Obtain an explosives permit. In 91 of the cases this is not me, this is the gao, 2,043 separate occasions, those known or suspected terrorists were suszful in pass passing a background check. What can be done about this . Well, senator, we do now is if someone on the watch list purchases or attempts to purchase a firearm, an immediate alert is sent to the agents who are the source of the suspicious about that individual, so they can incorporate that information into the investigation. Its a little bit challenge for us because noknown or summited means it hasnt been adjudicated. Its somebody were investigating, so we dont want to lower our investigation. Let me say this. In 2007, the braigss Justice Department drafted legislation to close what is a gap and prevent a known or suspected terrorist from buying a gun or explosive in this countyry. In 2009, attorney general holder expressed the obama administrations support for the legislation. And i introduced similar legislation in the senate last year. The question comes for the Law Enforcement element of the administration. F to really come forward and be supportive of this. Because the National RifleAssociation Even opposes this. Now, this is terrorists, you know we get people come into this country meaning to do us harm and they can go in and buy a weapon. To carry it out. That simply is unacceptable. So, i want to bring it to your attention, you know we have to come together and prevent this from happening. Your biggest concern is the lone wolf. The lone wolf can come in unarmed. Buy the explosives, the gun. This must be stopped. I dont know where the legislature is on the administration. I am focused on the operational piece of it to make sure we are alerted. Ill have to fipd out where the Administration Stands on the legislation. If you will and id like to know where you stand. Im the fbi. You dont stand . I dont stand. Thank you. Thank you mr. Chairman and thank you all for being here. Appreciate all that you represent. First of all id like for you to send our condolences to special agent williams wife and two young children. I understand hes lost a bout with cancer and we certainly are thinking of him and director hilton we want also to express our condolences to josie wells, killed in the line of duty on march the 10th, family and friends, i think this again, these things illustrate whats yall are about and we really do appreciate you. In regard to really want to follow up on what senator was talking about. In a different way and just the tools that weve got out there to try and fight the drug epidemic and fighting that director jones, as a response to crime in arkansas, i understand that both are potentially candidates to be made a Violence Reduction network. Can you talk about that and that initiative and how thats helpful . Thank you. The reduction in the work is an initiative that the old becomes new and it really is a collaborative effort. With not only federal Law Enforcement across the board, but with state and locals to address Violent Crime at a multitude of levels and make it sustainable. I know that little rock in particular has been discussed not only as a vrn potential site, but also is a site that weve done some work for. To try and address the un unacceptable levels and kind of Violent Crime, but the vrn is really there are ten cities now, there has been a conference here, we brought all the stakeholders, das, u. S. Attorneys, state and local Police Departments, all those federal agencies represented here to discuss in a very focused way, the nature of the Violent Crime problem, the perpetrators of the violence in those communities and Sustainable Strategies to lower it eradicate it. Very good. And related, can you talk about that and how that fits in . Sure. All of the agencies at the table tell senator those initials stand for. High intensity. Not that he doesnt know. We get lost in initials. That you know every day. Youre exactly right. Alphabet soup to us or a scrabble game. The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program run by omdcp and it really allows us numerous heights. Theyre big task forces with different initiatives that bring state, local, federal together. And in the task forces we are able to concentrate on kind of a regional concept. The threats, both Violent Crime that are reeking havoc on those communities. So, is there, i guess my question, is there a way to and weve got, we could go down to line. Weve got all of these programs going on is there a way to integrate the program so when youre doing your thing director jones and miss leonard, director hilton, fbi, do we integrate those things where we go into a community . Absolutely. The beauty of say a task force is that some of the groups are run by the fbi, concentrating on the violent gangs that the fbi brings expertise to the table on. Others are fugitive related and run by the Marshall Service to make sure we are going after the most significant, wanted violators in the area. And then once theyre concentrating on firearms are often run by the atf. They are integrated and all the different initiatives and task forces compliment each other and that is why our departments and state and local partners can almost seemlessly work between these task forces to go after the threat. Thank you. Very quickly because im out of time, as the, if we do assess that we reduce the federal prison population, how is that going to afblgt you guys . I think theres always criminals ready to come system, so as the prison population decreases, our as all of us fight for gangs and drugs to be reduced, i see that population continuing to come into detention as we address those issues that congress has explained, so i think well still see them incoming. Youll see it go down in prisons, but come back up. Thank you all for being here. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. I wanted to follow up on some of the early questions regard inging the work that atf is doing surrounding following on the Law Enforcement officers protection act. This was just for the committees recollection, a piece of legislation that was passed in 1986 by 40021 margin in house of representatives, passed by unanimous consent in the United States senate and president reagan said upon signing it that put certain forms of ammunition that have no selfdefense use and should be prohibit prohibited. Its always been tricky work to try to stay true to the acts and intention of stopping criminals from killing Law Enforcement officers. Ta dangerous weapons while observing the right of hunters to enjoy their past time. I just want to first thank the atf. You mentioned in your testimony for the amazing work they did in and around the sandy hook shooting, but also just relay a story. I was in that fire house mere hours after the shooting took place and i had a Law Enforcement officer standing next to me remark that in a way, he was glad that he took his own life because he feared for life and safety of his officers should a shoot swrout have occurred giveren that ammunition, the power of the weapons found on mr. Lanzas possession. I wanted to just maybe ask to follow question as to why we were considering this particular type of ammunition in the first place. My understanding that what has happened here over time when we talk about these green tips is that they were initially excemented in part because they were only used in rifles, but now, they are able to be used in handguns. We look at handguns in a different way, giffin that they are much more likely to be used in an assault on an officer. In fact, the underlying legislation specifically references handguns as something the atf should be looking at. I think it would be helpful for us to understand why you got to the point of proposing that we take a new look at a time of ammunition that would been exempted for a period of time. Its used in a different way today. Thats the reason for the relook, correct . Senator, i think its important to remember that this 30day period for Public Comment on a framework involves additional exemss. The classification for that round, which is military surplus, 5. 56, 62 grain steel following into the parameters of the armor piercing was given and its had an exception for 30 years. Its been on the market for that long. Its been available to folks for 30 years or more. I think the challenge for us separate and apart from Going Forward is not going to happen anytime soon is the evolution of Firearms Technology and some of the platforms, Assault Rifle based platforms that have evolved over those 30 years and the capabilities of those and conceal bty of those and in fact, some that would qualify as pistol platforms create some challenges for us. Now, i do believe this is going to take work across the board, but this is not going to be something that atf alone is going to do through a regulatory process. I think everybody if you paid attention to some of the challenges there, the handgun phenomena, the crime gun phenomena, primarily pistol, but as we see more and more of the firearmed that could be classified as pistols being able to use not just this mm 85 round, but any round. Its a challenge for officer safety, public safety. Bottom line, you know, you all have have an opportunity to maybe have a discussion that we would gladly help you with on leopa because it was passed in 86 and a lot has happened. My time has expired. I appreciate the answer to the question. I point out the law to remind folks that this was bipartisan at the outset and as we per perfected and as you mentioned, this rule contemplates excemented more ammunition. It involves prohibiting. We should remember the bipartisan spirit in which we began this effort and hopefully we can regain that. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you. I think theres a real bipartisan interest in this Community Around this issue. Doj is supposed to give me, not me that was the old days, the committee a report because we asked for a task force. When we get that well have a staff briefing so we can be up to date and really have a concerted effort. Thank you. I want to thank the witnesses. I apologize for missing the testimony. I was chairing my own subcommittee. We are extremely proud of the work being done by the criminal Justice Information systems at the facility in clarks burg. Over the years, biometrics has been exceedly useful to partner partners. To confirm that you are who you say you are. But more importantly, to figure out who someone is by a fingerprint left on a murder weapon or a bomb for example. The fbi sees this Division Since the 90s, the fbi has been saving the american taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars by deferring the cost of modernizing its known as but the budget seems to jeopardize those efforts. It includes 120 million. Can you tell me the committee what the impact would be and how this production could affect the fbi ess ability to invest in the latest technology, including facial recognition, scans and dna just to name a few . Thank you, senator. During my opening statement, i was bragging a little bit about my folks because they are a hidden gem in the fbi and i believe they are the frame. Information we share, identities we share. The dna, all of it goes through that great facility there and im very excited were going to open shortly a biometrics facility thats going to make this country even safer. I told them when i visited them, people dont know how cool you are here in west virginia. Thats part of the quality of your work. You do it so well, that everybody takes it for granted so very excited about it. Know how much i love and admire their work. The answer is i dont think they will have an the reason in the budget, that is about moneys that sit in additional moneys in the account that came from fee for service. The statute restricts my use of that funds in certain ways. I am looking for ways in which to use it consistent with the law, but my understanding is that 125 million the loss of that will not affect next generation identification, the dna database, any of the great work were doing out there. Its simply extra that came in over time from fees being paid that we can use to invest in Additional Information systems. But even if were not able to, its not going to affect the rest of the work. Well, thats good because i think the modernization is something that is ongoing changing and were extremely pleased to have the folks and fbi in clarksburg. Its been a wonderful addition to our community and we know how great it is out there, too. So i appreciate that. Id like to ask director jones a question. Because you also have a facility in west virginia. Wonderful. Yes. And theres an aspect of the budget of which im pleased about and would like to ask you regarding the investment of a proposed tracing facility in martinsburg. I think this will be with whats existing there, but youre requesting an increase for Equipment Software upgrades. Can you discuss the work thats been done at the tracing center there and why this would be i love our facility because it does such critical work to what we do. We have a grant that processes the ever increasing request for nfa licenses. Thats been driven by silencers. Weve got almost a quarter of a million requests last year and so, that will allow us to add ten more examiners that are crucial to processing and were making progress while cutting down the time. And it will give us money for contractors because about half of our workforce in martinsburg is contractors that not only do nfa licensing, they also do our crime tracing and we have a Violent CrimeAnalysis Branch and its out there, so thats kind of the heart of our gun work. At atf is out there in that Martins Martinsburg facility. Thats good news. I certainly would be supportive of that. If i could make a quick comment because i missed the decision on heroin and the Ranking Member mentioned that and im assuming thats in reflection of the rise in heroin, the rise in heroin overdoses, younger people being affected by this. Even a state like, a small state like west virginia, this is having devastating effects. And i certainly would love to be a part of of some preventive measures, either supply or demand side, to try to stop what we see happening and destroying lives all across the country. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Chairman and thank you all very much for your service and for being here this morning. I guess i want to start with the administrator. I want to follow up on senator capitos comments, so many of the other comments weve heard about heroin epidemic around this country. Were seeing it in New Hampshire and Northern New England and New Hampshire in the last ten years, weve seen people admitted to state treatment programs increase 90 for heroin use and so, it is truly an epidemic, one police chief described it to me this way. He said when we have someone shooting up at 2 00 in the afternoon and the parking lot of target in bedford, which is a very upscale community, we know weve got a problem, so we have a problem and what im interested in is not which lanes people are if, im interested in what coordination is going on. Between the agencies and specifically, one of the things ive done a series of round tables meeting with Law Enforcement, treatment officials and the medical community in New Hampshire because one of the things that we have heard there is that the heroin abuse is the result of Prescription Drug abuse. And that one place where there is a breakdown in how we address this issue has to do with prescribing and the medical Community Needs to be very involved in this discussion and as far as i can tell at the national level, were not doing as much as we should be doing. Can i ask you or anyone on the panel, but what are you doing to coordinate the efforts your agency is engaging in and how are you getting out information about those activities to local communities . The availability grant moneys that resources are available in local communities. Ill start with that. Yes, the northeast especially. With the exploding Prescription Drug problem comes what follows is a heroin problem. So what weve done and have done very well with our state and local partners in the northeast is form, weve got tactical diversions diversion investigators, dea agents, state and local officers and they become the teams that are responsible for not only the Prescription Drug problem, but also that heroin abuse in those communities and excuse me for interrupt interrupting, but are you working with the medical community and some of the medical colleges around the whole prescribing challenges . Doctors are really not given a lot of guidance on how to prescribe because its a variable issue depending on the disease on the individual. Thats correct. Its one dreg drug problem that isnt just about Law Enforcement. So, there are a number of efforts. We have been at the table with medical professionals, we have gone out we have had seminars weve worked with our u. S. Attorneys to bring the medical community, the Law Enforcement community, treatment prevention people together. A number of those have occurred in the northeast. But overprescribing is one of the major problems in our working with our hhs, you know, there are the lane for doctor, education falls with them. However, we have all partnered together and have put on, weve offered training and weve go