Mccabe talked about james coleys leadership of the bureau at a house hearing on the annual fbi budget. Texas congressman chairs this appropriations subcommittee hearing. Its just over an hour. Will come to order. The subcommittee is pleased to welcome today acting director Andrew Mccabe to present the fiscal year 2018 budget request for the federal bureau of investigation. The fbi is our premier federal Law Enforcement and investigative Intelligence Agency which makes headlines with cyber threats, espionage or international organized crime. The fbi leads into terrorism, counterintelligence, National Security outlets by combating gangs, financial fraud and Human Trafficking in public corruption. It is the indispensable partner to state and local Law Enforcement agencies and our liaison with the federal Law Enforcement partners. We are very grateful that the fbis leading investigations into the wednesday morning shooting, and we are deeply grateful for the work your officers do every day and for looking into an this terrible tragedy. Were very, very grateful for the work of the capital police, the Law Enforcement officers of alexandria who saved a lot of lives that morning. For all First Responders who came out, our thoughts and prayers are with majority whip, matt micah, special agent david bailey, special agent krystal grammar where the victims of the senseless crime and we pray for their quick recovery. The fact that face our director and safety of all americans appears to be growing and raised from terrorist groups such as al qaeda, isis, espionage, cybercrime, international organizations, that traffic humans in drugs in Violent Crime. We articulate concerned about the terrible epidemic of Human Trafficking which, unfortunately, used the texas interstate ten has been a hub for far too much of that. Theres too many young women whose lives have been destroyed in this terrible traffic and i look forward to visiting what about what the fbi can and is doing and what we can help to support your work to fight Human Trafficking and expedition of young women. Above all, the men and women of the fbi no how immensely proud the subcommittee is congresses of their work and that we will Work Together, arm in arm, to support you, to help you with the resources that you need to continue your important work to protect this great nation. We are, however, facing difficult budget situations, mr. Director, unrelenting pressure to turn budgets and we have also to ensure our constituents that their hard earned tax dollars are being spent wisely and frugally and effectively. We are immensely grateful for your service to the nation and pleased to have you with us today. Before we proceed, id like to recognize the Ranking Member of the subcommittee, gentleman from new york for his comments. Like to join you in welcoming acting director mccabe before the subcommittee. This is a turbulent time for the federal bureau of investigation. For reasons not of the bureaus making, i think it is important, however, that we take a moment today to think the rank and file of the fbi for their hard work and service to our nation. Please, mr. Director, pass along our gratitude to the fbi agents and professional staff around the nation and abroad. As a career fbi employee, i am glad that the acting director has a chance to testify before us this afternoon. I believe that your insights into the agency in the wake of the director comeys firing are vitally important in helping us to understand the impact of that action and subsequent statements by the president on agency morale. The budget request of 2018 include a slight reduction of 44. 6 million from the amount of the fy 2017 and this is ironic given the fact that the majority of the fbi budget falls under the defense spending side of the ledger where the president has proposed a 54 billiondollar increase. Apparently, none of that increases for the fbi. Given your Important Role in protecting our nation, this is very troubling. Im also concerned that the Justice Department to the process of giving less priority to critical civil rights and Voting Rights protection, that have long been upheld by the department. Fbi plays a crucial role in investigating violations of our federal civil rights laws, including the Voting Rights act, and the color of law violation. It is important that your ability to maintain these Important Roles is maintained. I hope we can discuss your ongoing efforts today in the text of the policy changes being put forward by the attorney general. Additionally, im interested in discussing your execution of the and ics system which conducts criminal background checks for firearm purchases. You have requested 136 fewer personnel to conduct background checks in 2018. This is problematic because this reduction will increase delays and allow more sales to go forward after three days. Trend without the necessary check and likely increase over time for an already overworked staff. This proposed cut seems like an unwise decision that will harm public safety. Lastly, i think it is important to discuss the Ongoing Investigation into russia interference in last years election. I am curious about how your work in this area dovetails with the Ongoing Investigation by the special prosecutor and whether fbi personnel or resources have been detailed to director muller. Thank you for your service, sir. As acting director and other parts of the department, i look forward to your testimony. Thank you. We recognize in your Opening Statement, which is the same it will be entered into the record and it is entirely without objection. If you could, keep your remarks to five minutes. You for being with us today, sir. Is that better . Again, thank you for your support for the men and women of the fbi. We can have all the money in the world and all the best technology but without the amazing people of the fbi we wont be able to keep the American People safe. Im proud of these individuals and im grateful for their dedication and hard work. We are all grateful for your continued support to our mission. As you know, the fbi is in a time of transition and it has not been easy on any of us. Doctor cumming was a thoughtful and inspiring leader. He fostered a number of priorities to make the fbi better and stronger. From improvements in the way we collect, use, share intelligence are cyber programs, to leadership in diversity issues. We are going to do our best to make sure we continue to make progress in all of those areas. The threats we face are constantly evolving and we too must continually see examine the way we can do business to ensure that we are doing everything we can invest way that we can. I firmly believe that the fbi maintains a sacred trust with the American People to protect them and uphold the constitution. We do that with the precious resources that those people in this committee give us. The fundamental elements of that sacred trust is making sure that we are always good stewards of the taxpayers money. We have tried to be good stewards of the funding provided in the event conservative in our budget request. We ask for what we need and when we need extra in certain areas, we dont hesitate to tell you and yes, we havent been to talk about today. The fbis budget request this year proposes a total of 8. 7 billion in salaries and expenses and this will support positions and 12484 special agents, 2950 of which are intelligent analysts and 18099 our professional staff. We need every single one of those people. They are the lifeblood of the fbi. Sent to do that we have to hire the best cyber challenge. The counterintelligence area were asking 19 million to cover threads and we will also use the resources to focus on Insider Threats from trusted employees prepare in the area that we refer to as going dark 21 when 6 million to address this problem and i can tell you this is more than just for communications is a part of the issue but not the entire part also with our ability to execute lawful court orders on Electronic Devices and that is a growing problem, a Violent Crime is one of the highest priorities for good reason and it challenges our partners at the state local and tribal level every single day were asking 33 positions 33. 4 million with the attorney general task force for for reduction and civilians area were asking to sustain so that period of time that character in counterterrorism targets decides to operation allies their intent and within you are most concerned with those modalities of weapons we have seen earlier today that will further compress that time going from flash to bang in with those Death Threats unlawful surveillance with those highest priorities in that is the reauthorization of by is the section seven 02 but gives us the authority to collect foreign intelligence outside United States this intelligence is incredibly important to us a tool for the u. S. Government and if we lose a the country will be less safe without a word it twitter of a window to the terrorists of weapons proliferators we dont know what day are planning or recruiting and with that executive legislative judicial branches that is just the way we want to be. Weld were asking for resources against the criminals sources also to go against our Technology Center to go against reno we can count on those resources we need to keep the country safe for were very grateful for that. In conclusion the fundamental things of the fbi will not change the commitment and the core values respect and compassion and fairness and integrity and accountability and leadership and diversity and of course, adherence to the constitution. These are the values that made the fbi what is today to focus on the Mission Creep doing great work with your support and i am happy to take directions. Your salaries is below the 2017 appropriation notice of the assumption that we would be under that a continuing Resolution Resolution which did not happen but it appears to leave the fbi with the whole and to help us assist you with that we are asking would this affect the ability to address terrorism and homegrown mileage extremism . It will impact us in many ways. It will touch every program and headquarters and field offices. It is not possible to take entirely consider it will touch every description we will lose agent positions and of course, professional staff. As you know, we went through a period of sequestration a few years ago reduced 3,000 positions it has taken is quite some time to hire our way back to full strength were on target to be close to full strength the with these reductions that you describe will take us back word a step. We will have the final word on that we strongly support your work and we will do our best to help you to make sure you have an adverse impact. The fbi request 8 million increase for surveillance of high priority targets. Why is that a priority and how was it different from current surveillance needs . We are in good shape right now but all personal funding allows it enables us to protect 70 positions that our likely to have been added the demands we have placed on surveillance over the last several years has grown with those homegrown violent extremist in the targets grow there are those of me to keep a close eye on on the day to day your 24hour basis so those resources become all the more important. As i mentioned in the Opening Statement the effects the whole country but there is the terrible problem with young women being sold into slavery it is the catastrophic situation talk to us about the work the fbi is doing to fight even trafficking. In the southwest border area with field offices addressing border issues we have made a significant investment in terms of the task force in the work we do with our partners that danda just and frequently we find ourselves looking at organizational crime groups engaged did Human Trafficking so that combined work to be as productive and as effective as we can but we recognize it is a growing threat and we are focused very closely to make sure we have the right people doing that works period the budget request what can the committee do to help or what Additional Resources do you need . I think the most viable thing at this point is to restore those reductions that we are likely to see from 2017. What are the main challenges the fbi is encountering regarding the supply chain considering the concern of those trojan horses . Incredibly important area right now we have tried to extend our reach across the government and the private sector were in a unique position to see those threats coming in from counterintelligence and we try to spread that to utilize the best practices document to let people know these are the threats they need to know across the government and it is important and has been great to see the last several months the administration has a deep interest to address the things we have seen from the program a lot of ways to be more effective to monitor Foreign Investment with High Tech Industries that would help in that area. Mr. Chairman, i am concerned at the special counsel even to appointed to investigate between United States and russia will not have adequate resources. Is special counsel provided with full access to all resources needed for the investigation . It is. I can assure you that ive had many interactions with the special counsel and we are meeting over the next. Hours to discuss that we have a great number of folks who were leading up the team and i have assured director miller we your doing everything we can to deliver those resources to do that work. That fbi Investigation Continues concurrently with the special counsel investigation or have all resources necessary been transferred to director mahlers office . Call have been assigned to that after to to director mueller the fbi continues to maintain responsibility for counterterrorism issues including the russian adversary so we still do work with russia counterintelligence it we are careful to leave to the special counsel. Director comey felt uncomfortable he said and told general sessions that meeting with the president so that you met with President Trump or how many times and would you feel uncomfortable meeting along with the president . Have met with President Trump on a very few occasions which there have been many other people present. I have not felt uncomfortable in those meetings. Im sorry what was the rest of your question . Would you feel uncomfortable to meet alone . We have a welldeveloped and long known white house contact policy and i am aware of what that policy is and i do everything it can to ensure my contact with the white house President Trump or anybody elses in with the scope of that policy to talk to the Deputy Attorney general about that any contact that i have with the president is approved by the Deputy Attorney general. These questions have to be cast have you been asked for a loyalty oath from the president and if not what would you do if you work . I will answer the second part first for i have taken in those already to United States of america to protect and defend the constitution that is the only 05 will take so that is not an issue for me and regarding specific conversations with the president i dont think that is appropriate for me to discuss in this forum. Something that came of the heather day the other day mr. Rogers right after 9 11 gave a lot of money to the fbi. Years later i asked director mueller to you think that terrorism is the main focus that we play more heavily on the terrorism part rather than whitecollar criminals or drug dealers or public corruption and at that time he said there was the over emphasis on terrorism. So carryback to the situation where the guy selling drugs in my community were supplying those drugs is not getting away with that . I confess to answer the question to say i think were in the right place now with the emphasis and resources we put on those divergent programs for progression our criminal threats continue with the same way they do with the fbi and we will constantly emphasize constant vigilance against those threats we are looking to prioritize and could we do more . Than those resources are finite. So at the same time and there is the period after 9 11 with our capabilities of Intelligence Organization and as response to terrorism but the required a broad and deep evolution to our approach i feel pretty comfortable to say we have done the hard work every year in a different place to day then we were. Rest assured i will support the chairman to make sure you continue to have the resources because theyre both important. Mr. Director, welcome. You talked briefly about Transnational Criminal Organizations and the impact of those groups job of lead of narcotics coming into our country by way of mexico so what can you tell us about what you are doing to disrupt those criminal organizations and the finances that is generated to allow them to do bad criminal things . We feel the same way, hello . Is that better . Is it working . I will try to speak a little louder. Pc it the same way that you do that is the place where fbi resources to