Committee will come to order. Mr. Deputy attorney general, welcome to the commerce justice and science appropriations subcommittee which we will be hearing in department of justice fiscal year 2018 budget request. Im pleased to welcome you here to your first hearing before this subcommittee and im grateful that you and attorney general sessions have brought new desperately needed leadership to the doj. Youre input is helpful and necessary as we review the present Spending Priorities in order to ensure the countrys National Security and Law Enforcement needs are funded appropriately and sufficiently. This is a challenge in budget climates as you know. As Violent Crime has risen, the president proposes to decrease funding to the department of justice by 637 million in 18 for a new total of 28. 3 billion. Since the start of the new administration and during the early days of your tenure as the Deputy Attorney general im pleased that the department is refocusing on these core mission of enforcing our nations constitution and dually enacted laws. I believe its critical that we target our finite Law Enforcement resources toward the worst criminals in our society and i agree with the attorney generals directive to federal prosecutors to go after the most violent offenders that we have in our country. Additionally, the importance of prosecuting Violent Crime is reflected in the president s budget request for 230 new assistant u. S. Attorneys to help address this growing problem. This reordering of priorities was further underscored by the attorney generals reversal of the Obama Administrations lenient charging and sentencing policies regarding federal prosecutors now to pursue the most serious charges and sentences possible. The stronger federal Law Enforcement approach towards drug crimes i believes critical and this is a key area where we hope and i hope you will see results for more stringent prosecution and sentencing. The herring and other drug crisis that we have is fueled by drug traffickers who must be brought to justice i believe under the law. The departments also refocused on the critical problem illegal immigration making it a priority for prosecutors and empowering them to bring felony charges whenever possible under the law. Illegal immigration is become one of the most critical problems facing our nation so its encouraging to learn that President Trumps tough approach is already resulting in reduced illegal border crossings. To back up the new found emphasizes on tackling illegal immigration the budget requests 40 deputy u. S. Marshals to address the criminal alien problem, 70 Additional BorderEnforcement Border 20 attorney and support staff to handle civil condemnation work for the southwest border wall and 20 attorneys in and support staff for immigration litigation assistance. I also appreciate the departments related efforts to place Immigration Judges in jurisdiction where they are most needed and to quickly hire the Immigration Judges which this subcommittee has previously funded. Over the last eight years, dozens of these benches have gone unfulfilled due to the former failure to act. In the meantime the backlog of immigration cases has grown to a Staggering Number of 600,000. The proposed budget seeks to increase 65 million for the executive office for immigration review to hire another 65 Immigration Judges teams on top of the ten that were just provided in the 17 omnibus. We will closely review the details of this request to balance the tremendous need with a restrictive budget environment that were facing. I trust that the recent establishment of the departments task force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety will continue to provide new ideas and recommendations on how our nation can best combat Violent Crime, illegal immigration and other Law Enforcement challenges. Cybersecurity and counterterrorism remain two of my top National Security concerns and we would want to know more about how this budget supports the departments efforts to these critical fields. I thank you for your testimony today and we look forward to hearing you and the question period. You may your entire written statement, mr. Deputy, will be made part of the hearing record in its entirety. You proceed. Wait a minute. Im moving too fast. Senator shaheen. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I appreciate having the opportunity to make a statement this morning and appreciate your being here Deputy Attorney general rosenstein. The Appropriations Committee not only holds the Purse Strings for the federal government as youre aware, but it also has a key role in performing oversights under its jurisdictions. In this case for the department of justice. I am troubled i have to say because for this subcommittee its incredibly unusual to hold the meeting with a Deputy Attorney general when theres a sitting attorney general. This is the second time attorney general sessions has declined to appear before this subcommittee, cancelling just days before he is scheduled to appear in an open public setting. As the nations chief Law Enforcement officer, the attorney general is the most appropriate person to come before this subcommittee and testify as to the important work of the department of justice. Doj is on the front lines fighting the deadly uncontrolled Opioid Epidemic and still gaining strength. The doj hiring freeze risks the safety of Correctional Officers in our federal prisons and curiously the request for the fbi is less than congress provided for fiscal year 2017 even while the bureau conducts the crucial counterintelligence investigation into russian influence in our 2016 election process. While providing testimony before a newly selected Senate IntelligenceCommittee Hearing is important and i understand that, the attorney general is still responsible for answering critical questions from this committee. He needs to provide his explanation of dojs budget as well as a defense of his policies in an open public hearing for not only us but for the american public. Mr. Rosenstein, i applaud your appointment of Robert Mueller as the special counsel to oversee the Ongoing Investigation into russian interference during the 2016 election and believe this will help to depoliticize that investigation. However, many questions remain about both your and attorney general sessions role in this matter. Your knowledge of resource requests made by former director comey, your involvement in comeys firing and your prior meetings with russian officials among many concerns. I will return to these subjects during my question period later and know that many of my colleagues will express their concern and questions as well. So Deputy Attorney general, i look forward to your testimony to our discussion today and to at some future date having the attorney general appear before us in open session. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator leahy, you have Opening Statement. I do. Thank you. The Deputy Attorney general rosenstein, i wont mince words. Youre not the witness we were supposed to hear from today. Youre not the witness who should be behind that table. That responsibility lies with the attorneys general of the United States. Attorneys general of the past have not shied away from this committees questions regardless of the topic, regardless of the party. Attorneys general of the past did not cower at the request of congress to fulfill its constitutional oversight responsibility, and they didnt agree to come and cancel at the last minute and send their second in command there stead because of members of this committee may have questioned they may not want to answer. Until so with respect to mr. Rosenstein and i voted for you as you know, youre not who im interested in speaking with or hearing from today. I do have questions for the attorney general. I want to know why he is provided false testimony to me and to senator franken. I want to know why if hes recused in the russia investigation he played any role in the dismissal of fbi director comey. I want to know how he believes he can credibly lead the Justice Department for which he is requested 28. 3 billion amid such a stressing questions about his actions and his integrity. I believe the attorney general of the United States the nations chief Law Enforcement officer owes it to the more than 116,000 Justice Department agents, intelligence analysts, attorneys and support personnel. The roughly 1 million state local and Tribal Police officers and staff supporting more than 4,500 local victim assistance programs in every state to justify the budget request the department of justice. He owes them that courtesy because the president s budget requests for the Justice Department is abysmal. It cuts the departments budget by 643 million from the fy 2017 enacted level. The departments request is unrealistic assumptions but worse than that its also building the backs of crime victims. The permanent recision of 1. 3 billion from the Crime Victims Fund. Let me repeat that. President and the administration have talked about how they support the victims of crime but theyre asking for 1. 3 billion dollar recision from the Crime Victims Fund. I dont know how you try to combine the rhetoric with the reality, how you can say your for the victims of crime but oh by the way, were going to close the door on you. Ironically in a budget touted thats tough on crime, the president cuts funding for fbi operations and investigations by 44 million. We know we have to move ahead with the new fbi headquarters, theres no funds for that. I have my own suspicions about why the president may seek cuts to fbi operations and personnel but i wanted the attorney general to come here and talk about it. Just this week the attorney general crowed about how he has Law Enforcements backs but the Justice Departments budget slashes 326 million in assistance to state and local Law EnforcementAssistance Grants, states every one of which is represented on both sides of this dais. The budget slashes funding for antiopioid and heroin initiatives by more than 27 million and includes eliminating 10 million from the cops antiheroin task force which state and local Law Enforcement teams in areas worse hit by the Opioid Epidemic used for investigation going after street traffickers. Everybody calls the opioid situation a Public Health crisis. I dont know how the Justice Department justifies cutting resources that would help our communities with prevention, education and treatment. Im not surprised that while they cut out the money for opioids, they proposed millions of dollars to hire lawyers to focus on seizing private land from hard working americans along the southwest border so the president can build his misguided wall. It wont protect our people, but by golly well seize their land. The unbalanced and misplaced priorities makes one thing clear, rather than foundation for american greatness, President Trump and Jeff Sessions on intent on making our communities less safe and victimizing immigrants who contribute to our communities. Finally, mr. Rosenstein, regardless of the circumstances of your appearance today, ill raise this one point with you, on may 1 the office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion, are you executive branch is not obligated to meet the legitimate oversight requests of individual members of congress, the [ indiscernible ] chairs committee must be met. This is an affront to the congress. Ive been here with the republican and democratic administration. Ive been here a number of times when republicans controlled the senate a number of times when democrats did. I have never, ever heard anybody, republican or democrat, make this claim, weve wrongly reject it on both sides of the aisle. Judiciary Committee Chairman grassley, with whom ive worked with when i was chair and Ranking Member called your opinion nonsense. Now the attorney general has the authority. I actually believe he has an obligation to withdraw that opinion. The Administration May seek to hide many things from the American People, but they should know this, todays Committee Chairs are tomorrows Ranking Members. Obstructing congressional oversight will do nothing to advance the interest of the American People. This should be withdrawn. Chairman ill put my whole statement in the record. Thank you. Mr. Rosenstein, you may proceed. Thank you. Good morning, chairman shelby, Ranking Member shaheen, members of the committee. I am honored to have present the president s fiscal year 2018 budget for the department of justice. Our proposed budget advanced the interest of the American People by allowing the dedicated men and women of the department of justice to continue their outstanding work. Were grateful for your strong support and we look forward to building on our successes as we work to protect the nation, to promote the rule of law and to ensure equal justice for all. Our 2018 budget requests shows a strong commitment to the Justice Departments Top Priorities. It provides more funding to fight terrorism and cyber crime, to reduce Violent Crime, to tackle the Opioid Epidemic and to combat illegal immigration. It also gives us the resources we need to support our state, local and tribal partners and their essential Law Enforcement work. This budget reflects three important themes, number one, truth in budgeting. Number two, increases in efficiency and number three, focusing on priorities. These changes are critical and they support the executive order of the president to reorganize Government Agencies for the goal of increasing efficiency and effectiveness. A first the budget is an honest one, eliminating from the books thousands of previously unfunded and vacant positions that give a misleading impression of the personnel we have on duty in the department. Those ghost positions in most cases have been vacant for years or have never been filled at all. Secondly, this budget seeks to identify areas where we can afford to cut back without harming our mission. And finally, the budget improves the allocation of our pressure resources so we can do the most Effective Work with every taxpayer dollar that we spend. National security remains our highest priority. We face a wide array of evolving threats from terrorism to espionage and cyber crime. We also need to come to terms, senators, with the growing dark challenge which i know youre all familiar with. Going dark refers to Law Enforcements increasing inability to lawfully access, collect and intercept Realtime Communications and stored data. Even with a warrant as a result of changes in technology, this phenomena severely impairs our ability to conduct investigations and bring criminals to justice. Our Law Enforcement officers operate within the constitution and they respect legitimate privacy interests but when there is a legitimate Law Enforcement need to access electronic information and when we have a court order or other legal authority, Public Safety is jeopardized when were unable to obtain that relevant information. Our Department Must keep adapting to evolving challenges, to that end the budget provides an extra 98. 5 million to combat terrorism, espionage and cybersecurity threats. The Justice Department also is committed to protecting the American People from Violent Crime and from the adverse effec