Committee members will be asking him about a whistleblower complaint that top dhs officials interfered with Intelligence Reports to protect President Trumps image and immigration policy. The committee will come to order. Without objection the chair is authorized to recess the hearing at any time. Before we turn to the substance of todays hearing let me address a House Keeping matter. First let me remind members should during these proceedings with the exception of when theyre speaking take precautions in light of covid19 including by wearing a face cover such as a mask. Were also limiting staff attendance at the hearing. I would encourage and urge unless youre speaking to please be wearing your mask. Were also conducting this hearing in the Capital Visitors Center auditorium, which affords Additional Space for those present to remain fizz any distant from one another. Before i get into the other House Keeping matter let me just express my best wishes to the president and first lady for
Analysis and as we refer to as ona. Left the committee, no choice but to issue a subpoena on tuesday for his appearance at this hearing today. The department has persistently slow walked security clearance requests from counsel for their clients mr. Brian murphy, a lawful whistleblower and the former acting head of ina and the element within dhs in proceedings before this committee. The committee repeatedly offered to dhs that it would withdraw the subpoena for mr. Maurers appearance if the department authorized the attorney clearances in time for mr. Murphys often rescheduled deposition. Unfortunately dhs refused to do so. Therefore, were Going Forward today with his testimony. I now recognize myself for an opening statement. On august 3rd, amid public reporting of american citizens being scratched off the streets of portland by Law Enforcement officials from the department of Homeland Security, this committee launched an investigation into serious allegations that dhss intelligence a
End and a Pacific Region and they also discuss china handling of coronavirus pandemic. This is just over two hours. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will come to order. Welcome everyone, good morning. We will have senators participating both live and virtually. Since it is difficult to figure out when they showed up virtually, we will go on seniority. If that is agreeable with everyone, that is what we will do. Today, we welcome three witnesses to talk with us. Julie chung is here. We appreciate you all being here this morning. Will be talking about china presents us with many challenges. Opportunities as well but right now, challenges. There has been a lot of legislation introduced as far as china is concerned. There was a bill that we introduced earlier this year. That as early as today or yesterday, the minority introduced a bill of which senator schumer is the lead sponsor of the bill. In any event, this is not a partisan issue. This is an american issue. When i put the bill
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