Congressional Budget Office testify before the Senate Subcommittee on physical response ability and Economic Growth. Thank you all for participating. I think it will be good. Im sorry we cannot have it in a more, what to say, a more kind of formal setting because it may have been better because im not sure if there is any hearing we have that was more important than this. Our Witnesses Today will be philip schlagel, director of the congressional Budget Office and jean todaro who is the comptroller general of the United States and head of the u. S. Government accountability office. With that i will make my Opening Statement and then turned to maggie, my Ranking Member, and then Ranking Member wyden for the entire committee has a statement he would like to make as well. Again, thank you all for being here and im grateful to all who are there during us by internet. Todays hearing will address the topic that was shied away from Syrian Refugees and when it comes to our health we make choice
System is as secure as its ever before. The Registration System as secure as its ever before. Four years ago the obama administration, a little later than this, said there is a big problem and were going to declare the election structure a structure of National Significance and were going 0 it play a different role than we ever played before. No anticipation this was going to happen. Not much discussion. Election officials all over the country immediately said, oh, no youre not. Youre not going to just decide in october of Election Year that youre going to take over the election system and declare it a national a system of National Significance, a system of critical significance to the future of the nation. Of course it is. But it didnt become that in october of 2016. But the message was clear that we needed to build those stronger ties with local and state election authorities. We needed to do everything we could as we saw the efforts by some foreign actors and some people in their ba
Beyond dangerous and those who support it should be ashamed of themselves. They should be publicly condemned by every senator, every representative, every governor across this great country. In fact, just this year, 37 officers have been killed. By the way, thats more than a 20 increase over the same time last year. Because being a Police Officer in this country is more dinin dangerous than ever before. Im having the private conversations with members of Law Enforcement, our peace officers, men and women who will quietly tell you that it is difficult to continue to serve in this environment where theyre not getting the support of their elected officials. Ill tell you theyre getting the support of their communities in many cases, though, but where is the outrage being expressed by those who are elected to serve. And how are these heroes repaid . Cities and towns across our country, including montanas very own city of ma sue la masoula are talking about reducing their budget, proposing a
Wolf. Today we are meeting to consider the nomination of acting secretary of Homeland Security chad wolf to be the confirmed secretary of department of Homeland Security, which is an enormous task. I truly appreciate anybody who is willing to undertake such enormous responsibility. I would ask my written opening remarks be enter into the record without objection well do that. Ill just keep this short because i know we have time constraints here. But a quick description of what enormous challenge this is. The secretary of Homeland Security manages 240,000 people in the department, the responsibilities for Homeland Security are vast. Start with the federal Emergency Management agency deals with hurricanes and wild fires and now covid amongst many other responsibilities. Border security a huge issue. Weve not fixed that problem, not by a long stretch, but thiS Administration done a good job of stopping the out of control illegal entry that we are experiencing over a year ago. This agency
That. Ill keep it short because i know wevegot time constraints here but a quick description of what an enormous challenge this is. The secretary of Homeland Security managers 240,000 people in the department. The responsibilities for Homeland Security are vast. Ill start with itthe federal Emergency Management agency that has to deal with do hurricanes and wildfires now covid amongst many other responsibilities , Border Security, a huge issue. Weve not fixed that problem by a long stretch but this administration has done a good job of stopping the outofcontrol illegal entry that we are experiencing over a year ago. Pe this department is concerned about cyber security, Election Security, security of our Critical Infrastructure and as we just witnessed with some of the protests that have sprung to right, also protecting our federal buildings and of course we have to thank David Underwood in open oakland california, a member of the federal Protection Services so the responsibilities are