Conversation. It could lead to collaboration and better results for our cities and our country. So thank you all very much. Thank you. Thanks for that ending. Thanks everyone for participating. [applause] Hillary Clinton obviously part of this discussion here at the center for american progress. This is questions continuing over emails she sent during her tenure as secretary of state. The House Committee on benghazi revealing yesterday the server that contained those emails was wiped clean. The committee learned of this from a clinton attorney after requesting the server be turned over to a third party as part of that investigation into the 2012 benghazi consulate attack in libya. Its not certain when the server was erased though Benghazi Committee chair trey goudie suggested it was sometime after october 2014, when the state department asked for secretary clinton to turn offer her public records. The Republican National committee, meanwhile releasing a Statement Today about ms. Clintons server being erased. It reads in part, even nixon didnt destroy the tapes. Unfortunately, it appears clinton went above and beyond to eliminate email traffic as secretary of state. There isnt a separate set of rules the clintons can choose to play by. Its time they be held accountable. That from the rnc. Next up here on cspan, a look at customs and Border Protection operations with commissioner Gil Kerlikowske he recently spoke about the Agency Mission and the challenges it faces in protecting u. S. Borders with canada and mexico from the u. S. Chamber of commerce. This is an hour. Okay. Well good morning, everybody. Welcome. Im the Senior Vice President for National Security and Emergency Preparedness here at the u. S. Chamber. Were so glad you could join us here today. The u. S. Chamber is very pleased to welcome back our friend and partner u. S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner Gil Kerlikowske for his first state of the agency address focused on trade. As the commissioner begins his second year we thought this was a perfect time to address the trade community and give them an overview of whats coming up. The chamber supports the dual mission of c. B. P. Protecting National Security objectives while promoting economic prosperity. We see ourselves as a partner in their mission. Businesses are linked together through a global web of interconnected, predictable, and efficient supply chains. U. S. Businesses rely on those supply chains to Access International consumers as well as compete in the global marketplace. Improvements that address cross border friction smooth the flow of trade and enhance the calumet tiffness of all of our companies. We at the chamber will continue to advance priorities that improve the performance of Global Supply chains. This advocacy will include policy and Regulatory Reform pursuing effective legislation on the hill, promoting commercially meaningful commitments from our trade partners to advance global customs modernization. As the hill moves toward, forward with trade permission authority we must not forget the bipartisan trade facilitation and trade enforcement act or customs modernization. As you know, this legislation takes aggressive action to address check points at our borders, lower the transaction costs of trade and provide needed reverses for trade facilitation customs modernization, and the enforcement of our intellectual property rights. As the executive order on trade facilitation enters its second year the chamber will continue to engage d. H. S. In the interagency to ensure the delivery of a commercially meaningful single window that meets the white houses 2016 deadline. Finally, as the trade Facilitation Agreement advances the chamber is committed to a Public Private partnership that ensures accountability for commercially meaningful implementation. We look forward to working with c. B. P. To modernize customs procedures and streamline the passage of goods by cutting red tape and bureaucracy at our global borders. With that said, we know we have a Great Partnership with commissioner kerlikowske and his team. We look forward to working together to advance our shared priorities on modernizing the border processes for 21st century trade. It is now truly my pleasure to introduce commissioner kerlikowske. Gil kerlikowske was nominated by president obama and sworn in in march 7 2014, as commissioner taking the helm of the 60,000employee agency with a budget of 12. 4 billion. As commissioner, he leads the largest federal Law Enforcement agency and second largest revenue collecting source in the federal government. The commissioner brings nearly four decades of Law Enforcement and drug policy experience to the office of the commissioner. Previously, he served in such distinguished positions as director of the White House Office of National Drug policy, chief of police in Seattle WashingtonPolice Commissioner in buffalo, new york and the majority of his Law Enforcement career was spent with the st. Petersburg police department. He has received numerous awards and recognition for his leadership innovation, and community service. Gil, thank you for your lifetime of service to our great country. Please give a warm welcome to commissioner kerlikowske. [applause] well, good morning, everybody. Thank you so much for being here and, ann, thank you very much for the very warm welcome. Its always a pleasure to come to the chamber. Its always a great honor. The chamber and all of its staff have been great partners with c. B. P. Actually, on the drug free workplace when i served as the president s drug policy adviser. So thank you very much. I really appreciate the opportunity to be with all of you today. Many of you over the last year, since ive had this job, and actually during my confirmation process have had the opportunity to get to know you and understand a lot of these issues and talk about them quite a bit. I would also like to thank the people that are attending via the web and im sure there are people in florida that have nice tans that are busy watching this, also. The chamber is absolutely vital to our nations Economic Health and as champions of the american business, they you help the Chamber Helps our industries compete and lead on the global playing field. I believe that another player in this is the United States customs and Border Protection. We play a Critical Role in the effort and the success of our mission ensuring Border Security while facilitating lawful trade and travel is integral to americas global competitiveness. The typical day, and many of you already know these statistics, but i wouldnt be a good fit if i didnt repeat some of them to you, the typical day c. B. P. Processes more than a million people, screens more than 70,000 truck rail, and sea Cargo Containers at our 328 ports of entry, processing 4. 4 billion in exports, 6. 8 billion in imports. Trade and travel facilitation are balanced with a strong commitment to a seamless Border Security. And it makes our Mission Difficult but it also means that we have to have good collaboration, good communication, and good partners and thats certainly including every one of you that are here today. Well last may when i had a chance to speak here at the chamber, i barely had two months in office and so some people were wondering, how does someone with a Law Enforcement, strong Law Enforcement background for many, many years, how are you going to adapt to this trade and this travel issue . How are you going to make sure that youre paying attention to the Economic Security along with the Border Security . And how are you going to navigate the incredible complexities of trade . After all issues like splay Chain Security and cargo free inspection mutual recognition arrangements, they all have their own special language. And at c. B. P. I think we have the most competing acronyms, competing with the department of defense for the most acronyms. Its a different world and some might say that it can be for me particularly it was a bit morrow pake than the Law Enforcement bit more opaque than the Law Enforcement lingo of narcotics and smuggling and some of the crime issues c. B. P. Deals with. In my first year as commissioner ive seen first hand and ive traveled all over the United States and, frankly, all over the world, ive gotten to see first hand how integral our mission is to the nations Economic Health and vitality and the safety and security of that Global Supply chain. In 2014 we cleared 2. 5 trillion in imports 1. 6 trillion in exports we processed 26 million Cargo Containers. That was ape increase of 4 over 2013. As everyone in this room and everyone watching clearly knows, those increases not only in trade but those increases in travel are something that were certainly seeing in this fiscal year, also. Well, seeing that first hand in that volume at the ports provided a greater understanding of the complexity of the trade process and how they can present some real significant challenges for you, for those of you that are in global business. We enforce laws for 50 federal agencies. We have equities and they all have equities in the trade process. Hundreds of different types of forms, many more acronyms, that are required to import and export. The system is and can be time consuming and it can be costly. And thats not only for government but for all of you as well. Thats why weve focused on stream layning and modernizing our process. We are indebted to people that have worked and been longtime colleagues such as c. B. P. And for the work that they did. C. B. P. Had to meet the growth in trade thats predicted in the next few years. I want to share with you some of the progress weve made and i want to talk with you about some of the things that weve charted for the future. First of all was filling the number of key positions. Over the course since secretary johnson has been in office not quite two years it was very clear to him there were far too many acting positions in the department of Homeland Security and he made a real effort and has been incredibly successful at getting people confirmed through the United States senate. Thats also been true for c. B. P. Prior to my confirmation, we had a number of acting positions including within the as commissioner of customs and Border Protection. Those people did an outstanding job. I really stand on their shoulders, whether its an alan burson or david aguilar, or others. They did an incredible job. As all of us know in this room and in the politics inside the beltway it is helpful to have the Good Housekeeping seal of the United States senate. So being the first confirmed commissioner in the Obama Administration i think, is helpful, but it also gave me the opportunity to remove a number of acting titles away from people. So many of you had a chance to participate and congratulate kevin macalene as no longer the acting Deputy Commissioner but Deputy Commissioner. I was incredibly proud to appoint brenda smith as assistant commissioner for International Trade and sandra bell as the deputy. And todd owen coming from the port of los angeles as the assistant commissioner for Field Operations and the Strong Partner with john wagner as the deputy. And then rich tinuchi with many, many years of experience in this field as the executive director of cargo and conveyance security. All of these individuals are true experts and theyre innovators in the trade mission. They are a tremendous asset not only to c. B. P. And d. H. S. , they are a tremendous asset to the nations economy and all of you. Maria louisaboys who heads our office of trade relations and is also our trade ombudsman and the additional staff that i put in place in my office right down the hall to directly connect with me when it comes to issues that are of concern to you. And they work with me on a daily basis to make sure that i understand and recognize and live up to the promises that ive made regarding theas pry these priorities. I am pleased to announce today as weve made these promotions weve also created vacancies with that. There is no single area that is more important than making sure that we deliver it on time and that it operates well. Thats in the ace program. The c. B. P. Lead executive for the single window initiative, i hope you can all give steve a little round of applause for taking this on. [applause] steve is going to coordinate the activities within c. B. P. With that role in the single window and is the primary point of contact for c. B. P. Participation in all of our u. S. Government activities relating to the single window. That includes his work with the border interagency executive council, the International Data system board, community stakeholders. We should be paying you more money. [laughter] i could go on but actually, theres a lot. Well, speaking of the single window as part of c. B. P. s trade Transformation Strategy weve really accelerated the deployment of our import Export Processing system. The automated commercial environment ace where you recognize, you clearly recognize what a huge shift this is moving from these paperbased and fax and original signatures and a number of questions that perhaps, in this day and age arent as necessary to be asked, but because we had always done it that way, we always continue to do it that way. Weve moved to a faster, modernized, more Cost Effective electronics submissions. As we close in on key milestones, and i can never give a speech without making sure that i give those key milestones, on may 1 and november 1 of this year and october, 2016, all key dates that youre well aware of c. B. P. Continues to develop, test, and deploy the capabilities that are all designed to transform cargo processing. Many of you know ace is the core of the executive order that was signed by president obama in 2013 so the december, 2016 deadline for completion of the governmentwide automated single window would streamline government. C. B. P. And d. H. S. Are spearheading this effort and ace is the single window thats going to allow relevant federal agencies to review and respond to cargo movement, reduce costs, and speed the cargo process. And working closely with all of our federal partners including the e. P. A. , food safety, and inspection service, many others to ensure that ace is equipped to meet their requirements because we have to be a good steward. We have to be a good partner with them. That single window is completed to serve your needs and to simplify international business. Well, an area that i am really excited about is the ebond area. Our c. F. O. , jay williamson, is here, and the people involved in this ebond transformation, its pretty exciting. So ebond processing is one of the most important modernization efforts in ace. Ebond is a tremendous benefit to both c. B. P. And the filer, customs brokers, selffiling importers, etcetera. When filers electronically transmit a bond to c. B. P. , they get a positive response within 10 to 15 seconds s before it was four to five days. So you can begin to understand the magnitude of this change and its effect on the supply chain. Industry has recognized this benefit and in the first month of ebonds more than 11,000 bonds were created in ace. Today more than 90 of the c. B. P. Bond market is being submitted electronically. Thats really exciting news. Its good for us and good for business. Another Key Development are our centers of excellence and expertise and the centers are transforming the way we operate by consolidating the industrys processing under the authority of one center. So instead of scattering it throughout hundreds of ports of entry and perhaps importers getting different answers at different ports of entry, these centers benefit everyone. They improve our ability to identify high risk cargo and the importations. They increase consistency and predictability for the industry. If ive heard one set of watch words over and over from you all for quite sometime, its about the importance of consistency and predictability. Youre making your business decisions, budgets hiring on and on and on and you want to make sure that were going to be in the same position talking with the same set of talking points and moving in the s