Response to the pandemic but also pointed out Hurricane Season is approaching and the agency needs to deal with that and other disasters. He participated in an auburn virtual discussion. Good morning. On behalf of the auburn president and board of trustees i would like to welcome you to a conversation with the acting secretary of the department of Homeland Security, chad wolf. The event is brought to you by the Mccrary Institute for the cyber and Critical Infrastructure security here at Auburn University. Weekse over the past few used the term unprecedented more than any other time in history. The copan 19 pandemic has brought about many changes in our country and affected virtually every aspect of daily lives. As an institution, we had Auburn University have tried to respond quickly with our researchers and scientists directing expertise andrd fighting the pandemic its impact on our health, our economy, and our way of life. The department of Homeland Security you are going to hear from today plays a lead role in the nations response. We are honored to have secretary day tooin us to discuss priorities and future direction in confronting the pandemic. Economic security and Cyber Security are two critical concerns raised by covid19 and the secretary will address both. Secretary wolf will begin the conversation and will be joined of mccraryer institute. Secretary wolf, on behalf of of a grateful nation i want to thank you. With that i will turn it over to you. Thank you. Let me start off by thanking Auburn University and the Mccrary Institute for hosting the event. Sometimes pulling the Virtual Events off is an undertaking so i really appreciate everyone at auburn and institute for pulling this together. Let me also thank frank. He has been a stalwart Homeland Security and Cyber Security and helping the Department Think through tough issues. Very excited to be here today to talk about the departments response to covid19 and other challenges we are currently facing. Let me just finish my introduction in thanking alabama. The department has a number of resources in the state from a fema standpoint but also a cybersecurity standpoint. We find Great Partnership not only with the private institutions but also with Governor Ivey and others. Alabama has been a great partner to the department of Homeland Security and i am happy to be here this morning and talk about critical issues. Let me jump over and talk specifically about the departments response regarding covid19. There is a variety of ways i can go about this. The department is doing a variety of initiatives. Discussionsf most focused on three priorities i have had from the onset. That is to respond, recover, and restore. We are responding currently. The department and hhs is leading the response. We are responding to the pandemic. At the same time we have to make sure the department is able to recover and utilize its mission functions to fulfill those functions every day not only during the crisis but when the crisis ends. Restore is making sure we are tore themakres American Economy as we move out of the pandemic in the country begins to open up. That is my priority. It has been the priority at the department and that is the framework on which we are operating. I would also like to talk about mitigation. Mitigation works. We talk about that a lot in the task force daily. We talk about social distancing, so i wouldcoverings, like to reemphasize. It is critically important we continue social distancing, social mitigation well beyond the end of this month or next month. I think these measures and procedures are going to be with us for some time. Simple things like washing your hands, not touching your face, they work. They are not hightech but they are absolutely critical and we have heard that repeatedly from the doctors on the task force. Let me talk to about fema. I could spend hours talking about what they are doing on the response. Andou know, all 50 states five territories are under major disaster declarations. We are working with 38 individual tribes as well all receiving assistance from fema regarding covid19. 5. 8 billiongated in covid19 related efforts. With hhs they have looked at another 51 billion in support of covid19. A lot of hard work is being done. We are looking at over 100 million in Grant Funding through the cares act. Supplement local communities and jurisdictions as they respond. There is a lot going on and what i like to talk about is the unprecedented nature of the response that fema is going through. Fema is very good at what they do. They usually do that on a very specific basis. A very targeted basis if they are responding to a hurricane or tornado and they do that in a handful of states. What we are seeing today is we are responding to all 50 states at the same time, all looking for the same amount of equipment, resources, and supplies. It is certainly a challenge but one that fema is up for. I like to discredit and say that every state describe it and said that every state is like a category three hurricane to a category five hurricane. It is up to fema to court nate the response and theyre doing that in conjunction with 26 other federal agencies great with hhs at the lead using medical resources with medical professionals. Theyre doing that well. We have lines of effort fema is pursuing. Various task forces they are ppeing at anywhere from going to the right place at the right time. We do that through a variety of different ways. Fema facilitates that from new interagency to new donations, private donations and the like. We are restocking the National Stockpile and really pushing out ppe to a variety of hotspots. The one task force i would like to focus on is the supply Chain Task Force that has been set up. That has been critical because it has looked at how do we emphasize or energize the supply chain that existed to get ppe, mainly from asia, into the u. S. . We talk about four lines of effort. How do weon of ppe, preserve the equivalent. Fema has put a different guidance on how others should preserve that ppe. Making sure your treating that pair of gloves like they are a 100 pair of gloves. How do we reuse that if we can . We also talked about accelerating the ppe supply chain and that is the bridge that has been talked about the task force briefings. Andg the air bridge energizing the supply chain that takes place in asia and getting supplies in the u. S. In a matter of hours instead of 37 days it would normally take. We have partnered with those medical companies that continuously supply the u. S. Domestic arc it. We are trying to energize those and see those up, speed of flight up. I will not go through the numbers but whether we talk of n95ical masks, gowns, masks, clothing, those are continuing to be surged into the u. S. What fema and dod has done is been quite remarkable. We have looked into that supply chain and the federal government has a view into it which is a private supply chain and really understanding with the equipment is going down to the individual county level which gets distributed to those Critical Health care facilities where they are public hospitals, private hospitals or nursing homes. All of that is going very well. Sure we can build up our domestic capabilities in the u. S. We see a number of different private or Domestic Companies here retooling their supply business, and producing a love ppe they have not before. Bpa authority to facilitate that but they are doing this voluntarily and we continue to see a lot of goodness out of that. Fourth, making sure we supply and surge those resources to the right place at the right time and we are doing that. Fema has a task force looking this. Hotspotsarching to chicago, new york, new orleans. We are seeing the large metropolitan areas still is a concern but smaller areas are becoming hotspots because we have outbreaks in the Agricultural Industry or another industry. We need to make sure we are surgeing resources. I am proud of what fema is doing along all efforts of the supply chain. Fema is working closely with the army corps of engineers which has a number of folks deployed in support. They are building up hospital beds throughout a variety of communities. Fema is handing out Mission Essential for Mission Assignments to the army corps of engineers who helped build the Javits Center as well as others. Elseare looking at what these individuals need and do not need. Other supply chains sorry, task forces are working for ventilators across the board. A lot to talk about. Let me stop on fema. There is a lot more i could talk about. Cdpme transition to what and other Border Security, Border Control equities are doing. We are under a all travelers entering level three travel warning. That means any individual coming into the u. S. Is getting a medical check. They are being asked to selfquarantine for 14 days. We will continue to keep those measures in place as we continue to phase in opening the u. S. I think those are critically important. We have 30 countries still under travel restrictions like china, iran and mainly your. We have travel restrictions with mexico and canada over land ports on nonessential travel. Those are working well. We have seen nonessential travel drop 60 to 70 while we keep travel and cargo operating. We have been successful with that. Cdp fory thanks to their efforts. We are doing strong measures at the southwest border and northern border make sure we do not introduce folks trying to come here illegally into our facilities whether they are Border Patrol or isis knowing those are not wellkept to treat individuals regarding covid19. A lot of what we are doing on Border Security control. I will shift to a third bucket which is the infrastructure agency. They are doing great on infrastructure worker guidance. This is a list of about 16 sectors they have pulled together along with private industry providing guidance to governors. As governors make decisions on their pandemic plans, they have guidance. It says these industries, these workers are critical to the supply chain and the economy. We need to make sure they continue to go to work and have access to do that. 3. 0 version. We have seen 34 different governors either reference or link to the guidance directly as they put their plans out. Are also looking at the cyber effect of covid19. Looking at very malicious activity they see on a variety of different fronts. They partnered with u. K. Putting out joint alerts for this malicious cyber activity and we will continue to look at that. Under director crabs. Im very happy about what theyre doing. I will talk about later what this is doing with telework. Everybody is working remotely and making sure the networks, the systems, are able to continue to keep pace with the bandwidth needed but also any nefarious cyber activity that goes along. There is a lot of what the department is doing. We have other efforts going on from research and Development Using the virus on the effects of sunlight, surfaces, as well as aerosol environments. We have immigrations and Customs Enforcement bringing home americans from central and south america on air flights. There is a lot of what the department is doing behind the scenes. A lot of what you hear about now is testing which we are over 5 million tests that have been completed. The focus needs to remain on testing, remain ppe, getting the supplies but what we do in the background is make sure we continue to keep the supply chain open, we continue to keep not only the ppe slowing but also the everyday goods and Services Everyone in the u. S. Uses. We are involved in keeping the Agricultural Industry open. I could go on and on. I am rambling a little bit but a lot is to say the department is doing a lot regarding covid19. I will turn it back to frank and we can get into more issues. You, secretary wolf. That was a phenomenal overview of the vast missions based the department of Homeland Security is engaged in. The depth is incredible and to echo the general, thank you for leading the women and men who are working day in and day out. Not only responded to covid19 but the department of Homeland Security has to be open 24 7. Thank you for that. Before i jump into a couple of specific questions i want to remind our viewers whether you are on facebook, youtube, twitter put questions in the comments section. We have someone tracking those and will try and get to some of those. Secretary wilkie, i wanted to jump secretary wolf, i wanted to jump on some of the issues. I thought the efforts you are taking are immense. I wanted to look to the Economic Security issues and covid19 did expose the shortterm and longterm challenges in this particular space. I would be curious how dhs is adjusting to meet the challenge. If im not mistaken, you recently stood up a new office. I want to define some of the Mission Space but could you talk about the shortterm and longterm priorities around Economic Security . I think the department plays a Critical Role and i would be curious what you think. Thank you, frank. Ive talked about this for the past several months. Economic security is Homeland Security and we mean that. The department has been involved in Economic Security for some time. I dont think we have been very articulate on how we talk about that, address that, we usually stick towe stick to our traditil missions of counterterrorism. Really, a lot of what we do is in fact Economic Security. With a you are looking at trade, looking at exports, tsa, how we keep travelers moving in the air environment, the coast guard. In through ports and waterways. Making sure the coast guard keeps that legitimate trade and travel flowing is critical. I think what we have seen here, highlighted by covid19, is the supply chain and how it is under an immense amount of pressure. Even the small hiccup has really a trickle effect, a big effect, across the board. Created shortly after assuming this post created an office of Economic Security, the umbrella of the department trying to coordinate across the department all of the different authorities we have and the different levers we have. Thank you, frank, for participating on the Economic Security advisory committee. To look at this Economic Security mission from the dhs perspective and provide recommendations on how we better organize ourselves. Look at the authority, do we need a new authority . Take a holistic look. I appreciate the work the subcommittee is doing and look forward to what i see there. We have a number of different unique authorities at the department. When we look at Economic Security we come from a variety of different ways. One is from a Forward Investment standpoint. The department looks at not only the risk of foreign investment, but for an investment itself. Whether that is through telecom or work at the department, very critical. Counterfeits, very critical to the American Economy every day. So, well before covid kicked in full force, the department issued its first counterfeit strategy to really talk about how we are going to address this issue holistic way across holistically across the department. Covid19 has a number of different ways of highlighting the issue of counterfeits. One thing i didnt talk about in the opening is the fraudulent activity that the department sees and what we are engaged in from cvp, from ice, from the secret service, and from a cyber perspective, from a financial crimes perspective, looking at covid incidents that are popping up from counterfeit test kits to the malicious cyber activity, the cyber scams. Across the board we are seeing a variety of activity addressing pretty comprehensively with the resources we have. That ties back into the economic well. Ty portfolio as again, as part of the renewed andrt we are standing up Economic Security council of sorts, trying to pull all of the resources of the department together. I think over the longterm, well beyond my 10 year, this will be an enduring effort of the department on articulating how the department of security and Homeland Security is vitally tied into what occurs every day in keeping the u. S. Economy running and protected. Appreciate the opportunity to address that. Thank you, secretary wolf. This was a priority of yours when you were the undersecretary. You had the foresight to see this early on and im glad the department is asserting its Important Role in this, both from a short term, but also Critical Infrastructure considerations, and the fact that some hostile countries might be trying to acquire some of these critical sectors. I thought we would jump now to kicks off i think, Hurricane Season. Alabama is no stranger to Mother Nature rearing her head, including lee county, including off. Icked us his home was hit by tornado. He was ok, but there were tragic effects to others in the area. Fema, playing the primary role in covid19 response, which is massive in its scale, it is global, it knows no borders, how are the same agencies going to be cast when dealing with both covid19 and hurricanes, which dont have a timetable. We dont have a vote in when they rear their heads. I am curious what your thinking there. From an operational standpoint, we have shelterinplace concepts where we want to protect people from covid19, but we may have to look to the opposite when we are dealing with hurricanes. Im curious what some of your thinking is there, and a reminder the mission of the department is so critical and so broad, that you have to be able gum at the chew same time, and that is a tough one in this case. Is one issue i talked with administrator gaynor at fema early on, several months ago, as they stood up near covid response. The nrc see at fema stood up at a level one today regarding covid19, and that is the primary center, how they organize most of their response to natural or manmade disasters. I have been in discussions with administrator gaynor. He has a good approach. What we are doing at the moment is establishing a mirrored nrcc for hurricanes, tornadoes, midwest floods, california fires and the like. Fema is going to have to and that they are in the process of doing both. They will continue to respond to covid, as that is the priority, but we recognize Hurricane Season will be upon us very soon, and that all the other natural disasters are not going to stop and they will have to be responded to. The short answer is we are building a mirrored nrcc site in d. C. We are taking a portion of the fema workforce, divorcing them from covid19, and retraining them on specific tornado, hurricane activity. You will have two different workforces. One on covid and one devoted to what their Traditional Missions are. That is the physical aspect of it. Virtually, we are doing fema is doing more and more of their activities virtually. How can they do assessments using virtual capabilities . Whether that is satellite imagery, drone technology, and everything in between. They are doing more and more of that. I was down in mississippi probably two weeks ago after an outbreak of tornadoes. Fema, along with the red cross, were doing something very simple when we talk about covid19 challenges and bringing folks into shelters who have perhaps lost their house. Instead of putting them in shelters, we are putting them in hotels. We know the Hotel Industry across the country is one of those industries that is others. G like we dont see any issues with finding vacant hotel rooms at the moment. That is certainly a good best practice we will continue to look at. If it is a larger hurricane event, there will be problems and challenges we will have with that approach, but fema is start a look at how they doing a lot of what they would do. Instead of going doortodoor to door looking at individual assessments, how can they do that virtually . They are starting to really put those procedures together. Like anything else, covid is changing the nature of how the department operates, and specifically how fema looks to respond to the manmade and natural disasters. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you for the state and local. Im reminded of an old marine corps adage. Amateurs talk strategy and professionals talk logistics. And fema is. It is really critical to get their head of the curve. It appears that is precisely what is going on now. I will ask one more question and then turn it over to maybe a question from the audience. You know, you cant escape a question on Critical Infrastructure. Covid19, literally the entire country overnight went online. At the same time bad guys recognize they had the potential to make a bad situation worse, whether it is in fraud and i would love to hear the work hsi and others have had Success Stories tackling this and there is the potential for pronation state actors. Im curious what the department is doing. I am curious how they are supporting their stakeholders. And then i thought maybe on what we define our most critical of our Critical Infrastructures. 16 Critical Infrastructure sections, economicly section 9 and National Security and public safety. Then i will turn it over to a question from our audience. Indicated,ink as you obviously playing a Critical Role and a couple of lines of effort. One is making sure we are securing a number of Critical Industries when we look at covid19. When we look at the traditional role looking at traditional infrastructure they know the interactthey with those communities. Covid19 has highlighted maybe there are additional communities and industries that have been on their radar, and perhaps others who have not been on their radar, that they have to secure. Looking at cyber vulnerabilities of these certain industries. Not only the industries, but hhs and others involved in the response to covid. Specific to covid, identifying new industries that are critical to the economy and our response. That is certainly one line of effort. I talked a little bit about imposing costs. This, secret service is doing this, fbi and other parts of the u. S. Government are doing this. We have active investigation in place today to make sure those trying to take advantage of this situation are held accountable and are fully prosecuted. Very proud about the work we are doing there. We talked a little earlier about teleworking. I think that is an area that has put some thought process behind and you can go to the cisco website to get a number of best practices and Things Companies can look at an really start to anticipate future use. When we get back to some version of normal its going to look different than it did late last year. You are likely going to see a number of companies and elements of the u. S. Government rely on telework. What are the vulnerabilities . What are the challenges . The good folks at ssa are thinking about that in real time. Providing that guy working with the industry to really push out what they normally do on an everyday basis, which is best practices, and things they can think about. Very proud of what ssa is doing. As we come back and maybe open the country and economy, and how we do business every day is change. Not only things like this, but how we order consumer goods and interact with each other is going to take on a new approach. Plays ansa Important Role as they look at cyber vulnerabilities. And other elements of the government that those networks can sustain that traffic. We have a bunch of questions. I am going to take two. The first is from Maxwell Air Force base. What role does the dhs, dod what role are they assessing and how do you see that sinking up, and what expectations specifically around covid19 do you think should be expected . Homeland defense, Homeland Security, mission assurance, emergency preparedness, they all come together. Sure. Partner to the department of Homeland Security, even before covid19, but certainly during the response as well. They are lockstep with fema providing resources and support. I talked about the army corps of engineers providing support, getting Mission Assignments from fema. We have the national guard. We have 30,000 deployed in various states across the country supporting governors. They responded. We have support from dod on our southwest border providing more surveillance capabilities. Very closely with north palm making sure the Civil Defense they provide come the expertise they provide, is backed up and supplement what the department dies. I think dod has been critical from the comfort to the what the department does. I think the dod has been critical from the comfort to the mercy. Medical beds have been critical to the response of covid19 alongside fema and other partners. I dont see that curtailing anytime soon. Outside of covid, dod is a great partner. We have to work closely together as our missions overlap. When we talk about Homeland Security, what north palm does for the defense of the homeland, how we secure the homeland. We are great partners, and we appreciate secretary esper and everything he has done for the department over the last several months. I might just add a footnote of my own given some of the work with the cyber solarium commission. A lot a very positive momentum. Createdleas newly director of the nsa. I will ask one more question. There are a bunch and i apologize in advance to the folks who we werent able to get to. This is from alexander, who is asking specifically around where needs, and howce academic institutions can best support and adapt given some of the new crises . Whether percentage of excellence or just in general. At the end of the day we are onlyto make sure we not build the cyber side, but we bring the workforce you guys need. I would be curious what your thoughts are there. Appreciate that question. Our academic partners and private sector partners are critical in what we do at the department every day. Cyber security is not just done by the men and women of dhs, it is done in conjunction with our private sector partners. I think the Workforce Needs of the department are large. We talked over the last several years how we get Cyber Security them, but retain those arent the only needs of the department. They are certainly emerging needs. We have Workforce Needs across departments. I talk about with a number of different audiences, you come to work at dhs because you believe in the mission. You believe in the mission whether it is ice, the coast guard, that is what draws you to the department. I would encourage anyone out there driven to that mission to contact us. Those are the folks we are looking for. We can train who we need to train to our particular mission. If you have that background a new come to us well trained but when we talk about Law Enforcement capabilities and institutions in the department, first and foremost im looking for individuals who believe in the mission. Who want to be here. Who are perhaps not looking you arent looking to make millions and millions of dollars working in the department of Homeland Security. You will be a very valuable piece of protecting the homeland and a very important mission. We work with centers of excellence around the country in a variety of universities on a variety of disciplines. Whether that is biotech, bioterrorism, more Border Security, technology standpoint or cyber standpoint, the needs of the department are large. That is why we need the private sector to partner with us. I continue to look forward. As far as the Workforce Needs of , howcoming out of covid19 we interrelate to one another will be different. There was a perception that the efficiency of the department would somehow drop off during the vast majority of folks teleworking and we have actually seen the opposite. We have seen great efficiency, utilization, and people are working just as much as home as they are in the office. Avoiding the long commute and you can do things remotely just as you do here. It will be interesting to have folks think about that, how does that work over the long term and not just for six or seven months until we get rid of the pandemic will stop what does that mean for the Larger Mission for a department of Homeland Security where we have run line operators who stand guard every day, but we also have a variety of support unctions and analysts who back them up doing the work. Response, but that need and partnership with the academic industry and private sector partners will continue into the future. Thank you. Thank you for bringing in the private sector. I have a bunch of questions on that as well. Thank you on behalf of Auburn University, on behalf of the country for leading the women and men for doing the hard work day in and day out to keep this country safe. Stay safe, stay strong, and now auburn and others are ready to support the mission when asked. Again, thank you for taking the time to join us today. Frank, let me say thank you for bringing this together. These are difficult to do, and butto do from time to time, i appreciate the work of the institute and yourself. Really the partnership with dhs has been great. Really looking forward to continuing the dialogue, covid19, but when we get out from the pandemic and we can talk about more of our Traditional Mission sets, im looking forward to continuing that conversation. Thank you will stop that is a you. Thank that is a wrap. Announcer cspans washington journal with news and policy issues that impact you. Sunday morning we will talk about the latest on the white house response to the coronavirus pandemic with a Politico White House responded. Then a discussion of what a longterm strategy should look like to the u. S. Response to the pandemic with the former senior security,or health, and bio defense for the National Security council. Towill look back 50 years the antiwar student protests at whichtate use university, erupted in a deadly confrontation between students and the Ohio National guard. 67 shots, kent state and at the end of american innocence. Watch washington journal live sunday eastern. Join the discussion. Q a how anight on south sudanese videogame director is bringing peace and conflict resolution toys wider audience. Country has 70 under the age of 30. They were raised up in war. When i was playing grand theft auto, i said what if these young people Start Playing the video games. In the videogame it is the same thing happening in my country. Like how about a game for peace and conflict resolution . While the coronavirus pandemic continues, members of congress are working from their home districts. Many of my folks are ones at the automotive industry. The other majority are what i would call your frontline workers, now considered essential workers. These are the folks that help with groceries, these are the folks demanding 15 minimum wage. It is important to highlight they are the ones picking up. It is a very serious issue. What i have been telling peoples please listen to the federal, state, local authorities, Health Experts and stay away from people right now. War. This as a the United States is at war with this virus. Touch using the newly updated cspan congressional directory. It has the information you need to connect with your senator or representative. Order your copy online today at cspanstore. Org. Next, International MonetaryFund Director on the impact of the coronavirus on the Global Economy and why the decline could get worse with a second wave of the virus. This took place as a virtual discussion with the atlantic council. Thank you for joining us today. I am the director of policy and programs at the atlantic castl counsel. Welcome theed to International Director of the monetary fund. Part of our series. 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