Transcripts For CSPAN Homeland Security Chair McCaul On Stat

Cspans book tv. Michael mccaul of texas gave a speech on National Security at George Washington university. After he spoke three republicans from his committee participated in a Panel Discussion about the issues he discussed. This is one hour and 35 minutes. Good morning. If i can ask everyone to please put their phones on silent mode and let me welcome you to the campus of George Washington university. It is a real treat, a real pleasure and privilege to want to get host chairman mccaul on campus. He has been chairman of the House Homeland Security committee since 2013. At a time where there seems to be gridlock in washington, d. C. , i can say without any exaggeration, he is arguably one of the most prolific and more importantly, effective legislators in d. C. Right now, focused on a whole host of National Security issues and also chairs his committee in a genuinely bipartisan way, which is very true to the issues that our country faces on national and Homeland Security. I will be very brief, which is very rare for me, and then i will turn it over to the chairman now. Afterwards, we have an amazing panel. When you think about members of congress, you dont immediately think cia or National Counterterrorism center or you dont immediately think of prosecutors working on some of the most important issues facing our country, but i am most proud to say that we have three of the best members who have done just that, following this discussion. So, mr. Chairman, thank you for being a great friend to the center and to myself and to George Washington university. Most importantly, thank you for all that you do. [applause] rep. Mccaul thank you. Thank you, frank. A special thanks to George Washington university for hosting me. It is a real honor to be here. I want to thank the students also for attending this session. I see a few of you out there. I have two daughters in college and triplets in high school. When it comes to Homeland Security issues, i have some personal experience as well. Education is really the key, and that is why i am here today. You are really the thought leaders of tomorrow and on these most pressing issues facing the United States. The state of u. S. National security. I believe that american strength as a pillar of global peace upon which our allies and partners depend, and our enemies recoil from. As i reflect on my time as chairman, i saw the rise of isis and i saw the collapse of the caliphate. I am disturbed by the evil that emerged over the last decade under richard a American Leadership. Im encouraged by the progress we are making in eradicating this evil that has entrenched itself around the globe. As an internal optimist, i am confident our nation is finally heading in the right direction. Moving forward, it is critical that we continue to reclaim our sovereignty. This includes enhancing security along our southern border, addressing vulnerabilities in our current immigration system, encouraging responsible use of cyberspace, improving Aviation Security and defending against malicious ideology and actions of our enemies. On the southern border, really, for too long, and i come from the state of texas where i was a federal prosecutor with the jurisdiction of the texasmexico border, and for too long, it has been a opendoor which has had Transnational Criminal Organizations like ms13, dangerous opioids and drugs coming across, trafficking women and children have poured into our country destroying lives, shattering families and ravaging our communities. Despite the noble efforts of Law Enforcement and 80s and advocacy groups and government agencies, human traffickers continue to exploit thousands of migrants making their way into the United States. Security along the southern borders is critical. As we know, there are glaring vulnerabilities also in our immigration system. Our secretary calls them legal loopholes. I was in the white house, sort of a surreal moment at the table, with both senators and congressmen, democrats and republicans, as it was covered on my tv from most one hour, discussing how to resolve this Current Situation we find ourselves in. We agreed to the four pillars. Border security, fixing chain migration, the visa lottery system and finally, fixing daca so these children can stay in the country legally. I would argue though, our nations security has been weakened by chain migration and the visa lottery program, which is random. Each of these programs risk exploitation from those who do not share our values and actively work to undermine them. Look no further than the two terror attacks we saw in new york city. These programs allow terrorists to legally enter our country and rick havelock three allow them to wreak havoc on our way of life. Halloween, a immigrant mode down by vehicle innocent americans, agent unions and the belgian in a new york city. In december, the bangladeshi i wholaf entered the United States as a young adult through chain migration intended to blow up a new york subway terminal in times square. I happened to be in new york that morning, just a few blocks away when the attack occurred. I was promoting my congressional Childhood Cancer caucus. I remember being notified by nypd about the attack, and it reminded us that there is still a serious threat. Securing americas future act, a bill introduced by the house of the house my the chairman of the house judiciary committee, myself, was introduced to close these legal loopholes. This legislation authorizes the construction of a border wall system to stem the flow of illegal immigration. It also provides effective technology, infrastructure and manpower to defend our border. 5000 Additional Border patrol agents, 5000 customs and Border Protection officers, including the authorization of the National Guard to provide air support to Border Security operations. In addition, we demand the use of the mandatory entry exit system at all points of entry to address visa overstays. Why is this one important . The 9 11 hijackers came in legally and then overstayed their visas. The 9 11 Commission Recommended in their report, that we address entryexit in a biometric way, to determine when people come in and when they leave. Until we do that, we will never be secure. The statistics i have, up to 40 of the people here are here illegally are actually visa overstays. We also call for an and to chain migration to protect the Nuclear Family and the visa lottery program, to defend against future exploitation to our homeland. We propose a meritbased immigration system to attract the best and the brightest, not pulling a number out of a hat. Finally, the securing americas future act allows daca beneficiaries to receive a threeyear renewable legal status while ensuring that gang members, individuals with criminal convictions or convictions in Juvenile Court for serious crimes are not eligible for this legal status. With respect to jihad and the threats, our american way of life has been under attack well before 9 11. 1979 was the year that changed everything. In 1979, the revolution in iran brought the ayatollah to power where he still remains. That same year, the soviets invaded afghanistan and the mujahedin rose to power, allowing Osama Bin Laden to become a force to be reckoned with. Now, 39 years later, the Threat Landscape remain serious. My committee has been focused on the threat of foreign fighters leaving the caliphate and vetting procedures. I established two taskforces to address issues specifically and we enacted as frank mentioned, over 20 bills to make america more secure. Mike gallagher is going to show up, i think, and we have passed over 60 bills and this congress, many of which are just sitting in the senate. These two recent terror attacks last year it new york, i believe, underscore the threat that we face from a determined enemy that does not sleep. Our homeland, our allies, partners, friends are confronted with a stark reality and will be years to come. Since 2013, we have had 150 homegrown jihadist and terrorist cases in the United States and 179 isislinked incidents in europe. I would argue that europe is a far more danger from the foreign fighter threat and from refugees coming in, and the homegrown jihadist threat. These stats are alarming when you look at them and they are a demonstration of why we must remain vigilant in our quest to expel violent islamic extremism from the earth, by destroying the roots from which it came. This threat manifests itself in the unstable ground upon which jihadist ideology spreads, whether it is the middle east, north and subsaharan africa, the philip beans and elsewhere. These radicalized enemy combatants from achieving their jihadis glory. And of course, the memories of 9 11 and the images of the claims striking the twin towers images of the planes striking the twin towers are never far from our thoughts. While we are almost 17 years removed from this, let me assure you, americas aviation sector remains a crown jewel of isis and other terrorist groups targeting our homeland. Late last year, the director of the National Counterterrorism center testified before my committee that they are seeing a surge in terrorist activity against commercial airlines. Recently we discovered that terrorists have the capability laptops, bombs from and remember, the printer bomb plot in 2010. Unfortunately, tsa has struggled to deploy Innovative Solutions that can be effectively and efficiently deployed at airports such as computer tomography. This technology is like moving from a twodimensional xray to a threedimensional m. R. I. To deploy Innovative Solutions the fact is you can see a lot more with an mri than an xray. A much clearer picture for screeners to detect these threats. I have seen these devices, they work. We had two pilot programs in the United States and at their request, it was cut in half by omb to deploy 300 machines. That is what they asked for, and it was cut in half. 150 million to do this. Because that is a lot of money. But in washington, we talk about billions of 150 million to dollars. Protect americans on inbound flights in some of the most dangerous spots, in my judgment, it is worth every penny. And, i am not going to have that on my head. I talked to the appropriators to sufficient funding to fully protect americans in aviation. This has alsoaviation. This has also been bogged down in bureaucratic delays. Each day, we fail to effectively mitigate evolving threats to Aviation Security, we risk letting terrorists get ahead in their efforts to harm the traveling public. Additionally, we have seen Insider Threats to Aviation Security grow ever more concerning in the wake of the metro jet bombing in egypt. Dhss efforts to enhance security measures for flights to the United States, they continue to be vulnerable. In recognition of this glaring vulnerability, we enacted legislation to enhance tsa security procedures, particularly screening employees at secure access points. In recognition of we must continue to close gaps, security capability apps at these overseas airports, most critically istanbul and cairo. I have taken many trips in there and i can tell you, these are not secure airports. High volumes of american travelers come out of these airports and i have seen these. Ulnerabilities firsthand in addition, we must continue to enhance Airport Security in other high risk airports in the middle east and out of northern africa. Doing so is critical to our National Security because these threats are only one flight away into the homeland. But as we all know, the threats against our homeland are not restricted by physical boundaries. We have cyber as Suzanne Spaulding know so well. Having worked at dhs. I want to applaud you for your service to the department. You did such a great job. [applause] rep. Mccaul as suzanne knows, our adversaries, both nationstate and state actors, threaten us around the clock in cyberspace. Whether it is north korea launching a global cyber attack, crippling infrastructure to china stealing our nations valuable intellectual property , to russia conducting disInformation Warfare campaigns to sow discord among our people, to iran attacking our financial institutions, to terrorists spreading evil propaganda over the internet or criminals taking our financial and personal information, we are alldisinford to harm. I was one of the millions victims of the opm data breach by china in 2015 which resulted in over 20 million stolen security records including Social Security numbers and fingerprints. To mitigate the threat, we must improve our cyber resiliency and protection. The house passed and i authored to elevate dhs Chaco National Protection Program directorate to a direct orlevel position and rename it the directorate for the Cyber Security and infrastructure security agency. In other words, create a Cyber Security Agency Within the department of Homeland Security to help the priority and the mission. I hope the senate will pass this legislation, soon. Combating malicious cyber activity also has a strong diplomatic component. For that reason, the house is voting on legislation introduced by the Foreign Affairs chairman, ed royce, proposing the creation of the office of cyber issues at the state department. This legislation will establish a highlevel ambassador for Cyber Security to leave the departments diplomatic cyber efforts. You must establish closer relations with our allies and our partners and enforce cyber commitments with other countries. We must also enforce our norms in cyberspace because right now, we do not have any. There are no rules of the game. That is a problem. Not to mention what would happen if a nato ally was attacked in cyberspace, with article fived invoked we must eliminate the legal barriers that our private sector confront. Including the mandatory requirement 11 Foreign Government to review a companys source code. This puts us at a major disadvantage both competitively and from a security standpoint. We must also build products that are secured. With the growth of the internet, things are more vulnerable now than ever. Take for example intel. We are the largest chipmakers in the world. Regarding its semiconductor vulnerabilities to multiple down its sector, it poses a significant risk to chips manufactured over the last two decades. These threats are real and impact all of us. I believe now more than ever that securing our nation at home requires protecting american strength a board. A broad. North korea is a good example. Nationstate adversaries have expanded their influence at the expense of our own. In north korea, kim jongun has marched down a path of nuclearization, absent American Leadership. He is now on the cusp of obtaining the ability to conduct a successful nuclear icbm strike anywhere in the world, including against the notice states. Against the United States. This is not acceptable to readd that is why the again have begun to lead a maximum Pressure Campaign against north korea to compel him to retreat from this destabilizing nuclear ambition. These efforts include working with our International Partners to forge a diplomatic solution, to isolate the regime by increasing economic pressure on the north korean economy through sanctions and refusing to take military force off the table , unless kim jongun reverses course are. Further, chinese and russian efforts to undermine National Sanctions on north korea at the expense of global security, must not go unheeded. The United States and our partners and National Security must confront them head on. Must be clear and decisive in our actions which takes time which takes me to the next country hotspot, iran. As north korea marches on with their destabilizing behavior, so does iran, the world ticket leading sponsor of terrorism let me be clear, the nation has threatened america and must not be allowed to ever have a nuclear weapon. Unfortunately as negotiated by the previous administration, the Iran Nuclear Deal known as the joint conference of plan of action injected the Iranian Regime with billions of dollars in fresh funding for their expansionist and terrorist agenda. From yemen, through iraq and syria, all the way to l