While testifying on president bidens 2025 budget request fbi director Christopher Wray warned of several elevated threats to Us National Security including foreign terrorism, drug cartels and ran somewhere attacks. He also advocated congress to reauthorize section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act which monitors foreign nationals overseas and is set to expire on april 19th. The House AppropriationsCommittee Hearing is just under 2 hours. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] the subcommittee will be in order. Without objection the chairs authorized to declare recess at any time. Welcome to the first fiscal year 2025 hearing, or the subcommittee on commerce, justice, science, and related agencies. Before i start, i want to thank chairwoman granger for her years of dedication to this committee, and formerly, chairman call becoming the new chairman of the committee. We look forward to continuing to work with both of them. I will begin by recognizing myself for an opening statement. We want to welcome our witness, the honorable Christopher Wray, director of the federal bureau of investigation, back to this subcommittee. Director wray, who has nearly 30 years of fbi experience dating back to the late 1990s has served in his current role since august 2017. In his capacity as director, he oversees an agency of 35,000 people, including special agents, intelligence analysts, language specialists, scientists, and Information Technology specialists. The 25 budget request for fbi salaries and expenses is 11. 3 billion, 6. 7 billion of that at 60 designated as defense spending. The request amounts to a 6 increase above the fiscal 24 enacted level for salaries and expenses. Overall, the fbi budget request includes 119 million in program increases, approximately 700 million in other adjustments, representing substantial increase costs of continuing the fbis current activities. In particular, the Largest Program increase request is for what the fbi has labeled restoration of 2023 National Security and Law Enforcement personnel. This request is aided by 4. 4 billion in games to fund 270 headquarters positions of which only 60 would be actual agents. The bureau claims these resources are necessary to limit reductions in function areas. Lets be crystal clear. Cartels continues to flood our streets with fentanyl and poison. Americans are being hurt in record numbers. They are exploiting our southern border and devastating families and communities, Violent Crime levels, murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, all too high. There is no question the fbis mission is more critical than ever. The requested increases in fiscal 25 budget are significant and it is my hope that they are fully discussed at todays hearing. However, it is no secret that the nations federal debt stands at 34 trillion. Let me repeat that number, 34 trillion. Hardworking americans continue to face elevated costs for everyday items. Congress and this committee in particular cannot ignore the unsustainable path that we are on. Its essential that we ensure every dollar appropriated to agencies who spent effectively, efficiently, and appropriately. Anything less would be ignoring our constitutional duty. To that end, our fiscal year 2024 appropriations bill makes difficult of necessary funding reductions from many agencies including the fbi. As with all Appropriations Bills fiscal 24 was the product of careful consideration and collaboration within congress. We reviewed budget submissions, call hearings, analyze program increase requests, engage with the agencies, have countless debates, and make final judgment calls. Not everyone will be satisfied with the final appropriated levels, increasing debt levels require tough decisions. Director wray, we look forward to the opportunity to discuss with you the president s budget submission for the fbi, looking forward to a full conversation on the major cost drivers within this budget request. Beyond the funding implications of the budget request i am also interested in the ongoing issues at the fbi that include but are not limited to the erosion of public trust. This included the fbis overly aggressive tactics, questionable investigative standards, and the overall politicization of the bureau. Importantly, i also want to ensure that we fully explore a grave crisis at our southern border, the fbis responsibility when it comes to combating the wide range of illegal activities happening at the border, not only impacts the nations Southern States but the entire country as a whole. I believe the 24 appropriations bill achieved the right balance and represented a step in the right direction with targeted cuts aimed at pushing the bureau to refocus on its core mission. Mission creep in federal agencies beyond required duties is a real problem and must be corrected. I believe in the fbis mission to protect the American People and uphold the constitution of our great country. I recognized the challenging and critical work the Agency Performs daily, defending the us against terrorists and espionage, combating deadly fentanyl, protecting the nations children from becoming victims, and more. Fbi agents are our nations defenders. It is not lost on members of congress, the sacrifices they make to protect our country. To be clear, the fbis mission is critical to the health of our entire nation. Mr. Wray, we appreciate you being here to answer questions. We appreciate your hard work on behalf of the American People. Let me recognize Ranking Member of the subcommittee for any remarks you wish to make. Thank you and good afternoon, mister chairman. I joined chairman rogers in thinking our overall appropriations chair kate granger for her years of dedication and service to this appropriations committee, and congratulate chairman call as he takes over that very important role. I also joined chairman rogers in welcoming Christopher Wray to testify today as we all know the fbi does an enormous amount of work to protect the American People. There is a primary Law Enforcement agency for the us government, the fbi employs roughly 36,000 people in 56 field offices, 350 resident agencies and several specialized facilities and Analytical Centers across the country as well as an over 60 legal attache offices in 80 countries around the world. The fbi works to investigate and disrupt crime including everything from violent gang networks, cybercriminal, whitecollar crime, Human Trafficking, domestic, and International Terrorism and i could not agree more with chairman rogers as he talks about fbis mission including combating opioid, the opioid epidemic, including fentanyl poisonings that are killing north of one hundred thousand people, american citizens, every year. In addition, since russias brutal and unprovoked invasion of ukraine, the fbi also successfully worked to disrupt criminal, cyber, and hostile intelligence activities from russia that endanger ukraine, our partners and american citizens. The Biden Administration is requesting funding for several fbi initiatives in fiscal year 25 including investments to restore and enhance the fbis efforts to combat Violent Crime and cybercrime and to enhance the fbis counterintelligence and counterterrorism capabilities among other initiatives. I look forward to hearing more from you about these and other priorities surrounding the fbis budget request. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman and i yield back to you. I want to witness our witness, director wray first opening 7, his written statement will be entered into the record. I would ask him, that we would like to see him confine his rocks to 5 minutes or less so we can have additional time for questions, director wray. Thank you, good afternoon members of the committee. I am proud to be here today representing the roughly 38,000 men and women who make up the fbi. Every day, our people are working relentlessly to outpace our adversaries and stay at of complex and evolving threats so i would like to start out by thanking you and the rest of the committee for your support over the years for our efforts to achieve our mission of protecting the American People and upholding the constitution. At the same time i also realize the reality of the environment we are in today where so many agencies are dealing with tightening budgets, and this year the fbi is one of those agencies. With our fiscal year 2,024 budget having come in almost 500 million below what the fbi needs just to sustain our 2023 efforts, candidly, this could not have come at a worse time. When i sat here last year i walked through how we are already in a heightened threat environment. Since then we have seen the threat from Foreign Terrorists rise to a whole other level after october 7th. We continue to see the cartels push fentanyl and other dangerous drugs into every corner of the country, claiming countless american lives. Weve seen a spate of ransom where another cyberat tax impacting part of our Critical Infrastructure and businesses both large and small. Violent crime, Violent Crime which reached alarming levels coming out of the pandemic remains too high and impacting too many communities, china continues its relentless effort to steal our intellectual property and most valuable information, and that is just scratching the surface. As i look back over my career in Law Enforcement i would be hardpressed to think of a time where so many threats to Public Safety and National Security were so elevated all at once. But that is the case as i sit here today. And while weve always found ways that the fbi to innovate, make the most of what we have, this is by no means a time to let up or dial back. This is a time when we need your support the most. We need all the tools, all the people, all the resources required to tackle these threats to keep americans safe. To take each of those in turn, the tools, the people in the resources, first, and absolutely indispensable tool that congress can give us in our fight against foreign adversaries is the reauthorization of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It is critical in securing our nation and we are in crunch time with our 702 authority set to expire next week. Let me be clear, failure to reauthorize 702, or gutting it with some new kind of warrant requirement would be dangerous, and put americans lives at risk. Second, we need people. I will stack the fbis workforce against anyone anywhere, anytime, they are innovative, they are efficient, they are relentless, they are professionals, patriots, we have been fortunate at the fbi in recent years that our recruiting has gone through the roof. Americans are applying in droves to devote their lives to a career with us protecting others but we need more physicians to bring all the good people we can to the fight, not fewer. Now is not the time to cut back, its time to lean forward. Third, we need resources which you will see in the 25 budget request that we are here today to discuss. We need funding to protect america from terrorism. I touched on this earlier, but there was already a heightened risk of violence in the United States before october 7th. Since then, sine rd. Galleria Foreign Terrorist Organization call for attacks against americans and our allies. Given those calls for action, our most immediate concern has been that individuals or small groups will draw twisted inspiration from the events in the middle east to carry out attacks here at home. But now, increasingly concerning, is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland akin to the isis k attack we start the concert hall a few weeks ago. We also counter the threats in the peoples republic of china, a government sparing no expense in its quest to hack, lie, cheat and steal its way to the top as a global superpower and to undermine our democracy and economic success. We need funding to counter cyberthreats, certainly those from china but also from a crowded field of sophisticated hostile nationstates and criminals like russia, iran, north korea. We need funding to mitigate the range of threats from the border. Fentanyl, gangs like ms 13, Human Trafficking. We need funding to address the Violent Crime that remains at levels in this country that are still too high and we need funding to keep going after child predators, to rescue young victims from their tormentors. All those areas i just mentioned, we are working closely with our partners at all levels of government to achieve our shared goal of keeping our communities safe. Every day fbi agents, analysts and professional staff are working shoulder to shoulder with thousands of Task Force Officers from hundreds of Different Police department, sheriffs offices all over the country on our fbi led task forces. On top of that we provide technology and expertise, valuable investigative leads like dna matches and cutting edge training to Law Enforcement nationwide, to help them protect americans from harm. So cuts to us are cuts to our partners, local Law Enforcement agencies and officers who are on the ground putting themselves in line of fire, often quite literally. That is just one way those cuts are going to have real impacts on the American People. So yes, we took a hit in the 2024 budget, but the 2025 budget is a chance to get back on track to provide the fbis men and women the tools and resources the American People need us to have to keep them safe, so thank you again for having me here today and i look forward to our discussion. Thank you, director wray. We will now proceed under the 5 minute rule with questions for the witness. I will begin by recognizing myself. Director, has the bureau observed any improvements in our efforts to dismantle fentanyl pipeline . What role can the bureau play here . It is a mixed bag. Certainly the scourge of fentanyl is claiming too many lives. I will tell you from the fbis perspective, one of the things we have been observing is in our takedown of violent games, something we are doing all over the country all the time, we are noticing almost without exception now that those takedowns of violent gang members also include seizures of fentanyl. The fentanyl thats looks coming from the cartels built on precursors from china, ending up all over the United States is often being distributed by these violent street gangs. Thats one of the things we are observing. We are trying to do our part that goes beyond any agency and beyond Law Enforcement. I know a lot of your efforts recognize. Some of the things the fbi are doing to do our part, i will mention a few, safe street taskforces are going after gangs that are distributing so much of this poison, organized crime taskforces are going after the cartels, we have close to 400 investigations that go just after cartels leadership, we also have things like j code which is an initiative where we bring together 12 agencies focused on the dark web trafficking of fentanyl and other dangerous substances, dismantling dark net marketplaces when we do that. We have a Prescription Drug initiative in certain parts of the country, pill mills, and prescribers of opioids are a driver of much of this epidemic so we are using healthcare prod expertise to go after those folks. We are working with partners on the other side of the border and there i would say it is very uneven. Some key instances with extradition, key operation, we are working with vetted teams which is an effort in the right direction but we need much much more than we are getting from the Mexican Government. I would summarize my answer to your question by saying a lot of things to be encouraged by in terms of the effort and work across multiple agencies people are making, a lot of things to be concerned about. Last two years in a row of this point, the fbi seized enough fentanyl to kill 270 million American People. That gives you a sense of the scale of what we are up against. What is the level of cooperation between Law Enforcement agencies especially when it comes to Drug Trafficking . Are they working with the next bill . Absolutely. One of the bright spots that i see when i compared to earlier in my career is how close the partnerships are across all levels of Law Enforcement, the federal agencies, state and local Law Enforcement is so intertwined with todays fbi, foreign Law Enforcement in a lot of instances, the Intelligence Community working with Law Enforcement, so partnerships are stronger than ever and thats one of the things keeping this from becoming an even worse pr