Transcripts For CSPAN2 Attorney 20240703

The law. And you follow the law. Agree with that decision. Whether i agree or not its the law and rule of law requires us to follow and thats not what im talking about here. Thank you, i yield back. The subcommittee will stand in recess subject to the call of the chair. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] as the chair recognizes the Ranking Member of the Committee Live hearing happening at the same time, but delighted that youre here this morning and what i wanted to look at is the issue of crime, if you will, and trade. Doj plays a Critical Role in deterring crime through robust investigations, prosecutions, incarcerations and application of penalties. My concern about doj, that there may be some serious blind spots and lack of resources in critical areas, particular the u. S. International trade enforcement. Example, 2022, u. S. Imports were 3. 27 trillion dollars. Conservative estimates based on available data from Economic Policy institute projected 5 to 10 of those imports were fraudulent. This means that theres annually 163 to 327 billion dollars in illegal trade, which impacts u. S. Workers, manufacturers, consumers, and our free trade partners. I understand dojs infrastructure to combat trade crimes lightly resourced. In 2022, u. S. Customs and border collected 19. 4 million in penalties on 3. 27 trillion dollars of trade. That seems to me to be a drop in the bucket. I understand that International Trade prosecutions are also low to nonexistent. A couple of questions, can you give us a sense of the doj resources that youre using to prosecute bad actors that violate trade laws. How do you work with cbp and hsi to increase the number of prosecutions. Would you say based on dhs enforcement data battling International Trade crime is a priority within the doj, why or why not . How familiar are you with doj resources in prosecuting International Trade crimes . Whats your assessment of the departments actions, including the number of prosecutions and penalties . Thank you. You put your finger on an important risk to our economy, which is fraudulent trade goods. Thats why we have a trade fraud task force, which enhances collaboration between the Justice Department and the other agencies that you were discussing, to investigate trade fraud. It helped initiate more than 70 investigations, of hundreds of millions of fraudulently imported goods and just last month, the Ford Motor Company agreed to pay 365 Million Dollars for civil claims, misclassified items. So i rec nieldz the significance of this for our economy and i believe our Justice Task Force is working well with other departments on this matter, including department of Homeland Security. Do you have enough personnel to take on this issue and resources in a more robust way . I said 3. 27 trillion dollars, we collect 19. 4 million. That seems to be some great disparity. And im just asking no, no. What do you need from us to be able to deal with this area on International Trade where were getting killed, you know . The Justice Department would always like more money. I understand that, but i need assessment of i think the money that were requesting for our civil divisions, Consumer Protection branch that deals with this kind of fraud, criminal divisions, fraud section which deals with this on the criminal side and the u. S. Attorneys offices, that deal with this have in each of the 94 districts, and the fbis corporate crime and fraud sections. Given the budget priorities, i think were asking for the appropriate amount. Theres always obviously tradeoffs, but we are, i think, able to fund a robust program. The most difficult aspect of this, of course, is identifying the fraudulent goods as they come in, that really is a customs and therefore Homeland Security issue and they would say if they need more money for that. To pursue this, im going to Say Something quickly, im running out of time. As you know, antitrust received, this is antitrust division, roughly a 4 increase in 2024 over the prior year. I want to ensure that we can continue to justify these critical investments, protect consumers from unfair and anticompetitive business practices. Do i have your commitment that we can Work Together . I would like to work with you with my staff on answering questions that we have on what resources the antitrust division and frankly, this could apply to all of doj, that you will need for 2025. Yes, of course, were very eager to speak with you about that. The total weve requested is 288 Million Dollars, which is an increase of 55 Million Dollars over the fy24. I will say ive always been concerned about this, i entered the Justice Department in 1979 and we barely have more attorneys in the antitrust division now than we had in 1979. I think its the first year weve had to bring the numbers up when i entered the department. Wed like to work with you how well we can track the resources that have been necessary for you to be able to do your job and as a final comment, very, very interested in listening to the ftc commissioner about working together with doj because we have serious issues, which affects consolidation, which the prices and the anticompetitiveness a reality and how, between doj and the ftc, we can address these issues. A very, very robust, strong way, to get at any of these monopolies, if you will, that only increase prices of the american people. Thank you very much. I yield back. Chairman. Thank you. General garland, good to have you here. Thanks for your time. I want to focus on something i dont think any questions have been so far and thats on the bureau of prisons. And i understand according to the bureau of prison wekz website, less than 35,000 employees to assure the security of all the federal prisons and service that is include 156,000 federal inmates. What steps is the bureau of prison taking to address in Correctional Officers training and leader training. Is there a reason that the bureau of prisons leaders havent participated in the fellow and Warden Exchange offered without the cost by the federal government. I dont know about the latter request question that you asked and have them get in touch with you. We have a pandemic delayed bureaus ability to provide inperson training, but bop since reviewed training and is trying to clear the backlog in that respect. Youre right with respect to the number of employees we have in the bureau of prisons, its not sufficient. It not sufficient for the Educational Programs that we have and as i discussed earlier with the members of the panel, the problem here is recruitment, retention and promotion, and the best, i think, that the most important thing that the committee can do is to give us the money that were asking for for hiring and retention. Do you know of any law or regulation that prevents or limits the bureau of prisons from accepting donations or services or programs from a nonprofit, as long as they dont accept federal funds . Im afraid i dont know about that, but ill be happy to have our staff look into that and get back to your staff. If you could look at that and see if there are examples where there are communities or faithbased programs. My understanding, as long as they dont receive federal funds, then there are programs out there to be of assistance and i would appreciate you looking into that and let me know if that is something that might be possible because i think it is a real could be real helpful. Of course, back on october the 7th of last year, we all know what happened and, along with the attack on israel there were 30 americans that were killed by Hamas Terrorists in israel as part of a larger coordinated attack that left 1200 israelis dead and over 200 abducted. And its my understanding that eight americans remain hostages in gaza, i understand three of whom are no longer alive. You announced the Justice Department was investigating the death and kidnappingings of the americans during the attack. Can you give us here on the subcommittee, an update on the investigation into the death and kidnapping of those americans and is the Justice Department looking to pursue criminal charges against individuals responsible for those attacks . So the killing or kidnapping of americans abroad is a federal crime so of course, thats what were investigating, as i said, for potential criminal prosecution. We have been involved in discussions with israeli Law Enforcement and Intelligence Services to help us get evidence and information in this regard. I really cant say more about the progress of the investigation, but this is a matter of extreme concern for us. This was the in addition of course, to the killing of the americans, this is the largest mass killing of jews since the holocaust. Can you say that, that this department is pursuing criminal charges against the individuals . Were investigating. Were investigating. We have a criminal investigation in connection with the deaths and kidnapping of americans in israel on october 7th. Can you speak more to investigating lams hamas threats, including to the u. S. Just at a high level of generality. I dont want to talk about matters i cant talk about in open session, but we have investigations with respect to hamas which weve had for a number of years. October 7th as the fbi director noted in his testimony, has raised our threat level considerably with respect to concerns of foreign terrorist organizations, like hamas, that might foment problems in the United States. That includes not only hamas, but hezbollah, the iranian quds force. Isis, isisk, sects of branches of alqaeda. We are concerned and our are making sure that all of our joint terrorist task forces are on the lookout for these matters since october 7th. There was a heightened concern before october 7th, but obviously october 7th has only redoubled our concern here. Thank you, ill yield back. Thank you, chairman, Ranking Member. Attorney general garland, i would say its a good job, i wouldnt say its always a a like youve said, but youre close. And as a justice, as a jurist and you excelled there and running the fbi, i feel secure that youre the best person for that job. With that im going to get into china and Cyber Security. In the Chinese Communist party theres an army of hackers that persistently attack the United States. They stay dormant and keep access to our networks and crit infrastructure. They use this to steal intellectual property and working to steal and tech from our shares into mainland china. Theyre our biggest adversary. This past march the unsealed indictment of apt31 group which youre familiar with revealed a 14year Cyber Campaign for intimate dissenters, steal u. S. Trade and property to damage Critical Networks and spy on u. S. Politicians, thats 14 years. A recent intelligence advisory state that had these hackers, known as volt typhoon have been dormant for five years waiting in case were in a larger conflict with china. China is a real threat. Can you enlighten us as to the best tools we have to fight chinese hackers, what other resources do you need and did our fy24 budget put the department in too deep of a security hole . Well, first of all, i completely agree with your characterization of the chinese threat. The peoples republic of china, the communist party, the government of china represents a longterm persistent, across the board threat to america. In particular in the area of Cyber Security that youre talking about. The two major actions youre talking about just from this year, the january of all typhoon disruption, this was a bot net implanting malware into our infrastructure, very significant parts of our delivery of public services, which could, if activated could have been very dangerous for us. The march apt indictments involved the hacking of commuters and emails. Those are just two examples of a considerable amount of cyber hacking. So, we have asked for more than 1. 3 billion dollars to combat cyber crime and for Cyber Security. The fbi, the National Security division, have asked for 894. 6 Million Dollars, which is an increase in 11. 9 over fy24. As you know, fy24 budget has required us to reduce positions substantially and were in a position of trying to get us back to where we were before that, but this is an area where we are doubling down and are very much concerned. Okay. Thank you. Now, i want to get to the key bridge, its a quick question. I know the fbi has been on site at the bridge and there are a lot of questions that need to be answered about what happens, like did the captain and crew, or did they know there were power issues before the ship ever left. A criminal investigation is usually open when they have reason to believe they may have caused a rise to the level of criminality. We need to make sure that we hold people accountable. Attorney general, is there anything you can share about the investigation . As you know, congressman, the Justice Department doesnt normally comment on whether investigations exist or not, but plenty of people saw fbi agents on board the ship. So the fbi has confirmed that its agents were on the ship. I cant really say anything more. Thank you, and i yield back. Thank you, mr. Chairman, general garland, welcome back. Thank you. I appreciate the work that the doj does going after legitimate criminals and protecting americans, and the program which we discussed a year ago. Id like to talk about the foreign registration act or fra. Theres a high Speed Rail Company proposed between dallas and houston. And they proposed a high speed rail project between houston and dallas and engaged in state and local lobbying in that effort. And im opposed to this that would cut up land and take this from people on their land. And for every board member and now merely a company on paper with no board of directors. And texas has zero experience building any type of this company. Theres a venture pushing the project. Sovereign funds of the japanese are backing that high speed proposal. And amtraks partnering with Texas Central in applying for an fy22 Corridor Development grants and 500,000 grant was approved. April 9th there was a news article published by Texas Central in a letter dated april 5th, addressed to you, by steve roberts, huntsman vogel law firm, states that mr. Roberts was hired against texans against high speed rail and mr. Chairman, i have that letter and ask unanimous consent that this article and letter be introduced into the record. Hell read part of the letter to you that captures part of the concerns i have. Texas central appears to of acted and still act as part of the japanese government intend today influence lawmakers and the public in the United States with reference to formulating, adopting or changing the domestic policies of the United States. Yet neither new magellan ventures or any entities or representatives have ever registered with the department of justice under the foreign agents registration act of 1938. So, with that laid out for you, i have two questions. Do you agree that would be concerning if a private company or principles principles of a private company failed to register if the facts were clear they legally required to. You put me in the exact box, but i dont know anything about this matter at all. Somebody is required to register under fra, wed be concerned if we dont. Im not surprised that you havent heard of this and its important in our district so im going to the big man on campus to ask the questions. The final question, ill wrap it up. If the primary company failed to register as foreign agent, and required to do so, enters into a partnership with the federal government, would that concern you as the chief Law Enforcement officer of the United States and would that cause you to question whether the federal government is properly using taxpayer dollars . This is less of a clean hypothetical than the previous one. Id have to know a lot more about the facts before i could make a determination. If those were the facts hypothetically . Well, that description even with those facts, its still a little more vague than makes clear. Fra is a complicated statute. We would always be concerned about an effort by a Foreign Government to try to influence the government of the United States. If i could put it at that level of generality, thats generally true. I understand that and you obviously have to be somewhat obtuse about that, but so and circumspect. Okay. In texas theres a socalled private company that has no board of directors, that is now gotten imminent domain from the state of texas to take private Citizens Land and gotten a grant from amtrak to take peoples land and build a project that currently doesnt exist and on behalf of a Foreign Government and havent registered as foreign agents. Thank you for your time, i yield back, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mr. Chairman, Ranking Member cartwright, thank you attorney general garland. I wanted to ask about a bill of mine signed into law in 2021, the covid19 hate crimes act which direct the attorney generals and reporting of hate crimes. I was graduate to see the budget request fiscal year 25, Community Based approaches to address hate crimes, a Grant Program that i authored in fiscal year 2022. I want to thank you for your leadership in responding to Violent Crime and specifically hate crimes in the u. S. Specifically the las few years. It means a great deal to Asian Americans and historical communities to have a president and attorney general who cares deeply about this issue. And a question i asked fbi director Christopher Wray in the hearing, im concerned in the trend of decrease in number of local Law Enforcement providing fbi with data. This is the fifth year in a row that providing data to the fbi has declined. I know that the decline may partially be due to the transition to the system. But what information does the doj need to support local and Law Enforcement agencies using that, and id like too hear more about other ways the doj is working to support local Law Enforcement agencies in reporting hate crimes . Thank you for the question and this is a high priority for us. And i do think as the fbi director suggested that much of the problem is the transition problem from one form of the fiscal compilation to the other. But of course, all of our information has to come from state and local communities and so what we have to do is reach out to them constantly to ensure that they are providing the numbers. The fbi and their offices and Justice Program, bureau of justice assistance has sort of identified the places that have been less compliant than they should be and im trying to reach out to encourage that level of compliance. I think the money we have in the budget is sufficient for those kind of reach out programs. But we wont be satisfied until all the crimes are reported. Thank you, and just a follow up. As youve said state and local Law Enforcement agents play a crucial road in the nationwide response to hate crimes, but i want to make sure to ask about how the doj works with communitybased organizations which also have a crucial part in building up Community Resilience and preventing future mate crimes. Can you talk about how the doj is coordinating with both Law Enforcement and local organizations to respond to hate crimes . Yeah, so, each of our u. S. Attorneys offices has a civil rights hate crimes coordinator and each of the u. S. Attorneys has been instructed to reach out to the community to have discussions well in advance of any crisis occurring. You know, our strategy here is to develop trust within communities before something bad happens so that if something bad happens, the Community Trusts Law Enforcement and these are joint meetings of u. S. Attorneys offices and our various Law Enforcement components. We have a united against hate campaign that the u. S. Attorneys offices are implementing and have been implementing for the past couple of years to reach out to communities in just the with an i that you said so that Law Enforcement federal Law Enforcement, state and local Law Enforcement, and communities can cooperate and Work Together. I have attended one of those meetings in denver and ive attended a couple of other meetings of Community Outreach in other places, including in st. Louis. Thank you so much and ill quickly ask about another question about the aftermath of the China Initiative as we all know in february of 2022, the end of the China Initiative was announced and previously unacceptably high number of these cases ended and dropped charges, acquittals because the prosecutors could not prove allegations. Chineseamerican researchers and scholars who made valuable contributions in so many fields this this country for decades reported feeling targeted by a racial profiling campaign and i want to be clear as a member of the subcommittee im fully supportive of the dojs real necessary work to combat espionage by adversarial governments, but want to make sure how does the agency make sure that asians working on these investigations, number one, avoid wasteful investigations into legitimate Academic Research and second, how is the doj educating the institutions themselves and the public about the real National Security threats and how they can best defend themselves and our country from these threats . So, as you pointed out, we now have a consolidated section in the National Security division to address the threats posed by the peoples republic of china, russia, north korea and iran, focusing our attention on all of the myriad ways in which these adversaries attempt to either attack us from a cyber point of view, prevent efforts to harass dissidents in the United States, steal our personal identifying information and our technology. So the latter part of your question first, thats the way in which were doing that and then each u. S. Attorneys office has a National Security coordinator and the fbi has joint Terrorism Task forces in each of its 54 districts. As a more general question, we have a robust review process, all National Security cases have to touch base with the National Security division, which can review to assure that the principles of federal prosecution and which kinds should be brought and which kinds shouldnt be done. I want to emphasize we do not prosecute based on the ethnicity of any person. That we are only looking at to prosecute people working for our adversaries in an effort to injure the United States. Thats not part of the ethnicity of the United States. Thank you, ill yield. Thank you, that concludes the first round of questions. I know the general hates to be needs to be done by 12 noon. We have a few minutes to go, is there a desire, members, for a second round . All right. General, that thats agreeable with you. Ill be glad to be here for the questions. Get you out of here by noon. Mr. Garcia, do you desire a minute. Yes. Three minutes. And attorney general i want to follow up on assertions that my colleagues pennsylvania and new york, engaging in personal attack and i take great pride making sure that i dont engage in personal attacks in the question. And appalled and shocked an at you giving yourself a a. As a professor gave me an f in chemistry assessment, i know someone of your caliber was not personally offended by that and mile an hour to have conversations off line. And i want to have conversations around the hur report. On your written testimony, theres not one set of laws for powerful and another for powerless. One for rich, with one for poor, or democrats or republicans, race or religion. You would say that thats probably true for age, anyone over age 18 regardless unless theres a Cognitive Impairment should be treated the same and one set of laws regardless of age . Without addressing the hidden premise behind your question, im just going to say there is one tier, standard of justice. We prosecute under the federal principles of prosecution and we do not distinguish based on politics, based on ethnicity, based on ideology, based on race or any nonmeritorious factors. Or seniors who are a protected class in the workplace as well, anyone over the age of i think its 55 or 65. Also in your verbal testimony say you have no doubt theres no Cognitive Impairment on the president. You said the hur report speaks for itself and i have complete confidence in the president of the United States. And so, my question is, and i sit on the Intel Committee so ive seen the classified documents and many aware of the nature of at least some of these documents. They are of the highest level of National Security intelligence and they are extremely relevant, even today, as the documents found in the garage of President Biden. And so if its not a Cognitive Impairment problem, if its did if hes competent and youre confident in that, why is he not being charged for, and in his testimony or in his special counsel report hur said he willfully detained and disclosed sensitive classified information. Thats the explanation for not charging President Biden for mishandling . Ill address both questions again. I have complete confidence in the president in every possible respect. On the question of why there was no charges, mr. Hur described in detail in his report his explanation why he decided know the to bring them. And he was subject today five hours of testimony. You disagree with the foundational premise of his assertions, the rationale that he was cognitively incapable of understanding what hes doing, too old to face charges and you disagree with those say two things, thats not at all what will hur said again. And i urge everyone to read what he said. Second, he described his explanation why not to bring this case and he distinguished other cases involving classified information, where charges were brought and i just refer you to that. Ill go reread that and make questions for the record. I believe my time is up. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Toernl, in 2023, more than 1200 americans died as a result of drug overdoses and poisoning, and we have a touched on that. Dea is one that saw a funding increase in fiscal year 2024 and the work that the administrator is doing especially with the u. S. Attorney generals to go after the cartels and the entire network is critically important to stemming the flow of illicit fentanyl into our communities, when enforcement is only part of the solution, we also have to have recovery and rehabilitation tools for those with Substance Abuse disorders as well. Can you talk a little about the comprehensive addiction and recovery act grants, especially the drug courts and the Veterans Treatment Centers . Yes, so, youre quite right that our ability to eliminate Drug Trafficking and to protect the country includes our concerns about the people who are the victims of Drug Trafficking. And the need, of course, to reduce the demand for these poisons in our country. So, weve asked for more than 490 Million Dollars in counter drug related Justice Program grants. These include, in particular, the comprehensive addiction and recovery act grants which were requesting, 443 Million Dollars, which is a 23 Million Dollar addition over the enacted, those include the comprehensive opioid stimulant and Substance Abuse programs. The Mental Health and residential Substance Use treatment, drug courts with the drug courts which were asking for 94 million. Veterans treatments courts for which were asking for 33 million. As well as for Prescription Drug monitoring to ensure that this doesnt get out of hand again. Thank you, and can you give me a sense as to whether youre seeing increases in applications for the important programs that youve touched on. I would say there are more applications than money to give out. Thats definitely the case. In what other ways does your departments fiscal year 2025 budget request seek to address this terrible problem . Again, on the overdose and addiction side, those are the principal issues. The overdose and addiction s, those are the principal issues. On the trafficking side, which is unfortunately what causes many of these problems for which we are asking 10. 7 billion for all of our Law Enforcement , agents and u. S. Attorneys to respond to this respond. Thats a 5. 1 increase over enacted f. Y. 2024. Mr. Cartwright thank you, attorney general garland. And thank thank you, attorney general garland, thank you for being here today. I yield back, mr. Kevin. Mr. Glide. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Attorney general garland, my colleague chip roy has twice requested a copy of the freedom of access to clinic entrances c act, prosecution data. He first asked for in october 2022 and again two months ago on february 16. He has yet to receive this data and my question to is when will this data be provided by the department of justice . I dont know specifically about the request like the other requests you asked about a very happy to look into this. And provide the data. Of course if we have the data. I appreciate that. In the fbis request, fy 25 request, excuse me, in the department of justice budget you are requestingnc 437. 6 million for protecting civil rights. Thats an increase from rights. Thats an increase from what i see here. Under the civil rights heading in the fbis request its as color of Law Violation or actions taken by any person using the authority givens to them by a Government Agency to willfully deprive someone of a right. Since you been attorney general has anyone in the cupboard or otherwise been prosecuted for a color of Law Violation for deny people their Second Amendment rights . That the silver right. I understand that. I dont know the answer to that. I have not heard that there has been fecund prosecuted. Since the scotus decision overturning the new york law which was the new york rifle and pistol associationti versus brun which denied new yorkers the constitutional rights, i would think it case there. I would ask the Department Justice to look into that because the Second Amendment is a civil rightil and what people are denied that civil rights then i think under the Civil Rights Division the department of justice should engage. Now also in last years congressional hearing i asked about your departments most recentce congressional authorization. Has your department been threauthorized or is the most recent authorization the one expired in 2000 . I was a taught me something authorization and appropriations at the last hearing that i did not know. My understanding is that that was the last authorizations when youre talking about. Of course the Justice Department would always like to have an authorization. My understanding is that the yearly appropriations count as authorizations. But, of course, it would always be better for any entity to have a formal authorization. We are not in authorizing committee. We are and appropriating committee. Its the Judiciary Committee that is the authorizing i understand that. So doj remains unauthorized and youre running an unauthorized agency by the department, excuse me, by the Judiciary Committee. So are you going to seek a new congressional authorization . I have had those kind of discussions. I would be happy to take the back and think about it. Again, given the appropriations ive been advised thats not required but we have to think about it some more. Okay. Thank you b you back. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Attorney general, ive been in your office about prosecutions of firearms cases and pleased to see the success of the guns involve Violence Elimination Initiative operating in u. S. Attorneys and Western District office of new york. I would like to ask if i can follow up with staff at meeting to ensure with sufficient resources to continue the western new york initiative. Yes. I could talk about a few things in that regard, but i think you are correct that her work in the Western District of new york is ongoing and has been successful. And that havee the money we need for that purpose. Thank you, sir. I will ask one of the question. Last week i was very pleased to see the department finalizing new rules update the definition of engaged in business as a firearms dealer. As you know unlicensed dealers who doec not conduct background checks for the large source of firearms illegally brought into our communities. If you could talk about the budgetary impact on that requirement by firearms dealers and the ability for the department to make sure that that new role is carried out. So this is the implementation of the bipartisan Safer Communities act. We have asked for in the atf budget for that purpose. The money weve asked for should be sufficient for that rule and for the of the work that atf does. Perfect. Thankf you. I will yield back, mr. Chair. The cello and and i haver questions today. By the way, lets work on that reauthorization. I will send over proposal. I may have a few changes to propose in that. But spirit thats a good for idea for us not to be [inaudible] given atf claims can barely keep up with the workload of inspecting could number of licensed dealers, what is the point of this new role . Is to encourage firearms sellers to become licensed or to discourage them from engaging in because a teufel protected activity of selling trading and firearms at all . Purpose of this tool is to implement the definitional change brought by the bipartisan Safer Communities act, which change the definition of the engage in theen business from a gate in the business of maintaining a livelihood to be engaged in the business for the predominant purpose of turning a profit with that change required regulations and when what that means. Purpose is to prevent guns from being sold to prohibited persons without a background check to be sure that prohibited person doesnt get a gun pic that includes somebody who served time as a violent felon. The rule also institutes a series of rebuttable presumptions to supposedly clarify one of the license of corbett attached a gun sales. These presumptions. Nowhere in statute. To the degree that any Legal Foundation at all. Theyre said to interpret the old not the currently existing lin wood on who is a dealer. The rule itself tens of thousands will be required to become licensed dealers under itser terms which are busy necessitate a significant increase ines atf oversight as well. Did atf chordate wither the fbir seek your input on the capacity of the background check system to absorbkg additional workload this will would create . Essenes would have a a cascading effect on the right of departments and divisions in the workload . I believe the Department Regulations discusses workload impactor i dont know the answer to thehe specific question youe asking about. Ill try to somebody get back to you on that specific wishes for i would express concern this seems to be and end run around the authority of congress to set the laws rather than the department, and especially when it comes to the constitutionally protected rights of american citizens to keep and bear arms. I think you are actions are headed in the wrong direction. Just to be clear this up is not about theno Second Amendment in any respect. Its about theon limiting congresses statute and the prohibitions on selling guns to people who conquers has said should not have been. When you keep and bear arms you have to purchase and sell, and this part of keeping and bearing arms pics i would just urge you to keep that in mind. I yield back. Mr. Trone. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Last year we helped pass the bipartisan Law Enforcement deescalationn training act, which provides one of 44 million in Grant Funding over four years on deescalation training for police officers. This is going to save lives, improve Police Community relations. Although this program is new, could you talk briefly about its implementation, and more broadly how dojs budget prioritizes Mental Health in crisis stabilization . Yeah, i dont have the specifics with respect to the program, but as a general matter our c. O. P. S. Office and are just Justice Programs provide money iofor deescalation training. It is an important way to protect the lives of officers and First Responders as well as the people who are calling for help. H you are also right in implication of the questions that many ofca these calls invoe people who are mentally ill or mental impairment, and that the sensitivity of respondents to that possibility is an important element of the need for deescalation. Thank you for your efforts there. 70100 million americans have criminal records and appear on routine background checks often waited for prevented them from getting jobs. Over the last seven years my Company Inside about 1400 returning citizens which is good for business and cuts down recidivism. State passed clean slate automatic clearing records, these type of efforts or costly and have been a a barrier to widespread adoption. What resources does doj need to help support these cleanth slate laws . I dont think im going to be able to talk to you specifically about the clean slate laws. In the area of criminal justice reform, india limitation of the Second Chance act which involves reentry programs. We are asking for 125 million for thosen reentry programs. In addition, there is a new program called the accelerating Justice System reform grants. This is 300 million request for fy 25, and 15 billion over over ten years. Not sure exactly what, if clean slate would fall within his bottle ask my staff to get back to a which of the Grant Programs. I would love to keep working with you. Last quick question to build on breaking up with a lower on the antitrust division. Should this committee take another look at the language that eliminates options having full access to the merger filing fees and bought you in the 233 million . Im going to leave it to the members33 of congress to resolve this question. The Justice Department is in favor of an antitrust division giving getting the full access to the fees, but in the end Congress Makes those determinations. Seems like a good idea. Thank you. It does seem like a good idea. Yield back. That concludes speedy may i just one quick the cello is recognized. I know were 70s into the dissent degree with respect to baltimore and that we have reached compliance with two pic you have to give that unless you have it right away, but give me an update on whats left and how we are doing, if you have somebody from your staff get back toe my office. Yeah, i can just give you a little i know and i will be happy to get more detail back to you. So we do think the Baltimore Police court has made progress satisfying the key provision of the consent decree. In january of this year without joint motion to close the city of Baltimore Police department in full and effective complaints on three points. E safe transportation people of custody, offers assistance and support, and assuring health anc wellbeing of employees. The Court Granted the motion. And now they have to sustain a record of success in these areas for one year and then those will be did terminated. The department continues to work with the Police Department on complex with the other parts of the consent decree, in particular these include use of force, use ofla lethal force computeral supports come stop seizures and arrest. But this is Good Progress for thank you. You have to get back to me. That concludes s todays hearing. Thank you. I want to thank our witness, attorney general garland, for being very generous with his time. And being open, frank. Without objection members may have seven days to submit additional questions for the record. The committee stands adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] the house will be in order. This year cspan celebrates 45 years of covering Congress Like no other. Since 1979 we have had beer primary source for capitol hill providing balanced unfiltered coverage of government. Taking you to where the policies debated and decide all with the sport of americas cable companies. Cspan, 45 years and counting, powered by cable. Do you solemnly swear that in the testimony you are about to give would be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you cut . Got . Saturdays watch amerin history tvs congress investigates as we export major investigations in our countrys issued by the u. S. House and senate are each week authors and historians will tell these stories nca stork footage from those times and examine the impact and legacy of key congressional hearings. This week the 1950s mccarthy era hearings among the first televised hearings the Senate Committee export whether communist had infiltrated the state department, the army and other federal agencies. 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