this would be an earthquake but because of Everything Else going on i dont think enough attention has been given to something that is your responsibility and that is Critical Infrastructure including the election system. Ive asked for a number of pieces of information and this is one area we havent gotten a response and i appreciate you have got frozen us out. Many of my colleagues are being frozen out across the governme government. I am deeply grateful for this. Im anxious to get more information about what we know about these attempts and whether or not they accessed the population it is clear they were trying to. I dont think they were going to just hang out. Imagine the description if people showed up to vote and their names were no longer on the file what would we do, how would we address that in terms of fairness. So are you deferring the investigation of this to the fbi raised the department engaged in protecting the voter files for the russian government . Im not going to dodge any question relative to anything. I would say up front because of the allegations and things that have been released or so highly classified i wouldnt want to confirm or deny anything we just have to wait for the investigation. Im happy to send people to talk to you at the level they can about what actually took place and i believe members deserve but given the level of classification that i share your concern i do not disagree with anything relative to the sanctity of the voting process. It is an inter agency investigation. It was in fact Critical Infrastructure. Ive had a large amount of pushback from the states. It was done before i took over and we are looking at that to understand what it means that i am meeting with the professionals next week in the city. Do you see us as partners and helpers inside the states and to make sure that your systems are protected but there is nothing more fundamental to the democracy then voting. Hispanic it would be one thing for the states to say we dont want the federal government i dont think the federal government should be telling me how to run their election on the other hand this was bradshaw. It wasnt someone at a university screwing around with one state. It was an international attempt to contact the elections. You are in the best position to do that. Is someone working on the investigation over this intrusion into the datafiles . The other area i wanted to talk about about the funding in the program and the Law EnforcementReimbursement Program and urban area grants that are so important that you address those cuts i referenced it a little bit in my Opening Statement we are in a different tha then we were5 years ago when 9 11 to place. Whether it is the largest or small towns in the counties with few professionals, this is in the dna. We should have right after 9 11 t9 11to get to know a 45 billin 15 years helped states acquire equipment. The dod has a program they give excess equipment for way. In a Perfect World i would love to Fund Everything but 15 years on and we are at a different place locally in terms of protecting the homeland. I understand the point youre making though i dont think we would think of as the threat of a terrorist attack today than it was 15 years ago and i can speak for many of the communities, to have the resources they needed that this allows them to is important so i hope we can Work Together to figure that out. Its much more metastasized and im with you a thousand but the one fundamental difference is we have state, local and federal focus and training and equipment. Senator tester. Thank you for being here secretary kelly. You have bipartisan support because of your track record and you are in front of the subcommittee here a few weeks back and i appreciate your testimony. Since then it was report to the president s soninlaw attempted to establish secret back Channel Communications with the kremlin through the russian ambassador. You were asked about his back channel discussions with russia and eu support in setting up the back Channel Communications. I believe they did occur whether there was anything classified or not and i think it is a big deal because we are talking about russia. To your credit you are a little bit older than me but you look younger. But you remember russia in height of the cold war i dont trust them anymor any more thand when i was in grade school. To have somebody sitting at the back channels before they were in office through a Russian Embassy is disturbing. Have you spoke about this issue . I have not. Has anybody spoken to him about this to find out what kind of information this was . There is all sorts we need to get to the bottom of and so. Many of the staff did not directly. Back Channel Communications. I have back Channel Communications. If i say have a conversation with them it is difficult. I would offer we have to make the assumption he has a clearance at the same level as i understand and he was trying to open information through the back channels to get to putin or anyone else to say we are concerned about this or this is what you might want to consider doing because if it is official it is a whole different dynamic. There were no red flags at all . Can you tell me if its normal to go to an embassy where we had a faux through world war ii is that an example . If i were to do that you would think its okay, if i were to walk over to an embassy and to say i want a back Channel Communication and it appears nobody will know what im talking about and thats