I call this hearing of the subcommittee of Homeland Security in order. This is my first hearing as chairman of the subcommittee and it is the subcommittees first hearing to review the fiscal year 2018 budget request. Which was submitted to Congress Earlier this week. I want to begin by thanking john kelly for being with us today. We know that you are very, very busy and again appreciate you being here. Secretary kelly, we do understand the demands on your schedule and your testimony is what is what is your first appearance before a subcommittee in your new role. I would also like to welcome our s subcommittee Ranking Member, from montana, senator tester and im pleased that senator layhe, the vice chair of the full committees has joined us. We keep america safe by manage our air land and seaboarders and administer our laws and critical assets an prepare for and respond to disasters. The tragic events in Manchester England remind us on why we must secure our homeland. Mr. Secretary youve dedicated your career to our National Security interest and in just a few months youve proven your ability to lead the department dowering a challenging time. This subcommittee will work to support you and the men and women of the department who are working every day to keep us safe. The department is being called on by this president to refocus resources on certain National Security risks and to redouble efforts to enforce our immigration laws. We look forward to learning more about how the department proposes to address these needs while ensuring we do not neglect the other Critical Missions of the department. This budget request gets many things right. Weve seen over the past few months Border Security and Immigration Enforcement are closely related as the new administration is demonstrating there are consequences for those entering and staying the country illegally with illegal border crosses dropping to historic lows. Your budget proposes increases funding from customs and Border Protection and immigration and Customs Enforcement service for both man power and infrastructure to continue to reduce illegal border crossings. In order to better understand these requirements, and make the right choices, the subcommittee must get a more comprehensive plan from the department that details how we could be smart about investing in Border Security and interior enforcem. Another key component to securing our boarders is the United States coast guard which is budget supports. In fiscal year 17 this subcommittee delivered significant investments to enhance the capability of the coast guard. We identified funding to continue the modernization of the surface and air fleets and we partnered with our defense subcommittee to begin acquisition of a new polar ice breaker. Well have to work again to provide the resources necessary to ebb to enable the coast guard to continue protecting our borders and conducting search and rescue missions and ensuring the safe navigation of our waterways and maintaining our defense readiness. This Budget Proposal appropriately acknowledges that the federal government Cyber Network is under constant attack. Im pleased to see that the request has prioritized funding for all four phases of the continuous diagnostics and Mitigation Program other federal agencies must move past the official cdm kick start provided by the department and begin properly budgeting for their own investment and utilization of the system. In order to realize its full benefit. Youve rightly noted in your testimony and through this Budget Proposal that the departments workforce is the most valuable resource and that taking care of the people that work to keep us safe each day is a top priority. I hope we will Work Together to ensure the department could enforce workforce recruitment and development and retention. Were aware of the unique stresses caused by the intense 2016 president ial Election Campaign and additional duties, increased travel, on going investigative work and the inherit requirement of protection has stretched the secret Service Force thin. These are the brave men and women would put their lives on line every day to protect our top leaders and to prevent in r interference with our most critical institutions. That in the recently enacted appropriations bill will make a difference for the men and women of the secret service. The workforce challenge command the department and hire and retain more custom and Border Patrol agents and more experts and cyber professionals. We want to help you make the department of Homeland Security the best place to work in the entire federal government. While this Budget Proposal makes some smart choices, there are also parts of it that are unworkable. Whether we are talking about a hard working arkansas family, or one of the largest departments in the federal government, when it comes time to develop a budget, tough choices have to be made and i have no doubt that many tough decisions were made in preparing the request. But many of the choices reflected in this budget put this subcommittee in a difficult position. For instance, it assumes statutory changes to programs that congress would almost be certainly unable to enact before the fiscal year. From the proposed increase to Airline Passenger fees to the significant reductions to assistance store state and local partners to the failure to invest adequately in research and development, this budget fails to take into consideration many practical realities. We ask for your cooperation as we consult with you and your staff to make the necessary adjustments to allow this budget to work despite the significant challenges. We will likely face a very tough appropriations cycle. We will certainly be urged to restore many of the significant reductions proposed by this budget. And ab sent some significant change to the availability of resources, we are not going to be able to fund all of the priorities that it outlines. Congress will have to make these decisions based on shared priorities and with an eye toward riskbased distribution of limited resources. We know we can count on your partnership and guidance throughout this process. Again, mr. Secretary, we appreciate your testimony and your willingness to answer questions for members of the subcommittee and i will now turn to our distinguished Ranking Member senator tester. And then to our full Committee Chairman senator cochran and then to our full Committee Vice chairman senator layhe for any opening remarks they have before asking secretary kelly to proceed with his testimony. Then well allow each senator seven minutes for any statements or requests they may have. Senator tester. Yeah, thank you, chairman boseman, i appreciate your leadership. And good morning mr. Secretary and welcome. We are here today of course to examine the dhs budget for fiscal year 2018 and i think the importance of this budget is reflected in the fact that we have the chairman and Ranking Member of the full committee here today. I would be remiss if i didnt first say that our thoughts are with the folks in manchester, u. K. And those effected by a senseless act of violence last monday. Before we get into your budget, mr. Secretary, i want to note that the president s budget cuts nop defense Discretionary Spending by 1. 5 trillion over 10 years including 54 billion in fy 18 in part to help pay for the proposed wall in the southern border. This is not a serious proposal and would be debtry amount to the nations security and Small Business and agriculture and education and mr. Secretary, your department is one of the few nondefense discretionary agencies to receive an increase. And in the present fiscal year 2018 request. In total, the request includes 44. 1 billion in increase of over 1. 7 billion over the fiscal year 17 act that we passed a few weeks ago which was 1. 4 billion over the previous year. The department that you lead, though, has a multitude of diverse missions. Including border and migrant security, immigration security, protecting our Computer Networks from Cyber Attacks and making sure that air travel is secure helping communities prepare for and respond to natural or manmade disasters and monitoring our coastlines and our waterways to save lives, intercept Illegal Drugs and prevent bad actors from innovating our ports. The lyons share for dhs is dedicated to Border Security and Immigration Enforcement on the heels of the 1. 5 billion in fy 2017 omnibus. Look, i support efforts to strengthen or border but it needs to be done in a smart way. I am concerned about what is missing in this budget when it comes to your other priorities. Priorities like Aviation Security. Maritime security, cyber security, preparing our communities for natural disasters in the possibility of a terrorist attack. First off, though, the threat to aviation is very high. Weve had classified briefings on this, in fact. But we also see budget cuts to several tsa security programs. Second, the budget realized on a faulty assumption that an unauthorized Aviation Security fees will be enacted to offset 530 million in budget authority. Third, this budget slashes fema preparedness grants by 30 . And state and local training by 40 . While threats are more diverse than other. And fourth, and equally troubling, is the research and development is cut by 21 at a time when we need it be developing leap ahead technology to stay ahead of our adversaries. I dont think there is a briefing that i go to, whether it is this or military, that dont talk about the fact that our adversaries are advancing quicker than we are. To cut this budget does not make any sense to me, at all. Finally, on Border Security, weve all heard from the president , the wall the wall, the wall, and frankly i think we need a better strategy, one more Cost Effective and focuses on Proven Technology and one that improves metric and respects private property rights. I havent seen such a plan but i guarantee i will continue to press for one. We cant spend billion dollars on the wall at the expense of local Law Enforcement, firefighters or airport security. And im not convinced that the president s budget makes the veems needed to keep the investments needed to keep america safe. It is critical that the Appropriations Committee take the appropriate time to work diligently and pass a budget that strengthens our National Security and secures or borders. I know that the chairman has a commitment to that. When i voted to for your confirmation, mr. Secretary, and i could do it again today, and i said youre one of the adults in the room that i am dependent on to make good decisions for this security and i still believe that. Thank you and i look forward to this hearing. Thank you, senator tester. Chairman cochran. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for chairing the hearing and we appreciate your leadership. And we welcome the secretary. And we wish you all of the best. We want to know what the priorities are for funding, we dont have enough money to do everything for everybody who who have requests to make of the funding that was in this committee. But thank you for being here. Were anxious to hear your comments about appropriate levels of funding and the priorities that we need to consider in the writing of this appropriations bill. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Vice chairman mr. Leahy. And thank you for the opportunity to make a couple of brief opening remarkz. Secretary kelly, thank you for being here today. There are many issues to discuss, not the least of which is the topic of the todays hearing, the budget the president s Budget Proposal. Which is just delivered to us on tuesday, including his plans for the department of Homeland Security. Secretary kelly, ive known you a long time and been an admirer of yours and i know when you were in the marine corp, so i will do what marines are expected to do, to speak frankly. I think this Budget Proposal can be summed up pretty quickly. Abysmal. Im not surprised that the budget before us proposes billions of taxpayer dollars to build a misguided wall, on the southern border to fund the president s deportation force. Executive orders mandating these things were among the first things that President Trump did when he took office. Now the orders may have fulfilled a promise on the campaign trail, neither will do much to enhance our National Security or Homeland Security oref forces to address the efforts to address the valid concerns with the immigration system. So instead of focusing on real threats. The administration has sought to demonize migrants, demonize those of certain religions, drive them into the shadows, isolate our country, alienate our trading partners to the north and south, and throw taxpayer money to problems requires a serious and meaningful and realistic and practical solution. Im sure you came here today to talk about the southern border. I hope youre prepared to talk about our need as long the norther border as well. Vermont is a border state. I live an hours drive from canada. Our largest trading partner is canada. Our communities strive and on economic fusion we get from canadians coming to vermont and to explore our great Lakes Champlain and to do business involved in numerous manufacturing jobs in vermont. But vermont is taken a hit because of the president s action. Our economy is weakened by his action. Fewer people want to come and visit and spend money in our state. I hear story after story of problems crossing our border, which i mentioned is only an hour from my home. With the kind of delays they are having. Delays they cannot understand. And for all of this, were not more secure. I mean meanwhile, the trump budget cuts billion dollars from food and medical research and Affordable Housing and Heating Services and Victim Services and legal services, education programs, slashes foreign assistance, assistance that mattis said is critical to our National Security. Now the president may claim that this budget advances the security of the American People, in reality, it makes millions of americans less secure and in their daily lives. So i say that ive known you a long time. I supported your nomination. But this budget this budget is really a disserveice to the American People and as vice chairman of the committee, i will work with republicans and democrats to put together a budget that puts americans put americans first. And mr. Chairman, i thank you for the opportunity. Thank you, senator leahy. Lets go then to our questioning phase. And mr. Secretary, while it may be too early to declare victory, it is worth noting that the posture you have taken at the department has resulted in the lowest rate of the illegal border crosses weve ever seen. The change has been remarkable. Im sorry. We need your testimony first. So lets go to the testimony, as you could see were were anxious to get out of the block. We have a lot of questions. But again we need to hear from you first. Thank you. Yes, senator. And chairman boseman and Ranking Member tester, and all of the distinguished members of the committee and subcommittee, it is a pleasure to be here to answer questions but most importantly in my mind to represent the men and women of the department of Homeland Security. I believe as i know you do that the role of government first and foremost is to security people. The secure home land is one of pros port where legal trade and travel add to our national economy. Where legal trade a secure land is one of freedom where american citicitizens could go about their lives and one of law chz we enforced to keep our Community Safe. And so it is a great honor and privilege to appear before you today to discuss the member and women of the department of Homeland Security and the Critical Missions they carry out every day in service to the nation. On a sad note, and one that makes the point tragically, just last night we lost one of our cvp officers down in texas and in el paso. Stabbed repeatedly in the face by a a Cartel Member that he identified himself to and he lost his life. The president s fiscal year 2018 budget request for the department of Homeland Security is never enough. But i think it is sufficient to allow me and the men and women to do our jobs