In iraq, we were there on the ground collecting so we had data bases to use. The concern is in syria, the lack of our footprint on our ground in syria, that the data bases wont have the information we need. It is not the lack of process, it is the lack of information. And is there ways that you could suggest we go about trying to get this information . I just dont think you can go and get it. You are talking about a country that is a failed state. It does not have any infrastructure so to speak so all of the data sets, the police, the Intel Services that you would go and seek that exist dont exist. And that raises grave concern as being able to do proper background checks of the individuals coming into the country. Yes. All right. Now, mr. Taylor, thank you for your testimony as well. And as a member as chairman of the subcommittee on transportation and i look forward to working together for the Mutual Benefit of everybody. And looking at your written transmission and so i can better understand the foreign fighter issue. One of the things that you mentioned was that the secretary johnson has ordered or is conducting an immediate shortterm review to determine if additional security measures are needed at domestic and foreign departures and what is the status of that and when can we get information on that. The brief is this week by tsa. And the idea behind this the thing secretary johnson has charged us all with is thinking outside of the box. I like that. We apply secretary directors and see the affect of those secretary directors every week when we have our counterterrorism meeting. And his last question is are we thinking out of the box and what else could we be doing to be more effective . And that is what he has charged tsa to give him some ideas back that he will decide in terms of how those things might be better implemented to across both domestic and internationally. So that is a shortterm. And then of course youll report to us at the appropriate time. Absolutely. And we appreciate that. And in the longterm, you are exploring the possibility of expanding to preclearance operations. Could you explain in more detail why that would be beneficial. Simply put in the football an alogy, we would rather play defense on our one yard line and not their one yard line. And we would like for it to happen at their one yard line and not over here. So we can put Homeland Security personnel in those airports and conduct the screening using the data base at their one yard line and be more effective from people getting on airplanes and coming to our country and rather than finding them here and having to send them back. Thank you for that. And lastly, with respect to tracking the foreign fighters, there was a reference in your written report to enhancing oren abling of cbp to conduct security vetting of suspected vwp travelers to determine if they have low Law Enforcement security risk. When you say enabling cvp. What do you mean by that. That . We mean expanding of theesta and the dating requirements and weve expanded that by six. We are looking at whether we should expand it even further so we have better data upon which to vet against our daisa base aa data bases. Maybe im being my former prosecutor too much. Enabling the cvp to conduct the vetting. Does that mean it is optional for them to do that . No. It expands to your capacity to do it with the more data elements. It is part of the mix when they screen someone . Yes. Okay. And i would add that every person that comes to the United States on an aircraft or ship is vetted against our holdings. There is no no one that comes here that doesnt get that kind of screening. Whether it is a visa screening or an esta screening determining whether there is an interview conducted but everyone gets screened according to the data bases of our country. Thank you very much. From new jersey, mrs. Watson coleman is recognized. Thank you, gentlemen. Im sorry i wasnt here the beginning of your testimony and i spent last night reading it and i found it fascinating and im very appreciative of what your agencies are doing and identifying to keep us safe here and how you have expanded your interaction and your information sharing and methodology and creativity and including Foreign Countries so we can all be safe. That is very important to me. Particularly struck by Homeland Security and i want to associate myself with mr. Keating and mr. Paines remarks about our responsibility to ensure that as you are the protector of the homeland, that you have the resources necessary to be flexible to be responsive and proactive to do what you need to do to keep me safe without engaging in the political wranglings of whether or not we should hold the president s foot to the fire because congress couldnt see fit to do. But nonetheless, my question is more narrowed and similar to mr. Lauder milks question. Im concerning about terrorists here. Taking who we think are everyday young people, having them exposed to the way these radical organizations use the social media and the other recruitment resources and how what is it that we can do to sort of cut it off at the pass. What should we be doing in terms of accessing young students, vulnerable College Students . Are there resources that we should be putting in educating and counteracting some of this negative propaganda, this ideologyspewing that is taking place with how do we help our communities and families see signs . Are there any commonalities or characteristics that seem to be most vulnerable that are homegrown, that seem most vulnerable to this radicalization and can you share with me where you think our greatest threat is in terms of the security . Is it on the southern border of the United States and mexico . Is it some other borders that were talking about . For someone like me, i consider myself spongebob. I want to soak up as much understanding as i can get. And whoever is able to answer it, i would appreciate it. I will start and anyone can add pieces to this, maam. You are absolutely right. The focus of one one of the focuses of our effort at the federal level is for communities to develop their own intervention strategies because that is what it takes. There is not a federally led intervention in a family or community or social setting that will be the tipper that turns someone off from radicalization. But it is the local community, the families, schools, churches, mosques, they are the ones that recognize Behavioral Changes at a point when behavior can be still addressed and potentially not end up at the worst Case Scenario of someone having to traveled overseas. So the precise information you are asking for is what we are trying to share in a series of Community Briefings that give kids, parents, schools, teachers to say this is what is happening and now i have to do something about it. Now the do something about it part has to be very much a Community Decision or a local decision. But the other frustrating piece and it gets to the last part of your question is that there isnt a single place that you say we need to be worried about it here and not here. Like our other previous foreign fighting episodes, like during the period when a large number of americans were going to somalia to engage in the fighting in africa, there we had great concern because of the somaliamerican population and their vulnerability to recruitment there. And here, im sure mike would echo this, we do not have a pattern that says yes in this community, but in this community we are okay. We cannot step up the efforts because the isil propaganda is having a reach far beyond ethnicity, it is not iraqi americans or syrian americans it cannot be narrowed in that way. That is a challenge and frustrating to us. And maam, i would add and certainly associate myself with all of the comments that have been made, we believe that one of the empowering organizations is our Fusion Centers and training of our state and local Police Officers who are the First Responders who are going to be the first level of defense, if you will and in spotting some of this behavior in addition to what happens in the Community Awareness area. So it is a combination of empowering the community in terms of what to look for and having our Police Officers better understand this phenomenon and what they may see on the street on a day to day basis and their encounters with citizens, Community Policing officers who are involved in daytoday activities within communities across our country. Also they need to have that kind of understanding. And i think as director steinback mentioning it, it is like the d. A. R. E. Program, of where everybody understanding what the issue is and filling the Knowledge Base so people when they see it, that is where you see something and Say Something can make a difference and in identifying these sorts of issues before they become bigger problems. Thank you. The gentlemen from georgia is recognized. Thank you mr. Chairman, thank you gentlemen, thank you for what you do to protect our homeland. Let me ask you, this is the kind of report that you read through and you are concerned about everything. And not one thing more so than the other. But one of the things that struck me was about the foreign fighter travel. And i just want to know what we can do to better control that . From what i understand, were not using all of our resources. I dont know that the administration is even identifying a lead agency to combat this, is that true . No, i would say that is not true. So foreign fighter travel, travel to a conflict zone in support of terrorist organization is against the law. So the fbi has the lead on that. And when you look at the broken travel, as mr. Herb brought up and when you look at the way legitimate citizens travel abroad is not something we choose to curtail. So if you take travel to destinations like europe, where you can then take from down to turkey, it is identifying the multitude of ways that these individuals in the u. S. Are committed to travel using a good investigative process, are they going to canada or down to mexico, how are they getting and using lawful process or ways to get to these locations. It is not the function of not having the tools, they have just as many creativity as we do and they have support. So they read it on social media and platforms and talk to people who have done it and made it and follow the travel routes so we have to stay on top of that and use trip wires and the Intelligence Community and the tribal and Law Enforcement agencies so develop an understanding of what the landscape is. So the message im getting here today is we feel we have that under control or doing the best we can. We dont have it under control. We are doing the best we can. If we had it under control, i could say we know every person traveling and i dont know every person there or coming back. It is not even close to being under control. It continues to be a challenge. We have to be as creatively as frank said to think outside of the box and figure out how to combat this and we spend a lot of time figuring this out and try to develop processes and daisa bases to data bases for this problem. And lets talk about the Visa Waiver Programs and there are certain people that are eligible for this and it is good for 90 days and it expires in 90 days . Actually, sir, the period of esta approval can be upwards of three years depending in the country. So once an esta is submitted the period that it is valid is between 13 years. But the countries that are most concerned with is up to 90 days, generally . In terms of in terms of the waiver . Right now we have a visa waiver with 28 countries across the world. And in each of those cases, we have bilateral relationship with those countries about how we Exchange Data and for what purposes. More broadly, other countries have to get visas through the state department for the purposes of traveling. Let me ask you this. What happens when it expires . Do we have someone who checks up on these people to make sure they are not still here . Absolutely. That is the job of our immigration and customs enforcement. And part of being in the Visa Waiver Program is the requirement that your visa overstays be somewhere in the less than 1 level. So were pretty confident in the countries that we have Visa Waiver Programs with that the level of this type of activity by their citizens in our country is minimal compared to the level of activity that may be evident in other countries where visa overstays are a bigger issue. As i can imagine, you have a tickler file set up and somebody exceeds that 90 days and they havent left, then you go looking for them . We have processes to try to make sure those people in this country for longer then their visa period are tracked down and escorted away. Okay. Mr. Chairman, i yield remaining time. Thank you, gentlemen. Chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. Jackson wade. Let me thank the chair and the Ranking Member for this very important hearing and let me state to the witnesses, i was delayed because we were holding a crime subcommittee in judiciary in which im a Ranking Member. This is an extremely important hearing and it is issued in the back drop of several worthy comments. The president has now released his aumf, which is a singular notice to the congress of the importance of addressing the question of isis and the potential of the United States engaging in some form of military action to be able to secure this nation. I indicated in remarks earlier today on the floor that the department of Homeland Security provides a domestic armor, National Armor of security and that is the responsibility of that. For many of us on this committee, weve had the privilege of serving since the horrendous act of 9 11. Often i make the comment certainly not proudly that i was on or at ground zero during the moments of the extended time of looking for remains. It will always be a potent and striking moment in my life. And i take seriously the responsibilities of this committee. For that reason, i believe it is crucial that we do not hold hostage this department. We have seven days to make amends on the funding of the department of the Homeland Security and i remind my colleagues that the issue of unaccompanied children or the president s executive actions do not pose the kind of heinous threat we are talking about today. I frankly think this is an important discussion and many frontline dhs employees will be in essence hindered from their work without the full funding of this committee. I ask you mr. Taylor, just a simple question, that in the midst of your jurisdiction and employees under your jurisdiction, without funding for this department, will some of them not be paid or some of them have to be furloughed or some issue may come up regarding their service . Maam, we are in the process of reviewing the procedures for an orderly shutdown of the department. I cant say specifically the number of people since people who work for me are primarily in the National Security arena and are exempt from this, but there will be an impact in terms of people who are not directly involved in National Security. And also i would reinforce a comment i made earlier, there are going to be people working but not paid. That is the point that i made. You didnt hear me say that. There is a challenge in a department that is morale challenged going forward. But the main point is you are in the process of having that as a responsibility which is surveying your department and determining what will happen without the funding . Absolutely. And that is taking your attention away from important Security Issues of securing the nation which i assume, that is a statement that i believe is accurate. Is that not accurate . Im not personally involved, but our departmental management folks are working . But that is staff persons dealing with those issues that would not ordinarily being dealing with them at this time . Absolutely. And let me offer and pursue my questioning to make this point. I do want to offer sympathy. Weve come to it has come to our attention that three members of a muslim family were murdered in chapel hill. These were students at the university of North Carolina in chapel hill. We understand the culprit was arrested and charged with first murder and had some issues dealing with religious questions. One of the individuals was, in fact, speaking against the murder of people, meaning one of the Muslim Students was speaking against that. Let me go straight to the gentleman from the fbi and ask the question regarding cyber and the internet and soliciting and counter, in terms of ideology can be best used to fight this . We can fight with arms andin intelligence but there are other ways of stop organize getting in the stopping or getting in the way of solicitation of our young people . Absolutely, maam. I think there are a variety of ways that we can talk about in open session or information behind closed doors in a classified setting. I think it starts to go back we have to understand that the path to radicalization and mobilization, it starts with intellectual curiosity and there can be Community Based efforts to turn people away. Once an individual gets to the point where he or she has an intent to conduct an attack and it turns into an enforcement peace, there can be efforts from a counter radicalization narrative from a disruptive and intervention perspective and it is a multipronged approach that involves the state department and the counter messag