That in the better part of a century, slalted for tomorrow. The one youre watching right now, confirmation hearings, general john kelly for Homeland Security. Senator carper among those doing introductions on the generals behalf saying that he would be the right man for the right mission at the right time. All of this as were preparing for what could be a big day tomorrow. The kelly hearings should wrap up today. No guarantee. The only one slated for more than one day is Jeff Sessions 24e6789 took a break and will be returning. Among the news items that came out, was that he would recuse himself if a clinton email investigation were to ensue. He didnt rule out the possibility of appointing a special prosecutor but he didnt favor it either. He said that it is a possible witness. Possibility. He wont to say in the Jeff Sessions hearing, youre watching the general kelly hearing right now, but in the sessions hearing he did say that samesex marriage although hes opposed to the Supreme Court decision, he would accept it, the same with roe v. Wade, which he said is the law of the land and unconstitutional in his hands. Though he dodged any talk of how he would change that or move as attorney general to change that, that he would recognize the law of the land across the country. He has also said that religious liberty would be a priority for him as would immigration reform, honoring the nations laws already on the books o that subject, he has been dragged in repeatedly on these issues, at the prosecutorial overreach on the department of the justice department, but one thing that senator sessions made clear in case any of these things got heated, if its the law of the land i will honor it. Again and again and again despite about a half dozen protest outburst, most with those saying he was a racist. Even though it was the senator who spearheaded action against ku klux klan cases that popped up in alabama, including that of a man who was a member of the ku klux klan who killed an africanamerican. And it was, then Alabama Attorney general Jeff Sessions who recommended the Death Penalty for that clan member. That was then, this is now. Nothing that seems to interfere with either appointment, both for the attorney general wanttobe, that is Jeff Sessions, or john kelly for Homeland Security. Tomorrow, before we resume the kelly hearing and let mr. Kelly speak here, we will have Rex Tillerson, the head of exxonmobil, slalted for secretary of state. Already republican critics are building on that one, including John Mack Cain and lindsay graham. We will have treystry, john price for m. Hhs, cia, i could go on and on. This the focus, john kelly for Homeland Security, making his statement. I thank them for this service and for their sacrifice. Over the past 45 years, i have served my country as an enlisted marine and officer. I have led platoons through decision visions, held senior positions in iraq, served as Combatant Commander of Southern Command and as senior military assistant to two of my heros, secretaries gates and panetta. I have worked with our allies, the private sector, independent experts to identify innovative and comprehensive solutions to current and emerging threats. These atimes while varied shared the common characteristics of working within and leading large, complex, and diverse multimissed organizations. While under great pressure to produce results. Im humbled once againserve. This time with the wonderful men and women of the department of Homeland Security. As a nation we are rereminded almost daily that the threats to the homeland have not receded in anyway. The challenges to our way of life have not diminished. As i solemnly swore when i entered before the marine corps, if confirmed i will faithfully support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic every second of every day. I believe in america and the principles upon which our country and way of life are guaranteed. I believer in respect, toll rabs and diversity of opinion. I have a profound respect for the law and will always stwrooif to uphold it. Ive never had a problem speaking truth to power and i firmly believe those in power deserve full candor in my honest assessment and recommendationles. I also value people that work for me, speaking truth to power. I love my country and will do everything within my power to preserve our liberty, enforce our laws and protect our citizens. I recognize the many challenges facing the department, should i be connell firmed look forward to partnering with you to protect the homeland. I look forward to discussing the felt of the department and answering the committees questions. Thank you very much. Thank you general kelly. Twient remind the members ill limit questions to 7 minutes and be very disciplined in maintaining the 7 minutes. There are questions that i will ask and then reserve the rest of my time and defer to senator chairman mccain who has limited time. Let me start with the three questions. General kelly, is there anything you are aware in your background that might present a conflict of interest with the duties of the office to which you have been dominated . Theres nothing, sir. Do you know of anything personal or otherwise that would prevent from you fully and honorbly discharging the responsibilities of the office to which you are nominated. Nothing, senator. Do you agree without reservation to comply with any request or summons to appear and testify before any duly constituted committee of congress . Do i. Thank you. Senator mccain . General, as you know we passed legislation on the defense bill prohibiting torture, including walterboarding waterboarding. Do you intend on follow that law . Absolutely, senator. And what is your personal view of waterboarding and other forms of torture . Senator, i dont think we should ever come close to crossing the line that is beyond what we as americans would expect to follow in terms of interrogation techniques. That would be basically the geneva conventions . Absolute i, yes, sir, absolutely. Theres an epidemic in the country, of opiods. Its coming from mexico, manufactured in mexico, regrettably according to information that i have, a lot of it is coming across the arizonamexico border into phoenix, arizona. And being distributed nationwide. As you well know, we are experiencing a dramatic increase in deaths from overdose. This is taking place in older americans, who have turned from oxycontin and other sources. Former governor of New Hampshire will testify of the really severe aspects of this, what many of called an epidemic. The fundamental belief that if there is demand there will be a supply. What is your view of that situation . I would start off saying its amazing to me, but i just found out recently that an old friend who is not so old, 62 years old, just, after a very successful life, just overdosed on heroin. And i think to your point, its cheaper, more available in many ways than some of the opiods, since she could not apparently get a prescription for what she thought she needed. Most americans dont realize it. 100 of the heroin that we consume in the United States is, in fact, produced in mexico. Its creeping down into Central America. They have responded, the cartels, the networks, have responded to the demand. So indead of asia, south ash yashg it now is all produced here south asia, its produced in the western hem is fore. Poppies are grown in guatemala, colombia. But it is all produced here. An awful lot of the opiods, what looks Like Pharmaceuticals are produced in mexico and pirated up through the border. Part of the problem, and this is, i think, the outside my particular area of kwon firm, part of the problem is we are a very very overly medicated society. Huge amounts of opiods are prescribed legally for things that, in the past, would probably not receive that level of medication. So the point is, huge problem, getting worse, in the profits, theyre just unbelievable to the cartels that control the whole marketing and transport. Theres been a great deal of conversation about building a wall and its been my experience that we need to have barriers. But building a wall is not the way to prevent the flow of drugs or people illegally across the border. I think it requires ranging from drones to towers to use of some of the technological advantages that we have. If you would just briefly tell us what you think is necessary to have a secure border. Yes, senator. A physical barrier in and of itself, as a military person that understands defense and defenses, fiscal barrier will not do the job. It has to be really a layered defense. If you were to build a wall from the pacific to the gulf of mexico, you would still have to back that wall up with patrolling by human beings, sensors, observation devices. But as ive said to many of the senators present and ive said for three years, i believe the defense of the southwest border starts about 1500 miles south, that is partnering with some great countries as far south as peru, really, that are very cooperative with us in terms of getting after the drug production and transport. Very, very good with us, to include mexico. We could have better partnerships, i think we can work closely with them, give them more of what they need. We certainly share intel with them, information with them now. We have legal attaches in many of our embassies, they develop unbelievable amounts i dont mean to interrupt. But isnt it technology that would help us secure the border as much as anything else . Im talking about surveillance, talking about capabilities to intercept, but not to just sit there. In other words, the kind of, frankly, the kind of Border Security that we see in israel. Technology would be a big parent of it, yes. And that tech a big part of it. Would that be drones, observation devices . You know the aerostats, observation devices mounted in certain terrain, uavs for sure, sensors in places, perhaps, that the wall cant be built or wont be built any time soon in terms of that project. But, yes, sir. Finally, the morale of our Border Patrol is not real good. And i think you know from your leadership experiences that if the morale of your force is not good then its hard to get the mission accomplished. I hope, i know you are aware of that and i hope you spend some time with these really outstanding men and women who are doing arduous work, sometimes under very, very difficult conditions. Its very high on the arizona border. There is morale problems there. A lot has to do with they think theyre not given the capabilities to do their job as they think they can do it, most efficiently. And i know you will be focusing a lot of attention on that. I will, senator. Senator mccaskill. General kelly, on friday the office of director of National Intelligence released a declassified report on the assessment of russian activities and intentions in our recent election. To quote from the report, russian efforts to influence the 2016 u. S. President ial election represent the most recent expression of moscows long standing desire to undermine the u. S. Led liberal democratic order. That these activities demonstrate significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort compared to previous operations. We assess russian president Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 kamd at the u. S. President ial election. Russias goals were to undermine public faith in the u. S. Democratic process, denigrate secretary clinton and harm her electbilt and potential presidency. We further assess putin and russian government developed a clear preference for president elect trump. We have high confidence in these judgments. General kelly, do you accept the conclusions of the tin tell generals community regarding russian interference in your election . With high confidence. On Border Security, i think that secretary senator mccain covered a lot of this. I want to point out that the budget we have annually on Border Security equals the combined budgets of fbi, atf, dea, secret service, u. S. Marshals, plus the entire new York Police Department budget. 19 billion in fiscal year 2016. Fiscal year 2016, we had 331,000 people apprehended at the border. Almost 50 of those turned themselves in. In other words, all of the Border Security agents in the world, all of the fences in the world, wouldnt have made any difference, they said hey, take us, were here, we want asylum. So, i guess my question to you, is do you have it on your agenda to examine the Spending Priorities of that 19 billion and look at the efficacy of every place were spending that money, and most importantly how would you address the fact that almost half of the people coming to the border right now, that were apprehending, are not trying to evade detection. Theyre just trying to find some place safe. On the first question, senator, any time ive ever taken over a new organization, certainly i go talk to them and look hard at how were doing business. People that would have come before me, if im confirmed, did a great job. Secretary johnson and others. But my typical approach is to do a top to bottom assessment. And i will do that. On the asylum issue, i believe, im confident that most of the people that are coming up here from Central America are coming here for two reasons. One three, probably. One, the first is it is very unsafe. Some of the most dangerous countries on the planet. Thats unfortunate. Because of that, not only because of that, but a lot of social issues are, lack of Economic Development. Then finally, theyre very confident. If they pay the money, get on the network, they will get to the United States and they will be in their view at least, unlikely that they will be going back to honduras, guatemala, other countries like that. Ill look forward to your assessment and i know we talked in my office about the drug cartels and what big role they have, and the people showing up seeking asylum. Most of the violence is attributable to that. As opposed to policy lses of the obama added a mshgs. The enhancements on Electronic System for travel authorization, i think people dont realize im aware of a situation recently where because of the electronic enhancements we were able to stop some one from coming to america that was coming from a visa waiver country to south america, then planning on coming to america and doing us harm. We were able to stop that travel. In fact, since february of 2016, 40,000 individuals have been denied visa free travel due to the enhancements put in place. Along with that, as we tried to do preclearance in various countries around the world. So that we are checking people before they get on the plane with maybe some one would call it extreme vetting. That is now going on across the globe. Have you had a chance to look at that, and do you believe that i mean thats really the border that im most worried about, people traveling here from visa waiver countries with an eye towards doing our country harm, and our ability to stop them. Senator, i think that the visa waiver countries clearly are countries that have at least Law Enforcement and Information Systems in place that we have confidence in. Nothing is perfect. Many other countries as you know dont have nearly that kind of system in place and we wouldnt have the confidence there. But nothing is perfect. Many countries, again, high degree of confidence that their citizens that come here would not cause problems. But ever vigilant. And in those countries that dont have the systems in place. We somehow have to convince ourses that everyone coming here, we have a reasonable expectation that they wont do us harm, whether its crime, terrorism. Some of the enhancements put in place are, are you a member of global entry program, have you been present in iraq, sudan, syria, after march 2011. Other questions that are part of this. Do you believe its important that we expand this program, the enhancements and the Preclearance Program . I think its a good idea. I dont know exactly, the details of it. But it would appear a good idea. We have to have confidence in the information were getting onsite to prevent people that would come here to do us harm. Thank you mr. Chairman. Senator mccaskill, our next new member has shown up, senator holburn. I gave up my question slot to senator mccain, i know chairman enzi is managing activity on the floor, ill defer, then get back on schedule. I thank the chairman. I do need to go back to the floor. And i do appreciate the chance that i had to meet with general kelly. In my early days here in the senate, there was a change in the makeup of the majority and we became the minority and it created a problem of vacancy in the Foreign Relations committee. I happened to get that Foreign Relations committee spot. And they had to redo all of the committees. There was one committee that apparently nobody wanted because i became the Ranking Member on it. That was just shortly before 9 11. So right after that, i had a lot of people saying, so, how did the new guy get the Antiterrorism Committee . I was own a United Nations committee that was supposed to find the bad guys. And i guess it was fortunate or maybe unfortunate that just about all of us were accountants. So what we did was followed the money. And we got 130 countries involved in it. And several of them found the bad guys and prosecuted the bad guys, in some cases executed the bad guys. It was effective until they figured o