Have not had the direct testimony of those affected by it and those who represent some who are affected by it. And so thats what this hearing was before. The fact that some senators have left, dont let that bother you. Markups are unusual. And thats why they had to come because theyre all 13, and they had to go do something else, but youre the point of all this. I want that to be very, very clear to you. So as i said, very glad to welcome four witnesses who will help us understand firsthand the consequences of the instances and what they had to go through. Yoig this is not an easy subject to talk about, let that be said, okay, so that its painful. And however you reflect that pain, the committee understands it. Welcomes it, joins you in, you know, the difficulty of coming up here and testifying before a senate committee. Although its really not that difficult after all. The cruise industry, im happy to say, is not happy that im holding this hearing. Theyre very unhappy. Those companies dont like it when congress and the media talk about the risk of taking a cruise vacation. They have repeatedly told this committee in both public hearings and private meetings that cruise ships and trips are safe. Thats it. No teed to do anything, but the facts tell a different story. It means that that doesnt mean theyre as i said, the average person will have a good experience, but you dont judge a steel plant by, you know, 500 workers not being hurt, but 30 workers being badly hurt. I mean, its the problems that you have to address. So the facts tell a different story. Last year, our Committee Releases a report that found hundreds of cruise crimes were not being publicly reported. Very basic negligence. Weve had several hearings where expert witnesses testified about ongoing safety and Security Problems like wrecks, fires, crimes, onboard these vessels. And we continue to see the same issues continuing to continue. And im fed up with it. Im fed up with them trying to stonewallace. Yes, they have lots of money and they have lots of lobbyists and thats were going to win this one. Almost exactly one year ago, carnivals president told his committee his companys number one priority is, quote, the safety and security of our guests. Explain how the cruise lines have every incentive to make sure the customers have a good experience. That sounds nice in a congressional hearing, but its little comfort to the many people whose vacations or in a number of cases, lives have been ruined by the cruise lines failure to deliver on their promises. That is if they got a chance to see what the promises were. Which is a problem in and of itself, and well talk about that. In spite of the evidence that crimes, fires, mechanical failures, drownings and mishandled medical emergencies occur with disturbing regularity on cruise ships, the industry continues to deny that it has a problem. Any problem, just denies any problems. It has circled the wagons and reflexively fought all efforts to provide consumers more information about the risks of cruise ship vacations. I dont mind if they talk about the joys and the pleasures, but people have to talk about the risk, too. Its not fair if they dont. They ought to refer to, you know, new york city doesnt. They have all kinds of problems. But they dont advertise their problems. But when youre on a cruise ship, you know, out in the ocean somewhere, there isnt a hospital next door. There isnt a Police Station to go to. Youre just on an island all by yourself. And its a very different feeling. Than being part of a community, which can come to hell. So thats where my legislation comes in. Last year, after witnessing the Costa Concordia tragedy, and learning about the underreported number of crimes on cruise ships, i introduced something called the cruise passenger protection act of 2013. In this bill, ive poposed making it easier for consumers to report crimes and make complaints about problems on cruise ships. Everything is about making it easier. If you make it hard, a lot of people just wont do it. And unfortunately, when you have an encapsulated environment like a cruise ship trip, you have to be able to report. You just have to be able to do that. And do it fairly easily. So we make it easier to report. Ive also proposed simplifying ticket contracts and publishing more information about crimes and other problems on cruise ships. You know what im talking about when i talk about the ticket problem. You have to peel, you know, layers of paper away and youre just signing a ticket. But its underneath that somewhere that says, oh, by the way, you give up your liability. That is not nice. Its a terrible thing to do to passengers. These arent crazy ideas im suggests. Theyre common sense protections people already have if their travel, for example, in airplanes or by rail, but the cruise industry vehemently opposed my bill, even the bills simplest provisions like reporting crimes against minors or putting up a website at the department of transportation that consumers could consult while theyre making their vacation plans so they can see what the problems might be, what the advantages might be, so theyre making an informed decision. When an industry opposes even the most basic Public Disclosure about its conduct, it suggests to me, frankly, that it has something to hide. Our Witnesses Today are going to help us understand why it is so important for consumers to have this information. Unlike people vacationing on land, Cruise Ship Passengers who are victims of crimes do not have immediate access to Law Enforcement. Well, you say sure, theyre out at sea. Yeah, but theyre out at sea and they dont have access to Law Enforcement. Thats pretty basic, and if they suffer a Health Emergency on a cruise, they could be hundreds of miles away from a Health Facility that operates at u. S. Standards or even below u. S. Standards, just something called a hospital. Our witnesses are also going to tell us that in spite of the cruise industrys talk about talking about taking responsibility for their passengers, Cruise Companies sometimes treat their customers with shocking callousness and disregard. My words are harsh because im angry about this. Four witnesses are appearing before this committee today, and i thank them, but there are many, many more people as you all know, who could have shared their experiences, and have with my staff. Ken carver, jamie barnet, and countless others have fought for years to help protect others from needless tragedy. I would like to thank everybody who has been willing to step forward and tell us their stories despite, as i indicated, the painful and sometimes tragic circumstances. Not just that they happened but having to recall them verbally and publicly. Having accurate statistics about crimes and others instances are important, and its even more important to understand the human cost of the safety and Security Problems that this industry is not fully acknowledging. This hearing along with other hearings and inquiries i have made into the cruise industry since i have been chairman are about one thing, and its called accountability. Being honest with people. I know the Cruise Companies think that i am singling them out, as they say, for special scrutiny, but i asuhre them that is not the case. I have never hesitated to Ask Companies tough questions when i think their Business Practices are hurting consumers. Thats my job, all of our jobs. We have oversight. Thats the main reason we exist as a committee, to have oversight and try to make things better. Ths process of asking tough questions is called, in fact, oversight. Its one of the most important jobs congressional committees have, maybe the most important. When it comes to the cruise industry, we have been doing our job. We have held hearings. We have analyzed the data, and we have talked to many different people with experiences in this industry. This oversight has led us to very clearly to the conclusion that we have to act. We need legislation to protect consumers. For anyone on this committee who still hasnt gotten the message, i urge you to listen closely today as these witnesses bravely share their experiences. I thank everybody. I have one closing statement. To the cruise industry, instead of fighting this process, i encourage you to listen careful to the testimony today. I ask you to honestly consider whether there are steps you can take to better protect the health and safety of your passengers. Look, this is the cruise industry is booming. People love to travel. People love to go on those ships. And i dont begrudge them for that. My own son has done that. I dont begrudge people that. They have a right to do that. But they also have responsibilities since they are under our jurisdiction to do it safely and properly for everyone. I believe there are steps that they can take and i will continue pushing to make those things happen. I now call upon the distinguished senator from mississippi, mr. Roger wicker. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I think youve made a number of very important and valid points. I also want to thank the witnesses for being here. As you said, mr. Chairman, it may be difficult for them to share their experiences but its important that they do so and i appreciate their courage in coming forward and being able to share with us today on some information we need. The chair has built this hearing as a forum to discuss his bill, the cruise ship passenger protection act, s1340. We need to protect passengers from crime. We need to ensure access to medical care while on the high seas. These are important and worthy issues. I would say that i think it would be best if we consider the legislation as a standalone bill and not in connection with the coast guard authorization act. I dont know what the chairs approach to this is going to be. But i do not believe the reauthorization act is the appropriate vehicle for a cruise passenger protection bill. In my judgment, we ought to consider cruise ship passenger protection legislation separately from the coast guard authorization act. Congress deserves the opportunity to examine how we can strengthen the transparency of crimes on the high seas and the public deserves a discussion with full congressional attention to making cruising safer for americans and Foreign Tourists while visiting u. S. Ports. There are many areas in which the cruise ship industry is receiving criticism, including the effectiveness of crime prevention, their response to crime, Sexual Assault, the report of incidents and tax concerns. I hope that safety standards, like those that could have been ben finishal in the treatment of Violet Butler are a priority in this discussion. There are cruise ships under way with maximum capacities larger than many of our small towns and cities in america. Some cruise ships have more than 6,000 passengers. And some 2,000 staff along with them. And yet they only require two medical professionals on board. Imagine a small town of that size, for example, in rural mississippi. Imagine my native home of ponotoc, mississippi, where theres some 5,700 people living, and what if we only had two medical professionals in the whole town . And as a matter of fact, in my native city, we have 29 health care professionals, 21 members of the police force as well as 24hour physician care in the emergency room. So that gives me great pause to think that a cruise ship of only containing 8,000 souls would have only two medical professionals aboard. So any transparency, we need to promote selfcorrecting behavior and we all have a right to hear the stories of the victims. We do not need to paint the entire industry with a broad brush because of a few bad actors. I think the chair acknowledges that. But we should look for ways to partner with the industry to make passenger cruises a safe environment for our american passengers and tourists and i encourage the cruise line industry and association to find a marketdriven solution. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And i look forward now to getting to the testimony of our witnesses. Thank you, senator wicker, very much. The senator and i come from states with lots of rural places. My sort of hometown has about 270 people. So youre urban compared to us. Okay. Let me just go right to the witnesses. Laurie dishman had a very, very bad experience on a Royal Caribbean cruise in 2006. Shes also an International Cruise Victims Association board member, which means she wants to follow through on that. Ill read each of the four and then call on one by one. Phil gerson, a lawyer who represented a 15yearold minor, 15yearold minor who was raped on a cruise ship is also on that same board and chairman also chairman of the National Center for the victims of crime. Im grateful that hes here. Amanda butler, who i just met outside, whose mother suffered a medical emergency on a Carnival Cruise in 2013, and likely passed away from a lack of adequate medical care, im proud that youre here. And kim ware, who was a passenger on the carnival triumph that caught fire in 2013, and was stranded for four days. Now, those are easy things for me to say but they are very hard to have gone through and even talk about, so lets get at it. Im going to call on laurie dishman. And thank you so much for being here. Hello. My name is laurie dishman. Id like to thank the chairman and the committee for convening this hearing and inviting me to washington. It is quite an honor and privilege to be here today. Senator rockefeller, i am a cruise ship rape victim. I have an experience to tell you about. A cruise line employee raped me during a vacation on a Royal Caribbean cruise to mexico. The crew member was working as a Security Guard in a disco on the ship. He approached me and asked me my name a cabin number. He later snuck down to my cabin and forced his way in. I resisted and struggled. He strangled me and brutally raped me. I awoke with ligature marks around my neck and my tampon was impacted during the brutal rape. I did not know what to do. I did not know who to turn to. There were no police on the ship, i learned. I was hesitant to report the crime because he wore a security badge. Just three days earlier i was looking forward to this cruise, the glossy brochures advertise an adventure every day and an experience to remember. I was celebrating my birthday and 30 years of friendship with my best friend michelle. We have known each other since i was 5 years old. I was so excited. In the evening i would find myself in the middle of a nightmare. Michelle called the desk to report the crime. A Security Officer in the head purser, both men, came to the cabin and sat on the bed where the rape occurred. I tried to tell them what happened but they insisted that i prepare a written statement and sign it. They left without securing the cabin or taking me to the ship infirmary. After i finished my statement, the Security Officer took me and michelle to the infirmary. The doctor handed us two black garbage bags and asked us to go back to the cabin and collect the evidence. We tried to preserve hair and other items folding the pillow cases and sheets, not knowing really what we were supposed to be doing. We returned to the infirmary along the public hallways and still all men surrounding us. It was a painful and humiliating ordeal. The ship doctor performed the rape kit and examined my neck but failed to administer antiviral medications. I was returned to my cabin after the ordeal in the ship infirmary. I was traumatized to be back at the scene of the crime. I could not take my eyes off the mattress where the crime occurred, stripped of the pillows and sheets and the mattress seems dirty to me, it looked like i felt. I could not stop thinking about what had just happened to me over and over again. I did not know what would happen next. I just wanted to close my eyes and go home. I was eventually given three options. To get off the ship in mexico and report it to the local port authorities, to stay off the cruise ship stay on the cruise ship and report it to the fbi when we returned, or fly back to l. A. And report the rape to the fbi. I opted to fly back to los angeles as soon as i could get off the ship. Once in l. A. , i was questioned extensively by the fbi and they photographed the bruisings around my neck. A few days later, the fbi boarded the ship when it returned to port together with the cruise line defense attorneys. The crew member denied even going into my cabin. He did not pass the polygraph but the fbi said it was just a she said he said case and declined to arrest him. The department of justice declined to prosecute on that same day. The cruise ship then set sail again full of passengers with the rapist on board. Two days later, i learned the crew member changed his story and admitted going to my cabin. It was only then that the cruise line confined him to his cabin and then put a Security Guard outside his door. And then terminated his employment and flew him home to trinidad. With nowhere to turn, i hired a maritime lawyer in miami. Why miami . Because even though i lived in sacramento, the cruise left from l. A. , the crime occurred in International Waters and in the ticket it says that you need to find an attorney in miami. My attorney found out many things that surprised and angered me. The Security Guard was actually a janitor who the cruise line called a cleaning specialist who is paid 550 a month. He was assigned to act as a Security Department because the cruise ships limited number of legitimate guards on its staff. He had no training or experience at all as a Security Guard. Royal caribbean records my attorney uncovered revealed an employee history which included lying, falsification of records, insubordination and anger management and he had also sexually harassed two girls six weeks before he raped me and they put him in this Security Guard uniform. We also learned that on the night in question, a witness observed him drinking beers given to him by the cruise line bartenders. Royal caribbean, pursuant to court orders that my attorney received, stating that cruise line studied the problem of Sexual Assault on their ships back as far as 1999, the outside experts retained by the cruise line concluded that Sexual Misconduct occurred frequently. The head Security Guard who approached me in the cabin said this never happens. But the cruise line ignored what their experts told them in spite telling the public that crimes are very rare. In 2007, i joined the International Cruise februarys and im now a member of the board. I have testified in the past before the house of representatives in support of the cruise vessels security and safety act. Today im joined with the chairman of icv, board member and friends of icv. In closing, cruise consumers have virtually no rights or protections. I know this firsthand. I know exactly how it feels to have no rights and to be victimized by the cruise line a second time after their employee assaulted me. Certainly our congress can require such a powerful industry to timely and accurately report crimes against cruise ship guests, provide a clear and accurate statement of our rights embodied in a ticket without incomprehensible legal mumbo jumbo. Hire comp tent medical providers and provide protection under a Consumer Agency which will help us in our time of need. Thank you. Thank you very much, miss dishman. And you did that well and i know it was hard. We will have questions. But first we want to hear from phil gerson who is a lawyer who represented a 15yearold minor who was raped on a cruise ship. Mr. Gerson. Thank you, members of the committee. Im a lawyer in miami, florida, with more than 40 Years Experience focused for more than 40 years my law practice has focused on representing crime victims, both at sea and on land. I appreciate your invitation and your willingness to consider my views in this august chamber. I will be brief. I will not read to you from my written testimony which states the case facts about the incident the chairman just referred to in more detail than i will mention now. And i welcome any questions the senators may ask. The cruise passenger protection act should be passed. It is far short of the needed solutions but it is the next step on the path to greater passenger safety. If you think that young women are safe on cruise ships, think again. They are not. My 15yearold autistic teenage client was not supervised like she was on land because her family thought that she was safe. They were vigilant in managing all of her activities, scrupulously and on the ship she was supervised in teen activities. On the last night of the cruise, the teen activities ended early, but no one told her parents. And she was gullibly led away by a soexual predator to a staterom where she was brutally raped and attacked by a juvenile and an adult male. This occurred two years after the cruise vessel safety and security act of 2010 was signed into law. But despite that fact, her stateroom was lysoled and cleaned before Law Enforcement could gain access to it. Security said, well, there was a mistake. We locked it out but the housekeepers somehow overrode the lockout not knowing that a crime had been committed and the evidence on the bed clothe and other evidence in the room was lost. Fortunately, our state legislature has had the wisdom to enact and extend jurisdiction to crimes on cruise ships when the ships leave and return from florida ports. So there were ft. Lauderdale browardbased deputies standing on the pier when the ship returned to port who took custody of these two offenders and they were punished under state law. But had this occurred anywhere else besides florida, they likely would have gone unapprehended and unpunished. Now, what is worse about what happened, the cruise lines not only suppress the facts but they foster a misleading Disinformation Campaign boasting that vacationers are safer at sea than they are on land. Now, in some ways, you are safer at sea. Youre not going to get hit by a car or a truck, walking in public places, nor is it likely that youre going to be shot by an armed robber because there are no vehicles or guns allowed on the ship. But sexual crimes, like the one that my innocent teenage client was the victim of, are far too common. And the risks of them are high. There are thousands of people onboard and there are no police to deter crime or to stop a crime before it harms somebody. Ship Security Officers are trained to protect ship owners, not passengers. And thats exactly what they do. The real answer, in my view, based on my lifetime of experience in this work, is that independent sea marshals should be placed on cruise ships, a trivial cost in view of the large number of people here who are assembled on these Floating City vacations. If we cant get that today, we can start now with d. O. T. Empowerment to make the risks known. Truthful disclosure of risks has been required by government for decades and it is a part of the fundamental fairness, which is the fabric of the american the american society. Full disclosures of risks is a first step toward improving safety. Very few travelers understand the legal relationship which exists in the cruise contract. As passengers cross the gangway, they surrender all legal rights to protect their own welfare, except as the cruise ticket allows them to. This is not an informed consent. The ticket doesnt explain how the legal relationship is different at sea from what we know it to be on land. And it is not semantics when we refer to the ships captain as the master. The master is just that. And the passengers have virtually no individual rights. The Cruise Line Industry Association bill of rights is illusory, empty, and meaningless. A close reading of the cruise line tickets reveal a frightening list of contractual and statutory disclaimers of any legal responsibility for harms to passengers. The tickets say the cruise line has no legal liability in port for any excursion which they arrange, which they sell to the passengers, and which they share fees with the tour operators with but they disclaim any responsibility. They say the same thing about the Physician Services that they sell in ship board medical clinics on board. But if theres medical negligence, they have no legal responsibility. There are also arcane statutory and International Maritime treaties which limit passenger rights and passenger remedies when something goes wrong on board and neither the cruise ticket nor the cruise line adequately informed the passengers of the nature or extent of what they have given up by crossing that gangway. The bill should be passed so that the outdated buyer beware business relationships at sea are replaced with truth in advertising, full disclosure, and informed consent which are the hallmarks of American Life required by government for business and industry. Until Congress Gives passengers more protections, american nationals on cruise ships are just on their own. I invite you to read my brief written statement which provides more details so i take no more time that is necessary now and i volunteer to assist in this process in any way that i can in the future. Thank you, sir, very much. Amanda butler, your mother suffered a medical emergency in 2013 on a Carnival Cruise. And as i indicated, probably passed away from a lack of adequate medical care. Senator rockefeller, members of the committee, i appreciate the opportunity to tell my mothers story, to share what we have learned and to offer recommendations, from our perspective in an effort to insure that no other family will go through what we had to experience. My mother experienced a Catastrophic Health event on a family cruise april 18th, 2013. She subsequently passed away on may 4th with the cause of death listed as a brain injury. She was a woman who loved life, loved her family. She had a general generous heart. She was a faithful and devoted wife and mother who was there to nurture her children, support her husband and provide care and kindness to many individuals in our community of columbus, mississippi. In fact, more than 800 people came from the community to her visitation. We had just returned from a short excursion on april 18th, passed through security and were planning events for the evening when she collapsed in midsentence. She had no pulse. She was not breathing. I ran to plea with the security personnel in the area but all they did was seal off the entrance and exit of the boat so nobody could see that there was a problem and an event had happened. They did not step forward, period, to help my mother and no one indicated that they were calling for help. So i ran down the corridors in an attempt to find a defibrillator or someone that could explain that we have a medical emergency. A nurse arrived after my mother had been on the ship floor for what American Physicians are estimating to be 15 minutes. The nurse had a radio but no defibrillator and no medical equipment when she arrived. She examined my mother and then she waited for a gurney to arrive. She did not initiate cpr. My mother was taken into the medical facility, located within a distance that my father and myself could have carried her, had we been told. They had to unlock the doors, turn on the lights and the computers and prepare the tiny examination room for the resuscitation process. They set up a portable defibrillator. After four cycles, her pulse did return. Nevertheless, the duration of time that she went without oxygen approached 32 minutes. Once resuscitated, we were instructed to leave the ship. We did not have the option to stay. My father went to his room with personnel to pack his bags and carnival sent their personnel into my room to gather my belongings. They made us stay on the gangway and after we got off of the water taxi, we had to wait on an ambulance to come and get her. One carnival employee accompanied us but no arrangements were made with customs to expedite us as a medical emergency. We were all processed as tourists, including my comatose mother. The carnival employee gave my father the telephone number for the Port Authority and left us completely alone in a foreign country to find our own way to transport my mother back to the United States for additional medical treatment. Carnivals current contract states that they are not responsible or liable for anything involving the welfare or safety of its passengers. The Company Makes no assurances that a physician will be available on a cruise. And it states that medical care, in fact, may not be available at all or will be delayed. The contract also states that carnival is not responsible for the actions of physicians and nurses whom it considers independent contractors. As it turned out, my mothers cardiac event was the type that had she received cpr in a timely manner, she would be here today. My mother died needlessly because humane emergency protocol was not followed or enforced. The contract was too small to read. The general public does not understand all u. S. Rights are surrendered to carnival upon entering that vessel. Had we known, our family would have never boarded that ship. We offer the following recommendations to improve health care. We know that some of these items are included in the cruise vessel security act, safety act of 2010, but we have been informed, also, that the medical requirements of that act have been very narrowly interpreted. Our recommendations would be to modify the 2010 act to add a section on general medical care with the following requirements. Aed machines, defibrillators should be placed throughout each ship with locations clearly designated and discussed during the initial safety meeting. Cpr training and certification should be a requirement for all personnel on the ships. Personnel must be trained on how to respond to medical or emergent situations including alerting and summoning medical assistance in initial response to aid of passenger and family. The english language should be a requirement for personnel on these vessels that have United States ports of call. At a minimum, all personnel should be able to understand key words such as emergency, help, doctor. 24hour health care is necessary, given that the ships carry several thousands people per cruise. The ships physician must be present and available to treat passengers or must be on call for Immediate Response in the event of an emergency situation. Doctors must have United States medical board credentials and emergency medicine, internal medicine or Family Medicine and have add least served practcome. There have been standards to adopt these standards and more, however, carnival has nor virtually all of the standards that they agreed to to implement their ships as a member of clia. This must change for the welfare of future passengers. My father and i greatly appreciate the opportunity to tell my mothers story, our experiences, and our recommendations before this committee. Thank you. No, thank you very much, miss butler. Just for the benefit of the members of the committee, what Amanda Butler has been talking about, in part, is i would have to lose 60 years off my present life length and have triple strong glasses and probably a magnifying glass to be able to read what youre talking about. Yes. I mean, i gave it to bill nelson and well, hes getting older, too. I mean, you give up your liability. You have no idea that youre doing that, one, because you cant read this thing. Im breaking protocol and i apologize. You give things up, you dont know what. You cant possibly read this. When youre buying a ticket, youre in a hurry. Thats the whole point, and in this is your whole trip. Right. So to speak. And its just, to me, deceitful, easy to correct and unnecessary. If you dont mind, could i make one more statement, senator . Yes. Carnival is suing my father and myself over 1200. Literally. For the lack of medical care that we received after they dumped us off on an island completely alone. You do give up all of your rights. My mother was loved and the hot tropical sun and she did not have a chance because of the way that they treated her medically. I thank you. And i apologize to my colleagues for interrupting the protocol. Kim ware was a passenger on the carnival triumph that caught fire in 2013 and was stranded for four days, which i really want to hear about. I dont know how one gets stranded for four days on a cruise ship. Chairman rockefeller, committee members, my name is kim ware. I am from houston, texas. I am the mother of five children and three grandchildren. My family and i have cruised many times. We love cruising and i naively had never given a thought to the possible dangers onboard a cruise ship. Being weary of the cold in february 2013, my boyfriend ed and i booked a lastminute cruise on the carnival triumph to enjoy some sun in moex co. For the first two days of the trip, everything went as planned. As we went to bed on the second day, we had no idea what was to come. The passengers of the carnival triumph would be adrift at sea for four days living in horrendous conditions. In the Early Morning hours of our third day at sea, we were awakened by an emergency announcement that sounded ominous. Ed quickly went out to our balcony where he saw a great amount of smoke coming from the back of the ship. We immediately knew it was a fire. Fear overcame me immediately, as during our muster drill, the crew had repeated over and over that fire was our gravest danger when at sea. Shortly thereafter, the cruise director informed us that there was a situation in the engine room. There was confusion among the passengers as to whether to go to the muster stations or not. Several hours later our worst fears were confirmed. There had been a fire. It was out but we were dead in the water, no power. Eventually the giant ship began to list and, as you can imagine, this caused a great deal of fear among the passengers that the ship was going to capsize. It was soon very clear that Carnival Cruise lines had no plan in place for such a disaster. They were essentially winging it. Conditions aboard the ship began to decay quickly. There was no electricity, we had water intermittently, we were informed that the sewage system no longer operated. All passengers were given red bio bags to use instead of the toilets. As passengers, understandably, did not want to use the bags, all public toilets onboard the ship were quickly filled to the top with human waste. The sewer system quickly backed up and came out of the shower drains and, later, red bio bags lined the halls filled with feces. The stench was terrible and sanitation onboard the ship was nonexistent. I was one of the fortunate passengers who had a balcony cabin. The unluckily passengers who had booked inside cabins had no access to fresh air or sunlight. These passengers were forced to move their families to mattresses in the hallways on upper decks or on to the lounge chairs on the pool deck where sheets were quickly raised as protection from the sun. A tent city was born. These passengers suffered the worst hardships. It was very disconcerting to see the elderly and Young Children in these circumstances. I couldnt help but wonder if the elderly had enough medicine with them, had the parents of the babies packed enough diapers . The crew was doing its best to provide us with meals. However, passengers waited hours in line for food. Hoarding food became a problem as people were concerned that food would run out. I witnessed many heated arguments among passengers over food hoarding. The buffet no longer looked clean. People who had not bathed in days were handling server utensils and food. With the unsanitary condition of the food service and the sewage problem, it is a miracle that a massive viral outbreak didnt occur. I was constantly in fear of becoming sick in these conditions. We tried to stay out of the public areas as much as possible. In truth, the entire ship had quickly become a refugee camp. I was very concerned that violence was going to erupt as passengers struggled with these living conditions. There seemed to be no security at all. At night, the ship became very dark and i never saw any type of security patrolling the ship. As time slowly dragged on, the plans to get us back to shore kept changing. First we would go to progresso and then flown out and then the plan was for tugs to take us back to houston, and the finalstition was tugs would pull us into mobile, alabama. This decision was made with no thought of the passengers on board. Going to mobile caused the passengers to endure the miserable conditions aboard the triumph for an extra 24 hours. With no way to communicate with my family and days adrift at sea, i felt as though the cruise would never end. I finally broke down and cried. Upon return home, the only communication i received from carnival was a letter with a 500 check and a refund voucher towards a future cruise. This seemed to be inadequate for the danger that i was put in on the triumph. After being home a while, i realized i had put my trust in the cruise industry with no knowledge of what would happen in the event of a real emergency situation. I now know that carnival sent the triumph out with only four of the six generators working and with knowledge of a potential fire hazard in the fuel lines. I wish i had known these things prior to setting sail. I feel that the cruise ship industry has a duty to provide not only a great vacation for passengers but to ensure their safety at all costs and to impart the upmost care when an emergency arises. Information should be made public of problems akerring on cruise ships so future passengers can make educated decisions on which lines to travel. Further, passengers should have the right to pursue compensation for any wrongdoing on the cruise industrys part. Cruising is a wonderful way for families to vacation together. However, cruising needs to be made safer for all u. S. Citizens. My hope is that congress will pass legislation to insure the cruise industry abides by strict standards for passenger safety so that a future disaster of even greater magnitude aboard a cruise ship can be avoided. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much, miss ware. Im going to start questioning to be followed by senator wicker, senator nelson if he comes back and senator begich and senator blumenthal, whos a 29yearold attorney general in the state of connecticut, and one of the most astute questioners ive ever listened to. But youre last. So be patient and stick around. Last year i i have a big question for you, miss butler. Last year, the major cruise lines adopted what they call a passenger bill of rights. Now, weve done that in the Airline Industry and we pretty much enforce it. One of the socalled rights is one of the socalled rights is that passengers have the right to, quote, fulltime emergency medical attention as needed until shoreside medical care becomes available. Thats their language, not mine. And a few weeks ago, senior representatives from the Cruise Line International association, which i refer to as clia, told myself that cruise lines have the duty to provide passengers competent medical care. My question to you would be, would you say that the care provided to your mother and in the first iteration it was fulltime emergency medical attention is needed until assure that fulltime medical care is available and all of a sudden it became competent medical care. So my question to you is, was the medical care provided to your mother competent . No. They did everything wrong. We were expecting that one of the Security Guards would step forward to initiate cpr. Instead, they waited at least ten minutes to even call for someone to come down and look at my mothers body to, see if she was breathing or not and in that case she was not breathing. She did not have a pulse. And to top it off, the infirmary was closed so we had to wait, literally, for them to turn everything on. They had to unlock the defibrillator, the aed, out of a closet and then plug it into the wall. They had to set up their own hospital while were standing there waiting and my moms not breathing. It was horrific. And completely unacceptable for american citizens. Now, in your mothers case, carnival claims that it has and had no duty to provide medical care. No duty to train or supervise medical staff and no duty to make the sick bay available. Further, they claim no duty to provide medical equipment like a basic automatic external defibrillator machines. So, miss butler, when you brought your ticket for the cruise, did you understand that if you accepted medical care provided by the cruise line, you would be doing so at your own risk, at your own cost and that the cruise line would deny liability for the quality of the care . We had no idea. We couldnt read the font it was tiny. You had to click the link and check yes, i agree, to even print the ticket but you couldnt see what they were trying to hide and the average layperson, were a humble family from mississippi, we didnt own we dont own a magnified glass and we werent going to print it off and try to figure out what their legal jargon, or lack thereof, was hidden in the contract. Plus, you assume a certain level of responsibility, right . Yes. Yes. You all have senator begich and blumenthal, do you have this in your folders . Id just like to have it passed to each of you ive circled the word liability and its unbelievable. I cant read any of it. Neither could we. At the beginning of the voyage, to provide Safety Information at a, quote, muster drill to help passengers prepare for an emergency, like a fire or a wreck. This information helps passengers prepare and no what to do in the event of an emergency. My question for the panel, many of you experienced emergency situations that you were unprepared for. Did the cruise line discuss any information about what to do in a medical emergency . Im asking any of you. Senator, no. In my situation, no. The cruise line did not. And in our situation as well, senator, no. And it would be very simple to simply just add, oh, by the way, our medical infirmary is on yada, yada floor. We had no idea where to go. The obvious question is, if you had this information, that might have helped, right . If we had the information, we could have saved her life. You know, someone should have given her cpr. Okay. Well, ive got more questions but my time is up for my first round so i go to senator begich. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman, and i appreciate the opportunity to have you all here today and thank you for sharing your story. Let me ask you, and i think you gave some suggestions, if i remember my lineup in my writing here. You had suggested aed machines should be more available . Tell me what you mean by that. Weve been told that carnival does have defibrillators, aeds, but they keep them locked up because they are afraid that the passengers may steal them. Okay. So and your comment about cpr training to make sure that employees or all employees or employees related to security or help me understand what youre thinking there, too. At the very least, security when people are coming back on board from excursions. And there is part of the proposal that the chairman has is that information is made to potential passengers or customers. Let me ask you a question. When you were researching your desire, was this your first cruise or second or we had been doing this for years. So youre a cruiser . Used to be. Alaska, we have a lot of cruise ships so i understand. When you go look for a cruise, just tell me how you go about that when you want to go. Ill be honest, i have a cousin that organizes our family reunions so she picks it out and we all basically chip in to buy the tickets. So do you maybe i may not be able to ask you. Maybe i can ask one of the other two. Im trying to find out, when you go online i have not done a cruise. I am very familiar with cruises, let me make that very clear, with over a million passengers coming to alaska, from the small cruises, big cruises, princess, disney, so forth. Ive been on many of the ships but have not done a fullscale cruise. When you go online to look up what you want to do, do you in your mind, are you looking for not only what your location is, what youre interested in, but do you decide, geez, i want to know how safe this cruise is . Does that come across . Is that one of the thoughts that you have . You assume that if youre leaving out of a u. S. Port, that you have u. S. Healthcare well, safety, period. It was just an assumption. Heres where im trying to go and anyone can answer this and i appreciate the chairmans piece of legislation. But in it it talks about putting a lot of the information on the department of transportation website. My question is, that is not where you would go to if you were going to look up a cruise and think about the safety of the cruise. I mean, if it didnt you see where im going, in other words . Yes. If youre going on to a cruise site and you think you want to go on to a cruise to the mediterranean and you wonder how safe this cruise is, is your first thought to go to the d. O. T. Website . No. Where would that be . I think all of us would go to travelocity, expedia, things like that, but the assumption with travel is that i thought the safety was in place. I thought a corporation as large as carnival, you know, with the reputation, i just assumed that they would have great Safety Measures in place on ships of that size. I was naive. No. I understand that. Im just trying to figure out what im worried about, and ive told the chairman this, adding another layer of information but then the customer has no idea where that information is. Maybe they could put something on expedia saying go to this site for im trying to figure out what is the better well, definitely every cruise line needs to have an updated reporting on their website and in regards to the transportation, to me that would follow along with airline or train or if i was a consumer looking for something that involved all different types of transportation and incidents that occurred but the regular consumer may go to that Royal Caribbean and carnival website or even a travel but you should be able to know what type of crimes when youre planning your family vacation. The Television Ads give false presentation about let your kids go and do what you want to do on a cruise. I think the different crimes need to be reported and i feel all of them need to be reported, not just if they are open but if they are closed. Do you think that should be the case for all types of transportation . I dont know. For a family after what ive learned for what i didnt know, because i had the false sense when i left out of san pedro, los angeles, i thought i was taking all of my rights with me and didnt know it was flown under liberian flag and thats they were the ones the law was under. Thank you very much. Thank you, senator begich. Senator blumenthal . Thank you mr. Chairman, and thank you for championing this bill which i am very, very proud to cosponsor. Thank you for having this hearing which gives us an opportunity to really not only express our support and sympathy but also to make you a part of the crusade for this legislation which will really, in a sense, make something good come of your horrific experiences. And i have a family who is a constituent family in greenwich who suffered very tragically a loss that in some ways is reminiscent of yours, a loss that is still with them. George smith iv vanished, literally disappeared sometime overnight going into july 4th of nine years ago. He remains missing since 2005. There was blood on the ship when it went into a harbor. The crime scene was never secured, let alone adequately investigated. His death remains a mystery today. Much to the understandable consternation of his family. His death is with us still in connecticut. It is a grievous reminder that the rights of people who suffer as victims of crime while at sea are completely and inadequately protected, as miss dishman, you have reminded us so graphically. Thats the reason that these kinds of limitations on liability make a mockery of the implicit promises that are made to passengers on cruise ships, that they will be kept safe. Thats the minimal obligation that a cruise ship has to its passengers, to keep them safe. It cant guarantee that they will be happy, that they will always be celebratory, that the weather will always be good, but to keep them safe is a minimal obligation. In each one of your instances and examples, cruise ship failed in that basic obligation, and passengers were left without remedy. And without hope of Real Recovery and in your instance, ms. Butler, what happened to your mother may well have been avoidable and unnecessary in its ultimate consequence. You have my special sympathy in that regard. So we are really trying to impose minimal protection on cruise ships. Thats the purpose of the cruise ship passenger protection act. It imposes standards of decency, standards of minimal, basic decency and fair dealing on cruise ship lines. Id like to ask you ms. Butler whether you have taken legal action. I note in your testimony you consulted with an attorney, and he advised you as to where you had to file suit and some of the basics of the law in this area. I wonder whether you have taken any legal action. Yes, we have. Some attorneys have picked up our case. Has he indicated to you the obstacles because of death on the high seas, its literally david versus goliath. And were david. And passengers not unlike yourself are not only an island as the chairman indicated, passengers are not only on an island in high seas but its a lawless island. Exactly ms. Dishman, if i may ask you, have you taken any legal action . Yes, i did. Has your lawyer advised you as to obstacles that are in your way because of the inadequacy of the law . Yes, and i i experienced several different challenges and things that occurred in regards to my case. And ms. Ware and mr. Grisham, let me ask you the same question. I know youre an attorney. Let me ask if youve taken action on behalf of your client. Indeed i did. My clients case was settled for a handsome sum, i must say just recently. I would comment on ms. Butlers situation, i litigated a similar case for seven years regarding anoxic brain injury for a 36yearold third Year Medical Student from ohio, who collapsed on a treadmill on board the ship in the presence of a Fitness Center director, who took no steps at all to resuscitate her, and there was a factual dispute over the length of time she was down without any defibrillation, and there are International Treaties that require crew members to be trained in cpr. The position that the cruise lines take is the training is only advisory, theyre not required to use it, and its discretionary as to whether or not they want to use it and federal maritime law is that theyre not legally responsible if they dont use it. And they didnt use it in this case, and this young woman who a a brilliant career ahead of her essentially lives the life of a vegetable today, with no recovery. Thank you. Ms. Ware . Yes, i have taken legal action. And i did not know by sign ing that ticket i was giving up all my rights according to carnival for compensation. Mr. Chairman, again my thanks for having this hearing. Im going to ask that a letter from my connecticut colleague congressman heinz be entered into the record in support of this legislation, and that concludes my questioning. Im out of time, but i really want to thank you again for being here today. Thank you. Thank you, senator blumenthal. There are a lot of questions, a lot of questions. The you know, the thing that amazing me is you have a very profitable industry. They make a lot of money. They are very popular, but i think their popularity will continue to increase. Many people have a pleasant experience. They pay virtually no taxes in the United States, even though theyre based in miami and a couple other places. Everybody thinks theyre getting on an american ship, but theyre getting on a panamanian, or its always registered in some other country where there are no taxes and there is no sense of accountability or responsibility, and i say to myself why is it that they are so resistant to making some basic changes on things which are so obviously going to come back to haunt them . We understand that, you know, 90 plus or whatever of the whether its a 3,000person boat or a 6,000, and i think theyre now building them 6 to 7,000 passengers. Why, if you are making the money, you dont have to pay tax, you dont pay the coast guard for when they come to bail you out and drag you or when the fbi is involved, you dont pay them. They have a free ride. They make a lot of money. They have a very good future, so why not, as a matter of business sense forget humanity for the moment, but just as a matter of business sense, wouldnt they take steps to clear up some of these problems weve been talking about . I mean, i remember when my wife and i i had never done cpr, and our children were in high school. We went and took a lesson in cpr, which i got through, and i think probably three days later i couldnt have repeated what i did, because there wasnt a focus. There wasnt the same focus, because it was all something that might or might not happen. Why dont they make these voluntary make these things . Why dont they inform you . And on i remember ive said this a number of times in this committee, i come from a state with a lot of coal, and coal is a dangerous occupation, but its one where miners can be kept safe if you ventilate the mines and you Pay Attention s operators for the most part dont, they just get the coal out, and the miners take their losses and get black lung and die from black lung. But the Companies Continue to be profitable. I dont understand why the cruise industry doesnt spend the money to fix some of these problems, because it would inure to their benefit, and would protect them from people like me and senator blumenthal and other others who would make them do what they should be doing and force them to do they just push us away. They dont want to talk. They dont want to discuss, just like they didnt want to react to any of your situations. In modern society, if youre in bankruptcy, you know, that argues for not doing anything, but if youre not in bankruptcy, youre making a lot of money and these are really good people that you have, why wouldnt you do that . I simply dont understand that. That sense of frustration s. The sort of corporate mentality stuff youre from the federal government, dont do anything about this. What youre doing is talking about regulation. Well, yeah, we do regulation, and we did it on the airlines. When pilots were flying way over their limit of being alert and they had a big airplane crash in lackawanna, new york, wravr wherever that is. And a lot of people were killed. And the pilots had gone, you know, a long time without sleep. So we put on requirements. They have to have before they get on an airport to fly, they have to have an eighthour sleep. If they dont sleep, okay, they dont sleep, but they have to have that time to be able to sleep, with the time on each side to prepare and to get up from that. Thats not a if thats government running rough shod over an industry, that is just not true. Its just not true. Its common sense protection of passengers. The airlines are the safest thing you possibly can run on. You wouldnt know that Reading International news recently. You stay away from certain countries and airspaces, but i dont understand why they wont do it. So the one of the reasons weve had this hearing today and youve been patient enough to put up with it and answer questions and tell your stories, is to put certain colleagues on this committee in a position where they need to help. And one of our colleagues said, well, we should this is a separate bill and you shouldnt attach it to the coast guard bill. Everybody knows that the coast guard bill is a bill that youve got to pass. The cruise ships want the coast guard bill to pass. But if you separate them, the coast guard bill will pass, the cruise ship bill will get flushed down the toilet. So you dont allow that to happen. You hold them accountable. Its done in life, its done in business, its done in family situations. You have to take responsibility. So ive got a lot of questions here. But i dont feel the need to ask them, because most of them have been in part responded to. This whole idea of a hotel versus a city, you know. Its mystifying. When we had our last hearing, with the representative of clia, which is their lobbying organization, sat right where you are sitting ms. Ware. You may want to move, and just dismissed it all. Were doing everything we possibly can. People have a responsibility for their own safety. Well, thats true, but you know when General Motors is discovering that when certain things dont work, the entire nation gets interested, theyre pulled before congress and they have to end up paying a whole lot of money to change their ways and to learn how to run a company with the consumer in mind. Ill give you one final example. People often dismiss people who are trying to help consumers, protect consumers. This committee used to be kind of a commerce committee. It was more business oriented. Now we have tried to make it people oriented, consumer oriented, thats what its meant to be. I give you this just to contemplate, because it sounds so stupid, but it affects peoples lives directly. Its so nasty. People move, so they call a mover. Not in all cases, but in some cases the mover comes. And they sign a contract. They load all of their belongings onto the van. The mover goes five miles and goes into an alley and calls them up and says were going to triple your price. Sorry about that, were going to triple your price, you have to pay us three times than the contract you signed. You can go get a lawyer if you want, but youre not going to get your furniture back, because you dont know where we are. Its a horrible thing. You just dont let that stuff pass by so were making life more difficult for them and better for the consumers. I dont know. I mean you all made a trip, with good spirits, with good thoughts, with enthusiasm and ran into terrible problems, and there was nobody to help you. If you had been going on a little row boat, that would have been something, but you were going on a huge corporations ship who had all the experience and the wherewithal, the money, to solve your problems if you ran into them. But they just didnt. The tent city concept that you were talking about. I mean, thats famous throughout the world, because it was such a vile thing to do to people. Corporations have to be responsible. This committee exists, as do others in other areas to do over sight, to find out if they are carrying out their businesses properly, with care some mistakes can happen, we understand that, but when theres this attitude of just neglect and i was asking be hind me and im not sure of the answer, but i sort of remember the last hearing, that when you signed the ticket with that invisible print, that in many pages, you give away the liability and all the rest of it, your ability to have recourse, but i believe and if im wrong, but this is what i remember it was in the signing of the ticket. After your signature was on the ticket, it was then that you were able to not take, you know you were able to take the sticky covering of the next page which had that liability clause, which of course you werent going to look at and couldnt read it even if you decided you wanted to, and then you could see it, if you could see it. Its awful behavior, if it was true. Im not saying it was true. I remember that is the case, but i may be wrong. But i dont have to be right about that. Because what happened to you was just simply wrong in a modern society in corporations that are doing well, or are on the upswing and have every right to want to make people have a happy experience and make sure that they do. Everybody knows that not everything works out the way it should. There will be problems. You know, four days waiting, stranded, a mother who didnt get any attention, and a 15yearold girl who gets raped, in your own case. I mean, its just you dont let stuff like that pass. Particularly if it happens with a certain degree of consistency. So thats why weve had this hearing, and its all in the record. Everything you said is all in the record that bill, if were going to pass a coast guard bill, which i tell you those cruise lines want, because they need that coast guard, and our coast guard is so broke, it has ships that are very, very old, but theyre still functioning and still used by the cruise ship lines. The minority leader asking, why cant we do them separately . He had a very clear purpose for asking that question. He knew if we did it separately, the coast guard thing would pass, the cruise ship wouldnt. Its my job as chairman to make sure that we dont play the game that way. So i just want to totally thank you, one, talking about experiences that are not comfortable to talk about, doing so in a forthright way, for educating this panel, and believe me just because not all the members are here, a lot of the staff is, and its always the staff that really counts. If youve got good staff, youll be a good senator. If you dont, well so im not going to carry this hearing forward, because i think the points this need to be made have been made. Thats because you have made them clearly and with firmness and with certainty, and with a degree of anger, which i share. So wherever you have come from, go back safely. And i thank you. This hearing is adjourned. Thank you. What rough questions about what the framers had in mind. Questions about whether the activities that had been found out but the committee and the senate water Gate Committee were indeed impeachable. And thirdly can we prove Richard Nixon knew about them and even authorized them. Water gate, 40 years later. On the 10th anniversary of the 9 11 report. The Police Commission released on update on reform and how the department oversees the department of Homeland Security. Also describes threats from terrorism and Cyber Attacks. The Bipartisan Policy Center hosted a forum on the report and National Security. Including comments by the Homeland Security committee and the director of the National Intelligence. This is three hours. Thank you all so much for coming today. We appreciate you all being here. Im the director of the Homeland Security project at the Bipartisan Policy Center which is a non partisan, bipartisan think tank founded by four leaders, who today were here to celebrate the birthday of the 9 11 Commission Report but id be remiss if it wasnt also bob doles birthday. So were happy to celebrate that as well. On behalf id like to say thank you for coming. Were going to be hearing more from cathleen hal jamison. And they are team. My mother was killed on september 11, 2001. It was a bit of a different day for me and the other members, many of whom are here in the room. My mother was lost. Janice ashleys mother is here. Abraham scott who lost his wife is here. And for us the 9 11 Commission Report was a bit of an end of the journey, not just the beginning. For the members in the room, their journey started in early 20 2003. But for 911 families our journey started much sooner. I remember distinctly. I have a thing for dates. So it was january 30, 2002. And where he i was returning home to boston from d. C. Wed been fighting or i should say nicely, advocating on behalf of other family members with some lawmakers about issues relate to the Victim Compensation fund. And i was reading an article in the newspaper on the flight home. And the article said that president bush wanted to only have investigation into the intelligence failures surrounded 911, and not anything else. And i thought, i was just an average ordinary citizen who suddenly got caught up in a terrible tragedy, like so many others on september 11th. And i could understand why our government wouldnt want to investigate all that had happened simply to make sure that it never happened again. We fought for many months. Having an outdoor rally in june didnt immediately send off warning bells to us that it would be really warm. We had a number of lawmakers there and i remember watching them. They were just suffering in the heat and yet they were troopers. It was clear they knew what they were doing and they were there to support our call for independent investigation boo the attacks. Im sure we all remember many meetings with many members of congress, some went very well. Others not so well. Again, we were not experts in how washington worked. So when we were told no, our answer was well, why not . I remember distinctly having a conversation with one member of congress, where i said, well, i dont understand why you wont investigate my moms murder. If i pulled out a gun sp shot you right now that the police would do an investigation. That was a mistake. His staff got a little tense and i had to explain no im not saying im going to do that. We are just saying we dont understand what the difference is. I never did that one again. We had meetings in the white house, where with very high senior level officials who i dont think are used to be asked why not. They had to get used to that with us. And one of my favorite meetings, i know the other 9 11 family members will laugh about this when a number of congress hid in his office because he didnt want to talk to house and we told him he could hear him breathing behind the door. So that was the process. And you can imagine when we finally did create it it was signed into law the day before thanksgiving in 2002. And that was the beginning again. And this time we had to meet the commissioners. They were saying who are these people . And there are a few bumps along the way. But when we got introduced we knew we were in good hands. And of course we met the rest. Unfortunately bob kerry and john layman couldnt be with us today but they stand behind the report were releasing today. We knew we had a great team of people. And i have to say ten years ago and at the beginning of the 911 commission i never could have imagined id be standing here today and be so honored to introduce these remarkable americans, these individuals who not only came together 12 years ago to start their investigation into 911 and ten years ago to stand behind a unanimous report. But they are still here today. They still know it is their duty as citizens to do whatever they can do make our nation stronger and safer and more secure. And im honored to be able to introduce them all as they release that you are new report. With that im going to invite governor cane and congressman hamilton up to the stage to give a few remarks and well open it up for q and a. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Carolyn mack has been the spark plug for this whole thing. Thank you for everything you have done. So good morning and thank you all for oncoming this morning. Wore hear to mark the 10th anniversary of the 9 11 Commission Report. A document that led to major reforms in the way we do intelligence in the country. But we come together today to present to the public a new paper authored by all ten of our 9 11 commissioners. First i want to thank my cochairman lee hamilton and all the commissioners. Im sorry a couple of them were not able to be here today. But eight of the ten are here. And they are a Remarkable Group of people. Most Remarkable Group of people ive ever had the pleasure to work with. And all of ten of them agree by the way with five republicans, five democrats agree with every word in the report were presenting. A special thanks to the Bipartisan Policy Center. They are the home for our Homeland Security project for almost six years and grateful for their roles in making this whole report possible. Were grateful to Katherine Hall jamison of the policy center who generously supported had project and made important and substantive can contributions along the way. Those who helped in the drafting of the document and also other former 9 11 coalition staffers who voluntarily pitched in to make this report possible. We a also want to recognize, and carey already recognized it and we should talk about it a lot the contributions of the leaders and the families of 9 11. Were humble by every you have done and the fact that here you are once again today. We used to refer to you as the wind in our sails and ten years later you are here with us again and were very very grateful. Last fall we talked about how to observe the 10th anniversary. First how to get ourselves together and then the idea maybe we could do something useful. So we app all wanted to look back at our own work ten years ago. And there may be lessons which washington is poisoned by bipartisanship which allows us to do almost nothing somehow. We also believe very strongly that the one area where no partisanship should ever exist is in protecting this country. And where he have to have bipartisanship in that area. The paper released this morning is a result of 8 months of thinking and spirited conversation. To better inform us we reached out to many of our countries most senior Current National security officials. Everybody we reached out to was cooperative, helpful and frank and honest. And informative. We came away from that experience with renewed admiration for very dedicated public servants. We held separate conversation with each of the leaders and yet as you will see in our report we were instruct that there was a broad agreement among these leaders about what the current problems were facing the country and some of the solutions to attacking those problems. That is represented in our report. We hope we succeeded in doing our paper to amplify for the public what the Common Threads where and the consensus in the Intelligence Community on the problems. At this point id like to ask not just my cochairman in all the efforts but my close friend lee hamilton who was instrumental in every one of these efforts to talk for a minute and summarize what we learned, the key points of the paper and then were going to invite our floe commissioners answer questions. Lee. [ applause ] first part, the evolving threat. The second part talks about the policy challenges. The third part talks about the recommendations. A lot going into great detail. Ill hit the highlights in each of these areas. We begin by saying the government has done a good job, not a perfect job over the last ten years protecting us over terrorist attacks. Weve experienced tragedies like ft. Hood and the Boston Marathon bombings but not suffered anything at all like 9 11 and the magnitude of that attack. Our military and Intelligence Forces have done great damage to the afghanistan and the core that attacked us, killing Osama Bin Laden three years ago. These really are significant achievements. We are concerned, however, that attention is drifting to other matters, that the country may be suffering from a waning sense of urgency with respect to the terrorists attacks. Its imperative we guard against that. Despite our achievements, the threat of terrorism exists today. Al qaeda spinoffs that share its extreme ideology and hatred of the United States have proliferated and are now operational in more than 16 countries. Of great concern fanatical state of iraq and syria which conquered much of iraq slaughtering thousands along the way. Territory expands sanctuary for terrorists and increases the threat to the United States and the west. While that group is a growing threat over the last months and years, its accelerated advances suggests the world has become an even more dangerous place in the last few days and weeks dozens of americans and those of syrians traveled to join in the conflict of the danger is very real they may redirect their battlefield skills they have acquired and return to our shores to attack us. Al qaeda in Arabian Peninsula possesses advanced bomb making stills which have now been passed to extremists in syria and iraq. That poses a serious threat to us in particular commercial aviation. Homeland terrorism, lone wolves radicalized over the internet is another danger. While 9 11 recommendations centered on how to protect the country from terrorism, recent conversations with a large number of Security Leaders have highlighted another major threat to the country. That is, of course relentless Cyber Attacks from Foreign Countries and criminal elements. The vast stealing of intellectual property over the internet pose a huge National Security challenge. Our cyber defenses and strategy lag bin the threat we face. In the cyber realm. In the last 10 years scale of Government Data collection has boomed. Data collection and analysis are violation tools preventing terrorist attacks. But effective counterterrorism must be balanced against civil liberties. Vigorous oversight of collection activity by congress and the courts is urgently needed. It is the governments burden to explain to the public what is being done by the government and to persuade the public that the tools being utilized are absolutely necessary and that a balance is being struck between security and privacy. Congresss Committee Structure for overseeing Homeland Security continues to be dysfunctional. We use that word in the report. It was not originally our word. It came to us from members of congress in key positions. The splintered jurisdiction is episodic, inadequate and threatens our National Security. This dysfunction lasted far too long. Our friends at the Public Policy center and Justice Society of the Aspen Program have run in recent days this add in the newspaper giving you the flow chart, if you would, of oversight. Some 90 committees roughly had oversight over Homeland Security. That, of course, is completely unacceptable. On the Positive Side director of National Intelligence and National Counterintelligence center are ensuring various intelligence agencies Work Together. There has been improvement there. Thats progress. As tom noted, the report reflects on how we did our work a decade ago. Calls for bipartisanship often go unheeded. We hope that our reflections point in the direction of how our political leaders might come to agreement on the difficult terrorism challenge we face today and in the future. Surely our political leaders can forego their Political Polarization to better protect the United Nations and all americans. In many ways we are safer today than we were a decade ago, but the threat continues and is urgent. The generational struggle, which we referred to in our original report against terrorism has entered a new phase and the world is a remains a very dangerous place. We cannot let our guard down. Now i would like to turn to other members of the commission for any comments they would like to make, and i will call them as they are ready to proceed. Governor thompson at the end. Lee, thank you. Chairman kean, thank you. First id like to say that participating in the work of this commission has been one of the greatest honors of my public life. Not only the challenge we undertook but men and women who went to work on it as lee said in an extraordinary bipartisan fashion, which leads me sometimes to a sad place. Its appropriate were in washington today. As i think everyone on the stage would acknowledge, its almost embarrassing to contemplate that the congress of the United States that protected this nation since its birth cannot seem today to protect the American People to come together to enact those laws which everyone must conclude and which bear no partisan label. I accept that our nation is divided perhaps by party, perhaps by philosophy on issues like abortion and gay rights and taxation and highway programs and all of the other things which the congress deals but surely, surely there is no republican or democratic position making sure people who come to the United States with terrorist ambitions dont stay here and plot a Biometric Program who is here and harbors animus toward our nation. I dont understand that. I dont understand why the congress of the United States has not come together on the issue of Cyber Security as mentioned. Every american has either had an experience where they have been hacked or the people whom they deal have been hacked. We all had to change passwords or get a new credit card. If we havent experienced it personally, weve certainly read about it. Is there any reason in the world why the congress cannot enact comprehensive Cyber Security law to protect us not only from the criminal hackers but from the terrorist hackers. And from nations who give comfort. Id like to see the congress of the United States put aside the nonsense, appeals to the base, preening around and come together to protect this nation. That is the first obligation of government. The first obligation. Nothing else can be done for this country if we are not secure. And to this point the congress of the United States is failing us and failing us badly. Thank you, jim. Other commissioners . Tim roemer . Id like to say briefly three things. First of all id like to recognize the extraordinary leadership of tom kean and lee hamilton. From the very first meeting that we had on the 9 11 commission when they pledged to do virtually everything together, never appear on a tv show without the other one. There are lessons to the rest of us to the eight other commissioners were extraordinarily profound. That we had been attacked, that we had lost almost 3,000 of our citizens and we were going to get to the bottom of it and work across partisan lines and produce a report that would make america safer. All the way through lee and tom showed this great leadership for the commission and for our country. I also want to say to my fellow commissioner, ive been blessed with a lot of different opportunities to be serve our country. Whether its been in congress or overseas, i cant think of anything that has touched my heart, my soul, my brain, and learned more than from the people that ive worked with over the past 10 years. I salute you all. Thank you for your leadership for our country. Also i just want to recognize the 9 11 family members. The people who helped us create the 9 11 commission and look w the 9 11 commission and look into what happened and why. And if mary and carol and abe and carrie and all of you hadnt been there to hold people accountable, us accountable, our congress accountable, the white house accountable, we wouldnt be sitting here today. And we wouldnt be safer. And who knows if we would have been attacked again if it hadnt been for all of you getting on planes and trains and literally in the middle of the night and coming down to washington, d. C. From your homes in new york and connecticut and all over the country to help make our country safer by breaking down these barriers of partisanship and politics and campaigning rather than putting our National Security front and center. So i want to again thank these 9 11 family members that have made extraordinary contributions to our country. Second, i just want to say that the challenges that the United States of america faces today to understand, to be proactive and to be smart about the changes taking place in the world before we are attacked again is one of the most important lessons in our report. We have isis taking over large swaths of territory in the middle east, syria is an incubator for terrorist training and hatred around the world. People starting to come back from these training grounds into the United States, al qaeda now, pre9 11 they were in a few countries, now theyre in 16 countries around the world. This is a new dangerous phase that the United States of america is entering into. And so our congress, our white house, our policymakers must Work Together to understand these very significant challenges to the safety of the United States. Jim mentioned Cyber Security and how important that is. We have a litany of different areas that our policymakers must pay greater attention to. And last, as a former member of congress, someone who served in the great midwest for six terms, someone who believes that as our Founding Fathers called it the first branch of government. And sadly, today, its the last branch that people in our country are looking for to solve our problems. That cannot be the case as we see these challenges of cyber, of isis, of al qaeda poised and ready to attack our country again and possibly create another 9 11 type of attack. So we encourage congress, and well have a panel on this, to take this seriously, to reorganize the massive bureaucracy that they have on the department of Homeland Security that is bigger oversight today of what we have for oversight, i believe, for the department of defense. A 500 billion Defense Program with a smaller number of committees overseeing it than the department of Homeland Security where we have 92 different committees and subcommittees fragmented, dysfunctional and potentially destructive to our National Security. With that, again, i look forward to the question and answer and appreciate the opportunity to speak to everybody. Thank you, tim. Any other commissioners . Fred fielding. Let me just say one thing, and again, i hope that you get a sense of the pride that this group has because everyone always asks, how did you reach uninymity on your report when you looked at a committee that was bound to fail, splitting it evenly in an election year, how did that happen . And i think you can dpget a sen of how it happened by listening to the eloquence and warmth that comes from the members of this commission. This was a universally wonderful experience for all of us and certainly one that gave us a lot of pride and also was very, very rewarding. I want to mention one thing, because this happened before and it will happen again if i dont say this. And that is, the list that we have of recommendations as the list we gave before is not a list to pick from. These are things that each has its own individual importance and each cries out for resolution and study. And so as you look at our report as you did before, and look at the recommendations, we didnt do this just to fill the space. Every one of those is important. And again, to my fellow commissioners and to cochair, thank you for a wonderful experience. Sdplz thank y thank you, fred. Other commissioners . If not, we will proceed with the program. Thank you very much. Did you want to say a word, jamie . What . Questions from the audience . Okay. I thought you wanted to make a statement. Lets open it up for questions. Okay, well begin here, and please speak up into the microphone, if you would, please. Thank you, chairman. The in covering this issue for the last 10 years and watching identify yourself. Im sorry. J. J. Green, wpt National Security correspondent. In covering this issue for the last 10 years and watching how the world has changed since then, it occurs to me that in the last few years, things are happening faster. More things are happening faster. So the question that i have is based on a conversation that i had with general flynn from dia about a year or so ago when he told me that moores law doesnt apply anymore, the law of technology that says things change every two years, it seems as though its every two months. How does that affect the challenge thats facing the nations leaders in terms of protecting the u. S. Against these rapidly evolving threats like isis and others . And ill take the answer from anybody. Were going to proceed under rules which allow me to answer the easy questions and im going to give the tough questions out here. So well start with the commissioners here. Thats a tough question. Tom . The answer is you got to be more nimble than youve been before. Bureaucracies, any government bureaucracy is by the nature of that bureaucracy slow in action. Thats why its called a bureaucracy. You cant afford that anymore in Homeland Security. Youve really got to be nimble. The idea that when we wrote a 9 11 report 10 years ago, we didnt mention Cyber Security. Nobody even mentioned Cyber Security in our deliberations, as i remember. It was not a big problem. Now its a problem every Single Person we interviewed said should be right up front. And not only right up front but dealing with it properly. The world is dhachanging as we speak. We said in our report the most if a iraq became a failed state, it moves to the top. In the last few months, weve seen iraq become a failed state, basically, so it moves right to the top. Its constantly changing. In our congressional oversight, we have to be more nimble here than we are in almost any other area because its going to change all the time. There are new terrorist groups now that didnt even exist 10 years ago that weve got to be concerned about. There are new weapons weve got to be concerned about. There are new explosives weve got to be concerned about. The answer to your question is weve got to have our best and most Nimble Thinkers in this area of Homeland Security and theyve got to be willing to use what we call in our report imagination. There can be no more failures of the imagination. We have to get ahead of these guys, not behind them. Jamie . I would just add two points to toms very good answer. As fred said, we didnt present a menu of things that we think need to be done. We think all of them need to be done. And right up there is the reorganization of the oversight of our Homeland Security process. When i was general counsel at d. O. D. , the chairman of the joint chiefs was in a regular dialogue with the oversight committees in the house and the senate. Two of them. And the chairs and ranking members of those committees knew what he was thinking, and he knew what they were thinking. We dont have that with regard to Homeland Security. You couldnt do that if you wanted to. Well have an opportunity to talk to chairman mike mccall on the house side in a little while, but i think it is if you look at the chart that lee hamilton held up, it would be impossible to have a sense on
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