Spoken on this and of course we are eager to hear your questions , and again your expertise in this area. Madam chair, i appreciate about whatve said ive been doing. The attorney general and i have known each other for a long time, long before he was attorney general we have talked about this a great yield. Dayw the article the other a great deal. I saw the article the other day post where somebody is having an overdose in new jersey and the person with them can call for medical help without being arrested themselves. We did this thing called the place in burlington, vermont, for seven or eight years back in the late 60s and early 70s, because, as chief Law Enforcement officer of the county i can put offlimits. Nobody would fall to the record. We had young interns and residents at the medical School Volunteer their time to be there. Of them is now a noted surgeon in this area. Said,eciate what you senator bozeman. I have talked about this before. This is not the issue here today, senator murkowski talked case. The stevens i totally agree with her. Applaud your decision it never should have been brought. It should not of been handled the way it was. I agree with that. Note, when the Justice Department arrested , osama bin ladens soninlaw, you receive a huge amount of criticism because you had received a grant warning. That america is strong enough, we can use our courts, the best in the world. And brought him to new york and he was convicted. In fact, i would much rather be prosecuted in that case the prosecutor in that case then the defense attorney. I think we have had three or four convictions in a military tribunal. We have had several hundred in our federal courts, so thank you for doing that. You prove to the rest of the world that we use our system and it works. You got a good conviction there. I commend you on that. Vermont, we have used Law Enforcement to deal with traffickers and attics. I urge you in the department to continue helping both local and state governments in these kind of programs. That is certainly our intention. I would like to hear more about the place, and see how that worked. Those are the kinds of locally based innovative kinds of things that we want to identify, if the evidence shows of their effective, we want to try to support them. That is why the grantmaking function of the Justice Department can be so important. We are working as best we can to deal with this epidemic of heroin, the continuing problem of math. Drugs continue to be a problem for this nation. The connection between drugs and. Iolence is inescapable the number of people who are on drugs or have drugrelated crimes in our prisons is still exceedingly high. Take from this smart on Crime Initiative any sense that we are retreating from our enforcement responsibilities in that regard there at all we are tying to do is come up with ways in which we can be more effective, and ultimately knocked down the recidivism rate i dealing with people who have drug problems that tend to breed crime. Excellent use attorney there is an excellent use attorney in vermont. Has been helpful to have the Justice Department so involved. Officergot to know the into the could she and liquid seat prevention. By requiring to have a presence in just 30 states, rather than the current requirement to serve at least 45 states. Obviously, and you are representing the second smallest te in the country, i worry are you going to give priority that havel programs shown a proven capacity . We certainly want to support again, what we want to do is try different things. For those things that the evidence shows work, we want to support those. To the extent that you have a geps perhapsoj to talkback, i want about that, because i dont want size to be the prime determinant and how we are apportioning our funds or how we are using our grantmaking capability. We want to make sure that in large cities and small towns, to the extent we can, a positive Justice Department presence is there. Know the, i just might nations Immigration Court system. You have 32 vacancies, nearly of the judges are eligible for requirement. Cases of grown by 50 . We requested 17 million to support additional 35 to process audges. Acklog of over 350,000 cases is this a priority . Weause i really worry that thatt such a Tipping Point justice will just be totally denied. It is a priority. We have made a specific request for those 35 immigration judge teams. We think that would have the potential to reduce caseloads. I think of between 25000 and 35,000 cases. We have to get at the backlog that exists. We can do that by coming up with innovative procedures and basesses, but i think at we simply need more immigration judges. That is why we have included in our fiscal year 2015 request, those additional funds for additional teams. Thank you very much. Thank you, madam chair. Senator leahy, we are chairing with the attorney general and how to look at cops on the beat. Senator graham . Thank you, madam chairman. My reserve unit last night got a briefing from about 69 task forces that are dealing with crimes of sex trafficking, exploitation of young women in. Articular i was just really impressed by what i saw. I want to come visit and see how can we maximize that. I think the committee would be astonished at what is going on out there, at least i was. I will speak for myself and i want to commend you on the program. Could, in 2016 when 2016 funds kick back in, what does it mean to your , future attorney generals, to be a will to protect this nation if sequestration is fully implemented Going Forward . I can tell you that it will have a devastating impact, as it did over the course of the last couple of years. Put into effect a hiring freeze three years or so ago, we lost about 4000 people in total in the Justice Department. 1470 attorneys and support staff, 900 attorneys and support staff. With a six percent of the roughly 10,000 lawyers in the department. The fbi last over 980 agents and staff. Those are pretty daunting numbers. You cant expect the Justice Department to do the job that the American People want us to do and that we want to do if we are faced with that kind of issue again. I would not wish this upon any of my successors. It gets worse over time, right . Absolutely. We have in place now a budget for the next two years that will help us make up some of the lost ground, but unless we have in 2016 a realistic budget that deals with the need, we can have another flat budget and we certainly cant go sequestration unless we have a budget that increases the amount of money that goes to the Justice Department. We will find ourselves in the same place. At the end of the day, it will effect on performance. We will be less safe as a nation. I think that is right. You think we are still involved in a war against radical islam for lack of a better definition . Agree with that. And homegrown terrorism is a threat that we have to deal with now. It is growing. And that keeps you up at night. Were going to have to get ahead of cyberattacks in this country. The threats are growing in the budgets arent shaking. Who wouldve thought of that . I am hoping congress will rethink this and we get some relief to sequestration in a bipartisan fashion. Republicans and democrats given we will replace it with something that make sure the country is safe. Now back to my topic, how to defend america . Article three courts have a very viable role in the war on terror. You have told me you believe theres a place for military commissions. Are we still on the same sheet of music . Agreed. Do you agree with me that enemy combatant status being conferred on a potential terror suspect is still awful in this country . We can hold somebody that is an enemy combatant enemy the criteria . If they meet the criteria there is a legal basis to that. When it comes to stopping potential attacks against the sontry we have done with gathered intelligence with from people before we are processed before we have prosecuted them. Is in their group has been held for years down there at guantanamo . There are people of another for 1012 years. People say they have been waterboarded. I think that is not true. Captured binve laden because intelligence we gathered from a long. Of time. Do think that is a fair statement . There were a variety of things that led to the death of bin laden. Some of it was intelligence gathered from people who were detained at guantanamo. And some was outside. Heres what i want to make sure you understand. I will support article three, but mr. Attorney general, you will never convince me that the criminal Justice System is the best way to gather intelligence in a war. I dont know of any military in the world that uses the criminal Justice System to gather intelligence from enemy combatants. They have a military intelligence gathering process, which is a completely different legal and ever. You agree that gathering intelligence is different than prosecuting . And that is why the process we put together involves the hague. We put in a whole Different Team that is responsible for the trial of the case. Ok. Convictions are great. I am more worried about finding from that suspect what the enemy is up to very the trial is important. The soninlaw bin laden, how long was he interrogated before his miranda rights were red . So, believe about a week or but im not sure. Ugly it was hours not days. Heres my only point. I think the article three trial is the right venue for him. Here is where we differ. If we keep criminalizing the war when we catch these guys, if we dont hold them for a. Of time to gather intelligence and put them right into the criminal Justice System, i believe we are missing great opportunities to find out what the enemy is up to, because a person believes that once you moran dies someone and get them a lawyer, it is much harder to gather intelligence than it would be if you let your military and cia officers lawfully not torture to gather intelligence. I just hope that you are sensitive to this, because i think we are giving up intelligence gathering opportunities by putting people in court after that. It makes it more likely we get attacked if we go down criminalizing the war. That is just my two cents worth very i think our spirits as shown him and in some ways it is surprising that once we come into contact with these people, and even after they are given their rights, their still for whatever reason, desire to talk. They waived their rights frequently as will speak with us. For a fruitful interactions were we have gathered usable intelligence in the article three setting. It is not to say, because i have sent people who tend to forget this, have sent people to the military commissions. I think we have to have both. I dont think we should shy away from using a system that is tried and true. Im way over my time. I couldnt agree with you more. On to make sure before we put them in a military commission an article three courts that which i do gather as much intelligence possible lawfully before we try them. Mr. Attorney general, we thank you for your testimony today. As you can see, this is a pretty smart, aggressive committee. We really want to work across the aisle and protect our people. Started first of all with the constitution. We want to protect the constitution, we want to protect people against all enemies foreign and domestic. That means the scum who prey on greed like mortgage fraud all the way up to these despicable acts of terrorism. You have a big job and we wish we had a bigger budget. We will take a good look at it and see how we can support you. Elects a one thing. That is a thank you to the committee and to the chair as well as senator shelby. We had dark days in 2013. The flexibility that you allowed moving moneyd to around meant that people at the Justice Department did not have to be furloughed. It meant that people have the ability, the basic ability to pay mortgages, to keep their kids in school, to buy groceries. It allowed the Justice Department to do the job under very trying circumstances. We were not available to do that without the flexibility that you gave us. On behalf of the hundred 13,000 men and women of the Justice Department, i want to thank you for this committee generally, but you to specifically for this flexibility. Well, we could not have done it had been at work on a bipartisan partnership, and really, with our colleagues in house congressman rogers and lily. This is where we are trying to say we are all in it together. To thetake the same oath constitution and to protect us. So we thank you for that, you are in the front lines and were going to worry about the bottom lines. Were going to excuse you now and say that if there are questions related to the attorney general, the record intobe open, and we us respondent 30 days. Inspectoro go to the general now. Senator shelby. Ms. Chair, have several questions for the attorney general. The senators right will be protected, as are others. We are really doing 60 hearings in six weeks, so there are many who wanted to come that couldnt. It will be additional questions. Thank you very much, mr. Attorney general. We now call upon the Inspector General, echo horowitz rowitz. Horwi senators shelby and i are vigorous supporters of the Inspector General system. We look forward to your testimony and your advocacy here. Please proceed, sir. Thank you, madam chairwoman and Ranking Member shelby, members of the subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me to testify today and for your continued strong support of our work. Itll be hard for me to overstate the importance of having an appropriated budget fiscal year that we can plan around and that will enable us to rebuild our staff, which shrunk by nearly 10 over the past two years. Eover, we are moving fastugh our staff is dead they performed at extraordinarily high levels over the past two years. Last my parents before you june, our office has issued numerous imports of important applications for a budget. Month, we report on departments efforts to address mortgage fraud. We audited the fbis management of terrorist watchlist nominations and we reported on the federal bureau of prisons efforts to prove acquisitions through strategic sourcing. We continued to conduct Cyber Security efforts. For example, we are reviewing the fbis implementation of its nextgeneration Cyber Initiative , as well as the fbis regional computer forensic laboratories. We are reviewing the us governments handling and sharing of intelligence information leading up to the Boston Marathon bombing or it would also continue our efforts to ensure that allegations from whistleblowers are reported, investigated and handled appropriately. Wereroud of our efforts recently recognized certification from the office of special counsel. We will continue to foster an open and effective environment for whistleblowers to come forward with information about waste, fraud, abuse and misconduct. Late last year in our annual time management channel is challenges report, we identified major challenges. Theessing the crisis in federal prison system, protecting taxpayer funds from mismanagement and misuse, enhancing Cyber Security, ensuring effective and efficient Law Enforcement and restaurant conference and integrity, fairness and accountability of the department. I would like to highlight the first two of those areas today. In the federal system continues today. During my testimony before the subcommittee last year, i discussed at length to interrelated crises in the federal prison system. The first is a is that costs continue to consume an ever larger share of the budget with no evidence that the cost curve has been broken. The budget as a continue to increase and even faster than departments budget. Moreover, while the number of Department Employees has fy 2012, thece number of the opd employee of gop employees has increased. As a result, one out of every three Department Employees now work for the be opd. In the past year, the department has announced several new initiatives to address this challenge, but much will depend on the success of the implementation, which we will monitor. In connection with this challenge, the Department Must consider its growing number of 10fyy inmates, from fy 13, the population of the opd inmates over 65 increased by 31 , while the opposition of inmates 30 or younger increased by 12 . This demographic trend has significant budgetary implications, because older inmates have Higher Health care costs and are more expensive to currentlye. We are conducting a review in this important area. The other half the prison crisis which was discussed earlier today is ensuring the safety and security of staff and inmates in overcrowded federal prisons. Despite having a nearly 7 billion budget as of november a13, the deal was offering visit its facilities at 36 over capacity. Remainede to staff has 10 to one for more than a decade. In comparison, in 2005, the five largest state correctional of erasure no more than 61. The Department Must find ways to address capacity and staffing challenges. Avoiding wasteful and ineffective spending is another responsibility of federal agencies in any budgetary environment. It is particularly important in the current climate. In 2013, the oig reports that could have been put to better use. The Department Must remain vigilant on the money to give to third parties where the contractors or grants. It must make sure they demonstrate that the money and the value that being received is worth the money that has been given out. Areas turn briefly to two. F our effectiveness providing strong and independent oversight of the igs operation the ability of the ig to over see the department is critical. Haveversight agency must complete and timely access to all records in our agencys possession that we deem relevant to our ongoing reviews. This is the principle congress tried to fight in section six of the ig act. Most of our audits are conducted with full and complete cooperation from the department. However, there have been occasions when our office has had issues arise with timely access to Certain Records due to the departments view that access was limited by other laws. In each instance, the attorney general provided the oig with permission to receive the materials. They made it clear that they will continue to do so as necessary Going Forward. However, requiring an Inspector Generals request to seek permission from Department Leadership in order to review critical documents in pairs or independence and can delay our work unnecessarily. Stated simply, under the Inspector General act, the ig should be given prompt access to all relevant documents within the possession of the agency is overseeing. Let me turn briefly to an issue that was discussed during my testimony last june. Unlike inspectors general throughout the federal government, our office does not have the authority to investigate alleged misconduct by lawyers in the department. In those instances, the ig has. Xclusive authority my office has long questioned the distinction between the treatment of agents who engage in alleged misconduct and those of department attorneys. Last month, the independent, nonpartisan project issued a report that was critical of the opd ares lack of transparency and recommended that congress empower our office to investigate misconduct by the doj attorneys. Our offices statutory and offer the integrity of our investigation. Elegy to ability to exercise jurisdiction, as it does in matters involving not provide ourill office with same authority as every other Inspector General. Thank you again, i look forward to working with the subcommittee and i look forward to answering your questions. Horowitz, your. And your team do such a great job. Tommy, how many employees do you have. We have on board about 405 employees. What is your budget . 86. 4 million is our base. We have asked for that for the next fiscal year plus 2. 2 Million Dollars in enhancements. So it would be 2. 2 million more, is that correct . Rescue to do a very important seeing 37 are billion. I know senator shelby will be raising questions about access to records. Insightselcome your regarding prison reform, but i would go to Cyber Security. It is an area of keen interest with me. One of the things i fear his techno boondoggles. We lived through the fbi case file thing we understand the fbi , excuse me, the fiscal 15 ,udget request from justice 722 million, theyre actually decreasing it although the threat is increasing. That, your site 130 [and asians for proving for improving the security departments own i. T. System. Could you comment on what you appropriate public , what do think they need to do to improve their Cyber Security. Do think it is money . To think his management, or do you think it is a government wide problem. . I have my own views. I like to hear what you say. Our recommendations come from our audits which are obviously marked sensitive given the nature of the information. Generally, they have involved the handling of configurations of systems and account management of the systems as well. We have made a number of very specific requests and have outlined the issues that i think need to be addressed. I think generally, it is a needs forf both the the systems, as well as the possibility of the requirement for additional personnel third we ourselves are struggling with both of those issues as well in a tightening budget environment. Were making sure we have the right i. T. People as well as enough funding for the right systems. That is one of the things ive tried to do with our budget this year, is catch up from where we fell behind over the last two years. Do you feel that the Justice Department is prime time in implementing your recommendations . A number ofhere are areas the Department Needs to do a better job in implementing the recommendations we make faster. Going and looking at them seriously and taking them seriously, we continue to push on that. The attorney general has supported that effort. We will continue to press on that. You feel you have the support area again, i will come back, is it a resource issue . Is a consistent resource issue . Less issue here . We cant protect people . Think it is probably accommodation of both issues. Change, continually they are continually evolving. Technology is continually evolving as are the threats. The next Cyber Initiative review has been taken because congress has given a substantial amount of money to the department to undertake that effort. There is a very significant part of the departments budget in a critical part of dealing with threats Going Forward. Thank you. We could ask more, but i will turn to senator shelby here. Thank you, mr. Inspector general. I appreciate the work youre. Oing, your dedication as the chairman said, we want to make sure you have the tools to do your job, because inspector , whether it is in the Justice Department or the pentagon, we created a position for a reason. You know this well. Do you believe that you, the Inspector General of the department of justice, should have to seek approval of the attorney general to access grand jury documents, or any documents relative to ongoing investigations . I dont, senator. Is inconsistent in my view. Is the justiceit department, it could be any department. If you have to go to the head of the department, the secretary, for example, a cabinet level position, to approve what you are seeking, it seems that could be under dire circumstances an impediment to doing your job. Ultimately that is correct. Ultimately the letters we have gotten from the attorney general giving us access have focused on finding that the review is important to their oversight of the department. It is set up in such a way that the oversight decision that should be made by Inspector General, not the secretaries or cabinet heads. Have you been basically have you had unfettered access to relevant documents . With regard to Certain Records wouldve only gotten them after the attorney general has made a dash after the jump through a lot of hoops. After we get a letter from them to the component, informing them that they had the permission to give us do you know if your fellow , saying thenerals department of state, the pentagon or agriculture, you name it, commerce, do they have to jump through these hoops to do that . I understand that there is one Inspector General at the peace corps, for example, who has tried to get records to do the oversight that Congress Expected in connection with central attacks on volunteers overseas. The opinion from the general counsel indicates that the igf does not differ authority to look at those records. Have you thought about whether or not perhaps we need to address this legislatively to this, tooon secretaries and attorneys that they mustr, furnish unfettered access to documents . Otherwise you cant do your job. I think it is critical that the inspectors general have the ability to make that decision for themselves. Legislation would clear it up entirely. It is a relatively small fix understanding legislation is always difficult to get connected. It might not be that hard to get and acted with the chair of the preparations committee, who knows . I think we need to make sure, under all circumstances, that you and your fellow inspectors general have unfettered access to documents that could root out wrongdoing in any department. I couldnt agree more, senator. I think ultimately what is set up now is who should make that decision. Should be Inspector General who decides what is relevant. Lets think you are wellprepared to do the job. You swore an oath to do the job. There are certain rules, i am not a lawyer, but there is Legal Compliance and theres access. That is one thing. Second thing, i am familiar with this, or becoming familiar with this peace corps situation. A young lady who was a peace corps volunteer saw another peace corps volunteer allegedly sexually assaulted and reported. The Peace Corps Service reported that was murdered. Well, this is big. So, we want to maintain the integrity of the inspector. Eneral process we believe in the Inspector General process. Government should never be so big or so insulated or so isolated that it does not have an independent Senate Confirmed to retain their work for waste, fraud or other ways of mismanagement and we look forward to working with you on this. Mr. Inspector general, you come with an extensive background in sentencing, incarceration, and so on. Come with handson experience. Youve seen the good and bad. We really welcome your insight as to how we can reduce the prison population without increasing the risk to our communities, and also the thoughts on how we can look out for the safety of our prison guard population. Still feel that their captive by the prisoners. You bring up a compassionate situation, the over 65 and we welcome your insights. I think evidence shows that if you committed murder, youre not likely to commit murder after 65. If you are a sexual predator, you could be out on that playground once again. We welcome your insights on how we can work constructively. States conceptual thinking and your own experience. You bring the experience of longitude from enforcement to sentencing. We really appreciate your service. Im going to ask a staff on both sides of the aisle, because this has been raised by other members. This is not a party thing, this is a committee thing. To meet with our staff on how we can implement working with the attorney general. We also went to work with you, senator shelby and i, for you to get the access to the information that you need. Possibly beto having votes soon so we can talk with you all day. We are going to thank you for your service. We look forward to bringing about some muchneeded reform. If there is no further question, senator, you may submit additional questions. This committee stands in recess to call the chair. The next hearing will be on , and which we 00 will take testimony from , thetary pritzker secretary of commerce. Thank you. Next, the hostile many looks at the implementation of Health Insurance exchanges at the state level. After that, q a with author matt