Transcripts For CSPAN2 Acting Homeland Security Secretary On Presidents 2021 Budget Request 20240713

Coronavirus. The committee on Homeland Security will come to order. The committee is meeting today to receive testimony on Administration Budget request for the department of Homeland Security. Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare the committee in recess at any point. Acting secretary wolf is here today on the extraordinary troubling circumstances. Americans are rightfully concerned about this coronavirus, and spread its way across cost group called and claimed the lives of thousands and including at least six years home. Working to the government for leadership and guidance. And fourthly the Trump Administration, has not been equal to the task so far. In the place of this potential pandemic, the president is downplayed as threats, overstated help close scientists are to developing a vaccine, and muzzling experts in his own administration who disagree with him. It is a crisis unfolds, the president has continued to hold political rallies including a recent one that he called the coronavirus a hoax. Perpetrated by democrats. Even for a president who is a casual relationship with the truth, this is not only an outrageous thing but also incredibly dangerous. The president must not start his responsibilities. A person is him to step up in a time of crisis. Like president ial robert nations history. That means acknowledging the threat and having health and security of the American People political considerations, and the stock market and allowing doctors and scientists, and other qualified experts to offer candid assessments of the situation and direct the fellow response. As for the department of Homeland Security, our main concern about the lack of leadership and persistent vacancies and especially during this critical time. Mr. Wolf is the fit person tent set through this in three years of Trump Administration. It is been 328 days since the department of Homeland Security have had the Senate Confirm second secretary. Its not in a certain mr. Wolf appointment is valid. The federal court ruled in recent days that the acting deputy secretary appointed as the director, was on lawful calling into question his position of the department. Unfortunately, the president appears to prefer chaos to order and political expediency to the government. Make a mistake, and going vacancies and lack of leadership have consequences. Especially at a time with this. For example, since 911, the federal government has invested heavily in developing doctrine to the fine roles and responsibilities for incidents response. And no one in the administration seems to be familiar with that. As americans face a potential coronavirus pandemic, the administration appears to be flatfooted and scrambling to figure out who is in charge. Meanwhile the president s proposed budget prioritizes his Immigration Campaign promises at the expense of our four homeland expense activity in response abilities include agencies and programs that are in trouble to the coronavirus response. I remain committed to ensuring the department receives the funding it needs to carry out its mission on behalf of American People. Similar members of both parties rejected the president recent lowball coronavirus emergency supplemental request. Apparently, the president is having to expend an unlimited amount of u. S. Tax papers money on useless border wall and faced with the prospect of global pandemics, he would have nickel and dime did our response. This is unacceptable. Now is certainly not the time to leave federal agencies engaged in the response resources in the coming days, we will send the president providing the funding necessary to fight the coronavirus. Before close i want to address the challenges associated with the departments refusal to cooperate with the committees oversight efforts. Hundreds of Trump Administration the department has failed to provide the documents requested by this committee as part of this constitutionally mandated oversight deficit. Even under subpoena. When the company does receive documents, they are incomplete, or heavily redacted. So as to render their useless. The behavior of this party, gives the impression that it is seeking to evade oversight or have something to hide. That is not true. If we cannot trust the Trump Administration to be transparent with regular congressional oversight, heavily trusted to be honest with the emergent people in time of crisis. And the best time for the president and his administration, to be the leaders of the American People need and deserve. Counting on administration to secure the nation, and on congress to hold you accountable. Please note that we will uphold our responsibility, mr. Acting secretary. I sincerely hope the president and his administration old theres pretty mature now it recognizes the member, of the committee to this gentle man mrg statement. Thank you. We look over to hearing from you predict this past year has been a challenging one for dhs pretty last year, this country has seen over a million men women and children that swamped our immigration system in a matter of months. Strange resources. But the men and women of dhs has responded to the crisis dedication and professionalism. Congress was sold and but we finally provided resources to address the problem. And it was a crisis. If one year ago, and lastly, my democrat colleagues tweeted there is no National Emergency in the water. Because of his administration bold actions, we are no longer saying the record breaking levels migration at the southern borders so far this year. Im deeply disappointed that for political reasons, they want to acknowledge simple fact that President Trump is succeeding for others and ministrations have failed. The present budget fully funded the successful order strategy double down the wall. However the Department Faces more challenges in the year ahead. Security, cybersecurity and the coronavirus responsible test dhs resources and management. Im concerned about slashing fema Grant Programs and other programs. Removal of the secret service from dhs. Another chairman and i agree in this. Those cuts directly impede efforts to secure our country while it is great with the 2021 budget request, i believe the Congress Also with dhs. We owe it to the department to provide direction and regular comprehension reauthorization we cannot expect the department to function with haphazard direction and funding authorizations from 2002. I understand that the majority enters mark of a bill. You and i both of calls to the floor, the authorization i hope that is what this committee considered in april. We may have different approaches and a proposal but we want the same thing. It we want this department to function correctly. I look forward to discussing this with this in the coronavirus outbreak of our hearts go out to those who have lost their loved ones and those who are currently undergoing treatment. This pandemic is a global event and im concerned not only with our preparedness, the global response. I remain concerned that the county officials knowingly withheld this information for both public and International Health communities in those critical state during this outbreak. Im sure the early days of this outbreak will be under intense scrutiny. My deepest concern at the moment is the levels of preparedness at the state and local levels. I hope to hear from the secretary today and from witnesses over the next week about their efforts to prepare the community celeste requires the house to act in a swift action. Hopefully the house at this moment will act quickly. Thank you again mr. Secretary for joining us and i yelled back. Thank you very much. A reminder the Opening Statements may be submitted for the record. I would welcome our witness acting secretary of Homeland Security general. Mr. Walt has been acting secretary since november of 2019. He is the confirmed undersecretary of the department of office of strategy and policy. Previously he served as the acting undersecretary and chief of staff to the secretary of Homeland Security and without objection the witnesses. Men will be inserted in the record in nine now recognized acting secretary mr. Wolf. Thank you and if i share with you my oral testimony i wanted to address an issue this morning and share some Additional Information regarding involving situation in Washington State. Late last night the department was made aware of the situation involving a dhs employee and out of the abundance of caution the following recommended procedure ordered a dhs facility in king county washington. Mr. Wolf closed today and directed the employees in order to reduce the threats of Community Spread of the coronavirus. At this time the affected offices will remain closed at 414 days and all employees have been directed to self quarantine for 14 days. You made this decision to close the office because an employee had visited a Family Member of the life facility in kirkland, washington and before note that facility was impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. So the plane did not report to work when they fell ill. We are taking these steps out of an abundance of caution. Lead by example. Employees in the family with every precaution and follow the guidance of Public Health officials to stay home from work when they fell ill. And quarantine themselves. Penn reported to their employer and other officials. If this involved, many of the Homeland Security including myself, will be thinking about and praying for the employees and all families affected by the coronavirus. I speak for everyone i think when i think the families were taking advice and healthcare officials. As an employer, is our utmost response ability to protect our workforce. In addition to the travel restrictions. Dhs continually engages the workforce. And again from the headquarter level, we will begin sending all employee messages on january 22nd, regarding coronavirus regarding the procedures they need to take as it continues to enfold. And we will continue to do so predict the Rapid Response team at the dhs headquarters are working with the state and local officials regarding this particular incident and i will be sure to keep the committee updated as this unfolds pretty thank you allowing me to do that. Thank you. To discuss the department of Homeland Security to present the present fiscal 21 budget. My priorities are making sure that the department is resilient and prepared to address as well as those of tomorrow. Fiscal year 21, presents but it is not a reflection of those priorities, but the tasks to achieving them. The subcommittee knows that the department of Homeland Security stands air land and see in cyber domains. Two and 40000 strong. Stand much of the nation 24 hours a day 365 days a year. They take are a unique goal and part of our nation safe and secure while keeping it prosperous and by facilitating travel. Afton said Economic Security is Homeland Security in the department Critical Role in this mission. The president s budget ensures that the workforce has the resources needed to execute these critical responsibilities. And it was 49. 8 billion discretionary funding 5. 1 billion for Disaster Relief funding. And consistent with years past, our Budget Priorities remain caring out borders and enforcing immigration laws during cyberspace and Critical Infrastructure, transportation and american preparedness. Recognizing that the threat to the homeland is more dynamic than ever before. Department also continues to help manage the u. S. Governments response to the coronavirus. And clear the lead federal agency of this response is and remains the department of health and Human Services. Dhs remains focused on assisting travelers arriving in land, or air, maritime ports of entry and the administration took early action to prohibit Foreign National travel to china from entering the United States. The same restrictions now by the Foreign National traveling from iran. Everyday the men and women of dhs, taking sure that these travel restrictions are properly enforced. Also ensuring that allamerican citizens of recent travel to china or iran are funneled through 11 airports in the department have stood up and continues to do this and enhance medical screening. This is on behalf of cdc and others. The department is also closely monitoring cases of the buyers that have appeared here in our hemisphere. On friday, the first date, the first case was confirmed in mexico with five additional cases reported cents. This end unfortunately, misguided reporting california suspended the migrant protection particles and hours later of private internees, made an entrance of over 2000 illegal aliens calling cdp and mexican officials, temporarily closed. Thankfully the court entered a temporary stay, and i will say an uncertain future. From experience some of the journey to the u. S. Border migrants in very poor conditions and the bus arrived with their passports, medical histories and no travel benefits. This demonstration will continue to closely monitor the virus globally as well as our hemisphere and will adjust our proactive things is necessary. The Department Must continue to grow in the cyber scopes grow predilections security is a priority. To secure systems. The present budget invest 1. 7 billion in Cyber Security Infrastructure Security Agency to strengthen our cyber and our mission. Security relations order also remains a primary focus for the department. In the budget includes 2 million for the construction of 2 miles from border wall construction as well as funding is for advanced technology and staffing. While securing our borders is final, we are required to enforce the law as written. It remains a priority to the department protect our citizens by identifying detainees and removing criminal aliens from a country in the budget includes over 3m to make sure lawenforcement officers resource they need to successfully execute the law predict and today, in the wake of 911, the counter terrorism, is our core mission. In the present has increased funding for by 500 percent fertile of 96,000,021 budget. This funding is critical to identify an average individuals in preventing violence. The modernizing the fleet from the United States customers but provides 550 million to fund the construction of the Second Security cutter which supports our National Interest in the polar region. While physical capabilities and technologies are important the departments asset remains our workforce. The budget the present budget provides funding for 500 new cybersecurity applies across the department. And cdc 750 new Border Patrol agents in hundred 26 part staff, as well as funding to sustain the 300 Border Patrol processing coordinators the congress provided. Ice, the budget calls for 2800 new Law Enforcement officers, possibly 420 new ice attorneys and nearly 1400 support staff. Scsa the funding sustained over 47000 transportation Security Officers ensuring that we continue to match face with a passenger volume growth. These priorities are only a few included in the budget. In dhs, the committee knows that has one of the most diverse missions and all of government. Possibly amazed by the dedication of our professionals. If i ask your support in providing them the resources that they need to keep the Homeland Security to the president s 21 budget request. I think you for opportunity to address you today. Thank you. I remind you that you have five minutes. I now recognize myself for questions. One is responsibilities mr. Secretary that we have, is the oversight of the department. For the 14 months that the committee has been trying to get information from the department about the deaths of two children in cdp custody, as well as a separation of children from the parents among other topics. On january 4th, 2019, i sent a letter to the department requesting any documents related to the care of children in cdp custody including documents relating to the death of jacqueline and the mess. The department produced some documents including publicly available documents but clearly did not comply with the request. On november 20th, the committee issued and narrowly tailored subpoena and documents relating to the kids who died. Because you are separated from the parents among other topics. Last week, more than year after the first request, the department produced medical records and clearly, the medical records were in responsive to my first letter as well as the committees subpoena. Why were the medical records produced to the Committee Just last week one year after the request. Thank you. I fully respect the rule oversight. We talked about this when we first met in november. You continue to have mike commitment for any and all documents. Regarding the soup children, our Inspector General has had an open investigation which is concluded recently. Regarding that pretty soon wanted to make sure that that independent investigation, had all of the information they have. I will say that we have responded a number of times not only to the original january request but also as youve mentioned, the subpoena. We produced over 11 document productions, thousands of pages that i believe is over 6000 and specifically, i think weve addressed three out of the four Major Concerns of the subpoena and working in the fourth grade and an additional production. And as we continue, we will continue to produce that and provide the committee documents. I believe we is also provided a work 70 hours of tape which the committee requested and continue to make ourselves available to provide that information. I think you but the point is, after one year, we will get them, one part of the screen, two pages of information that we got. I think just from the reduction, theravada no use to us. Can you explain why those two pages are rejected like that. I dont know the exact two pages you referring to. Mr. Wolf i will say that obviously we can throw a review process of all of the information we turnover. There are certain executive branches of interest that normally this administration with the Previous Administration that we have to head your tooth so do reject certain information but again we provide and all information to the congress that we can. Will continue to do that and provide video which i know the committee is very interested in as well. We will continue to provide that. So who would know what privileges is being claimed with reductions like this. Mr. Wolf what is the question. You provided protected documents. Who is responsible. Mr. Wolf is a lengthy of lengthy review process. They look at it depending on the subject matter. And again im not sure what that document is. Benson just a sample. But my point is, we need to know what privilege when we ask for the documents. We dont know. Mr. Wolf we can take that back ensuring the information. So you dont know what person is responsible for the final push up on this. Mr. Wolf it would go through our og steve. Office of general counsel. That is the individual ultimately responsible, nate cornett with the administration on executive branch interest there. It is a coordinated effort. But yes or general counsel that the department would ultimately approve those reductions. Thank you will follow up with it. We will probably have a second round of questions. When it typed you a little bit about the committees interest. In this potential pandemic we are addressing and uterus some of it in your opening statement. But in order for us to do our job so we will have to have access to certain information. So are you prepared to provide the committee that information in your jurisdiction. Yes. I think those examples were on this is not something that is limited to the dhs. We have the same problem with the dmv. This is brought over classification and is unacceptable. It sec. 12, to me you arrived at these priorities. Mr. Wolf i would say that the budget process of labors process, built many months in advance. In a different position at the department when some of the 21 Budget Priorities were being formulated and transitioned over them back so i would say again, for our priorities remain in i outlined that in the beginning of the oral and continue to be water some purity cybersecurity, american preparedness, transportation security so we have some high level priorities. And obviously we have to leave the resources that we have and prioritize specific programs under each of the overall strategic goals and funding goals as well. So its a giveandtake pretty we have to look at programs that perhaps have been funded in the past. They continue to be useful in the base that gives the grunts. And we will continue to evaluate that and work with congress to assess those priorities. I dont understand why you would cut the business budget. Something that the chairman night both expressed. Mr. Wolf when you compare it to that other funding, it is an increase in a do understand the decrease from what was enacted last year by congress. I will say that they will fully fund them including Election Security as we look at fy 21 and obviously were the middle of a president ial Election Year and fy 20, i think congress with the funding provided, and obviously doing a lot of important work right now on this Election Security front. It does fully fund their mission and requirements. Some of the funding that they received over the past fiscal years will continue to me made available as a look at 21. Today is super tuesday in alabama. And 12 other states are having a big election. Ptolemy about the state of our Election Security date and as we go through to november. Mr. Wolf i would say what we saw in 2018, was one of the most secure elections that we will have and we continuing to build in the process. And under the leadership, i would think that the relationships that we have now, in all 50 states and it 23 jurisdictions, really night and day from what we saw in 2060 what we had very few relationships, very few Contact Information where and we are talking to them. We sure enough number of informations. We push intelligence as we can to be state and local Election Officials and we provide them with a no cost tools. They can utilize that and penetration testing, Vulnerability Assessment and a variety of others. So we cans tinnitus work with those Election Officials. The federal government does not. We want to make sure they have all of the resources and tools to do that. Vinyl component of this is the voters making sure that the owner has information and continuing to have voters recognize what perhaps might be just information. Or not reliable information and continuing to educate devoted that if you have questions about your particular election, go to a trusted source. Go to your local of election to get information directly from there. Do not rely on information they are saying on social media. Running facebook, twitter accounts. Making sure they continue to go to the trusted sources also very important. There are number things we are doing. We are better positioned today and we were four years ago. I recognize dealing with the coronavirus, but what roles of any does dhs have. Mr. Wolf we take our lead from the medical professionals at hhs and cdc. Primarily responsible for streaming passengers as they come into our airports of entry. And as of today, and imports parliamentary seem to be in our medical staff that we have set up, screened over 50000 passengers. Theyve also worked with the cdc to make sure that the individuals on the do not board list run by cdc are appropriately not allowed to travel. We seen a number of folks, from the cruise lines, those quarantined also in japan, perhaps not be reappropriated back into the u. S. , and then try to travel to the u. S. And so again the primary missions and it is to make sure that these individuals are not traveling to the u. S. We will continue to do that normally airports but land ports of entry into northern border and our southern border and then a very prominent role in our maritime ports of entry. An Art Technology director, and their facility is working to characterize the virus and they are doing that at the direction of cdc. Thank you for your service and i yelled back. Thank you to want to welcome you. And thank you for the job youre doing it home and. I understand the ute served as chief of staff. Is that correct. Mr. Wolf yes. So secretary, she warned about the threat of the Cyber Attacks that exceeded the risks of back in march of 2019. Describe as the cyber domain as a target, a weapon, all at the same time. And she warned that the nation state criminal activists, terrorists were preparing to weapon eyes the west. So do you agree with your former bosses assessment the nature of these Cyber Threats of the United States. Mr. Wolf i do. So in january 2019, and again, bite Cyber Threats facing the United States and yet, i understand it, and the 2021 budget request, would cut the cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency which is the premier cybersecurity agencies fight nearly 250 million including 150 million cut to Cybersecurity Division additional budget would cut funding to the science and Technology Director of cybersecurity information analysis is that correct. Mr. Wolf yes her. Those are the reductions. So over the past year, its become clear that the russian government, is going to continue its medley efforts as well as its Critical Infrastructure networks in addition, the Chinese Government has continued to push for the integration of wai Way Technology and china continues to engage inside rear st minnows nosh, and intrusion. Under the circumstances, how is it that you propose to dhs cybersecurity activities make americans safer. Mr. Wolf again as i indicated, as you look at that president fy 20 budget request, in the 21 budget request, is an increase in the overall budget and as i mentioned earlier, i do recognize it is a decrease. A reduction funding from what was enacted. And fy 20 but what i can tell you is that i talked to the director, very specifically about the budget he is fully confident. I am confident. That to do their full permission in the 21 budget request fully funds all of the missions. Be back but the cuts, even on his face do not meet the threats of the country. I am deeply troubled. Knowing that not only, greater demands for protecting the country, but Election Security. But this is not just the election securities and switch there trying to do the mission but but the site Cybersecurity Agency and also is responsible for protecting and working with private sector on protecting Critical Infrastructure. Youre being asked to do a much more with the threats to the country have gone up proportionally. And yet these cuts are not helping that agency do his job the country. I dont understand the deep cut being proposed and just shuffling the deck around, does not make the agency and have the resources that needs to do its job. Mr. Wolf again when i would say and thank you for highlighting it, yes it is much more than the soft target. Looking at five g and other areas that we are focusing on. Some of the funding, it is gotten over the past several years. It is carrying over and they are able to fund some of the missions as we look at 21 as well. So we continue to look at the fidelity of the funding. And again as we look at 21, 20 is not obviously a president ial Election Year. The security funding in the 21 budget sustains at work. As well as in their other mission sets. I know my time is expired. I just want to make it clear that for the record, i firmly disagree with the acting secretarys assessment. The past year ive served on the Cyber Commission alongside numbers including administrator and they made it clear to me we need to strengthen and i called for that. Im just deeply disappointed that the administrators budget, is prioritizing desperately needed investments. Thank you. I think theres little disagreement that cyber in the fiscal budget should not have been cut. As you know, we just approved the deal offered by mr. Richmond, with additional monies just for that purpose because of some shortcomings. Gentlemen from new york. Thank you freep secretary thank you for your prints yesterday and thank you for doing a really good job and really tough circumstance. On the first to acknowledge the the coronavirus are major issues and major problems and crises facing the department. Passing back to the recent the disagreement came up in the first place. The fact is still issue. 25 percent i guess almost 30 million the fact that the local governments kick in 25 percent of the cost. I can tell you in new york, and other cities that they have their own expenses, their own programs as to what they have. We have over a thousand Police Officers in new york city working calvert and terrorism. Theyre working on counterterrorism. It is extremely expensive. And in areas that i represents, we have millions of people everyday on the trains. And we have new york city subway system, and track, long island railroad. We are the major terrorist target in the country. If theres anyone else concerns, when i see these type of major cuts, i dont see how Law Enforcement and the Fire Department personnel can handle them. Well its focus on the things of today understand that but the underlying issue still there. The coronavirus, and that immigration, cybersecurity, we have to predict but if we lose three or 4000 people in the attack new york or los angeles, then be the front page. And tremendous casualties or losses. Human loss, economic loss. Again both administrations have done this every year. Homeland security cuts, then Congress Puts them back in. But im afraid that with all of this other stuff going on, were going to end up shortchanged. And people say what it that happen. And then Chemical Warfare and how easy it would be to have terrorists in a major metropolitan area because enormous casualties. And the only way that could be stopped is through detection. Were not talking at rachel robberies local issues, we are talking about an attack which will be the local government having to pay for it to defend themselves and now were being [applause]. Tamia cant accept that. Mr. Wolf i would say over the life of the department, i believe we have provided over 53 billion in Grant Funding date is you know the new york state metropolitan area, was the top recipient year over year and we prove in overtime which we try to do is bill of capabilities in certain jurisdictions and not have that be a sustaining part of the budget. Building up capabilities across the country, across the nation, making sure those communities are more resilient but we need to make sure that we have the right cost share. We have the right shared responsibility between the federal government and the state and locals making sure that that Grant Funding is again does not become baseline in their budget. Is there to build up their capabilities. In the capacities. In this what you reflected in the 21 budget request. Not just building a wall or structure, this is ongoing. To balance ongoing monitoring cooperation, dealing with the station in the citys credit the expenses remain. Its not like you just build something and its over. It goes on. And i would say that the terrorist threat. Its not the front pages but in 2001, and is adopted and we need to adapt with them. And costsharing, in effect youre asking the local government to pay with the federal government should be doing exactly as far as the kashi, its not as though they have stopped the fact is that they are changing this message everyday. I understand the position youre in. But i think it is very dangerous including the loss of life. Major metropolitan areas, and democratic or republican blue or red, their risk. Hell back new orleans has been home to many natural natural disasters. Have you seen the director reach out to the people in tennessee to offer assistance on the ground. Yes we have. No late fema, but also officials obviously but the primary states. Primary voting is there as well. So were normally looking at it from a fema perspective but also from an Election Security perspective. I will ask you some very direct questions. I just need to know, is the budget document just a statement of principles and we needed to cut money so we just listed a bunch of cuts and their. Do you believe this cuts, in your budget it when i support the administration fyi 21. There are tradeoffs. Leave a big mission pretty. Let me ask you this. Very pointedly. If we enacted that budget has presented to this, americas be more or less safe. Mr. Wolf i strongly believe they would be more safe. s you believe they would be more safe if we eliminated kimmel goal facilities. Because your budget proposes eliminating it. Mr. Wolf transferring that to a voluntary Program Just Like the other operates a number of other sectors and it is the only mandated program that operate so it would transition that mandatory program that reaches out to about 3300 facilities and voluntary programs that we could reach up to 40000 chemical facilities. But theyre the ones that you are deemed to be the highest risk in the country and that is why we have to understand this. In fact the program was in implemented, based on the conclusion from the intelligence communities chemical facilities could beat what the night but terrorists. And on january 15th, of this year the dhs, issued an alert warning about heightened threats from a rent specifically for the chemicals. And those chemical facilities are located smack dab in peoples neighborhoods. My district is home to probably the largest petrochemical in the country. And the facilities and now, there is an increase, heightened risk or were going to move it from mandatory to voluntary read and assume that we are protecting those facilities in the people who live around them. Mr. Wolf again the budget request, i certainly dont view it as an interest or priority the Department Chemical security. And again the idea here is to move the voluntary programs we can reach more individuals. Right now we have a budget of 25 million dedicated to this. We would like to do is to be able to reach more facilities in that voluntary manner. And since it does Critical Mission sets. To transition it to that type of program is important. You are a great soldier for the administration but i think if you hear what people appear are talking about, there are some areas where we can keep and we need to do more with less. But there are some areas where that just does not work. We would talk about terrorism, you talking offices on the ground in new york. And protecting chemical facilities and responses to coronavirus. The answer is not we can do more with less, sometimes you have to have the resources to protect the American People that dont want to put you, not in an adversarial position with the administration. But my goal is to make sure that we understand that we are talking about protecting american lives whether it is the virus, were a terrorist threat and that is real. So let me just switch for a quick second to coronavirus. In your written testimony, you said the risk to the American Public remains low. And we are taking measures to keep the threats low and prevent the virus from spreading. That is not consistent with what the cdc is saying. And i would just hope that the administration through hhs, dhs, and everybody can put together and the American People some reassurance that we know this is serious. And we can speak with one message and invest the resources to protect the market people. People are terrified of their Childrens School or their spouses at work believe that we owe it to them. For you all to get one message, one plan and start to implement it. Thank you so much for your service. On after my colleagues across the aisle. I stood up and authorized the cyber infra structure security agency. With the threats to it over the world. I dont think this is the right time to be county. I will join the chairman, and Ranking Member in their efforts with the appropriators on that issue. On the coronavirus. Lets not forget where this came from. We can do a lot of political fingerpointing, and came out of china. And as a very irresponsible move on the part of the Chinese Communist party. Trying to cover it up. They had eight prisoners and having them retract for reporting the truth. And then it just got worse. I put the sole blame on china. And knowing way that they handle the spices announced becoming not an epidemic but a pandemic. When we shared the a bullet earrings, chairman thompson and i authorized those chief medical officer within dhs to coordinate with hhs. Can you tell me how that is working in this crisis. Mr. Wolf so our chief medical officer is doing just that. And dan contact, twicedaily certain meetings with hhs and cdc specifically as i mentioned at the top of the hearing, with dhs facilities they were on the phone last night with cdc professionals. They were addressing that so i would disagree little bit from a comment made earlier. I believe it was the administration talking with one voice on this issue. As secretary azra, the threat continues to remain low and we continue to put those measures in place and continue to do the efforts. In the mentioned at the top. I think the administration is been very clear on that. And the Vice President and is wholly almost Daily Press Conferences and news conferences and fishing information to the public knowing that we are breathing Conference Congress weekly, biweekly and crushing as much information as possible being transparent as possible ensuring that we know and we dont know and from departments perspective making sure that we work on land ports of entry and see in air and land, officers obviously involved with hhs and cdc would try to make some of these medical costs not only for workforce but also in the mission that we do, smt, that facility is also involved. Isnt working going youve envisioned this. I think sons coming back then. And i know that the task force actually recommended the idea that that Vice President be put in charge of it. And thats whats happening now predict and i think the appointment of the investor, hiv infectious diseases, very wise choice as well for you can you tell me about the specific travel man ands greening as a relates to affected areas like china south korea and italy. Mr. Wolf specific orders from the president regarding china and iran. So an individual that is been in those effective areas in the last 14 days, or have traveled to those places. So in some cases as you know, we see individuals coming to the u. S. Of a broken travel. Not necessarily they can directly from their but they do have stops in between and again, through the national targeting center, working with the airline and others we are identifying those individuals that did not come directly from china rn. But have that broken travel so again when they arrived, the 11 final airports of the first individual that they see is the cd officer. And they would do the immigration work then they are referred to medical contract staff in her office. All of this individuals go and get a screen that medical staff. And then they are referred to cdc as needed for additional evaluation then a number of quarantine decisions are made by cdc professionals. Were doing that it airports and similar at lesser numbers but our land ports entries. It does cause a panic and terrifies people. Do they have assurances, threats coming into the United States. Last . Security trust fund. We propose this idea and built last congress and it failed. They supported it last congress. Collected fees collected at the border. And had it for infrastructure and technology. Do you agree with this idea pretty. Mr. Wolf i certainly do agree with the concept. I think that the infrastructure down there knowingly from a security perspective but just that trade location is outdated and certainly need some additional resources. Thank you. Acting secretary wolf, just a few days ago, not lawfully appointed to serve as the acting secretary of u. S. Citizenship and immigration services. In line of that ruling, is he still the senior officer performing duties of the director at u. S. Eis as stated from departments website. Mr. Wolf he is. I will say that case is currently in litigation. Some going to limit what is it but i will say they are currently looking at that decision. Obviously to fulfill our obligations there. And also to appeal that decision. It has to do with certain decisions he made in that position. Is he still the director. Mr. Wolf yes. I understand this is in litigation. And youre not really going to be able to say anything about this but how is that the youre keeping him in a position with the course found violated appointment for the federal vacancy performance. Mr. Wolf i will say that that Court Decision is on specific decisions that he signed up at u. S. Eis and thats with that litigation is about. So we are addressing that. s ear reviewing were looking to set aside a reduced time to consult on extension directives and introduce. Mr. Wolf yes thats what we are looking at. I would like to turn now are you precluding him from making such determinations about any other issues in enacting unified of. Mr. Wolf we will certainly do that. Have you advised him from solving from and preventing anything like he did with the reduced prohibition. Mr. Wolf again, hes not making those specific calls, we are taking a look not only in our obligations but our ability to appeal the decision. So yes. See putting a hold on his decisionmaking. Mr. Wolf again at the advice of our counsel, is a very specific focus of that case, on specific decisions that he made at u. S. Eis, does not affect his current position that he fulfills with the department. You cant kinda say that really hes not doing that when he is actually implementing rules that are happening are having an effect on people. I would like to turn to your understatement, on november 8, your appointed acting secretary of security after making the fifth person to lead the Homeland Security. I want to understand, at the time your acting secretary, and he himself who is acting secretary of Homeland Security of in itself was a specific problem. Not confirmed though, but he himself was acting secretary of Homeland Security at the time, he was defined in order of succession to name you to the position. Im sure youre aware, he change the order of succession despite his testimony before this Committee Just days earlier sitting in the same chair youre sitting in in response to my question. It may not have been valid given that he issued the amendment after his own appointment as acting secretary appears to have expired. So i would beg the question of you, literally the acting secretary of the department of Homeland Security. Mr. Wolf i am pretty that determination by the late dhs attorneys with other attorneys in the admin surgeon pretty. So how can you be the active secretary when he change his order of succession pretty. Mr. Wolf again i dont believe that was the case. I believe that he altered the orders of succession before he left that position. Turns out that your appointment is not valid, what is it mean of all the actions that youve done predict. Mr. Wolf will not only differ to the dhs attorneys with the justice what actions that we need to take. Looking at what they are doing so their ultimate design of discourse, distrust and the american democracy in our institutions of government so yes, we continue to do that. Making sure we secure election infrastructure, continue to take action to address that. Have you spoken to the president about the recent attacks . Yes. A number of cases. Was his response to your informing him . Again, im not going to get into discussion but i will say the same information, of course he sees mark but hes aware of the threats to our elections specifically as it relates to foreign interference. So its been wonderful i think in terms of what he has done regarding Election Security. I just want to be a short fat you are doing collective outreach, the only primary president ial candidate, you share some think what you know the director said was going to happen. Absolutely. Not ensuring the information with officials but as you indicated, both Political Parties and also every campaign as well. I know theyve been in touch with all of the campaigns, sharing the information and the nocost services. Time has expired. Will you provide us letters that the attorney, but you were legitimately put in that position . Yes, ill take that back and provide that information. By march let me take that back. Ill give you an exact date we would like to have it by the 15th of march. Okay. Thank you. Chair recognizes the gentleman from north carolina. Mr. Walker. Thank you. Thank you for testifying today. I appreciate your work over the last couple of months to protect american safety. The department has been frustrating, no bearing on your. We should be helping you to the very best job and what weve seen so far, its been commended. Thank you very much. Recesses being thing allocated, designated airports. However, theres several thousand travelers who arrived daily to airports and tens of thousands of others on passenger vessels. The u. S. Coast guard working with the cdc to detect individuals here in the u. S. Through imports and runways carry this virus or something else. At the 11 airports, as you come into a port of entry and your coming into the entrance of the u. S. , youre going to go through this enhanced medical screening that we do at the airport, a similar procedure there and be referred to the cdc if needed. Our officers do this on an everyday basis. The coronavirus, going back a year ago, every individual not only for innovation purposes to determine whether or not they may or may not be sick. Then preferred them to secondary sources. Specifically from majors we have in place at 11 airports screening from 50000 passengers who continue to refute injury to passengers on that, we have the same procedures in place at our plan part of entry into the coast guards drink that. Thank you. There are strong accusations that iran and china and maybe other companies are covering up the full extent of the coronavirus outbreak in the country and back numbers in death tolls are significant a higher than reported by health officials. In what way are they combating this information and coverups and other countries to ensure both the u. S. A officials to make sure they have the necessary information to take the necessary corrective measures to ensure the outbreak does not occur, and to work u. S. Citizens traveling to these locations . The second purpose, theres a number of travel advisories the administration put in place to a number of countries so those are just advisories at the moment. They are fondling terry voluntary so they advised him not to. No travel in other cases. Continue to work with cdc and hhs making chart the medical professionals there understand what is occurring in china. The cdc, my understanding they have several individuals on the ground in china, part of the wto team. Theres always a question of the death being underreported by china. The information comes from china as transparent as we would like. I would refer you to the cdc, they are the ones in contact with the federal professionals in china. We try to make sure we support hhs and cdc if we need to change the medical strategies, we change as a result of that. Their team is closely monitoring the coronavirus working with Critical Infrastructure and possible disruptions that may stem from widespread instances. 2017, systems or networks used as Critical Infrastructure and has since been part of the highest priorities straight with elections today and many more in the coming weeks, you have plans for the times of disruption . We are not only doing that, they continue to look at the supply chain and the Critical Infrastructure and any slowdowns in that supply change and we will continue to look at that. As we do across the board, not only the, we continue to have all options on the table. We look at what we can do and proactively take measures where needed. Does the fact that errors affect United States have seen outbreaks, does it change your strategy in preventing the spread . We converse daily with cdc and hhs, we continue with the strategy in place, i would think we have a number of them spread persontoperson transmission as well. The cdc onsite monitoring dose from a dhs perspective, we are concerned about what is coming into the country and a tsa, we will continue to trevor inside the system so theres nothing we are doing today but we continue to plan on all fronts for worstcase scenarios. We continue to look at different procedures that we may have to put in place across our Transportation System and across dhs facilities until this continues to worsen. Thank you. One question. He talked about those people traveling, what about our land ports . We have the same robust capacity at our land ports of entry . We do. I mentioned we have the same screening procedures we have at the 11 airports of entry, the same procedures occurring out of land ports of entry. We have more land boe than the 11 airports. We continue to transition that type of care, cdc is not on site every man port of entry. We have grown phone calls with them, theres a consult we have with cdc. We have medical professionals on our largest land ports of entry looking at individuals as they come into the country. So this might not be as robust as we need. I think thats what im hearing. It is very robust and will continue to keep it that way. Not only in the airports of entry but we also have medical professionals from coast guard and other parts of the department are land ports of entry. We are still confident in the procedures we have there. Gentleman from california. Thank you for holding this important hearing, or to welcome you, im going to follow up on your question and mr. Walkers question on Border Security prevention of coronavirus. You mentioned low threat right now ashley, is that where we are at . Thats what the cdc continues to communicate with the public. Sunday i was at mass, all those coughing, sneezing, please leave. Go home, dont come until your better. There is concern out there that we are talking out of a lot of messages being essentially put out there. We are talking right now about Border Security, checking people coming into the country. Last time i went two weeks ago, a lot of folks coming through that border. Trying to put your finger, trying to stop International Travel is probably going to be difficult at best. Are you coordinating internationally with trading partners . Canada and mexico to make sure their agencies are prepared and they are watching, monitoring and Holding Immigrants at the border and turning them back, its probably not going to stop this virus because we still dont know how it spreads. Can you give me a bit of information here . I would agree with you. Our busiest land ports of entry can be a difficult assignment. Will continue to screens the individuals. I have much time, sorry to cut you off. Lessons learned, are we coordinating right now with other countries to make sure Border Security extends to working with other International Healthcare agents . We reached out over a month ago, not only canada but also mexico understand the procedures they were doing, not only on their border but generally so yes, we continue to communicate with them in canada and mexico have been a partner, trying to understand the virus, obviously. Into canada and mexico from the affected areas as well, where lesson learned. Next year we will come up with another virus. Are we putting together, implementing a system where we can react a whole lot faster, more coordinated and we have been this time around . Yes. The department has had a Pandemic Response plan we executed. Will continue to execute. Obviously not every pandemic is the same. Im saying, you have a program in place to react, get the early messages, a little bit confusing and not clear to a lot of folks. I would say the department was on the forefront along with the president s instituting travel restrictions earlier than any other country out there so we continue to do that and we have to enforce that and make it reality, change our targeting rules, do a number of things and make sure im going to interrupt you again, i would like to see your agency to see what your plan is, you contact, who you are working with internationally in terms of coordinating International Response to this. Not only decisions but the world is looking to us for leadership and coordination. We have the best pharmaceutical industry in the world, we have the best research and develop an Healthcare System is really good as well. I just want to see us continue to be leaders when these kind of pandemics break out. I agree. Well continue to do that. Thank you. Port of water if i could. Ill be brief and its about the virus. I want to make sure we are all speaking on the same language, he mentioned that we didnt know how it spread. Thats a very specific term, terminology. We do know heart spread. It is respiratory droplet if not they confirmed it is legal oral spread also. We just want to say we are saying correct things. We do know how it spread. My reference was we have a lot of people that are infected. We have not mapped it out. We have that contact which is still not clear. Physically they do spread in the way described but we dont know how people are infected in our community. People not internationally. We are not infecting International Travels. But to say people are safe because you cut off the border and quarantined yourself, thats essentially now not in danger. Your points are taken but the language was unclear. Thank you. Thank you. Check recognizes the gentleman from louisiana for five minutes. Thank you. Secretary, here voluntarily today. Voluntarily. I commend you for being here voluntarily. The title of todays hearing, tuesday march 3, a rebar review of the fiscal year 2021, but at request of the department of home and security that the hearing intended today, my colls have used this hearing to launch partisan attack after partisan attack against our president and feet administration across every imaginable spectrum has anything to do with the department of Homeland Security. Earlier the chairman posted a couple of heavily redacted pages, you recall that . I do. Procedures are federal documents that have some level of ratifications before you send them to congress and procedures are common across dhs and under your supervision . Not only common across the department but across the government. You responded to those pages because why do you think those two pages were selected with over 6000 pages with documents you provided to this committee . Why were those two pages selected . There were more redacted, or less redacted . What you think . I dont know,. The answer is because they are more redacted. I hope america is watching because this is exactly the kind of favor the town has reduced. My colleagues said we cant cut the budget, i disagree. Our Youth Mission focused . Absolutely. This town under republican and democratic leadership, the establishment of this room has accumulated 22 trilliondollar deficit. To broaden our nation from general insurance yet on board, this body were to run a 1 billion surplus, which it will thought, american, his body will never decrease deficit spending. Well never visit the budget unless the body wants to run a one filling dollars surplus. When billing dollars. Federal expenditures and we took in revenue. It would require 22000 years of a one filling dollars surplus to address the 22 trillion debt. May i say on behalf of many americans, yes, good servant, not only should we decrease our budget but we must for the future prosperity and sustainability of our republic. Mr. Secretary, you advise your mission focus, you stand by that statement . I do. If you had a mission that recalled 100 asians and you have 97, would you take it . Damn straight. 2. 8 less than last years outlay. 2. 8 . American families and businesses from sea to shining sea. After know what it is to deal with a 2. 8 decrease and budget if they have deficit standing that they know is unsustainable. Thank you, mr. Sec. First of all, forming courageous enough to appear before this body without the subpoena. You are a better man than me. We have a duty to secure our border. Regarding the budget, your budget, you feel confident as a secretary home and security thought the 2. 8 decrease budget and fiscal spending, you feel confident as the secretary that you can perform your mission and secure our home and . The department across many commissions can fully not only support but we can excel in our Mission Space with the budget request as requested. You can perform your mission . Absolutely. Its not just my opinion or my statement, its the statement of the entire permit leadership. Ive had discussions with all of our heads, operations and support opponent hugs about their budget and ability to do this mission and they all agree they can do their mission, support the mission and that budget request. Thank you. I yelled. Thank you. Just for a record, those documents that were redacted were not classified documents. You have that, right . I am aware that some were not, yes. This notion that they are redacted because they are classified for the sake of my request, we did not request classified. So we are clear. The other incident is for the last three years, we have had budget way out of balance by this administration. I dont understand Ranking Members about a balanced budget when we are way out of balance. Those of us who came from other units of government, we were mandated to have balanced budgets anywhere. It was the law. The last three budget. I will not. I will not yield to the gentleman. Weve not had balanced budgets. Beyond that, to be sure that we invited you to come, to present your budget, which is the normal course of action and you accept it. I did. Will you subpoena . No thank you. Check recognizes the young lady from new mexico. From new jersey. Thank you. Sorry. Id like to talk about the Trump Administration policies that resulted in the intentional separation of thousands of Young Children from their parents. The summer of 2018. Im concerned many of these children have not been reunited with their families a year end half later. The Department Still cannot even accurately account for the total number of children separated from their parents. 3014 children dhs was able to identify and court order, only 2100 had been reunited with their parents according to a november 2019 dhs Inspector General report. There are still children separated from their parents. All the remaining children now been reunited with their parents . This is an area we report to the court periodically through the department of justice on whether status is on each im asking you that question. Theres a number of children in a number of parents who have refused unification, there are a number of reasons why not all of those children have been reunited. Some for the health and safety of the child, they have been united. You have a number beyond that 2155 number has to how many of the children im asking about . How many of those have been reunited and how many of them are still run not reunited . Again, we report through the court to the judge specifically where the individuals are when was your last report. Periodically, ill get you the exact date, i dont have the exact date on the last report. Thank you. The department of justice we do that. We do have the numbers and i would like to see them. The children not reunited for health and safety reasons, i specifically want to know how many are in that category. We outline where they are. And i want to know. Inspector general found an additional 1369 children dhs separated from the pants and accurately recorded and reported to the court. How is it that the Department Apparently lost track of the fact that it took 1359 children from their parents . We continue the department continues, in some cases, with the health and safety of the child and a number of instances we do separate a child from a parent from health and safety this is an issue that is necessary drilling in two separating children, this is the fact that you are apparently lost track or failed to report to somebody else. 1369 children separated from their parents. My question is, how did we lose that many children. The department has not lost any children. Will then you failed to report them. We have not failed to report, we have not lost any children. They are in dhs custody, they are all referred, transferred to custody. Are you familiar with that number of children . Remark i am familiar. On behalf of this committee from thousand 1369 children separated from their parents, the information was not reported by your department when asked. Id also like to know, when do you think these children will be reunited and when weather status be aired, clarified, verified, if for some reason they cannot be reunited and then what will you do with them . The status of those 1369 you referred to, obviously they expanded the scope of that so we all continue to report to congress to the court but will provide you an update as well. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Particular interest to me, the president s budget does increase as it relates to dealing with those things that happened on the border. Like for us to be able to respond in timely manner because we have to respond in timely manner and weve know what the budget should like. I want to thank you for clarifying that the issue in regard to production is not just what the department does, its what the administration does with every request from the congress. Thank you and with that, i yield back. Congresswoman, the 15th also, we will do our very best. Believe we can. Chair recommend us the gentleman from pennsylvania. Thank you. For your testimony and the work you and your department do for us, secure our border, enforcing our immigration laws every day, the brave men and women go to work and defend this nation from grave threats, under too often criticized or disparaged for doing the job that simply keeps us safe. The president s budget request again contains a strong commitment to Border Security and while i know Border Security has not been in the news as much recently, its still so critical that we secure our border and this remains a primary focus area, specifically the president s budget makes investment by hiring an additional 750 Border Patrol agents, 300 Border Patrol processing coordinators and over 2800 new Law Enforcement officers and ice. Also, extremely important, a request for nearly 2 billion for 82 miles of border wall system. Secretary wolf, can you please speak to have these new resources will be deployed . When we talk about securing the border, talk about a number of different ways. Not only physical infrastructure we need from of the capabilities we have with the border wall system that we are constructing but also additional technologies and resources and the people and the staff there to do that job. We talk about, its a three legged stool separate border wall system, on the southwest border, we have a completed over 300 miles of all, over 200 under construction and another 400 in the preconstruction phase. What it is designed to do, make areas of that order that are difficult for Border Patrol to patrol. That infrastructure up, but a little slow to areas that are Border Patrol and better patrol and use resources accordingly. Obviously we have a number of technology outside of the border wall system that Border Patrol and cdp uses to secure the border and we continue to ask for in the 21 quarter request. At ports of entry with inspection technology. So we continue to do that and we need to resource, resources not only to interject the number of illegal individuals coming in but the narcotics, contraband and felt like but i think art emphasize you not only need the individuals to apprehend the information you need to investigate and Law Enforcement officers to actually look into, if they see a car at the border with drugs, we need to investigate that. Its not enough to see that we need additional staff in the investigation and other places i can investigate that and follow leads continue to go down that road. With this increased funding, is there a positive effect on the drug crisis affecting so many counties, states throughout the United States right now . Absolutely not. The whole of government approach from dhs is involved and many others as well. When i talked to local Law Enforcement, they talk to me about not only the illegal flow but what that needs for the community range of narcotics are a major concern for them. Human trafficking is a major concern for them. Theres a number of issues they deal with because of that illegal flow on our southwest border that we are certainly concerned about. The president s budget request, continues to get affect, not only for the border wall system but the official resources and staffing we are asking for as well. Thank you for your testimony, your hard work and your leadership. Mr. Chair, i would like to yield back my remaining time to the gentleman from louisiana. Thank you. My chairman was unable to yield to my request earlier, that he expressed some wonderment, that i might can be concerned about 22 trillion debt and my voting record has clearly expressed my concern when we want a majority and my colleagues were in the majority. The spending is out of control but he expressed his own concern, i ask you, you support a balanced Budget Amendment to the constitution . I yield. Thank you, i appreciate hearing today. Acting secretary, i wanted to do a followup, you mentioned earlier that you were dhs employees in washington office, had to close. So quarantine and you said they would telework. What happens to those who dont have the wherewithal to telework . They want. Theyll be self quarantined, laskos able to work from an artistic, they are able to telework, please do so. Those who dont have the abili ability, theres a certification process have you have done that . If youre self quarantined from a he will do that, if you dont have the ability to work due to the department, we are not going to force you to telework in those cases. We would ask individuals who arent thick are they on sick leave, do they get paid, how does it work . They would get paid but i will get back to you specifically. You recently announced a massive expansion, this time banning nearly all nigerian, visas and ending for eligibility for leave. Last month, i let a letter for my colleagues demanding congressional briefing on this new policy. Today is march 3 and i have a hard award from here. Sixty members of congress, more important, approximately 300 Million People are banned from the United States under this latest span, clean genocide countless africans simply seeking to connect with Family Members already here in the u. S. Have you ignore this letter, have you received this letter . When will we be getting this briefing . Im happy to provide a briefing, unaware specifically about letter and thought request. Im happy to talk to you, i think the department has news story about what we did to institute these. All i need is a response and update for the briefing. Sure. Thank you. This committee, along with Oversight Committee requesting documentation fight every 20th regarding the departments justification and residents of new york state from a trusted Traveler Program including global entry. Along with that, i coconut a letter to you demanding answers. By what date will all of the documents requested by the committee, as well as us be produced to us . I know its underway, i can get you an exact date. It seems like you were very quick and making this determination but slow in getting a rationale. Theres no rationale behind it, right . Absolutely. Upfront and public about i i should get a response. Happy to do that. Appreciate that. An intimate response to our request, secretary states that the decisions to barr residents of new york the program involves the Department Primary objective of ensuring our homeland and all of those within our secure. Can you please explain how it makes the u. S. Safer to allow residents of Foreign Countries to enroll in the program . The specific law that new york enacted prohibits information sharing specifically with ice and in this case, Traveler Program an individual applies for the trusted traveler global entry,. No standards of the Foreign National what i would say is that the information we required to vent a trusted traveler from new york state, you do not have all the information. We understand. Id like to do a comparative analysis with all of your foreign folks who come in. Id be happy to provide that. Thank you. A drivers license is not needed to participate in the trusted Traveler Program. Addresses can also be verified through other means such as being appraised, background checks, interviews, trusted traveler applicant have to go through in order to participate in the program. Prior to the appropriate letter to new york state, what outreach efforts does this department undertake to inform new yorkers about this security concern . York pasta their law, there are specific for the loss of a clearly knew he reached out to them, we indicated we have concerns and we are shutting down the program. Making sure all global entry system was not compromised and continue to invest and enroll there is no other way of doing that other than panic the . Theres not. Or two urge you for that decision and avoid using your authority as the record in secretary of dhs for retaliatory action against the state. Different viewpoints moving forward. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you braden. Can you provide us with that information that you hughes to cancel the trusted travel program . I think theres a medicine you referenced, if there are other documents, please provide those documents along with the letter. May i respond . I just say new york law specifically prohibits them from going into the database. They need information that they can only get better through trust the travelers. They dumped that above and beyond, theres no other state that prohibits the information. Thats specifically why we took the action with new york and the action alone. When you found that out, what kind of engagement did you do with new york . Did you call . Did you send emails, did you check . What did you do once you found that out . I think thats what the young lady was trying to get. Chair recognizes the gentleman from north carolina. Thank you. On the news to congress, was an extraordinary thing for someone to watch what youre going through. We are all presumably interested in the same objectives, particularly at this time when we face prices that we face with coronavirus. I would think dhs in particular about the mission dhs would want all of us, a more cooperative town. Further the comments of my friend from louisiana about the overall picture, graphic 22 trillion that amounts to 176,000 for each american household. Two federal programs over the next 30 heres anticipated to run a deficit of 103 trillion, 824,000 for each household. I would take with respect to the budget we are having this meeting to discuss, i am appreciative of the efforts of the administration to identify ways to accomplish efficiency. Mr. Richmond commented when he was still in the hearing that there is these idea of efficiency but we expect the American Private sector to accomplish improvements in productivity every year. That is key to our private sectors so the Public Sector can be fed from the private sector. As a general proposition, if you believe achieving new of agencies is a necessary part of effective governing of the department . Absolutely. We have to make sure we have the taxpayer money and we are using that money provided by aggressive effectively and continue to look at the threat in our programs to see how they involve and make sure the resources are lined up without the and make sure a variety of different considerations going into that budget, they are a tradeoff. We dont have unlimited resources so we do have to make sure we continue to work with congress. They have the final say on the department so we continue to have this discussion and continue to talk about this tradeoff. I wonder if you could speak to ways in which robust Border Control, which this Congress Seems sometimes by some portions of the congress to oppose how robust Border Control contributes to the united stat states, capacity to mitigate harm from the coronavirus. Covid19. I think specifically what youre referring to, not only the measures we put in place but also land ports of entry. I look specifically at the southwest border and today we are seeing 1200 to 1300 individuals coming across the border illegally. As the virus continues to grow, that is the concern. Individuals usually are not showing up, they are not providing in most cases truthful answers to our Border Patrol when asking them questions. Whether they are trying to hide their health history, as a concern and it will continue to talk regarding another question i received with mexico to increase their capacity and determine what they are doing to control cases they have in mexico and being reported what they have. We will continue to do that but the nature of the southwest border in the fact that we continue to see over a thousand individuals a day crossing the border illegally is certainly concerning to me. I want to yield my remaining time. Thank you for healing time. I have to go back, im going to ask a quick question. Is a decrease, and the Ranking Member on the transportation and Security Committee which deals with tsa. Decrease in funding, 58 million from this years budget to tsa and reduced funding for ct scanners, it kind of concerns me. Can you tell me why you did that . When you talk about the ct scanners i believe in previous years, including the fiscal 21 budget request from about 521 systems deployed so we are continuing to look at how we continue to affect number. Honestly we want to see more ct scanners at airports. They are expecting the right type of material that we need them to do so we will continue to push, but i will say if they received a lot of money for those symptoms, just getting those units out, it will be a challenge. Well likely see in future budgets to come back with further and additional test. We are making sure we spent the amount of money that is appropriated in a timely manner and pushing the systems out. Thank you. Chair recognizes you from florida. Five minutes. Thank you so much. Thank you for what you do every day to keep our nation safe. I have to be reminded that we are the committee on Homeland Security and the department of Homeland Security and yes we should all share a common goal and a common purpose, to keep the nation safe. I believe that you said that was your mission. I am completely disappointed as some of the conversation im hearing today because i so late with politics. True leaders dont need to be praised everyday. They dont need members of congress to every time they open their mouths, say what a great job the administration is doing. I think truly, leaders are much more interested in getting results. That directly benefit the American People. I just come up before i get into it, i just want to make one thing clear, with the coronavirus, i thought we would dominate the times talking about your budget and how we can better respond to the coronavirus. Talk about the wall and that amazes me and you started off your comments earlier, you are talking about your employees and particularly looking at travel from china or iran, you talked about illegal aliens and that took me by surprise because i want to make sure you are surely not suggesting that the problem we are seeing in this country with the coronavirus is the result or was caused by undocumented immigrants coming across the south border. Is that what you are saying . No, i did not say that. Okay, what did you say . If we stay on that truck, what im hearing from some of my colleagues, we are not going to do this correctly. Weve got to get it right. Please say what you are saying. Specifically to the question i just got was the concerns we continue to see, so we continue to the number of concerned specifically about our land ports of entry, not only south but north water from how do we control illegal relation coming in and oftentimes, they dont travel with medical history so that is a concern for individuals coming in at the 11th airports, we have good information of their travel history and medical history, were not going to have that same set of fidelity for the individuals if this continues to grow. Did anyone give you instructions to tie the coronavirus to undocumented immigrants coming across the southern border . No. Let me ask you this, do you believe the president obsession with this Campaign Promise to build a wall jeopardizes critical programs to dhs . I believe president obsession with this campaign to build a wall jeopardizes critical programs. No, it does not. We all represent that in our concern is not praising the administration during a crisis but making sure men and women that we represent are safe and secure. Is that your mission weve seen increase in public threat, that would keep me up every night. But anyway. Ive also noticed that funding for it has been cut. We know how critical it is to local communities and to airports, for example. But i know that some of those funding response abilities shipped to local and state jurisdictions. Could you talk a little bit about that, please . The same discussion i had with congressman im sorry, i missed that. We look at all of the security grants they provide in the Department Discussion is about 53 billion we provided the state and local to build up the capacities. What we are concerned about is making sure state and locals build their capacity but they dont build the grant into their budget so you want to make sure we continue to build capacity not only metropolitan areas and others but for super recipients as well. Capacity by cutting the budget . Part of that Budget Proposal is between the federal government, state locals and shared responsibility. That is part of the Budget Proposal. Not only reducing that but also the sharing part. Thank you. Im out of time, i healed back. Chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey. It is good to have you here. Im sure you are having a lot of fun. I just want to say from my viewpoint, maybe we shouldnt just be saying what a great job they had ministration or the people who work in the various functions do but i would also like to say what a bad job everything is and how wrong everything is and how terrible everything is because theres a lot of good that was done, whether its at the border, i was there recently. They still need to get better. We do need the rule of law, whether it is, i like to associate my viewpoint, the comp we need to correct during this coronavirus. The fact that we were the first to have travel restrictions up, that we were sure to work and we are working with Drug Companies if there are vaccines that can be created and we can be isolated immediately. If it wasnt for america or the United States of america, this world and this globe in this crisis would be and must much worse shape. Thats due to your people and what you have done. Lets talk about what america does and what you have done. I thought this was going to be about the budget and budget issues. Im interested in the coast barr. Going to make a statement and hopefully have time to ask you a few questions. In atlantic city, the largest air station in the coast guard. We know the Training Center is the coast guards exclusive training facility. The coast guard in my community, its important about nation, to. To everyone. Need to make sure that the resources they need. Testifying before the Senate Subcommittee on Homeland Security, the readiness of the coast guard continues to be an issue and a concern and that was limited budget you have focus resources. One of the questions on to go through the whole thing, the coast guard adequately funded to perform its missions, which are so important to have resources . The second thing is, ive been told the coast guard has large infrastructure cap, what vulnerabilities does the gap create . Are they serious . What is the coast guard strategy for addressing this with a limited budget . Again, i thought this was about the budget. Thats what im focusing my issues on. Next, i want to commend the Trump Administration, additional 386 million in 21 budget for requests with coast guard operations. Authorizing the funding request will help the coast guard to address urgent problems of infrastructure cap which is serious. Between falling victim in the infrastructure cap, they need to authorize an appropriate fund for the renovation for the facilities. To recapitalize it, we need modern standards and accommodate both male and female coast guard training. Its the most valuable part of the organization that people work. I like to advocate for the funding, inclusion and authorization in this budget so there are coast guard men and women and start their careers with the resources they need. As you know, these are great men and women who serve this country and sacrifice for this country. I would agree with all of those points. The coast guard is obviously really some of the unsung heroes. They often dont get the attention they rightfully deserve. We look at the president s budget request, theres a couple priorities the coast guard specifically but they are fourth leaning on. Theres funding for that but also the patrol cutter program, funding and therefore three or four other patrol credits which will push forward. Those are Capital Assets they are pushing. The third one is readiness. Making sure not only their aging infrastructure but also their budget that supports all other Capital Expenditures so the project continues to match pace. What we see with the coast gua guard, some of the popups we see on the dod start, we dont often see that on the coast guard side. Over time, that starts to add up. My technical readiness we need to make sure we address that. We start at that the budget request, theres some assistance and help requesting that but its not complete to be solved in one fiscal here. I know, lets get on the road. I love to talk and even have the president look at this but its important as well. There men and women who sacrifice. Get the short end of the stick. Thank you for your service. Time is expired. Thank you for being here today. Lets talk about entry. Transnational criminal organization continues to struggle drugs, the primary driver of the Opioid Crisis through our ports of entry. Only about 15 to 16 of commercial vehicles and to present Passenger Vehicles entering our currently scanned and detect contraband. I appreciate your comments about how we need, our infrastructure part of entries are outdated and we need to invest in them. Its a bipartisan issue and we would all like them to prioritize. When debate intend to reach one 100 of technology at our ports of entry . The Funding Congress provid provided, 570 million in additional funding will give us about 660 and i i, thoughts large, small and medium. When are we planning to get to one 100 . Im getting there. By 2022 thats great half im sorry, i appreciate it. You have a comprehensive plan for how youll get to one 100 by 2022 . Will not be at one 100 , the point of the infrastructure, yes. We have a deployment plan. When we get deployed by 2023, you mentioned Passenger Vehicles being screen, we have to go from want to do , up to 40 by 2023. 15 , up to 72 . Utilizing the Funding Congress provided for the large, small and medium and i i systems. Thats great. Im pleased to hear is a clear plan for getting to 70 of the commercial trust and 40 their present Passenger Vehicles. You have a longer term plan for getting to one 100 . We do. Obviously that depends on appropriation and support, we are happy to share that. Thats fantastic. I love to get a copy of that. If you could supply that in addition to your testimony later on. Thank you so much. The reason why its important we have one her present, when we get to 73 they ship their product to underutilize ports of entry and infrastructure. I look forward to getting to one 100 . Just shifting to Border Patrol processing coordinators, last year, i worked with members of this committee to draft legislation and authorize hiring of the processing hoardings. They started that process to hire the first tornadoes. This position will be particularly important and the fy 20 an appropriations bill to brief congress on the training and processing coordinators. When you plan to brief us . Any time he would like. Okay, wonderful. You have the heavy information now. I dont have a specific training. I can tell you 300 processing officers 200 at least. Will be on board between may and september this year. I know weve gone through a few secretaries and multiple points of juncture where they have requested information about the training plans from former secretary and others, we all recognize the need. We need that information on how they will be trained. How have you ensured that the coordinators will get that type of training . I am happy to provide the training that they will receive, obviously we build the training with the Training Program and im happy to get that for you. Thank you so much. Continuing on the training and the important work that we need for them to do, one of the key reasons we needed them is to help transport migrants. Especially on long rural routes, the transportation duty can take Border Patrol agents off the field but i recently learned that coordinators with transportation tax tax, can you please confirm that the plan. I cant but ill take that back and let you know. That is something im concerned about, as we know part of the reason we authorizes money is so we can keep Border Patrol agents on the line so continuing to use the Border Patrol agent to help escort underlines the efficiency of that. Let me discuss with cdp and will discuss. Thank you. The chair recognizes the gentleman from tennessee. [inaudible] i just want to make everybody aware that they and announced 19 dead in tennessee, if you can keep tennessee in your prayers i greatly appreciated. Thank you mr. Secretary for being here youre doing a great job. When we cobbled dhs together at 9 11 we took 22 agencies and put all together, unfortunately we do not change the requirements for reporting mechanisms to congress so you report over 100 committees and subcommittees, can you tell me how much your budget is wasted reporting to so much committee. That is a tough question to answer, theres a lot of time that goes into responding to all the different committees and different letters at headquarters alone we received anywhere between 40 and 50 letters a month, that is just at headquarters, or individual components received similar amounts and having to respond to research, it does take individuals off the front line of their primary security responsibility to produce documents to go back and make sure thats presentable to various members of congress. Its a very heavy lift, were happy to provide the oversight but yes i would certainly encourage trying to shrink down the amount of oversight the department has. Its not that we want to minimize oversight, we want to streamline it. If you look at dod they report to 40 committees and three or four times probably four times the size of dhs, i just want us to provide fncs for you. Also the same with your Task Organization, we have 22 different agencies are reporting to you, is there some kind of streamlining that you could do to save money, make your department more efficient in terms of Task Organization . We have a number of operational components, they obviously report to the front office, they do that not only with a secretary but with the deputy secretary at dhs. As of right now the organization of the department is solid, i have not looked at it, previous secretaries have made changes over the years but worried that now we can know is fine tune and do a little bit better but i dont see any wholesale reorganization of the department in my view. Okay, on those reactions i assume that migrants are eligible for the protections of hipaa, i know theres other medical personnel of the committee and maybe they can comment on this that i would suggest that that may be the reason why the Health Protection act may be why theres so much redaction on the medical forms. Im guessing thats with the Legal Counsel is doing. The me going to something else, the chairman mentioned increasing screenings of covid19 patients at the boerner yet others on the committee have beaten you up for mentioning that the southern border is a risk for covid19. I just want to say thats a little bit hypocritical and i agree that the screenings need to be increased. Can you clarify does this budget increase cdp positions, it does okay do you have cdp vacancies right now questioning. I am sure we do, i can tell you over the last two fiscal years we have been able to hire more Border Patrol agents then we have lost. Goodyear on the net positive. Yes, that was not always the case we had a difficult job hiring and bringing those individuals on board so i would say were in a good trajectory. Your net positive and thats to be commended by the way because its a relatively new thing at cdp. My question, it may not be necessary but what are you going to do to ramp up recruiting efforts and it sounds like you have done so and you have a positive response. We do, we have a fairly expensive recruiting effort, Retention Bonuses, a whole plan to not only bring a Border Patrol agent but to make sure that we keep those that are there. And we do that through change of where they operate obviously sitting and being on the border yearoveryear some individuals in the Border Patrol want to get a different location we provide that. We also have Retention Bonuses and the likes. We have Aggressive Campaign to make sure that we hold our best and brightest but also bring in new Border Patrol agents. I would just say i was in artesia new mexico three weeks ago and had the opportunity to preside over a graduating class at the Border Patrol. There was 25 or 30 folks really excited to be part of the department and Homeland Security and to be part of securing our nation. Thank you coul good job toda. Thank you very much. Just for the record, hiba does not apply to congress. It doesnt . It does not. Let me recognize the gentleman from missouri. Thank you, mr. Chairman if i can i would take 30 seconds to say, we create problems because meanspirited or something but we dont know. Ive been here while and if i had to leave this committee i would be the third person in seniority on this committee and so will we have secretaries, no matter what Department Congress members republicans, democrats, San Francisco 49ers, everybody asked questions about the department and if they have specific questions about the budget, they will ask those questions. So this baby a fight we dont even need to have, this is been going on long before any of us came to congress or maybe born. We had a lot of this tripping today and theyre going to ask questions that they want asset secretary. Mr. Secretary, thank you for being here. From whom do you need approval to make a statement, issue a press release, do whatever about monopoly and core herself price gouging also knowing as monopoly. There are report that Hand Sanitizers and other products that americans are using that the prices being raised all over the country bring and i dont know it unimaginable to me t they walking, talking, breathing human being can do something so nasty at a time like this for money. Is there short answer you can give me. I would not again for my position i would not specifically, you asked if i could issue a press release or statement, i would not specifically do that, when i issue statements or press releases or anything else from the department its specifically to our mission and our authority in our budget to make sure that we do that. I would work with obviously the lodges task force i believe you referring to coronavirus in the medical issues there in the Hand Sanitizer and likes, we work with the task force to make sure we address that. Thank you. We dont have any federal law, theres been an attempt to do it a number of times but a number of states do have those laws because like florida, hurricane hits and prices go up. Which i think is obscene. The other thing, i will do this quickly in a you can answer quickly. My Congressional District includes Kansas City Missouri and what we find of the funding has been cut and if you look at the kid list of the cities and the funding, the general is the largest in the state. Except when you come to missouri. I dont know if someday fail to look, kansas city is significantly larger than any of the cities in the state of missouri we have 116 communiti communities, 3800 square miles with the second largest realtor in the country. Our funding is 0. And i dont understand it. Maybe you cld check or have somebody on your staff check. I would have the individuals of fema server complex decisionmaking matrices that they go to to identify those jurisdictions in those areas that are available for the funding. Im happy to have them come up and walk you through, they will talk about different categories and how your specific area, kansas city, ranks against others and what theyre looking for to make that list. I think that will be the best thing i can do. That will be helpful because i ask answer questions from business communities and others. Theres a number of reports that detail racist and sexist comments posted by cdp, some personnel on facebook and i think its called on chan 15, Something Like that and then article in the Washington Examiner quoted some of the Border Patrol leaders making various nasty statements and a gentleman named individual, did cbp or dhs investigate this issue surrounding facebook into 15. I believe that what occurred last year so investigation has been completed and the noble of individuals have been removed from office. I would say what i saw of that from my position in the department is not representative of 99. 9 of border virtual agents so i want to say that on the outside, the vast majority are not involved so i want to make sure we always have a few bad apples and we will deal with that and address it, and investigate and will take appropriate personnel action against it but it does not reflect on the entire Border Patrol. I didnt suggest that, im interested about the situation and looks like been handled. If i can get information on that it would be helpful. There will be privacy issues but we will share everything were able to about specific individuals obviously. I didnt call the name. I was down on the border three weeks ago and i did not tell them i was a member of congress and i did not where my pin, i think they thought i was an attorney. I have to say the security personnel down there were 100 respectable and i share my thoughts with them when i was leaving because somebody walked in and saw me and said congressman cleaver and blew my cover but i think i needed to say. Which port of entry. We were in brownsville. I will pass that along thank you. Gentleman time for missouri has expired. Thank you. Mr. Secretary i think they will tell you the privacy law does not apply to congress either. So try not to get an answer back with a bunch of reductions, i am trying to get mr. Cleavers information so mr. Cleaver im sure you will get it, can we get a by the 15th . I will check term in. My intention will be by the 15th. The chair recognizes the gentlelady from illinois mr. Enter ms. Underwood. I will follow up on something that secretary wolf disclosed in his opening statement, the dhs facility in Washington State and response to the coronavirus to self quarantine for the next two weeks. This morning the Washington Post reported that dhs employee in newark reported to work on her bosses orders and violation of a coronavirus quarantine. Dhs had been on the front line responded to airports in the border and helping to prepare and Risk Management over it fema incarnating outbreak response with other agencies. These front line had elevated risk of exposure. As of today, do you expect further closing of dhs facility or facility wide quarantine due to the core in a virus . Will take them on a casebycase basis, i can tell you we continue to provide our officers all of the information, training with the protective equipment. Certainly you have a scope that exceeds, im looking for yes, sir no, do you expect to make additional closing . I am not going to contemplate on what could be potential closing we will take the on a casebycase basis. At anon for Public Health and a former senior advisor, i know the whole government approach is necessary to the coronavirus. Last week you were asked about the coronation with cdc can you provide a detailed update on how dhs is working with the center for Disease Control and state and local Health Department to respond to the coronavirus. We are working every day, we have task force meetings, not only at the senior level to level the individual. We talked about earlier about the chief medical officer talking with and collaborating not only with hhs but cdc and other individuals collaborating with asper as well, we are teamed up with hhs, cdc and others on making sure if we need to change your operational tempo, are Operational Requirements and the decisions we take which ive outlined that we do so for making sure the medical strategy want the changes as it evolves, we change our operations at our land and airport of entry, we continue to support an arm role, hhs, science and Technology Directorate at the impact facility is also characterizing the virus on behalf of the cdc so were providing support to them and will continue to do that. They tell us to change direction, we will change direction. This weekend when i was at home and illinois i heard concerns from families to kids had been studying abroad in italy and korea with active outbreaks, what is your Department Role with a 90 with cdc to bring these can some safely. We will continue through the task force, theres a number of travel advisories that we have put out and were part of that process and collaborative process to inform the administration and certainly there administration. Im think about the experience of these americans being repatriated, is anything specifically you are doing with young people . You are talking about specific students that are overseas studying and then coming back. We will continue, as we saw in china we repatriated individuals from china specifically. Mainly through the state department, dhs will play a role as we process individuals coming to the country. But that is mainly estate Department Role as they repatriated a number of individuals from china on specific flights. What is the dhs employees on the front line of the coronavirus response, their job is to keep us safe and to require them to violate cdc best practices to keep themselves safe from the coronavirus, not only do they interact with thousands of overseas travelers but their conducting screenings and pat downs and extremely close quarters, what measures have you put in place to minimize the risk of dhs employees from the coronavirus. Im not sure i would agree with characterizing the not following cdc procedures prethats what we provided them and specifically to cdp as well as tsa officers and were providing them not only the literature from cdc but the trading in the protective wear. Specifically when we talk about gloves and masks and the like, were doing optional prewe do not require them, they can do that if they choose to do so. We have several unions at the department that were working with as well, the union issue is well and we continue to work, provide them the materials and all the protective gear if they choose to use it, they certainly have it. The information we receive does not suggest its incomplete alignment. If you would be willing to provide the copy of the guidance documents that you have offered to your employees that would be helpful to do oversight work. We can do that through c wdm office specifically with cdp and dhs. The chair recognizes the gentleman from mississippi. Thank you mr. Chairman. First i want to thank you for being here, i want to thank the men and women that serve under you for their service to our country. Over last year you and your department have faced a growing and continued crisis of illegal immigration along the southwest border and now your department is providing some of the frontlines response activity as we battle the coronavirus. I know that you spoke earlier on the chief medical examiner for the department of Human Services had been incarnating with cdc and you have also correlated with other partners. What do you see his role continue to be as we move forward in making sure that we are properly screening individuals in the country. We used chief medical officer in a variety of ways but his title suggest our chief advisor that comes to any medical issue not only with our workforce by how we protect the American Public. He is the primary interface with a number of cdc specialist, hhs specialist and looking at how this virus spreads, the impact, how to protect the workforce, this individual and his staff is involved in all the discussions and advising Senior Leadership about that and also in tune with what the task force is advising as well. Can you talk a little bit about dhss role in coronavirus screening at point of entry . Sure, as i mentioned earlier, specifically where we see the largest number are at the 11 airports that we are funneling passenger stupid cdp has referred over 50000 passengers to our medical professionals to screen and they cleared over 21000 passengers in referred 30000 for selfmonitoring and we refused entry to 14 passengers at u. S. Airports and refused entry for another 102 passengers at preclearance airports. Those are overseas that we do clearance procedures. The department has an everyday role making sure that we keep sick individuals from coming into the country on the travel restrictions and those that do come here, americans are to come here get the right medical screening and right treatment to making sure that themselves are safe but also their communities are safe. Thats our operators and we have a whole support mechanism that supports them through the science and Technology Director in the chief medical officer as well as others support what they do every day. Mr. Secretary you mentioned earlier you and your agency are taking all the steps possible to mitigate any risk to any of her Healthcare Providers in our frontline officers who were involved in the screening process in my question to you, do you believe the use of technology such as telehealth can be helpful as were going to see the screenings increase at ports of entry . I do, i would obviously differ to cdc and hhs but i think any and all options should be on the table. As we continue to see, i mentioned the offset we have a facility in king county Washington State that has shut down and we can see more of that depending on how the situation unfolds. Any ability that were able to not only telework but do the telemedicine as well, i think would be helpful. Mr. Secretary would you agree just from a Public Health perspective, it is important for the United States to adequately screen those entering the country. And would it be for coronavirus or other contagious healthcare issues that were only able to screen those individuals that come through ports of entry. So if you have individuals who are crossing into the country illegally, assuming that those individuals are not apprehended by Border Patrol or Law Enforcement to enter the country, it is at that point impossible for us to screen those individuals in those individuals could then enter the country and they could intentionally or most cases unknowingly impact hundreds if not thousands of individuals with the coronavirus before they came ill and started showing symptoms and later hospitalized. Obviously thats a very real concern and we talked about earlier. Obviously maritime point of entry are much easier to corral individuals and funnel individuals into the appropriate places. When we look at our land ports of entry, at ports of entry is where we would like to do the screening and they have the infrastructure and staff available, as i mentioned earlier we are seeing 1200 1300 individuals continue to cross the board illegally and thats not the port of entry, those are individuals that Border Patrol is picking up and have to process and as this expands the ability for those individuals to be screened and screened appropriately is a concern. Thank you, mr. Chairman i yield back. The chair recognizes the gentleman from texas for five minutes mr. Crenshaw. Thank yothank you, mr. Chair. I commend the work of dhs to combat Human Trafficking, i was a pleased to attend the roundtable in january and the implementation of the federal Law Enforcement Training Center. I look forward to the consideration and the passing of enhancement act and i want to think my friend representative Ranking Member rogers and representative Sylvia Garcia in joining me on that important legislation. Can you prickly discuss some of dhs effort to combat Human Trafficking . We issued a strategy in the middle of january which is the first time they have done that, produced with forced labor. We continue to be forward leaning and the reason it was important to produce that to send it to the rest of the department to prioritize and build the budget they need to do that with Human Trafficking in mind devoting their appropriate resources to that. Again the first time the department has ever done that and made Human Trafficking a priority and will continue to do that inside the strategy is about 40 different action items that were continuing to put into Implementation Plan and anything and everything from full threat assessment on Human Trafficking to continuing to hire victims and specialist to make sure we have an approach in our work in Law Enforcement officers assigned to Technology Looking at what they can do so theres a number of actions within the strategy throughout the department. That was very cross functional. Can you discuss ice role in combating Human Trafficking. They the largest role in the Homeland Security through hsi. Thats important to know because everybody talks about banning ice, not everybody of course a lot of my colleagues talk about banning ice and i think its not always pointed out that ice plays the biggest role in combating this gorge of Human Trafficking and we should absolutely note that. I want to move on to Disaster Relief, thats a big issue coming from houston. My constituents after disaster often face a web of different options on where they can get relief from. Whether fema or hud or sba and it can be extremely confusing when youre trying to rebuild your home and i want to get your take on this breed rather than having posted Disaster Recovery in longterm housing split among the agencies, would it be beneficial to consolidate under fema. I know fema has started to do the under the former administrator as well as continuing today they are trying to streamline that in trying to make it easier for individuals that are affected by natural disasters, what we have heard over time if your house is destroyed by natural disasters you may have three or four different inspectors, one from dhs, one from fema, hhs, housing all coming out and asking similar questions. They are currently assessing and putting together a strategy on how to consolidate and make it easier for the individual that has been affected to perhaps only getting one or two instead of the three, four and five. So yes i would agree anytime we consolidate or streamline im sure theres a lot of bipartisan support for such a thing, disasters dont strike in my district, they strike a lot. Last year when we did this hearing we were in a crisis, we were seeing over 100,000 illegal crossings per month in many cases, sometimes much more than that. A lot of that was family units to which made the problem all the more difficult to deal with minors coming across the border. Since then illegal crossing has decreased dramatically, a large part of that is because of the protocols and increase cooperation with the Mexican Government. What else can we do, what would be your top items that you need from congress to get a handle on our southern border finally once and for all. I would say we still remain in crisis mode along the southern border. The numbers have dropped pretty substantially however, not only myself but the predecessors would say if youre apprehending over 1000 folks a da day thatsa bad day in your new crisis progress apprehended between 121300 today still. The crisis is still there, the impact on cbp, ice resources are still there, the strategy we put in place over the last 4 5 months is working, six months is working, partnerships are vitally important with the northern triangle in mexico. But some of the programs like mpp and enb and the other programs we put in place are absolutely making a difference in allowing us to control the flow coming in and allowing us to process individuals quicker, providing immigration hearings quicker for the meritorious claims and those that dont were trained to root out the fraud. It address the crisis and search we had. Thank you. Gentlemens time has expired. For questions made for a second round questioning and Ranking Member a question you want to ask . I do. Thank you for diving a little deeper into your budget. I suspect mr. Secretary, this is reflective of many isolated sections of the total budget request that you stated on page seven, about halfway through the page. Regarding the need for increased detention beds, due to historically high numbers, a statement reinforcing the need for increases in detention beds, 260,000. You want to state that the budget includes 3. 1 billion in this capacity increase in if i calculated this correctly, perhaps misunderstanding a statement, it would equate to 51600 each bed, if it encompasses the entire amount of beds, 3. 1 billion been dedicated for the beds. Is a lot built into that. Single bed daily rate is about 12500 a day, family beds are other bit more expensive than that. It includes not only that but the administration. All the personal. We were at 56000 beds in august of last year. We continue to look at our modeling, past events, and where we go, the 60000 requests in the 21 budget request, hit very real last friday when we had the decision, it was stated several hours later but we had thousands of migrant lining up to come into the country. We will have to detained them as we process them, making sure we have enough space to detain their immigration proceedings is absently critical. Their menstruation has done a number of things to speed that process up so that we can give folks the need to protect, or any other protection, give them that hearing quickly while at the same time rooting out the fraud. Id like to close on a positive note. In her statement, he clarified that he United States and immigration services, 833,000 new citizens last year, which is an 11 year high, can you confirm that that is an accurate number . That is accurate. 833,000 american citizens sworn an oath of citizenship and become naturalized citizens in our great country, correct . It is. Laugh and say its absolutely accurate where one of the most generous countries out there. We continue to process individuals coming in for a variety of different benefits and we ask that you do that the legal way and correctly. We will continue roger that. We support that. Welcome to 33000 new american citizens. Thank you for the job youre doing. I yelled. Thank you. Check recognize the gentleman from california. I want to thank you for being here today. We are going to talk about an important issue, the real id. Two weeks ago, three hours at the local dmv office to get my real id. I got there at 633 a. M. , people were already waiting. Three hours later, i had my completed real id process. October 1 is the deadline. With not only estimated 35 of americans dont have real id in california, estimated 20 million drivers still dont have real id. We may be looking at a real train wreck care october 1, people cant fly. Any thoughts on this . Are you going to move the deadline . Any suggestions . I think 2005, we are trying to comply with it by october 1. It continues to be a priority for the department, the departments main responsibly is to make sure we continue to educate folks about this. Individual states produce real ids, there compliant and start issuing that. The 14 to 15 here implementation can is sufficient but you mentioned 35 of the ids in circulation Free Estimates are real id compliant. Thats one third. October 2020, we are what i request for information, the industry not only has the airline industry, how can we streamline this process . So we instituted a major a couple weeks ago that allows individuals once there state submit there documents electronically to the state dmv. We hear often is that individuals show up and they have the wrong idea. They didnt bring a utility bill, that i have the right underlying documents. Wait in line for two hours and are sent home and have to come back. That happened to me. I was asked for my original Social Security card. That presents challenges. Specifically the law is very descriptive on what documentation is required. So again, it will say we do not have smart phones at that time, we have evolved. What we could do electronically i think is a question perhaps we can talk to the committee about, see if we can have law that we can submit documents electronically, secure environment and speed this up. We continue to get information from every state every month on their compliance rate little help us make a number of them important decisions as that date gets closer. We continue to monitor the situation in the next few weeks. I think we are going to have a train wreck october 1. We make the changes you said and submit electronically yet, knowing what i know, i think we are going to have to re ask this question in a few weeks after we see what happens, people trying to get the information. We get updated information every month that we look at, its all volunteer by the state. We continue to work with state and state dmvs so we understand how many licensing licenses they are entering on a monthly basis. Its a daunting challenge. The dmv and local officers, nobody has that, we have to wait at 6 30 a. M. And still its a long line. We continue to make sure we push out real id, the best ids you have. There are alternative forms should you choose to travel after that october date. You can have a passport, military id, theres a list of alternatives and documents so individuals who cant get in for whatever reason, there are alternative forms of documents they can use. They can continue to fly. Thank you. I look forward to asking this question again in the next few weeks. In light of that, do you anticipate some kind of directive on dhs after october 1 . We continue to assess that. As of right now, october 2020 date is the date, we seen that successful in the last few years. Getting states to comply with the real id requirement so the question is, we have almost all states compliant how many are issuing real ids . How many will be in circulation . Information we receive from estates are a month will give us information to make an informed decision. As we get closer into the spring and summer, probably talking with you and others about that date and based on the number we see. Let me give a problem, some individuals license dont expire for two to five years and theres been no information other than you need to be real id compliant october 1. That specific direction should come from the state dmv to the entire id population that says even though you may not have a renewal base for two years out for a year end a half out, be compliant with real id, you need to comment and get a real id. Its not being pushed out. Thats what motivated me to get my real id. My license expired. Prefer those, thats a motivator, if you get it two or three years out from your spending three hours at the dmv. You have an alternative form, okay. If i dont travel but its a good. If you would, can you tell us if all states are compliant under this now . I believe they are. Our just need to check on one conditional statement. There are some states that have not issuing issuing any of their real id step. They can be compliant but not issuing ids, i believe thats the case with these states. Every other state is compliant in one phase or another, started issuing real ids. I have a couple of questions. The president made reference to paying for the wall. Are you familiar with any of this . A Redemption Fund . New hampshire, this month, Redemption Fund and the wall. They looked at a variety of different sourcing Funding Sources fourth the wall. I know what we are appropriated for an obviously funding the dod providing asthma so thats what i am familiar with. You are not familiar with the redemption . Im just familiar with our appropriated funding. The dod funding. So its not under dhs . Its not. Thank you. Thank you very much. Id like to thank the acting secretary for his testimony. Gentleman from texas. Thank you. I want to continue on that last and final question, we ran out of time as we are talking about what congress can do to secure the border. We talked about, he spoke about more than a thousand illegal crossings a day and it constitutes a crisis and of course, that is true but is another magic i believe is just as important or maybe more important, which is how we process those people after they crossbreed you cant control who decides to walk through the border and turn themselves in. Well never be able to control that. Only the Mexican Government can control that. But we can control that catch and release policy thats been occurring the last couple decades so i want to get your statement on what weve done to better combat the catch and release process thats been happening. The catch and release, the individual coming across the border today, if you are to go back to may in june last year, huge numbers coming across the border, some are over 100,000. Releasing post individuals in large amounts, over 80 , 85 of the individuals. Today, any individual coming across the border illegally is 90 to 95 immigration pathway. We talk about mvp or a number of other initiatives to put into place speed up that process and review at the department and our departments of d. O. J. Speed that process up in the individuals seeking protection, get their production sooner in the process. Today was extremely different, almost 90 day from what we saw last year. As far as what congress can do, the budget request is supportive of that process. We need to make sure we have the right number of Border Patrol agent and also the number of ice agents as well, making sure when apprehending people but as we apprehend people, we find others, that we are investigating this so if they dont do it that investigation, isaac does that. As we continue to increase prosecution and do a number of things, ice attorneys help that process. You have to look at duffel immigration continuing, not only because of the product but also in the interior, fall out of status or the like. The budget request is outlined and resources to do that. I introduced hr 1609, and i border corruption, a polygraph requirement for Law Enforcement requirement in military, establish a public trust and we have good news, and the increase in hiring but what help in the hiring process we had some authority from Congress Several years ago to take that up. The last Congress Took it up again, talk about i want to hear from you again, our cybersecurity defend will still be upheld with the president s budget. Absolutely. Its their initiative and their priorities, as we look across the board, they do cybersecurity for the daca sector and also Election Security, supply chain security, 5g security, across the sectors, the 21 budget request and leadership is what they need to sustain their activities. Are we able to hire this hyperactivity experts that we need and allow better for equipment and right personal . Is a specific type of person . They do have a number of unique individuals, there beginning, theres ongoing hiring, its a challenge. These individuals obviously can make a lot more money in the private sector but they are bringing new individuals, theres 500 in the 21 budget question. Across the department. We need Cyber Capabilities across the department. This is the largest about but tsa has capabilities. Theres a lot of other nations and u. S. Government and i say, cyber comps, you think the lanes are adequate understanding of whos in what lane . There certainly is an the federal government perspective, it may not be as clear as how the public is looking at but specifically, we have different individual roles and we all talk about how we address the specific issues or threats within those responsible is so again, this is looking at federal networks, making sure the primary interface and sharing a lot of information with our private sector of partners. The individuals and companies out there that are in the Financial Sector in a variety of other sectors to Cyber Attacks. I believe the lanes are quite clear from the government perspective. We could probably do a better job in explaining the American People who specifically doing what. Thank you. Thank you very much. Id like to enter into the record, National President , national treasures, employees union without objection. I want to think secretary for his testimony and numbers for the questions. Members of the committee may have additional questions and we ask that you respond expeditiously and friday to those questions. Without objection, the committee record shall be kept open for ten days. During no further business, the committee stands adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] and more conversations. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] on book tv, reflexive from watergate lawyer, and the effect of twoparty political system and democracy. 7 50 p. M. Eastern, in her latest book, the watergate girl, she talks about her legal career including her role as one of the three special prosecutors in the watergate case. 9 00 p. M. , on afterwards, americas senior fellow argues in his book, breaking the twoparty doom loop twoparty system is damaging americas democracy. Hes interviewed by George Washington University Professor and author. Would be the chief advantages to having a multiparty democracy . Toys involved conflict. The issues of consensus are not political issues but the challenges we need to have some system by which we can agree that some set of rules are fair and procedures are fair and we can abide by the outcomes. Watch afterwards with lee sunday on book tv and be sure to join in next week and for our tuesday live coverage of the festival of books. On book tv on cspan2. Congress faces a march 15 deadline on the expiring pfizer surveillance law provision. Headline says surveillance is elusive as deadline looms, what are these provisions and what congress have to do to make sure they dont expire . This is always a tough issue for congress. They tried to get