Transcripts For CSPAN FBI Director Wray On Domestic Threats 20240713

Dealing with in terms of threat environment. Hearing that ih have participated in. Have seen ald say i reduction in threat and all is well. If anything, the threats are growing. We were talking about drones and the extent of social media. Evolving and terrorist groups are spreading around the world and if anything , it has grown far more complex and difficult. You have tremendous responsibility and on your shoulders. I will turn it over to witness testimony. Thank you for being here today. The department of Homeland Security was created to defend the United States from any and all threats. The departments leaders are critical to our National Security efforts and we rely on them to coordinate with the National Counterterrorism and fbi. 9 11,hs was created after agency was very clear [inaudible] the narrow focus was expanded and as threats have grown, they have become more dynamic as well. Andthreats have emerged foreign adversaries disrupt the nations cyber networks. Interference has presented a complicated new challenge that we are still trying to adequately address. Every year, we hold these hearings to examine these and other threats facing our country. The safety of americans is built and partnership between congress and the administration. Hearingnvene this without a secretary of Homeland Security or otherwise, im deeply concerned that these partnerships are starting to unravel. The Department Needs and the American People certainly deserve qualified and consistent leadership that will empower the brave men and women at dhs to protect the homeland, respond to not for disasters and allow our nation to grow and prosper. The committee will continue to exercise to make sure communities are protected from these threats, but that requires cooperation from your agencies and constitutionally mandated request. Requests. [no audio] any response to bipartisan request about the growing threat of domestic terrorism and white supremacist violence. O one should live in fear this is a serious and growing theto protect a very very core of what makes us a very diverse people. Stop with a simple acknowledgment or strategy put onto paper. This threat is not theoretical and neither should our response be. Outstanding require requests. This committee and your agency must Work Together to keep americans safe and make sure they are successful. We think each of you for being here today. Youre departments are doing to address these threats and how the committee and agencies Work Together to protect our National Security. Thank you for being here. It is a tradition to swear in witnesses, soap you would raise your right hand. Swear that the testimony you give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth . It may be seated. In light of the secretaries galway is the. Undersecretary. He was confirmed by the senate in august 3, 2017. He has over 26 years of Intelligence Community and lawenforcement experience. Chairman johnson, distinguished members of the committee, it is my honor to testify to address todays emerging worldwide threats. Let me briefly touch upon my role. Ensuringnsible for Homeland Security partners have access to intelligence they need to keep the country safe. That it is to ensure shared with operators across all levels of government to mitigate threats. It is based on sound, analytic and judgment analytic judgment. I would like to speak about foreignwe face from terrorism, domestic terrorism, cyber and transnational organized crime. Domestic terrorism and targeted violence. I want to address the most pervasive threats we face on the homeland which is a targeted attack whether it is domestic terrorism or a hate crime. Race,often target ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity. It advocates hate and violence. They have adopted an increasingly transactional. Utlook the last two years we are focused on identifying the behaviors indicative of an individual at risk of carrying out targeted violence. Officer andpolice part of the 1999 denver attack in colorado, i have first and experience for this type of violence. At the federal bureau of dhs informs, equips and drains partners to enhance prevention. We continue to make substantial progress to mitigate threats that these groups pose, however foreign terror and foreign tororist organizations seek inspire violence, encourage individuals to attack our society. Qaeda represent National Security threats. Strategicats remain a risk for the United States. Criminals areyber increasing the sophistication of their attacks. China, russia, iran and north korea are using advanced Cyber Capabilities in order to try to and threatenecrets democratic institutions. It has evolved into a significant threat. Other s and democraticen institutions, threaten our Economic Security and shape policy outcomes. We expect our competitors to refined refine their capabilities. Crime,tional organized it has a destabilizing effect on the western hemisphere. They profit from a range of illicit activities including human smuggling, extortion and trafficking. It is like to record levels of crime in mexico. I want to address the events in mexico from the last 24 hours. The reprehensible killing of women, children and infants is a stark example of how these organizations operate. The disregard for human life is barbaric. Aresnational organizations motivated by money and power. They are quick to take advantage of improved technology, cheaper transportation and better distribution methods. Very proud to im ensure the safety and security of all americans. I look forward to your questions this afternoon. Is thenext witness honorable Christopher Wray. He was sworn in as the eighth fbi director. Thank you, good afternoon. I am honored to be here today representing roughly 37,000 men and women of the fbi. It has been just over two years since i became fbi director and i have had the opportunity to visit all 56 of our field offices, many of them more than once from all across the country. Representative many representative of the community has have also had a chance to visit. I think i have a much better sense of what we are up against. Frankly, the threats we face today are very different from over a decade ago. They are evolving in scale, agility andmpact the fbis moving forward to meet those had on. Head on. But the death of albaghdadi, we know we have to stay vigilant both overseas and here at home. Ont includes people bent joining terrace organization. Like thee to two milwaukee men milwaukee men. We are laser focused on preventing terrorist attacks by people who are already here in the United States, people we refer to as homegrown violent extremists. These folks are inspired by foreign ideologies and operate through websites and encrypted messaging platforms. Threatslso focused on of domestic terrorism attacks carried out by a wide variety of wide extremist ideologies. To confront these threats, we are working closely to lawenforcement partners and reaching out to all the communities we serve. We are being proactive, like in the case of the manner miami man arrested in august for threatening to kill every hispanic in miami for the las vegas man who had been orcussing a synagogue attack the men we arrested this past friday who also planned to attack a synagogue in colorado using pipe bombs and dynamite. These cases present a unique challenge because in this country we dont investigate someone just on their beliefs and the homegrown 10 to work online quickly at the speed of social media, leaving dangerously low warning time to attack. Ther having walked through crime scene at the tree of life synagogue and visited with the paso in the scene in el dayton, this thread is never far from our lives and is a focus all across the fbi. Have time to talk about all the top threats that we are dealing with, but i hope we can talk about more of them as a respond to your questions, in particular on the Counter Intelligence front where the chinese are targeting through a wider than ever range of actors. Not just chinese Intelligence Officers, but people then list contractedm like hackers, certain graduates, researchers, Insider Threats and a whole variety of other actors working on behalf of china. We see the Chinese Government theuraging and assisting planes that offer cash and other enticements to bring information back to china, information that is often actually trade secrets stolen from American Companies and universities and we are seeing Chinese Companies using veryto compete against the American Companies it belongs to. We are seeing data from companies and academic institutions in just about every size and sector. This is a threat to Economic Security and to National Security. It is also a threat to american , and big cities alike. Even as we speak, the fbi has around 1000 investigations involving attempted theft of u. S. Based technology that leads back to china in that involves nearly all of the fbis field offices. It is a significant uptick from a few years ago. The men and women of the the dedicate themselves everyday to keep the American People safe. I want to thank this committee for your support. I can tell you it makes all the difference in the world to our agents, analysts and professional staff all across the country and frankly around the world, so thank you for the opportunity to be here. Our third witness is russell travers. Positionen in this servedugust 16, 2019 and from 2017 to 2018. Mr. Travers . Thank you and good afternoon kevin johnson, members of the committee, it is a privilege to be here. Thehe years since 9 11, United States has achieved success against many terrorist groups around the world. The u. S. Continues to remove terrorist leaders around the world and over the past year, coalitions against isis, iraq and syria and the socalled caliphate. Africa, efforts across the middle east continued to diminish the ranks of al qaeda and isis. Interagency efforts to enhance defense at home has resulted in continuous progress against Homeland Security terrorist attacks. Challenges remain and i will highlight just three. First, military operations have brought us time and space as we address a global Terror Threat. It remains a significant concern and after 9 11 we were primarily focused on external attack capability against the afghanistanpakistan border. 18 years later, we face homegrown violent extremist threats and also 20 isis networks that range from tens of hundreds of thousands of people. There is a growing Terror Threat for racially motivated threats around the world. There are far more radicalized individuals then 9 11 which highlights the importance of terrorism prevention. While some aspects can only be done with her kinetic operations , the radiance will not be dealt with by military alone. The second challenge stems from terrorists ability to exploit technology. They are good at it and very innovative. We have seen the use of social media to spread propaganda and transfer knowledge between individuals in the networks, the , highquality documents will increasingly undermined a screening threat to our security and we all seek greater use of cryptocurrencys and the potential use of. Hemical and biological weapons cases, terrace [indiscernible] looking out five years, we are in the growing threats. The third is potential complacency. [no audio] attacksly directed against the homeland has temporary decline temporarily declined actions across the globe, but continues to require close attention in the years ahead. In a crowded environment, it is completely understandable that terrorism is no longer viewed as it number one threat in the country, but that begs the question of what does the equation look like in a complex environment and secondly, how do we optimize resources in the best interests of the sources when the department may have Different Properties and thirdly, if we are going to reduce efforts, how do we do so in a manner that does not reverse the gains of the past 18 years. Questions that will require sophisticated conversations going forward. Thank you for your questions. I was not expecting an infusion of optimism. These are serious threats and they are becoming more complex. One thing i noticed that was lacking in your written , secretary gawain did therence the killing of family. We did not talk about ms 13 and some of those gangs infusing inner cities and are incredibly brutal. The reality, potential for thelover as we saw with mormon tragedy and the gains that we already know exist and really the current situation, as it growing is a growing . How much of a handle to we have on these gangs . Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this. I would say in regard to mexico, there are areas in mexico child characterized as lawless. Being that the drug cartels run the infrastructure, the services and their businesses which is drug trafficking. Percentagerd a high of the communities are controlled by the drug cartels. I would be happy to come back in a closed session. We did an evaluation that we looked at and it is devastating right now. Of drugs on the southwest border have increased the last two years. Few years. Their networks are sophisticated , they operated with a sophisticated supply chain with covert and overt operations. Assassination at will. We held a hearing that ms 13 was not motivated by drugs. The fbi is spending a lot of efforts on gangs and inner city, not just ms 13, 18th street and gangs like that. If you talk to Police Chiefs around the country, it is neighborhood gangs that are really terrorizing communities and we view it as a threat that. S alive and well what has been the trend over the last 10 years . I think part of it is the trend towards neighborhood gangs. Ms 13 has become a major factor, aboutcreasingly worried neighborhood gangs. When you are strategic and prioritize going after threats, what you will find is if you prioritize, there is an effective tailwagging of the dog. In one city, it will be a particular neighborhood and other places might be a particular corridor for highway for a group with 20 or 30 people driving the threat. Find the tail wagging the dog and if you are disciplined, you can have a dramatic impact quickly. Are the number of gang members growing . Ms 13 takes brutality to a whole another level. Is essentially a right of passage to join and move up the ranks, so theres a degree to which there is violence for violence sake. Are the numbers growing or is it flat . Im not sure i can give you the number of gang members, but i would be happy if someone followed up on that. I know the crime rate has gone down some in the last year or two. Testimony, you were talking about the cyber theft which is hundreds of billions of dollars. I cant personally envision a granting that in. Reiningthat in that in. Can you speak to that reality . I think you are exactly right, there is no one remedy that will deal with that. What i would say is there is a role for trade, a role for lawenforcement, a role for a particular building resilience in this country working in the private sector and academic sector. A lot of the defense against the counter challenges threat can be done by companies and other institutions in this country being smarter and more sophisticated, so we are putting inot of effort into that terms of providing detailed themmation to try to help be part of a common defense that we all need. Canada arrested the cfo of way huawei. Is there a concerted effort to arrest people from the companys companies . That in some instances, there are abuses of the visa process that we are and they areress an important part of the fight as well and there may be people engaged in intellectual property theft in a way that violates the terms of their contract, a company or Research Contract with the university and they can be kicked out on that basis and sometimes that is a lot better solution. Theres no question the three of you have had difficult jobs and big responsibilities. One of theiscuss jobs that the department of security has come up what security has, first of all to keep us safe, but you havent added responsibility to move trade and commerce efficiently as possible across the border. Look at is something we a lot. Of secure trade and travel is absolutely essential to my state and many others. In order to support that, it is clear that dhs has a clear picture of the threats facing the northern border and ports of entry as well. Could you briefly speak to the threats on the northern border to support the northern border strategy as it exists today . Im a relatively unique witness. I led a team that did an assessment of the northern border threat which i would be happy to share and i traveled to the northern border, been to the border crossings and then to the intelligence center. There is a vulnerability in. Arine and land environment we are looking at how we deploy our assets in the air and sensor capabilities and individuals that maybe crossing unlawfully. A lot of relationship revolves partnershipsnd with each other. Backed up by good intelligence information 24 hours a day. Highlightlso like to our expansion to cargo. That is at full operational capacity, but we are constantly evaluating threats to the northern border. I mentioned this briefly in my opening comments, but your agency has not provided a single document in him a six months to a letter that chairman johnson and i authored dealing with domestic terrorism. Thatis a bipartisan letter hopefully a loud us to have the information necessary to provide the kind of oversight, particularly as something as serious as domestic terrorism. When you have a joint letter that is bipartisan, mira question is do you require a subpoena to respond to routine document requests from this committee . No, second would tell you that we have tried very hard to be responsive to this community. I will say the department provided a long, written response and we sat down with your staff and provided a verbal briefing. Providingwe have been domestic terrorism reports to the committee staff. Having said that, the most important thing is to make sure we are being responsive and i will figure out how we can be more responsive and more forthcoming. So you will be more responsive than not responding at all . Committee t the what we got from dhs were publicly available documents. Our staffs are pretty good at looking at publicly available documents, so that is not very helpful in the oversight role. Have dowe should you think the committee should have less access to documents than a general foia request . Dhs cannot speak for response, but for the fbi i ,ont think providing verbal written responses is no response at all. They point from my perspective is i want to make sure we are dressing your concerns, so dont want to to take it as i will not direct my staff in will not do and will not do anything that we can. Can you do it by the end of the week . I need to get more permission. I appreciate that. Domestic to the fbi, terrorism has killed 39 people in 2019. How would you characterize the threat posed by White Supremacists . I would say that domestic terrorism generally, particularly lone actors, represents a serious persistent threat. Arrest,we had had 107 which is close to the same number we had on the International Terrorism front. Time, we have about 900, sometimes closer to and sometimes above 1000 of domestic terrorism investigations. A huge chunk involved racially motivated violent extremists terrorist attacks in the majority of those are field by some kind of White Supremacy and i would say the most lethal activity over the last few years has been committed by those types of offenders. Much mr. You very chairman and thanks to you and king members peters Ranking Member peters. I you will carry back with you to the men women who lead a thanks for all they do to keep us safe. Director travers i wanted to start with the question to you. Last month, i heard the concerns of our military and Embassy Personnel about the growing and real threat of the isis affiliate in afghanistan. I hear that it normally threatens u. S. Forces in afghanistan and has plans to strike the u. S. Homeland. You said last month there are over 20 [indiscernible] globally. It remains a deadly threat to do you the United States. We know that isis and other affiliates want to attack the homeland. Please tell us what we are doing to mitigate the threat. Of all the branches and k is theof isis, isis one of most concern. Ofbably in the neighborhood 4000 or so. They have attempted to certainly conspired attacks outside of afghanistan. Attack inired to india and it failed. Attack in stockholm in 2017 i believe that killed five people, so they certainly propagandadesire and would indicate they want to attack outside of afghanistan. Claims say we saw attack , althoughramping up now we are looking at about an attack a day. Interestingly, about an hour and a half ago they were the latest allegiance toare the new head of vices. Ini want to thank your team new hampshire. We have a field hearing about. Hreats leaders have been very encouraged, so thank you and him for that. Impact acrossthe attackntry, including an in my home state of new hampshire. Last week, i talked with director krebs about what department of Homeland Security is doing. Director ray, what is the fbi wray . How is the fbi coordinating with the department of Homeland Security on these efforts . Appreciate the feedback on the meeting in new hampshire. I think what we are seeing is a shift to more and more targeted Ransomware Attacks come up more municipalities and there are a variety of Different Reasons they are more vulnerable. Were also seeing more enterpriselevel which affects every computer in the organization. One of the things we are trying to do is figure out through our enforcementas a law agency and intelligence agency, there have been times where we are able to reverse engineer a decryption key. In the northwest, small business, 600 people, crippling ransomware attack, potentially all those people going to lose their jobs, but work, they did not have to pay a ransom and got systems back online. Dhs, wes working with work very closely together. The fbi has the lead on the oneat and dhs is the lead the assets and essentially we Work Together in that respect. It is something that in the onk the work we have done a committee, we have heard more more about local stakeholders and really want to help all the various agencies coordinate information as effectively as possible. To goor travers i wanted back to the issue of domestic terrorism. In the aftermath of 9 11, the federal government built a robust counterterrorism to support state and local partners and address foreign terrorist threats unlike any before. Today, 18 years later, we face a surge in domestic terrorism and you will hear it from everyone in the committee, including rising threats against houses of worship. If we are to prevent these, we have to treat these as seriously as we did when al qaeda and other terrorist organizations have threatened after 9 11. The [indiscernible] created to respond to threats from al qaeda and prevent attacks. Can you share your thoughts on the current state. What does the u. S. Government need to do to ensure it gets to the people who need to know it . But i think the intelligence reform act written by the Committee Gave a number of responsibilities for International Terrorism. There are references in the legislation to domestic terrorism, but quite clearly the bureau would have the lead, so we have a lot of things we can do and staffs working on parameters and things like addressing issues of. Adicalization and mobilization i think it is pretty clear in terms of using social media and the internet and so forth, so we are broadening our efforts there so we can get that information to our state and local partners partners. Or i think where i think there is value is working with partners around the globe. We can bring a lot of analytic horsepower and that helps the bureau. Ici and overtime. I dont know if the director would like to comment or take it up. , we arehort version trend of,rd at some for example White Supremacists for neonazis here connecting with individuals overseas and in some cases actually traveling overseas to train. We are engaged with partners as we compare notes on this threat. Harris . Or good afternoon. As you know, our country is facing many threats. Startor ray, im going to asking you about rudy giuliani. Have you communicated with him since you were the fbi director . No. Do you know if he holds any security clearance of any kind . I dont know the answer to that. Has mr. Giuliani made any recommendations regarding his business dealings or interests . Im not sure theres anything i could say on that here. Is that because it is a compass a matter or because you dont know or they dont exist . That is in part because i dont know the answer. What is the other part . If there was something that was shared with the fbi that im not aware of, it might run afoul of some of the other things you mentioned. Given the close relationship with the president and mr. Giuliani, has the fbi said that it could be a counterintelligence threat . I dont think theres anything i could say on that subject. Testifiedl you have in the past to take a note to defend the constitution and i admire that and believe it to be true. Believeve do you your loyalty is to the president or the constitution . The constitution and the people of the country. [no audio] i dont want to be misunderstood as commenting on recent events, but as a general matter, any information about potential interference with our elections by a Foreign Government or anyone else would want to know about. In sworn testimony before the subcommittee is june, you said you could not think of an instance where the president has directly or indirectly asked you to open an investigation into anyone. Confirmday, can you whether the president has asked you to open an investigation into anyone . Again, i cannot think of an instance. Weve had discussions about, for example, domestic terrorism threats, foreign intelligence threats, things like that, but those tended to be more about a threat in the aggregate, as opposed to a specific individual. Has the president or anyone anyonebehalf suggest stop, start or limit the scope of any investigation . Not that i can think of. In your view, would it be inappropriate to start or stop requested byion the president or anyone at the white house . The fbis obligation and the obligation i expect of all 30,000 37,000 men and women continuei is we will to investigate investigations. Be an appropriate if onstarted or stopped based someone from the white house . I think nothing else but the law. I will take that as you would believe it would be improper if requested by someone at the white house . To weigh onoing hypotheticals, but i think we are saying the same thing. At the acidk the close or open an investigation for any improper purpose. Think the fbi should open or close an investigation for any improper purpose. Wiki it be at the would it be ethically appropriate or inappropriate to start or stop an investigation at the request of anyone at the white house . I think there should be no opening of any investigation based on anything other than the facts or the law. Ever suggested that attorney general barr or any other member start, stop or limit the scope of an investigation . To general bars communication with others. Given your extensive and noble career, have you ever encountered suspects who tried to intimidate witnesses . Absolutely and prosecuted some. Why is it a threat to the [no audio]justice if witnesses dont come forward, then that pursuit to the truth is frustrating. Engine 2019, it was reported that officers around the country and active members and extremist wildlife matter can you tell me what your organization has done to investigate groups like these . Im not aware of the specific group and in response to the earlier questions, we have about 902 verso. White supremacy ideology has motivating the crime we are investigating. Thank you. I want to thank each of you for being here today and the chairman and ranking of repeaters for putting this together. My focus today is on the fbis ability to share to mastech terrorism information and other information with local fbi offices and local and state Law Enforcement. Let me start by saying that the men and women of the fbi are dedicated Public Servants. They serve this country selflessly with no desire for praise or public recognition. I understand that the fbi gets very low credit for their success. I understand it is only the few instances where they get public scrutiny. The fbi deserves praise and credit for the work they do every day to keep us safe. But i also have concerns about a series of shootings in florida and a lack of after action transparency on the fbi. The incident at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in florida, i learned a fillers of the fbi to actively investigate specific tips about the shooter leading up to months before the attack. Information about the shooter was received by the fbi National Call center and was never passed on the the south Florida Field Office for investigation or to any statement local Law Enforcement. Month before the fbi was warned about the shooter through comment on Youtube Video where someone with the shooters name stated im going to be a professional school shooter. I understand the fbi gets a high volume of tips. But it appears the fbi did nothing with this detailed information of an imminent threat. Im also aware of similar instances of preattack notifications received by the fbi guarding other attacks in florida. Including out the Fort Lauderdale airport, the nightclub and announced a nightclub in orlando and a tallahassee yoga studio. Since then ive specifically sought information from director ray regarding steps taken to hold a candle those in the agency for the failures. As the two things. First, has anyone been held accountable . Second, what changes have been made to prevent this from happening again . So far, i have gotten very little information. As governor when this happened i ask a nation. I was told nothing. I got no information back. I asked for next nation. Four and explanation. I asked for what accountability and changes and got little information. Esther chairman i want to enter into the record the correspondence i received. Without objection. The parkland families have also told me they have not gotten answers. Today, as anyone from the fbi been held accountable for the failures to follow the attack of the Marjory Stoneman douglas . How vaped they been held accountable and what how have they been held accountable and what changes have been made . I get that the attack was 100 the fault of an evil person and not specifically the font of an fbi. But the failure of actions of the part of the fbi requires action to correct the errors. I recently introduced the tips act which require fbi be more proactive sharing information with local and state officials and would like your feedback on this proposal. First if you talk about parkland. Thank you, senator. First let me say that there has no issue that terraces up inside more than a threat to kids in this country that tears us up inside more than us issue of a threat to kids in this country. That was a heartbreaking day for everybody in the fbi. And i hope you know that. And i mean that personally. Second, weve made extensive changes. I immediately, after the parkland shooting, dispatched a large special Inspection Team where Public Call Center is. As a result a number of changes have been made. Without going into all the detail let me give you a few key points. First, we increased staffing significantly at the line level and the supervisor level. Second, we enhanced training significantly. Third we enhanced technology significantly. Fourth, we added more oversight. Fifth, and this goes to parts of your question, we have put into place an entirely new Leadership Team with a wealth of experience, and we have made other personnel changes. Some of them disciplinary in nature. Partly because of pending litigation against us and because of privacy implications, theres a limit to how much to tell i can go into on the personnel front. But there are significant changes that have been made. I have personally gone out there not once but twice, first to see what it was like before. And second, now to see how it has changed since then. I have set in the mist of the call operators, put in the headset and listen as they dealt with the calls and watch how it happens. And i can tell you that there is an incredible amount of really good work going down there. You mention the volume issue. I think it is important for people to understand that on any given day, our call center up. Here gets more than 3000 of those 3000 tips, about 60 a tips a day, are potential threats to life. So that is a huge amount of weed having to get separated from the chaff. Of the 60, probably 80 of them have no federal nexus whatsoever. So we are looking at ways, and i know that is the goal now coming around to your legislation, that is a goal i think we share, which is how can we get the right information that is the key word, the right actual information, the wheat and not the chaff to our state and local partners as fast as possible. There is something in place i would love to talk to you about called in guardian, system in place for a while that we have enhanced. Eguardian. It would dual route simultaneously go straight from the call center not just to the local field office, but also to the state Fusion Center or the equivalent. We all have already had a number of instances and i can go through a number here where some threat comes in and within hours using that approach we have had an arrest. So i think we are encouraged by the direction. Mistake, this is one of the hardest things one enforcement has to deal with today and we are doing our best and will keep working at it. Heresan you explain. Why i never get a response. First of off, i do not think you have an easy job. And you get lots of tips. I get all that. But i have never heard. And i dont get why 70 cant say a person was disciplined. They were held accountable. Something. Guy, and aess business, it is the world. You have to hold people accountable if they made a mistake. Theainly if you said persons name said im going to be a professional school shooter, that is preactionable you would think. Never two, when some because a few weeks before School Shooting and give detailed information, i mean you have to believe some he got held accountable. To this point, i mean, the parkland families have never been told that anyone was held accountable. And it is always this amorphous, it is privacy or Something Like that, we cannot there has to be a better answer than that. If you take the other side and says Nothing Happened then. Nobody got held accountable. Well, like i said, to me, the privacy. To be the privacy act issues and the pending legation are things that i have to take seriously in responding to your question. I am trying to lean in and answering your question per night cant tell you that there were two individuals principally involved with the call. With had one individual reassigned as a result of that inspection report. And one who was, no longer with the fbi. I cannot go into more detail than that. But i would tell you that the more important thing is it should not be anybodys impression, i can assure you, that nothing has been done. We have made massive changes out there. And i know we have invited you and your staff to come out and see it and i would welcome that. I think you would be encouraged by what you have seen out there. Thank you. Senator carper. Thank you offer your testimony. Excellent testimonies and we appreciate that. Thank you for being here today. And for the work you do. I passed senator Sheldon Whitehouse leaving as i was coming in. He is not on the committee and doesnt get to ask questions. He wanted to ask about responding to q f r questions for the record. I would ask to check with your team and make sure youre being responsive there. He asked me to mention that so i did it on his behalf. I know you probably get a lot of those. Theprivileged to be chairman of this committee a few years ago. Tom coburn of oklahoma was our Ranking Member. It was during the obama administration. This, we had a hearing or two with folks from essentially and the issueity, was swiss cheese. You might say why was it swiss cheese . The leadership in Homeland Security looks like swiss cheese. Positionsumber of vacant in leadership positions. We had many others filled by people in an acting capacity who had never been Senate Confirmed. Im happy you are here. And others that are filling in. Here he woulde probably say and share the same concern which is all these people and acting positions. I asked my staff to give me a. Ber and they said [[inaudible] the actingat went secretary leaves, and i think he has been terrific and hate to see him go. A level of 18 positions requiring Senate Confirmation 11 of the 18 positions requiring Senate Confirmation will be vacant. Tom coburn and i worked hard along with the committee because the department of Homeland Security had the worst morale. That is measured about every two years. The worst morale of all the major apartment of government print one reason why was because of that. Of all the major departments of government. When that an administration left arm ever talking to jeh johnson and he told me the last measurement, every two years, measuring the morale of major departments and the department that made the most improvement was Homeland Security. So it really does make a difference in more ways than we might expect. I would ask each of you to speak to how the lack of Senate Confirmed leadership at the highest levels of dhs affects the interagency work you all do to keep our home and secure. Secure . Omeland. His would be for you how can we in Congress Force the president to nominate qualified individual to ensure the department is able to carry out its vital mission. Senator, thank you for bringing that up. In 27 years in Law Enforcement and a career official starting as a Houston Police enforcer officer and is an honor and privilege to serve with the men and women of Homeland Security. The Career Service have carried on with an incredible professionalism. Employee to say our Viewpoint Survey continues the upsurge trajectory, even though some of these Senate Confirmed positions are not filled. My office has seen some of the biggest increases in morale this year and your staff love access to that. I would say we have two your half your staff will have access to that. Officer andnancial another i would appreciate their speedy confirmation. Senateone of the longest confirmed officials and unanimously confirmed i appreciate that by this committee as well. Others care to comment on this place. To comment on this, please. Without speaking till dhs leadership vacancies i would say we work very closely with then and women of dhs across all their different sub agencies every day on our task forces. They are fantastic Public Servants and great partners. And we are proud to stand with them. Of an same would be true ctc. I have many people embedded at dhs and many in a officers who work for me and it is very, very strong partnership. Many ina officers. I want to talk about our withdrawal of u. S. Troops from northeast syria. Something troubles me deeply. I give a speech on the floor last thursday at close of business. Mentioned it 11,000 kurdish lives have been lost in the battle against isis. I asked how is he doing any said compared to what . 11,000 of their lives in a relative handful of hours. Everyone of those is dear and precious. I want to ask and we will start with mr. Travers. Can you please speak about the effects that pulling out u. S. Troops from northeast syria will have in our kurdish allies please . The believe it is true that general and Syrian Forces have been very close allies. They have been incredibly important in terms of providing intelligence over the years. We were and heartened by the president and secretary of defense statement that the u. S. Forces that will remain in syria will have a continuing Counterterrorism Mission as well as the oil. And there will be continued engagement with the sdf. This remains a very important counterterrorism objective to us. The are guarding many different prisons with both foreign fighter and iraqi and syrian and isis fighters. That relationship really needs to continue. And just a simple yes or no. Where you consulted on this matter by the white house . I was not. But it would not necessarily be the case that i would be. Same question, mr. Wray. Could you talk about the effects of pulling out u. S. Troops from northeastern syria have in our kurdish allies. I notice outside of your wheelhouse but take a shot. Part of it are in our wheelhouse. In particular, we are concerned about potential resurgence of isis if certain fighters in particular were to escape or be released. Biggestsay that the threat to the homeland, the biggest isis related threat here, in many ways is the online theired threat, and in fact virtual caliphate. The virtual, caliphate. One thing we have done, the federal bureau of investigation with others in our partners, anticipating the day where we might not be there, is biometric enrollment over on the battlefield, in order to put ours in a position where figure prince and dna are available and can be shared with our allies and others, so that in the event that fighters end up spreading out for one reason or another we have a better chance of intercepting them before they do harm. Same two questions. Where you consulted on this matter by the white house, just yes or no. No i was not. And i would not be in my current role. But what i would say is a follow on to what the director said, our partnership with obtaining the biometrics from the isis fighters and al qaeda fighters, any terrorist organizations is critical for our vetting program. In our relationships with the intelligent services, our Law Enforcement services abroad, our foreign partners. The disbursement of terrorism is global. Southeast asia, northwest, east africa, middle east are all threats from isis, al qaeda, alshabaab and others. It is how we get that information and vet them. So if the refugees or migrations out of syria or yemen are large we have to have the biometrics to collect and make sure they do not come here to run them against the stems and make sure they are not terrorists, criminals or foreign Intelligence Officers. It is critical that information sharing and vetting process to make sure that people are bad things are not coming to the United States. Thank you and think if your service and leadership and the people you lead. Senator portman. Thank you for the three view for for great testimony and most important leaf or what the men and women in your organizations do to keep us safe. I notice in your opening statement, director wray, you spoke about the thousand towns program. The permanent subcommittee investigations was senator carper and others are in the process of looking into that issue and have done a series of hearings on related items including on a Confucius Institute report. Arendicates there limitations that china places on the activities here including censorship as an example, not allowing the Academic Community here to discuss topics they label political sensitive such as the Tiananmen Square uprising. As you say goes well beyond the Confucius Institutes. He said the chinese abusing the thousand talents program. Also the fbi has about a thousand cases constantly. Coincidentally, invest Getting Technology transfer and that university should be smarter about defending themselves. Be, whaton would efforts has the fbi taken to inform the Higher Education community about this threat. What is your response . I think you put your finger on an important issue. The role of academia in our country, especially given the amount of taxpayerfunded research, is a key component to this counterintelligence threat. In addition to investigations ,nd i cannot give you a number that involve universities and graduate students and researchers, it is us to get number. In addition to the investigations we are much more actively engaged with major versities in current jane in encouraging them and informing them so they can take appropriate action voluntarily robustly to guard against the threat. The reaction we have gotten, varies, but i have been encouraged by quite a number of universities which a few years ago would not have wanted to meet with the fbi under any circumstances much less in the kind of Partnership Way occurring now, including very good responsiveness from ohio state. Ive met with them. In fbian economic summit headquarters a month ago where we brought in chancellors and others from universities across the country, whole bunch of our sacs and brief them on some of the threats, and had engagement about how we can work more constructively together to help them defend themselves. Ohionformation is that state and other schools have expressed their interest in working even more with you and appreciate what has been done. They also not providing us the transparency we need to know whether there is a problem, would you agree . I would let ohio state speak for itself. Im not talking about ohio state but in general, that 70 of schools were not properly reporting the Foreign Government payments were receiving with regard to the Confucius Institutes. So the transparency although it and not beeneady, followed, is not adequate in our view. Is that your view . It is fair to say there is room for improvement but we are seeing improvement. Let me talk about another issue, it National Security threat for our country and ohio specially hardhit. That is the drug crisis an epidemic of overdoses and deaths. We know the southern border has lots of challenges, one is the drug issue. We know crystal meth, the new drugs causing havoc in our communities in ohio, also heroin and cocaine, comes almost exclusive air across the southern border. My question to you is really about what is happening. You see a significant reduction in terms of crossings per and im looking at data here that. Ompares last month almost a one third reduction in crossings or at least apprehensions which would indicate crossings. So the number of people coming over has slowed considerably. Stella seen issue. But not like it still a significant issue but not like it was. But the drug flow has not been reduced even though many have linked the same traffickers who bring people across as bringing drugs across. Can you speak to that and talk about how these drugs are coming . What more can we do to the border and also what is the relationship between people crossing at a drugs crossing . Senator, thank you for the question. To give you the numbers from 2017 to 2019 so you know what were dealing with a lot of narcotics levels we have seen a 40 increase in cocaine seizures on the southwest border, a 20 increase in fentanyl, a 30 increase in heroin. Your point wasting a 200 increase in math. A to your point we have seen 200 increase in methamphetamine. Migrant patrol border flows office bear marine and Field Operations being taken offline for detention. Weve a crisis at the southwest border. It is based on moving people and goods illicitly across the border. That is what is about. Cartels are about moving goods and people across the southwest border. Almost a third fewer people have you seen any reduction in the drug flow because we have not seen that on the other end. Know if seen an increase and that is what we are apprehending so those numbers are probably low. It is what we are catching. We have seen increases in the last two years. The cartels are sophisticated businesses about moving supplies to the United States. There is good it any mentorship they are as good as any major business. Their profits are like a fortune 500 company. It is about moving goods across the border and it is a for Sophisticated Network of plaza bosses who run and control what moves across the southwest border. Your trafficking supply chains and the relationships with china which is now the fentanyl production is moving into mexico is very sophisticated and very robust and constantly changing in dynamic. I would love to follow with you on that and a q f r on the fentanyl issue my senses theres not a lot of production of fentanyl a mexico but there is processing. Theyre getting at as we were through the mail system and still do, theyre getting it to mexico often converting it into a pill and sending it over. Huge increase compared to even a few years ago. Any threat on the border. So a new threat on the border. The demand side is key here. We have done a lot of work on prevention and recovery programs and treatment. But we have to do something to deal with the flow as well. This crystal meth on the streets of columbus, ohio is less excessive than marijuana and deadly. We appreciate any input you have on how we can do a better job to notce supply, at a minimum, just the poison coming into our communities but the impact because it will increase the cost. Senator i followup. As far as action in this, it is a sophisticated approach that goes beyond Law Enforcements it is partnership with u. S. Intelligence, mexican intelligence, mexican military, our military. That partnership is robust and we have very good relationships with our mexico partners. Gamet is really upping the , at a strategy to impact these groups that is going to have to go city by city and state by state. As i mentioned to determine johnson earlier there some areas primarily controlled by the cartels and that supply chain in this very sophisticated and will require a real strategic approach to how we are doing business. Senator langford. Mr. Chairman, thank you. First come into all of you thank you for the work you are doing. You do not hear that enough. There are a lot of threats. He faced a lot of things and you go through a lot of each a lot of information each and every day. For the people in my state of oklahoma, we appreciate that very much. Yesterday we had an event in a, city, which is called day one. It was an event that is 168 days away from the 25th anniversary of the bombing in 1995. 20 five years ago we lost on hundred 68 oklahomans. Many of them federal employees and their families paired many of them children. Whatber distinctly terrorism looks like in a, city we have not forgotten about that. For all of us and the families i live around we want to say thank you that youre staying vigilant in this. Because we do not take to mastech terrorism lightly. Takethat we do not domestic terrorism lightly. Let me ask you an unfair question. As you look at your time and the threats you have to face, give me a percentage of threats you face based on domestic terrorism and acts, and International Terrorism that are coming. Is it six to 40 or 5050 or 7030. Itin it is in an is 6040, 50 having 50, or 7030. And it is an unfair question. Are you asking within the terrorism threats . Within terrorism threats. I think we are probably roughly half and half. International and domestic on the terrorism front right now. Certainly the number of arrests we had in fiscal 2019 was 170 mastech terrorism arrests, one under 21 international 107 domestic terrorism arrests, 121 international. International investigations and a thousand hpe homegrown violent investigations. So probably more investigations on the National Terrorism side. When you identify the types of International Terrorism at threats coming into the United States, threat you can identify coming toward the United States, is there a certain ideology that seems to be more typical for International Foreign threats coming at the United States . Both sunniooking at and shieh threats. Of the media lethality sunnia and shia threats. The isis inspired, these are not necessarily the true believers but those who spent time online, radicalized and essentially have latched onto an ideology as an excuse to commit crude but lethal attacks against often soft targets using easily acceptable weapon easily accessible weapons or that is probably the biggest threat to the moment. We worked on Antisemitism Task force and continue to bring up issues of domestic terrorism and threats. As already named the threat just confronted this past weekend in colorado toward one of the synagogues there. Theres a growing sense of ideology and multiple do for areas peered we are grateful you continue to be able to engage foreign as well as to mastech. Domestic. As well as let me shift topics to Election Security. This has been an ongoing Issue Congress continues to address. We have talked multiple times about dhs and their ability to address Election Security. This congress allocated 380 million in Election Security funding in 2018 to states peered the last of my track those numbers not half that money has been spent by states yet. Do you have a good estimate what from thes have spent money allocated to deal with Election Security and how do evaluate the status or preparation of Election Security now . As the head of intelligence i will have to get back to you on the states allocation of the resources we sent them. I will take that as a question for the record come back to you. Regarding execution of what we are doing within the department, youre aware of the Cyber Security infrastructure sure curie agency run by director chris krebs has had an aggressive partnership with all 50 state Election Officials and territories. In lead up to the 2018 election we conducted 1400 field interviews and engagements directly with state officials. To give you 90 of our production for intelligence sharing with the states classified and unclassified, and the lead up to the 2016 election we did 24 intelligence reports. In the lead up to the 2018 election we had 313. We will do quite a bit more in the lead up to the 2020. We are looking at tax on the crackle infrastructure of election systems peered also as the director mentioned we are looking at that foreign influence campaign, the covert influence, the use of social media, the apple find affect to try to impact elections dashiell to tryamplifying effect to influence elections. Do you have what you need at this point to help secure the elections . Senator, i welcome a discussion going back with colleagues in the department to have an answer for that. I can say from the department we are aggressively partnering our resources in partnership with the fbi and a partnership with the other u. S. Intelligence committee assets as well. I would like to highlight we are in over 80 Fusion Centers as you mentioned earlier as an information touch point. I create the information sharing enterprise, the backbone of the technical infrastructure, the Homeland Security network which i have to think that you have funded and authorize us to use that and that is been a fantastic information to all. Thank you. Director i needed not need us this began so we can get into a classifieds setting and going to greater depth. When americans travel to russia or china there seems to be an ample number of individuals to track them and follow them and make sure they are aware of all of their movements. I have yet to be able to talk to an american yet that is travel to china russia and said yeah they ran out of people to trail me. Need for resources you individuals you have suspicion on that are chinese nationals or russian nationals currently in the United States to be able to make sure that we have coverage of the level that is needed for individuals that there is high suspicion . I can tell you are Counterintelligence Program is an area where we are in need of growth. And resources. Not just asians and analysts but ling west. Agents and analysts, but linguists. In todays world these involved terabytes of data and to be able to be agile to exploit that quickly and effectively we need the right tools to get through that information. I know the president s budget request has requests in that category. But i can assure you that is the kind of thing that would be put to great use quickly. Thank you. Senator romney. Thank you, mr. Chairman. One thing i noted in each of the questions answered so far as the questioners have begun by expressing appreciation to your respective agents for the work they do. Speak forcertainly myself and i believe i speak for all the members of the senate that ive spoken with, and it probably includes all most all, which is theres a very profound appreciation for the sacrifice and the extra ordinary professionalism of the men and women who serve in your respective agencies. And i hope that that is expressed to your members time and time again. Glaway, you spoke about for nations in particular that try to interfere with our sense of unity in the country, applico process, our elections, russia, china, north korea. And iran. Can anyone if you give me a hum if you will rough sense of, give me a rough sense of is this ad hoc or organized by the governments and staffed by a certain number of people with a Budget Associated with it. And if it is organized we have a scale of the enterprise undertaken by each of these countries to interfere with our election process, to sow disunity through social media and the like . There might be more we can say in a classified setting on that. What i would say is all those designs andve engaging in malign foreign influence in this country. Of them, the russians are the ones who have most advanced this idea of sowing divisiveness and discord, the pervasive messaging campaigns of a false personas, things like that. Certainly we know iran is taking very careful note of what the russians have done and has its own malign foreign influence efforts, some of which have a cyber dimension and it is something we are tracking carefully. Whole chinese, that is a another kettle of fish. They have a very robust foreign influence here. But it is a very different theyll have their own shapes and sizes to the problem. But it is highly organized by their governments, not on an ad hoc basis . I think that is a fair statement. As you spoke, director, about the incursions on an hourly basis of chinese in particular but other countries into our corporate databases, or government databases and so forth. I thought about how impossible the task must be to try to protect all the places people can attack. I was her minded of the mutual assured destruction orientation that was part of our National Security with regard to nuclear weapons. Should we have a mutually assured disruption effort of say isnd . Which is to the only way to prevent the number of attacks and the severity of attacks we are seeing, an indication that we can do the same thing to them . Only we can do it harder and bigger and more distractedly, such they say we better stop aware going to suffer as well . While i do not know if i would say that is the only way. I think offensive Cyber Operations arent important part of any nations cyber strategy, and it is ours. Closelyorking much more with the private sector than ever before, in terms of trying to help them defend themselves and our relationships with businesses ranging from small startups all the to fortune 100 companies. Are much more robust that i will when i was in this world at doj many years ago. In many ways, today cyber threat and cybersecurity is less about , thoughng the intrusion that is the goal, and more about detection as quickly as possible and mitigation. As quickly possible once you find it. It is great to put locks and cameras alights around the outside of your house. But if the guy has already managed to pay off some but he to get in your basement and his just hanging out there, all the stuff on the outside is not going to do a lot. A lot of the efforts today, working with dhs are trying to get organizations to be able to quickly find the threat, quickly tied off, and prevent damage from getting worse. One question perhaps for any one of your all three of you. That relate to cryptocurrency. Im not on the Banking Committee and do not begin to understand how it works. I would think his sword to fill to carry out your work when we cannot follow the money, because the money is hidden from us. And i wonder whether there should not be some kind of effort taken in our nation to deal with cryptocurrency and the challenges that prevents for Law Enforcement and deterrence of terrorist activity. Mi wrong in thinking this is an area we ought to take a look at, or is up to currency not a big deal as it relates to your respective response of billys . For us, respective responsibilities. Cryptocurrency is already an issue for us and will become a bigger one. Whether or not that is the subject of appropriate subject of some kind of regulation as a response for me to speak to. From anooking at it investigator perspective encoding tools we have to try to follow the money, even in this new world were living in. It is part of a broader trend. Director travers alluded to it, in terms of the terrorist threat. In terms of our adversaries of all shapes and sizes. Becoming more fast fill with withlogy facile technology, in particular those anonymizem and is , cryptic currency, messaging platforms. We are moving as a country and a world in a direction where we do not get our act together, money, people, can indication, evidence, facts, all the bread and butter for all of us to do our work will be essentially walled off from the men and women we represent. Thank you. The tragedy which occurred in mexico, three women and six children were brutally murdered and our National Support was offered to help the mexicans get. O the bottom of this i appreciate that youre willing to participate in that at the direction of the president. Hopefully we will find a way to bring people to justice who deserved to be brought to justice. And also prevent events like this from happening in the future. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator hawley. Wray, a question on cybersecurity as it relates to china in particular. Are you concerned about the growing practice of American Technology companies, or any American Company storing large amount of data, consumer data, andess data, in china sometimes storing the Encryption Keys to that data in china . What sort of soak cybersecurity rest at this pose does this is this something you are tracking that your concern about . It is something we are concerned about, in part because chinese laws require a level of access that is unparalleled in this country. In terms of Law Enforcement and security services. Compels Chinese Companies and u. S. Companies operating in china to have relationships with chinese to provide whatever information the government wants whenever it wants it just for asking. So that creates all kinds of risks across the threats we have to contend with. Your point there about the chinese laws in the access to data that beijing requires works in two ways. It is a problem for American Companies who choose to store large amount of data in china. Because to do so they have to partner under chinese laws with some sort of chinese counterpart. That often is tied to the government. That is number one. But number two, it is a secured rest of the point of view of chinese based companies have access to our market, who do business here, gathering large amounts of information on American Consumers like ticktock for instance tiktok, for instance, that are owned and based in china that are subject to the same chinese laws on data and data sharing, is that fair to say . That is absolute something we are concerned about. Even you can start with the an astonishingt percentage of Chinese Companies are state owned enterprises. Even the ones that are not arenically state owned, subject both to the chinese laws i referred to as well asand i think a lot of people gloss over thisany Chinese Company of any appreciable size has, by chinese law, embedded in them, Chinese Communist party cells or committees as they are called, whose sole function is to ensure that that Company Stays in lockstep with the Chinese Communist party policy. Can you imagine Something Like that happening with American Companies in american policy it is something people need to take very seriously, absolutely. Thank you for work on this. I think American Consumers do not realize the threat to their own Data Security and privacy. What American Companys choose to store the data in china and thereby open up a potentially that data for use by the Chinese Government or they do not realize the chinese based companies who are doing business in this country, are subject to those same laws. So it works both ways. Switching gears. Secretary way, let me ask about the border. Of math and the serious effects in ohio we spoke about. In the state of missouri we are overwhelmed with methamphetamine coming across the border. Theres not a community in my stay, earl urban, rural, north, south, east, west that is not awash in math famine meth amphetamine. The southern Border Apprehensions up to hundred percent for methamphetamine, since 2017. Want to drill down to get your input. Did i hear you say to senator portman that the method fadiman that mesions apprehensions increase even as. Orderth [] that is in addition to the migration challenges we have had by officers taken offline with the detention process. We are still seeing the numbers up. Java since the last few months, weve seen a decline in the last few months, Border Apprehensions of individuals. But do you have a sense or know what the numbers for contraband look like . Senator we can get back as a cure far on that. What i would say i said this earlier, is the Business Model for the cartels is to move illicit goods and people across the border to get the there and to move them. That goes through very Sophisticated Network inside the country of mexico and south of mexico as well as a Management Structure called plaza bosses that occupies the entire southwest border. They control what goes across and does not go across and it is based on money of moving people and goods. You talked about fentanyl production moving to mexico from china, sounds like an partnership with chinese outlets. Can you say more that . We may want to take this in a classified setting, but we have seen the fentanyl production and trafficking as we would anticipate, the cartels own the supply chain in the United States and the trafficking routes getting in here, that the fentanyl production and trafficking was beginning to move into mexico and we are seeing that. Finally, let me ask you, you said in order to address this crisis, the drug crisis and the flow of drugs over the border would require a change in her whole strategic approach. Can you say more about what you have in mind and what you think you needs to change and how . The committee could give you the tools . Conversationa would expand upon my partners. Witnesspacity as unique , i was at od and i. The strategic approach when i mean is bringing Law Enforcement, u. S. Intelligence, mix can intelligence and military assets to bear in mexico and some of these lawless areas where the cartels are essentially running the area. That has to be handing glove with our demand. The u. S. Has a high demand for narcotics. This joint process. It is in the realm of having the partnership with our mac skin counterparts in that space, to identify the bad our mexican partnerships in that space. Thank you, senator hallway p before i turned to senator peters, quick followup. Although our border is unsecure and airside would you agree with the statement on mexico side of the border is presecure . That theres not much that passes through the mask inside of the border without mexico, the cartels and human traffickers knowing about it, correct . The plaza bosses and cartels run the south side of the border on the mexican side. Does the mex could military and Law Enforcement have the capability . They do but it will have a strategic approach to how the resources are deployed in partnership with us. The cartels are incredibly powerful and there is a corruption angle that plays into this as well. So well there is so well secured border there is a way in mexico can cartels on the Southern Side . Turman johnson your assessment is correct but there are models or we have been successful. Columbia is a model of success we had an partnership with the government years ago. Senator peters. Thank you mr. Chairman. I want to followup on what hope is a priority for all three of you. That is to combat foreign influence in our elections. I think it is accurate the data supplier to for you yes or no . What direction if any have you received from the white house about the priority of foreign influence in our elections . Madethink it has been Crystal Clear to us that it is a us that it is a priority for us to combat malign foreign influence from any nationstate including russia, including china, including iran and others. How has that been communicated to you by the white house . Meetingse had numerous over the white house with the nsc and others on election such, it hases and been sort of a recurring meeting recurring theme in those meetings. Is the white house doing anything to coordinate with security agencies, they pulling folks together and if you could explain how that is happened . Certainly we have had, as i said, we have had nsc meetings and msc driven coordination over the time i have been director. In particular, the way it works now is with the nsc direction and the white house direction, od ni brings together a smaller group, as opposed to the more. Prawling nsc apparatus in particular, it is us, fbi, od ni, dhs and nsa are the sort of the key players, and then others from time to time as need arises. Theres all kind of engagement between, for exam, our Foreign Influence Task force which i stood up after becoming director , the Russia Small Group at nsa, that general mecca so he stood up, and theres a similar body at dhs. And it od and i. And a woman at od ni, very experienced, very seasoned, who then director coats put and she has her mate in charge of coordinating the effort she has remained in charge of coordinating efforts on a daytoday basis. I continue to hear from my constituents in michigan about very lengthy and intrusive screenings every time they travel. They describe it as a backdoor trouble been that discourages them from traveling and it hurts their business and their families and certainly maintaining a safe and secure airtraffic whopper checking civil rights of lawabiding travelers is a balance we may have to achieve as we talked about earlier. Her you a lot of balances you have to do in your agencies. The department indicated to my staff they will now lead a copperheads of review of secondary screenings in fiscal year 2020 with input from other relevant federal partners. Could you describe how you would envision that process and how you would expect those recordations to come out . Would have to take that question for the record to go back to u. S. Customs and Border Protection who would lead that because they do the secondary inspections. What i can say is coming from that organization, we are always cognizant of the civil rights and Civil Liberties of u. S. Citizens and foreign citizens traveling to United States. The protocols and oversight has been rigorous. I will take that for the record and come back for an answer with you. Can he do that a quick manner i would appreciate it. The vast majority of constituents i hear from our deeply to satisfied with the dhs trip, the redress process for travelers who experience screening of cultist. Are there ways to expand screening difficulties. Are there ways to expand and address that so African Americans do not feel ignored . Being the head of intelligence i would have to take that back for the record and have an answer for you on that. I would hope we can get that answer quickly. Chairman,ou you, mr. I prescient or witnesses being here today p as a senator from a border state i noticed wrinkle we Work Together to tackle threats against the homeland and our nations borders. Arizonaso secure borders and keepers on a safe and make sure migrants are treated fairly and humanely. I would like to start with a tragedy monday in sonora mexico. My deepest civil these and condolences go to the victims and their families. Details are still coming in. We know that at least nine people, including mothers and young children, murdered. Apparently by Transnational Criminal Organizations involved in the illicit drug trade. These victims have relatives from arizona and my state is hurting now. Y question is for you, mrl. Wray. Will the fbi play role ring and the perpetrators from justice ensuring the families receive redress . We, too, are deeply troubled. And heartbroken about the lost. Our league atgh office in mexico reached out to mexican partners to offer assistance and are engaged with them also, with the embassy and the state apartment. In addition, state apartment. State dept. In addition we have our Victims Services division get in touch with relatives in the United States to see if they can be of assistance. Of,s division im proud given the way in which they bring a level of compassion and sometimes attention to some of the most basic concerns and needs of victims and their families. Thank you. For all our witnesses here today, i would like to get a commitment from each of you that my office is briefed on the investigation, and i would like to hear about your agencies effort to combat Transnational Criminal Organizations we see every the impact on arizona and airs and if alice is unabated. Families isna unabated. By theons being targeted violence overseas we are absolutely committed to talking with you, senator. As fars are intelligence one of our facilities is in your state in tucson and i would be delighted if i could escort you there for a visit to see it. It is really about the partnership with state and local Law Enforcement and our mexican partners and sharing of that realtime tactical level information so we can identify the threats of the border and south of the border in mexico in sharing information with our partners in the mexican government. Thank you. Senator we would be happy to keep you informed as best we can and is appropriate. I will underscore of course what role the fbi will be able to play in mexico depends a lot on the willingness of our mexican partners to embrace and bring us in. That is still something being worked out. It is a fluid situation now. As we sit here, i do not yet know exactly what our footprint will look like but we will be happy to follow back up with u. S. Things progress. Thank you. National Counterterrorism Center does not work that particular issue. I would like to ask you a question, i spoke with secretary mechling about the proved the need to improve permission sharing with dhhs about the issues of abuse toward migrants held in yuma. Can you stare share the status of efforts to ensure these are reported more quickly and swift action is taken when there are reports that require more protection of migrants and children. Senator, admiral is the head of intelligence i do not have a status update on that senator, in my role as head of intelligence i do not have a status update. As a career lawenforcement official i can say that men and women in the department of Homeland Security operate at the highest standards and when there is an incident that has to be reported to the Inspector General or fbi, that that is handled quickly and mitigated as fast as possible in the department. Thank you. In september this Committee Held a hearing with outside experts and mystic terrorism. I spoke about the importance of information sharing and domestic terrorism. I spoke about the imports of information sharing so local agencies can access information they need. This is more challenging for our rural sheriffs. Regard to information sharing between federal, state and local Law Enforcement, what steps of your agencies taken in the past year to ensure small or rural Law Enforcement entities are able to get better access to information about threats and trends and what to these agencies still need to improve on . Overwill start and turn it to the undersecretary. On our end, our principal engagement from a daytoday basis with our state and local partners, which include some very Small Departments, is through our joint Terrorism Task all ofe have 200 of them the country. We have task force officers, essentially state and local force officers many cases from those Small Department to work full or parttime on our task forces, which gives them access to all the same information all the fbi folks and federal partners on the task forces have. That is probably the most significant means. Addition, we jointly, with dhs on a number of instances, will put out bulletins of different sorts. They are pretty frequent and provide information in a granular way about what we are seeing in terms of threats and so forth. Those are some of the big ones i would highlight. I would let david chime in. That, i willon talk about specifics of arizona in the southwest border, my office host the Homeland Security Information Network intel, for the fbn or state local partners and the private sector. There 42,000 products on it. In fiscal year 2017 we had 15,000 views. In 2019 we had 90,000 views after aggressive rollout. Heardted 11,500 product this is an Unclassified Network available in all Fusion Centers and satellite locations with a logging capability. Regarding the southwest border, youre right we have limited capacity and they need Intelligence Officers to give them tactical level information, unclassified and classified. I did a Pilot Program starting in june and may and put 19 dhs Intelligence Officers on the southwest border to include arizona. That resulted in 45 drug seizures, 45 drugrelated arrests, 35 seizures of drugs and weapons and i will permanently deploy 10 Intelligence Officers to the selfless border in the small sheriffs admissible lawenforcement properties to allow an thank you. A lawear, Congress Passed preventing emerging threats act authorities to counter threats from unmanned systems. I have seen evidence of the threats these drones can pose. I have actually watched drones come over the border in broad daylight. Could you tell us about what dhs and doj are doing to mitigate the dangers to our nation from these unaccompanied aircraft system threats . Thanks for the question. I was chairman johnsons, one of his lead witnesses in passing the legislation. I was in the southwest border and did a report for the news networks. This is a threat that continues to be a threat. We track that with the department of Homeland Security, not just on the southwest border, but drone incursions over Critical Infrastructure. We are seeing a percentage increase. In engagement with the state, local and private sector, i was out with the Los Angeles Police department chief and new york Police Department commissioner on drones. The drone legislation was an outstanding first step. They say they need more capabilities and more within their own authorities to mitigate these threats. The southwest border is one of many from the drone threats, that threaten our Critical Infrastructure and ways to move illicit goods over the border and as well as a counter surveillance platform to suck up information from our military or Law Enforcement or private institutions in the country. We wray i would add that are extremely grateful to the chairman and others for that legislation. This is a threat that is overtaking us in many ways. We are currently investigating a number of incidents in the u. S. Of attempts to weaponize our drones in one way or another. We have been seeing them, as you mentioned, down at the border. We have seen drones used to deliver contraband into prisons, and of course, as the rest of the committee knows as well, there have been efforts to use drones quite frequently on the battlefield against our forces and allies overseas. Our focus for the fbi has been principally on the mass gathering situations. We are focused on things like the super bowl, etc. Not because the others are not incredibly important, but in the realm to be able to prioritize the use of these new authorities, that is the moment where we are. There is going to be a need for more technological solutions. Disrupting drones over large crowded civilian areas is a different exercise than doing it in the battlefield. Were working very closely with our partners, dhs, department of transportation, dod, obviously doj, on that. Thank you. I have exceeded my time. Thank you. Sorry. Thanks, senator sinema. Was wante questions, i to ask about drones. See, its fine. Let me quickly follow up on that. The piece of legislation was a first step. Begin those authorities so you can begin doing the research and develop the strategies for doing some thing difficult to do. The question i have, how far have we come in terms of doing that research, developing those strategies . And, do you already need more authority . Do you need another piece of legislation . Has it come far enough where we need to go to the second step . I dont think i am quite ready in this setting to propose some sort of additional legislation, but what i would say is that i think if memory there is a report we are scheduled to be providing to you exactly on the question you are raising to address the need of identifying other gaps that might exist. I do know from traveling around the country and meeting with state and local Law Enforcement, that while they are very excited that the federal authorities now have this civilian use capability, they want to know when they can get it. Undersecretary glawe, same thing. It may not be ready right now to propose adulation, but you are saying sometime in the future, you will need more authority . Local officials. Mr. Glawe science and technology is partner with the fbi on countermeasures and how we are supporting National Security special events. The threat is bigger than those National Security special events. We monitor from the analyst side of emerging technologies. We have radio controlled drones. We are moving into 4g, 5g capabilities. What is that going to look like . Is the legislation keeping up with that capability . That is a question to come back and have that discussion. As the Technology Advances so rapidly for commerce purposes, the nefarious aspects or just the safety aspect, there was a conversation to be had on how we stay on top of the legislation on this. We will have to cooperate with that report. The main reason we were able to pass that piece of legislation is because we had video of, i believe, it was isis using in iraq. You can see the drone go to the target, lower, drop the bomb and boom. That got everybodys attention. We finally got the faa reauthorization bill. That cooperation is going to be important. Addressedravers, you the situation of isis prisoners. I want to go deeper. Have our european partners, have a stepped up to the plate and gotten a little more serious i realize because i talk to them all the time. It is difficult. They dont necessarily have laws to handle this. Are they considering the return of foreign fighters and prosecuting under their own laws so they are not looking to somebody else to detain these people forever . Mr. Travers you are quite right. The issue of refrigeration has been a problem for years repatriation has been a problem for years because of the inability to prosecute because of lack of evidence or short sentences. They are not willing to bring prisoners back. They have been somewhat more willing to bring women and children back but even that has been an issue. When the incursion started, there has been a flurry of activity at the european capitals about trying to bring their women and children home, in particular from some of the idp camps, out of humanitarian interest. We have not seen any increased level of willingness to bring their foreign fighters back. There has been some so they can wipe their hands of it. In terms of response ability sharing, duty sharing, i have heard the proposal that there are states that can go into camps with women and children, go through sorting process to a certain extent. Which of those detained individuals could potentially be rehabilitated, brought back to society versus those who need to be considered for longerterm detention. Are you hearing efforts for any kind of initiatives along those lines . Mr. Travers right now, because there is so much turmoil about who is going to control these things, the likelihood of that is probably going down. There has certainly been willingness on the part of the iraqis in particular to bring back idps. 30,000, 40,000 people there. In general, it is a pretty difficult proposition to even know where these people are. Sen. Johnson give me your general assessment of all the players. Weve got turkey. We have the sdf, assad, russia, iran. Our desire tohave make sure isis cannot reconstitute. Is there pretty much a universal desire not to allow isis three constitute to reconstitute or less in terms of those players . Mr. Travers there is no one that wants isis three constitute. It is fair to say that the turks are more concerned about pkk than isis. I dont think anyone has much concern as perhaps we do in the area about isis. In general for instance, my guess is there is going to be an effort to keep those prisoners in prison, whomever gets control of the prisons. Final questiony to all of you want to contribute to this the blueribbon study panel that we had testimony from a couple of years ago. Their primary conclusion was we need somebody in charge. Recommendations and the Vice President office. Back then, Vice President biden whispered close to their term and every administration is somewhat different. We have the same issue when we were discussing 5g in our hearing last week. I think we found out it is the National Economic council and they recut low is in charge of kudlow is in charge of the 5 aspectg of cyber. When you go down the list, whether it is a catastrophic cyberattack shutting down the grid for financial system. Some kind of wmd, chemical or biological attack. Natural disaster, i think we pretty well assume fema will take charge of that. Starting with local and then state and then fema comes in when it overwhelms the state and local governments. In the other incidences, is there a sense within your agencies that you know exactly who is going to be stepping up to the plate in terms of recovery and response to one of these potential catastrophic threats . Start with you, undersecretary glawe. Mr. Glawe it is very well defined. Fema is there as well as the cybersecurity and for structure security. You can see the director in that position. Within the department, it is clear. The collection requirements going to the u. S. Intelligence community flows through me. I will say with this department, im comfortable. Sen. Johnson is there going to be turf battles . Is everybody going to be looking at the overall responsibility . Who is in charge . Mr. Glawe from femas standpoint, that is clear, their response capability. Within cybersecurity, that is very clear. From the intelligence apparatus, we have a national intelligence, cyber that aligns our intelligence capably at dod. Sen. Johnson the fbi is frequently first on the spot with these mass shootings. What about a catastrophic type of attack on a per structure . On infrastructure . Do you know what the line of authority is . Obviously, starting with the president but at an operational level . Mr. Wray i will say. I will take the two categories. The terrorist category and then the cyber category. I think you are asking about both . Sen. Johnson i am talking about no matter what shutdown the grid or financials whatever can really represent almost an existential threat to the nation or be so catastrophic in terms of power outage or whatever. Mr. Wray what i would say on the terrorist attack category, for example, i have actually as somebody who is in the fbi Headquarters Building on 9 11 and intimately involved in these issues during the years after 9 11 and having now come back to this world, spent sometime in the private sector in between, i can tell you that the machine that exists now across the u. S. Government with our partners at the state, local level, through the joint Terrorism Task force, etc. Is so much more mature and robust, kind of a well oiled machine in terms of everybody working together, that it was one of the most pleasant surprises i found coming back. Whichk the way in th everybody operates is welldefined. The cyber arena, likewise, although it is slightly different lanes. As i said in response to one of your colleagues, in a major cyber incident, the fbi is in charge of investigating the threat. Dhs has got to be joined at the hip in terms of making sure that steps are taken to protect the asset. I think there is a temptation sometimes to assume that one person needs to be responsible for all those things. I think really the premium is on coordination. At some level, given the unique nature of the authorities involved, whether it is a terrorist incident or cyber incident, you Start Talking about Law Enforcement authorities that a causative sulli constitutionally entrusted to the attorney general. You have military capabilities at dod. Nice to might sound create some new persons in charge of all of that, i think in fact it would be more complicated and would not accomplish what it was designed. The key is to make sure everybody has their lanes welldefined and partnership. That is what i think i am seeing. Sen. Johnson you are less concerned about that. What you are seeing now, you are seeing a fair amount of ordination . You may lose sleep over the threat, but you dont lose sleep over the fact that nobody knows who is in charge or would not know how to coordinate properly within the agencies . Mr. Wray there is always room for improvement and that is important. I dont want to be understood as everything is hunkydory. We are in a so much better place as a country and as a government. I say that across government, federal, state and local, even then we were five or six years ago. Sen. Johnson i think we learned a lot from katrina. We have made Great Strides since then. Director travers, anything to add . Of governmenthole rolls off the tongue pretty easily. I will completely agree. I have been doing terrorism since 9 11. I think the Counterterrorism Community is the best integrated effort because they have been doing it forever. Because we have not been attacked in the country now you have to go back 10 years, something really potentially big. There is a muscle memory issue, it seems to me. Im big into interagency exercises, just the kind of compare notes and who is doing what. New people come around. While we are much better coordinated than we were, i think it is always useful to get people together. Sen. Johnson i didnt think it was possible, but the answer to that last question gave me more optimism. Again, let me thank you all for your service. Like so many of my colleagues that have been here, please convey to the men and women that serve with you our sincere appreciation for their sacrifice. That came across loud and clear. That also gives me fair amount of optimism, when i see the quality of the federal workforce, it does make you rest and little easier even though we are facing some pretty complex threats. Thank you for your service. Yikes. The hearing will remain open for 15 days until november 20 first omission of statements and questions for the record. This hearing is adjourned. Heres a look at our prime time schedule on the cspan networks. Starting at 8 p. M. Eastern on cspan, another chance to see fbi director Christopher Wray testifying on current domestic threats to the u. S. On cspan2, a discussion about the 40th anniversary of the iran hostage crisis. On cspan3, its American History tv with programs on sandra day oconnor, the first woman to be appointed to the supreme court. Cspans washington journal live everyday with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up wednesday morning, we will talk about the impeachment andess with molly reynolds, a discussion of president trumps impact on the federal judiciary with the ethics and Public Policy centers ed wh alen. Watch washington journal 7 00 eastern wednesday morning. Joint the discussion join the discussion. Tomorrow, the Second Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on reauthorizing the 2015 usa freedom act which bands the bulk collection of private records. Live at 10 a. M. Eastern on cspan. Tomorrow, cspans 2020 Campaign Coverage continues as president from holds a Campaign Rally in monr,