a quorum has now been established that a committee will come to order today we have a meeting to consider the following eight marriages h r thirty eight thirty seven the strengthening and updating resources and equipment act performance for preparedness grants act h r out there in and seventy eight the first responder anti terrorism training resources that house resolution twenty eight a resolution expressing the sense of the house that t s a should work to enhance the security of our nation's rail and mass transit line and h r thirty nine and sixty three the criminal investigative training restoration act r thirty two thirty nine and a bill to require the secretary of homeland security to report on the effects of more radio initiative has had on border security h r fifteen seventeen a bill to allow certain u s customs and border protection employees to be converted to a permanent appointment in the competitive service i now recognize myself to make an opening statement today are here to consider eight marriages that will enhance our nation's ability to respond at all levels of government to the terrorist threat taken together these bills touch air each and every community in the country and will enhance the department of homeland security's operation the first bill that we will consider is age thirty eight thirty seven a bill that seeks to end shoe that had a technical equipment purchased with homeland security grants fawns be maintained i want to command the gentle lady from ohio miss kilroy diligently working to produce this important legislation that will restore the most policy governing the use of  rant bombs on september twenty second thema inexpressibly announce that grantees could no longer use future homeland security grant monies to maintain and sustain vital homeland security equipment this represented a major about face on a long standing policy of allowing grantees to use these funds to pay for ongoing equipment maintenance costs in fact the famous grant guidance  disco years two thousand and eight and two thousand and nine encourage grantees to explain how they would use grant funding to sustain equipment that has been previously purchased in these tough economic times  policy change quick change risk putting critical national capabilities in jeopardy if grantees can now not use homeland security bonds to maintain debbi m d inoperable communications and other counterterrorism equipment to related bills that we will be considering today we're in to do by the chairman and ranking member of the emergency communications preparedness and response committe respectively eight thirty nine eighty as introduced by mr quayle would eliminate redundant grant and preparedness reporting requirements on state local and tribal governments reporting requirements and addressing some unfinished business from consideration of the transportation security administration authorization bill that we moved earlier this year specifically we will be considering h r thirty nine sixty three as introduced by mr long green which would allow federal air marshals to enhance their capabilities by receiving criminal investigative training and house resolution twenty eight introduced by mr jackson le light on the need for enhanced security in the rail and mass transit environment turning to border security eight fifteen seventeen introduced by mr angle and ranking member king w correct a longstanding classification problem among a small group of customs and border personnel that will hire the four would be the h s was created these thirty five people working overseas mostly in ireland arizona this kirkpatrick finally we will be considering h r twenty six eleven a bill introduced by ranking member must which would make those secure the cities program permanent to ensure from indiana to make an opening statement thank you mr chairman i'm filling in for ranking member kingwood last night conflict as announce consent that his statement be placed on the record today we are considering eight n controversial measures focused on expanding services and capabilities at the department of homeland security the bipartisan nature of this markup and inclusion of three republican bills h r thirty nine seventy eight by congressman rogers was an important technical problem related to the center for domestic preparedness is ability to accept donations of equipment and training h r thirty nine sixty two offered by congress and lundgren which reinstates criminal investigative training for the federal air marshals and h r twenty six eleven offered by ranking member king the permanently authorizes securing the cities initiative we're going into all the bills being considered today especially the bipartisan manner in which the markup was developed like to highlight three areas ripe for oversight and legislative action by this committee on the transfer of detainees held at guantanamo bay into the united states including the department of homeland security's role to an investigation into the shootings at fort hood especially focused on terrorist radicalization and three consideration of border security legislation as recently as last friday secretary napolitano gave a speech calling for amnesty legislation this committee has a responsibility to ensure our borders and immigration enforcement systems are secure and will be which is clearly a key part of that debate i look forward to working with the majority on these issues and passage of the bills being considered a thank you mr chairman that i'd like to remind the committee that other members may submit opening statements but the record i now call r thirty eight thirty seven of the bill was circulated in advance and printed copy two copies of ala bill without objection the first reading is dispensed with hearing no objection agreement with the ranking member of the committee will use a roster from amendments do in consideration of each of the measures reserving the right to object and i will not object that the chair to explain our agreement concerning them and be happy to  the committee will take up amendments in the order listed on the minimum roster if a member is not present to offer an amendment that is listed on the roster of the cio will allow the member to offer the amendment when the member returns to the extent practical and not prohibited by house or committed rule finally amendments that are not on the roster may be considered it after there has been opportunity for amendments on the roster to be offered to the extent practicable and not  the clerk will designate section one section one short title transparency of the homeland security grant program i introduced h r thirty eight thirty seven last month after the federal emergency management agency told state and local governments that they could not use fiscal year preparedness grants to keep vital homeland security equipment operation since its inception state local tribal and churchill governments have a homeland security grant program the state homeland security grant program in the urban areas security initiative to purchase highly technical equipment that is necessary to safeguard our communities a significant amount of homeland security equipment purchased with just requires expensive annual maintenance in order to remain operational since two thousand and two first responders have utilized these grants and we need them to be operational to keep our community safe until september had always allowed recipients to use subsequent grants to maintain that equipment in fact columbus ohio and my district expected seven hundred thirty five thousand other two thousand and nine grant to ward to sustain previous investment and in our committee hearing we heard from cathy crandall from the emergency management agency in my home county county ohio about the effects that it would have the detrimental effect this change would have on the maintaining of equipment that we made a substantial investment in i am frankly still puzzled why fema chose in september to reverse course and prohibit use or grants to being used for maintenance efforts restricting grantees in this way will have serious consequences in our homeland security positions you know in fact this change all the more inexplicable because in f y o eight o nine grant guidance encourage grantees to explain how they would use grant funding to maintain equipment that had previously been purchased certain local governments in this economy are not able to suddenly assume the maintenance costs and budget and we will lose critical homeland security's overnight if this policy stands capabilities at risk of being lost to reduce an ohio include interoperable communications chemical weapon detection systems and law enforcement information sharing networks new policy will not only weaken our homeland security capabilities will encourage government waste as state and local governments will be put in the position of buying new equipment  grants rather than spending a smaller amount to maintain the equipment that we have already purchased and invested in h r thirty eight thirty seven and the amendment the nature of a substitute i'm offering today will reverse the most policy and  w grant recipients to use preparedness grants to maintain quitman previously purchased with bhima grants based on additional stakeholder comment the substitute amendment offers some provisions that will increase transparency in the homeland security grant program first it would require state and local governments to include in their grant application the amount of funding they intend to allocate to maintain and sustain capabilities second the substitute amendment policy violates the nine eleven act and this committee ought to hear from fema before announcing a new grand policies that have important implications for our constituents reversing the u s policy has widespread support from homeland security and emergency management stakeholders the following seven groups all cosigned a letter to secretary napolitano opposing themas maintenance policy the national governors association the national association of counties national conference of state legislatures national league of cities u s conference of mayors council of state governments and the international council management association in addition the following have endorsed this legislation the international association of  national firefighters american public works association national police organizations and new york city mayor michael bloomberg i also want to mention that the national emergency management association who represents state emergency manager has also offered a statement to this committee in support of overturning the most policy mr chairman a listers objection i would like to insert these letters into the record mr chairman h r thirty eight thirty seven is commonsense bipartisan legislation and i thank you and thank chairman quaoar for advancing it to the full committee today and i hope that this is something that all of the members of this committee can support thank you and i yield back the balance of my time thank you very much without objection those exhibits will be entered into the record the committee will now consider amendments to amendment in the nature of a substitute as listed on the roster objection gentleman is recognized for five minutes and explain thanks thanks mr chairman in july of this year i was contacted by the northeast pennsylvania regional counterterrorism task force one for me that was preventing t few gates internal restrictions and broader concerns prevented the f b i from sharing the details of its bomb technician course material with as a result team refused to certify the f b i s training as sufficient and state and local and state local could not use grant funding to attend sharon i wrote a letter to administrators a few gates and his response to me that i would like to include in the record if i could without objection thank you for that and at the outset  approve this bomb technician course i also understand and support team his ability to have a significant voice on what training grant funding for and i think this amendment tries to balance those two objectives and concerns them is pretty simple and straightforward and it really doesn't cost any money by men it requires funding used to conduct training related to preventing preparing for protecting against and responding to acts of terrorism that are consistent with state homeland security plans are conducted by the department of justice will not have to be certified by  however the language would still get the final say of training provided the training provided no counterterrorism where was inconsistent with the state's homeland security plan the department of justice has taken the time to develop a curriculum and they have certified it is sufficient to certify a bomb technician and i see no reason why fema should also have to certify the course content some might argue that this is a little bit too broad i would argue it's probably not broad enough it would only apply to department of justice counterterrorism related courses there are other courses offered by other departments and agencies that are probably just as worthy whether the f b i and department of justice clearly have extensive counterterrorism expertise and i would not want them to be second strongly supported by state and local law enforcement officers agencies associations and unions across the country i know up in the northeast pennsylvania counterterrorism task force a very much want this adoption here day and reserve the balance of my time thank you very much claiming time in opposition to say too much to bad days you know staff has been working with you to work through this amendment and i see where we can work and resolve any outstanding issues on this amendment it makes sense one of our challenges is that theme at this point has the control of the purse and we are trying to work through that little challenge and if we can resolve that audit to the house with a favorable recommendation without objection the staff is authorized to make any technical income forming changes after consultation with the ranking member of the committee as a bipartisan agreement to adopt the remaining seven marriages notice to be considered by unanimous consent and now called up the remaining seven marriages notice be reported to the house as amended where appropriate with a favorable recommendation without objection staff is authorized to make any technical and come form in changes let  one i ask that members have two kalar days to filing clerk of the committee supplemental additional or minority views for each of the bills ordered reported by the committee today so the chair went out has already recognized the sponsors of the marriages and they have been given an opportunity to speak in a will submitted to the record without objection the statement from representative angles submitted to the committee in support of h r fifteen seventeen will be inserted into the record hearing no objections sought there being no for the business the committee stands a do