Transcripts For CSPAN3 Terror Threats Part One 20171205

Committee on Homeland Security will come to order. Committees meeting today to examine the most serious threats confronting our homeland. Before i recognize myself for an opening statement, i would like to take a moment to welcome the newest member of our committee, don bacon. Don served nearly 30 years in the air force and is experienced in cybersecurity and Airborne Reconnaissance will prove greatly beneficial to this committee. Thank you, sir, for being here. Thank you, chairman. I now recognize myself for an opening statement. I would like to thank each of the witnesses, acting secretary elaine duke, fbi director christopher wray, and ctc director nick rasmussen, for joining us today. You represent thousands of patriotic men and women who go to work every day to insure the safety of their fellow americans. Everyone on this committee is extremely grateful for your service and director rasmussen, for over two decades, you have helped navigate an unprecedented landscape in combat terrorism around the globe. You have been a great partner to me and to this committee. And i would like to call you a friend. And we all wish you the best of luck in i hate to say retirement whatever you do after this. This past year has been a particularly devastating one. In just the last month, we witnessed around terror attack in downtown new york, and over the summer, parts of america including my home state of texas. Were greatly impacted by hurricanes and other natural disasters. We also saw several heinous acts of violence that included the Mass Shootings in las vegas, sutherland springs, and the hatefueled homicides in portland and charlottesville. 10tens of millions of americans also felt the effects of cyberattacks. These are just a few of the horrors that hit our homeland. Islamic terrorism, over the thanksgiving break, an isis affiliated group attacked a mosque in northern sinai that left 300 people, including 27 children, dead. While this attack was thousands of miles away, it was a reminder of the savage nature of an enemy that always has our homeland in its sights. And the aftermath of 9 11, the department of Homeland Security was created to prevent further attacks, and i believe we are better prepared than we were 16 years ago. However, in that time, al qaeda has expanded its Global Presence and isis has conquered parts of countries, slaughtered innocent civilians, and inspired new followers. By using encrypted technology and by spreading incessant propaganda across the internet, jihadists are recruiting new members and planning new attacks. This has been obvious by a series of vehicle homicides across europe. Cities known for their history and culture like paris, berlin, london, nice, barcelona, and brussels are becoming more familiar as terror targets. The attack on halloween in new york was proof that our homeland is also susceptible to this line of attack. Terrorists are answering the call to kill westerners using whatever means necessary wherever they are. And while our enemies are always adjusting their tactics, we know that our aviation sector is still their crown jewel of targets. Earlier this month, our committee was briefed about aspects of airport security. To our dismay, it was made clear that we have a long ways to go. We must do more to address the threat also posed by foreign fighters who have fled the battlefield and remain one flight away. Consequently, we have identified key areas that need improvements and look forward to working with the tsa to see them through. To help defeat terrorists, we must work with private Tech Companies to limit their communication capabilities and use all of our economic and military resources to dry up their funding and crush them on the battlefield. When it comes to Border Security, another ongoing challenge is keeping our borders secure. Human traffickers, gangs like ms13, drug smugglers and potential terrorists are continually looking for new ways to sneak into our country. We must do whatever we can to stop this illegal entry, especially those who wish to do us harm. In october, this committee took a big step in the right direction by passing the Border Security for america act. This legislation, which i introduced, calls for building additional physical barriers, including a wall, fencing, new technology, and a surge in personnel. It targets drugs and human traffickers at our ports of entry and will help identify visa overstays through the full deployment of a biometric entry exit system, which the 9 11 commission recommended. Our homeland cannot be secure without strong borders. And i look forward to getting this bill to the floor. Natural disasters. This years Hurricane Season devastated many cities and towns in my home state of texas, in louisiana, florida, puerto rico, and the u. S. Virgin islands. After Hurricane Harvey, i personally toured much of the wreckage back home. Roads were flooded, homes destroyed, and many people lost their lives. However, i was amazed by the strength demonstrated by people who braved dangerous conditions to support one another. Texans helping texans. I was also impressed by the quick actions taken by our heroic First Responders and by the Emergency Response at the federal, state, and local levels. Thanks to a coordinated effort led by fema. A broader recovery will take a long time. But i know that if we continue to work together, well be able to successfully rebuild these communities that were shattered by these powerful storms. On the issue of cybersecurity, americas Cybersecurity Networks are under attack. In september, we learned that equifax has been successfully hacked and 145. 5 Million People may have been affected by the breach. Last week, it was also reported that 57 Million People use uber, that they may have had their personal information stolen from a cyber attack in 2016. This cannot continue. Fortunately, our committee has made strengthening dhs cybersecurity a top priority. In 2014, Bipartisan Committee efforts resulted in the enactment of legislation that provided dhs expedited hiring authorities, insured dhs is assessing its cybersecurity workforce, and clarified the departments role in cybersecurity in federal networks. In 2015, the cybersecurity act provided Liability Protections for public to private and private to private cyber threat information sharing. We have had some success. But we need to do better. And that is why this committee passed a bill to elevate the operational capabilities of dhs cyber office to better protect digital america. And finally, on the issue of domestic terror attacks. Domestic terror attacks and violence ignited by White Supremacists, the kkk, or anyone else who preached prejudice must not be tolerated. As i stated before, threatening the safety of others and using intimidation tactics to advance political or religious beliefs is simply unacceptable in the United States. Too often, we are seeing that our differences lead to violence, and this must be stopped. As a nation, we should stand together and reject any type of hatred that seeks to divide our neighbors as enemies. This is an issue we will explore further in our second panel. In conclusion, Homeland Security must be bipartisan. The terrorists dont check our party affiliation. And theres certainly other threats from ballistic missiles, weapons of mass destruction programs in north korea and iran, to the continued undermining of american interests by nation states, including russia. As we face these threats, we must put our Homeland Security before partisanship and politics. Im proud to say this committee has had a long track record of doing just that. We have improved information sharing for counterterrorism efforts, increased support for First Responders, in july passed the first ever comprehensive reauthorization of dhs with an overwhelming bipartisan support. This reauthorization will allow dhs to more faithfully carry out its mission of safeguarding our homeland, our people, and our values. And im hopeful that the senate will finally take up this vital bill as soon as possible. So with that, i want to thank you again. These very prominent and important witnesses, for appearing here before this committee. And with that, i recognize the Ranking Member. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for holding this hearing on keeping america secure from terrorism. Hang on just a minute. Id also like to thank both panels of witnesses for today. In the wake of the disturbing rise of domestic terrorism in recent years, democratic members of this committee have repeatedly asked for a hearing on this important topic. While this hearing is our annual one examining worldwide threats, a great deal of our conversations will likely be focused on the Terror Threat from right here at home. Incidents like the 2015 killing of nine churchgoers by a white supremacist at Mother Emanuel Church in charleston, and the hatefueled violence that left a young woman dead and 19 others injured during a white supremacist rally in charlottesville earlier this year highlight the threat posed by domestic extremists. Domestic terrorist organizations have even adopted some of the same techniques for recruitment and radicalization as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Using the internet to reach followers and coordinate their actions. One thing, it means were showing to this parasitic class that this is our country, built by our forefathers, going to remain our country. Were stepping off the internet in a big way. Last night at the torch walk, there were hundreds and hundreds of us. People realize theyre not itemed individuals, theyre part of a larger whole because we have been spreading our means. We have been organizing on the internet, and so now theyre coming out. And now, as you can see today, we greatly outnumber the antiwhite, antiamerican filth. And at some point, we will have enough power that we will clear them from the streets forever. That which is dejenerate in white countries will be removed. You think showing up in physical space helps let people know that, like, there are more like them. Were starting to slowly unveil a little bit of our power level. You aint seen nothing yet. Unfortunately, President Trump insists on fueling the fire of hatred and extremism in America Calling marches in charlottesville very fine people. And just yesterday, retweeting inflammatory antimuslim videos posted by a far right british organization. James clapper, the former director of national intelligence, called trumps retweeting of the videos bizarre and disturbing. And said his action undermines our relationship with our friends and allies. Americans should be able to look to our president for a steady hand and responsible leadership in uncertain times. But unfortunately, President Trump consistently conducts himself in a way that jeopardizes our security and is not befitting the office he holds. Also, though they cannot say so themselves, the president s actions make the already difficult job of the witnesses joining us on the first panel today even harder. The department of Homeland Security, federal bureau of investigations, and National Counterterrorism center play key roles in securing the homeland from terrorists, both foreign and domestic. I hope to hear from these Witnesses Today about the challenges they face, what emerging threats we should be aware of, and how congress can support them in their missions, consistent with our american laws and values. Since much of our focus is typically on foreign terrorists, today im especially interested in hearing how the wimszs assess the threat from domestic extremists and terrorist groups and learning what can be done to protect us from this rising concern. I also look forward to hearing from our second panel of witnesses on this topic later this morning. They bring special expertise on domestic extremism and terrorism issues, and i hope members will hear what they have to say and engage in a thoughtful dialogue. The Southern Poverty Law Center in particular is dedicated to fighting hate and seeking justice and equality for all americans. And i look forward to their recommendations for countering the ideologies that are inspiring violence in america. I had hoped to have naacp testify as well. But their invitation was issued less than 24 hours prior to the hearing, and the late notice prevents their participation today. I look forward to inviting them to testify at a future hearing. In closing, i want to say that we know there are those around the world who seek to come here and do americans harm. Those charged with preventing such attacks have the unwavering support of all the members of this committee, consistent with the laws and values of our nation. I hope that some attention and resources will be dedicated to fighting domestic extremism and terrorism here at home to insure the security of all americans. Again, i thank the chairman for holding todays hearing and look forward to a productive discussion. I yield back. Ranking member yields back. Other members are reminded Opening Statements may be submitted for the record. Pleased to have two distinguished panels of witnesses before us today. Our first Panel Includes the honorable elaine duke, acting secretary of the United States department of Homeland Security. The honorable christopher wray, director of the fbi. And the honorable nicolas rhola rasmuss rasmussen, director of the National Counterterrorism center. The witnesses have full written statements that will appear in the record. Chair now recognizes secretary duke for an opening statement. Good morning, chairman mccall, Ranking Member thompson, and distinguished members of this committee. Its my honor to testify here before you this morning on behalf of the men and women of department of Homeland Security who shield our nation from threats every single day, often in extremely dangerous environments. Were reminded of that this past week when we lost Border Patrol agent martinez in the line of duty. I truly appreciate and know our country appreciates his service and sacrifice. While we do not know for certain the circumstances of his death, we do know that he courageously chose a dangerous job with dhs because it was so important to our nations security. When his father was asked why his son chose the Border Patrol, his son said, i want to defend my country from terrorists. I want to prevent terrorists and drugs from coming into our country, and he loved his job. I want to begin by noting right now that the terrorist threat in our country equals and in many ways exceeds the period around 9 11. We are seeing a surge in terrorist activity because the fundamentals of terrorism have changed. Our enemies are crowdsourcing their violence online and promoting a doityourself approach that involves using any weapons their followers can get their hands on. We saw this just last month here on our own soil when a terrorist killed and wounded pedestrians in new york city using a rented vehicle. But new yorkers rallied and they refused to be intimidated by this heinous attack. I also want to make it clear that dhs is not standing on the sidelines as these threats proliferate, and we will not allow frequent terrorism to become the new normal. The primary international Terror Threat facing our country is from global jihadist groups. However, the department is also focused on the threat of domestic terrorism. Idealogically motivated violence here in the United States is a danger to our nation, our people, and our values. We are tackling the overall Terror Threat in the United States headon in two ways. First, we are rethinking Homeland Security for this new age. There is no longer a home game and an away game. The line is blurred and the threats are connected and across border. Thats why dhs is moving towards a more integrated approach, bringing together intelligence, operations, interagency agreement, and International Action like never before. Second, we are raising the bar on our Security Posture across the board to keep dangerous individuals and goods from entering the United States. That includes building a wall on the southwest border and cracking down on Transnational Criminal Organizations that bring drugs, violence, and other threats to our communities. IlLegal Immigration puts our communities and country at risk, which is why our Border Security strategy is multilayered and includes robust interior enforcement operations to deter and prevent illegal entry. Were also strengthening everything from traveler screening to information sharing. We now require all foreign governments to share Critical Data with us on terrorists and criminals and to help us confidently identify their nationals. We must know who is coming into our country and make sure they do not pose a threat. That is why i recommended and the president approved tough but tailored restrictions against countries that pose a risk and which are not complying with our security requirements. And we are trying to stay a step ahead of emerging threats. Were planning next to launch a new office of countering weapons of mass destruction next week to consolidate and elevate dhs efforts to guard against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats. Separately and additionally, our global Aviation Security plan is making it harder for terrorists to target u. S. Bound aircraft with concealed explosives or by using corrupted insiders. At the same time, were rededicating ourselves to terrorism prevention, to keep terrorists from radicalizing our people. And our newly reorganized office of terrorism Prevention Partnership will lead this charge. Finally, we have stepped up dhs efforts to protect soft targets, which will not only help better defend our country against terrorists but against tragedies we have witnessed like that in las vegas and texas. Americans are also alarmed by the spike in terrorist attacks. Dhs is engaging with congress on legislation that would establish a new operating component dedicated to cybersecurity. On behalf of the entire department, i appreciate the Critical Role this committee plays. Thank you for holding this hearing, sknh i look forward to answering your questions. Thank you, maam. Secretary, the chair recognizes the fbi director, christopher wray. Thank you, chairman mccaul, Ranking Member thompson, and members of the committee for the opportunity to talk to you today about the threats that we face and the tremendous work thats being done by the people of the fbi. I will say that from my prior Law Enforcement and National Security experience, i already knew how outstanding and dedicated the men and women of the fbi were, but i have to say that from the past three months here in this job, seeing it from this perch has made me feel even more humbled and inspired to work with them. The people that i get to work with every day around the country and around the world are missionfocused, theyre passionate, and they are utterly determined to be the very best that they can be to protect the American People and uphold the rule of law. In coming back to government after being gone for about 12 years, what struck me the most is some of the changes that i have seen. The evolution of the threat, the changes in technology, the capabilities that have been built. And as i have been getting briefed up on the work were doing and encountering firsthand how we do our work in todays environment, like we just had in new york, whats really struck me is the magnitude of the threats we face and the diversity of the threats we face. On terrorism front, in addition to International Terrorist groups and homegrown violent extremists, we also have domestic terrorists intending to influence or coerce our government through violent criminal activity. In the cyber arena, we have not only nation states but also sophisticated criminal actors. And in our counterintelligence work, we face threats from nation states targeting not just our National Security secrets but also our ideas and our innovations, and theyre doing so not just through traditional intelligence operatives but through nontraditional collectors like scientists and students and businessmen. On the terrorism issue in particular, my Prior Experience had been very focused on large structured organizations like al qaeda, and to be clear, we still confront threats from organizations like al qaeda planning largescale attacks over long periods of time. But we also face groups like isis, who use social media to recruit followers remotely and to inspire people to take to the streets with crude but effectf weapons like hatchets and vehicles. Smaller in scale but greater in volume, these organizations, if you can call them organizations, move from plotting to action in a very short period of time with very little planning, using lowtech and widely available attack methods. On top of that, these terrorists use of social media and Encryption Technology has made it harder to find their messages of hate and destruction, leaving even fewer footprints or dots for us to connect. The good news is that i have also been very impressed and pleased at the progress that the fbi has made since i was last working with them, particularly in the areas of intelligence integration and partnerships. Intelligence is now heavily integrated into every program the fbi has, into our overall mission, our training, and it drives really everything we do. In addition to that, the scope and strength of the partnerships that the bureau now has with our federal partners, our state and local counterparts, members of the Intelligence Community, and our International Partners are at a whole new level compared to what i saw when i was in government before. So while remarkable progress has been made, we cannot become complacent, and we need to keep improving to insure that were up to the task in getting ahead of the threat. As one example, we are now at risk of losing one of the key tools in our tool kit that is invaluable to all of our National Security programs that i just mentioned. As i mentioned at the beginning, the speed and agility of our terrorists and intelligence adversaries has increased at a tremendous pace, putting a huge premium on matching that speed and agility with our ability to connect the dots. Thats why reauthorization of fisa section 702, which expires in just a few weeks, is so incredibly important to our work. Its one of the most powerful tools that we have to help us evaluate and prioritize threat information. It can tell us quickly whether a person here in the u. S. Has ties to a terrorist overseas or if theres someone overseas who is planning an attack. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, members of this committee, i look forward to working with you on these and other significant challenges, and i appreciate the opportunity to bewith you today, and i look forward to answering your questions. Thank you, director. The chair recognizes the nctc director rasmussen. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and Ranking Member thompson, and members of the committee. As i mentioned during my testimony before the Committee Last year, the array of terrorist actors around the globe is broader, wider, and deeper than it has been at any point since september 11th, 2001. As we meet here today, the discipline of terrorism prevention is literally changing beneath our feet every day, and it requires that we respond with extraordinary agility and flexibility. I would like to take the opportunity today to share whattia have seen in the way of changes in the terrorism landscape since i last toiestifd before the committee, and ill also say a few words on areas we can do a better job of those in the homeland who are mobilized to conduct violence. Let me begin with whats changed or what is new. Those developments fall into three primary areas. The first of these is the Coalition Success and shrinking the territory that isis controls in iraq and syria as compared to a year ago. The second major trend is an uptick in attacks inspired by isis that we have seen against western interests around the globe in the last year as compared to attacks that are directed by the group from their headquarters in iraq and syria. The third trend i would point to is the resurgence of aviation threats, reaching a level of concern we have not faced since aqaps printer package plot in 2010. To start first with isis losses on the battlefield, isis is clearly facing significant battlefield pressure from u. S. Forces and the coalition, the size of the territory the group controls is shrinking day by day. As isis copes with that territorial loss, the group will look to preserve its capabilities by operating more as a covert terrorist organization and as an insurgency from its few remaining strongholds in iraq and syria. This is undoubtedly good news, were winning on the battlefield, but territorial losses have not translated into a corresponding reduction in the groups ability to inspire attacks. Even including here at home. And over the last year, isis has inspired numerous attacks, particularly in the uk and europe and most recently at home hasnt been discussed earlier in new york city in halloween. The number of disruptions we have seen around the globe while that is a testament to effective Law Enforcement and intelligence work, it also tells us that the global reach of isis remains largely intact, even as the group is being decisively defeated on the battlefield. Now, that uptick in inspired attacks stands in contrast to the pattern of attacks directed and enabled by the group from syria in 2015 and 2016. So far this year, though, we have not seen the Group Successfully direct a largescale sophisticated attack like the paris and brussels attacks in previous years. But the number of inspired attacks, as director wray mentioned, is clearly on the rise. And all of this underscores our belief that theres not a direct link between the battlefield position of isis in iraq and their capacity to continue inspiring external attacks. So battlefield losses are not enough, not sufficient to mitigate alone the threat from isis. Its also worth me saying, even as were focused on isis as a primary terrorism challenge that al qaeda has never stopped being a primary counterterrorism challenge for the United States and a top tier priority. So even as we point to isis, we continue to see the continued evolution of al qaeda as a resilient organization, and we know that al qaeda retains the capability and intent to carry out attacks around the world. And the Third Development that has stood out, the threat to civil aviation. Theres a long history of terrorists seeking innovative means to carry out aviation attacks. Aviation has taken center stage again this year as evidenced by Australian Authorities disrupting a plot back in july by terrorists to bring explosives aboard an aircraft. Terrorists have shown themselves to be persistent out of the box thinkers with respect to aviation. Aviation related threats have long been and will remain at near or the top of things that demand our focus and attention. This brings me to my final point. We need to do a better job of attacking those mobilized to extremist violence. One thing we do in the intelligence world that we do well and are looking to improve on is collecting intelligence and sharing it with those who need it. We share it across our various federal agencies and with partners around the country. We and increase with partners around the country. We also do a great job of pushing unclassified information to partners around the country. But beyond just sharing intelligence, theres certainly more we can do to prevent homegrown violent extremists from becoming radicalized and we need to improve the tool kit we use to deal with this problem. In short, we must expand our investment in terrorist prevention. Specifically here in the homeland, doing what we can to prevent the recruitment of American Youth and ensure communities are equipped to respond and prevent all forms of violence. Im proud of the good work that my folks at nctc do in this area along with director ray and secretary dukes teams on this matter but im sure we could do better at it and on a greater scale. By leveraging all aspects of the elements of the federal government working with state and local partners im certain we can create a better and more significant culture of prevention and resilience across the United States. Ill end there, mr. Chairman, and once again thank you and the committee for your continued support of the work were doing at nctc. Speaking personally, thank you for your friendship, the committees friendship and the kind words you used earlier today as i move on from federal Government Service and step down at the end of december. Even though i am grateful for your kind words, im also mindful that whenever i appear before you i am standing on the shoulders of hundreds of talented women and men at nctc. Serving alongside those professionals has been the honor of my life. Its their amazing work i bring to you and i look forward to answering your questions. Thank you for your service. I recognize myself for questions. Secretary duke, we recently held a hearing with the tsa administrator. 9 11 was an aviation attack using airplanes as guided missiles into the World Trade Center and the pentagon. This is still the crown jewel of isis and coal qaeda. The Inspector General produced a report on the findings in terms of screening at airports and quite frankly it was, in my words at the last hearing disturbing the find that the tsa still has received a failing grade, a failed report card when it comes to screening. We heard this in 2015 and now were in 2017. As you know with the laptop threat, the ability to convert laptops into bombs and explosive devices to blow up airplanes, possibly inbound flights into the United States i think i speak for almost every member of this committee that we need to take quicker action. There is Technology Available today. There are pilot programs today using computer tomography, its like going from a xray to an m mri. A lot of us on the committee have seen this so i sent to you a letter requesting that this technology be deployed not in 2018 or 2019 but as soon as possible given the nature of the threat that exists. Can you respond to that letter . Yes, mr. Chairman, and we agree with you that computer topography or ct is essential. Its part of our plan to raise the baseline of Aviation Security. We are currently developing the algorithms necessary to fully deploy that. I agree it is essential for our tsa future. What the administrator said was we cant deploy the Technology Today because wed have to upgrade the software later. I think we should look at it from the other way around. We should deploy the Technology Today and stop procuring these xray machines. Deploy that Technology Today and upgrade the software when it becomes available at a later date. Do you have any thoughts on that . Yes, i agree. We are moving we are already procuring some. Like i said, the algorithms are the running different materials through to make sure the machines can detect what we need them to detect. Thats in process now and we are, along with our foreign portners, working on making that the new standard for passenger baggage. I think thats one of the greatest threats to the homeland today so well be providing followup. Director ray and rasmussen, over the five years of my chairmanship on this committee i saw the rise of isis and the rise of the caliphate and the rise of external operations and the threats coming out of that region. I think fortunately we are now seeing the fall of the caliphate, the defeat of isis in iraq and syria but how do you see this threat evolving as we move on postcaliphate . Director ray . Mr. Chairman, i think as director rasmussen said, on the one hand, the collapse the Building Collapse of the caliphate is good news. Were concerned about foreign fighters returning. In our instance what were premarly seeing there as a risk is that some of them would return not directly to the u. S. But perhaps countries in europe and from there come into the u. S. Second were concerned about homegrown violent extremists who continue to be inspired by isis even if not directed in the sort of classic sense and we know that isis is encouraging fighters who aspired to travel to stay where they are and commit attacks at home. So those are some of the issues that i think continue to exist even with the caliphate collapsing. I think the power of isis as opposed to al qaeda is the internet so i i know youve worked with google, facebook, twitter, i have as well. I look forward to working with you and the secretary to try to get this you have . Nctc off of the internet. Director rasmussen . I would echo everything director raye said a oor wray ss one point that weve observed between al qaeda and isis. Al qaeda operated in most ways as a clandestine covert organization with barriers to entry that made it difficult for individuals in many cases to become members. Isis sought to become a mass movement. It sought to reach people regardless of their prior affiliation with extremism and to literally recruit anyone who would come in the door and agree to align with the isis world view. That means the isis variant of this problem has brought us many more individuals who are radicalized around the world so its a problem that extends further and wider than the al qaeda problem we face. Thats not to say its all bad news. Theres plenty we have done to mitigate the possible of large scale catastrophic attack with kind of directed attacks that director wray spoke about earlier so im not here to solely point to a badnews story. Im just pointing out its a different kind of problem today than what we faced a few years ago. Thank you. Final question, secretary duke, my home state was hit was devastated by Hurricane Harvey, parts of my district, some members of this committee have been there many times to see the devastation. I understand the decision, perhaps it was not yours but maybe omb, the office of omb, but i have to just express my disappointment on the record at the recent 44 billion Disaster Recovery supplemental request. It was just a fraction of what my governor, governor abbot, determined that texas alone needed to recover. It does not adequately take into account the devastation in the other areas as well and of course places in my district have flooded three times over the last two years. We need flood mitigation efforts. This is Something Congress will be making decisions on, but we have to entertain not only the Response Recovery but the flood mitigation. I would like you to respond to that, recognizing that this was not probably your decision to make but i do want to register my disappointment with the administration on this issue. Yes, mr. Chairman. And i recognize that the amount in the supplemental did not totally address all the future needs of the disasters we experienced this summer. What that was intended to do is fund the stafford act work that needs to be done currently. I have looked at it and i think its appropriate and enough for the near term. We do have more work to do, along with the housing and urban development and we will be with texas and the other areas until that work is done. I think the Innovative Housing program, the section 428 housing program, will be really helpful in restoring texas. Thank you, i look forward to working with you on that. Thank you, with that, the chair recognizes the Ranking Member. Thank you very much, mr. Chairm chairman. In light of your question, one of the ongoing challenges we have is that stafford act jurisdiction is in the transportation and Infrastructure Committee and fema is over here with us and every time a problem comes up people look to us and its where tni comes. So thats an ongoing battle that we have dealt with from our inception as a committee and i hope some of this gets resolved fairly soon. Ms. Duke, the inspector genre cently notified congress that a report on the travel ban was being held up in your office. Can you provide us details on why its being held up . It was a disagreement between the office of the Inspector General and dhs on privileges that included Attorney Client privileges and executive privileges. And because the attorney general does not agree with those privileges, had not issued the report. We feel its important to maintain some of those privileges, especially since the matter addressed by the report is under litigation. I feel comfortable that the privileges we had to assert to the report were accurate however to be absolutely sure and make sure the public is confident, too, we have ordered a thirdparty review, independent review to make sure that the privileges that we need to redact that report are sound. But you are aware that the Inspector General concluded that the department violated certain aspects of the law relative to the implementation of it . There were quite the report itself was based on Decision Making that, you know, by practices is executive privilege and so it was problematic from the start but we still are committed to working with the attorney general and making sure that i understand, but youre aware of their conclusion. Yes, i am, yes. All right, thank you. Mr. Wray, good to see you again. Since weve met in another forum yesterday. Can you share with us your analysis of the domestic terrorism threat here in america and what does it include . Yes, Ranking Member thompson. As weve discussed a few times, i think, the fbi assesses the domestic terrorist threat to be a significant one, a major one. It prevents some of the same kind of challenges that we see with homegrown violent extremists in that youre talking about loosely con fed rated people with less communication, less sophistication in plotting the attacks, sometimes you have lone offenders, socalled lone wolves, some people like to use that expression which makes it more challenging from a detection and prevention perspective. At any given time, including right as we sit here today, the fbi recently has had in the neighborhood of about a thousand pending domestic terrorism investigations. Those cover the waterfront from everything from White Supremacists and sovereign citizens, militias all the way to anarchists, environmental extremists, et cetera, but the key point with all of them is that we are only focused on people who are engaged in violent criminal activity. Thats what were focused on. We do not focus on ideology or opinion or rhetoric. Thank you. Can you provide the committee with the most recent reporting on the categorization of those different terrorists . Id be happy to have my staff get together with yours and see if we can get you some more helpful and detailed information on that. Thank you. One of the things for our departing nctc director that the fbi director talked about was homegrown violent extremists. You referenced that in your testimony as part of that threelegged stool that youve been concerned about. Can you share with us why that is a concern of yours . Absolutely, mr. Ranking member. As director wray noted, many individuals we categorize as homegrown violent extremists dont typically engage in the kind of behavior that makes detection and disruption easy for the Law Enforcement and Intelligence Community. They arent necessarily communicating. They arent necessarily gathering in large groups. They arent necessarily traveling to conflict zones or engaging in the kind of behavior that would be good predictors that someone might be interested in carrying out a terrorist attack and so that puts a tremendous amount of pressure on Law Enforcement at the local level and certainly my fbi colleagues to try to figure out who is the person who is just there dabbling and sampling and looking at material and who is the person that is actually looking to maybe mobilize and act on their beliefs and carry out a terrorist attack . So that becomes a much different challenge, a much more difficult challenge than what we face in trying to disrupt socalled sleeper cells or other terrorist cells that might have infiltrated the country from abroad. Its just a harder problem. So is your testimony that we need more funding to address that increasing homegrown Terror Threat in this country since youve identified it as a growing vulnerability for us as a country . I wouldnt necessarily pose it as being only measured in funding. I think about the communities around the country where ive had conversations with local Law Enforcement and they clearly desire greater federal help, i believe, in understanding the Threat Landscape and understanding how it is that these homegrown violent extremists appear in their midst so if we can do that through information sharing, if we can do that through sharing of personnel and best practices, then that to me would be a contribution. I just dont think i think the scale of the problem is such that we have to put more effort behind it. I wouldnt isolate funding alone as the issue. Thank you, i yield back. Chair recognizes the gentleman from alabama, mr. Rogers. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Wray, in october of 2015, director comey was testifying before this committee and i asked him if he had the resources he needed to handle the terrorism investigation s i pending before him and investigate the attacks on soft targets occurring at the same time and his response was to be honest, i dont know. So i know the fbis been stretched thin over the last few years and had to pull agents off criminal investigations to look into these terrorist attacks but i would pose that question to you. I know youve only been there three months but have you been able to determine whether or not you have the resources you need to meet the challenges that you face . Well, at the risk of sounding like my predecessor but combined with the fact ive only been there for three months, im still taking stock of that. Ly tell you that everywhere i turn i find people who want the fbi to do more of something and someday id like to find somebody who would identify something theyd like to fbi to do less of. I havent met that person yet and so we have a lot of challenges, as you say, i think we have matured to the point where were not having to pull people off of programs quite the same way that used to happen. I think as director rasmussen said, its not just a question of funding, im not convinced we can spend our way out of the threat. Some of it is getting smarter, some of it is working better collaboratively and im pleased with how much better the fbi which wasnt always that way in long times past is working with its partners in the federal Law Enforcement, Intelligence Community, foreign partners, state and local Law Enforcement in particular, so we have to be smarter, we have to get Better Technology and we have to make sure we have the right resources. Could we do more if we had more . Absolutely. Well, we need you to let us know. You get to the point that you determine that you need Additional Resources to be able to meet your needs, we cant fix it if we dont know about it and try to get you what you need so i would ask you to not be shy. Thank you for your support. Thank you. Secretary duke, welcome back. A lot of work has gone into improving our visa security process. But its clear vulnerabilities remain especially in identifying those who are radicalized over the internet. Can you tell us what if mig is being done to connect the u. S. C. I. S. And the visa process to help vet apply cants from highrisk areas . Sure, we have institute misdemeanor new visa review steps that are going to help with making sure that we have the true identity of the persons that are applying for visas and also that they dont have a criminal purpose in coming here. One of the biggest things were doing is the 100 interviews and also looking at advanced information sharing. As we talk about the other topics, the speed were moving at, having that information sharing with the other countries is absolutely critical and doing the vetting against the databases. Also social media checks where applicable have played a huge role in better vetting of visa applica applicants. Those are a few of the areas. And this may not be dramatically different from that answer but what steps is dhs taking under the Trump Administration to develop and implement what he has referred to as extreme vetting . Well, its been a multilevel step. First we decided what vetting should be. What additional steps should we take in vetting people . Then we compared the countrys performance what were those additional steps. Those additional steps were making sure that passports had biometrics, that we had copies of those passports, that countries provided us advance informati information, those similar types of steps and we have a full report on that that we can provide and then we compared the and the countries actually using our databases and us using theirs. Then we compared the countrys performance against that and we have instituted getwell plans, if you will, for the countries that dont conform to the new vetting standards. Would you assert this new status of extreme vetting is fully implemented now . It is fully implemented, we always have to get better. I think every time we put a fix in place the enemy gets adapts to it but it is in place. Great, thank you very much, mr. Chairman, i yield back. I recognize the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. Keating. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and thank you for being here, thank you for your service its much appreciated. Secretary duke, you mentioned that terrorists will use any weapon at their disposal on different terrorist threats so i have a question for director wray in that regard. Theres tens of thousands of individuals, and many of the attacks were talking about, guns were clearly a part of this and firearms and weapons and tens of thousands of individuals removed from the background check, the National Instant criminal background check for guns after the fbi changed its interpretation of and limited whos considered a fugitive from justice. That decision was made in february, its now december. We have no idea how many people bought firearms this year. Even though there are outstanding warrants for their arrest, just because theres no evidence they crossed state lines. Now how did this decision come to be and isnt this a gap in trying to secure our safety and trying to keep these kind of weapons away from terrorists and their you know, we have web sites that are telling people and directing people how to get these kind of weapons but we have a fugitive from judge now in our own country that arent being picked up by the nics system now. Is there something to fix this gap which i think is a serious one . Thank you congressman. The change youre referring to is the product of several yearslong debate as i understand it between the fbi and the atf about the interpretation of that prohibiter, the fugitive prohibiter under the brady act and the fbi interpreted that as not requiring crossing of state lines and the atf had interpreted it differently. Under the Prior Administration the Justice Department came down with a legal determination prompted in part by the Inspector General and resolved that legal disagreement about what the statute meant in favor of the narrower interpretation, that is different from the fbis interpretation at the time so i think it was in january that that change was legal change was declared and the department, again under the Prior Administration as i understand it, sent a notification to both the house and Senate Judiciary committees notifying them of the change and the impact of the change and essentially inviting legislative fix. And so that may be the kind of thing that can be addressed through legislation but once that change went in place the fbi clarified. Thank you for clarifying that. Thats on our watch as members of congress to change this and i hope we do. Secretary duke, thank you, too for clarifying and agreeing to move forward on the Ct Technology and getting that in the field, thats something at our last hearing that we had great concern about and thank you for doing that. But the administrator said that the other issue is its a budgetary issue in moving these things forward and i real iize e monies that people pay for a fee outside of things on their own as they board airplanes, that that money was moved, again, by congress away from that. But can you tell us right now, if we provided that budgetary assistance youd be able to move quicker for that new technology in the field. Do you agree with the administrator on that . Yes, we have the money to deploy, to build out complete research and development and deploy some machines. As the fbi director said, theres always more to do, but right now i feel comfortable that were deploying that technology. We also have the commitment of some of our foreign partners. If i could, my time is running out. If indeed there were more money he indicated its a budgetary issue as well. Is that correct . Its a prioritization issue, yes. Well all right, i think its a priority if were going to keep our people safe here in this country traveling on the airlines. Quickly the nrc, Nuclear Regulatory commission, in terms of Cyber Attacks has tried to upgrade requirements for nuclear plants. I have one in my district facing in a few years decommission and theyve applied for a waiver away from these Cyber Security upgrades so that its not there for an attack and im its my understanding that Homeland Security really doesnt have the role that its really the nrc. Dont you think you should have a direct role in this . I think you should. I dont think the Nuclear Regulatory commission is the right agency by itself to be making those kind of safety considerations in terms of a cyber attack. Yes, to my knowledge youre correct that we dont have that specific role on waving. We do assist the Critical Infrastructure sectors but dont have that direct regulatory role. Thank you. Id like to engage the your office in terms of trying to suggest ways to shore that up. Its another gaping hole. Thank you and i yield back. The gentleman yields back. Just a quick clarification, madam secretary. Are the monies available today to purchase the computer tomography . We have some money but we dont have the money to deploy it at every airport. Would that require a reprogramming by congress . That would require to buy for every airport would require much more than reprogramming. Id like to follow up with you at a later date on that, thank you so much. Chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. Perry. Thank you, mr. Chairman, secretary duke, you talked about the vetting process and the extreme vetting process a little bit. Im just would like to drill down on that a little bit and ask you is there a system to investigate or at least query in a minimal sense at least the intending entrance for an ideological affinity to some other alien or hostile legal system opposed to the u. S. Constitution similar to what was done by the United States during the cold war with some of our adversaries whose potential entrants wants to come into our country . Yes, an affiliation with an ideology or country that is known for ideologies that are contrary to the United States is something we look at in terms of the extreme vetting. So theres literally a question and answer portion to that or when you say you look at it, what does that mean in practical terms . One of the things we look at is where a person as traveled to and if they show a travel pattern in countries that have a high degree of terrorism we look at that. We look at social media if appropriate to see if theres anything on it that indicates they are following terrorist web sites, those type of things, for example. Not only just terrorist web sites but things that are ant thet cool to the west and our constitution as well. Do you literally question them as opposed to just looking at their travel and maybe social postings, do you ask them do you agree with the United States constitution . Would you uphold and defend the United States constitution . Do that you believe sharia law should supersede the constitution . I do not know the specific questions of the interview but i can get back to you. I know they adapt based on the persons scenario. Appreciate it and i will look forward to a continuing conversation on that. Director wray, thanks for your service, good luck to you. Just curious. Can you tell me if the fbi has taken any steps to reverse the previous administrations purge of training courses and information about islamism, jihad, sharia and the Muslim Brotherhood . Congressman, im not aware of any ongoing efforts to purge training materials. They were purged in the last administration so my question is have you taken any steps or has the fbi as you know it taken any steps to reverse that purge or include some of those things that allow us to see in totality the threat that faces america . I have not studied what has been done in the training but appreciate your bringsing that issue to my attention and im happy to take a hard look at it. If we could have a continuing conversation on that as well id appreciate it. Director, antifa operates across the antitrust ways that involve at least potentially criminal interstate activities such as inciting riot and conspiracy to incite riotous behavior. Im wondering if the fbi is doing anything to counter antifa in that regard, including and investigating their Funding Sources . As i mentioned to Ranking Member thompson, we do have a very active Domestic Terrorism Program and while were not investigating antifa as antifa, thats an ideology and we dont investigate ideologies, we are investigating a number of what we would call anarchist extremist investigations where we have predicated subjects of people who are motivated to commit violent criminal activity on kind of an antifa ideology so we have a number of active information s investigation in that space around the country. That space would include individuals but if a group itself, even though like you said its an ideology but if the group is receiving funding to promote that ideology which is in not in not congruent with the law, is that something you devil into when it crosses state lines . Well, certainly any time were dealing with domestic terrorism investigations whether its just to an individual or lets say a collection of individuals we do enterprise investigations when there are multiple individuals working together and the funding that supports violent criminal activities is something were keenly interested. Okay, appreciate it. Finally director rasmussen, regarding antifa, can you describe how the nctc acts to counter them if you do . Thank you for the question. We dont. With respect to domestic terrorism in the United States my agencies mandate and authorities are limited to matters of International Terrorism and that was in the founding legislation that created nctc so we defer to fbi in this role. So if there are International Connections to these groups that are operating domestically you turn that over you dont take any well, certainly if there was intelligence that tied any individual here in the United States to a Foreign Terrorist Organization that changes the nature of the problem and becomes very much a collaborative zblefrt but if its not a Foreign Terrorist Organization but foreign organizations or foreign funding, does that invoke your authority . Not to my i dont believe so unless it would involve a Foreign Terrorist Organization but that kind of intelligence were to emerge, we would certainly make sure our fbi colleagues were aware of. It thank you, sir. I yield back. Chair recognizes the gentlelady from new york, miss rice. Thank you, mr. Chairman. So this question is for director wray. Earlier this week kareem baritov, a canadian citizen, pled got charges that he worked for the fsb as part of the 2013 yahoo hack that led to the theft of 500 million yahoo accounts, one of the largest Cyber Breaches in history. Three other conspirators, including two russian fsb officers have been indicted but have evaded arrest. This case is the first time the u. S. Has issued criminal charges against russian officials for a cyber attack even though russian aggression has continued to rise in that area. We have seen large scale Cyber Attacks on u. S. Companies, equifax, uber, verizon, theyre just some of the biggest breaches this year. What other Cyber Attacks do you suspect russian involvement in . Sorry. Without commenting on any specific investigation, i think youve put your finger on what we view as one of the more dangerous emerging threats which we refer to as a blended threat which is the and its particularly seen in the exact example that you mentioned, the yahoo attack where you have the blend of a nation state actor, in that case the russian intelligence service, using the assistance of criminal hackers, you think of mercenaries being used to commit Cyber Attacks and one of the reasons we thought bricking that particular case was important even though as you say some defts are russian government officials who are safely in russia was to highlight to the public the importance of being vigilant on this threat. So we are seeing an emergence of that collaboration which used to be two separate things, nation state actors and criminal hackers now theres this collusion thats occurring on a number of instances. What do you think russias motivation is for these attacks. I think russia is looking to assert its place in the world and relying more creatively on a form of asymmetric warfare to damage and weaken this country economically and otherwise. Weve been focused today on terrorist threats at home and abroad. Should the American People consider russias repeated attempts to breach their personal data as a terrorist threat . I think its a threat we should take seriously as a National Security matter. I dont know that we should blend it a terrorist threat, thats a labelling issue more than anything else. Its a very serious threat that the public needs to be aware of and that we are working collectively to try to do more to combat. I guess it debends on what you feel the motivation is at the end of the day and is this just a part of getting to that ultimate goal . What steps are you taking to in your Department Taking to deter these attacks, number one. Do you expect any future indictments of russian officials without naming any and lastly, do you believe that they will be extradited and brought to the u. S. For trial . Taking the last part of your question first, we dont have an extradition relationship with russia so if they stay in russia i wouldnt expect to see them coming to the United States. On the other hand if they travel, that will be a challenge because they are now fugitives wanted by the fbi. Would we pursue them then . Absolutely. As far as what were doing, we have tried to model more and more our Cyber Efforts along the more developed front than we have in the terrorism space so we have just like we have jttfs in all 56 offices, we have cyber task forces in all 56 field office s offices we have called cywatch which is like our National Terrorism watch where we coordinate with dhs and others. Were trying to do more private sector outreach because one of the things thats different in the cyberspace is the need to work with the private sect zblor im glad to hear you say that. Finally, russias interference in the 2016 election was an unprecedented attack on our democracy. What are you specifically or your agency doing to protect our election systems in 2018 . The chairman has been bravely outspoken on this issue and talking about how this is not a political issue, its an american issue, its a democratic issue. Are you working with social Media Companies to prevent the dissemination to eliminate the russian trolls . I take any effort to interfere with our election system by russia or any nation state or nonnation state seriously because it strikes at the heart of who we are as a country. We have at the fbi, were focused very much forward looking on the next couple of election cycles so were doing a couple things. We have a Foreign Influence Task force that ive stood up inside the fbi that brings together different divisions of the fbi because its a multidisciplinary problem so you have counterintelligence to mention, a signer to mention, a criminal investigation to mention. We coordinate closely with dhs which has responsibility for the Critical Infrastructure dimension of our election system. Were coordinating with our foreign partners because happily for me we dont have elections every year in this country but other countries do and we can learn what russians and other countries are trying to do in terms of the trade craft, etc. So were trying to get in front of it and figure out and be on the lookout for efforts to interfere Going Forward so thats at a high level a summary of what were doing. Thank you very much. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, the chair recognizes the gentleman from new york, mr. Donovan. Thank you, mr. Chairman, thank you all of you for what you do to protect our nation and the sacrifices you make for our families. Secretary duke, you wrote youre rethinking Homeland Security for a new age, in many cases however dhs is still operating on the same authority that it was issued 15 years ago. We have to ensure that you have the tools and the resources you need to address the everchanging threat and landscape of our nation. As you know earlier this year, this committee under the leadership of chairman mccaul crafted and the house of representatives approved the firstever comprehensive dhs reauthorization bill. The bill authorizes vital Grant Programs for First Responders, it enhances intelligence and information sharing and it provides authorities for a number of dhs components like i. C. E. , ncis and the coast guard. What effect will this reauthorization bill have an the departments ability to meet its mission and how important is it that the senate expeditiously acts on this piece of legislation for you and your efforts of the brave women and men who work for you . Thank you. We think the authorization bill is very important to dhs. And what it will do is it will help us partner with congress in terms of prioritizing and making sure that were focussed with laser vision on the home larnd securi Security Issues that faced our country so its very important because this is an enduring threat and to make sure that were unified and focused would be one of the most significant effects. And how is the lack of action over in the senate, lack of reauthorization bill that we passed handcuffing, curtailing your efforts in what youre trying to achieve for our nation right now . I think with a lack of authorization we have many different opinions and jurisdictions over what should be the priorities for our nation. And so it makes it more complicated to move forward crisply and clearly, especially with on both the authorization and the appropriation side, where do we put that next dollar towards what risk and which way . It sounds to me like theres a lack of certainty of what the future will hold for the agency unless Congress Acts to allow you to plan and prepare for the future . Its certainly it does cause its the lack of clarity, definitely. Thank you very much. Director wray, welcome my fellow new yorker. Ranking member thompson and my colleague from pennsylvania mr. Perry were speaking about the crossing of the state lines, rioting and matters that youre facing now. Im always concerned about people using disguise and masks like they did at the berklee riots preventing their identity from being revealed to Law Enforcement. We are a legislative body that is charged with creating laws to help you protect our nation and ive always asked witnesses at hearings what tools do you need . What could this committee do . What could congress do to aid the brave agents that work for you . What laws would you like to see us create that will help you protect address some of these things like people crossing state lines for rioting or enhancing federal sentencing for that, disguising their identities during these riots. I know theres some local laws. I was a prosecutor, i was the elected d. A. , one of the five d. A. S of new york city for 12 years. What could we do for you to help you in the efforts to protect our nation and our families . Well, needless to say, congressman, thats a question id love to answer for hours. So appreciate the question. I think looking down at the clock with the 45 seconds remaining, the thing i would say more than anything else, i would urge every member of this committee to support reauthorization of section 702 and not to erode the important tool that we have there. Just to give some context, the reason why that is so important, the fbis ability to query its own database, which is what 702 allows us to do, is picture a situation where some person in this country buys a huge amount of Hydrogen Peroxide. Nothing wrong with that necessarily, but we know Hydrogen Peroxide is a precursor for terrorist attacks, it can also be used for other things so if the merchant sends the fbi a tip that somebody bought an unusual amount of Hydrogen Peroxide, heres the email address. Right now under 702 the National Agent doing a National Security investigation can run that email address and if it turns out that person is in contact with a known isis recruiter overseas, suddenly that purchase becomes a lot more important and we can mobilize the scarce resources we talked about in a way to make that a priority. If 702 is eroded, we lose that ability and make people less safe. So there are a lot of tools we could add but right now im very focused on not losing the one we have already. Thank you. Wonderful, thank you again for your service and, by the way, bill sweeney is a great sack in new york. Unless youre going to promote him, leave him there, okay . Thank you. Chair recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. Correia. Thank you for holding this important hearing, mr. Chairman. One of the very important purposes of this committee is to add saassess and address all threats posed to our country. Given the attack in charlottesville by White Supremacists, i asked this committee to hold a hearing on white supremacist terrorism. In february of 2015 the department of Homeland Security issued an intelligence assessment warning that sovereign citizen extremist ideology would prompt violence across the u. S. May of 2017, the joint intelligence bulletin produced by the fbi and the department of Homeland Security stated that White Supremacists were responsible for 49 homicides in 26 attacks from 2000 to 2016, more than any other domestic extreme movement. We must not take our eyes off the ball in regards to threats posed to our country, we were unprepared for 9 11 and theres no excuse if were not prepared for another largescale attack like that of Oklahoma City. And with that being said, i want to thank the fbi, the other agencies. Ive got a New York Times article from august that says bombing plot in Oklahoma City is stopped with the arrest, fbi says. Individuals looking to take out many, many people and it says here he espoused and antigovernment ideology and expressed an interest in carrying out an attack that would echo the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City of april, 1995, that killed almost 170 people. So thank you very much for that very good work to you and other agencies. Director wray and acting secretary duke, as you know, Congress Passed Senate Joint Resolution 49 that was signed by the president in september. It condemned the racist violence and attacks in charlottesville and urged the president and the administration to use all available resources to address a growing prevalence of domestic terrorist groups. My questions are are you in your organizations doing anything differently since this resolution was signed . We support the fbi strongly. I think what weve done recently is make sure that were doing the training and the information sharing with the state and local governments. We believe that with both domestic terrorism and homegrown violent extremists, two different groups but theyre both decentralized and we need the state and local governments, especially the local, to be on par so were working closely. Acting secretary, you mentioned earlier as well that there was a blurring of lines between domestic and International Activities so following up on your coordination of locals, do you also have you put that same effort, will you put that same effort in coordinating with our allies and our neighbors to the north and to the south . Your predecessor here in this Committee Said if those threats get to the border, weve essentially lost the fight. So what are we doing to make sure these terrorist threats dont get even close to our borders . The most important thing is information sharing. We need to know about them early on before they board planes, be ever they move. So are you working with our allies . Absolutely. Neighbors to the north and south . North and south and also the eu. And other european countries. But definitely canada, mexico, the northern triangle and south america. Sir . So on the white supremacist threat in particular in the wake of charlottesville we had a Conference Call with all of tit sacs from around the country to see if they could learn from charlottesville and people were pooling ideas and information about things they were seeing. We have jttf in every field office and they have that as one of their specific areas of focus. So i would ask both of you, are you doing anything different in terms of following databases, updating databases, trying to track white supremacist groups in the u. S. . Compare this to the efforts you would put to track isisstyle terrorists that are threatening our citizens, i believe both of those groups pose equal threats, an american citizen that loses their life to a terrorist attack, whether its motivated by isis or White Supremacists doesnt matter, its still a tragedy in our society and our country. Are you doing anything to refocus to make sure that these white supremacist groups are being followed and being monitored as you would any other group . One of the major things weve done very recently is open the office of terrorism Prevention Partnerships which is making sure every piece of information we get the state and local governments have to be at the point to notice and deal with any types of hate crimes in these groups. And training and information sharing is two of our major efforts. We have stepped up investigative interests but we do not as i think you may know, we do not on the domestic terrorism front investigate groups in the same way. In other words because of the First Amendment issues and the freedom of expression issues and the somewhat ugly history the fbi has had in the past, we have very specific rules on the domestic terrorism front where in order to open an investigation there has to be credible evidence of federal crime, threat of force or violence to further a political and social goal. If we have those three things we open a very aggressive investigation. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Id out of time but id like to ask unanimous consent to submit this statement for the record by dr. Errol southers from university of southern california, a statement worldwide threat, keeping america secure in the new age of terrorism. Without objection so ordered. The chair recognizes the gentleman from louisiana, mr. Higgins. Thank you, mr. Chairman, director wray, thank you for your service to your country and i specifically thank you for bringing up the importance of 702 as an invaluable to tool for your Investigative Services in defense of our nation. Im a strong supporter of it and shall be a vocal voice as the debates move forward. Please describe in at least general terms what programs the fbi currently implements to monitor potentially seditious inside mosques and Islamic Centers known to be affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood or other islamic extremist organizations . Well, congressman, we investigate International Terrorism matters, global jihadiinspired, directed matters and we will follow them wherever they may lead and in some cases that may lead to specific individuals and if they are in a mosque, were investigating them, we would continue the investigation there. Do you monitor the advertised appearances of known radical imams that speak at Islamic Centers across the country . I asked this specifically because a known radical imam spoke in my district recently and that was completely under the radar. No media, no Law Enforcement knowledge, i found out from my own informant that he appeared within my district and spoke so im wondering, does the fbi monitor the web sites and social media announcements of the movements and the appearances of known radicalized jihadist imams . Well certainly have a variety of social media exploitation efforts under way that are focused on the kind of problem youre describing. And we also have in some cases predicated properly predicated investigations of specific subjects, in some cases those have been even imams, there have been cases where weve pursued a matter that even led to arrest, indictment and conviction. I know that i think back to one of my prior time in government in the Justice Department there was the case against abu hamzeh, for example, who wasive cleric in that space. Again, thats giving an example of the kind of thing we do. Just quickly within this nonclassified setting, would your investigative efforts include human assets . Absolutely. And appreciate you bringing that up because one of the things i think is increasingly important with all the kind of challenges that weve described, all three of us have described in the terrorism arena is the ability to use human sources. Yes, sir. And we need to be able to work with the communities around the country to be able to get people to come forward because when you have somebody who is radicalized in a very short period of time in some cases, the best hope we have of finding out before the person commits an attack and kills somebody is to have somebody speak up and talk to Law Enforcement and so its important we earn the confidence of the community in order to generate human sources and thats a very high priority. Thank you, sir. And 702 enhances your ability to use human assets, is that correct . Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Secretary duke, thank you for your service to your country, madam. I have one question. The u. S. Electric grid is dangerously unsecured against a threat of electromagnetic pulse based on a nuclear explosion. Can you within this setting please explain what steps the department of Homeland Security is taking to secure the u. S. Electric grid on an expedited basis . And further, what can this committee and this body do to assist in that everyday . This is a relatively new threat that weve been looking at in the Critical Infrastructure sector. We have a strategy that will be completed before the end of this calendar year, late in december. And well be sharing that strategy that will help us start to better address the emp threat along with the geomagnetic disturbance threat. And you have a study that will be concluded by the end of this year . Yes. The target date is december 23. And you will share that with this committee . Yes. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, i yield the balance of my time. Gentleman yield, the chair recognizes the gentlelady from new jersey, ms. Watson coleman. Well, thank you, mr. Chairman, and thank you to each of you for your testimony and for your service. One of the types of farright extremism is that is particularly concerning to me has to do with the Antiabortion Movement and their willingness to engage in very dangerous actions to express their position and so with that i would seek unanimous consent to enter a statement for the record from the feminist majority foundation, keeping america secure in a new age of terror. Without objection, so ordered . Thank you very much. I have a series of questions, some of which i would like quick, quick answers to. Thank you. This is for you, secretary duke and for you director wray because both of you mentioned the importance of information sharing with our foreign allies. Could you just elaborate on why that is so significant as quickly as possible . Because we need to know about people and be able to vet them before they move towards the United States. And i would add to that that in many cases people are crossing either crossing borders themselves to commit attacks or communicating across borders or at a minimum facing similar issues in those countries and so we have to compare notes. Thank you, director, so its really important that we at least maintain open communication with people that we have had relationships with that we could trust that would share this information so having said that, do you think do you that the president s tweets regarding the british prime ministers the british prime ministers help further that cooperation . Or impaired that cooperation . I work with the home secretary of Great Britain and have a very Good Relationship and focus on that rather than speaking on tweets. Well, in dealing with our allies, do you find that theres any concern on their part with regard to how quickly the president will tweet information that is not accurate including the most recent ones regarding the farright supposedly antimuslim groups. My personal experience is theyre afshgs to work with us for the draft that director wray made and just work on building those toward the mission. Would you characterize the tweets as helpful or not . My experience is similar to secretary dukes. I was just over in the uk less than about ten days ago and met with all my british counterparts, and i think the relationship was very strong and productive. Well, lets hope so. Director wray, you had expressed a strong desire that we reauthorize 702, section 702 and thats very vital for you all to be able to do your job. I wonder if you just say that i had tremendous pause when i read is the report on black identity extremism and its threat to Law Enforcement. I still have very, very Major Concerns about what it communicate to Law Enforcement, and whether or not those fears have been developed in term of the research and the analysis and look forward to meeting with those analysts who discussed what seems to be a skimpy report, but that kind of gives me pause to support that kind of authorization to an agency that would, i think, allow this sort of poorly developed report to come out and not demonstrate, in my opinion, only in my opinion, a i guess a commensurate identification or expression of right identity extremism that presents a threat to our environment. I would just add, and i appreciate our conversation yesterday. And im sorry i had to leave before it was completed. But i found it candid and hopefully a constructive conversation. I look forward to continue the dialogue on that issue. I would say on the white supremacist issue, we do put out information to state and local Law Enforcement on that and in fact, at the iacp conference recently in philadelphia that i attended and spoke at we distributed, i think, Something Like 15,000 copies of a video which i would be happy to make available to you about white supremacist about the white supremacist threat to state and local Law Enforcement to raise their awareness of that threat and thats an example, but its hardly the only example. I know it is important and its a difficult discussion for us to have, but i need to agree with my colleague mr. Korea that if we are going to look at the dangers that are confronting the safety and security of our citizens in the homeland that we have to have a serious discussion. Who represents that danger . And while we talk about this on the surface and we kind of skim and we included in the larger discussions on very important issues of Homeland Security, in and of itself the threat is so severe that even organizations who have done research on these issues find that the threat to our security is greater with these groups than it is with these sort of foreign fighters or, you know, foreigninspired and individuals and we just need to confront this. So on the record, i need to ask again that we have a hearing, specifically addressing those issues with those members of the administration that weigh in, work on and have consideration of these issues. So i thank you, and i see that ive gone beyond my time, so mr. Chairman, i yield. The chair recognizes former fbi agent from pennsylvania, mr. Fitzpatrick. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for being here and more importantly, thank you for what you do. Your work is not easy and we know that and are here to support you in any way necessary. I can report to this Committee Regarding director wray, ive spoken and obviously keep in touch with many of my former colleagues from the ground all of the way up. This is a man theyve come to respect tremendously and thank you for leading the organization that i love. I think that it want warrants further discussion, mr. Higgins brought it up briefly and i want this committee to be fully aware not only of what you just said regarding the benefits to the bureau regarding 702, and what id like you to address, briefly, sir, is the consequences of not reauthorizing. What would we not be able to do anymore should section 702 expire . So the real value of 702 to the fbi and to the protection of the American People is that the front end, at the very early stages, when a tip comes in and were in an environment right now as you heard from every member of this panel where there is a high volume of threats and there are so few dots in many cases to connect with these smaller, more contained, more loosely organized situations so that the premium on getting the right dots to connect, to understand which threats are real, which ones are more aspirational, thats when the value of 702 kicks in. Right now under 702 we can query information and its information that the fbi has already lawfully in its possession, theres no court that disagrees with that and right now they can clear that information and know that this tip from state and local Law Enforcement or somebody in the private sector is one that really matters and allows us to mobilize resources to be sure that we get in front of the threat. If 702 is walked back, we will, in effect, be starting to rebuild the wall that existed before 9 11, and i implore the committee not to go there again because that is something that we learned the hard way before and after 9 11. Thank you, mr. Wray. And we have a lot of people in this Committee Asking what we can do to help. This is exhibit a where we can help. We have to reauthorize section 702 and its absolutely imperative. Secretary duke, i had the honor of have saiding puerto rico last week. As you know, this committee is oversight over fema. I described the experience as heartbreaking and heartwarming all at the same time, walking through the Convention Center where some amazing work is being done by a great team of federal agencies who have challenges. My children is, and if you can address this, fema is spread very thin right now. Theyre responding in texas and theyre responding in florida and theyre responding to what i believe is the most challenging situation in puerto rico and its off the coast of florida. They had an antiquated infra structure and they dealt with a cat5 hurricane right through the island. 190 mileanhour sustained winds for a 12hour period of time. The citizens there described it to me as a 12hour long tornado and it was absolutely devastating. What are we doing specifically for port ruerto rico, and how t people face because its important that we constantly talk about and remind everybody that they are american citizens, too . Yeah. Puerto rico and the u. S. Virgin islands definitely had some unique challenges. The main thing were doing differently is ill juxtapose it within texas where Governor Abbott had a strong infrastructure in place and the people to lead the effort and we augment it. What weve done in puerto rico because of the financial concerns and others, the governor had a weak ability to execute his vision. So we have embedded fema people with the governor and are bolstering his vision, his Recovery Efforts even more strongly. Additionally, were doing response and recovery simultaneously. So we are continuing response, even though its tailed off, we are still delivering water and still delivering meals and were actually doing the Recovery Efforts in terms of rebuilding the infrastructure, so i would say a much stronger role in supporting the governor. We appreciate it and please keep the focus on puerto rico. We dont want them to be forgotten in anything fema will do. I yield back. Thank you. The chair recognizes mr. Gentleman from rhode island. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to thank our witnesses for your testimony today, i would ask unanimous consent to submit a statement from the start, the National Study of terrorism and responses to terrorism. Objection so ordered. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Director wray and secretary duke, for both of you, in your testimony you referenced two major instances and under the Response Plan when a significant occurs, the department of justice acting through the fbi is the lead agency for threat response, and dhs is the lead agency for asset response. So can you and director wray describe how your two agencies collaborated in response to these incidents and the Lessons Learned and how do you see the cyber threat evolving and what gaps do you see in u. S. Defenses in response and Recovery Efforts . Well, i think the Main Division is that dhs is responsible for securing the systems and reiterating any malware. So were on the technical side of addressing the threat. We are embedded with the fbi in their National Cyber joint task force, and then we have our own intake. I think that what we are having to do is really understand as the director said earlier, state actors and persons looking for financial gain and the hybrid actors and thats become much more difficult, and i think just information sharing and the location is huge for us working together in the future. I would just add that the dhs has the lead in Asset Protection and asset mitigation. The asset has the lead in threat response which we understand to mean the pursuit and the attribution and the investigation of the incident. And ive been encouraged by how much progress has been made between dhs and fbi on this issue. Its been a challenge for everybody because it is such an evolving, challenging, technical area, but because of the various Interagency Task forces that exist and there are both at the policy coordination level that are sort of standing and then specific ones that get stood up in response to a significant cyber incident, and i think the better we get and we need to keep Getting Better at information sharing and the cooperation and including and involving the private sector wherever possible, i think thats how we will ultimately get in front of the threat. And gaps in particular . I think one of the biggest gaps is that the role that Critical Infrastructure plays in this issue in protecting our country. So as the director said, having to involve the private industry in key Critical Infrastructure sectors. So secretary duke, while the model aircraft have been available to the general consumer for decades, the navigation and the control has rapidly expanded the user base of unmanned aerial vehicles. Combined with the capability carrying small payloads with explosives, these devices can now be used to commit acts of terror, sadly. I worked with my colleague, senator whitehouse from rhode island criminalizing the reckless operation of drones and that itself cannot be committed to a violent act. How is dhs have the small uavs and the potential to be used in an attack factor. In case my time runs out. Director wray, as you note in your testimony integrating intelligence is the strategic pillar of the fbis strategy. I want to thank you for your efforts in this domain. In the international space, the u. S. Provides a significant amount of intel sdwrens to our foreign partners to better protect their own nations from attacks. Did you and director rasmussen direct how these partners are reciprocating in information sharing and what can be done to improve this cooperation . A quick answer on aircraft systems. This is an aerial and we lack authority and if there was anything i would ask of the committee it would be just getting three and we can do testing of antiuav systems with the Current Authority and we think this is a major, increasing threat. On the Foreign Cooperation point that significantly improved the amount of intelligence flowing back the other way is through the Legal Program and we have 80 legats serving 800 countries and thats the foreign offices from the fbi and a lot of those came back from europe in particular where were starting to get more and more twoway flow of information, in particular from the brits and also from other countries as they learn more about what would be valuable and as the level of trust matures and thats another place when i look at the kind of cooperation that exists now between Intelligence Services and the way it was back when i was in government before, its like night and day. It doesnt mean it cant be better and it needs to keep Getting Better, but i really feel like were on the right track there. I would add to that, that if there was any modest Silver Lining in the difficult threaten viernment driven by isis over the last few years, its been a dramatic increase in information sharing globally that weve seen. Many more countries than ever before view this as their problem, too and simply not something they can shut off and ignore and say thats an american problem or say thats a british problem. And so the array and the number of countries that we have active intelligence sharing arrangements with is there are many, many dozens rather than just a handful of close partners. The foreign fighter phenomenon has also helped drive that information sharing, as well. Its a modest Silver Lining, but its something we can build on for the range of terrorism threats that well face in the future. I want to thank you all for your testimony and your insights and secretary duke, i think on the pretty outrageous that dhs cant even do testing on drones and their capabilities and mr. Chairman, maybe thats something that we can work on together to make the change. Gentleman, ive been looking at this issue for quite some time. Weve seen droeps being used in iraq and syria. Weve seen drones at the white house, the capitol. I do think its time to consider legislation to move some authorities from the faa to the defendant of Homeland Security and i would very much like to work with you. I welcome the opportunity and i sthafrpg the witnesses and i yield back. General bacon is recognized for the first time. Thank you, mr. Chairman. It is an honor to be on the committee defending our constitution and priorities and its an honor to be on this committee to put some focus that. Secretary duke, i wanted to ask you about what i consider is one of the most important threats to our country and thats the cyber penetration from russia and china into our Energy Infrastructure and perhaps our financial networks. How would you assess the threat that russia and china poses on a one to ten scale, ten being the worst because what i fear is the next december 7th we face will be proceeded by an energy attack or another financial attack. Thank you. It is very strong. On a scale of one to ten, i would say probably a seven or an eight because what are we know is daunting and we dont know what we dont know, but looking at using cyber to attack the control systems of Critical Infrastructure is a major area of concern that were working infrastructure on. It seems to me that theyre putting on foundation and have that capability and i think we should be concerned and do you think were doing enough to build resilience in the system or to have backups or is there a lot more that we can do . I think its toot point that the Infrastructure Sector is a threat and now its implementing the safeties to help try to prevent this. Thank you. Director wray, when i talk to Law Enforcement in the omaha area, what is something that we can do more to help you with gun violence and things like that. I hear two things. Do more with strong man purchases and also to help offduty Law Enforcement to carry their weapons or retired. Would you share those sentiments from our Law Enforcement from omaha . Well, certainly on the purchasing side, when i was a line prosecutor back as a baby prosecutor i used to do strong purchase for cases, and i do think thats a place where more aggressive enforcement of laws on the books would be very helpful. Most of that responsibility lies with atf, but we work collaboratively with the atf who is a great partner on more organized criminal activity that involves some of the same kind of firearms and crime that you may talk about. It is revitalizing project safe neighborhoods which was a very effective, federal, state and local program that existed in the early 2000s that built off of project exile that had been in richmond to try to more strategically focus gun violence and that will help the folks in omaha among other places. Thank you. Ill be working on legislation toward that end. Thank you. Director rasmussen, did you know secretary of defense mattis has changed our strategy and well get to an area where isis is operating and our policy had previously been to take over the city and they would have been able to get out and retreat and regroup down the stretch and kill them where theyre at and not let them get out. Are you seeing the effects of the strategy where youre seeing less of the terrorists and leaving syria and youre seeing a reduction in this terrorist flow . Certainly, the territorial aspect that i mentioned in my prepared remarks has accelerated over the course of this year worry the dramatic reduction with the amount of territory isis controls. One of the difficulties and challenges, though, has been that that campaign has taken a period of time to play out in a sense the bad guys in many cases knew where they were headed next and it was focused on mosul and the largest city in iraq and they knew, we were over time going to move towards raqqa and the city in Eastern Syria that worked as headquarters for isis. That allowed many of the actors that we would be most concerned about to bleed out over time ahead of that campaign. Many chose to fight, to stay and fight and they chose to stay, fight and die in defense of the caliphate, but others, we are concerned about, have made their way into the iraqi countryside or trying to find their way out of the conflict zone. So its want necessarinot n not quality question, and they have an experience of weapons of mass destruction. Those are the ones we are the most concerned about, but yes, i agree, we are focused on making sure these individuals do not escape the battlefield. One last question, if i may. Were doing a lot in the kinetic side going into cyber mode for recruitment, and i have yet to see how we can do better at undermining the ideology that recruits to help sustain isis and al qaeda overseas. Upon what more can we do to undermine the ideology that does this recruiting . I think theyre a soft touch and a little bit of subtlety is required because we will be most effective if we are enabling and empowering credible actors who can speak credibly to those potentially vulnerable populations rather than something coming out from the state department or with the brand of the United States saying this is how you should behave, this is how you should believe, but if we can identify, and empower and support credible voices within the community where this is a problem its a better solution. Thank you. I yield back. In addition to doing Counter Terrorism work as a federal prosecutor. I was also an exile prosecutor and to the attorney general maya, thanks for reviving that program. It works. So, thank you. The chair recognizes the chairwoman from texas, miss jacksonlee. I thank you, and let me start out by thanking each and every one of you for your service to this nation. My time is hort and so i will be pointed in my questions. Secretary duke, let me first offer my sympathy publicly as ive done for the loss of life are the Border Patrol agent a few weeks ago and one that is injured and mending. Thank you for the men and women that work in the Homeland Security department. Let me focus on Hurricane Harvey which by connection, i think it impacts the Virgin Islands and as well puerto rico and florida and others. Fema, certainly, is an agency that we owe a great deal of gratitude to, but let me be very clear, ive been asked how houston is doing, how texas is doing. Were a strong group of people, but we are devastated, and it is so difficult dealing with fema and the repeated denials and people that have not heard from fema and it is not good for recovery and youre listed as a recovery agency. We need help in texas and we need more fema, drcs and we need more people dealing with the appeal process and it is absolutely absurd. The second question is dealing with the appropriations. I would ask that you would ask the president of the United States to consider that 44 billion is shameful. The president came to texas and said that we would provide you with everything you need. This is 44 billion for the u. S. Virgin islands for puerto rico, texas and everyone else. So if you would answer that question and let me go to director wray and ill put the questions on the record very quickly. The questions on the record are on director wray and there have been antimuslim videos by the commander in chief. My question is as the world has condemned this, how difficult it makes the work of the fbi that deals with domestic terrorism with these kinds of videos being associated with the United States. Second, im interested in the commitment to not do reverse targeting under 702. I know that its an international issue, but the fbi is involved with terrorism in the fight against terrorism and they use the 702 law, and i want to know your position on reverse targeting of a u. S. Citizen. Finally, of the identity extremists. I believe it is crucial there be a clarification so individuals expressing themselves with the First Amendment understand the parameters of the fbi. Mr. Du ms. Duke, please . Secretary duke . Ill check into specific inquiries and ill look into the office to make sure that wooe keeping in texas the 44 billion is the current supplemental. We do expect that there will be needed additional supplementals, but for now we do have adequate resources to do all of the Recovery Efforts. I vigorously disagree with you. We do not have the adequate resources and this is going to be on the verge of a Government Shutdown and if texas and all of the other victims of the hurricanes do not have a compromise where we can work together, and i would encourage you to tell the president that it is not enough. And they also leave with you jimoh, jimoh was the United Airlines representative who has not been told why she has been denied official background checks and shes filed appeals and i would like to speak with affairs on that. Thank you. Director wray . Thank you. Thank you, congresswoman. If i can take your questions in rapid firefashion here. Thank you. The first one, i think we try very hard at the fbi and will continue to try very hard to earn the trust and confidence of every community we serve and protect including the muslimamerican community and we are trying in response to an earlier question to encourage people to come forward as potential sources and witnesses and we will continue to do that. On the reverse targeting point, my position is there should not be and we do not permit reversed targeting under section 702 and the extremist issue. I thought our conversation was candid and constructive and i hope you felt the same way. I can assure you and the rest of the American People that we do not investigate people for rhetoric and for ideology and for First Amendment expression and association. What we do is when theres credible evidence of federal crime, with the credible threat of violence. Thats our focus. We have no interest in investigating any group no matter who might say theyre extremist including racial injustice. Did i answer the question i got for nine seconds about 702 . We do not permit reverse targeting and would not. Thank you so very much. The chair recognizes the gentleman from florida, mr. Rutherford. Thank you, mr. Chairman. First, i want to thank the panel for your service to the country and particularly your service here this morning and this long testimony. There is an old saying that everybody uses dont beat a dead horse, and of course, and we turned right around and beat the dead horse so secretary duke, i, too, am going to ask about the ombs recommendation of the 44 billion for storm recovery and heres the issue in florida. We are a very large agricultural state. Most people dont realize that, but we took a very hard hit, about 1. 5 billion in almost 700 million of that was to our Citrus Industry and this is why a supplemental to follow is not adequate because these citrus farmers need the money now for the next crop coming. And if they dont have assets right now then theyre not going to be prepared for the next growing season. I spoke with one citrus grower who lost 36,000 trees. 36,000 trees. Thats going to take some time to replace and more delays is going to have a tremendous impact on our recovery in florida. I would like to carry that back with the administration and the omb and let them know the impact that thats going to have on these growing seasons that dont wait for the next supplemental. Thank you for that. Id like to shift over and follow up on cyber as many of my colleagues have and not just Asset Protection, but also the ideological fight that needs to go on within the cyber war and director wray, you mentioned the cyber that you have now in all 56 regional offices and what id like to know is what are the difficulties one of the challenges in the world of cyber is getting that great talent and being able to pay for it and pull them away from, you know, private industry. How how is there anything we can do to help you get the best of the best for your cyber war . Well, as you started speaking before you got to the talent thats the principal challenge. Theres just not enough people that have that geniuslevel talent for the private sector and we cant compete with the paychecks that the private sector can offer people, and i do think we can compete with anybody on a mission, and i think we have found that the bright young talent that were able to attract in the space join us for the right reason which is is their commitment to the mission and we clearly need more of them. Were trying to do more to raise the level of what i will call cyber literacy across our workforce because one of the things we struggle with right now that are the cyber black belt if we can call you that and get diverted into having to help out with other kinds of criminal investigation work that has a cyber component, but if we can raise the basic level across the organization and i assume secretary duke would say the same thing, and then we could have the most talented people focus on the really sophisticated cuttingedge stuff and thats where im hoping to take the organization. Im glad you referenced Homeland Security, because i know the secret service, for example, had Great Success in going after transnational organizations with Money Laundering and those kind of things and its important to have that cyber attack. Director rasmussen, how about you . Is there anything. What can we help you with this recruiting . Director wray made a very good point. With the mission we have before us with cyber crime and motivating young people to want to do this for a living is not a challenge. When we put out announcements for job openings we get hundreds and hundreds of very highquality applicants from all over the country. One of the challenges were facing in the Intelligence Community is getting them through the security clearance process quickly enough that we dont make someone wait 18 months to start embarking on their federal career and thats something that were working on internally. Yeah. But i will tell you the biggest thing you can give us as all federal agencies is the predictable funding environment so we dont have to wonder year to year, will i be able to have anen an entrylevel cadre or am i stuck with this years class or am i going to have to hold on to them longer . Year to year predictability is very person. Let me ask in the little bit of time i have left. The National Cyber incident Response Plan, dhs is responsible for the asset response, but fbi and doj responsible for the threat response. And what is the involvement of private industry in that partnership in response, and do we need some further clarification and definition of roles in the cyber war . I will say that while there is a time when the definition was murkier and there was confusion about the lanes in the road that after ppd41 the lanes in the road are much more defined and i havent seen as much of that is an issue and the private sector engagement piece is something that we at dhs work on together a lot, more and more. Were always trying to figure out ways to balance the desire to get with the private sector faster and at the same time to make sure were both providing Accurate Information and that were not compromising an existing investigation and in many cases the information that were getting at least on the fbi side is either classified or involves coordination with foreign partners earlier and there may be restrictions in our ability to share it. So were all learning collectively, the Interagency Community and the private sector about how to kind of adapt to this comparatively new threat still. Thank all of you for your time and i yield back. The gentleman yields from louisiana. Thank you, mr. Chairman and thank you, Ranking Member for having this meeting and thank you, director wray for the meeting yesterday which was very thorough and i hope we continue to follow up. Let me just ask you all and maybe director rasmussen or director wray would have more insight. Im concerned about the new and reemerging slave trade in libya, and the question is, have you all do you all have any intelligence on it . Do you have any reason to believe that it is not, in fact, happening . Obviously the fact that there is chaos in libya, Human Trafficking is obviously a component of that as groups try to move individuals up through libya and into europe and contribute to the migrant challenge in europe and we follow that from the terrorism aspect because those same networks can move to extremists who want to do us harm. So we can arrange to share more classified information with you or your staff in terms of what we know with those challenges. Unfortunately, what we know and what we can do about it are two separate things and we dont have availability on the ground. Almost like in a medical situation. You first have to diagnose that there is a problem and acknowledge there is a problem and theres more that congress can do. I just wanted to know from experts whether its something that you all would say is fact, that its happening. Its certainly true. Okay. Thank you for that. Director wray, and actually all of you all have employees that have to fill out the sf86 form, and you talked about the process of 18 months to actually get through the process, but my comment is, at what point do o missions become willful and deliberate omissions that rise to violating title 18 section 1001 this is penalties of inaccurate and false statements on the security clearance form . Well, first, i can chase manhattan to be a former prosecutor and i wouldnt want many of the agents to view me to view me as a poser. Got it. I am very proud of my credentials now, however. Second, on the sf86 point, really its going to be dependent on the facts and circumstances of the particular case. You know, willfulness requires a level of conscious knowledge and intent knowing falsehood and a recognition that the person is and recognizing that thats what theyre doing when theyre doing it and thats laymans speak, and as you as a former defense lawyer can appreciate some of the nuances there. And i guess, if we look at the administration and take the most obvious example which is kushner, which has been amended over a hundred times and after it comes to light that it was inaccurate, the question becomes people apply to your agencies who may leave off high school eviction or College Apartment or Something Like that who may get prosecuted for it. At what point do we start to get to selective prosecution if we dont set the example at the top level with willful omissions that dont get corrected after they come to the public. I expect to answer truthfully on sf86. Its a barrel of a form, and the older you are and the more time periods youve got to cover it is a challenge. Im not ashware of the prosecutn for a lot of people for their sf86 responses and its important for anybody at any level to be as truthful and complete as possible in filling out the sf86. With my last 15 seconds, let me thank you all for the job that you do and you know how complicated it is to how do we secure drones or Unmanned Aircraft now or mr. Higgins will relate and ive had the largest petrochemical footprint in the country and that is a concern of how we protect it from flying objects that can be directioned. So no one professes that what you do is easy, but we thank you for your service because the safety of the homeland depends on it, and for those people who work for you all, please let them know that this congress, and i think i can speak for everybody, surely appreciates this service and sacrifice for the country. With that, mr. Chairman, i yield back. Mr. Ratcliffe is recognized. Thank you. Let me start off with my friend and colleague in thanking the entire panel today. Director rasmussen, let me just tell you that i believe that our nation is safer and better because of your service and i will tell you that you will be missed. Secretary kuke, as chairman of the Cyber Security and protection subcommittee here, i have enjoyed working with you on what i believe is the greatest National Security threat in the long term and cybersecurity. Having middle that, while i look forward to working with you, and i have a limited time today and while i believe cybersecurity is the greatest National Security threat, i believe that our most urgent National Security threat right now relates to section 702 that has been mentioned a number of times and let me turn to you director wray, its been mentioned that it is about to expire. We have nine days before it expires at the end of the year. Now, it has been mentioned that 702 broadly speaking targets foreign intelligence from nonu. S. Persons reasonably believed to be outside of the u. S. , but quantifying exactly how important 702, i think, has been left out of the some of the discussion, and i want to give you the opportunity to expound on that or maybe refute it. Our intelligence agencies estimate that 25 of our actionable foreign intelligence comes directly from 702, do you believe that to be accurate . Im not sure they know what the percentage is, but that doesnt surprise me, that estimate and i have no reason to question it. I will tell you that every person i talk to who has seen the operation of section 702 internally up close, and ive sat with agents at the terminal watching how they use it, so that i could be sure that i was really understanding it. Every single one of them is horrified at the thought that we would lose that valuable tool. Lets assume that 25 is an accurate number and are you aware of any authority that would provide foreign intelligence than section 702. No. You establish that it is very, very important to our National Security and lets talk about how important 702 is, and i participated in the Judiciary Committee as congress moved forward with something called the usa liberty act which seeks to reauthorize and significantly modify 702. In the course of that discussion, i found some of the wellintentioned criticism to be misguided and unfair because some folks are conflating 218. Would you agree with me that those comparisons are misguided and unfair . Yes, i would. All right. One of the legitimate concerns and questions that have been raised about section 702 relates to the issue of incidental collection of information on americans and even nonu. S. Persons who are in the United States. We know that that happens, but again, i think what has been left out of much of the public debate and i want to give you the opportunity to weigh in and clarify as we, members of congress and the public who watches this debate moves forward, there is oversight of the incidental collection that takes place and it takes place through the Oversight Board called the privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, correct . And pcob has issued very specific report reviewing section 702 and the incidental collection that has taken place, correct . Correct. And to your knowledge, does that report from an independent Oversight Board has it found in the seven years that 702 has been in place and any intentional abuse of section 702. Not to my knowledge. No. Over seven years, no intentional abuses of section 702, and i would think that that is essentially a record of success for a Government Authority that is unrivalled. Certainly, in my experience, so i guess in summary, do you agree with me that 702 is our most important Law Enforcement and counterintelligence tool with respect to foreign intelligence . Yes. And its our most effective . Yes. And its our least abused . Yes. And given that, if we not only fail to reauthorize, but fail to reauthorize section 702 in as close to the form as it possibly is right now, we as members of congress be jeopardizing National Security for all 200 americans as americas top Law Enforcement official. That is definitely my view and i appreciate the question because when i talk about the importance of reauthorizing section 702, its the important of react rising it to as close as its current form as possible. My time has expired. I thank you all. I echo those sentiments. I believe the reauthorization of section 702 is as close as possible to current laws are vitally important to the security of the United States. The chair recognizes miss barrian. Secretary duke, thank you for being here today. I just was last week visiting our troops overseas for thanksgiving. I was in afghanistan. I am just amazed at how these young men and women on the front lines of fighting terrorism doing so with the mission of protecting our homeland. Earlier this year, i was disturbed to learn that if you are not a citizen in this country and you pick up a weapon and you go fight overseas and you die there it will make you an automatic citizen, but if you survive and come back to this country you can still be deported and when i was out there i was talking to a few of our soldiers who were telling me about some of their concerns and problems with family members who are going through from seedinpr. Can you tell me if any vet raer are deported under your watch. Dod is looking at reinstituting the program for soldiers, but in terms of recently returning vets we have to get back. They are not a priority for sure. Okay. Great. If you could do so in writing i would appreciate that. And to address this or that so we can make sure that we are protecting those who are on the front lines and serving. I wanted to ask you a little bit about the Hurricane Harvey in texas. My understanding from reports that i had read is that there was some confusion on whether immigration would remain or not, and so i wanted to ask if you were aware of the confusion that was created from the directives. We early on issued that there would be no active immigration control other than criminal acts that needed to be addressed that we would not do a proactive immigration enforcement. Okay. And ill go ahead and enter into the record two articles covered by npr and some other organizations that highlighted the confusion that caused even the mayor of houston to have to come out on record to make a statement about this. Im hoping that this will be something that wont become an issue as another emergency disaster happens and we certainly want to make sure that people feel safe and secure in following authorities when theyre being asked to leave and in that regard ive introduced a bill to that and hopefully my colleagues will take a look at that. Without objection, so ordered. Thank you. I wanted to follow up on some of the questions about the gun violence and their connection to terrorism, and i remember hearing former Homeland Security secretary jeh johnson once made a comment, and im going to quote him, it said a meaningful, responsible gun control is now part and parcel of the Homeland Security especially given the prospect of homegrown, home borne violent extremism in this country. Do you agree with that assessment . What we are seeing now is really an agnostic look at tools, and guns are not necessarily the primary vehicle by which terrorism is occurring. Well, would you say that the guns are part of what terrorists are using and that it certainly could be perceived as access to guns could be a part of the issue . Guns, knives, vehicles are among the top, yes. Great, thank you. Director wray, i wanted to ask you, first ill agree with some of my colleagues who echoed having more hearings on the grudge by homegrown terror and it led up, and instead its harder to get to all these issues with a short amount of time, but director wray, terrorists are getting their hands on and using high assault weapons and its a repeated occurrence in american lives and weve seen it happen in San Bernardino and orlando at the pulse nightclub. In particular, was there an alarming statistic, and i saw the gao reported that between february 2004 and december 2015, known or suspected terrorists initiated background checks to purchase a weapon, and i think it was 2500 times and 91 of the transactions were allowed to proceed. Does this concern you . Im not familiar with the specific report that you mentioned. I will say much as secretary duke said, were really focused on the terrorists themselves whether they be domestic or international and they seem in many ways hellbent on committing attacks that kill as many people as possible by whatever means they can get their hands on. I guess, without looking at the report, would it be concerning to you that people who are known or suspected terrorists list are purchasing guns and 91 of those people are allowed to purchase guns. Is that concerning at all to you . Certainly the way you describe it is very concerning to me, yes. Thank you. I yield back. The gentle lady yields and mr. Garrett from virginia is recognized. Thank you. I would commend the gentle lady on deporting the Veterans Issues and i was reading about that, and i saw that one was deported after he was convicted of shooting into an occupied vehicle in 2010 and im not sure who the president was then, but its nice to see the attention being brought on the subject matter now, so i would commend her for pointing that out and i would cite a Los Angeles Times story that points out each of the individuals in question deported between 2008 and 2016 said there might be up to 350 and such individuals, but back to the testimony at hand, im curious, i saw miss dukes testimony that the federal agencies that coordinated prior to the events in charlottesville, and thats a good thing, and certainly more is needed, but when you have large gatherings of people, say, for example, saturday at 2 00 p. M. At my high school and congressman brats high school and my own, about 8,000 people will be in attendance and is there any federal coordination for security for that sort of event . Unless its a declared National Security event, our coordinations with the responsible local official, we call that a soft target and we do quite a bit of training, coordination and the assistance in advance. And so i apologize for the witness because its not intended to be a gotcha and im reflecting too much time as a courtroom lawyer, but obviously, an event like that presents a soft target as you indicated and a collection of gathering of people in close proximity to one another and technology has demonstrated to be numerous videos on the internet and the ability to use drones as weapons and there are numerous unclassified videos in the New York Times and Washington Post and 40 millimeter hand grenades and weve all seen them. And the antidrone Gun Technology that currently exist has the capacity to be sold specifically and exclusively to Law Enforcement entities. I would submit that the first line of defense at that Football Game on saturday will be local Law Enforcement with probably some augmentation by state Law Enforcement, but that we do a historically wonderful job of preparing for the last conflict or the last attack and we generally do a relatively poor job which has been brought to the forefront post9 11 of contemplating what the next attack might be and a number of the panels have made reference to that weve seen all too many times in the United States. Can somebody tell me why the Virginia State police or the county Police Department or the Albemarle County Police Department cant purchase antidrone technology when places like Football Games and the richmond motor speedway occur under the protection of these entities. Can somebody give me a good reason why local and state Law Enforcement cant avail themselves of antidrone technology. I want you to say no, but if there is a good reason, i want to hear it, too. No, there is no good reason and the legacy of authorities and not having the authorities because its conflated with the signal waves of cell phones and how theyre tracked so it needs to be addressed. Thank you very much. Im on the same team as all of the you guys here and i apologize for my tone. Ill try to snap out of it. In yourest malgz, would it be a good policy area to consideration to power doin twn ability to purchase antidrone Technology Given that theyre the first line of defense on so many soft target, vents th even occur every single day in this country. Not to the civilian of the street, but to the Law Enforcement entities on the state and local level. Also, their ability to use them in antiterrorism and the federal government, as well. We are limited to just what the state and local governments are. What youre suggesting is that we should review en masse the employment doctrine as it relates to these particular technological advances . Yes. I would yield back early, mr. Chairman, just because i want to set a press debt today. We appreciate. The chair recognizes mr. Payne. Thank you, mr. Chairman. First, i would ask unanimous concept to submit a statement from the antidefamation league. Without objection, so ordered. Thank you. I would like to thank all of the witnesses for their service to this nation, to this point, and im going to be very brief because in the interest of time we have another panel, but and excuse me if this has been answered, but i came in late, but plaque whats this new term . Black extremist radical, what is it . I believe the term youre reaching for there is theres a term black identity extremist with the intelligence product that i spent about two hours, i guess, discussing yesterday with some of your colleagues. Right. Sorry i missed that. Could you give me a brief definition of an example of what would fall in that category. So the intelligence in question refers to individuals who are committing violent criminal acts where the motivation is retaliation or retribution for injustices committed by Law Enforcement. So the focus is on Law Enforcement as victims in those situations. Ands there are growing incidents in this situation . And the piece in question which was issued right before i joined the fbi was based on a snapshot in time over primarily the course of 2016 and thats what the fbi was seeing during that period. Okay. Thank you for that. I would just like to ask the Ranking Member on Emergency Preparedness communications, and i would like to just ask ive done a lot of work around interoperability, and i know youre each a different entity, but how well, in your communication is probably pretty good on your level, but for your different departments, how is the communication between your different agencies . I think our communication is much better than it was when i was here before. And i think thats a lot to the centers of bringing the centers together. People are colocated so its not just integration of systems. I think in the public sector, the first net Public Safety network is going to be huge Going Forward. I do think we are working at dhs more on declassifying products earlier. So through our Fusion Centers and other tools, we can have better collaboration between federal and state and local Law Enforcement. Thats a major focus for us. I would agree that the technological part of the inter operability has improved significantly, although it can always get better. For us in particular on the fbi side, the classified nature of so much of what we do dauz complicate our ability to communicate, less so with either of the folks here on the panel. But as elaine says, with the state and local Law Enforcement that can get complicated. Certainly with the private sector, which as we discussed on the cyber side, that that presents some significant challenges. Okay. Yes, sir. Sir . The only thing i would add is the level of integration that probably wasnt there among the federal agencies ten or 12 or 15 years ago has in some ways been addressed because at this point so many of our Senior Leaders have served in each others organizations over the last dozen years. Several of my Senior Leaders are veterans of the department of Homeland Security. I have seenier senior inside my personnel. That counts for a lot because it makes that integration much easier. Thank you. And, mr. Chairman, im going to yield back real quick. Gentleman yields. The gentle lady from arizona, ms. Mcsally. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank yall for your patience. Thank you for your service. I, too, agree our country is safer because of your service. Many vulnerabilities have been talked about today that radical islamist terrorists can use and have used in order to hurt america, attack us and our citizens and our way of life. And you and all the people on your teams are out there every single day in the front lines keeping us safe. One of those vulnerabilities was used 30 days ago when someone killed a dozen and killed others. He is from uzbekistan. For those not familiar, it was created in 1995 to help irish immigrants and since 2007 its estimated 29,000 people from countries that sponsor terrorism, syria, sudan, iran, have actually used this program to come to america. No other country that admits immigrants like we do, a million a year, we are an immigrant friendly country, has their visas handed out by chance, not no other, but many others like canada, australia, austria, the u. K. , they dont have a program like this. By chance and lottery, people can gain access to come into our country. So, my question, director duke sorry, acting secretary duke, is if he had come to the United States today versus ten years ago, what checks would he have encountered . How would it be different from the process he went through ten years ago . The fact that he came from a country that has a history of terrorism impacted that s . Yes, we see it is ripe for fraud. Today it would be better, but we still agree with your sentiments on it, it isnt the best use of our immigration system. What would be different is we have biographics. We have the ability to search social media, those type of things. But it is still one that would introduce risk. So, i recently introduced legislation to eliminate the lottery, convert a portion of them to merit based which i think is the right thing to do. President trump has called for the elimination of this program, acting secretary duke. Do you agree with the elimination of this program . Yes, i support that. Great, thank you. I do want to change gears on another topic that is deeply troubling to me, and i know were in an unclassified setting, but this is the mavney program. This is a program where nongreen card holders which traditionally we allow them to serve in the military, but nongreen card holders starting in 2008, were allowed to start serving. It was supposed to be in specific critical career fields, like language and other things to boost our National Security. Unfortunately, on the Armed Services committee, we have multiple classified briefings on this and i know we cant speak in great detail in this setting. But unfortunately, it looks like the army basically used this to meet its recruiting goals well beyond the intent, and many of these individuals were not vetted properly, and many come from countries that are our adversaries, with very sophisticated foreign intelligence operations. Getting a fast track to citizenship in basic training before any vetting went on. I am deeply concerned about the impacts. Now, im sure there are many good people that served our country through this program. But the potential and the vulnerabilities have caused the d. O. D. To halt this program and im just im so concerned about the implications of those who are already in it and the fact they were not vetted and now theyre u. S. Citizens so they clearly have constitutional rights. I would like to hear all your thoughts. Were you aware of this program and what are we doing now to mitigate any of these vulnerabilities and these threats for those that have already been through it . Because of the buffoonery of what happened that has potentially impacting our National Security. I am aware of the program and that it is suspended. D. H. S. And i believe we have to vet every individual. We believe in a Legal Immigration system, but have to balance security and make sure we vet all persons coming into the United States. Permanently or temporarily. Director ray, any Counter Intelligence roles, are there any part that youre playing right now, even to try and mitigate and address these threats, potential threats . Well, we try to investigate whatever we can and we get intelligence about people of the sort you are describing and try to pursue those and share that information working with our fellow colleagues in the inter agency. Id like to maybe followup in a classified setting with you as to whether there are open investigations related specifically to this issue. And i do want to ask, mr. Chairman, to assert into the record, we did write a letter together to usais. I have the response here. Id like to put that in the record. Without objection, so ordered. Director rasmussen, any comments . I was not aware of this vulnerability. One thing i think might contribute to identifying potential sources of concern about in this population is depending on their status, some individuals now are subject to recurrent vetting, vetting that goes on long after they have been through the initial admission process. That changes obviously when they gain status as a citizen for the reasons you suggest. But it could mean that some members of this population are still subject to some vetting process. Thanks. Im over my time, but i would like to followup on a classified setting with all of you. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Let me just say i echo the gentle lady from arizonas concerns. Im glad to hear this program is suspended. I met with the director of uscis yesterday and encouraged him to get the classified briefing on this program. With that, chair recognizes gentleman from wisconsin, mr. Gallagher. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank all of you for being here. As we talked a lot about is sort of evolving terrorist threat abroad, it does seem isis is steadily losing territory in western iraq and Eastern Syria, which opens up an opportunity for us to exploit a lot of valuable intelligence on the battle field, in the form of biometrics, fingerprints, documents, media devices. This is vital that we collect it and then find a way to get that information to those out posts that are vetting people who want to come into this country. And these applicants, refugees, aside. In the past we have had examples where people have come into the country who were tied to terrorist groups. To what extent i guess i would direct this to acting secretary duke. To what extent do you think this battle field information that is being captured by our military oop raters and other intel folks in the field, being incorporated into your respective agencies operations and investigations . I think this is one of the areas that has improved most, to be honest with you. Dhs is now an active member of the National Security council, as is director rasmussen, and we get the same intelligence both before and after an incident. And i think that counterterrorism efforts overseas led by department of defense, probably the area ive seen the most progress in. What i would add to that is that the battle field intelligence of the sort you are describing, mr. Gallagher, is most useful to us when it contains specific identity intelligence, when we can learn names, dates of birth, passport numbers, identity document information, and so that can be used to feed our database of known and suspected terrorists. That is the intelligence database that all of acting secretary dukes immigration programs is bouncing off of as they are making decisions and vetting potential admissions to the country. So, the better the richer the deeper that database, the more likely it is were going to have the information that will identify a potential bad act or. It still is imperfect in that you can never have the totality of the information that you would want, but there is no question, but that whats happened in iraq the last several months has given us a wealth of new information thats helpful in this regard. I would just add that and i agree with the sentiments that both of my copanelists have expressed, but i would also add that the fbi has people forward employed with the military so we are trying to collect biometric information when we can and that is useful to identify people who are then returning or going elsewhere who werent on peoples lists whether in the u. S. Or in our foreign partners as well. And i think Going Forward, thats going to be another place where we can be more effective. Let me jump in. One other issue thats come up quite a bit in the hearing today, much of what weve learned about terrorist potential use of uavs or uas devices as an aviation threat has been learned from what weve seen on the battle field in iraq. And rapid exploitation of that material, rapid sharing here in the homeland so that local Law Enforcement does know that there is a threat to a high school Football Game of the sort we were talking about, a lot of that is derived directly from battle field intelligence. It is heartening you three seem to think it is headed in the right direction and there is room for i am profrmt. Improvement. Im glad to hear your sentiments on that. Acting secretary duke, i thank you for highlighting in your testimony the important work of the committees task force on denying terrorist entry in the United States. As chairman of that task force, id also like to thank the department for your cooperation while weve been conducting other review. We are looking forward to releasing the task force as report in the future and i look forward to working with all of you to implement its recommendations or sure up any areas that you dont think we made enough focus to. Earlier you discussed how some of our foreign partners lack the necessary capabilities to close gaps in their security and stop terrorist travel. This actually matches one of the key findings in our Task Force Report and some of the recommendations will focus on dhss cooperation with our foreign partners. Can you briefly describe some of the work dhs is currently doing with our foreign partners to address any overseas vulnerabilities that pose a threat to our homeland . Well, one of the main areas is using systems that either we have and offered them to use that track people, that track known terrorists. What director rasmussen talked about, we have International Partners feeding into that same known terrorist database. We think that that info sharing is number one. Additional documentation, having the right documentation with the biometrics, and actually the other part is not only inputting, but using the databases to make their own determinations with the borders so open, especially in europe. Those are a few of the areas. Thank you. I yield the balance of my time. Gentleman yields. And before i close, i also want to also share the concern, secretary duke, that you raised in your prepared testimony about the relationship, potentially, between Transnational Criminal Organization and potential terrorists that could bring terrorists into the United States. But also weapons of mass destruction that we saw highlighted in the magazine where they talked about the ease with which that could be accomplished. And i think that certainly raises a warning sign. And i think demonstrates the need to get the borders secure. I also want to thank director rey. I also share your concern about 702. As for me, this member, this claire man, ill be working closely with other like minded members to make sure that happens. And director rasmussen, this will be your last testimony before this committee. I just want to commend you this or any committee. Or any committee hopefully. And i just want to thank you for your service. Youll be missed, but i know youll be close, close by. I want to thank all three of you for your service, and most importantly, the men and women who serve in your organizations. With that, this were going to take a brief break and then begin with our second panel. [ gavel ] tonight on c. Span 3, steve bannon addresses a group of minority entrepreneurs in washington, d. C. Former Hillary Clinton president ial Campaign Chair john podesta gives his assessment of the 2016 election. And the heads of the fda and National Institutes of health testify before the Senate Health committee. Cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up wednesday morning, Texas Democratic congressman al green will be with us to discuss his plan to bring articles of impeachment against President Trump on the house floor wednesday. And then Florida Republican congressman ted yoho will be with us. Hell talk about the rising military tensions with north korea over its Nuclear Weapons program. And were live in tallahassee, florida for the next stop on the cspan bus 50 capitals tour with Florida House speaker richard corcoran. Well discuss Sexual Misconduct allegations in the florida legislature. Well also give an update on the