Transcripts For CSPAN3 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20150522

Dozens of sites across the country because they can use these real dollars to help scale them up. So those are the types of things we think are important, scaling takes on a couple different forms. Some people think about scale were going to take this model and mcdonalds it and were going to be in a million places, but sometimes scale is taking a model and sharing it, saying heres what works you take it and you run with it, the last thing i would say, though and this is interesting in the case of bam. Everybody loves bam the president loves bam, i love bam, we funded them. But theyre really before smart growth. After the president visited with those young people. Theyre getting dozens of calls a day from all over the world, bring bam here. And bam smartly said we need to sure up our model first make sure chicago is secure the funding is coming in, sometimes when you get famous people think youre set and stop writing checks. They had to focus on their first market. Now several years in, theyre just now thinking about the first replication, on that point, teach for america, what they did they were in a similar problem, they created a whole separate unit, teach for all that was about helping to do some of this scale, so it didnt zbrakt their core growth. Questions, im going to take two at a time. These two gentlemen. Thank you. Larry checko, i would like to piggyback on what donald said about what keeps these neighborhoods down. Theres predatory lending going on in these communities. Regarding Credit Card Debt spp someone can lose their house for a few hundred dollars i think this policy that needs to be implemented here i would call this cannibalistic capitalism, where were eating our own. I dont mind people making money, not on someone elses back. I understand why these communities feel disenfranchised. Can we talk about how these policies can be changed . Thank you. Jennifer said a couple of the issues or assets, don talked a little bit about help, freddie gray was poisoned. How do we have these interventions early on. Older adults as an anchor resource in these community sies. Older adults as an anchor resource, how do we keep older adults in the residence, as leaders. I want to hear some others. We try to keep the comments short so we can get to other questions. So on the matter of the first question. We worked pretty extensively with Philadelphia Court system. We found that and tested it, eight years later, and found it to be quite effective. I dont know if that system is relevant to Public Sector leans. They skirt that process. It was really about bankers to accelerate it. There are policy recommendations that have been studied in a couple places through the foreclosure crisis that i think could speak to that. Municipal or county level policy recommendations. Let me go to the second question just on the lead poisoning, youre right, there was a survey of prisons and a lot of people that were in prisons had elevated lead levels, theres a tremendous amount positive done with this. They really looked at that issue, theres another unit in fact based in baltimore thats working around the country on green and healthy Housing Initiatives thats doing terrific work on that, and in factual find it doesnt solve for those older cases, but youll see that the incidents of led poisoning of kids is way down from its not perfect, but from where it was before. So thats one of the things were really positive progress is being made. That model is being shared across the country to get at this issue this is an elemental issue of led poisoning. Talk about the role of adults. Another example of how our communities are economically cannibalizing their citizens. Something that has come up a lot. Young people are coming to our programs and theyre reaching adults, why are they already in debt . Because energy costs are so high keeping the home warm and the lights on and paying rent and feeding your children gets to a point where it gets cut off in mom and dads name. Its being turned on in one of the childrens names by the time they turn 18 its time for them to establish credit and be an adult, they cannot theyre having to repair that and this is way more common than you would think. Its something that we need to think about. Its another layer of caring adults. Nothing new that we try to implement is going to work if the young people dont believe that we care about them i always think about the fact that when they refer themselves to me my mentor, my case manager my friend. I thought the impact of the loving and caring adults. I realize how important it issed day i started referring to them as my young people. Many graduates, my friends, my brothers. Its important we see this as something thats not detached from us something thats connected to our collective well being. We have to have the courage to care, engage, to value their diversity of experience and let them know that we care about them. Good morning thank you very much i lived in baltimore with friends on an offer almost a year and i took local bosses. For the people in the room and the people up here, first of all, i would suggest that you know how much a quart of milk costs in some of these neighborhoods and how far you need to go to get it. And the Expiration Date and maybe a couple other products. And rent. Because theres this concept out there that people who live in poverty can live cheap. And in my experience, particularly in baltimore if youre poor and in a predominantly black neighborhood that your access to milk is going to have a low Expiration Date and its going to be expensive, because 7eleven and cvs are your Grocery Stores. I think in. Living in poverty is not cheap living. I work at executive intelligence intelligence. My heartached. I think mr. Harvey hit the mail on the head. These kids dont see a future. Former congressman mfume put it correctly. It doesnt take much to set him off. Even though baltimore does not have the same profile, it does have an economic problem. I fought for reindustrialization of baltimore. We are capable of developing like Franklin Roosevelt had. Former governor omalley is building jobs, building the city city. Can we fix the rage and despair. This is a question from twitter. Christina would like to hear the panelists thought ss on how to grow baltimore. We were able to perform for the state of maryland, identify the food deserts with grade specificity to the degree to which food dollars are migrate ing identify those neighborhoods. We have financed two or three Grocery Stores in baltimore and there needs to be a lot more. Its expensive to be poor. At least in chicago theres a transportation issue. A lot dont have the access to public transportation. They have to travel further to get to their jobs and what not. Its another component of the cost that poor folks face that people dont often think about. I think that the food doesnt want to know the city theyre trying to focus on the issue. We just found out were going to get the obama president ial library. That will bring some investments into the community that we havent had in a while. Just do one and then answer that, and well go to other questions. Validating your point on transportation. And second fox and the department of transportation. Theyre a part of the task force. Were seeing communities use tiger grants on making sure there are better transportation routes, there are neighborhoods where there used to be jobs and the same neighborhoods where you have folks from low income background s backgrounds. Youre seeing interesting ideas on how to move that. People are having to commute longer. It spans that gap where kids are home alone for hours. Were seeing communities try to tackle and address. On the schools piece, i know both trf and bart talked about reforming and building Charter Schools in the neighborhoods youre working. Are those higher performing in these functions. The henderson hopkin school thats a contract school. It sits in between a conventional Public School and a charter school. In its design. It took a heck of a lot of public and private resources to lift that off the ground. You know, the bond issue that has since come out around rebuilding and refurbishing schools, is essential money. It had to be state money, baltimore couldnt have afforded that. The models reach the monthly lace. We took Public Schools and had an agreement with the mayor s as to what could and couldnt be done. Moved the needle and we took the teachers invested in them and in the principles showed them exams, brought them back in we ran afoul of the union transferring out our principles. They both quit. It was 247. There are lots of issues, lots of theres lot of experimentation going on right now, and you see it in new york you see it in other places. And new orleans is the biggest example, they just blew everything up and started over again its not easy and the final thing ill say on this, we watched our k through 8 go into a high school that we couldnt control. And we lost a lot of that investment because they had been in a nurturing environment and ended up in something that was out of control. We had to go to aillternative schools. Its a hard long term continuum youre dealing with. Real quickly. I often have thought that there has to be if you take a real need in the infrastructure. If you do that you hopefully can do something that may not be the most efficient but that is the most effective for getting people to apprentice and work and be able to be part of a program that is not shovel ready, but is longer term that is aimed at integrating jobs that go all the way down to our cities. The problem with jobs training that we ran across was people got trained and there wasnt a job and this is read jennifers report, its terrific on this. Its a terrific report she does. Were going to have time for three more questions. Were going to go with sandy i think this gentleman has had his hand up. Youve also had your hand up for a while. Lets do these three. Maam, you can have your question, and i want to keep your questions tight. What are two or three Game Changers that business can initiate at the local level and National Businesses that would actually have a major dent in the problem . Im thinking in chicago of the internal revolution that whole foods is going through to change its Business Model to enter englewood. And any like that. Looking at the intersection, regarding jobs on where we work in the americas on the same issues im also chairman of the board of a company in essex, maryland that hires 153 youth. Its called tessie maes. Were working with whole foods on the food december ert issue. The issue is the reform of the penal system. What it does to create fear. Isolation and lack of trust. We talk about the connectivity issue that we need, but theyre always disconnected. They all have resources. The first thing is, lower your risk these are termed high risk youth, why would you take this risk. You have to whos working on penal reform. Lets hold i think theres a lot of comments to that question. I think this gentleman in the back, and then were going to take one more. Two quick questions. The connection between nutrition and community development. My wife works at hhs and shes been hammering on me about this connection for the last five years. I didnt hear any discussion of urban Community Gardens were working in pittsburgh with a group of Community Gardens. Kids not only grow their own food but sell their own food. They learn business skills. The second issue is a leadership issue. Pittsburgh where i do a lot of work has a program modelled after the harlem childrens village, and as i said to the director, these kids, if you get them to graduate from high school and get them into college. When they graduate, theyre not coming back to homewood and hazelwood and some of these other communities. How do we keep the leadership Young Leadership in those communities . Maam . Im debbie goldberg. We had a lot of conversation about jobs and income, we havent talked about growth. Theres a huge wealth gap in this country. I saw some research recently that a College Graduate africanamerican College Graduate has less wealth on average than a White High School dropout. We have decades worth of Government Policies that have helped to create this wealth gap, its the gap that needs to be changed to promote future prosperity, economic security. And how do we get over this huge gap. A lot of this conversation has been on systemic issues, which is important, but is hard to connect back to the new zip code. It doesnt necessarily seem like it might fit into this conversation, but its trying to connect some of these different structures and these different systems and streams of work at the neighborhood level. And i guess im interested in whether you have thoughts on how this regulation may be a tool to address these problems at the neighborhood level. Let me remind you of the topics. Business models criminal justice reform. Healthy foods and farming. Leadership retention. Wealth gap housing, stickiness to neighborhoods. If you all can take two at the most to address those. Id like to speak to criminal justice. Ill give you the experience working on the program. 50 of the people i was working with were involved in the criminal justice system. Being in probation, misdemeanor to felony offenses. Where the policies where the federal and state laws said they couldnt be deployed, it was really hard to work around. We are aware of this, bringing awareness to our young people to our programs. We convene a group of amazing dynamic leaders a number of groups internal. A National Group of Young Leaders that are graduates of 11 other National Youth development organizations, like city era, Like National gateway to college college. And they put together a set of recommendations, and im kicking myself in the head right now for not bringing a copy with me. Its the National Council of Young Leaders recommendation for decreasing poverty in america. Theyre recommendations around criminal justice reform, these are coming from young people from a Cross Sector Group not just from youth, but from young people who are coming from all communities, have been theyre current and former opportunity youth. Theyre saying, heres what needs to be done. I highly recommend that everyone google the National Counsel and the recommendations to increase opportunity just to add on to that. Winchester has a prison u connection. It has a large number of exoffenders and we ran into one problem after theyre an automatic exclude as you know by maryland law. We had to go all the way back into the parole and prison system, et cetera, to try to find a job, and mentor on that very expensive, very long term, it was one of our biggest issues, it remains a huge issue. Getting it changed, which we attempted for many years is very difficult. Because its a sound bite for a new politician. I would jump on two quick issues, on the crime when i do want to say that theres another issue thats prevalent. I didnt know that much about it, you all the cook county president. She was an alderman in the city of chicago for 20 years. When she got there she looked at the data and it showed that 80 of the people in jail had not been convicted. They were awaiting trial. She said, you have a huge number of people sitting there, maybe they did it, maybe they didnt do it, but they dont they cant afford the bond they cant pay to get out, those who have resources, they dont sit in jail. Shes taken policies working with the court system with the state attorney to try to reduce the number of people who are awaiting trial sitting in jail where its very costly. On the game changer obviously whole foods coming into englewood. Englewood is one of the most challenged communities in the city of chicago it spawned and cat liesed a lot of other investments coming in as whole foods often does. Another game changer is one i talked about earlier is that coalition of large institutions we form in chicago now invested in the neighborhood. We havent got there yet, but we talked to some folks in cleveland and a couple at University Circle or whatever they call it they create a partnership with baxter they got baxter to build a major facility, in a distressed neighborhood which had a physical presence creating a couple hundred jobs and the way they got him to do it they guaranteed him a long Term Contract when you can get that kind of collective were talking about billions of dollars we spend. You can get that and use that influence on the people that serve us i think it has Game Changing potential. Jump in on this point . I think we have to realize theres an economic imperative here. I think theres Something Like 6 million kids for a society thats based on production and consumption. We cant have that. A couple Game Changing things that were seeing, second chances, the mistakes of your youth should not be limited for the rest of your life. One thing that were seeing around the country this idea of banning the box. Almost every single job where you have to fill out an application, you have to check that box, whether or not youve been arrested or had a felony conviction, there are 65 million americans that would have to check that box. Data shows that theres really no difference for some of these jobs what were seeing across the country is Companies Like walmart are getting rid of that box so they bring these folks in. Interview them see if theres a skill set before they get to this kind of background check and see whats happening. The other idea is we have to hire them, youre seeing organizations like jp morgan chase, making this a core part of their practice. Theyre bringing in kids from their sophomore years and training them and giving them mentors, theyre following with them, working with them. Getting them back for summer experiences, so theyre preparing the workforce of the future. Theres going to have to be a little more on forgiveness, but also an affirmative action oriented effort to make sure were hiring these young people and giving them the skills that they may not have learned to make sure theyre going to be a part of our workforce. I wants you to jump in on wealth gaps or any other topics. The wealth question pops up. And then the income question pops up. Im not going to criticize the two dimensional picture. Were talking about policies in the needle. In a time series. There are these programs programmatic limits, which prohibit wealth accumulation by not activating the market not letting neighbors share in the appreciation. It may build wealth for a household if the rent is affordable. It wont build wealth in a spillover effect because it never participates in a marketplace. There are a number of policies to change around wealth. Wealth is a legitimate thing to study, an appropriate needle to look at. Its a real challenge. I go back to sandy. Starbucks is an interesting issue of somebody thats sort of taken it upon themselves in the Service Industry to say, youre going to get something extra by standing up and being there, i know your youth build. Its about creating the jobs, also investing in the training and development. Starbucks has been working with youth build programs Customer Service access training. To provide the barista training to the young person. They now have the skills to work at a starbucks move up into management. And we know the great benefits of working at a starbucks, with starbucks, the college reimbursement and such. Starbucks also has committed recently to hiring 10,000 opportunity youth. Walmart has worked with youth build to provide funding for those that are working on health careers. Working around focused Career Readiness training. Its about creating the jobs and investing investing in the training and development thats going to prepare if young people for the jobs. We knew we could not boil the entire ocean of poverty in a twohour session. But what you heard was a lot of energy and commitment and leadership in communities around the country to not give up. So please join me in thanking our leaders for a really dynamic discussion. [ applause ] thank you again for joining us and please have a great day. Here are some of our featured programs for the holiday weekend. On cspan saturday and sunday, starting at noon commencement speeches by politicians white house officials and Business Leaders as they offer adviseed aadvice and encouragement. Speaks include tim scott at South Carolina state, u. S. Ambassador to saudi arabia so receive westfall at the Oklahoma State university, and jason kay her at the university of North Carolina chapel hill. And monday morning at 11 00, live coverage of the Memorial Day Ceremony from Arlington National cemetery. And at 9 00 a. M. Eastern interviews with four freshmen of congress. On cspans book tv, saturday night at 10 00 eastern Rosabeth Moss kanter for her ideas for improvements in americas rail webb road transport. Sunday at 7 00 p. M. Monday evening at 8 00 books on first ladies including michelle obama. Cspan3 00 sat night at 8 00 eastern, university of minnesota professor on anyell immigration from 1830 to 1930 and how their arrive compared to those in ellis island. Sunday at 4 00 on real america the 1945 production of true glory. And monday evening at 6 30 on american argument facts, the recreation of the grand review parade of 1865 including reenactors creating groups. Fine our complete schedule at cspan. Org. Next a Senate Confirmation hearing for the nominee to be the assistant secretary for Homeland Security and the administrator of the tsa. This is an hour. This nomination hearing will come to order. I apologize to our nominee for the tardy start. We had some things going on on the floor that we were trying to business we were trying to take care of over there. Were delighted to have you with us today. Today were going to consideration the nomination for the next transportation security administration. Tsa administrator position has been vacant since last december. In january, i, along with Ranking Member nelson, ayotte and fisher, called on president obama to send us a qualified and dedicated official to serve. While im disappointed a length of time it took for the president to send us an employee, im encouraged by admiral neffenger. He currently serves as in the United States coast guard and had a long and distinguished career serving over 33 years in a wide range of positions, each with more responsibility and importance than the last. During assignment in mobile, alabama, he helped to lead the response of the 1993 sunset Train Derailment into a remote waterway in the mobile river delta which killed 47 people. This is a particularly a significant experience in light of philadelphia. Also substantial experience serving in the senate, having been a coast guard fellow and detailee at the Senate Appropriations committee. Admiral neffenger also serves on the deep water oil horizon spill. He coordinated and led 50,000 people from federal, state and local agencies, nongovernmental organizations and the private sector throughout five gulf coast states in the cleanup and response efforts. Hes proven himself as a leader and the tsa has an agency in need of strong leadership. He deserves credit for improving the use of risk base approaches to security and implementing programs to streamline the travelers who pose little or no threat to the public. At the same time, just last week the department of Homeland Securitys Inspector General testified in the house, and i quote, unfortunately although nearly 14 years have passed since tsas inception, the igs Office Remains deeply concerned about the ability to execute its Important Mission end quote. His unusually blunt testimony from a government witness underscores the need to get a qualified and capable leader in place at tsa especially with the evolving security risks that our nation faces. This committee will do its part to make that happen. I look forward to a Meaningful Exchange with admiral neffenger today as well as written questions following the hearing. Then if members are satisfied with the nominees responses, we will hold a markup to consider the nomination during the first week back after the memorial day recess. That will be followed by a previously agreed upon referral to the senate Homeland Security and affairs committee, as has been done for the last several nominees to head the tsa. In both settings as well as in personal meetings with senators, admiral neffenger will have a chance to address important policy issues and how he will address the challenges facing tsa if confirmed. With that, i want to get us going here. Our Ranking Member senator nelson i assume will be here momentarily. In his absence we will provide. We have represent janice hawn here to introduce our nominee. Congressman hahn very nice to have you here. Welcome. Please proceed. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Its very nice to be with you today. Mr. Chairman, i appreciate being invited to speak in support of the nomination of Peter Neffenger to be the administrator of the transportation security administration. I understand the importance of the tsa at a time when our nation continues to face potential attacks on our homeland and therefore the need for an administrator who has demonstrated the highest standards of excellence in leadership roles. I enthusiastically support him for this position. As the commander of the coast guard sector, los angeles long beach, the largest port complex in the country, vice admiral neffenger simultaneously served as the captain of the port when i was on the Los Angeles City council and represented the port at that time. Peter and i worked closely together on Port Security in the years following the tragic terrorist attacks of 9 11. Before 9 11 the federal government did not have an agency or administration specifically responsible for securing our Transportation Systems. And as you know this very committee created tsa which now has the role of securing our Transportation System while ensuring the free flow of goods and services. Ranking member nelson, good to see you. Vice admiral neffenger has the right experience and abilities to implement tsas mission, as demonstrated by his professional and personal qualifications. Over the years ive found him also to be very even keeled. I think this is crucial for the person at the helm of our nations transportation security. We need a person in charge who can decide with congress where limited resources should be spent. And to balance security and commerce while at the same time protecting americas public. Since ive come to serve in congress as a representative of our nations largest port complex and the cofounder, and the cochair of the port caucus in the house of representatives, vice admiral neffenger has continued to brief me about security at the nations port and to be a resource for me on Port Security. I this i the president has selected the right person to lead our nations transportation security administration. Vice admiral neffenger brings the right set of experiences to tsa. His qualifications are exemplary. His knowledge, his character and Strategic Thinking are first rate, and his unique experiences which are broader than aaviation, will help tsa complete the mission of protecting the Transportation System, to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce. Our ports, i think, are still a vulnerable part of our Transportation System. And i can see the port of los angeles from my backyard. And that security gap sometimes keeps me awake at night. Thats why i think more than ever we need someone with vice admiral neffengers background that understands and knows our ports as well as the entire Transportation System. Knowing that such a highly qualified person is protecting our nations protect Transportation System will give us all great comfort and confidence. I urge you to confirm his nomination. Thank you so much for letting me be here. Thank you, congresswoman hahn very much for the testimonial. Im certain that our nominee very much appreciate the great words, and we appreciate you coming over. Thank you for being here and sharing that with us. And senator nelson is here. Im going to turn to him before we turn to vice admiral neffenger and let him make his opening remarks. Senator nelson. Congresswoman thank you for your comments. And in the interest of time, since weve had the delay because of the trade vote, i will submit my statement for the record. Let me just say that the admiral worked very hard in a major disaster that we had, the oil spill deep water horizon in the gulf that has had such longlasting effects. He obviously is skilled. He is obviously experienced with his 34 years. He takes over an agency that if we make a mistake, it could be fatal and we need the strong leadership. You look at some of the vulnerabilities in the airports. Last december, they discovered for a sixmonth period, people were getting on airplanes in the Atlanta Airport and transporting guns on commercial airliners to new york. Over a sixmonth period. Its unacceptable. Just this past week the secretary talked about a drug running gang in california among baggage handlers. Its unacceptable. So, admiral, you have a real job and we appreciate you offering yourself for your continued public service. Thank you, senator nelson. Admiral neffenger, please proceed. Thank you, sir. I have a short Opening Statement and a written statement for the record with your permission. Good morning distinguished members of the committee. I am deeply privileged to appear before you as the nations nominee to head the security administration. Im honored by the president s call to serve in this position by the support of secretary jeh johnson who has provided leadership. I wanted to thank my friend, representative janis hahn, who graciously gave up her time to work with me today. I had a great privilege of working with her in long beach. She directly helped me as we brought together leaders in industry, labor, government, First Responder agencies and the local community to tackle the daunting challenge. This experience reinforced my belief in the critical importance of partnerships in protecting the nations Transportation Systems. Thank you again, janis. I would also like to thank the 50,000 men and women of the United States coast guard and the 30,000 members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary from whom ive learned important lessons about leadership and service to nation, commitment to excellence, and duty to people. And to the dedicated men and women of tsa, i want you to know that im deeply honored to potentially join your ranks and serve with you and the American People in securing the nations Transportation Systems. During my nearly 34 years of service, ive been assigned to a variety of leadership positions culminating in my position of second in command of the coast guard. The nations fifth Armed Service in the premier Maritime Law Enforcement agency. Each assignment has brought greater and more complex responsibilities and challenges, and if confirmed, i will apply the leadership skills i have gained as well as my extensive experience in Law Enforcement, Maritime Transportation security, and management of a large, complex agency to ensure the protection of our nations Transportation Systems. Nearly 14 years after 9 11, we must recognize that the global terrorist threat has evolved. Today this threat is more decentralized, more diffuse and more complex. Certain terrorist groups remain intent on striking the United States in the west, and we know some of these groups are focused on commercial aviation. Moreover, we see a growing threat from lone wolf actors. The threats are persistent and evolving and tsas most pressing challenge. Workforce training, retention and accountability are a second challenge facing tsa. If confirmed, i will pay close attention to the development of the tsa workforce. I will examine how to use the tsa academy established by john pistol to further improve performance and to instill an ever greater sense of pride in the agency and the critically Important Mission. I will continue the focus on Customer Service. Travelers expect sufficient and effective screening and deserve to be treated with respect. A third challenge is the tools they need to address the persistent and evolving terrorist threat. We must question ourselves. We must evolve our capabilities. We must adapt faster than those who wish to harm us. We must envision what comes next and direct investments appropriately. As such if confirmed i will commit myself to ensuring that tsa remanemploys multilayered intelligence operations. That tsa recruits and retains a highly Skilled Workforce while placing a premium on professional values. And the tsa continues to strengthen its integration in the Intelligence Community with the private sector and stakeholders with the state and local partners. If confirmed i will follow the strategy, engage and lead the workforce and adapt and invest appropriately. I believe i have a proven record of leading people and carrying outcome plex missions. I have an extensive background in applying risk based security to maritime threats. Principles that relate to other transportation modes and i have a proven record of leading through crises. Finally, throughout my career i have remained aware of the need to balance securities with the protection of the rights we cherish. I look forward to partnering with this committee on a range of initiatives to enhance the safety of the traveling public and to achieve this balance. In closing, i thank president obama and secretary johnson for their confidence in my ability mr. Chairman, Ranking Member nelson, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you, admiral, for those opening remarks. And ill start with a couple of questions and then turn to our other colleagues who are here. As i noted in my opening remarks, dhs Inspector General testified before the House Oversight and Reform Committee last week regarding tsa. And he said, and i want to quote, im deeply concerned about tsas ability to execute its Important Mission. Among other things, mr. Ross testimony highlighted vulnerability and challenges related to precheck, passenger and baggage screening, Access Controls to secure areas, workforce integrity, and operations that you as tsa administrator will have to confront should you be confirmed. Specifically mr. Ross testified that tsa did not conquer with the majority of the oigs 17 recommendations to address vulnerabilities in the precheck program. He said this represents, and again i quote, tsas failure to understand the gravity of the situation. End quote. That testimony raises serious questions. And my question is, how will you seek to ensure the core mission of the sa to protect the nations Transportation Systems will be carried out effectively in light of the concerns that have been identified by mr. Roth. Thanks for that question, senator. I met with mr. Roth earlier this week because i read the testimony. And i have read the ig reports that were the basis of the testimony. And i wanted to understand what his concerns were and what his concerns were with respect to the responsiveness of tsa to those concerns. And i told him i saw great value in the oversight of the Inspector General and i saw great value of the entity outside an agency, looking hard outside the actions and purposes. I see that i see a great work list of issues to attend to. I think that the Inspector General has raised exactly the kinds of questions that if confirmed, i would ask going into tsa, irrespective of a Inspector General report out there. When i look at the world of security, i think in terms of, first of all, what is the threat that were facing, and how is that threat evolving over time . Theres a big intelligence component of that. And then, what are the risks or what are the vulnerabilities in the system that create the risk. And what are the capabilities we have to address the vulnerabilities and finally, how does a workforce field the tools . How do you train the workforce to do that . And how do i ensure that stays trained and continually adopts and evolves. So the questions raised by the Inspector General are questions about ability to adapt to threat, ability to understand the intelligence behind the threat, ability to understand vulnerabilities in the system, and more importantly, an understanding of a Security System as a whole and the various layers and pieces associated with that. So if confirmed, i intend to address to look at those very seriously. I take the igs report very seriously. I promised the Inspector General i would be back to talk with him many in more detail if i had the opportunity to do so. If youre confirmed, would you pledge to a followup meeting with senator nelson and me and other interested members of the committee to talk about some of the concerns that have been raised regarding the certain tsa policies . Mr. Chairman, i would very much look forward to working with this committee on those issues. On march 17th 2015, a Bipartisan Group of committee members, including myself, Ranking Member nelson, senators ayotte and cantwell sent a letter involving the secure identification display area or site of badges. The incidents range from a delta ramp agent in atlanta using his badge to facilitate a gun smuggling operations. Several badges were unaccounted for. Just yesterday we learned about criminal charges brought by the fbi, the irs, and the u. S. Attorneys office against 14 baggage handlers and coconspirators in california for using their badges to bypass to tsa check points and illegally transport drugs across the country over a threeyear period. Tsas response to our march letter indicated the agency does not maintain record of lost or unaccounted for badges leaving the airports responsible for the maintenance of such records. Should you be confirmed, what will you do to ensure that tsa does more to oversee and enforce the regulatory requirements and security directives regarding badges so that we do not continue to discover these abuses . And follow up to that, how will you hold them accountable for these very serious security lapses . Senator, i appreciate the fact that your staff shared with me the correspondence that you have had with tsa on this matter. And i had a chance to read your letters as well as the response from tsa. And i share your concern with with the breaches of security that have been discovered over the past months. Im encouraged by Aviation Security Advisory Committee report that looked at this issue, and i think there are a number of recommendations that came out of that that bear some attention. With a population that is supposed to be known, vetted and trusted, comes a responsibility to ensure that you hold that population, that you take that trust, but that you verify periodically that that trust is warranted in those individuals. I know there are a number of airports out there, two in mr. Nelsons state, that are doing 100 security. I believe its miamidade and orlando. I would like to visit the airports and understand what 100 screening of a trusted population looks like. How is it done . How is it done in a way that encourages us that its effective . I think theres a lot to be said for reducing the number of Access Points to airports. Certainly immediately introducing randomized screening of employees so theres an expectation you might get screened when you go there. I want to look at how this is currently being done. Understand truly what tsas authorities are with respect to oversight of the badge issue. What are the airport authorities responsibilities, and how are those being overseen and enforced . What are the standards nationwide that are being set for that . But and then what is the insider threat, what are the processes to try to identify Insider Threats in the future, so that you dont discover after the fact that youve had an operation like what was happening in atlanta. You mentioned the Advisory Committee report. Obviously youre familiar with it. Do you believe that it offers a good blueprint of actionable items that could be undertaken to enhance security . I think it does, senator. My time is expired. Ill turn now to senator nelson. For questions he might have. Again in the interest of brevity, ill submit most of the questions for the record. Im delighted to hear you say that youll come to miami and orlando so you can see how, practically speaking, it was implemented and has worked in miami since 1999. In orlando since 2009. And it was bearing a cost. And that is putting up screening of all of the airport employees coming onto the premises. By taking hundreds of entry points and boiling it down to a handful. And then checking them like you would be checking a passenger. When you check it out, then the question is, for example, on the magnotometer, how much do they tune it up . Do they tune it up to the point at which youre screening airport employees to the same degree that you are screening passengers . And what other checks and balances are there . Swiping the card . Having the employee enter an identification number, so its another check to make sure that the employee is who they say they are going into the secure space. Which, of course, was the problem in atlanta. The employees could get in, and then they had this prearrangement whereby then they would go up into the sterile area of passengers. And in the mens room, switch out the guns into an empty backpack of the prearranged passenger, who then carried these guns just unbelievably, including a carbine, and the last time they arrested him, he had 16 handguns in his backpack. Thank goodness he was a criminal and not a terrorist. But it again shows a whole airPort Security is one thing. Tsa security is another. But this is clear a case where one affected the other. So thank you for offering to come, and i hope that you can learn something that could be applied to the other 448 airports in the country that are not doing this. Thank you, senator. I look forward to a visit and look forward to learning what the best practices are. Okay. Is the chairman all right. Im going to turn to the senator from connecticut. Thank you. Thanks for being here, admiral. And thanks for your service to our nation. I want to focus, if i may, on security in rail and transit. Our countrys transportation and Passenger Rail systems are used by tens of million of people every day, and they are the backbone of Economic Activity throughout our nation. We have only to look to the consequences of philadelphia tragedy. To see the losses that can occur when the rails are shut down over 100 million a day to the northeast region alone. Our rails carry five times as many people a day as the airlines do. Penn station and new york city handles half a million passengers a day, making it busier than all of our airports. And new york City Regional airports combined. Its the busiest transportation hub in our country. The special Commission Investigating 9 11 urged vigilant protection of, and im quoting, parts of our security transportation, like rail and transit, just as much as we protect aviation. And that commission said, quote, surface Transportation Systems, such as railroads and mass transit remain hard to protect because they are so inaccessible and extensive. End quote. I posed some questions during one of our hearings, in fact, back in march, on the tsa. I asked tsa in a question for the record when the mandates from the 2007 law, its called, implementing recommendation from 9 11 act 10153, when the mandates would be approved. I received a very broad, nebulous statement in response. I want appreciate a commitment from you that you will answer specifically about those mandates when they will be implemented. And the mandates, for example, include approving security plans for all railroads that considered vulnerable, highrisk targets for terrorist attacks, and training standards of sub substantial security threats, provide a framework for conducting name base security background checks and immigration status checks. These recommendations were due within one day of that year. But its now may of 2015. Approaching eight years since the deadline, and we still have no final action on the requirements. Im asking you for a commitment to give me specific time lines. Senator, i share your concern for the security of our surface Transportation Systems. This is the area i spent most of my time in. Primarily marry Maritime Transportation. The rail connections and the like. Maritime transportation. The rail connections and the like. Maritime transportation. The rail connections and the like. Maritime transportation. The rail connections and the like. Maritime transportation. The rail connections and the like. Maritime transportation. The rail connections and the like. Aritime transportation. The rail connections and the like. And the fact that the surface Transportation Systems im familiar with are directly connected with the Large Population centers. So theres i understand the concern with respect to that. Service transportation is much more diverse and dispersed set of elements and you have many different types of elements in the world, from buses and trucks and the like to light rail, heavy rail, Passenger Rail. And so i think its important to understand what the various threats are out there. I go back to the concern about the intelligence. And then more importantly, i think that the initiatives that are outlined in public law 11053, as you noted, are fairly straight forward. Security plans. You do need to understand how youre going to respond to something if you have an event. You need to have a common set of standards across the systems. Those standards may differ from mode to mode, but they should be consistent within the mode. They should be based upon what we understand of the threats and they should evolve over time. Because the easiest Security System to defeat is the one that assumes that you have the answer right. And then there are a lot of partners involved in this as well. What is the connection to your private sector partners, and how are those connections and how are those partnerships maintained over time . I intent to look very hard at this, if confirmed. Well, im asking for a commitment that youll give us some time lines as to when there will be compliance with the law. That seems like a basic request. Can i interpret your remarks as a yes . I will look hard at this law and how tsa has addressed its commitments and responsibilities under the law. And what i will tell you is that i believe very strongly in applying the law of the land as it was intended. Well, i hope you do. Because youre going to be taking an oath of office to faithfully execute those laws. Yes, sir. And youve done that repeatedly as a member of our Armed Services. So im i know you take them very seriously. Yes, sir. These measures were approved by this congress eight years ago. They still havent been implemented. Im asking you for a commitment to develop time lines for implementing. Im not asking them to be done on your first day in office. Im asking for a commitment to take them seriously and provide time lines. Senator, i will look hard at the current time lines. I assume youve been given some indication to date. I would like to find out what that is and if we have i will give you the opportunity to respond in writing, if you wish. I would do that. Yes, sir. I dont mean to hit you cold with a request of this nature, but i do think its important to your confirmation that you commit to providing some sense of when there will be compliance with the law. I think thats a reasonable response. I will look at what it takes to comply with the law. Im sorry. A reasonable request. Yes, sir. And i really do look forward to working on you to making sure i answer that question. In that spirit, i would like to ask you whether you would be willing to come to one of our rail stations and or airports in connecticut to give us some idea of what you think the security threats are, either in new haven, stanford, or hartford. Senator, i would be happy to do that, and if confirmed, i look forward to getting out quite a bit to understand what not only to talk about what the current threats are, but to see how individual components of the system are addressing those threats, and working collectively to ensure the security. I appreciate your commitment to come to connecticut. I will be in touch with your office if you are confirmed, and i look forward to receiving more information in writing about implementation of public law 11053. Thank you, senator. Thank you. Thank you senator blumenthal. Thank you so much, mr. Chairman. Thank you. And congratulations on your nomination. I just wanted to start obviously you have a very important job, and its often said its one of the hardest jobs in washington. I think thats reflective in some of the questions you have gotten today. In my home state, as you probably know, weve had several people charged since november since traveling or attempting to travel to the middle east to join isis. And before that we had a number indicted and a number convicted for trying to join al shabaab, and that continues to be an issue for our state, both groups. If youre confirmed, how will you ensure the information such as nofly list be disseminated among allies to prevent someone being trained from boarding a plane to head toward the u. S. , and how will you ensure that tsa works with domestic agencies and International Partners to respond to threats . I apologize. Senator, thank you for your question. Youre at the heart of the challenge with respect to understanding the threat and disseminating that. So its about information sharing and sharing it appropriately and expeditiously and to the right people at the right time so that you dont have so that if you have somebody attempting to travel unlawfully through the system or worse that you know about them before the attempt happens. Ive had some briefings with respect to how this is usually done. There are a lot of players in the world. Not the least the other Law Enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies of this nation. As you know, the coast guard has been a member of the Intelligence Community for quite some time. And ive is worked closely in that world. Im familiar with the ways in which you have to take National Intelligence and turn it into intelligence that could be shared with your local partners and your overseas partners. So if confirmed, what i would like to do is take a deeper dive into how thats currently how that information is currently moving in the transportation security world, particularly how it gets processed into tsa, how it gets processed out of tsa and more importantly, how it gets sent to the very people who need to moe it the most, which are the front line agencies and officers who have to make a decision on the spot if somebody is a threat. And one other thing related to flying, i wanted to make sure youre aware of. In 2012 we passed and signed into the law the no household flying act. It allows the tsa to wave the rescreening for luggage by u. S. Customs and Border Protection at a foreign airport that meets our standard, such as canada, that has preclearance facilities. I just want to let you know i hope it will continue under your leadership. Thank you. It sounds like a good program, senator. Yep. We worked hard on that one. Another error related thing. Customs, i head up the travel caucus and do a lot of work in tourism. Again, senator blunt and i got the brand usa reauthorized so i understand the Security Protection as well as trying to make the experience for travelers as we look at bringing people in. So many foreign travelers want to follow the law and visit our shores. And how important that is the economy. Custom and Border Protection has worked with private Sector Company like disney and theres been a number of airports that have partnered with different private sector partners to improve travel per experience and efficiencies at the port of entry. This isnt just about people waiting in line. Its how theyre treated when they get there and the possibility of having videos of our country that play while theyre waiting in line and other things. I just wondered about your views on that. This is completely outside of just the security portion, which of course has to be respected. But that doesnt mean when people come to the airport that we dont want them to have a good experience so that they want to come back again. Could you talk about your ideas or what you know about this subject . I will, senator. As you know, the coast guard has a very public face to it as well. We interact quite a bit with the public. Sometimes the interactions are probably not what the public wants. I can remember as a junior officer boarding a recreational vote to determine if they were operating in a safe manner. Im sure i interrupted a familys enjoyable afternoon on the water. It was up on the great lakes, as a matter of fact. So i think Customer Service is important to me, and the way in which you interact. The public is as much a part of the system as the people that are there to protect the public. And you know, every so in the coast guard. Every Single Member of the coast guard who comes in the read a letter Alexander Hamilton sent to the first ten skippers of the revenue cutter service. The first ten commanding officers. So its a precursor to the modern day coast guard. And in that its a long letter that laid out all sorts of, you know, duties and responsibilities. These revenue cutters were designed to do something for the first time for the brand in United States of america that had never been done, to stop merchant vessels at sea. Something that was probably not expected or welcomed by the people bringing them in. So in that letter, the most important line theres one line in there that says, always keep in mind your country men are free men and as such, impatient of everything that bears the least mark of a domineering spirit. And then he goes onto explain, because you have the law on your side. And he also goes on to explain, and if i find out that you mistreated people, then youll have me to answer to. So thats always in the back of my mind. And over the years every time ive advanced somebody in rank or promoted them, i always read this letter to them after the oath of office. I read this section. I remind them that first and foremost our job is to protect and safeguard the public that we serve, but that the public that we serve put us in our job. And they expect to be treated with respect and dignity. Thats the approach i bring to, if i get confirmed to tsa, and i look to try to instill that same sense and the idea is maybe to work with the commerce department, and you have to figure this out when you get in the job, but to work on some of these issues, because i think there has been improvement with how tsa has been treating people. Its not as much my issue as much as looking at how we can make things efficient as possible in the port of entries, but also how to partner with the private sector actually make them look better. Because theyre entering our country for the first time. And this may be a bit of a luxury we have now because the economy is improving. But were having more and more foreign visitors on our shore. Were finally advertising in other countries, and we want them to come back and spend money in the u. S. Because that means jobs in u. S. So thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you, senator. Let me just do one more followup question regarding some of the issues directly under your jurisdiction. In addition the gaa issued harsh criticisms of the program. This committee repeated he recognized the delay. Just yesterday this committee passed legislation that would provide for an outside review of the program with the goal of developing a corrective action plan to make improvements. Your role in the coast guard provides you can unique insight into the value of the program. Could you please provide us with your thoughts and plan for improving the management of this program . Thank you, mr. Chairman. Ill start by saying theres great value in having a known, trusted and vetted population moving out of areas that we think may have vulnerabilities or security challenges. And the port environment is one of those, very dynamic and open environments and theres a lot of movement in and out. So i think the goal is a laudable one and a good one. The program itself has been challenging over the years and although ive not been directly involved in the various components of the coast guard ive had oversight responsibility for aspects of it. The reader rule, as you know as a coast guard owned rule and thats in the process of coming to fruition now. Which would allow us to actually read the biometric on the chip. Im in favor of independent reviews on a periodic basis because i think they can raise issues that you might become blind to over time, as youre working through the implementation of a project. This was a challenging project, i know, over time, because it was, in some senses, maybe the largest issuance of a federal id to a private workforce that will then be privately enforced at multiple locations around the nation. So there are challenges associated with that. Im interested in delving deeper into the gao concerns, and meeting with the gao. Ive not had a chance to sit down with the General Accountability Office yet, but i intend to do so over the coming weeks and in particular take a harder look at the status. I know that in the briefings ive had with tsa theyve done a lot of things to improve the throw through put and the turn around time. But ultimately you want an i. D. Through put and the turn around time. But ultimately you want an i. D. Through put and the turn around time. But ultimately you want an i. D. Through put and the turn around time. But ultimately you want an i. D. Through put and the turn around time. But ultimately you want an i. D. Ough put and the turn around time. But ultimately you want an i. D. Hrough put and the turn around time. But ultimately you want an i. D. Card that can be trusted and verify the individual presenting it is in fact that individual. This is a little bit off topic, but at least with your nomination for tsa, but would you like to share with the committee your understanding of the coast guard response to the oil spill near Santa Barbara . Thats an ongoing spill response, as you know. It happened over the past it was a pipeline spill, a pipeline rupture, and its put a fair amount of oil into the the water. I forget the exact number, but its significant enough to have caused shoreline impacts. The response is fairly straightforward in terms of the techniques used. I think that from the response standpoint, i think the responders are doing everything they can do at this point. The real challenge is in is in the longterm cleanup as well as the longterm mitigation efforts that might follow as a result of that. And then holding the Company Accountable for the costs associated with the spill. I know weve got a number of responders. I dont know the exact count. The local federal onscene coordinator, coast guard captain is responding to that. Were quite concerned. Theres highly sensitive areas along the california coast. We want to make sure that weve addressed the potential for any followon spills. I would be happy to get that for the record. You were the onscene coordinator for the bp oil spill which this committee had a hearing on the anniversary. Could you give maybe a sense of the coast guard response with state and other partners there . Well that was the as you know, the bp oil spill was the largest in our history. What made it completely challenging was it was ongoing for 75 days. We had a spill the equivalent of the exxon valdez every day for 75 days. No matter what do you one day, you were looking at the huge volume of oil the following day. That one taxed all the resources available. At one point we had 2,500 miles of boom stretched out. I think given the scope, given the complexity of that drill, it stretched across five gulf states and impacted many different types of wildlife and shoreline and habitat. It we put to bear pretty much every time of oil cleanup technique and equipment type that you could have, over 50,000 people responding. I think in retrospect, given the severity of the spill and given the fact that anytime you have that much oil spill youre going to have damage and an environmental impact, i think the responders did truly a remarkable job of limiting the amount of damage done. Thats not to say that there isnt damage and that there isnt going to be some ongoing assessments with respect to how severe the damage was. I think when you look in retrospect at how much was done and how much had to be done. Its remarkable that we didnt see even more damage from that spill. All right. Well, i think weve exhausted people who want to ask you questions. Well, maybe not. The senator from alaska has arrived. So while hes getting organized, well give him a minute. I think you may be on the hot seat for a few minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I dont know how efficient hes in asking questions. Senator sullivan . Mr. Chairman, thank you. Thank you. Sorry for the tardy arrival here. One thing i wanted to start with, first, thanks for your outstanding career in the coast guard. I always like to ask candidates or nominees for these important positions the very basic question of why you want the job. Tsa, if you get confirmed, youll come back to this committee. There will be hiccups and things that youre going to have to answer for. Youre probably going to have the cameras rolling. And some senator beating the living daylights out of you on tv. Why do you want to do this . Senator sullivan, thank you. Thats a great question. A question i ask myself. But its i wound up with the same answer that had me join the coast guard in the first place. As corny as it may sound, i was five years old when john kennedy was inaugurated as president. And so i grew up with the ask what you could do for your country tag line. And it was drilled into us by every teacher i had throughout my grade school and Elementary School experience. My parents reminded me of that repeatedly. I grew up with the idea of public service. I really believe in public service. I believe that its an important that there are Important Missions to serving the public. So some of this is when your country asks you for something, i think that you owe it to your country to consider it. And to consider it. And then i looked at the agency itself. I thought, well, how would i fit into the transportation security administration. And there are remarkable number of similarities between the coast guard and tsa in terms of in these terms. Its a missionfocused agency. It has a really, really Important Mission. And in many respects its a nofail mission. So im impressed by people who have already raised their hand and taken an oath and said, i want to do that, i want to do the hard jobs that this nation has to offer. I know its going to be tough. It might not even be a job where im well liked. But i look at men and women on the front line of tsa every day and think, that is a tough job, and they deserve somebody who respects and admires them for the work they do. I like that idea. I like the idea of building an Agency Culture around mission. I like the idea of reminding people the importance of those missions. And then i im familiar with these geographically diverse and dispersed work forces. Its a relatively junior work force in terms of their relative place in the organization. How do you engage a work force like that, and how do you get them to feel part of something. I think weve got some pretty remote coast guard you know the history yourself, youve got remote history locations in alaska. A great story about a guy who got sent to st. Paul once and thought it was minnesota and found out it was alaska. Told his family he wasnt coming home i was just in st. Paul yesterday. Great americans. He spent most of the time moving rocks from one side of the island to the other to try to get home. I look and think how do you trust people to do the job, theyre very young, junior. Youre giving them in many respects the most some of the most Challenging Missions they could have and tell them you cant fail. Then you leave them all alone on their own. And i think that all of that looks like a way of thinking that applies directly to the transportation security administration. And as i said, it just looked it looked more and more intriguing the more i saw it, and i believe in public service. Great. Thank you for that. I appreciate that heartfelt answer. Its good to hear. I want to talk about emerging threats and how you believe tsa is keeping ahead of those threats. Do you think they are . What do you think we need to do . I mean, theres been a lot of criticism of the agency that you, if youre confirmed, will be leading. I think that anytime you stand up a brand new agency, particularly in the circumstances that we stood up tsa after 9 11, theres going to be hiccups, theres going to be bumps in the road. I always, always go out of my way in alaska to compliment our tsa agents who, you know, i think are doing a good job. Not perfect. There are some issues that a lot of alaskans have concerns about. I had addressed to our state legislature, one of the leaders in the state legislature had concerns about the tsa becoming much more kind of Law Enforcement as opposed to security. But how do you mix those and stay in front of these emerging threats . As you say, you know, we cant afford to fail in that mission that you that tsa has. Thats that is the challenge facing tsa. As i think about security, i think about what makes for an effective Security System, clearly there has to be a number of layers in that Security System. No one single layer could be expected to stop all threats from getting through. But then you have how does that system evolve over time . We know that those who would exploit or do harm, those who would try to bypass the system or gain the system will do so if its static over time. How do you how do you evolve that system, how do you understand how the threat is changing . As i look at the threat streams, and ive had a number of briefings on the current threat to the Transportation System, specifically aviation systems. And we know that that threat is evolving. It evolved immediately after 9 11. You saw richard reid, shoe bomber, not very shortly after 9 11. And the underwear bomber case. All of those thing tell us that you have a learning enemy. We say the enemy does get a vote in this, as well. I think its important that you have a clear and strong connection to the Intelligence Community. That your Intelligence Community is understanding the threat and how it might be evolving. That you Pay Attention to what the Intelligence Community is saying, that you disseminate that. Somehow you have to get that trained into the work force. Then you have to have a system that adapts to the threat. So that if, for example, you have some element of your Security System that no longer addresses some specific threat, one of the layers of the system that can compensate until you can get that element back to where it needs to be. So if confirmed, i intend to ask lots of questions about that. I would really want to focus on this evolving adaptable nature. I think that has to be built into the culture of the organization. Has to be a learning organization, adapting organization. One that never thinks it got the question right. So the Security System today has to be doesnt necessarily mean its the Security System of tomorrow. In fact i want to know what the Security System of tomorrow looks like, next year, and the year after so it stays ahead of the enemy that would exploit the system. Let me ask one final question. Just a little bit more kind of alaska and then regional specific. You know, after 9 11, Congress Mandated that airports install explosive detective systems, and there was a promise of federal cost sharing, that 90 to 95 of federal cost sharing. I think most airports have abided by that, have implemented that i also think that most airports have not received in return the promise of reimbursements. I think in alaska, the anchorage airport, its about a 20 million reimbursement for an airport our size. Thats a significant amount of money. Its obviously much larger in some of the bigger airports. Would you consider making sure that these outstanding reimbursements are part of the president s budget request if confirmed . The president s budget request if confirmed . Because right now, i believe that thats an issue that hasnt come up in the budget even though there was a reliance by many, many airports throughout the country on that promise. As i understand i think youre referring to inline baggage systems in particular in airports and the program that would allow airports to seek reimbursement or federal matching funding for that. Im not familiar with the specific case in anchorage. I want to first of all, how much money has been whats the appropriation and are the are the resources that have been currently appropriated adequate to support the program. One of the ways in whats the process for doing that and how well understood is that process and how well has it been done. I promise to come back to you and tell you what i found afterwards. Great. Well, that concludes the hearing. The hearing record will remain open for two weeks. During this time, senators are asked to submit any additional questions for the record. The witnesses are requested to submit written responses in answers to the committee as soon as possible. I want to thank admiral your Great Service to your country. I never had the chance to be stationed there. I wont hold that against you. I spent a lot of time in alaska. The coast guard does excellent work up there. This hearing is now adjourned. Thank you very much. On saturday commencement speeches from around the country. And from South Carolina state university, u. S. Senator tim scott. And back in 1983 when i was graduating from high school, the song that has stuck with me for the last 32 years is a song called hold onto your dreams. Yall too young to know that. Anyways, ill go back to yall. All right. Would you go ahead and start the music, president . Oh he said he forgot the music. Never mind. Im going to sing it. Will yall just help me out here . Thank you very much. Hold onto your dreams yall dont know good music. Im going to just tell you the words. The song simply says, hold onto your dreams. Believe in love and let love be the light to show you the way. Saturday commencement speeches from around the country at noon eastern on cspan. On wednesday a house subcommittee looked at the response from the damage of two major earthquakes in nepal. Members examined the humanitarian e needs and the long term implications for the people and the infrastructure of the country. The number of People Killed by the two earthquakes was more than 8,500. This is just over an hour. As i mentioned nepal was hit a 7 with a devastating 7. 8 magnitude earthquake on april 25th fogged by a 7. 3 magnitude earthquake on may 12th claiming the lives of over 8,000 people. Some have argued it was partially mitigated by advanced r risk preparation of usaid and others through its 60year presence in nepal. Today, we will discuss the u. S. Government efforts to alleviate the circumstances of disaster in nepal. S but we expect our witnesses to highlight successful preplanningvulner efforts, but i also expect an ike to honest assessment for rebuilding and protecting vulnerable communities. Id also likeni to hear about what we can do to make our foreign aid efforts more efficient. The United States has committed nearly 47 million for response and Recovery Efforts in nepal. Were working with the united in nations as well as thousands of hav foreign personnele on the ground centra in nepalte assisting with our relief projects. Our efforts have been concentrated on search and n invo rescue shelter water and as sanitation, but weve been involved in nearly every aspect of the response to some degree. Usaid deployed a disaster abo assistance response or dart team search and rescue dogs to nepal within hours. The teams urban search and mi rescue personnel some based in el nearby fairfax, virginia spent weeks working miracles pulling survivals out of the rubble in kathmandu. I look forward to hearing more es about their heroic activities and how preparation such as the darts readiness helps in nepal. Cr ive also heard that the u. S. U. S. Bilateral connections are playing an Important Role in the crisis response. Our partner nations in the region are leveraging u. S. Ee capabilities to help shoulder more of the burden. Id like to inform the committy on whether this may be an he indication that future disaster nt of responses in thede region might be pr less reliant on u. S. Agencies. The department of defense supported these efforts by providing air lift and other support at usaids request though dod does not take the lead in comprehensive disaster coun support such as this without their support, such efforts would be impossible. Our military is the most significant strategic presence thro inug asia and we rely heavily on their capabilities. I look forward to hearing about epal w theil militarys engagement during the the crisis and how their support of operations in nepal will inform their strategies in the future. Enduring needs and increased rom risks for nepal despite these incredible efforts the crisis is far from over in nepal. St the coming months and years will be the truth test of our response capabilities. Monsoon season is fast approaching. Large numbers of Homeless People exposed to the elements during this time would be a dire enough, crea problem in and of itself. The earthquakes have also changed the water tables in nepal, creating large amounts of displaced earth and increasing major the risk of flooding. T just nepal faces enormous water and sanitation dangers. Food shortages are also a major concern. I understand the crisis hit just before the planting season. Additionally, im concerned by reports that u. S. Food assistance including food prepositioned in sri lanka in a order to reducreepo delivery times will take up to 34 days to arrive in nepal. Id appreciate a report on this l delay and any idea of nepals ng longer term food outlook. These and other challenges will and affect the vulnerable populations among nepals in displaced peoples, including ues womenin and children. Given a history of trafficking in persons issues in nepal support of these vulnerable populations will be of the utmost importance. Ng id like to discuss how were working to ensure their safety. E nepal as we consider these horrific enduring challenges we should not forget that the response highlighted how effective some of our Disaster Response mechanisms really are. F ive heard that safer buildingat t techniques meant that we suffered zero u. S. Embassy or ur par local personaltn fatalities. Its also very exciting to hear i that some of our partner nations are using u. S. Built e capabilities to contribute to that response. Im interested to hear the witnesses insight on what this inc meansre regarding the efficacy of these investments in the region whether u. S. Capacity building can r in theed region has increased in the effectiveness and now these typerm. Of investments can reduce the cost of Disaster Response operations for the United States this in the long term. Its under extremely unfortunatee organi circumstances that we discuss these efforts, but this is the precisely what we have many of these organizations for discussing the challenges we face in the region is necessary pare f to prepare for future potential disasters. And working toward minimizing the loss of life as well as ncere depleting limited resources associated with relief efforts. I give my sincere thanks to our colleagues and our witnesses forer joining us in this conversation today. And i yield to the ranking m member, mr. Connolly. D st thank you, mr. Chairman. And welcome to our panel. The United States has demonstrated a longstanding commitment to assistance in disaster readiness in nepal. For over 60 years weve had a presence in nepal in the form of our bilateral aid program. And weve been focused on strengthening the countrys Disaster Response capabilities for the last two decades. Include the establishment of a disaster risk office to make the country more resilient. Implementation for the program the enhancement of emergencyme response to train nepally First Responders and medical personnel and publication of a disaster Risk Reduction strategic framework for the country. We will be interested in hearinghe how some things worked and some things didnt in the face of ear this natural disaster. O as part ofn ap the u. S. Response to a 7. 8 magnitude earthquake that occurred on april 25th the Development Office of disaster ite ur assistance deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team that a. Included elite urban search and rescue teams from my home countyts, pa and los angelesra california. Ms and technical search and rescue specialists, paramedics and other personal volunteer to seven on these teams. It the teams. It makes ones heart feel better on Television Watching the backs saying l. A. Team fairfax team because you know americans are putting themselves at risk to theyv try toe save fellow human beings quick theyve never met in a far away place. Once in country, the team task quickly begins to facilitate relief efforts. This time, that task was immense. The team found a dire situation e whic in theh region. 6,000 most heavily affected by the earthquake which killed more than 8,000 people and injured at d least 16,000am more. The seismic impact left over 750,000 homes damaged or destroyed. And 1. 5 Million People displacedne even withoutl access to clean water. Team members helped the nepali personnel assess whether structures were safe to inhabit. The u. S. Search and rescue teams also helped to pull a 15yearold boy from the rubble of a building five days after the earthquake had struck. Additionally, after experiencingued a 4 a 7. 3 magnitude after shock the team quickly went back to work and rescued a 41yearold woman trapped in a fourstory how building. Ev cer u. S. Assistance efforts are not es costfree endeavors however, and they certainly are not without while on risk. Tragically, six of our marines. Were killed in a helicopter de crash while onpl a humanitarian mission in response to this earthquake. The dangerous nature of these the deployments on behalf of vulnerable populations abroad, this m further demonstrates the resolve. We should honor the men and li women who step forward to put themselves in harms way on behalf of this mission. It tests the limits of domestic institutions as well as in internationa nl assistance and lea cooperation. W we i certainly look c forward to hearing about the performance ofpal and the u. S. Team in nepal, lessons learned, and how we can further r improve our coordination with nepal and other partners when the need for such Disaster Relief effort arises again. I welcome recommendations on how to promote the democratic transition in nepal and put a s decadeoc of civil war firmly in the rearview mirror. Nepal will be able to develop fully its own Disaster Response ter pr cape b89s resilient enough for this disaster prone region in the world. With that i yield back. Thank you. Does anybody else wish to be recognized . Thank you mr. Chairman, for calling this important hearing. The devastating earthquake that hit nepal on april 25th was heartbreaking. The loss of life is tragic beyond words. And the loss of thousands of be ab years of history. Picking up will not be easy and unfortunately nepal will never be able to get back all that it has los lost. Rable an the International Response has rts been considerable. And in particular, the u. S. Governments response efforts from the state department and aved m department of defense, the rapid fire response made a difference and saved many lives and youre th to be e commended and thanked for your considerable effort there. And a ths e dedicated u. S. Team that and joined the response effort deserves our gratitude. And Ranking Member mentioned six of our marines paid the ultimatee price to help the nepal people. An theyll forever be missed and we should remember them. Three years akboe, i happen to visit vonepal. As soon as i heard this i remembered it like it was he yesterday, the ambassador voicing his concern to us as we drove through there about the l stone buildings and the brick buildings and the vulnerability to the quake when the big one hit. The thing thats particularly frightening is this apparently lnerab wasnt the bigil one. Theres probably one even bigger. Hopefully that can be considered in the efforts, everything thats happening right now, but n long term maybe preventing more people from losing their lives down the road and how we can assist in that effort. R thank all of you for all youve done to help. Yield back. To wouldma you like to make an Opening Statement . Thank you mr. Chairman and our witnesses for being here of course. Om new york city is home to thousands of nepalese americans. So this earthquake has affected my constituents in a very personal way. I want to thank all of your departments for the Immediate Response to the crisis and your on going efforts. In a tragedy like this one every saved minute and hour is important and can mean the difference between a life saved and a life lost. This has been a humanitarian crisis of immense proportions. The government of nepal estimates that more than 8200 people have been killed and over 17,900 injured. From what i understand an earthquake in nepal was considered one of the worst case scenarios. Id like to hear from you on how your preparations helped facilitate appropriate aid in nd i this crisis and what more needs to be done to prepare for futuredyfuturepa dy dy sasters. Were proud and very ling t appreciate today to speak withhi the panel of some of the administrations most knowledgeable and senior figures handling this crisis. Appearing before the nd subcommittee once again is nisha biswal. Assistant secretary of w state forg south and Central Asian affairs. E shes just returned from nepal. Were very much looking forward to hearing about your findings there. Admini were also grateful to hear fromoini thomas staal of the bureau for democracy conflict and humanitarian u assistance. Also joining us is jonathan this stooifers. Great to have you here. Assistant administrator of the bureau for asia. This is his third time before the subcommittee. F we are very glad that you keep coming back, that we havent scared you away. Thats good. And finally ann sslswitkowski. The subcommittee gives sincere thanks to the panel for their hank y insights this afternoon. For and im going to start with ms. Biswal. Thank you so much for this important and timely hearing on nepal. Ranking member connolly and members of the committee, it is but tragic that the i earthquake in ry nepal is what brings us togetherrtfelt here, but i want to thank you stron for your very comprehensive and nited heart felt statements and for the very strong support of the United States congress in the relief efforts from the united ne states and really from around the world for the people of nepal at this time. Im particularly proud to be appearing at this hearing with i my colleagues from usaid and the department of defense which is aooperati really true indication of the spirit of civil and military cooperation in the United States when it comes to issues of humanitarian response. In the interest of time and because we have such detailed expertise, i want to ask that my full statement be entered into k the record and i will summarize a few key points here. Mr. Chairman, the outpouring of concern from the u. S. Congress c in the days and weeks following the earthquake and the surge in contributions to relief f organizations is a real testament to the generosity of the American People and a true th indicator of the common values that unite us during difficult nepa times. As you noted, the 7. 8 magnitude d over earthquake in nepal took over 8,600 lives and injured over 17,000 people. Last week, i traveled to nepal and witnessed firsthand the devastating losses suffered by the nepalese people, but also the triumph of the human spirit and the courage and commitment hav of the relief workers as they all came together to help nepal of recover from this devastating an earthquake. I saw the grit and determination in the faces of those who had lost their homes and family eaking members, but who had not lost their hope. It was heartbreaking news as i hed arrived in nepal that the american uh 1 helicopter had crashed with no survivors. That newsreac reached our team in kathmandu as we had kept our search efforts and our hopes alive for four days in search of that helicopter. Eople we salute those brave military professionals. Americans and nepalese who perished in their Nations Service while helping those in s need. I also want to take a moment to joine expressd our extreme gratitude to sea the strongrc support of the indian and nepalese forces that joined us in the extensive search or s that helpicopter. They joined in that search as ife u. S. It was one of their own that had gone missing. Team and the u. S. Civilian responders ledch by the aid dart team and the embassy team and our search and rescue teams from fairfax and los angeles all worked to tirelessly to save lives and tha bringt em assistance. Best they are o heros that embody the best of american values. Mr. Chairman, nepal is a nation the ve of tremendous strength and bravery. It was just on the verge of emerging from a tenyear civil war and moving towards strengthening its democracy and moving down a path of development. It is now a country that is recovering from a major tragedy she and focusing on the most immediate needs of shelter, of food, and of health. If we are to help nepal not only recover from this earthquake and but also continue down that path of political transition and progress, it is going to requireunity an the considered effort of the United States and the International Community and most importantly of nepal itself. Our immediate focus, mr. Chairman, is on beating the cted i clock as the monsoon rains that are expected in about a months time threaten to bring a new onset of disaster. We are racing against time to provide shelter, to help people get crops in the field and to en move towards postmonsoon about recovery phase. When i was in nepal i had a chance to visit a town about an hour outside of kathmandu where was i saw devastation which was e heart rending with 50 to 60 to 70 of the buildings and structures destroyed or damaged beyond habitation. Yet, at the same time, we saw persevereance in the faces of thethe people who were already undertaking the task of trying to put their lives and homes back together. , but, the u. S. Government has already committed nearly 47 million in assistance, but mr. Chairman, i want to note that some of the most important lifesaving as yo assistance that the United States provided happened before su the earthquake struck as you noted. Stment and because of the strong support of the United States and the American People and the and investments we have made over h the years, the nepalese government and military which had been training with our military was in a much better capacity to respond to this earthquake. Our Embassy Staff under the leadership of ambassador peter ca body and deputy chief of mission, the Embassy Staff performed above and beyond the call of duty after undergoing tha that tragic earthquake. They were up and ready to assist within hours. D over and that team because of the investments that the American Congress has supported over the last five years, did not lose a single life on the Embassy Staff. And done we had put everybody into tions earthquake resilient housing and we had done drills and y preparation that proved to be extremely life saving in this thers important moment. And they were able to go about the business of rendering been assistance tota others in need because their own needs and their own families had been taken care of. We learned important lessons in that process and we will be looking at the best practices ofher what we did in nepal in terms of e ourmb embassies and people in other seismically prone areas. The embassy has been open since the time of the earthquake providing services to american thir citizens and others in need. Over 800 u. S. Citizens and third Country Nationals were sheltering at the embassy for a number of days in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. Over 50 u. S. And third Country Nationals were rescued by the. Efforts of the embassy team, by chartering private aircraft before the u. S. Military assets arrived on the ground. American and they continue to work to provide assistance to american third citizens in need across nepal as well as third Country Nationals as necessary. R mr. Chairman, i want to talk about a little bit about the regional responses to this the earthquake. We have seen a remarkable response by the neighboring countries certainly the Indian Government and military but also assistance was mobilized by bangladesh sri lanka, japan effort thailand. Itss been a tremendous outpouring of either from within the region and across asia. That has been an important indicator of the increasing capabilities throughout asia to that respond to i humanitariandy sasters. A lot of that is work that has been done by the United States working with our partners across asia to build capacity, both our office of foreign disaster amou assistance andnt military has put in a tremendous amount of effort over the past decades building Disaster Response capabilities and that was on full display y, mr. During