Transcripts For CSPAN3 Confirmation Hearing For Homeland Security Secretary Nominee Chad Wolf 20240712

Wolf. Today we are meeting to consider the nomination of acting secretary of Homeland Security chad wolf to be the confirmed secretary of department of Homeland Security, which is an enormous task. I truly appreciate anybody who is willing to undertake such enormous responsibility. I would ask my written opening remarks be enter into the record without objection well do that. Ill just keep this short because i know we have time constraints here. But a quick description of what enormous challenge this is. The secretary of Homeland Security manages 240,000 people in the department, the responsibilities for Homeland Security are vast. Start with the federal Emergency Management agency deals with hurricanes and wild fires and now covid amongst many other responsibilities. Border security a huge issue. Weve not fixed that problem, not by a long stretch, but thiS Administration done a good job of stopping the out of control illegal entry that we are experiencing over a year ago. This agency this department is concerned about cyber security. Election security. Security over our Critical Infrastructure. And as we just witnessed with some of the protests that sprung into riots, also protecting our federal buildings and we of course tragically lost David Patrick underwood in oakland, california, member of the federal protections services. The responsibilities are enormous. I dont envy any secretary of Homeland Securitys task. I truly appreciate anybody willing to serve in this capacity. One quick word, i do want to talk about for my standpoint what an extraordinary job dhs and quite honestly thiS Administration has done in dealing with covid. I know thats not the narrative in the Mainstream Media and from many of my colleagues, but the fact of the matter is i come from manufacturing background. I understand a difficult situation. Covid is an act of god. And if you think back to the beginning of this when we were concerned about running out of ventilators, we didnt. The president invoked the war production act and we produced ventilators at a record pace and nobody ran out. Personal protective equipment, ppe, i know it wasnt perfect, i know people didnt get everything they wanted, but again nobody ran out. That was dealing with a very difficult situation where demand outstripped supply by two to three time. We heard that in testimony before this committee. So i know the acting secretary. I know pete gainer. I know the men and women throughout the federal agencies that are dealing with covid. They have been working 24 7. For my standpoint, they have done a pretty extraordinary job dealing with a very difficult situation. And you know whats unfortunate Something Like acting secretary wolf, i said these exact same thing with louis dejoy with the postmaster general, not only is it a thankless task but its a task that unfortunately opens you up to character assassination as well. So, i find that very unfortunate. I personally i want to thank you and the men and women that serve with you in the department for working tirelessly to try to keep our homeland secure, keep this nation safe and dealing with all these enormous issues youre dealing with day in and day out, like i said, 24 7. So again, acting secretary wolf, thank you for your past service. Thank you for your willingness to serve in this capacity as well. I welcome you and any guests you may have brought to the hearing room. I hope if you did, i hope you can introduce some of your family members. With that, ill turn it over to senator peters. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, wolf for your willingness to serve. Today were considering chad wolf as secretary of Homeland Security. Under thiS Administration we have seen unfortunately unprecedented willingness to abandon the norms of Senate Confirmed cabinet officials. This has been a particular problem at the department of Homeland Security. The countrys Third Largest agency absolute critical part of safeguarding our National Security. Vacancies and acting officials are part of every administration. But they should be rare. ThiS Administration has abused vacancies to the detriment of this department. The president refused to form formally 234078 nate a leader of the dhs for more than 500 days. A move that was not only legally questionable but created chaos and confusion at the Agency Charged with addressing numerous threats to our National Security. The department cannot successfully tackle the serious challenges it faces without strong, steady and independent leadership. While mr. Wolf has experience at the department primarily as a chief of staff, but also as an undersecretary and now acting secretary, he has been involved in some of the most controversial and concerning decisions the department has made. These decisions warrant a critical review of mr. Wolfs record and call into question whether he is the right person for this critical role. Under mr. Wolfs leadership, the department has faced daunting challenges, Asylum Seekers at our southern border the pandemic, civil unrest and deadly wild fires and hurricanes. While these challenges would strain even the most prepared staff, im concerned by reports of slow Decision Making and the sidelining of experts. Reports that raise serious questions about the judgment and independence of agency leaders. Im also concerned by how the department has failed to adequately address the rise of domestic terrorism and white supremacist violence. As you can see, i have a graph here behind me. As you can see from this graph, the data shows that extremism based in white nationalism, antisemitism, and other idealogies account for more than 77 of domestic terror murders in the United States. You had recent reports and statements from a former dhs employee indicated that the white house in cooperation with mr. Wolf have down played this threat in public risk assessments. Rhetoric and political ideology cannot drive Intelligence Reports, and it should not predetermine the actions of any federal department. While the threat of domestic terror is not new, the departments necessary shift from focussing mainly on the foreign threats that have dominated the departments origins or since the departments origins, it has been 18 years since Congress Passed legislation to establish this massive agency and so much has certainly changed since then. Our country faces persistent threats, both long standing and new. Including foreign and domestic terrorism, election security, Natural Disasters, cyberattacks and now a pandemic. It is this committees responsibility to ensure that any nominee to lead this colossal department has the experien experience, temperament and leadership to address these threats head on to protect the American People. Before i wrap up my remarks, i want to just take a moment to acknowledge the severe toll that the pandemic has taken on the department of Homeland Security. Hundreds of front line personnel have been infected while working everyday to keep us safe. We have also tragically lost six tsa officials to the pandemic. Our hearts go out to all of those who have suffered because of this terrible disease. I would also like to recognize a Border Patrol agent who fighting for his life now after being attacked in arizona while on duty monday night. I thank him and his fellow Border Patrol agents for the work they do each and everyday to keep us safe. Again, mr. Wolf, thank you for your willingness to serve and for being here today to answer our questions. I look forward to having a thorough discussion about the many pressing issues that face the department and our country. So welcome. Mr. Chairman, i would also like to ask unanimous consent to enter a letter received yesterday from House Homeland Committee chairman Benny Thompson outlining his concerns with acting secretary wolfs lack of compliance with requests for information. Without objection. Thank you. Thank you, senator peters. Now its our pleasure to have senator ted cruz who is going to introduce mr. Wolf. Senator cruz. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you to the committee for welcoming me here. I have to say, mr. Chairman, as you self isolate from home, this may actually be a historic moment this may be the First Senate Committee hearing ever with a pool table in the background as i can see you have a lovely pool table in your living room and i will say at this time of deep and contentious division, perhaps if the senate gathered around a pool table with a beer we might be able to get more done than sitting in hearing rooms yelling at each other, but that may not be happening today. With that, it is a real pleasure to introduce chad wolf, who is a fellow texan. And a dedicated public service. He is an individual that i believe is imminently qualified to be the next secretary of Homeland Security. Chad was born in jackson, mississippi. But he very quickly made his way to the great state of texas, and he grew up in plano, texas. He earned degree in history in Southern Methodist university and began his career working for not one but two texas senators. Chad left the hill after the september 11 attacks to serve our country. And to protect us from terrorist threats. Going to work at the newly created Transportation Security Administration in 2002. He became an early leader at the tsa. Finishes up his first round of service there in 2005 as assistant administrator for transportation security policy. After over a decade in the private sector, chad returned to the tsa as chief of staff in 2017. Before becoming deputy chief of staff and eventually chief of staff at the full department of Homeland Security. He has been acting secretary of Homeland Security since november, 2019. And in that role, he has shown strong leadership. That leadership i believe has been tested in particular by the protests that became riots and the violence that we have seen across the country. Nowhere was that violence were those riots worse than in portland, oregon. Where night after night thousands of angry protesters physically assaulted federal Law Enforcement officers, attacked the federal courthouse, threw fire bombs, attempted to reek havoc. Mr. Wolf took his responsibility to protect federal facilities and to protect federal personnel with the gravest seriousness. He did so at a time when political divisions in this country made it much more difficult to so. He did so at a time when the mayor of portland and governor of oregon both told him to in no Uncertain Terms get the hell out. Mr. Wolf was not cowed by political pressure. He was not cowed by the partisan anger of the moment. He was not willing to abandon a federal courthouse which was still hearing cases, was still in operation. He was not willing to hand the courthouse over to the mob and allow them to burn the courthouse to the ground. Nor was he willing to abandon the men and women who hes been entrusted to lead. Federal Law Enforcement officers faced hundreds of violent physical attacks in portland. Having rocks thrown at them, Water Bottles thrown at them, having industrial grade lasers fired in their eyes resulting in numerous serious eye injuries. Having commercial fireworks thrown at them. Having fire bombs thrown at them. Protesters armed with guns, with knives, night after night after night attacking federal Law Enforcement officers in a profoundly politicized context. Ill tell you i have been impressed by acting secretary wolfs steadfast commitment to do his job, to follow the law, to protect the federal facilities he was charged to protect and to stand with the men and women, the Law Enforcement officers, who were risking their lives to do their job. I believe that record in addition to his long history and experience qualifies him well. Im proud to introduce a fellow texan. Thank you, senator cruz, for that introduction and your powerful opening statement. It is the tradition of this committee to swear witnesses in. Secretary wolf or acting secretary wolf if youll stand and raise your right hand. Do you swear the testimony you will give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god . I do. Thank you. Please be seated. The honorable chad wolf is the acting secretary of the department of Homeland Security. Mr. Wolf was appointed to the acting secretary position following his confirmation as undersecretary for the office of strategy, policy and plans in november, 2019. While serving as the senior official overseeing the departments policymaking process, mr. Wolf led the development in coordination of strategies and policies to advance the departments Homeland Security mission. Mr. Wolf previously held numerous Senior Leadership roles within the department including serving as the chief of staff for the department. Prior to joining the administration, mr. Wolf served as Vice President and senior director at wechsler and walker a bipartisan Public Policy consulting firm. Mr. Wolf . Well, good morning, chairman johnson and Ranking Member peters and other distinguished members of the committee. Certainly an honor to appear before you today as the president s nominee to be the secretary of Homeland Security. Im grateful to the president for the faith and trust he placed in me to serve the tremendous men and women of the department. Whose mission is now more important and more critical to the safety and security of the homeland than ever before. Again, i would like to thank senator cruz for being here today to introduce me and for his kind words but more importantly for his continued support for the department in our mission. As each of you personally understand, service to one country means dedication, hard work and commitment. That dedication often means less personal time with family and loved ones, which is a sacrifice felt by all of us in public service. For many years my family has made tremendous sacrifices so i could serve our nation. I would like to take this time to recognize them for their on going encouragement, patience and support as i continue my journey at the department. Please allow me to introduce my wife of 16 years hope. She is my rock and without her i would not be here today. I would also like to acknowledge our two children, tucker and preston, who keep me grounded and focussed on the important things in life like Little League. I would like to recognize my parents, jim and cinda unable to travel to d. C. But are proudly watching these proceedings in realtime. They instilled a sense of service and commitment and have been imminencely supportive of my desire to pursue public service. Thank the important work you do everyday. If confirmed i look forward to work closely together to advance the mission of the department. Finally, i would like to thank the dhs work force what they do of keeping the homeland safe and secure. Most americans dont understand the sacrifices they make, the unfair criticism they endure and the complexities of their job. But from one employee to another, i say thank you for your service. Like many americans, my personal call to Service Began on september 11th. Afs congressional staffer here on capitol hill. At that time, i had no idea that the events of that morning would forever shape my future as well as the future of our nature. Heeding the call to service, i joined again as senator cruz indicated Transportation Security Administration the very agency tasked with securing our air ways and for ensuring that another event like 9 11 never happened again. I was proud to serve at tsa during his inception and integration into the larger department. Over the past several years i had several positions at dhs including among others as the departments chief of staff, assistant secretary and undersecretary position as well as the currently acting secretary position. Over the past ten months, the department has experienced some of the most difficult challenges of our life time. But i couldnt be prouder of the accomplishments we achieved. We faced a Global Pandemic head on and led the federal governments unprecedented response efforts to include the coordinated distribution of billions of items of life saving ppe and aggressively pushed back against maligned foreign actors and nation states who sought to interfere in our elections and worked together to protect our election infrastructure. Weve been tireless in our efforts because we believe that a free and Fair Elections are the foundation of our democracy. We have taken extraordinary measures to protect the American People from a broad ray of threats to include home grown violence extremists, human traffickers, transnational organized crime, illegal narcotics, covid19 and more. Much of which have been directed towards our nations federal properties and Law Enforcement officers themselves. The department has served resources as needed, provided need to local and state partners and done so with the respect and professionalism ive come to respect from the dedicated men and women of dhs Law Enforcement. Finally were supporting our state and local partners as hay fight historic wild fires and prepare against numerous hurricanes. The department marshalled our assets, exercised our authorityings and unified our efforts to safeguard the American People and our way of life. Despite the challenges of today, our eyes are remaining firmly on the horizon. As the strategies of our enemies evolve, dhs will adapt at every turn to defeat those who seek to do our nation harm. As the men and women of dhs can attest, our mission is anything but simple or easy. It is one that is increasingly complex and expansive, one that transcends borders, mission sets and threat streams. Answering the call often in the most arduous of environments and difficult of circumstances has been my sole focus since day one. Its been the greatest honor of life to serve along the 240,000 men and women of the department. If im fortunate enough to be confirmed, i look forward to continuing our progress to secure and protect the lives of all americans. Thank you. Thank you, acting secretary wolf. Thank you for your service. I also want to express my sincere gratitude to your wife and your children. Im sure they dont see a whole lot of you, particularly not since you started serving this role. So thank you very much. There are three questions the Committee Asking of every nominee on the record. Let me ask you to respond to each one. Number one, is there anything you are aware of in your background that might present a conflict of interest with the duties of the office to which you have been nominated . No. Do you know of anything, personal or otherwise, prevent you from fully and honorable discharging the responsibilities to which youve been nominated. No. Do you agree without reservation to comply with any request or summons to appear and testify before any duly constituted committee of congress if youre confirmed. Yes. Now, frequently i will reserve my time and pass the questioning, but maybe its because ive been the target of a number of false allegations here over the last few weeks and months, i know you are having to endure many charges as well. So im just going to basically give you my time to address four current attacks against you or your office. Ill just list them and then you can respond to each of the four. First, if you would respond to the allegations about the order of succession issue. If you could respond to some charges about events occurring at an i. C. E. Detention facility. If you could respond to a whistleblower complaint from brian murphy, the former acting undersecretary for intelligence and analysis. And then just today a brand new charge about contracts that were let out by dhs to your wifes firm. So if you can just take your time, take as much time as you want and address these for the committee, please. Well, thank you, chairman. Ill take those in order. Were certainly aware of the gaos opinion regarding the order of succession at the department. I will say that we very strongly disagree with that opinion. Ill continue to say i respect the role that gao plays, but that again does not dismiss the fact that we believe they have a faulty decision in the legal logic that they used is very inaccurate. So, well continue to talk about that. Thats a non. Binding decision that the gao made. Well continue to state our position and we stated it pretty emphatically about that. So well continue to operate as we have using our existing authorities, using our authorities under the Homeland Security act to designate successors. Department has unique authority to do that. We did that in this case not only the vacancy reform act but under the hsa, which again gao did not comment on. Thats the first one. I. C. E. Whistleblower complaint or any whistleblower complaint, we take whistleblowers very seriously. They have certain rights. Were going to certainly make sure those investigations are played out and well be fully cooperative with that. Regarding the i. C. E. Whistleblower complaint, it is my understanding that the oig is starting to has individuals on the ground in that facility in georgia. They will be talking with those individuals today tomorrow. I look forward to that investigation. Some of what we have seen thus far on some of the most i would say dramatic allegations in that complaint regarding certain medical proceed yurs, some of the facts on the ground and the facts we have seen do not back up those allegations. But again im going to let the oig process play out. If there is a kernel of truth to any of that, you can guarantee that i will hold those accountable and will take very decisive action. But at this point they are allegations and we need to make sure we fully investigate them so that all sides have a chance to be heard. Whistleblower complaint from mr. Murphy is false. Its a fabrication. Completely. I reject any claim i attempted to influence or retaliatie against any individual at dhs but specifically mr. Murphy. I removed or reassigned beginning of august for a very specific reason that i issued a statement on it. I talked about it in the media. It was very clear because i had received credible allegations that he abused his position, he abused his authority and possibly violated numerous legal requirements when he personally directed the collection of information on u. S. Journalists. I have receivered that to the oig. Theres an oig investigation. I told him at the time that i needed to reassign him to ensure that that process, that investigation could go on through ina without any appearance of influence by him leading that organization. Obviously he disagreed with that and we see whats occurring at the time. For me, it was a bright line. If there was even any indication that information was being collected on journalists, i had to take that action before any type of investigation was completed. So, ill continue to talk about everything ive done with ina, the conversations ive had with mr. Murphy. Happy to go in further on that as well. And then of course just recently i think overnight theres a new story about some contract that dhs awarded to my wifes firm. I guess it was in 2018. I just found out about it last night when the Media Inquiry came in. And so, whether i was chief of staff or the acting secretary, undersecretary or any other position at the department, i have no role in procurements. I dont see procurements until they are released, until theyre in the news and on the street. If i was involved in procurements, which i am not, i have recusals in place to not only include her firm but also clients i had before arriving at the department. So again, fabricated story. Obviously no evidence of anything but thats not going to stop folks. So, i appreciate the opportunity to address each of those, chairman. Thank you, acting secretary wolf. Senator peters, ill reserve the balance of my time. Senator peters. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Wolf, as we learned from the faulty intelligence related to the search for wnds in iraq following 9 11 using intelligence to confirm preconceived beliefs or biases can clearly have some devastating consequences. Trust in constitutions is especially essential when youre dealing with National Security issues. It takes years to cultivate trust and only one error of judgment for all of that trust to go away. So, mr. Wolf, my question is, would you agree that accurate Intelligence Reports are absolutely crucial for Law Enforcement and other stake holders to effectively address and counterthreats to our nation . Yes. Is it true in no. You did not with hold it . I did not with hold it. I asked for the product to be improved. Which they did over a period of time and then that product was released at the beginning of september. So it was held for a time. In fact, how long was it with held before the product was improved . So i met i saw that product at the beginning of july. I outlined my concerns not with the underlying intelligence. The intelligence i agreed with. The intelligence has been backed up from the i. C. And others. It was the quality of the product itself that was lacking. Any product that comes out of the Department Im very specific on making sure that is a professional document. When i brought this to the attention of career officials at ina they agreed with me. They had not seen that product before it was about to g out. Agreed it could be improved. I asked them to improve it and came back as a better document the beginning of september underlying intelligence remained the same. It was issued, i believe, on september 4th. Took a couple months after you looked at it for it to come out. Does it normally take about close to two months for you to bring a twopage Intelligence Report up to the quality standards that you think are necessary . Does it really require that much time . No. It doesnt. Again, i sent it back to i na and relied on them to improve the product. We had leadership change in the beginning of august. This is back to mr. Murphy being reassigned. Leadership change. We had new leadership. Acting leadership thats come into that office that was reviewing that office and reviewing a number of the reports. It was part of that process. But youre saying it doesnt normally take two months for a normal twopage report to go through or does it take two months for it to go through . Youre saying that doesnt i cant comment on how long it takes ina to produce each of their documents. What i asked was to improve upon that product. It went from essentially a page and a half to three and a half pages. And it was again in better context and better product at the end of the day. But i think the important part is the underlying intelligence did not change. I didnt direct them to change it. I was focussed on the quality of the product itself. Well, i understand that, mr. Wolf. Just seems to be a real long time to do that kind of change and just curious the report was only issued after news broke act it. News breaks and then it comes forward. My understanding is that there have been a number of potentially problematic products coming from ina. You and vi spoken about that in the past. Is it possible to your staff chose to elevate this particular report to you because there are a lot of reports that come out. Right. Is it possible your staff elevated this report that you with held from release for some time because it was about the president s opponent . No. Not possible . How many Intelligence Reports have you reviewed and put a hold on . I have reviewed again, they dont come to me for approval. We make sure of that. I want to see those as they are released to our state and local partners. I reviewed half a dozen to a dozen inas products again as theyre going out the door to make sure that i understand what they are, make sure they are up to my standards, and then as we talked this one has not. Ive asked them to look at a number of those reports. This one specifically to improve on the product. Again, not the underlying intelligence but the product itself. Sounds like a relatively small number come to your attention. Will you commit to sharing those held reports including prereleased drafts you reviewed with the committee . Prereleased draftings of the other reports you said you reviewed . I can go back and see which ones that they have sent up. So you will provide those to the committee that we can take a look at. Sure. I appreciate it. To your knowledge, has with hold issue or alter Intelligence Reports to align with the white houses messaging and rhetoric . No. No. Mr. Wolf, i sent you a letter last week asking that you and any staff named in mr. Murphys whistleblower complaint as well as other staff with knowledge or involvement in the activities sited in the report meet with the Committee Staff for a tribed interview. As of today you have not responded to that request. Can i get your commitment that you and your staff will make yourselves available for interviews as part of the investigation into these allegations of political interference within dhs Intelligence Reporting . Well, Ranking Member, what i want to say that were currently doing that for various committees at the moment. I appreciate that. We have house intelligence were beginning transcribed interviews. Senate Intelligence Committee expressed an interest although they have not asked for transcribed interviews. Were going through a process i believe three individuals have been transcribed sat for transcribed interviews. We received your letter last friday. Were on the third or fourth business day. We will respond to that. And i look forward, again, to working with the committee as a whole to make sure that you have the information that you need to do your oversight responsibilities. Well, as you said, i appreciate your working with other committees. This committee has primary ov oversight particularly when it comes to your fitness to serve as Homeland Security. I have today your commitment that they will be made available to us . Again, im happy to work with the committee as a whole to make sure you have all the information to do your oversight responsibilities. I also want to indicate there also is an office of Inspector General investigation into this as well. So we need to make sure that were also providing information to them at the same time. So weve got multiple levels of review in this whistleblower complaint. So im running out of time here. But the important issue you and i have spoken about a lot and want to spend time getting some direct answers from you relating to work towards dealing with white supremacist violence and activities. I showed the chart that was here earlier. Could you confirm that the department assesses White House White supremacist violence to be the most deadly threat now facing our nation today . I think when you talk about domestic terrorism, i want to be clear on that front, domestic terrorism, home ground violent extremists which are folks inspired, motivated or directed by foreign terrorist organizations and talk about Domestic Violence extremist, within that category or racially and ethnically motivated individuals and white supremesy extremists you look at 2018 and 2019 are certainly the most persistent and lethal threat when we talk about Domestic Violence extremist. Your question was all of the threats facing the homeland, i dont think i would agree that out of all the threats facing the homeland from nation state threats to pandemics to hurricanes and the like that is the most yes. That was my intent. That was that you answered. Dealing with terrorist attacks that was the intent of the question. I do want to say that its important as we talk about domestic violent extremists and talk about historically, 2018, 2019 we cannot ignore what has been occurring over the past four months when we talk about antigovernment extremists, anarchist extremists, antiLaw Enforcement folks. Well, i agree. Quick question here i know the department finally released your public action to implement strategic framework for targeting violence longtime coming. Its out now. But specifically what actual steps has the department taken in addition to this report what actual step has the department taken to reduce the threat communities face from white supremacist actors . I know there are some Grant Programs out there. Please dont talk about the Grant Programs. What specific actions has the department taken given the fact as you just mentioned given the threat posed by white supremacist groups . Well, understanding you dont want to talk about the Grant Programs but thats a big part of what we do in the prevention sphere. Im granting that. Im giving you that. What else . We do Community Awareness briefings and other types of briefings that our office does wael in conjunction with others. Part of our mission is to make sure were educating folks for sharing information. Were also pushing out probably i believe since april ina pushed out roughly 20 or so products regarding white supremacist extremism to our state and local Law Enforcement officers. Those are two infusion centers. Pushing intelligence out and also providing those Community Awareness briefings and the like. Big part of that are the resources that we put behind that which are the Grant Programs themselves. I appreciate it. Thank you. My time is up. Thank you, senator peters. As long as you brought up the issue of domestic terror threats and white supremacists, ill reclaim a couple minutes of my time. Acting secretary wolf, you seem to make the distinction between whats happened over the last couple years as it relates to the violent extremism and whats transpired over the last four months. I saw videos, press conference put on the chief of police in chicago showed what happened in grants park, they took a left hand turn, went into a park after peacefully protesters, were shielding the people that then started throwing frozen Water Bottles and industrialtype of fireworks and that type of thing at the Chicago Police officers. When you were before our committee a couple weeks ago i asked what is your assessment in terms of who is really fomenting the the peaceful protests that end up in transition into riots. Senator peters seems to link those white supremacist groups. I dont think thats the case but what are you say in terms of what is the main thrust who are the main groups, what is the main ideology behind what we have seen in the last four months peaceful protests turned into pretty destructive riots. I dont know the exact count of how many businesses were burned in kenosha, wisconsin. The city shut down. Its been devastating for the downtown. Can you comment on whose fomenting that violence over the last four months. Sure. Absolutely chairman. What i will say at the outset the department is focussed on countering any forms of violent extremists. Let me say that from the outset. When we produced the framework that the Ranking Member mentioned back in september of 2019, we specifically pointed to two threats when we talk about domestic violent extremists specifically we talk about white supremacist extremists but also talked about anarchist extremists and specifically mention back in september of 2019 antifa and concerns the department was seeing at that point. So this is not anything that the department has come to in the last four months. The last four months have highlight what had we have seen specifically in portland. Now ill talk about portland which i have in this room and before this committee again where we had over 60day period Law Enforcement officers specifically targeted, a courthouse specifically targeted, a seat of justice in Downtown Portland specifically tried to be burned down. The intel that we received out of portland that we received elsewhere across the country as well has this anarchist sort of ideology. But i want to be clear, and i believe director ray has made it clear from the fbi, is we dont look at specific groups. Were looking at the criminality coming out of the activities of groups. So were looking at the criminal activity and of course the fbi is the lead investigator of any type of criminal activity thats coming out. So, what we saw in portland was night after night after night criminal activity occurring at that courthouse against Law Enforcement officers and against that courthouse which is protected by dhs. Specifically in portland, we saw three, four months of activity being organized. It was coordinated. It was not spontaneous every night. So thats what we saw very firsthand and weve seen that in other communities around the country as well. Thank you, acting secretary wolf. L let me give senator portman, hassen, rosen, scott, than romney. Senator portman, are you available . I am, mr. Chairman. Thank you very much for holding the hearing. And secretary wolf, as you and i talked about in our conversation recently, i appreciate your service. This is a tough time for our country in many respects. Covid19, the demonstrations and rioting that we have seen. Youre the middle of it. And our condolences from this entire committee go to the family and to the colleagues of dave underwood, federal protective Service Officer who was killed outside the oakland courthouse in california. But also you lost a couple officers recently to covid19. Contracted on duty. Marco gonzalez and lucas cosado and we think of them too. Recently another officer injured along the border. So, these men and women are doing the work for all of us to make our country safer and more security. Your people are also responding to the wild fires in california and throughout the west and then also obviously the recent hurricanes. So, youre the middle of a lot. I think its really important that we have confirmed leadership at the department right now. For some time i have been concerned about the lack of leadership positions being filled, not just at the top, but through the ranks. I know the chairman shares that concern as does the Ranking Member. We have been working on it. But we need a confirmed secretary. Some said to me, well, were at the end of the first term of the president. Why are we focussed on this . Were focussed because we believe the men and women of the department deserve to have that kind of certainty and accountable leadership. So, i am delighted were having the hearing today. I want to get you confirmed as quickly as possible. And i also think it helps to hit off some of these Court Battles that were talked about earlier, which are obviously a huge distraction for the agency as a critical time. So, in our conversation we talked about the whistleblower complaints. You addressed those today. I appreciate the fact that youre taking those complaints seriously and asking the i. G. To complete the investigation independently and thoroughly. I think thats appropriate and i dont want to be labor that issue. It seems like not only in private have you talked to me about this but in public testimony this morning you made a personal commitment to that. Youve also made a commitment to making sure our elections are safe. And thats really important. We already started voting in some states. We start soon in ohio. We need to be sure theres a unified and streamlined federal effort to help our states and our local efforts to secure our elections. Let me give you a second to expand on that. You mentioned it in your testimony. But can you talk about specifically what dhs has done in this regard. Absolutely. So again at dhs when we talk about election security, we are focussed on Cyber Threats to election systems and election infrastructure. So, over the past three and a half to four years we have been working with all of secretary all 50 secretaries of states, thousands of local jurisdictions, Technology Vendors and the like making sure that our election here in november is going to be the securest election we had to date. Obviously we saw the concerns in 2016. We continue to work throughout 2018 in the mid terms and saw 2018 elections as probably some of the securest elections that we have held to date and we continue to build on that work as we go into 2020. So, very proud of the work that sisa has been doing on election security. So we know in this election cycle the ic has said that they have not attributed any Cyber Campaign against any election infrastructure from a nation state adversary. And i think that speaks to the type of work that we have done over the past three and a half to four years because at this time going all the way back to 2016 there were indicators and warnings that they were targeting our election infrastructure. We dont see that today as i sit here today and i think thats because all of the work that not only sisa has done and the entire inner agency has done and the administration has done is calling out individuals that we have identified that are trying to secretary wolf, can you address briefly the recent report that came out, i believe it was from microsoft, about various countries trying to interfere in the election . They mentioned, as i recall, russia, china, iran . Right. Can you address that . Absolutely. So when we talk about nation state threats to our election systems, we talk about three specifically. We talk about russia. We talk about china. And we talk about iran. They all come about this differently, but all three are a threat. So i have been very consistentt. The intelligence assessment put out by the dni in early august was very consistent about that, and again, the microsoft report that you mentioned also talks about all three of those nation states being a threat. So i know there continues to be a lot of focus on russia, as there should be. You cannot do that at the exclusion making sure we address the threats from both china and iran. So what the microsoft says is not inconsistent with what youre saying in terms of infrastructure not being under attack . Thats correct. Theyre not focused or we dont have specific intelligence theyre focusing on election infrastructure. That isnt to say they cant or wont, but theyre looking at those influence campaigns that we see them let me change the subject if i could and im going to ask about something we did not talk about in our private conversation. That has to do with your Disaster Relief fund. Since the 600 federal supplement on Unemployment Insurance ended, many people have not been able to access their Unemployment Insurance who lost a job through no fault of their own. The president and hiS Administration stepped in, you stepped in and provided help at 300 federal supplement on top of the state supplement per month. That has been a sixweek program. It actually just ended last week. But you took the funding out of the Disaster Relief fund to be able to do that. I personally believe that that 300 extension is a good idea. I think it should be done until the end of the year. I think thats about the right amount. There is no magic number, but thats not disruptive to the labor market, as the 600 was. However, my understanding is that the Disaster Relief fund has now reached its cap. In other words, you set a number that was based on some analysis that left enough money in the Disaster Relief fund to respond to true and actual disasters. So two things have happened. One is we had a lot more Natural Disasters even in the last couple months, certainly the hurricanes and the wildfires are at the top of that list. So more demand for the assets in the fund. And second is, you know, as i said it, we have depleted the entire amount set aside for Unemployment Insurance. I have a legislative proposal and well see what happens, but to try to replenish that fund, can you talk about that for a moment . Its not something i raised before with you and i dont expect you to have all the details, but my understanding is the fund has 24. 7 billion left and thats not enough to handle the Natural Disaster challenges we face plus trying to extend the 300 supplemental program. Can you talk about that . Yes, senator. As of today, fema has obligated around 49. 5 billion in drf funding to support covid19 relief efforts. Thats includes about 39. 6 billion in support of lost wages, senator, which you certainly articulated. Obviously, the drf is also used to respond to disasters. So hurricanes laura and marco, about 581 million. Hurricane sally is 2. 4 million thus far. Well see, again, how that continues to roll out. Our balance in the drf is a little north of 25 billion, so theres still funding inside our Disaster Relief fund to continue to address, as you know, Hurricane Season goes all the way through november, as well as to address the wildfires out in the west so we do have funding as of today in the drf to continue to support, that fema has to continue to support efforts around the country. My time has expired. Just one quick answer. Do we have enough or not . We do have enough as we sit here today. Now, if we have additional hurricanes, depending on size and category of those hurricanes, as well as the wildfires, we may have to have continued discussions with congress and omb about additional funding for the drf. Thank you, chairman. Thank you, senator portman. Senator hassan. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And Ranking Member peters, for this confirmation hearing. Thank you, mr. Wolf, for being here for your testimony, for your willingness to serve, and for the conversation we had last week. And ill join my colleagues in offering condolences to your entire workforce for the loss of the officers you have all suffered and to their families. Mr. Wolf, isis and affiliated forces are gaining strength worldwide. Launching more than 100 attacks in iraq last month, seizing more land in afghanistan and increasing threats on the african continent. This potential resurgence of isis in the middle east, africa, and afghanistan is alarming and we obviously cant ignore it. What steps has dhs taken to strengthen its counterterrorism capabilities in the event isis continues to grow and pursue external operations against the u. S. . Our counterterrorism portfolio and sort of the core capability of what the department has done over its tenure, we have a layered approach when we talk about counterterrorism policies and procedures we put in place from keeping individuals out of the country to identifying individuals as they come into the country, and then to make sure that we are removing individual s as we see fit. We do that with a number of policies. We do that in close coordination with our foreign partners. We do that with travel restrictions we have put in place over the years, but making sure our screening and bedding programs are at the heart of our counterterrorism programs, and i would say our screening and bedding programs are probably some of the best in the world, so we share that, we share those partnerships with our allies across the world. Making sure they have programs like vwp, which is our visa waiver program, our atsg, these are biometric programs we share with them to share information so were able to share that realtime information so we know who is transiting certain countries, making sure if we see individuals that are returning from the battlefield, perhaps back to the u. S. Or back to europe or other places of the world that were able to identify them and were able to work together. Well, thank you for that. And i would look forward to continuing to work on visa security teams as well, appropriately balanced. I have heard from many constituents regarding femas recent policy statement that personal protective equipment and cleaning supplies purchased by schools are not eligible for reimbursement through the public assistance program. While these items may not typically fall within the program, schools have been operating under the impression that they would be reimbursable during the pandemic and have acted accordingly. In new hampshire, the communities of salem and londonderry must now found another way to pay for 350,000 in covidrelated expenses. There has been a bipartisan outcry urging fema to reconsider this position. These are obviously extraordinary times, and schools need this support to help insure that students, teachers, and their families can be safe if theyre able to return to the classroom. Will you commit to reversing this decision and allowing reimbursement for schools who purchase ppe and cleaning supplies . Again, i have talked to the fema administrator about this, and this really has to do with authorities that fema has versus making sure they use that for emergency protective measures, versus just short of your traditional operating expenses. What i will say, though, is there is funding outside of fema to address some of these concerns that schools have. We have over 39 different agencies and have over 3 trillion in funding from covidrelated packages. Im going to interresult yuet you for a second because i know how sparsely those resources have already been spread in my state and there is nothing routine about needing personal protective equipment and Sanitation Equipment in schools to combat a pandemic. There is absolutely nothing routine about that. So i would like you hhs is distributing, again, about 125 million cloth face masks in the month of september as well. I appreciate that, but i will also just point out that fema led schools to believe they would be able to get reimbursed. They have therefore deployed the resources from other agencies in other ways. Let me move on to another question. For months, my staff and i have been trying to get updates from the federal Emergency Management agency regarding sorry, that was the question i just asked you. This happens. Let me move on to the last question i have for you. With less than two months until a president ial election, the nation is being bombarded with disinformation and propaganda coming from russia. Dhss own intelligence and analysis shop said this, and yesterday reports came out that president putin and his top aides are probably directing the operation. Do you believe the russians are seeking to advance propaganda against Vice President biden . On everything i have seen, there are three nation states we have to be very concerned about. One is russia, one is china, and one is iran. They all have different ways and different motivations of doing this. We have seen what the Intelligence Community assessment has said again in early august. Was that russia looks to denigrate Vice President former Vice President biden. China prefers Vice President biden, and iran prefers Vice President biden. So weve got to but the answer is that russia is in fact seeking to advance propaganda against Vice President biden. Thank you for confirming that. All three nation states are. Because i have a little more time, let me go back to one other issue. We have been trying to get updates from the federal Emergency Management agency regarding its role in the purchasing and distribution of personal protective equipment. I understand that many of the tasks handled by your department this spring have now transitions back to hhs and the department of defense, but how precisely is the work being shared and what agency is handling it remains pretty opaque. So can you tell the committee in a straightforward way what femas current role is in the Pandemic Response . Sure, they still continue to coordinate a number of activities, when we talk about making sure that ppe gets to certain places. Again, i talked about earlier about the lost Wages Program that fema continues to administer, and again, thats a covid relief type of activity. So they continue to coordinate the vast majority of activities. I will say, as you indicated, certain activities have transitioned back to hhs, as they are medical in nature. As we continue to fight this. Happy to get you more information, happy to have fema come up and brief you on exactly what theyre doing. Were not this isnt a secret. Its very clear, and we have been very up front about what their role is. And i appreciate that, but it has been very difficult, for instance, to get precise information about projections, for instance, on the amount of ppe needed and what tends to happen is people say, well, hhs is dealing with this or fema is dealing with that, and i think its really imperative we be able to exercise oversight and get precision from yall. I agree 100 . I have to say, you know, as from march all the way probably to present day, fema has been overwhelmed with the number of letters that they have received and theyre processing them as quickly as possible. So we are being as responsive as humanly possible. As you can imagine, they have a deluge of letters from members of congress. Right, and the letters, and i know im overtime, so ill close with this. The letters from congress should be responded to, but if you have a structure in place and clear communication, clear lines of responsibility, and constant communication with us, some of those letters might not be necessary. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thanks, senator hassan. Senator lankford. Thank you. Acting secretary wolf, good to see you again. Thanks for being back in this room once again. The last time we were here, we were talking about what was happening in portland. And federal Law Enforcement that was under assault there by the individuals that were rioters that were attacking the federal courthouse and attacking federal Law Enforcement. At that time, you had said there were about 277, if i remember the number correctly, federal Law Enforcement that had been injured in those attacks. Can you give us an update on our federal personnel and the injuries that have been sustained and how theyre doing . We have had to date about 349 separate injuries to dhs Law Enforcement officers there in portland. Many of those have recovered. So the bones have healed, broeben bones have healed, stitchvise come out and the like. We have about 125 dhs personnel that have eye injuries of one manner or another from those lasers that were pointed, and we dont believe any of them will be permanent. There will be some damage, and some of those are still undergoing evaluation to see whats the extent of that damage. So what occurred in portland in june and july, were still dealing with that today, from a Law Enforcement officer perspective. Again, we not only talk about physical injuries but again, we talk about the doxing of personal information that is out there on the internet, of these Law Enforcement officers and theyre having to deal with that with their families. Some of the attention may not be on portland today, but i can guarantee you, senator, that our efforts at the department are still continuing to support those Law Enforcement officers. Would you tell them thank you from us . Yes, sir. They were asked to do something by our nation to be able to protect federal facilities, and they stepped up and did it. At the cost of their own blood at times. And their families have paid an incredible price for them to step up and do whats right to be able to protect our country. So please do pass on our thank you to those folks. Well, let me head down south. I have seen some of the numbers and the statistics that during the time of the pandemic, the cartels have altered their methods for trying to move illicit drugs into the United States. They have changed techniques. They have changed locations, and the quantities have gone up significantly during the time of the pandemic. We have seen this with people that are in isolation that have struggled with drug abuse in the past. The isolation of the pandemic has caused a severe strain for Mental Health for many of those individuals and driven some people back into their drug addictions or deeper into drug addiction and the cartels are taking advantage of that. What are you seeing on the southern border now as far as the movement of drugs and how our interdiction process is going to be able to protect americans . I think theres a couple dynamics going on at the southwest border, not to obviously include covid, so we have talked about new border wall system going up. We have over 320 new miles of the new border wall system, and those are in very trafficked areas were putting that border wall system up. Thats causing cartels and tcos to try to find new pathways, new avenues into the country. We have dod personnel, assets on the southwest border. Were moving those to areas where we dont have the border wall system. You have more cameras, more eyes, and more agents in areas that have been difficult or historically difficult to patrol. Thats, again, causing disruption to those cartels and tcos. Were seeing more movement through ports of entry, which is exactly where we want to push this sort of illegal contraband. We want to push them to ports of entry where we have people, resources, technology, and its on our terms how we interdict these folks. What we are seeing as we put in travel restrictions because of covid, were seeing some of their tactics change. Theyre using and recruit aglot more u. S. Citizens today than they have historically because we have cut down on that land, the traffic across those land ports of entry. U. S. Citizens and legal permanent residents can still come freely, so were seeing much more of that traffic. Were seeing more individuals trying to smuggle illegal narcotics in as well. So we continue to catch more. We continue to deploy more technology at our ports of entry, our nonintrusive Inspection Technology designed to look inside cars and vehicles as well as individuals. What do you need to continue that work based on the transition and the flow and the effectiveness of the border wall and moving people to other areas where we have additional cameras and additional inspections, what do you need now . I would say two things. Additional resources for personnel, for cbp personnel. Specifically ofo personnel as well as Border Patrol personnel. We have requested that in the past, i believe, three to four president s budget, and that has not been approved to date. So some of our fees that we normally see, some of our sort of normal fees help to increase our personnel as those fees are down because of covid, less travel, the fees are down, so were not able to hire as many folks that we would like to see. We would like to see more individuals at our ports of entry. More time looking at cars, vehicles, individuals. As well as continued funding, and i know congress has been very supportive of that nonintrusive Inspection Program that we have. Were trying to increase our inspections for commercial vehicles, from a very low percentage, i dont have it offhand, upwards to about 70 by 20 20 2023, and for personal vehicles, up to about 40 . Continued support and funding for that initiative as well. Gin, continued support for that new border wall system, again, as we continue to put that in places, we continue to funnel human traffickers, tcos, and others to ports of entry or at least in areas that we prefer to encounter them. The individuals that are crossing the border illegally, do you see some trend changes from 2020 to 2019 . Obviously, covid had a pretty dramatic effect on that. The northern triangle countries have closed down their borders. What are you seeing on the border as far as the flow of people . We have seen a different flow. In 2019, it was mainly uacs, unaccompanied alien children as well as family units from the northern triangle. We put a number of policies and procedures in place. Today, what we see are mainly single adults from mexico, not exclusively, but thats the highest percentage by far. And what we have seen, obviously, that sort of harkens back to the 80s and 90s of seeing that same trend and that same flow. The vast, vast majority, almost exclusively, are coming here for economic reasons. The good news is were able to repatriate them back to mexico pretty quickly, but the different dynamic we see today in 2020 versus 2019, in 2019, folks were coming across the border and sitting down. Sitting down waiting for Border Patrol to come up because they knew they would be released into the interior of the u. S. , and that was the fwoel. Today, theyre running from Border Patrol. Theyre trying to get away. That increases risk on Border Patrol injuries and things of that nature. The dynamic has changed, the demographics have changed, and were trying to change with it. The things you cover and have worked on already, both as deputy chief of staff, chief of staff, and acting director, Natural Disasters, Border Security, terrorism, cybersecurity, election security, its a pretty remarkable portfolio, the things youre having to be able to manage day to day, so thanks to you and your team. The work you have already done. Thanks to your wife and your kids for loaning you out to the nation. And i hope you get a chance to catch some Little League games with the kids as well while youre get agchance to serve us. Thanks for doing it. Thank you, senator. Thank you, senator lankford. Senator rosen. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Ranking member, for holding this hearing. Of course, thank you, acting secretary wolf, for being here today. Thank you for the conversation we were able to have last week before this hearing. I really appreciate it. But i want to go back to your confirmation hearing for undersecretary position that was before this committee on june 12th of 2019. I asked if you were involved in developing the family separation policy, and you answered me, unequivocally, no, maam. I asked how you became aware of the policy, and you told me, quote, through discussions with staff, discussions leading up to the attorney generals announcement in april 2018, unquote. After that hearing, an email exchange became public from december of 2017. You emailed the Justice Department spokesman attaching a memo with the file name, and i quote, uac options. Uac, of course, meaning unaccompanied children. You wrote an email to the other official that you work with others to pull the memo together and that the purpose of the memo was to give thendh secretary nealson, quote, an idea on what she can do right away versus actions that will take months plus to implement. And i end quote. In the opening attached politico memo, its called policy response to the surge of illegal immigration, and out of 16 policy options, family separation is number two on the list. So let me ask you this. I asked if you wouhelped to devp this polly. You told me no, is that correct . Thats correct. You and others, quote, you pulled together a memo for the dhs secretary that discussed the family separation policy, and this policy was implemented. No children were separated from their parents at the hands of our government. So lets go back over the cover email. You said the purpose of this email was to give secretary nielsen, the person whose chief of staff you were, an idea of what she could do immediately versus what would take months. Is that correct . Thats correct. So at your confirmation hearing, when i asked you if you helped develop the policy, you didnt mention this memo, is that also correct . I dont believe the memo was discussed at that hearing, no. Thank you. So lets talk about your memo. Heres what it says for the number two policy option, again, im going to quote. Announce that dhs is considering separating family units. Placing adults in adult detention and placing minors in custody of hhs unaccompanied alien unaccompanied alien children or uacs, but those children you recommended classifying as uacs were not acdhael ua actually ubaccompanied, were they, mr. Wolf . Im sorry, could you repeat your question. Ia said you were going to separate this is what you said in your memo and im quoting. You consider separating family units and treating the children as unaccompanied. They werent unaccompanied. They were part of family units. Thats what you said in your memo. You called them unaccompanied but they werent. Again, unaccompanied is a legal terminology. Let me just say, it was not my memo. You keep referring to it as my memo. As i said last year, the secretary, secretary nielsen relied on not only her operators but also her policy and Immigration Attorneys to develop policy options. You were part of the team, and as her chief of staff, you have direct relationship and responsibility. You are part of a series of memos that went on deciding to separate children and treat them as unaccompanied. I had a responsibility to make sure the secretary was fully staffed. Any time we talk about immigration within the department, i appreciate it may sound simple but its anything but simple making sure we pull general policy, policy office, and any number of individuals inside i have a chief, everyone who has a chief of staff understands that was not my portfolio, not my issue set at that time. Let me ask you this question. You have been acting secretary for ten months. Do you now consider it your job to speak the truth to power when utterly abhorrent policies like this get proposed . And do you support ending jamally separation . Do you stand by that and testify to that . As i testified last year, i testify again this year, i support the president s decision when he issued an executive order to stop that practice, as the department did, and we executed that executive order, i believe, in june of 2018. Thank you. I would like to talk about the ending of tps quickly. 4,000 tps holders and their families, 1700 of those are essential, Critical Infrastructure workers. Meaning they provide Services Americans depend on to operate during this covid19 pandemic. And they are in all of our response efforts, according to dhs guidance, so we know whats happened last week, the decision to deport tps recipients. In light of the federal Appeals Court decision, what are your plans for deporting tps holders from the countries of el salvador, haiti, nicaragua, and sudan . Were not taking any measures at this time, as you know. We cant do that until about 52 days after the court decision. 45 days of that is allowed for individual parties to appeal that decision. We certainly expect that decision to be appealed. So basically, it starts from that 52nd or 53rd day. We then look at a number of those tps decisions that have been issued, but youre probably looking at the earliest 180 days out before any individuals are any tps orders are enforced. Its still very much in the courts, unfortunately. Well continue to play it out in the courts, even though we did have a ninth Circuit Decision last week. Theres still very much and theres other lawsuits, i would say, and other cases depending on the country that were talking about regarding tps, so all thats to say theres not one answer on how were addressing tps. Would you consider protecting those essential workers that are critical to our Pandemic Response . So, well continue to look at that. Again, we have, again, about 180 days before theres going to be any action taken. But these are temporary programs. Tps is a temporary program. We litigated, we talked about this in 2017. Policy decisions were made by former secretaries at that time, regarding tps. If this is a population that the United States congress feels very passionate about, very much like daca, very much like some of these other temporary populations, i would encourage congress to find a lasting solution for these individuals. I would love for us to do that, too, and in the meantime, we are very short of those essential workers in many of our communities across this country and during a pandemic, i would just urge special consideration of those families who are putting their own lives on the line to save others as we this week hit over 200,000 families whose lives are forever altered by the death of someone they love. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator rosen. Senator scott. Thank you, chairman johnson. Secretary wolf, thank you for being here. You know, talking about tps twice in the last year, i took a bill to the floor, all republican senators supported it, which would completely revamp the tps program, which after expired would come back to congress and congress would make the decision of what should happen with regard to tps, and it would have immediately granted tps to venezuelans, which is important, especially in my state, and the democrats blocked it both times. Its interesting theres this interest in doing something for tps, but the democrats dont want to fix it. I want to thank you for what youre doing. I was in pensacola, and the individual who runs the southeast for fema does a great job. I want to thank fema for their efforts, and i know theyre not doing just in florida, but theyre doing it around the country, and as we have had different disasters and the people who work at fema do a great job. Well, i appreciate that. That is obviously kwh we talk about fema, we talk about the Covid Response a lot, but their everyday work responding to wildfires in oregon and california, hurricane laura, theyre still there, still on site, and in pensacola and elsewhere, and we are into the greek alphabet on named storms, so its a very active season. And i appreciate the support. Yeah. So i have been up here, this is my 21st month, along with senator hawley, and i want to tell you my experience with Homeland Security and the people who work for you, theyre very responsive. Your legislative affairs team is very responsive. You get an answer, and its not always exactly what you want, but i can tell you, everybody i talked to, theyre trying to be very responsive. One thing i know that is important to you is Law Enforcement. And i just want to ask you, i dont know if you saw what happened last week. I did an announcement sent to all republicans signed off on, just a resolution in the senate supporting our men and women in Law Enforcement, and it shocked me, but the democrats blocked it. And, i mean, i cant imagine not supporting that. You have a lot of wonderful men and women that work in Law Enforcement, and how does it make the people who work with you feel when you see that people dont recognize that they put their lives on the line . In my eight years as governor, we lost 51 members of Law Enforcement in the line of duty while i was governor. These people are putting their lives on the line every day. How do you think it makes the people feel . Its extremely difficult. Dhs is the largest Law Enforcement agency in the country, from Border Patrol to i. C. E. To secret service, and everything in between. We have an extensive Law Enforcement community at the department. Its not the only thing we do, but its a big portion of what we do. Everywhere i go and travel and get an opportunity to talk with those Law Enforcement officers, the first thing they say, and they could say a lot of things, the first thing they say is thank you. Thank you for talking about what we do and how we protect the homeland. They put on a badge, put on a uniform every day at great risk to themselves and their families, and theyre just trying to going to work and protect their communities. When they see some of the dialogue out there, in trying to paint them a certain way, with a broad brush, you know, obiio obiiously, there are bad actors in every profession. We need to hold those individuals accountable, but when they Start Talking about Law Enforcement across the board as being racist or whatever it might be, it impacts these individuals. Theyre not robots. Theyre humans. And so i try to talk to them a lot about, you know, making sure that they understand the support that they have at the very highest levels of the department. Making sure that were supporting them, not only through training and resources and ppe and covid environment, but i think a lot of what we do in supporting them is what we say publicly. And making sure that we have their back. You know, we need to hold individuals that are, you know, that abuse that accountable, and ill do that from my position. But federal protective service, and we talked about portland here a little bit. I dont think most people knew about the federal protective service, you know, five months ago. Right. They know about them now. They know about the work they do, being unfairly targeted and the like. I appreciate those comments and ill keep talking very specifically about the Law Enforcement mission the department has. Thank you for doing that. I had the opportunity to visit the u. S. Customs and Border Protection International Facility in miami, i guess it was before covid, so i think it was last fall. And they went through and talked about how theyre trying to combat counterfeit goods from communist china, and we have seen unbelievable human rights abuses. There was an article today, i havent looked at the background of it, but on top of what theyre doing to the uighurs, theyre doing something similar with the tibetans in communist china, and its disgusting. Can you talk a little bit about what youre doing to try to crack down on goods produced with the statesponsored uighur forced labor and how youre able do that and how difficult it is for your mail centers to stop some of this counterfeiting and deal with human rights abuses . I have been to the same mail facility in miami, and its quite an impressive operation that they have, as they screen parcels coming in. When we talk about china and forced labor, the Department Took some action recently along with the administration in putting in removal orders for specific Companies Operating in china that have been identified of using forced labor. So from a cbp perspective, we can put these orders in place that are actually fairly effective because we simply dont let the product come in. It allows companies that are using those, that have relationships with those companies, theyre going to have to shift, adjust, make sure subcontractors and folks theyre using in china are not part of the order or have not been identified as having these abuses, having this forced labor, having products made frame forced labor. We think theyre very effective. Theres obviously other things the administration can do as far as sanctions and other activities, but from a dhs perspective, we think that these orders are very effective and were very proud of sort of the piece of the pie that we played there, and were very forceful in leaning forward and making sure we identify these companies that are using this forced labor in china, and calling them out. I just want to finish by thanking you. I had the opportunity to meet with dhs individuals in Central America. I met with them along the border, with mexico, and i can tell you theyre a class act, trying to do their job. And they need the support of congress. So thank you very much. Appreciate it. Well, thank you, senator scott. I think senator romney is next on the list, but he might have logged off. Senator romney, are you there . If not, well go to senator carper. Thanks, mr. Chairman. Mr. Wolf, welcome. Good to see you. Thank you for joining us today. I mentioned this to you before, but i think it bears remembering. The name jane haul loot may or may not mean anything to you, but she used to be deputy secretary of the department, and shes testified before us in that capacity any number of times. I remember once when she said to us that one of her foremost goals as the deputy secretary what to gez the department of Homeland Security off gaos high risk list. She would go and meet with the controller general on like a monthly basis, and say that this question, how can we get off your highrisk list. They would lay out the steps that the department of Homeland Security needed to take, and ultimately succeeded. Ultimately succeeded. I learned the other day from my staff that dhs is one of now one of three capital level agencies with over 400 open ations awaiting act, with a high number of open recommendations. Among those recommendations are 26 priority recommendations related to emergency preparedness, related to border and transportation security infrastructure, and cybersecurity, among others. You and i talked a little bit about this before on the phone, but i just want to gauge your interest in, if you are confirmed and in as secretary, to have the same kind of position that jane held for these issues when she was deputy secretary. Yes, senator, and i appreciate the conversation we had on this. We have about a 50 decrease from a high that the department had in january of 2011, and its only slightly above our alltime low we had in september of 2018, and as you know, and im sure ms. Loot said, you know, our practice at the department is we actually dont close out any gao recommendation until both we and the gao agree that it is closed out. So that may not be the practice across the government writ large, but thats the practice at dhs. And also point to an april 2020 letter that we received from the comptroller general highlighting the remarkable effort that dhs has implemented about 83 of all gao recommendations during the past four years, and that exceeds the overall average of most federal agencies. So thats not to say that we dont have more work to do. We do. We get a lot of recommendations given our breadth and our mission, and well keep plugging along. It continues to be a focus of mine, not only making sure to respond to the gao but also the ig. Thank you, thats encouraging. The preamble to the constitution starts off with these words, in order to form a more perfect union, and the goal of our founder fathers was perfection, knowing we would never get that, and i think thats a good goal for us in this committee, and certainly a good goal for Homeland Security. So i urge you to maintain the attention and the commitment there. Second, a number of us have been down to Central America, and with a special focus, as you know, on hondurans, salvador, and the triangle countries, and one of the countries among the three where we had seen the most illegal migration, as you know, is guatemala, and a lot of folks are coming out of the highlands, and when i went down there, i said why are so many people coming out of the highlands . They are said the farmers, agrarian people, and they have been going through a series of droughts that have decimated their ability to raise crops, including coffee. And my colleagues know im a big root cause guy. I dont just look at the symptoms of problems. I say what is the cause of the problem, and do you have any thoughts about a connection between the illegal migration of folks out of the highlands of guatemala and whats going on in terms of our climate . My son our oldest son lives in california. They have just been through fire storms from one end of the state to another. My wife was down in antarctica in january where they set record temperature of 70 degrees in an arct ca ark caw, and were seeing a Record Number of hurricanes expected to come to our country. Something is going on here. I think something might be going on in guatemala. What do you think . I appreciate the question. We have done extensive work with the northern triangle of countries, with the government of mexico, and others over the past three and a half, almost four years now. We im trying to think of where to start. We signed a number of agreements back in 2019 from Asylum Cooperative Agreements to security agreements to biometric agreements making sure from a departmental perspective, we continue to help them. We work with the inner agency, with the state department, with usaid and others to help with things like food insecurity, we also address corruption. Theres a number of issues the countries you mentioned specifically are dealing with. The department plays a spock role when it comes to security. We send teams down there. We had embedded teams in guatemala, honduras, el salva r salvador, this was precovid, building up their capacity, because what we know and what they have said to me, officials have said to me specifically, is that the more stability that they have in their country, so whether thats security, whether thats food security, whether thats an economic environment that allows individuals to stay there, is best not only for their country but for our country as well. So were working as an interagency, as a full government response, and dhs has a piece of that, making sure that we provide the resources to support the Capacity Building for Central America and for the northern triangle countries. Thank you. Five or six years ago, they had a president ial election in guatemala, and there was a newcomer who was running, he had his own television show, a very popular guy. His name was jimmy morales, and his Campaign Motto was neither a thief nor a crook. He got elected to be president , and i remember working with him from afar, from down there, and from afar trying to mentor him, and encouraging him to surround himself with excellent people and not to follow the same bad path that a number of his predecessors had followed, corruption and that sort of thing. He ended up leaving in maybe not disgrace, but in just greatly discredited. Was a huge disappointment. Theres a woman who was the attorney general in guatemala who wanted to run for president , and she was in el salvador meeting with a guy who saw the president there, and figuring out how he got elected, the president of el salvador, and how that would help her in her campaign in guatemala, and then she was not allowed to come back into her country. Could not come back. Was denied. The attorney general, she was death on crime, death on corruption. Why do you suppose we never stood up for her, not to say we ought to elect her, but at least encourage the authorities in guatemala to let her come back to run . Im not sure i can answer that question, senator. Its before my time, so im not specifically familiar with that individual. What i can tell you, though, is the relationship we have with the president S Administration in guatemala is good. They are a strong partner. They understand, they want to continue sort of the agreements we have put in place with guatemala as well as the other countries. They have committed to that, and we continue to build on that progress. So when we talk about the administration there today, they are good partners. We continue to work with them. We think we can always do more. And then obviously, covid has been a challenging time for all of us, particularly the northern triangle. We have provided resources to increase their testing, to increase some of their quarantine capacity as well. We continue to support them on a number of fronts. All right. Thanks very much. Thank you. Thank you, senator carper. Senator hawley. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Wolf, thank you for being here. I enjoyed speaking with you last week in anticipation of this hearing. Let me talk to you a little bit about operation legend, which the department is participating in, which is so important in my home state. Just last week, with another tragic shooting death in the city of st. Louis, that marked that citys 195th death this year. Three months to go, of course, in the year. That already surpasses last years total, which was itself horrific. 194 killings in 2019. Were seeing a surge in Violent Crime in my state and across the United States. Thats one of the reasons i so appreciate your departments help and cooperation with operation legend which itself is named for a missouri resident, legend taliaferro, who was killed in his home in kansas city, missouri. You talked at some length in the departments involvement in operation legend. Can you give us an update on where those efforts stand . We continue to support the department of justice. I talked a little bit about mutual aid support. Any time the department of justice calls up, tells us they need additional investigators, so mainly were talking about i. C. E. , Homeland Security investigators that are involved every day with criminal organizations, illicit crime, firearms, anything that comes across the border and has a nexus inside the u. S. , they get involved in. And so they are the primary response as we work with operation legend in various cities throughout the country to include in missouri. So were happy to do that. I. C. E. Hsi is happy to lend their expertise and specifically focus on some of that Violent Crime activity occurring in those areas, and obviously, senator, you know the idea of operation legend is surge resources in there so you can close cases quicker, you can get them to the investigative stage quicker. You can get them through that investigative and prosecutorial stage. So you want to speed up the timeframe, because as you know, being the attorney general, it takes time to get through all this. You want to flood the zone with resources to address the issue, and were happy to be a part of that. Thank you for what youre doing. And as someone who served as the attorney general of my state, my states former chief Law Enforcement official, i can tell you that having additional resources, we always welcomed prosecutorial help, investigative help, so i know that missouri Law Enforcement officials are very grateful. They told me that, they said that on the record. Im very grateful for what youre doing. And thank you for your partnership with doj and your help to our local officials who oftentimes are very strapped for resources. Thatsd just t thats just the fact of the matter in all times. I want to shift topics and talk for a second about Human Traffickings. Earlier this year, the department announced a new strategy to end Human Trafficking and recognize that issue as a priority for the Homeland Security department. I applaud this new focus. I have introduced legislation in this congress to authorize a comprehensive study to determine how widespread Human Trafficking is now in this country. We havent had a comprehensive study of this sort in over a decade. I think its time we find out. Can you give us an update on the implementation on the strategy. This is an area where dont know the campaign has talked about it at length. We have a blue campaign, i. C. E. , hsi does a lot of work, but its not an area the department has traditionally talked about. Were trying to change that, specifically over the past year, but even if you go back two to three years, we have a strategy, as you talked about, at the beginning of this year, in october, well be opening a Human Trafficking center at the department. So again, were trying to signal that this is a threat. This is a sort of a threat line that we continue to focus on at the department. Making sure that were apply lg of the resources throughout the department into one center to attack this issue head on. So i can get back to you on the specific updates from the strategy itself. But let me just leave you with the fact that we take this seriously. We are devoting extensive resources to it. This is not just a oneoff issue that we like to tack on at the end of a sentence. This is an issue we care deeply about and were put aglie puttif time and effort into it. The department did so much last year to raise awareness about the level of trafficking we were seeing on the southern border and the horrific details about the use of children, the selling, the renting of children, and how trafficking rings were doing this on the southern border. That awareness, i mean, getting those facts out there and then coming up with a strategy to combat that i think is so key, and the department, i think, is stepping up to that. I encourage to continue to make that a focus. We continue that on the southwest border with our fraudulent family unit program, which is making sure as individuals come across that border and claim to be a family, that we hold those individuals accountable, and wleere doing that a couple different ways, rapid dna and elsewhere, and we continue to find a high amount of fraud. Whether these are individuals and children that are being trafficked or being smuggled or the like, were finding a High Percentage of fraud there. Human trafficking has got to be the worst of human rights abuses. It truly is modern day slavery. Its a travesty to have it in any form in this country, and i applaud you and encourage you to continue the efforts to use the full weight of the department to root it out. And to bring those criminals who are perpetrating it, whether inside this country or outside, by pushing it into the country to bring them to justice. Let me talk to you about another form of human rights abuses going on in china. Senator scott mentioned this, and i just want to follow up. I was delighted to see that cbp take action last week by issuing five new release hold orders on products made in chinese facilities, and one chinese facility that is considered a concentration camp, we need to do more. I have introduced legislation to make sure the whole of their supply chains are slave free. To your knowledge, is cbp currently weighing any more comprehensive bans, limits, on the importation of goods from the region of shin jong rather than just bans on specific producer snz. The answer is yes to both of those. So continue to look at not only sort of a regional approach but also additional producers. Cbp also took similar actions, i believe, with a company out of malaysia several months ago as well. China is a big focus, but were looking across the globe, making sure we hold folks that are participating in forced labor accountable. So so far, this fiscal year, cbp has issued 12 wros, including 8 from china itself. Well continue to lean in on that. Very good. Again, i salute your work on that and hope that well be able to push forward and to do our best to root out this sort of forced labor and certainly to end any american complicity in it. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator. Senator sinema. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I appreciate acting secretary wolf joining us today. I want to focus my questions today on several issues related to Border Security and immigration. Key issues, of course, in my home state of arizona. I remain knhin committed to fin bipartisan and common sns solutions to securing arizonas border while also treating migrants fairly and humanely. Strong Border Security and a fair immigration system should be mutually reenforcing goals and im always ready to work with my colleagues in a bipartisan way to achieve these goals. My first question, mr. Wolf, your department has not completed Environmental Stewardship programs for border barrier projects in arizona despite local stakeholders expressing concerns about the impacts on water resources. While we have received reports that these will be available soon, construction began before mittgration plans were complete. I will note that my office received reports of dynamite blasting in a canyon yesterday related to wall construction. Do you believe esp should be completed before dhs starts construction on a specific action or takes an action such as blasting with dynamite that will have a permanent impact on our land . We continue at the department, mainly through cbp in conjunction with the army corps of engineer whose is building the new border wall system to minimize or mitigate any impacts to Natural Resources along the southwest border. The president did issue a natural emergency, so were waiving regulations to make sure that work does not slow down, is not delayed, and we continue to build a new border wall system. That is not to say, again, that we take our environmental responsibilities seriously, and we continue to solicit information from the public on how to address environmental impacts. Now, as we talked earlier, i believe last week, on the Environmental Stewardship plans, those are almost to completion. Those should be issues in october, and were happy to share those with you. Though specifically regarding the 137 miles in the tucson sector, so well continue to abide by our responsibilities to make sure that were good stewards of the environment, making sure were doing everything we can to minimize and mitigate impacts of the environment as we build that new border wall system, but its been very clear that that is a National Security issue, and were going to continue to build that new border wall system. Well, thank you. I just want to note that the reports are not available yet. And yet there was dynamiting in the quadloupa canyon yesterday. It seems like theres a cart before the horse situation, and i do want to know that residents of Southern Arizona have expressed intense concern about this. I hope this is something you would be willing to address in the order in which you move forward with these projects. My second question is a common theme that i have raised in many of our conversations, is the insufficient communication between dhs, stakeholders in arizona, and my office on a variety of issues. This includes the border barrier construction concerns we just discussed and it also includes a wide array of other topics like the use of hotels to detain migrant children, consultation with arizonas tribal leaders, crossing restrictions at our ports of entry, and the use of title 42 authority at the border. My office has asked you and your office to provide the guidance your department uses to keep detainees safe and insure trafficking victims are not returning to danger in mexico. I have also asked you to take some commonsense steps such as having proper back and forth with tribes on issues such as wall construction. Can you tell me the specific steps you have taken to improve communication between dhs and our state, local, and tribal partners in arizona . Sure, senator. I have talked to leadership both at i. C. E. Based off conversations you and i have had as well as cbp, making sure those lines of communication, it starts at the local level. Theres only so much i can do from d. C. , but i need to make sure that i. C. E. Area director, cbp port directors there in arizona are making sure theyre communicating with their individual stakeholders. So i have obviously have gone to arizona numerous times over the past ten months, and every time i go, i start off with a roundtable of dhs leadership making sure that they understand what my priorities are and the top priority usually in all of those roundtables is about communication. So making sure theyre communicating to their stakeholders why were putting in border restrictions at ports of entry and why were doing what we do. We address the issue i believe we had with the mayor of phoenix trying to understand more about the use of hotels for uacs. Again, thats a practice that dhs has been utilizing for a number of years, over a decade. But again, was able to get the i. C. E. Director on the phone with the mayor and i think that issue has been resolved as well. So well continue to make sure that were communicating. I tried to meet with a number of tribes in arizona, unfortunately right at the beginning of the outbreak of covid and i believe the reservation was closed at that time, so continuing to be willing to meet with any and all individuals but it starts there at the local level within the state of arizona. Thank you. And i appreciate that. I note that the mayor is eager to have constant communication and an open line of communication with folks representing dhs in the metro phoenix community. My last question, currently, dhs provides a migrant who is going through pacr or rrp with a 48hour consultation window prior to their interview with an asylum officer, but they have inconsistent and limited ability to receive calls back from legal representatives or nonprofit organizations. Can you talk about how you plan to address this issue so that migrants in these programs can receive the phone calls from counsel . Absolutely, senator. So pacer and harper, the two programs i believe youre referencing, those are expedited removal programs. So obviously, thats authority granted to us by congress to make sure that we do those removal proceedings in an expedited manner. We make sure they have access to counsel, that they have all of their die process rights, but it is an expedited process and we try to get that down to a certain number of days. So we continue to make sure, again, that they have, again, access to counsel. Or any other Legal Services that they may need to represent themselves or their clients. Again, but i think its important to keep in mind that pacer and harp are part of the expedited removal process the department goes through every day. So its different than other removal proceedings where perhaps that will drag on for days sorry, weeks and months, and theres multiple opportunities. The expedited removal process is, again, defined by congress and were trying to do that in a very expedited manner. But we continue to allow them access to counsel and any other Legal Services theyll make. Last comment ill make, i want to note that only 13 of over 2,000 harp cases, in 18 in over 2700 pacer cases have had a legal representative in their proceedings so theres clearly a lot to work to do here. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I yield back. Thank you. Thank you, senator. Again, acting secretary wolf, i want to thank you for your service and sacrifice. I want to personally again thank your wife and kids. They dont get to see you as much as im sure they would like to. Again, appreciate that, and please convey my personal appreciation and the committees appreciation to all of the men and women who serve with you, working day in and day out, 24 7, trying to keep our homeland safe. God bless all of you. We appreciate it. The nominee has provided Financial Disclosures and comments. Without objection, this will be made part of the hearing record with exception of the financial records which are available for inspection in the committee offices. The hearing record will remain open until 5 00 to mean for the submission and statements and questions for the record, and like many of our Committee Members mentioned, its important that we have a confirmed secretary for the department of Homeland Security, so acting secretary wolf, ill do everything i can to move this along as expeditiously as possible. Thank you. This hearing is adjourned. Amer programs as a preview of what is available every weekend on cspan3. Tonight, a look back at the 1960 president ial elections with the Nixon Kennedy debates. The firstever televised president ial debates. Barbara perry, president ial studies director at the university of virginias miller center, talks about how the debates came to be, the issues, the candidates and how the debates created public expectations for later president ial campaigns. Watch tonight beginning at 8 00 eastern. Enjoy American History tv this week and every weekend on cspan3. Senate Judiciary Committee chair Lindsey Graham announced the Supreme Court nomination hearing for Amy Coney Barrett will begin monday, october 12th, with opening statement. On tuesday, the 13th, the nominee begins taking questions from Committee Members. Chairman graham says he expects the hearing will take three or four days. You can watch live coverage every day of Amy Coney Barretts Supreme Court nomination hearing on cspan, online at cspan. Org or listen live on our free radio app. With the ongoing Global Pandemic and many schools shifting to online learning, cspan student cam competition continues to provide students with a platform to engage in a national conversation. Were asking middle and High School Students to produce a five to sixminute documentary exploring the issues they most want the president and new congress to address in 2021. Justice is the conformity to choose, fact or reason. The framers of the constitution were invested in giving american citizens justice including those at times as show in the amendments. From then to prt