Appropriation committee which we will hear in the fiscal year 2018 budget request. I am grateful that you and the attorney general brought the leadership to the og. Your input is helpful and necessary as we reviewed the priorities for the Justice Department to ensure that National Security and Law Enforcement is funded appropriately and sufficiently. This is a challenging budget climate as you know. Violent crime has risen and terrorists have escalated fiscal constraints. The president proposes to decrease funding at the department of justice for 630 million in a team for the new total of 28. 3 billion. Since the start of the new administration in the early days of the tenure as Deputy Attorney general, im pleased the department is refocusing on the core mission of enforcing a donations constitution and newly enacted laws. Its critical to target the finite lawenforcement resources towards the worst criminals in our society and i agree with the attorney generals productive to go after the most violent offenders we have in the country. Additionally, the importance of prosecuting the crime is reflected in the president s budget request for 230 new assistance to the attorneys but its growing from. This reordering of priorities was scored by the obama administrations policies requiring federal prosecutors now to pursue the most serious charges. The approach is critical and we hope you will see results for more stringent prosecution. The other drug crisis the department is focused on making a priority for prosecutors and empowering them to bring charges whenever possible under the law. Illegal immigration is one of the most critical problems so it is encouraging to learn it has reduced the border crossings. 70 Additional Support staff for immigration litigation assistance and i appreciate efforts to place judges in jurisdiction and hired judges. The last eight years dozens of the benches have gone unfulfilled due to the failure act and its grown to a Staggering Number of 600,000 the budget seeks 65 million for the executive office to hire another 65 immigration judge teams on top of the ten that were just provided. We will closely review the details and balance the need with a restrictive budget environment that we are facing. I trust the recent establishment in the task force on the Crime Reduction and Public Safety will continue to provide new ideas and recommendations on how the nation will best combat Violent Crime, illegal immigration and other lawenforcement challeng challenges. Cyber security and counterterrorism remain two of the top National Security concerns coming in we would want to know more about how the budget supports departments efforts for these critical fields. Thank you for the testimony today and we look forward to hearing you. Thank you mr. Chairman i appreciate the opportunity to make a statement and your being here. The committee not only holds the Purse Strings as you are aware but also oversight activities in this case for the department of justice. I am troubled because it is troubling when there is a sitting attorney general. This is the second time the attorney general has declined to appear canceling this day before hes scheduled to appear in an open public setting. As the nations chief lawenforcement officer, the attorney generaattorney generalt appropriate person to come for the subcommittee and testify the important work of the department of justice. The doj is on the front lines fighting the epidemic and still gaining strength. The doj hiring freeze for the Correctional Officers and federal prisons and curiously requested federal bureau of investigation is less than congress provided for fiscal year 2017. Even while the bureau conducts a counterintelligence investigatiocounterintelligence investigation into the russian influence in our 2016 process. While providing testimony before the scheduled Intelligence Committee hearing is important, and i understand that, the attorney general is still responsible for answering critical questions from the committee and needs to provide an explanation to the budget as well as the defense of his policies and an open public hearing for not only us that the american public. I applaud your appointment as the special counsel to oversee the Ongoing Investigation into the russian interference in the 2016 election. Many questions remain both of you aryour and the attorney gens role in this manner and your knowledge of resource requests made by the director of your involvement in the firing and your prior meetings with russian officials among many concerns. I will return to the subject starting my custom period later and now many of my colleagues will express their concern and questions as well. So, at some future date having the attorney general appear before an open session. And you mr. Sessions. Mr. Chairman, thank you and Ranking Member shaheen. The Deputy Attorney general says i wont mince words. You are not the witness we were supposed to hear from today or the witness that should be behind the table. That responsibility lies with the attorney general of the United States. The attorneys general of the past did not shy away from the questions regardless of the topic and regardless of the party. The attorneys general to fulfill the constitutional oversight responsibility and they didnt agree to cancel at the last minute and send the secondincommand instead. Members of the committee have questions they may not want to answer. Until nowadays. So with respect we voted for you as you know. You are not who i am interested in hearing from today but i do have questions for the attorney general. I want to know by he played a role in the dismissal and why he can credibly lead the Justice Department for the 8. 3 billion. I believe the attorney generals of the United States chief lawenforcement officer owes it to the more than 116,000 Justice Department agents and support personnel and the state, local and tribal officers and staff supporting more than 4500 assistance programs in every state to justify. The president s budget request for the Justice Department is the dismal. It could be 643 million from the fy 2016 and active level. The departments request is built on unrealistic assumptio assumptions. But worse than that its also the backs of crime victims. The 1. 3 billion from the Crime Victims Fund. Let me repeat that. The administration talked about how they support the requirement that they are asking for 1. 3 billion decision for the Crime Victims Fund. I dont know how you try to combine their rhetoric with the reality and how you can say for the victims of crime by the way we are going to close the door on you. A budget that is touted as tough on crime the president cuts funding for the operations and investigations by 44 million. I have my own suspicions about why the president might seek out the operations of personal but i want the attorney general to come in and talk about it. Just this week the attorney general quote about how he has lawenforcement spec that the Justice Department 326 million in assistance to state and local Law Enforcement assistance and states every one of them are represented on both sides of the bias. Its more than 27 million. And it includes the 10 million from the task force which were hit. I dont know how they cut the treatment. They proposed millions to focus on seizing private land from hardworking americans along the southwest border to the president can build his misguided wall. We wont protect our people but people seize their land. It makes one thing clear, President Trump and the attorney general are committed to abandoning the victims of crime and victimizing those in the communities. And finally, regardless of the circumstance and appearance here today i will raise this one point with you. The office of Legal Counsel issuissued an opinion are givine executive branch to meet the legitimate oversight request of the individual members of Congress Must be met. This is a coequal branch of government and Many Republican and democratic administrations have a number of times when republicans control. Ive never heard anybody, republican or democrat make this claim that hed reject on both sides bil to the Judiciary Committee chairman grassley, whom i worked both with us to share and Ranking Member called the opinion nonsense and i believe there is in a two call. But they should know this. Todays chairs for tomorrows Ranking Members in the oversight that will do nothing to advance the interest. I will put my whole statement. You may proceed. Thank you. Good morning to Ranking Member shaheen, members of the committee. I am honored to present the 2018 budget for the department of justice. The proposed budget matches the interest of the American People by allowing the dedicated men and women of the department to continue their outstanding work. We are grateful for your strong support and we look forward to building on our successes as we work to protect the nation from the rule of law and to ensure equal justice for all. The 2018 request shows a strong commitment to the Justice Departments top priority is to provide more funding to fight the picker resume cybercrime to reduce Violent Crime, the tackle tackle the illegal immigration and also gives the resources that we need to support the state, local and tribal partners and essential Law Enforcement work. For the goal of increasing efficiency and effectiveness. It is an honest one eliminating the thousands of previously unfunded and vacant positions that give a misleading discussion of the personnel we have in the department. Those positions in both cases have been vacant for years or have never been at all. Second the budget seeks to identify areas we can afford to cut back without harming our mission. And finally, the budget improves the application of the precious resources so we can do the most Effective Work with every tax dollar w they spend. National security remains the highest priority. We face a wide array of evolvint involving threats from terrorism to espionage and the cybercrime. The lawenforcement increasing inability to access a collective intercept Realtime Communications and store data. As the result of changes and technologies the phenomenon impairs the ability to conduct investigations and to bring the criminals to justice. The lawenforcemen lawenforcems operate in the constitution and respect the private interests. When there is a legitimate need to access the information and we have a court order or other legal authority, Public Safety is jeopardized when we are not able to obtain that information. The Department Must keep adapting to the evolving challenges. To that and the budget provides an extra 98. 5 million to combat terrorism, espionage and Cyber Security threats. The Justice Department is also committed to protecting the American People from Violent Crimes and from the adverse effects of the illegal drug distribution. Crime is rising across the country. Senators, the evidence is indisputable. Rising Violent Crime increasing drug abuse are devastating Many American families. We need your help. The proposed budget provides the department of lawenforcement agencies with extra support so they can target the criminals, transnational crime organizations and Drug Trafficking rings. It also provides is the chairman mentioned from 230 additional assistant u. S. Attorneys to focus specifically on the efforts to fight Violent Crimes. Those Additional Resources will enhance the ability of federal Law Enforcement to fight crime and keep the community safe. We are focusing on getting illicit drugs off of the streets through strong enforcement efforts and through the drug take effect programs. In addition to that, we call on doctors, pharmacists and pharmaceutical companies to take a hard look at their practices and help us develop ways to reduce the pharmaceutical drugs. The department of justice will do our part with the department of Homeland Security and the budget provides muchneeded funding to hire 75 additional Immigration Judges and support personnel to reduce the unacceptable backlog on the Immigration Courts. It will also allow us to hire more deputy u. S. Marshals and more border enforcement prosecutors said that we can effectively apprehend and prosecute criminal aliens who threaten the communities. The federal government doesnt maintain Public Safety alone. 85 of the lawenforcement officers in the country are not. They work for the tribal partners and we rely on them heavily. Men and women serving on the front lines are the first line of defense and killed to keep the community safe. They deserve our support. The budget maintains the commitments to the spell you to partners and prioritized as Grant Funding to the highperforming programs with proven to be effective. The budget funds the important priority is while hoping to achieve a more efficient and Cost Effective for her. We will do all we can to be stewards of the departments resources and we have the duty to safeguard taxpayers money so that it will be available to fight crime and protect people. The department of justice is the home to more than 115,000 honorable men and women who work every day to serve, protect and defend the American People and respects the constitution of the United States. This makes it possible to do our job with the investment supported with your support, we will continue to fairly enforce the nations law and ensure safety and equal justice for all americans. I look forward to working with the subcommittee and the congress in the months and years ahead. And if i may, senators come in my few remaining moments i learned about an incident in georgia that we understand to the Correctional Officers were murdered in the course of transporting prisoners in georgia we talked with david harlow this morning and we committed all federal resources to help catch the fugitives and hold the perpetrators accountable. He talked with victims and their families and in support of the lawenforcement personnel, we are working on the case as we sit here today and an attack on any Law Enforcement officer is an attack on every lawenforcement officer. And on the principles that we all believe in. Senators, i am happy to take any questions about the proposed budget, and i look forward to that. Thank you. Thank you for the testimony. What specifically is the department to doing to hire the charges . Ive been in the job for six weeks and i learned when i took the position our fiscal year budget includes 145 million to enhance Border Security and immigration and includes as i mentioned in the Opening Statement 75 new teams and i believe its approximately 450 people judges and their support staff and 75 million to address the backlog which exceeds 500,000 is approaching as the chairman mentioned 600,000 to prosecute the violations of the Immigration Law and additional deputy u. S. Marshals and additional attorneys in the Civil Division but with regard specifically to the backlog, we are very focused on that and one of the challenges that we have is some bureaucratic delay in hiring and filling vacancies, so in addition to creating 75 new charges in filling those positions they are going to fill the vacancies, so it is a big challenge and the top of the leadership in that office will make it a top priority to first put an end to the increase in the backlog and then work on ways to more efficiently and quickly reduce the backlog because anybody that has a case pending in the Immigration Court deserves an expeditious resolution on the case. That is hard for us to swallow. As you mentioned that was the single strategic explosive devices and has been extraordinarily valuable. And with the 65 million this is day one time nonrecurring non occurring request. We believe it is ineffective operation we will continue supporting that. Were trying to work with you. Century citys borough. With a states and local jurisdictions in compliance with federal law and the bureau of prisons must give enforcement officials priority is that correct . Those that grant awards comply with all fe