testing one two three  classification act of two thousand and seven introduced by miss harman h r six one three improving public access to documents act of two thousand and eight introduced by miss harm r five the homeland security open source information enhancement act of two thousand and seven introduced by mr palmer h r five five three one the next generation the radiation screening act of two thousand and seven introduced by ranking member of the committee mr king h r two hundred nine zero to require the secretary of homeland security to conduct a pilot program in the maritime environment for the biometric identification of suspected individuals including terrorists to enhance border security introduced by mr bill rocco's eighty five seven four three the scientific transformation through advance and research act introduced by dr browne eighty five one seven zero the department of homeland security component privacy officer act of two thousand and eight introduce mr carney h r six zero nine eight the personnel reimbursement for intelligence cooperation and has handsome and of homeland security act the price of homeland security act i now recognize myself to make an opening statement last week the house unanimously approved seven homeland security deals that this committee favorably report it each feels stood on its own as a valuable addition to h sation build it the house approved last spring that is still awaiting senate action today we will consider another batch of homeland security bills that tackle a diverse range of homeland security challenges and pleased that we have been able to work together in a bipartisan manner on these eleven wide ranging provisions we have legislation that will make the h s the gold standard in a fellow government when it comes to privacy cyber security and information sharing we have bills that will get d h s farther down the track on efforts to deploy next generation nuclear detection equipment and establish the march needed national bio and agro defense facilities we have bills to authorize two successful pilots one that involves the coast guard collecting biometrics from individuals into diktat at sea and the other that deploys nuclear detection equipment in our cities to provide another layer of defense we even have legislation to ensure that when the h s is building a fence for the anything else they build it with ste that is made in america the measure the measure was considered today we introduced by ten different members of which on this committee were truly blessed to have thoughtful members that have good ideas on how to make the h s better and america more secure to my colleagues on the committee i would say thank you i look forward to working with you in a bipartisan way on these marriages as they work their way t legislative process in light of the committee's desire to have each of the important measures notice for today's markup reported to and considered by the full house in a timely fashion and i'm exercising my authority on the one seven zero eight five five three one h r five seven four three and h r five three five each measure has been the subject of bipartisan negotiations prior to this markup i now recognize the ranking member of the full committee the gentleman from new york to make an opening statement mr chairman let me thank you for the spirit of cooperation that has prevail throughout this process as you said there are eleven bills say in the markup i think it's a tribute that there are no individual amendments on the roster of the on the amendments the nature of a substitute and that again shows extensive bipartisan work that has  and also to authorize the very successful secure the cities initiative which is extremely important areas such as new york and so i look forward to this hearing and again i think the fact that we are working together that there are no individual amendments the future of the committee that we we have an authorization bill to stake out our ground when we see other committees trying to cut into it and also so we can send a cohesive and coherent message to the department homeland security but having said that  record without objection that i also like to offer for the record a statement submitted by the lead sponsor of h r five nine three five representative of scott's case without objection  amendment thank you be happy to the committee will first take up amendments in order listed on the memmott roster if a member is not present often a member that is listed on the roster the chair will allow them but to offer the me when the member returns to the extent practicable and not prohibited by house are committed rules family members that are not on the roster may be offered after there has been opportunity for minutes on the roster to be offered to the extent practical and not prohibited by house or committee rules thank you for the explanation i withdraw my objection after consultation with ranking member of the committee that has a bipartisan agreement to adopt each of six one nine three h r three eight one five h r five five three one h r two four and i and zero eight five seven four three h r five one seven zero eight six zero nine eight and h r five nine three five these bills were circulated in advance without objection the reading dispense with without we recognize miss home and for a statement thank you mr chairman i'm sorry i was interrupted by staff and i i assume i'm being recognized to speak on behalf of several of the measures that correct  i apologize for being distracted let me let me first say that although it is a ranking member king said the jurisdiction of this committee is smaller than we would like our output is large  believe we are punching above our weight and i think a lot of the credit for that goes to you and your ability to work with ranking member king and to the ability of the subcommittees to function on a bipartisan basis and in that regard i'd like to single out my ranking reichert who has worked with me on the four bills that are on this list that are coming out of our subcommittee let me just speak to two of them right now and they are h r forty eight zero six and h r sixty one ninety three i am very pleased that we are taking up h r forty eight zero six the reducing overclassification act of two thousand and eight which passed out of our  subcommittee unanimously last week on a procedure very similar to the one we're adopting this morning and again i appreciate the collaborative approach of every member of the subcommittee h r forty eight zero six will promote accountability at the h s by making its employees and contractors use the classification regime the way it was intended to protect sensitive sources and methods not to hide embarrassing facts or protect their own turf it now includes language from ranking member king that i believe makes the legislation even stronger by requiring input from the i tag g and the and c t c into the production of d h s is on classified intelligence products and establishing new training requirements for d h s employees who have repeatedly failed to comply with classification policies again i thank the members for their support and think that by this by by by creating a gold standard in d h s for reducing overclassification which plagues the entire federal government we are asserting our jurisdiction and doing the responsible thing on a bipartisan basis let me turn to a h r sixty one ninety three the improving public access to documents act of two thousand and eight it parallels the effort in the bill i just mentioned h r forty eight zero six to remove obstacles to more and better information sharing this the white house's new controlled and classified information framework so called c u i framework and promises to bring order to the out of control use of sensitive but unclassified control markings at the department of homeland security new language offered by the ranking member and others has made the bill better by providing the public with a means to voice concerns about the framework's implementation encouraging v h s to voluntarily release to the public and classified information that is not exempt under the freedom of information act and including text guarantees the legislation will keep up with future c u i policies again i thank all members of this committee for the collaborative work on both bills and would note that at five p m yesterday some comments were received from v h s on these two bills i have not had a chance to read these comments thoroughly but would just like to assure  members in the public that we have a very careful hearing record which was the basis of developing these bills we had hours and hours of staff discussions and member discussions on how to make them better we did outreach to  a large number of groups that care about open government and care about effective information sharing with law enforcement and i believe our products are are excellent so while  these v h s comments are rather light and maybe a little less enthusiastic than some of us may like i would just i would just like to suggest that this committee knows what it's doing we're acting on a bipartisan basis and i surely hope that  soon we will report both of these bills favorably under our unanimous consent agreement and mr chairman i yield back the balance of my time and please note that the chair appreciate your support and introduction of the bill as you know we've already made a motion to approve the bills as favorably recommended those in favor say aye those opposed no one move that the committee authorized the cham and to offer such motions as may be necessary in the house to go to conference with the senate on the bills just ordered reported by the committee on similar senate bills