The House Select Intelligence Committee hearing is nearly three hours. [inaudible conversations] the committee will come to order. Without objection the chairman to click a any time. Today, we come together to discuss the intelligence communities to 124 annual threat assessment. We begin with an open session and is been broadcast live and stream on the committees you tube channel. The open session is entirely unclassified, all participants are reminded to refrain from discussing classified information or other information protected from public disclosure. On the conclusion of the open session we were recess and resume in the closed session in the Committee Hearing room at two p. M. Or immediately following the first vote series currently scheduled from 1 30 that you can come pick it his intention to proceed with us and without any disruptions. Any disruption of the committee will result in the United StatesCapitol Police restoring order and the protesters will be renewed and arrested. It is my pleasure to welcome a Renowned Group of Intelligence Community leaders during todays proceedings with with her e honorable avril haines director of National Intelligence, the honorable William Burns director of Central Intelligence agency, the article Christopher Wray director of the federal. Investigation. General timothy hauck, director of the National Security agent and command of u. S. Cyber command, and Lieutenant General geoffrey kruse, director of the Defense Intelligence agency. I want to pause for a minute to get my personal thanks to director burns into director haines. A man and what you work with this commit over the past over a year now in both a bipartisan way, working with jim himes myself and all of our members making certain we have the information we need and being available for discussion on important issues. Agreed appreciate your contributions to the success of this committee and he wanted to recognize that. The annual threat assessment hearing provides Intelligence Community an opportunity to opt ecommerce and the American People and she is threats to. Intelligence committee exist to protect the American People by informing policy and decisionmakers of the threats posed to National Security which includes Critical Infrastructure, economic security, cybersecurity, Food Security of several of the components of National Security. Each year the world evolves growing more interdependent. Our. Our adversaries are aligning and emerging technologies are changing the operational and vibrant. We are in the midst of a shifting geopolitical landscape with strategic competition at the forefront. Now more than at any other time at least not since the cold war, nation, state threat to dominate the United StatesNational Security concerns. Regime, moscow and tehran are antiamerican and working together drastically regionally and internationally. These common adversaries overlapping interest and approaches, example code russias invasion ukraine, hamas attack an issue and continued iranian proxy assault in the region of the peoples republic of china regular military show of force threatening taiwan. Also concern is killing gangs recent test of the north green intercommunal Ballistic Missile based on the missiles flight data, south korea and japanese assets are at risk and it has the potential range of striking the United States. This is a flagrant violation of United NationsSecurity Council resolution. Over the last year the committee has conducted numerous engagements both in and beyond the scif. One area that seems fragmented and make is a foreign domestic divide. There are heightened threats at the border in the home and is under constant assault, whether it be from Cyber Attacks, counterintelligence threats for foreign malign influence. What is not clear is how the Intelligence Community communicates those threats to other federal, state, local tribal or private sector partners. The lack of clarity on this issue raises a question of whether the federal government is organized appropriate and prepared to defend the United States against the kind of threat seemed to be faced from our foreign adversaries here. On more than one occasion some of your publicly warned a threat still might security from the peoples republic of china, the prcs compromise and maintain persistent access to u. S. Critical infrastructure. As stated in unclassified cybersecurity advisory published to the public last month, drcs targeting and as compromise telecommunications, energy, transportation and water sectors. To quote this advisor, in some cases the cyber actors had n living inside Information Technology networks for years to preposition for disruptive or destructive Cyber Attacks in event of a major crisis or conflict. Remember, the advisory states that this activity has been going on for years and that really if i think the threat we need to rise to is an understanding that this is not a new phenomenon of the prc targeting assets and infrastructure of the United States. In addition to preposition in Critical Infrastructure, china seeks to be a world power in science and technology by any means possible. This possesses, this, this poses a significant counterintelligence threat. China is attempting to advance as a Technology Superpower by offering investment and inquiring or stealing intellectual property in feels like power and energy, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, agriculture, quantum computing and semiconductors. Russia continues an unjust war against ukraines sovereignty bolstering its defense production by leveraging relationships with china and iran. We should not forget north korea munitions factories are supplying russia with weapons and artillery shells to use against ukraine. We look forward to further insights on russias Nuclear Posture directed Energy Weapons come at a selected those in space and ground based at the satellite missiles designed to target u. S. And allied satellites. Iran does also benefiting from closer ties with china and russia has built and funded and network of proxies to promote irans regional objectives. Irans support of hamas attack in israel continues to back hamas. I ran provides weapons and intelligence for terrorist attacks on u. S. Personnel installations in the region and terrorist attacks on the Global Supply chain transiting the red sea. Last year during the annual threat assessment hearing i set forth the committees plan for the reauthorization of fisa section seven at you. And the next amount of Committee Work has been into our bill reforming fisa. We produced a strong bill that puts in place the appropriate compliance guardrails and provides the tools necessary to protect our country. We know the importance of this authority and we know the danger to america and our allies if the Intelligence Committee does not have the capability to produce intelligence from fisa 702 collection. There is a perceived lack of accountability that is the most troubling aspect for congress and the American Public to trust the Intelligence Community and that the Intelligence Community is doing the right thing reporting wrongdoing, taking responsibility, correcting actions and monitoring actions. That is what our fisa bill aggressively reforms the fisa process to address past abuses. In the face of all these challenges the core mission stands which is give 54 threats and provide warning to protect americans. Our Committee Oversight work takes this racers and we continually examine areas for improvement and provide Bipartisan Legislation solutions as needed. Today with her questions from our members on various interest areas and the respect the time ask all of you be direct at the scene. With that of affording the answers from our esteemed panel at a vacant eyes by Ranking Member for his opening remarks. Thank you, mr. Chairman and welcome to our distinguished panel and in particular general hawk and general accrue sort joining for the first time. This annual hearing is a vital part of our oversight. Its a unique chance for the public to her directly from each of you about the icy assessment of a range of threats and issues. The stuff we hear every single day behind closed doors. The world can sometimes feel as though its straining under the weight of conflict. Putins ongoing assault and you can come the peoples republic of china saber rattling a democratic taiwan, the ongoing crisis in gaza come to dream situation in haiti, i could go on. My point is we need the public to see a dedicated and objective Intelligence Community that can soberly present these complicated threats and challenges based on fact and rigorous analysis. We are fortunate to see this daily on on a classified basd in no your parents today will help reinforce that. I will return to this dreamlike questions but we were amid another president ial election. In previous federal campaign cycles we know foreign powers have attempted to interfere and the latest, the assessment by the ic says its a possibility that they may do so again. We need to ensure and in no way do i discussed any of the catalog of foreign threats that the chairman lee. Com i agree with them in their entirety but we need to ensure in particular that foreigners stay out of american elections, period. And we need the community to credibly collect against and what the public when they determine such malign activity targeting our political process are occurring. We will be focused on this threat in the months ahead. Please this committee was the opportunity to receive a classified update next week at the working level. As the eye sees assessment layette weve seen pass interference efforts by russia, china and iran among others of different sorts and with every reason to believe that some or l of them will try again. Im particularly concern that putin is exploring opportunities because he has already done so in part and because he has a lot to gain. I hope youll give us a sense of what the russian leaders calculus may look like as will a set of other potential actors. Ill also note that this will be the first general election in the air of generative ai, which can create realistic video, photos, audio and text at a scale and sophistication that was unimaginable just a year ago. We need to be ready. The ics job is to focus its collective powers outward to protect our nation but i feel strongly some of the greatest threats to our security and the World Security unfortunately our home grown. I fear we are slouching towards an election in which decisions will be made based on what excites us, what enrages us, what in raptures as, that we will substitute for the critical faculties that are essential for a citizen and democracy, a selfsatisfied scratching of our prior beliefs and political opinions. I, constituents regularly that you will all work very hard. We will work hard you try to take down the temperature and restore civility and intelligence of our politics, but at the end of the day americans and their decisions about how people act as citizens of a democracy will get the democracy that they deserve. We are faltering with a continued failure to support ukraine. The russian leaders has been emboldened to believe he can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Our ukrainian partners have fought with incredible courage against the russian war machine and then when victories that were beyond anyones expectation. It appears, however, that we have lost our nerve at the critical juncture. Director burns, you recent return from another visit to kyiv. I hope you will share some reflections on whats at stake and urgency with which we need to act. Finally, as the chairman said and in the category of selfimposed crazies, i am deeply concerned section 702 of fisa expired in just over a month and thus congress ask because he icy winds can attest, 702 is her most important Intelligence Authority and wendy to reauthorize it right away. I appreciate all the work the witnesses at the table and done to help make that the case but were not done yet. Before getting back to the chair but i like to touch briefly on Technology Adoption and innovation in the ic. Ive long championed this work and also to report on the topic some years ago. For all of chinas strengths they cannot compete with the entrepreneurial culture and innovation that we regularly achieve here in the United States. Getting that innovation into the ics mission and judith dods mission is going to defy our success over the next decade. We spent a lot of time in this place abating with a capital should flow, how ip should be protected, whether we should shut down a chinese own social media platform. The merits of those efforts are open to debate, but if we continue to integrate the way we always have, we will win. So i thank you all for being here. I look forward to what will hopefully be a very alley procession for the American Public, and i yield back. I will now turn to april 8 come director of National Intelligence will be presenting the opening statement. Thank you so much, chairman turner, Ranking Member himes, members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to be here alongside a wonderful colleagues to present the ics annual threat assessment. Before i start i want to public thank the people of the Intelligence Community from the collector to the analyst and everyone in between. We are presenting the results of their labor at this hearing. They worked tirelessly everyday to keep our country safe and prosperous, and were all very proud to represent them. And also want to take the opportunity to thank all of you for the extraordinary support that you shown to the Intelligence Community. The ics relationship with its oversight committees quite obviously is critically important edge all work with us on a bipartisan basis that is especially inspiring in todays environment, and were grateful for your encouragement and for your wisdom. Today, the United States faces an increasingly complex and interconnected threat environment characterized i really three categories of challenges. The first is an accelerating strategic competition with major authoritarian powers that are actively working to undermine the rulesbased ruln International System that the United States and our partners rely on for trade, commerce, the free flow of information and accountability to the truth. The second category is a set of more intense and unpredictable transnational challenges such as Climate Change, corruption, narcotics trafficking, health security, terrorism and cybercrime that often interact with traditional statebased political, economical and security challenges. The third category is regional and localized conflicts that have farreaching and at times cascading locations, not only for neighboring countries but also for the world. And all three challenges are affected by trends in new and emerging technologies, environmental changes and economic strain that are stoking instability and make it that much more challenging for us to forecast the development and their implications. These dynamics are putting unprecedented burdens on the institutions and relationships that the United States relies on to manage such challenges, and perhaps more than ever highlight the need for sustained u. S. Leadership to uphold the rulesbased order. And i will just touch on these three categories of challenges starting with strategic competition in china. In an effort to provide some context and highlight some of the intersections. President xi continue to envision china as a leading power on the world stage and chinese leaders believe it is essential to project power globally in order to be able to resist u. S. Pressure for their convinced that the United States will not tolerate a powerful china. Nevertheless, the prc seeks to ensure china can maintain positive ties to the United States and will likely continue to do so this year. As this seeks to build a relationship is to the capacity to attract our direct investment. Fact boosting the domestic economy is a fundamental priority for president xi yet he appears be doubling down for longterm Growth Strategy that will deepen public and investor pessimism over