Transcripts For CSPAN3 Govt 20240705 : vimarsana.com

CSPAN3 Govt July 5, 2024

[inaudible conversations] the committee will come to order. There are thousands of federal buildings across the country that not only serve as workplaces for federal employees, but also host daily visitors who come to access important federal services and help keep our government functioning efficiently. These facilities face a range of security threats that put both people and property at risk. And of those threats are only continuing to grow. Threats related to domestic and International Terrorism and even disinformation are rising and according to the department of homeland security, can endanger our federal personnel and Critical Infrastructure. Todays hearing will focus on what actions are needed to secure the 9,000 federal facilities overseen by dhs federal protective services. The facilities host the mold of bold ofthe civilian and federal employees and are visited by 1. 4 million americans each and every day. Currently the federal facilities are secured through a twostep process. First, the Interagency Security Committee led by the cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency establishing the Security Standards at federal facilities. The federal protective service then uses those standards to see what Safety Measures can be improved. They identify risk to the federal facilities and then make recommendations as to how to navigate them. They conduct thousands of these assessments each and every year. They submit these assessments to federal agencies, recommending countermeasures like security cameras, Access Control systems and xray screening equipment. The tools make it easier to protect these facilities and the americans who use them every day. Unfortunately, these recommendations are rarely implemented. From 2017 to 2021, the submitted over 25,000 of these reports. Federal agencies completely ignored roughly half of those. What agencies didnt acknowledging the recommendations, the only approved 27 of the recommended security measures. Factors like cost and bureaucratic hurdles often make it easier to maintain current systems. In other words, we are getting very useful information about how to improve security, but its not being implemented to the extent that it should be. Todays hearing and our panel of witnesses will help us evaluate this problem. Our discussion today will also build on the executive order released on monday by the white house, which clarifies the role of the Interagency Security Committee and helps us update interagency roles and responsibilities to keep these facilities safe. We will examine the landscape of current threats and ways we can improve the assessment process and how to make federal agencies more responsive when they receive recommendations. If we improve this process we can make our federal facilities safer and more secure, and i look forward to this conversation. It is the practice of the committee to swear in witnesses, so if each of you would please rise and raise your right hand. Do you swear the testimony you will give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god . Thank you. You may be seated. Our first witness is chris klein, the director of the federal protective service and the department of homeland security. In this role he oversees the safety and security of more than 9,000 federal facilities. Before joining dhs, he served for 20 years in the u. S. Army at a military police corps regimen. Welcome, director klein. You are recognized for your Opening Statement. Good morning chairman. Ranking member paul, distinguished members of the committee. As director of the federal protective service im honored to be here today to represent the man and women of the agency to discuss the missions in the state of the federal facilities security. A Law Enforcement component within dhs with nearly 1,230 federal employees and approximately 17,000 contracted protective Security Officers in the workforce. Of that number, nearly 850 are highly trained and dedicated Law Enforcement professionals who have the enormous responsibility of protecting the federal government infrastructure which includes employees, contractors and members of the public seeking Government Services from ranking from terrorist attacks to prohibiting interest items from entering federal facilities. Additionally we protect 264 congressional field offices including 16 field offices of the members of the committee. Now more than ever, the mission is critical to ensure the safety and security of the federal government. Over the past few years weve seen an increase in crimes and federal facilities and more importantly to federal civil servants. For example, early this year there was an incident at a federal facility where the motive was to harm federal employees. Our officers responded to the report of suspicious vehicles parked in front of the building. The officers immediately walked down the facility, shouldered the employee is in place and coordinated closely with local Law Enforcement. They fired a gun and responded officers and taken into custody without injury to anyone. This is one example of the important work done in close coordination with our state and local Law Enforcement partners to support our Law Enforcement mission as well as criminal intelligence hearings. With more federal employees returning to the brick and mortar offices, we likewise increased our presence in and around those facilities. These deterrent actions are in addition to the mitigation efforts highlighted by conducting the facilities assessments including countermeasure recommendations, implementation of the stateoftheart alert systems, screening equipment and armed Security Officers. Our contracted Security Officers augment thousands of facilities across the nation every day. They conduct a variety of security functions including business screening operations, perimeter patrols and operations. This year we prevented more than 15,000 dangerous weapons including more than 500 firearms from entering federal facilities. I also want to highlight that over the past year weve delivered modernized and improved deescalation in antibias training to the Law Enforcement officers. Together with the modern approach the public or policing that focuses on individual bad actors to better protect First Amendment rights and of the the abilityof citizens to peacey protest. Whatever threats the country may face, i want to assure the committee that we continue to stand ready to protect our homeland. I was appointed to my role as director almost one year ago. Since then, i visited the offices across the country spoken with hundreds of employees and witnessed firsthand the commitment they have to the mission. My number one priority is to hire and retain a highly skilled workforce. Like most Law Enforcement agencies across the country however, we are experiencing staff challenges with one out of every four positions currently unfilled. To address these challenges we dramatically increased our retention recruitment and hiring efforts, focusing on hiring candidates to bring valuable insight and experience into our organization. To retain our officers, i look for all avenues to continue to be relentless in pursuing equity for our officers. This includes the recently announced Retention Center that begins this next pay period for the uniformed officers. In closing i would like to note the president is lying on monday in order that strengthens the work in the interagency committee. We believe the new executive order will enhance the Department Agencies acceptance and implementation of the security assessment countermeasures. Additionally the executive order names the director and as a primary member of the ifc be giving a role in using your expertise to shape riskbased resource informed decisions about government security. I would like to thank the committee for expressing interest in the role and federal facility securities and allow me the opportunity to represent the workforce and to testify on the Critical Role we play in the nations overall security. I look forward to any questions you may have. Thank you. Our next witness is dave, the acting director of the government accountabilitys Office Physical infrastructure team. He oversees work on the Property Management and the u. S. Postal service. Previously he serves on the Natural Resources and Environmental Team and before joining the gao in 2004 he worked on the House Appropriations committee. Great to have you here. You are recognized for your Opening Statement. Thank you chairman peters, Ranking Member paul and members of the committee. Im pleased to be here today to discuss the work on Agency Efforts to secure federal facilities. Twenty years ago, we placed federal properties on our highrisk list in part due to threats to federal facilities. Recent instances demonstrate that a security and federal in federalbuildings remains a hk area. Given that, it is critical that agencies implement appropriate countermeasures to address the vulnerabilities and that there is effective oversight of these efforts. The ifc plays a key role in entering federal facilities have such countermeasures in place. In particular they establish Security Standards and oversee Agency Compliance with the standards. For its part it uses the standards to conduct security assessments at the protected facilities and recommends countermeasures to help the agencies address vulnerabilities. The agencies are then responsible for deciding whether to approve of the recommendations were to accept the risk of not doing so. This past may, we completed a review of this process. What we found is that agencies only approved about 30 of the fps recommendations over the past seven years and implemented even less. Agency officials cited a number of reasons for the rate including cost and budget considerations as well as the feasibility of implementing certain recommendations. We also found agencies didnt respond to more than half of the recommendations even though they are required to do so by the standards. Officials cited a number of reasons for this nonresponse rate including not having enough time to consider recommendations resisting the risk do not accept them. At the time of the report, they had taken steps to assess Agency Compliance with its policies and standards. Specifically, in 2019, they begin using an annual questionnaire that asks the agencies to selfreport on whether they end of their enterr individual facilities comply with the standards. Theyve also begun a process for verifying agencies selfreported compliance by selecting a subset of agencies and facilities to review. However it wasnt assessing whether they were implementing at the facilities or documenting the decisions of not doing so. We reported that without this information, on the implementation staff, half of the recommended countermeasures the federal government might not have reasonable assurance that the facilities are secure. As a result, we recommended that they improve the oversight of security measures by one assessing the implementation of the recommended countermeasures and number two, identifying the recommendations where agencies document the acceptance of risk. To its credit they agreed with our recommendations and have taken steps to implement them specifically they plan to update the annual questionnaire to improve its oversight of agencies implementations of the recommended countermeasures. In addition, it plans to verify that selected agencies documented their acceptance of risk for countermeasures they did not implement. These are positive steps. Completing these efforts may provide a greater level of assurance that federal facilities arent meeting Security Standards and also provide congress with useful information on the extent to which federal facilities have addressed security vulnerabilities. In conclusion, the security of the federal facilities remains a high risk area. Having appropriate countermeasures in place is the first line of defense. The ifc is taking important steps to strengthen its oversight of Agency Actions on such countermeasures. However, sustained attention from the isc, fps, agencies and congress will be needed to best ensure the security of federal facilities going forward. Mr. Chairman, that concludes my Opening Statement and i would be happy to answer any questions the committee may have. The final witness is scott is the associate director of security programs with the cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to bhs. In his role he helps lead efforts to secure the nations Critical Infrastructure and mitigate threats to a largescale public event. He has over 30 years of military and government experience including as a former naval aviator and as a senior policy advisor for the chief of naval operations. Welcome. You are now recognized for your Opening Statement. Good morning chairman peters, Ranking Member paul and members of the committee. As the associate director for security programs within the Cybersecurity Infrastructure security agencies, infrastructure security division, i appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to share the Interagency Security Committees role in the Security Protection of federal facilities and its efforts to improve the preparedness and mitigate risk and collaboration with agency partners. On october 19, 1995, 6 months after the Oklahoma City bombing of the federal building, the president issued executive order 12977, creating the Interagency Security Committee or eisa to address the quality and effectiveness of security for federal facilities. Membership consists of senior level executives from 67 federal departments and agencies. This collective security subject matter expertise allows them to develop toptier Risk Management resources and to coordinate interagency solutions to problems that cannot be solved by individual departments and agencies alone. They are a Collaborative Forum that carries out its work by, with and through its members within a primary Governance Framework of subcommittees and working groups. These working groups which are provisional are tasked by the isc with clear objectives and defined deliverables. In march, 2003, the role of the chair transfer from General Services administration to the department of homeland security. Dhs delegated its responsibility to the cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency considering its role in helping to protect and secure the nations Critical Infrastructure. As you are aware on monday, november 207th, President Biden signed an executive order titled interagency security. The new executive order supersedes the executive order 12977 and reinforces the importance of a security. The new executive order outlines the following. Defines the duties and responsibilities to better balance the role with the central responsibility that departments and agencies have for federal securities specifies the requirement for the departments and agencies to designate a senior official with the executive order and to support facility Security Committees. Increase visibility and accountability by adding the requirement to submit a report detailing compliance results to the director and to the assistant to the president for National Security affairs. The standard provides and integrates a Single Source of security countermeasures and guidance on countermeasure customization. Members created the Risk Management process standard to provide a common method for all federal Facility Security stakeholders to guide Risk Assessments in a standardized way to help facility owners identify levels of protection needed to mitigate the risk. Further they validate the member Risk Assessment tools and Training Programs as meeting the processing standards. This helps to build individual organizational capabilities to successfully implement the guidance and conduct these assessments they use a Risk Assessment tool validated with the survey tool. Additionally they also validated the fiscal Security Training program

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