Today, the subcommittee meets to examine the response to covid19 by four of the contractors responsible for managing facilities. As coronavirus cases continue to spike nationwide, we must ensure the contractors our government relies on are taking every step they can to minimize the spread of covid19 among workers and detainees. Facilities. As coronavirus cases continue to spike nationwide, we must ensure the contractors our government relies on are taking every step they can to minimize the spread of covid19 among workers and attain these. For fiscal year 2020, congress appropriated 3. 1 billion approximately in more than 45,000 adult and family i. C. E. Beds. Ion over 80 of these beds are operated daily by private contractors, some of whom are at this hearing today. That is a large amount of taxpayer money. It demands oversight and accountability. Detention facilities must be held to a High Standard at all times. Within this moment, it is of vital importance. Yet over the past few months, it is feared that ice am a and its contractors have not taken the outbreak seriously and have not i. C. E. And its contractors have not taken the outbreak seriously. At least 405i. C. E. Employees assigned to detention facilities have just a positive. Least twost at detainees, a potential third today in florida, and five contractors, due to complications from covid after exposure at detention facilities. Despite these horrific losses, ice is continuing normal operations and contractors are following in lockstep. I. C. E. Continues to transfer detainees between facilities and contractors continue to accept them. There is a looming evidence that these transfers have likely contribute to multiple outbreaks inside detention facilities across the u. S. We have also read reports and heard from current and former employees that the guidance issued by the four companies here today suggested rationing of p. P. E. Documents provided to the committee showed that management are attempting to practice social distancing. The clearest way to prevent the spread of the disease is to pursue an alternative to the tension and release those detainees who dont pose a threat to the community. Exposure tok of covid19 at these facilities is further exacerbated by lack of medical care. Prior to the pandemic, Health Services in detention facilities were severely lacking and proved to be the source of most detainees. By it is no surprise that the Public Health crisis has only compounded the situation. Some facilities are put on a waiting days or weeks to test individuals, including the most honorable. The bottom line is much more needs to be done to stop the spread of the coronavirus at these facilities, to protect the health of both the detainees and the american people. Guidance to facility personnel must be clear and explicit. Transfers must be done immediately. Adequate medical care must be provided. Covid19 does not distinguish between a u. S. Citizens and noncitizens, and neither should we in our approach to protect against it. I look forward to hearing from our Witnesses Today about what steps they will take to address the pressing issue going forward. The chair now recognizes the Ranking Member of the subcommittee, the gentleman from louisiana, mr. Higgins, foreign Opening Statement. Rep. Higgins thank you, madam chair. It is wonderful to join you here today on this very important topic. I thank the witnesses for being here today. I sincerely appreciate chairman thompson for opening the hearing room to members to conduct official business. As you know, it is my humble opinion that we should be conducting our important oversight and legislative missions here in washington, d. C. In person, and i look forward to the return for regular order. I find it disappointing that the majority did not invite i. C. E. To a hearing that focuses on i. C. E. They could have updated as on the measures they take to address covid19, the implementation of c. D. C. And prevention recommendations, and further guidance they provided to facility contractors who will be joining us today. Under president trumps administrative direction, i activated the pandemic workforce Protection Plan in january of this years in response to covid19. The plan provides an additional layer of Safety Measures on top preventionbased standards. I. C. E. Also convened a working group of professionals, Disease Control specialists, detention experts and field operators to identify further steps to protect detainees. Thatresult, the population ice dedicated to the facilities was reduced to 70 capacity. The cbc recommendation is 75 . This reduction included the review of nearly 34,000 detainees in custody nationwide, to identify those with high risk of severe illness, potentially due to covid19. As a result, more than 900 detainees will post a low risk to Public Safety were released. We can all agree that these are unprecedented times. While i commend ice for going above and beyond c. D. C. Guidance , there is earning more than is to be done. 7, 3. 7 of those in i. C. E. Custody are 835 individuals who have tested was active for covid19. Hearing,today in the while we will heavily discussed agencys response to covid19 and the threat thereof, i. C. E. Was not invited to testify. They should be here to update us on what further measures are being taken to address covid19, what additional improvements could you made. I. C. E. Should be here to tell us what issues have arisen and how they have overcome them or not. I. C. E. Should be here to answer questions about information we received from these contractors as a result of the chairmans very professional document production request. I. C. E. Should be before us today, but they are not here. Quite frankly, todays hearing topic is, i respectfully submit, is outside our committee jurisdiction. Today we have the president s and ceos from four Government Contractors will have to respond to repeated document production request and testify before a committee with tertiary jurisdiction at best. In the legislation related to this topic, immigration detention and immigration laws, would not be referred to this subcommittee. On its face, it seems the ispose of this hearing perhaps politically driven, perhaps it is important to get the message out. I agree with the substance of what we seek, madam chair and i. Chairman, respectfully, just i believe i. C. E. Should be here to speak for themselves. We create ever moving goalpost for hardworking federal employees and contractors for simply doing their job and abiding by the laws as prescribed by congress. The truth is, nearly half of those in i. C. E. Custody on this day have final orders of removal, nearly half. The majority of individuals still in custody have either criminal convictions or charges pending, ranging from aggravated assault to homicide. In therimes committed United States are not taking lately, and they shouldnt be, yet some of our colleagues across the aisle seem to prefer that anyone detained by i. C. E. Should be released, no crime that individual has committed or how much of a Public Safety risk they represent. It is completely righteous for us to question i. C. E. s treatment in response to covid19, but let us not go too far. I hope we can cut through politics, and the chairwoman and i have attempted to do so in the past. We shall continue that endeavor today. I look forward to speaking and listening and i thank you, madam chair. I yield back. Chairwoman thompson i think the Ranking Member and add that its it appears that the d. H. S. Component are referring to an omb guidance about remote hearing which is why i believe they would not respond but i would be more than happy to put the question directly to them. We have been informed that they are refusing to participate based on the guidance of omb in any remote hearing but i thank you for raising that issue. Are reminded that the subcommittee will operate according to the guidelines laid out by the Ranking Member and chairman in their july 8 document. With that i ask unanimous consent to waived Committee Rule 882 for the subcommittee during remote proceedings and the designated by the speaker under House Resolution 965. Without objection, so ordered. Without objection, members not sitting on a Sub Committee will committed to participate in todays hearing. The chair recognizes the chairman of the whole committee from mississippi, mr. Thompson for an Opening Statement. Chairman thompson thank you very much madam chair. , good afternoon to the members present. Im glad to have this opportunity to speak with our witnesses about this important topic, immigration detention contractors response to covid19. The covid19 pandemic has to communities across our country, with more 135,000 americans losing their lives to coronavirus. My state is not exempt. Over 1200 of my fellow mississippians have tragically succumbed to the pandemic, and cases continue to increase. This suffering has failed disproportionately on minority communities who often lack access to inadequate healthcare. Those who reside in congregate settings, including detention facilities, are also particularly vulnerable. Even before the pandemic, many i. C. E. Detention facilities had with numerousord, complaints lodged about health and safety issues, poor living conditions, and inadequate inspections. These issues combined with a risk of infection in any crowded spaces lead to outbreaks inside detention facilities. Thousands of i. C. E. Detainees across more than seven detention facilities have tested positive for covid19. It is unfortunately including 35 detainees at a Family Residential center in current city, texas, operated by the geo group. Situation cannot continue. I. C. E. And its contractors must spreadr part to slow the of covid19 in the interest of saving lives and protecting our country. Frank the witnesses for i thank the witnesses for the replies to my april 2019 letter requesting information on how they are mitigating the spread of covid19 in their facilities, however, i would note that they have only been partially responsive. I move today to get a clear commitment from each company to be more transparent about their practices and what they are seeing in their facilities throughout this Public Health crisis. I. C. E. Has been publicly reporting on the numbers of infected detainees and federal employees, but a major gap in the reporting remains the number of Contract Personnel who tested positive for covid19. The public deserves to know this information. The d. H. S. Inspector general also recently issued an initial report informed by surveys distributed to facilities across i. C. E. s detention network. Facilitiesys allow to selfassess their preparedness and response to the there appears to be a disconnect between issued guidance and implementation of the guidance. Similarly, my staff found serious implementation gaps when reviewing the documents each of your companies provided in response to my requests. We have seen public reporting and heard from whistleblowers across the aisle concerned with how i. C. E. Private contractors are managing this situation. I ask for unanimous consent to enter into the record a letter from the Government Accountability project, which represents multiple whistleblowers who are alarmed by the operations at the ridgewood Correctional Center in louisiana. The Government Accountability subjectalso represents to theignored by d. H. S. Employed by d. H. S. To advice on detention Health Issues but whose input seems to have been ignored. The letter describes extremely concerning mismanagement that, no doubt, has made the crisis unfolding in i. C. E. Detention facilities that much worse. This is not the end of this committees oversight of conditions at i. C. E. Detention facilities during covid19. Even before the pandemic, the committee was actively examining thosetent problems at facilities. That work will continue. Today i urge each one of i. C. E. s detention contractors to be more aggressive in their response to covid19. I also hope that as the tragic accounts crisis continues, that i. C. E. Will maximize the use of alternatives to their detention program, which the geo group has managed for years, to limit the spread of covid19 in detention. I urge our witnesses to reexamine how they approach the problem of covid19 within their facilities, and to continue their engagement with us to improve these conditions. Thank you, madam chairwoman and i yield back. Mr. Rwoman rice , thank you, chair. We now recognize the full committee Ranking Member, from alabama, mr. Rogers for an Opening Statement. Mr. Ranking member, you need to unmute. Rogers thank you, madam chairwoman. I want to thank chairman compton again for the use of the Committee Room. During this congress the majority has made it a habit of declining to invite or refusing to accommodate critical governmentbacked witnesses. Today is no different. We reached out to d. H. S. To find out why they were not here and they said that they did not know about the hearing until we called them last week. The majority failed to invite i. C. E. To answer questions about its detention facilities. Im increasingly concerned that this is a concerted tactic to avoid having experienced senior officials to counteract our increasingly leftwing narrative. I remained the majority that just last year, they called the migrant surge of the border a fake emergency. Even as the crisis reached its peak. , House Democrats waited more than a year and a half to vote on muchneeded emergency funding for the border crisis, and what they did send came up short, not one single dollar for Immigration Enforcement facilities was included. I have requested over 300 million to modernize and improve the detention capacity to meet the spike in demand, and the majority did not send a dime. Meanwhile, customs and Border Protection is forced to release migrants straight into the border communities. The goal of the majority, i dont know. It is becoming increasingly clear that calls for the open borders are streaming into the democratic mainstream that form. Contractors like the ones here today have helped to meet the governments detention needs, and are often derided for simply partnering with the federal government to carry out the laws of this land. These contracts have existed under both democratic and republican administrations. During the covid19 crisis, i. C. E. And its potential partners have worked together to reduce the number of individuals in custody. They have taken measures that go beyond c. D. C. Guidance to adapt to the new safety protocols and cleaning procedures. They have also provided safe accommodations for those with final removal orders or criminal convictions, whose release would endanger other communities. The border crisis and covid19 crisis are two sides of the same coin. I question how the majority can continue to neglect its duty to to fund i. C. E. Last year and again this year. Its lackr crisis and of funding for sure foreshadow the covid19 crisis. Willfully underfunding i. C. E. To make a political point will have profound impacts on migrants drawn here by a broken immigration system. Failing to invest in agencies that enforce our immigration laws has brought consequences. I hope the majority will realize their continued efforts to defend i. C. E. Have lasting consequences, to defund i. C. E. Have lasting consequences , before we have a repeat of this year and again next year. Thank you, madam chair and i go back. Thank you, Ranking Member. Chairwoman rice i will now welcome our panel of witnesses. He joined the company in 1982 as a correctional officer based in kansas and served in a number of roles until he was named ceo in 2009. Our second witness is mr. George zoley, chairman of the board, ceo and founder of the geo group. He founded the company in 1984 and has served as ceo since it went public in 1994. He also served as director of the geo group variouss subsidiary. Our third witness is mr. Scott the president is and ceo of the Management Training corporation. He has been there for 30 something years. Our final witness is mr. Rodney cooper, executive director for Lasalle Corrections. Mr. Cooper retired from a 30 year long career at the Texas Department of criminal justice before joining lasalle in 2009. Hes also been a member of the american corrections association. Without objection, be inserted in the record. I now ask each witness to summarize their statement for five minutes, beginning with mr. Hininger. Mr. Hininger thank you, and good afternoon. Chairwoman rice, Ranking Member higgins and members of the subcommittee, my name is damon , and i am president and ceo of corecivic. For over 35 years, corecivic has worked with our federal and state partners to provide respectful and humane environments for those individuals at our facilities. I have been with the company for more than 28 years and i began my career as a correctional officer with the company in leavenworth, kansas, where i was born and raised. I have worked in nearly all areas of corrections. My experience informs my actions everyday. At corecivic, we take our responsibility to ensure that our careterested in are safe and treated in a humana manner. The covid19 pandemic is an unprecedented situation that has presented challenges to every correctional system in america. Just as it has for every organization such as hospital or Nursing Homes where individuals are housed together or share, accommodations. During this time, our number one priority is the health and safety of those entrusted to our care, our employe