the committee on home land security will come to order the committee's meeting today to receive testimony from secretary janet napolitano on the president's f y twenty eleven budget requests for the department of homeland security and i want to thank secretary napolitano for being flexible about testifying in support of the president's fiscal year two thousand and eleven budget requests for the department of homeland security after back to back live it's forced us to postpone this hearing on february first president obama requested just over fifty six billion by the department of homeland security as part of his fiscal year two thousand and eleven budget request overall under the president's proposal department's budget is slated to increase by about three percent over last year's funding level given the current fiscal environment the president is to be commended for showing an ongoing commitment to enhancing our nation's preparedness response and rip coverage capabilities department's mission both homeland security and on homeland security who quiet budget requests that is far reaching and impacts the security of americans who travel by rail and see the capacity of communities to be prepare for and respond to terrorism and othe hazards including the threat posed by dangerous criminal aliens and the ability of our nation and operators of critical infrastructure to find innovative approaches to foster resilience in the face of it ever evolving terrorist threat in reviewing this budget request i am pleased to see that you tackled the issue over reliance on contractors and presenting a balance work for strategy since its inception in two thousand and three contracted dependence and stood in the way of d h as becoming the federal agency that congress and beers and the american people deserve madam secretary you would be commended for taking this challenge that post so many years went on addressed by your predecessors and for setting a goal of converting three thousand three hundred contractor positions to d h s positions by the end of this year this is a step in the right direction however given that the department relies on more than two hundred thousand contractors to operate a great deal of more work will need to be done to ensure that d h s moves away from an over reliance on contractors while i support the substance of most of this budget request i do have some concerns while i understand that reducing personnel at the u s border patrol in the u coast guard will bring short term savings to the department i am concerned that years of knowledge and expertise will be lost that they may be all resulting reduction in d  resource and capabilities to fulfill all its missions i am also greatly concerned about it seeks to consolidate a number of important free standing grant programs into the state homeland security grant program i worry that this consolidation will make it more difficult for local communities to receive much needed funding it also troubles me that the second year in a row that budget decreases funding for vital f responder grant programs yes to state and local communities struggling to maintain the capability again that have been achieved in recent years i'm particularly disappointed that centers of excellence and other university programs including the minority serving institutions program that d h s s support it since d h s was established would be cut by nearly twenty percent under this budget one last area that i strongly believe was not well served by this budget is maritime cargo screening i find it incredulous that this budget decreases funding for international cargo screening programs by  almost forty eight percent it's hard to believe that these programs which got short shifted by previous administrations are being voted down scale on the just budget when there has not been a single legislat proposal submitted to alter the statutory mandate on international cargo screening as you know on of the implementing recommendations of the nine eleven commission act the h s is responsible for ensuring that one hundred percent of the cargo that enters into the united states is scanned i just do not see how moving the few d n a test personnel that you have in the field targeting cargo for screening back to the u s gets you any closer to meeting the mandate that say it i look forward to working with you madam secretary to ensure that the department has the resources it needs to execute all its missions including to prevent and respond to the threat of terrorism thank you and i look forward to your testimony g a o now recognizes the ranking member of the full committee the gentleman from new york mr keen on opening state  also in a serious note let me thank you for offering to meet with the republican members of the committee on a regular basis i think it will go a long way toward resolving some issues that we have before they become major issues and also let us get the benefit of your thinking before we gone up two hundred thirteen million dollars two hundred million of that is allocated for security in the event that the trials are held in the united states so in effect there is no increase in the funding even though i believe the threats have agencies you can discuss that with us and how that approximates the two hundred million and without trying to sound overly partisan here another vice president said he thought the two hundred million that mayor bloomberg spoke about was an exaggerated number that turns out to be the number th rules opening statements may be submitted for the record again i welcome our witness today janet napolitano she was confirmed by the senate and sworn in on january twenty first two thousand and nine  request to congress madam secretary thank you for your service and for appearing before that this committee today without objection the witnesses for statement will be inserted in the record secretary  now recognize you to summarize your statement as close to five minutes as possible well thank you mr chairman and representative king and members of the committee it's a pleasure to be before you discuss the president's two thousand and eleven budget request for the department of homeland security i want to thank the committee for the strong support it has shown the department during my tenure as secretary i am glad to work with you as  we work to secure the american homeland and also to ensure that we have the resources we need and that they are put to use effectively and efficiently as noted president obama's budget for the dept department focuses our resources where they can be put to best use the two thousand live a budget request is fifty six point three billion dollars equates to more than a two percent increase over last year's funding and while we are always  focused on securing the american people we are also committed to exercising strong fiscal discipline making sure that we are investing in what what works while this budget will not go into effect until next october the events of the past month underscore the importance of the investments to our mission and to our ongoing activities the attempted attack on flight two fifty three on christmas was a powerful illustration that terrorists especially its affiliates will go to great lengths to try to defeat the security measures that have been put in place and september eleventh two thousand and one this is ministration is determined to thwart those plans to disrupt dismantle and terrorist networks by employing multiple layers of defense working in concert with one another to secure the country this effort involves not just the department of homeland security but many other federal agencies with responsibles related to the safety of the homeland and as president obama made clear the administration is also determined to find and fix the vulnerabilities in our systems that have allowed not just the christmas day bridge to occur but as we think forward proactively what could the next attempt what needs to be what needs to be done in advance of that we are working hand in hand across the federal government also on a number of other areas  more recent example would be the response to the catastrophic earthquake in haiti as the chairman noted this year we submitted our first quadrennial homeland security review this gives us a long distance vision and template for the homeland security enterprise and identifies five major mission areas for us the first is preventing terrorism and enhancing security the second is securing and managing our borders the third is smart and effective enforcement of our immigration laws the fourth and a new one is safeguarding and securing cyberspace and the fifth is ensuring resilience to disasters  let me briefly go through those with a budget highlights related to each one preventing terrorism and enhancing security the president's budget requests and hance is multiple layers of aviation security a critical  investment we want to accelerate the placement of advanced imaging technology machines the kind of machines that will increase our ability to detect nonmetallic explosives we also want to add to the federal air marshal service to train canine teams and behavior detection officers in our domestic airports while we work internationally across the globe increasing worldwide aviation security to secure and manage the borders the budget requests strengthens initiatives that have already resulted in concrete border security successes this past year we want to expand the border enforcement security task force teams the best teams they have helped increase of contraband across the border we want to continue to increase the use of intelligence for battling the drug cartels that are housed in mexico and so the budget contains additional monies for intelligence analysts that will be focused on those efforts we also have in the budget the monies necessary to protect the customs and border protection staff and levels and i want to pause there a moment there has been some confusion  we have delivered a clarifying document there is no cut to border patrol staffing contemplated in this budget and i think that needs to be made very very clear  addition we want to continue our efforts with respect to mexico just south of our border the city of or as is is one quite frankly where the rule of law has been  lost the fact that that is a bridge away from the united states should give us all pause we are working very closely with the federal government of mexico just met last week with the president of mexico the mexican federal police and others to make border wide that we make sure that border is secure as possible additionally in terms of enforcement administration of the nation's immigration laws the president's budget request bolsters critical initiatives such as our efforts to strengthen a verify which is our tools the tool we use to ensure that employers verify the legal presence of the workforce we also want to expand secure communities this is a program where we put access to immigration databases right in local jails and state prisons so that we proceed with immigration removal and deportation while someone is still incarcerated to safeguard and secure cyberspace the budget request includes a total funding level of three hundred seventy nine million dollars for our cyber security division in addition of the monies for the secret service for their investigation of cyber related crimes under this  chairman we have already been granted by the office personnel management the ability to hire up to one thousand cyber experts by director in authority over the next three years this is an effort that we need to proceed on with would do haste so that we have on the civilian side of cyber command just as we are developing the military side to ensure resilience to those asters the president's budget request includes an increased in support of the disaster relief fund one hundred and one hundred million dollars in pre disaster mitigation grants and support of state will and tribal governments to reduce the risks associated with disasters and finally  the budget includes increases that are attributable to our efforts to mature and strengthen the unity of the department continuing to build out saying elisabeth's as a consolidated headquarters continuing to consolidate leases so that we are not in more than four dozen locations around the district continuing to integrate the various legacy data systems and i t systems that came into the department when it was created that now need to be unified into one system are just several of the administrative functions here they're put in headquarters but they are designed to provide support and operational efficiency throughout all of the operating components mr chairman i have more detail that's contained in my complete statement which i ask be included in the record but i look forward to addressing the questions that you have posed that reparative king has posed at the other members might have thank you very much thank you very much for your testimony our him and each member that he or she will have five minutes to question the secretary i will now recognize myself for the first question e port and whole issue of screening and the vulnerabilities associated with not knowing what's coming into the contract was a real issue and we passed legislation this budget reflects a forty percent decrease in resources to do that explain that to the committee please requested for the container all things that didn't exist really at the time that's one hundred percent requirement was was contemplated so we have been addressing this from a risk base and a technology based approach to get to where we same as he is which is that one hundred percent requirement is not achievable by two thousand and twelve so we will need to work with the committee this year on what we are asking for how it will secure our ports and what statutory changes may need to be made so based on what you just said what's your best guess as to one hundred percent  screen cargo screening will be mr chairman i would like the opportunity to address with the committee if not today at some other time whether the hundred percent screening is really the way to go now that we know more than we did when the hundred percent screening requirement was imposed let me say it would benefit the relationship if that request would come before we read it in the paper that you can't do it i expect asians madam secretary is that if there's a law with deadlines on it and no problems please come talk to us but when we read about it in the newspaper that you're not going to do it direction toward satisfying one hundred percent mandate congress spec said the other issue is last year you talked about the issue sorry if you read about the hundreds in the paper i have testified on that before before in the senate and i think i also submitted some statements in that sorry but i think we need to further that dialogue because we need to look at what is the you to the ranking member for five minutes secretary on the issue of secure the cities and i've been through this before but the house as a number of times in separate votes overwhelmingly indicated support for this program i believe it's absolutely essential if we look at madrid if we look at london it's very likely the next attack against a major urban area is going to come from outside the ultimate nightmare would be a dirty bomb coming in new york city has set up to secure the city's nuclear that literally hundreds of millions in various programs because of that securing the city however was one small program relative to the to the to the denominator it going on as new york city actually even obligated the money they've already received that's in the pipeline or not our budgetary say they haven't given to understand that new york city believes it has somewhere there ought to be an agreement there but there is that but the more important point i think is that as a pilot program which it was a three year it has not yet now it is now time to be assessed independently  patrol was originally proposing we're taking this money to cover the fifty million dollars the problem is we get around twelve thirty today and we read it before that time  in the newspaper today it's one of the issues that we've been asking madam chair madam secretary that we're the oversight committee we would like to get before the media because when the media gets nothing against that was a that's a exchange has been going on with the appropriators and i will let staff work with your staff on it do you want that if the press picked up something that was going on back and forth with the appropriators i think that's explains that and that's traditionally how that's been done i think coast guard memo to which you refer internal draft option paper that goes all the way back to last november and before the president's budget was even finalized and not something that is operative nor is it where the president nor i believe the coast guard should  contract i don't have a problem gets contractors but i have some sort of balance my only thing is that if you provide performance and oversight of performance measures to make sure that we're measuring that i'm hoping that that is applying to those together so quickly given all of the missions that it had and then were added to it in order to move quickly enough the use of contractors was what was required what the department has not had is a plan in place to convert those positions into federal employees and that is what we are now pursuing through the balance workforce initiative a problem we have in speeding that up and i would like  mr chairman the pure length of time that it takes to onboard a federal employee under the current statutes rules and regs that govern civilian employment it's something th rapidly as possible my time is up but just whatever you do working with mexico i know you were there and i want to congratulate you keep up the good work i think we need to do a little bit more we might have to look at my opinion i made up two point zero because are i know you can categorize them you can do whatever you want but based on what most acquire are saying we need to know are these professional people these clerical people  d particularly under your situation with your ankle and i just have a few questions for you today but first let me discuss an issue near and dear to the hearts of my fellow pennsylvanians and secretary i cannot support and i in fact i will vehemently oppose any attempt by the administration to relocate guantanamo terror detainees to the commonwealth of pennsylvania whether for detention or for prosecution especially given the flight ninety shanksville pennsylvania on nine eleven having recently visited the get no facilities i see absolutely no reason why these trials must help in this country in the united states let alone in the commonwealth of pennsylvania i'll do everything within my power to prevent the trick detainee trials from being held within the commonwealth please please encourage the justice department to look elsewhere and certainly i i don't believe that's in their core please convey that message that being said i have a i have some issues john salmon from t s a was working with industry to redefine those requirements to ensure that they were smart sensible and most importantly enforceable in light of the austin texas incident can you please tell me  take another look at the rule in light of what happened just to make sure that we're making the right judgments in terms of what security measures should be in place for what size of aircraft thank you i've long been a proponent of using these advanced imaging technology or whole body imaging and i know that you've been supportive as well for improving our passenger security screening capabilities and i appreciate the investment this budget proposes in these  state of the art technologies however and even if we had these five hundred new machines in place they wouldn't stop i'll do more tolerant killing three hundred people on christmas day he was from almost killing three hundred people and he was he was screened overseas and well i understand you've been working with the international civil aviation organization to strengthen these international security standards are you willing to go it alone and require tougher security standards for flights entering the united in terms of information collection in terms of sharing information about passengers passenger vetting and in terms of airport screening and security itself so that is going very well will be in tokyo prior to aircrafts entry into the u s department and t s a made it quite clear that they will not be able to meet the statutory requirements since the law requires you to sure that one hundred percent of all air cargo is screen little bit individually on that but let me just say by the end of the year we should meet that hundred percent requirement on the air bound cargo foreign and foreign born we will by this by this  subcommittee concerned about it we felt a lot of hearing a number of briefings and i was really pleased to see the final product come out although i think there's probably some detail that's missing now i know that you're going to issue fairly soon sometime between the end of march in the beginning of april or the middle of april you should have the burger ok that's pushed a bit from what i was told earlier but sort of the end of march p i'm not sure i understand the question representative you need to do that you can do the next one exactly ok i apologize i didn't understand the question and i think it may be something that we look at in the two thousand and twelve budget ok kind of disconnect ok good i want to switch gears here slightly as you know it yesterday's budget hearing in the senate homeland security committee the ranking member stated that the specter general was unable to submit inability or his ability to carry out possibilities of his office unquote like many other offices elijah's budget was flat lined for f y two thousand and one or you are requesting one hundred twenty nine million dollars and according to the i g reform act your budget request must include comments from the office about the resource needs and those such comments were furnished for the two thousand and eleven budget you know why that happened to explain  when they don't go through us in that regard are they supposed to go through in that regard i don't think so i want to read you an e mail that we received this morning in my district office and they forwarded to me before i came on congressman carney i'm very happy to know that you support the work of the border patrol in for tailing illegal immigration for this reason i feel compelled to write you about a matter that my son recently spoke to my husband and i about my son is a border patrol agent stationed in tucson arizona has told us that funding for the patrol has been cut and as a result vehicles and equipment are not being maintained overtime is being cut an adequate manpower to provide backup and cover the vast to rain is not available as his parents are concerned for his safety while on the job as an agent who loves his job however my son's concern is that areas are highly misinformed i know that tucson sector like the back of my hand i worked that tucson sector since one nine hundred ninety three we have increased every possible resource there manpower equipment we built a new be happy to give you some direct numbers just on the tucson sector but i would be happy to write them on it myself if you would like sure i may take you up on that offer thanks but i'm i'm fairly familiar with the sector as well and  we have some issues of course with p twenty eight and the fencing and things like that and we can address perhaps the next round of questions i yield back thank you very much now recognizes gentleman from texas mr smith thank you mr chairman  let's go to the subject of work site enforcement today in the united states there are fifteen million people who are out of work they and their families are hurting greatly yet at the same time we have about seven million people in the country who are working here illegally if we were do jest force the current immigration laws on the books we might cut unemployment in half when i think about the impact that could have on our country if we didn't force laws and cut that unemployment rate and have you have the opportunity to be a national heroine by enforcing the laws and let me give you some facts about what i perceive as a lack of enforcement in the area of administration ministre to arrest are down sixty eight percent criminal arrest down sixty percent criminal indictments down fifty eight percent and criminal convictions down sixty three percent in all those categories arrest indictments convictions they're all down fifty eight to sixty eight percent all in one year that's quite a record my question is why don't we enforce immigration laws and create more jobs for unemployed americans well representative smith let me just say that i believe that in forc nation's immigration laws is not only important but particularly when we have an unemployment rate in a country the way we do to make sure that we have affected work site enforcement so let me describe how we've gone about it why we have you here to ask for my are substantially record numbers we can bring more but let me concede that audits are up notices of intent to find by the way notice of intent even when they are find the companies consider just the cost of doing business if you want to reduce the to verify legal residency before you even begin employment we have record numbers of criminal alien removal in this country record numbers of criminal alien arrests in this country more than any other year prior making sure that we comply with the immigration laws we will continue to do i'm not hearing that i don't think many of those criminal aliens were work site enforcement cases i'm talking about individuals who are working illegally in the country and if we were to enforce our immigration laws we could free up those positions for a lot of unemployed americans let me go to u s visit as you know we have a budget this year proposed by the administration that did not request a single dollar for the u s visit exit side of the program to have an exit system the administration does not have any money for that except for the biometric exit system why aren't they interested in reducing the forty percent number of the people who are in the country illegally you can't do it unless you know who they was an increase if you're going to increase the money for us next there's fifty million dollars that it's been on allocated that we are carrying forward for us does it let's let's hope you have them at the program if you're serious about addressing that problem my last question is a follow up to the ranking members question a while ago when he asked you what other cities were being considered as locations to try to get he responded by saying the d o j was assessing it but his question was what other cities are being considered not who  assessing it and let's stipulate that no decision has been made as to which city but surely you know what cities are being considered and on behalf of the american people i'd like to ask what are those cities represent and i'm not privy to that information right now intelligently your proposal that t s a receive seven hundred million dollars to purchase and deploy the new technology is it would be important at least at least for me to know whether t plans to or has prepared a risk assessment and cost benefit analysis with performance measures to support the decision to support the deploy these technolog ways first of all yes we are using risk assessment yes we are employing performance metrics and as part of our efforts now actually the s and t directorate of the department is there any kind of way that we can convince the public with factual information that the machines are not storing images and that we won't see them the current iteration of the technology doesn't really even show up at all it really is designed to ascertain anomalies that can be further looked at through secondary inspection secondly the reader isn't even where the person from the newspaper pictures of the image they use a very old first generation version of what actually shows up the technology now has really mitigated the privacy concerns so  hopefully we can work with you but also with the committee too because i do think it's a very important vestment for the country to make to to have satisfy people that this is this is not designed to be anything other than an objectively better way to protect people on an aircraft my final question and i agree with you but you know people are concerned nonetheless and then we have a religious group that is also concerned about it because of their own religious beliefs which i respect but i wonder if we reduce the paranoia of the skepticism particular issue but remember a passenger always has the alternative of going through the magnetometer with the possibility of a pat down and they'd have to do that anyway if they were trying to get on a plane that option is screen basically just states the fundamental problem we have we have six thousand miles of border patrol says we have nine hundred thirty six under control meaning we have five thousand and sixty four that isn't under control basically we have less than fifteen percent under control and this is a fifteen percent safety standard i mean it's something i'm sure the car companies would like and i'm not sure why car companies safety standards should be different than our standards on terrorism if we could put our second flight up believe that you were provided with copies of those as well this is extremely troubling discuss the border patrol agents in a minute but no increase for c officers a reduction aaron marine addiction pilots no new hard fans saying no expansion of the virtual fence no additional detention bed space it seems like you're going backwards rather than forwards even though we're less than fifteen percent now i heard you say and explain earlier the minority has not received any confirmation that you changed your budget perhaps we should read the post more closely but we didn't receive any e mails that at least that would mean if you're reversing yourself on the cuts that you have a freeze but when you only have less than fifteen percent covered it's not clear why we would even be having a freeze i think the american people would say if we're going to spend money this is one of the places we want the money spent that you can't really control our borders state by state and if we could go to the last slide i think it's extremely telling that the figures in this graph which came the lines hard to see they're basically at and i think you have a copy  basically after two thousand and eight it stopped a corner of the border patrol once we received the hard fans and the electronic fans in two thousand and ten there was nothing in two thousand and eleven nothing to expand it and you have nope future plans that show you intend to expand it no vision that stated for how you're going to do it you're doing best teams and that's good and nice teams and we have a few things in the air but as far as functional control of the border which leads to contraband in people in contraband and people can be terrorists it can be narcotics it can be illegal immigration but it's base contraband people affected control not just c m but effective control so is your testimony but this budget is sufficient and we'll increase control of the the borders and move us towards control are you saying that having forty three hundred miles not under control is it except of all do you think that our border is still vulnerable and do you believe that  smartly efficiently and that a contract on a concept that was two years ago has been plagued with troubles from day one it has never met a deadline it hasn't met its operational capacities and it doesn't give us what we need to have we will complete the first phase of it but i don't think it would be it's possible to come to this committee and say based on the performance and the difficulties we've had setting up the first phase that we should do it all around the border the monies in the budget for technology that are border related are things like mobile imaging technology and the like which are more facile which are easily maintained which are more operable by a national border patrol agent we want that in the in your answer and i understand the f b i now is being used in the evening the border patrol is still going through the tests and they're relatively happy with the tests you've outlined nolle not a single mile of additional control you're basically say oh well we're not cutting back we're doing some consolidation but we're not cutting back your vision was for partial tracking are you saying that they'll be additional miles under functional control somewhere in this administration says we're going to years without additional mile being added what you're saying is you're finishing the bush proposals which were two years old but are there is going to be another mile done of this part that isn't done are you saying you're going to function patrol the border patrol says will be no additional miles a bunch of control do you agree with that i don't know where that statement came from and i would i would and i'm not going to debate a statement i haven't seen the source or whatever but let me tell you this the southern border is important to us it's important for any number of reasons as is the northern border we keep expanding control we have for example with the phones in the recovery act been able to add funding and improvements and technology both at the particularly at the northern border a lot of that number you're talking to is really the northern border the southern border we're completing the tactical sense you appropriated money for the technology is going to be there the man if you look at numbers and if you want to look at numbers look at numbers in terms of illegal immigrants look at numbers  does that signal of a lessening of commitment to use f b i net or any other kind of technology along the border and that's what i was trying to clarify with representative shooter look that's a big investment there's a lot types of technology being used at the border we think it deserves and merits thank you i'm going to switch direction here a little bit and talk about your fifth mission which is ensuring resilience to disasters  recently had a heavy winter storm in northern arizona and about a week ago i visited with folks on the navajo nation to talk with people first responders and we met in an emergency command center that was set up in the community to help folks through and i want to hear from them firsthand what worked and what didn't it was very apparent that they the grit and the guts of the law people really pulled them through the disaster and thankfully there were no casualties but the concerns  about what didn't need are in four areas the first one is communication communication just did not work did not work between the national guard fema the local first responders it just fell apart and in numerous ways and in need i can get you more detail on that the second thing was that it's evident that he needs to be more training in the rural areas regarding emergency relief efforts there was also a lack of collaboration between the various units so in other words it looks like like fema didn't know what national guard was doing they didn't know what local communities were were doing a real breakdown in collaboration and i'll just give you one example they were taking food out of bin choice with a national guard trucks to communities but they couldn't take a for the livestock so if there was some kind of regulation they couldn't have a and food on the same truck so that's just one example the last thing that was really interesting is they brought up to me they think they think there needs to be training regarding cultural sensitivity with the federal agencies who might be the responding that there was seemed to be a whole lack of understanding of the local culture so if it is there any funding in this budget that you think could be directed to address some of those needs well first of all represented what i would suggest first of all i will take those suggestions back to the director of fema and have him look at this situation directly with respect to coordination with the national  guard that should be occurring and there should be an er operability i have some familiarity with those individuals so i don't know what broke down there have been joint exercises and indeed in responding to forest fires up in northern arizona that that has happened almost without a hitch and very smoothly so i think we need to troubleshoot this one in particular and say well what happened here that doesn't normally happen during forest fire season northern arizona where fema and the national guard work together hand in hand and have in our operability and have things for example i know the national guard has and has the accessibility to patch trucks that can be used to patch different types of radio decides to to go off half cocked he should consult with you and your counterparts in national intelligence before making decisions you don't have the option of that but i hope you've explained that to him and the president secondly right after that  attempted attack one of the co chairs of the nine eleven commission lee hamilton came out and reminded us that it is time for the congress and the administration to use the political will to follow through on the last major recommendation which was consolidating jurisdiction for homeland security in this committee it's going to be a tough political left but i hope you will urge the speaker and the majority leader in the senate this time to do it  having to come up here to eighty six different committees and subcommittees is just absolutely indefensible and is causing problems for the department for direction and goals and that but and to that and i would like to offer for the record without objection mr chairman the two letters that we have sent to the secretary and leader to speaker pelosi urging that consolidation without objection thank you one talked about the budget all in all i'm pretty pleased i want to thank you c d p center for better fairness you've  adequately funded them to put some money for my units and it was critically needed at that facility in a noble hospital training facility there we train health care professionals to be prepared to respond after a natural major disaster but one thing that i am concerned about was the elimination of what appears to be the elimination of chief beckner officer dr mcginn has been sent out to north carolina and i understand that position is not going to be failed they're just going to consolidate that with the director of of food veterinarian call it director of food veterinarian animals if he wants to and she very novice are but we want to make sure that somebody has those responsibilities go in forward to make sure we're protected against those the risks and then the thing i want to talk to you most about those i want to applaud you i have been for years advocating higher use of canine assets for people screening your predecessors have given it lip service and you put some real money and they are and you are to be commended for the seventy one million dollars this program and i'm not going to go into detail here i do want the members to get a briefing like i did later but the coverage we're going to have my request to you is that while you're doing this this is going to give us two hundred seventy five additional teams a year out there we need to we need to plus that a i would urge you that while you're doing it do it rot instead of making seventy one million make it one hundred million have a second location so we can get about six hundred dollars a year of teams a year out into the field that would get us in five or six years to where we have more complete coverage of the four hundred thirty airports that we've got to be concerned about at the level we're at now would be ten or twelve years and that's not acceptable so i would urge you to consider going really help him well that the things that i told the other members were talking about a new technology for weight technology where the dog doesn't have to sniff the person you just walk by and that would be very helpful at our airports were people who before they go through technical screening can just walk by these canines in the christmas day bomber would not get on that plane if we had like one of those time has expired channel recognizes only from new jersey five minutes must pas oversight here i think it's critical to defending america secondly you testified last year after age hand that you are going to take a specific look at the bureaucracy that you heard one of our good friend from alabama talk about asher the question is then you assured the committee that you were going to address the issue of bureaucracy because we have bureaucracy you have less accountability you saw that in the december twenty fifth episode where we'll push jake was the main question and we realize that the h s is the consumer of intelligence and is not the vehicle fact of the matter is that we don't know who to hold accountable because this bureaucracy is growing and becoming worse and worse tell me one instance that you recommended to watch in one year where you wanted us to be of assistance to you and we thank you for your service to your country want to be helpful i can't recall it but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened give me one instance sure give me one instance where you recommended to this committee that we assist you in breaking through the pre rock receive the department that you have a question mark well i don't know  exactly where your question is headed by i will tell you now where exactly i mean i can't be more direct than that madam secretary well i want to be helpful we're not asking the questions we're not making the comments here because you want to give you more work we want to give you less work you just testified just morning before appropriations committee if you want to continue to go crazy continue if you want to be going to committee managed get to knew you were asked a year ago we wanted to be helpful you ignored us because i haven't seen any recommendations on your part now tell me where i'm wrong and i apologize well i think you are wrong in a number of ways answer i believe that the department and this committee need to have more not less communication we are endeavoring to do that both on the democratic side and on the republican side we have endeavored to provide you every bit of information that you have asked for we have asked the congress for the ability to get administrative resources which are called bureaucracy but are in essence the ability to  have the infrastructure necessary to run what is now the third largest department the government i'd love to talk about that we we've had a year i'm not incorrect the department is incorrect this committee stands to be helpful to you and it has not been given that opportunity the second issue i appreciate the difficulty of your job anybody who sits in that position i think you prepared to have to create a budget that meets all the needs of the we understand that we deal with this every day and every with every department i'm satisfied with the budget especially especially the necessary increase in funding to boost aviation security you wanted to that i believe we need that's the money however i'm greatly dismayed and a dish heard that but a second year in a row this should ministration has decided to cut critical fire grants program that provides equipment and training to our firefighters this year's decided to cut the safer program as well which helps maintain staffing levels in our nation's firehouse overall these two programs hav hundred million dollars which is twenty five percent less than we passed in fiscal year two thousand and ten at a time when we're still finding our way out of the deep recession those towns can't afford to do it on their own minister powers are being forced to slash public safety budgets every day this is exactly the wrong time to cut vital grants programs they're necessary they were necessary before nine eleven before before nine eleven is when we started the program and they're necessary today in fact there's three to four billion dollars of applications in those programs every year secondly i was extremely surprised to see that the budget calls for four standalone grant programs to just be folded into the large state homeland security grant program look i know the gal i was a mayor of a city wants to very interesting way to hide what you really want to do create one hundred night congress in order to support our first responders this looks like a way to do a back door cause of these problems there be no way to compare it if you fold that into the larger program i think that this is well listening to mayors and governors one of the things they asked of me last year was to reduce the amount of grant applications and grant reports that they had to do they wanted more flexibility they wanted the ability grant funding for things like sustaining and maintaining as compared to having to buy new equipment all the time in order to achieve grant funding the proposal this year vulnerable and the devastation from a was a very small plane was really highly destructive i walked away thinking how could such a small plane almost bring down an entire federal building  it is a threat and i want to also commend the first responders because the loss of life could have been so much more severe than it actually was and my thoughts and prayers go out to the situation and helping the american people be safer another incident ironically just north of my district not too long ago fort hood went to the morial service i talked to the commander general information was not shared with the base i asked general cone would you like to have had that information you had a major at your base you know he was in contact with a top al qaeda leader and yet they didn't know about that i find that to be really inexcusable and his question me was how many more hassan's are out there it's a d o d issue it's a j t t f issue but it's also when you talk about military bases in the united states it's a homeland security issues as well and i know you're smart enough to recognize that i do have a few budget questions but i want to ask you on that because we know al qaeda has targeted military installations fort dix is another good example what are you doing to ensure that the information sharing process is improved so we can prevent in this case fourteen individuals from being killed in the future without going into the fort hood situations pacifically but one of the things we have really been working on this past year is sharing intelligence state and local law enforcement about threats and threat streams that are within their jurisdictions so that they can be watching out for them our first responders particular eight hundred thousand or so police officers are a force multiplier way beyond whatever federal presence that we have  have greatly bolstered the fusion centers and i think you will see a lot of activity in that regard over the next year strengthening the standards there what really qualifies as a fusion center what that's designed to do  there is information for how there was information in the christmas bomber case there were flags being raised dots not only not being connected the dots not being acted upon that i think had been acted upon we could have avoided the fort hood tragedy and also  mentioned is probably one most violent cities in the world and mexico has suffered more killings than the iraq and afghanistan wars combined three programs that i saw one operation stone garden i mean you e in arizona it's been a very successful program and yet it's being cut from sixty to fifty million secondly the two eighty two eighty seven g program which is also been very successful is just come from your people on the ground and so if you could explain to me those three budgetary items because i think they would go a long ways in helping us better secure the border well number one was  to specifically on the bed request request is based on our national estimate about what we need there may be there needs to be some adjustment within that national number as you mentioned in your attorney general   problems and i want to thank you for not wasting any time on doing that few things that i want to bring up in some of the testimony that we heard from dr al bright in our science and tech committee who is from lawrence livermore highlighted the importance of the president's directive but went on to say this that explosives have long presented the most prevalent threat to transportation security to critical facilities and to individuals current events show that explosives continue to be the weapon of choice for terrorists worldwide the threat of all is evolving and increased access worldwide to the internet has provided the terrorists with information to manufacture homemade explosives using readily available chemicals explosives are very difficult detected some cases only trace evidence are available for sampling and both quantities of explosive matter must be detected in the presence of other potentially confusing but when i'm with cereals t s a officers only have a short time to visit to detect explosives and assess the situation if they are to maintain the flow of people and goods continuous and concentrated research and development is fundamental to understanding the threat and creating the tools that will give our nation the capability and needs to decrease our vulnerability we now know that there's progress being made in bringing technologies forward that will strengthen our capabilities and give our t s a agents the tools they need to prevent these major materials from moving forward the one concern that i have madam secretary is the commitment to  the investment to substantial investment in their seven hundred million dollars by my numbers correct with there are detectors to really around metals and i wanted to hear from you how we're going to move forward so that we were able to bring these technologies forward also deploy and get your ideas on if you feel that it's important that rather than a short term relationship with the n s a do you deal with homeland security if that should turn into a long term  relationship to make sure that we're working closer in that regard and also your thoughts on taking the whole system systematic approach and trying to understand the threats that we're going to see as opposed to reacting to same time we need to be thinking ahead so there's a reaction and a pro action that need to be happening simultaneously one of the ways this can occur is with greater use of science and technology that's why the president has directed that of our national homeland security framework and that then that we use that brain capacity we have in those national labs to a greater effect for homeland security mr chairman this is just one area that i hope that we can work on together with yourself with ranking member and with all members of the committee because when we look specifically at these relationships and what some of the brightest minds scientists physicists have to offer not only with their capabilities with tech transfer of commercialization with that means to creating jobs but also looking at problems like this where we have threats like this every day and i really wanted to highlight that mr chairman as as we began to look at this in a different way and think outside of the box where we can bring together the brightest minds that we have that we've made investments and modeling capabilities to simulation capabilities that lead to technologies that are going to make a difference as a people's lives is someone that i hope that we turn  security program when can i expect a response hopefully very soon we're trying to and greatly by and large moved to the point where we can respond to every congressional  a month ok very good i have a couple questions regarding that issue how many leads a issuing posts are there overseas currently with the state department yes state department i don't know the overall number ok how many of these locations can you tell me how many locations have a visa security units currently  high risk locations and then the state department has two hundred twenty locations and we have units and fourteen locations so the next question is on the current pace how long will it take an example of this was the christmas bomber i think that could have been prevented so you know and i understand that the budget recommendation is is flat for this year and that's unacceptable to me so if you can respond to recognizes joe later from california thank you mr chairman madam secretary i apologize to you but the intelligence authorization bill is on the house floor that this afternoon and that is why i was absent for much of  this conversation i did however hear your testimony and as you set out the five priorities for your agency the first one was counterterrorism i want to applaud that and recognize and  think agree with you that the homeland security department exists to protect the homeland and there is a large terrorist threat i have a question about that and one other i want to put them to you at the same time so that i observe my time limit on the subject of terrorism i think probably besides the technological corrections that we have already made since the christmas bomber problem  the other problem was the absence of sustained leadership focusing specifically on what could happen both to aircraft and other things but certainly sustained leadership at the top and so one question i have is what are you personally doing given your busy hugely busy life and and professional obligations to sustain your leadership on the terror threat my second question  capable exit visa system it's good to know when to have a secure visa entry program and we're doing better at that i believe but we still have not implemented our these exit program up to any reasonable by my light standards i was a member of the congressional commission on terrorism that existed between nine hundred ninety nine two thousand we predicted a major terror attack on the united states sadly we were right but one of the gaps we found in u s security was a capable exit visa system if people can come here legally and then get lost here that's an enormous phone so my two questions are  what sustained leadership are you personally giving to the terror huge terror threat against us and to what can we do to expedite an effective and fully developed exit visa system well thank you congresswoman i think two things one is that you are right to stay in leadership important here and it in a takes a number of forms one is making sure that we have a clear vision for the department that's reflected in the qasr which we really want from zero to sixty on this year the second is to make sure that we have a better integration of our intel and analysis in the department with other intelligence assets around the beltway and that we are doing a better job of connecting our internal analysis with information threat stream so that can be used by state and local law enforcement so very important around the country i think we've made great progress in that regard this year we are going to be continuing to push that issue the third is really focusing on sustained effort and i think somewhat creatively quite frankly on areas like department but they all blend together under the guise of guarding against terrorism and ensuring the security of the united states with respect to exits and exit visas we do have as someone noted before we have not requested new money there we have fifty million we're going to pull forward into this year for us exit that will be for the air environment the big problem and one that i have asked the science scientists and other others to number it was not one i was prepared to bring forward to the committee here well i thank you i just in twelve seconds urge you personally to keep asking about what your department is doing  a daily basis or a frequent basis to focus on the terror threats so that it's clear from the top how urgent that is and on the u s exit program i think we're going to have to step up and and write the checks because i think it is unacceptable to have the ability for people to come here and then get lost in our country and possibly cause harm against us i thank you mr chairman thank you very much gentleman from georgia present at important oversight hearings i hope that we can be assured that in the future you will be personally present at all these extremely important oversight he you admitted that the fort hood massacre was a terroristic to attack i think that admission is long overdue and in place so you finally go ahead and make that the mission madam secretary i have serious concerns about regarding how your department plans to use its resources and i'd like some clarification on some issues that i feel that the american people deserve to hear from you with the recent actions of the christmas day bomber and open intelligence opinions that al qaeda will most likely attempt to attack a homeland within the next six months is no apparent now than ever that our enemies will stop at nothing to attack us we must work even harder to stop them this have as i've said before here in this community the marine corps teaches that you must know your enemy to defeat them many brave americans work hard to pinpoint a debt of those who wish us harm is foolish for this other federal agencies tasked with protecting our homeland and our country to ignore the hardworking waste of our resources but i'd like to say from this department is great effective it is at collecting and sharing vital information on those who are most likely to attack us whether that information comes from my intelligence agencies global partners who serve as our first l defense closing these gaps in our human intelligence and informational net works is absolutely essential one way to be one way would for the us to focus our attention on those people  countries that we know will try to attack us time wasted screening a grandmother in the mid eighty's our ten year old on vacation with his family could better be used in screening individuals who are coming from somewhere who are more likely to produce known enemies to our country and who want to harm us and destroy this nation and everything that we are founded upon you stated in your testimony that you in this administration mean to find and fix us security vulnerabilities and i really trust that that is so and i look forward for you going on to do so you really madam secretary what i've suggested could prove more effective than our current methods in what respect in focusing upon the countries and the end of a jewels and groups of individuals who are most likely to be those individuals who want to do us harm  doing things on a risk or intel based way obviously is something that we endeavor to do across the federal government when you're talking about the travel environment i think it's important to add to that a certain amount of unpredictable random random mass which disables a terrorist from being able to predict with certainty whether they will be subject to a secondary screening or the like so it's intel based but there's also the greater algorithms of random as my dad used that phrase to add on to that to defeat predictability certainly agree with that we cannot there's no such thing as one hundred percent  safety one hundred percent certainty but i think particularly limited resources that it's very important to focus upon those nations and those people groups who we know want to do us harm there may be other individuals other people groups maybe even homegrown terrorists that we've got folks fund but we do know without question that there are those and i encourage you to hope that you will utilize your very limited resources because we in the federal government out of money we don't have money and we're still in our grandchildren's future by creating huge amounts of debt but homeland security is one of the and national security is is the primary focus of the constitution for the federal government and so focusing upon those individuals those countries those groups of people that we know the greatest preponderance of individuals who want to do this harm come from those areas i hope that you will really focus upon them with random screening and other things and understand the problems that you face but i just encourage you to to consider that all the other additional methods that could be deployed deployed in defense of our homeland that will close vulnerabilities well i think several one is already mentioned at random aspect to all of this in other words we're not doing the same thing at every airport across the country why because we don't want there to be predictability i think  i think there is a huge untapped role for science and technology here that we should pursue and i already mentioned i would represent look on working with in particular the national labs i  think there we can do more and then certainly make sure that across the global environment we have increased information collection and sharing to the maximum extent that we can working with our when you talk about looking at some of the work that the labs have done there are also other ways of looking at how we can address the threats of radiological biological chemical and nuclear weapons and i hope that we will get some finding from the securing the cities model that could be something that can be help with the for the rest of the nation we're all very used to the explosive unfortunately become used to  explosive event that we've witnessed in ninety three in new york and then again in two thousand but there are other very you just meaningful threats to us that we're a nation you'll give that your highest consideration now is one of the just let you know how pleased i am that the budget acknowledges the ongoing real possibility of a cyber attack this budget request three hundred seventy nine million for national cyber security division and ten million for the national cybersecurity center and i know that you touch on this in your testimony but can you elaborate a little bit more on how this funding will be used to cybersecurity capability well it's a number of ways and perhaps one of the things to suggest to this committee is a classified briefing on all of the efforts on cyber at a certain point in time  but it is it is deployment of prevention and attention technology it is working to secure the dot gov domains it is working with the private sector on the dot org and the dot but i will share with you congresswoman one of our greatest challenges of this committee would ask me what are some of the greatest challenges i would say one of them is getting enough cyber experts into federal service to really work on the civilian side of cyber correct i think that we have to come up with those of us who are enough of a certain age about the realities of the technology around and the young people who are very agile with it and their attention span at the bet it will blow this well if we can demonstrate how woodward it is to get young people with that expertise that talent and maybe not so young people but people who are needed enough in the technology supporters of the water bill goal of improving the section performance but have but have been concerned with the performance of the school system as well as some of the testing over the years  security as you know you and i have had some conversations about that you've been very gracious with your time as has your deputy lute she's been great as well and but i just say that because coming from michigan northern border  so important to my region and i fully appreciative of what is going on in the southern border and the resources that have been necessary to address the drug cartels coming across the border cetera et cetera but i have to  back circle around here but to the stone garden grant and make my pitch for that our area just my immediate region since everyone's been somewhat procul talking about their region we have the ambassador bridge which is the busiest commercial artery in the northern  of our nation we have the windsor tunnel under that we have the blue water bridge which is the second busiest commercial artery on the northern tier and the only one that you can transit hazardous material there we have the c n rail tunnel which is a large israel entry into our nation there  immediately across the st clair river in sarnia we have the largest concentration of petrochemical plants i think in the hemisphere maybe next to new jersey but it's enormous along with the great lakes a number of unique dynamics is what i'm saying  and one of my counties was able to get a stone garden grant several years ago and now of course with the experience don't garden southern border get fifty nine percent no weight and zero nine it was eighty four percent and ten it's one hundred percent and now according to the the budget here they're not even eligible northern border can't even apply for these and i'm appreciative as i say you have to shift the resources where you think are necessary but to go to zero seems rather extreme to me and we need some available northern region and the bulk of the arrow money that was appropriated for ports went to the northern border ports and technology at those ports and improvements at those ports which go to some of the do revisit that because it really is a policy question and one thing with the stone garden grant is a force and i appreciate what you're standing go to the structure the grants for that stone garden really has been a far force multiplier for the locals which has really been such a fantastic  to whether it's a coast guard of the c b p or what have you that's my pitch on the stone gardens in regards to the f b i net and there's been a lot of talk about this today and i'm not sure what all has happened on the southern border with the f b i net but you know in the northern border sometimes may even do things i won't say better but different we actually have the net as you know in my district where you're standing up currently there's eleven towers that are being constructed we actually had a nice jam in my area and i took an airboat out to see the last  being constructed on sunday afternoon and our experience i think with f b i net is we're looking forward to this and we haven't had much problems and i think it's going to be completely turned over to the c p p in march so we're looking forward to a good experience  just my pitch on that since i have a limited amount of time there's been a lot of talk about the christmas day bomber as the representative from michigan where this airplane was coming down you might imagine it has been on the front page never fallen off the front of our newspapers everybody is totally engaged in the debate about whether or not the christmas day bomber should have gotten a court appointed tax payer funded attorneys not one but three in this case and i do know there's money put in here for the  s m perhaps trial in new york or wherever it's going to go i don't think there's any money that has been budgeted for the bomber who has already been arraigned in the federal building in downtown detroit and i guess i'm just looking for a little guidance on that what mean you cannot imagine how bad the economy is in mission again in detroit and what is the resources that we are now faced with and something that we're not too happy about to begin with but just from a budgetary standpoint do you have any comment on that and right now sitting here with you i don't know how that is to be apportioned or utilized but there was a recognition by the administration that there would be terrorism related trials in the united states in two thousand and eleven and would require additional security even in ten that's happening folks perhaps you could get back to me and find out any information about any budgetary relief for michigan for the detroit area for that and since you've been good with your time i' just very quickly also say the aaron marine wing of the great lakes northern border wing of the instead up itself or journal guard base in my district currently as we speak as well we are looking forward to a new avi u a b mission this year i know you've spoken about that we're never going to put f b i in it all the way around the northern or southern border or offense nor do we want to but i do think that this is a critical component of utilizing off the shelf hardware that's been so effective in theater and utilizing c b p and we're looking forward to that mission as well question i'd just make two comments i'd like to also have the record show that i share the concerns of the gentleman from new jersey about granting that the fire grants but calls nevada is in special session right now looking at ways  are the cities and nevada we really need that money and second if i can just go back to mister comment about looking for alternative ways to make us more secure creech air force bases in my district and i visited that way and knology but my question is in the wake of two thousand and eight there was a real focus on the problem with target and i think that was critical and i think the department increased its emphasis there explain what parts of the budget have some commitment to going back to that emphasis on the soft targets and i would also do that i've sent a letter a couple of weeks ago inviting you to come to las vegas and see that unique community we've and i madam secretary under stand in a tight fiscal environment sacrifices have to be made but some of the coast guard budget cuts and pound foolish we've invested over one hundred million dollars in maritime security teams yet your budget proposes to cut that capacity by forty two percent say eighteen point two million dollars he proposed to move to a regional concept with the maritime safety and security team program you terminate three hundred ninety five active duty military personnel instead of transferring them to other m s s aviation support to the maritime security response team the coast guard incur additional risk in order to inform the fis twelve and sixteen budget bill and quote madam secretary when admiral pat talks about encourage initial risk he's not talking to the coast guard he's talking about wrist the american public and given the risk continue to threaten our nation terrorism the drug trade human trafficking why does it sound to put greater risk on the american people well as i said earlier i don't know whether you heard me question raised about that that was an early inner agency memo that was leaked based on earlier budget assumptions that are not in fact the out your budget dmiral papp is highly highly qualified to be the next commandant of the coast guard and i think the senate and the people of america will agree stated very very distinguished service record in the coast guard and  served the people of this country very very well so let's just go there now with respect to the m s s you are right we have consolidated and regionalized them it was the combined judgment with the commandant of the coast guard that we could have the same reach in terms of response to possible terrorism activities at the regional level as opposed to having so many different places with their own and then an s s d there i understand there can be disagreements about that i'm sure those will be discussed throughout the appropriations  proudest madam secretary quickly would the imaging seem to be getting some feedback with the imaging equipment that we have the full body scan equipment that equipment have detected the bomb that was to be employed on christmas day representative i don't want to go into detail in perhaps the among the best equipment that we have to do it yes ok it is objectively better than the current iteration of technology exactly i listened to your testimony and here's where i'm going i thought you had a good retort for privacy concerns it is unfortunate that we don't have that message pervasive to the extent that privacy advocates across the length and breadth of the country  would at least give consideration to it if they haven't already a c l u for example my question is to what extent have we had an opportunity to sit dialog and try to work out these concerns with organizations know but we have been trying to educate the community on the fact that the earlier tech knowledge and how it works is just not the same as it is right now so we continue that privacy is a very important value for  us civil liberties are important values for us and if we're going to continue to use different types of technology we need to take those accounts into consideration at the front end at the risk of being rude crude and unrefined i have to go on quickly i think madam secretary that the logic we employed today will not be the logic that we will employ the day after god forbid a plane traveling at five hundred miles per hour has its structural integrity compromised at thirty five thousand feet many of the folk who would say today i have a problem that the day after that occurs and god forbid that it will they won't use that same logic the beautiful thing about being a member of the public is you can be here today and there tomorrow and there are no consequences we have the challenge of dealing with the consequences of our actions or inactions which is why i'm just encouraging you to do as much as you can as fast as you can to get the answers that you have to the public because i think you do a good job at responding to the privacy concerns i really do and i think we need to get that message out and i won't encourage you to do what the president is doing but i would tell you today with the health care issue c span live but i would tell you that it wouldn't hurt to to have some of those people who have some of the sharp in the same room with you televised so that people can hear you respond and know that there is this has been addressed that is of importance to you now quickly the there's about twenty one million dollars that has been estimated to be the cost to transition from the federal protective service f p s to the national protection and programs director apparently there is not a request for this twenty one million in the budget can you tell me quickly does this mean that we are now abandoning this program or does it mean that you have some other plans that we are not privy to representative we have a  quickly now the twit cards from some ports as i understand it are employing a card that is local along with the twit card which is mandatory is there a need for multiple cards designed to be a national it is a national check a national card the reason i ask is because the the workers i've had some to complain to me about having to have multiple cards apparently there may be multiple cost associated with it just that when you make wages every dollar counts and i want to represent them well final question on twitter is this do we have the scanners for all of the twit cards now or scanners in place across the country for the cards we import that we deploy the cards before we deploy the scanners so have we deplore the scanners we we have a schedule to deploy the scanners beginning at the larger ports but they are not all in place right now there is a concern about fraudulent cards being developed i'm sure you're aware of it there's even some question as to what crime is committed when that card is use we know crimes are committed but there's some debate about whether we go federal where you're going to go local in terms of the crime perhaps some directive to some of the ports may be helpful yes we'll take a look at that are being promulgated a problem i arise in connection with adjacent paresis orleans who right after katrina experience a short period of increase inactive following hurricane katrina these disposal c b l program assist local governments in providing essential services to their communities and under the implement under the implementing the maritime safety and security team based on what i've heard so far i guess based on your budget the team will be eliminated  the the team in new orleans a sort of special role in security post katrina and i wonder whether or not there is a way that this can be pared  new york with the consolidation of the m s s and they still have one of the largest coast guard deployments in the united states so we've got a theory in terms of making smart and effective use of the dollars that we do get appropriated profile minute thank you mr chairman and thank you madam secretary for your presence here today i want to talk a little bit about how we approach some of these  complicated technological questions i'll tell you that i was for us created for a number of years on not only the results but the process of how we were mapping  vulnerabilities for our infrastructure in the united states most of it held in the in the public sector at one point i suggested that we outsource for lack of a better word the mapping to the national labs who actually have some of the expertise available that we really didn't have and i think still do not have in the department and that also relates to cybersecurity i know it's important that the cybersecurity function be in the department i don't quarrel with that but i do think that there's some expertise that could be brought in from the national labs it's really hard to hire and i'm wondering if you've thought about that that's question number one question number two are never forget in this room the testimony we received from the inspector general and i asked the court the question whether there had been  intrusion security so i think from that we need to do an assessment a cyber assessment of the our own department and it's always better to have somebody from outside redshirt that than to do it yourself and finally i'm interested i know that your eyes director is a career prosecutor from comes from d o that the responsibilities are split between departments and i'm wondering what kind of mechanisms have been put in place for the director to share with the d o j the need for additional immigration judges we are so short on immigration judges and i remember when i was in local government we had i think the second largest county jail in the state of california we had an overcrowding problem but the answer was in large measure judges it wasn't the need for more space it was the need to process cases and i think if you look at the amount of delay and  not in every case but but when you have some these days for very long time they're eating up a big budgeted ninety bucks a day it really makes more sense for the government overall in some cases the higher but it's different departments and i'm wondering what kind of mechanism to share that information exists if there's anything we can do to assist in that in the final question this is kind of a little one but i promised i would ask customs and border security at dulles airport they're not highly paid they've got you know from the hours in a hard job and i was shocked to find out they have to pay for their parking on top of everything else out it is there any way to do something about that relationship having been a prosecutor and a practitioner in the ninth circuit i really appreciate that particular issue and in a fundamental way with respect to cyber and use of the national labs and red teaming to get a better sense of where it is that we're heading with i think we have made great strides this year but there is no doubt that we have much work to do can i follow up on the infrastructure vulnerability because it's not just cyber it's i mean it is cyber but there you know we had harken back to some of the list we had we had i mean the santa cruz boardwalk place in santa clara county and miniature golf courses on the left i mean it was an embarrassment to and when you looked at the entire system and i don't think we've accomplished that yet we you know you can't protect unless you know the critical vulnerabilities and have you given a thought on how we might team that swarm that  suggest there's been a lot of good work done in the last seven years there's more work to be done at the national labs can be very helpful thank you mr chairman i wonder certainly we don't want to discuss here publicly what we know has not  attended to in our various jurisdictions but maybe we can look to have a more confidential session with the secretary to explore that we had already taken note based on the earlier conversation and  great to see you as always and thank you for your attendance and your your frankness regarding this serious issue i've got four key questions so i'm going to ask them quick and if i can get your indulgence side appreciate it number one your full year two thousand  budget was fifty two point seven how much of that did you actually spend was expended to get back to ok my second question madam secretary we on the committee are very much aware of the administration supplemental budget request to provide an additional five point one billion dollars to the disaster relief fund of these funds one point five billion is to be used to pay for arbitration judgments in favor of the entities affected by hurricane katrina such as charity hospital in new orleans looking past a significant amount of money that is needed i'm troubled that the civilian board of contract appeals found in at least two cases that the experts representing fema were less experienced and less credible and has spent less time in the building and the entities than the entities represented lives and were also unlicensed in other words the officials chosen by fema to make the judgment judgments related to public assistance decisions were not the type of individuals who should have been making the decisions in the first place i realize that initial part was done prior to you coming however what are you intending to do to ensure that we have the right people making the decisions on public assistance last year was the congress passing the ability to arbitrate some of these claims so that we could get them resolved decisions made and people who get on with their lives the supplemental of the president has submitted will cover those arbitration will also cover i think one point one billion that will be necessary for the schools and their reconstruction the ones that are still left and so with that we think we'll really end the year with the katrina r done according to my notes one point five billion which is quite a lot of money and i think what this committee is looking for are have specific standards been put in place to ensure that the new people i've asked the general counsel to make sure that we have the right people in place to do that ok my third point and i'm now down to two minutes looking at the budget and what i really have spent a lot of my time working on i want to associate myself with all of my colleagues their concerns with the safer and firefighter grants i'm going to have i don't see myself supporting the budget as it is with that decrease also the emergency operation centers i just find something that i've personally worked on for about ten years from the local government to today seeing it evaporate before our very eyes is disturbing and then finally looking at the coast guard as well you know it just makes us wonder  we understand the size of your department and all the areas but these suggested decreases are very concerning to us as a committee and to me personally but finally the cargo security which you know i have a great interest in  and we've had a couple of discussions and i think your first time here i mentioned to you the nine eleven requirements that were coming forward and it's my understanding the chairman mentioned it to you as well and i'm very concerned with the potential from what i see here a forty seven point eight seven percent in my business here what i know about money once you cut that much you'll probably never get it back and when i look at on the flip side more money being spent for secret service now in this very committee we had the head of the secret service say that the complaints or the threats that have come through have not been any greater than any other president which i found surprising but that's what he said candidate protection and all that you know i'm concerned that the pendulum is not swinging too far one way and we're missing the fox it's literally in our bedroom and so for me because this happens to be my bedroom community that close your predecessor was not particularly supportive of the reality of achieving the nine eleven timeframes and i believe when you came you were equally not as committed as meeting those timeframes and so i hope to work with the chairman in this committee i view it as a serious issue we went on a congressional delegation and when i asked at that port and it was a foreign port how many of the cargo are you inspecting other than what's required of being pulled aside and the answer was not and i believe just as we saw we can all panic and respond in kneejerk with the christmas day bomber but i believe if not it's not a question of if it's when eventually this will come back to bite us and so i look forward to working with you i know your you believe in security and that's why you're serving and we're grateful for it but it's a number one priority for me thank you very much for your time acknowledging all the men and women that work for the department of homeland security i'm still trying to calculate whether it is the largest or next to largest of all departments certainly it's had some steep mountains to climb in terms of the many disparate groups that have come together want to thank them very much for their service and thank you and as was indicated when we conversed i do understand that the christmas day bomber had origins beyond some of the boundaries and  responsibilities of t s a in particular p s o officers and i think that should be noted but we know that we want to be perfect we have to because we're in the business that we're in so i have a series of quick questions and since this is a budget hearing i'd like to  mention some policy issues that you might not have time to talk about but i would suggest starting out with i do think we need a time frame for our discussions on comprehensive immigration reform and of course are overlapping jurisdiction and that might be a policy question that one might want to have in the budget writing to least set us on track for something that i think is enormously important my committee is held several hearings on encouraging private sector entity's to secure themselves against a potential attack as you know this is generally not done by regulation but through the h s voluntary partnership with the private sector we had a hearing on the money by a tax so that we would understand what could happen the united states and what is being done in the u s program a part of the nine eleven act was discussed it is clear that this program could be leveraged to assure that our private sector partners are taking tangible steps to secure facilities that have been targeted by terrorists please discuss the status of this program which will begin to certify businesses and the amount of money that akkad to it in the budget both at sema and the office of infrastructure that is the p s p r p program and if you heard me and then i'll just leave you i would appreciate whether or not we 're funding science and technology more are stepping it up because the complaint is that we cannot get needed security inventions or technology come from quick enough i understand the air cargo question was asked but if you have a better answer as to when you might think we would complete that requirement and i would like to find out whether or not the galveston match where they don't have to match has been added and then the citizen cor understand we're not funding it and we were just making progress and ministre to gate was in houston talking about the value of the citizen corps we were working to get these corps this is the response team citizens working really bigger asli to make sure that science and technology is really for paraded throughout the department not just in that directorate but they are using that in terms of helping set standards that requirements for the contracting that we do moving forward that we think will help drive innovation on the vendor side but as to speed as well it is too slow and you're hurting small businesses and i'd like we like we really want to work with follow up question great thank you mr chairman secretary earlier our colorful good friend from new jersey was trying to get you to name one thing in the last year you would ask what what he was after was a follow up to my questioning about jurisdictional consolidation we need you to urge the president and speaker pelosi and leader reid to to make this political  lift as you mentioned earlier the size of your department is substantial this congress had the same difficulty when it stabs the pentagon to put everything under hask in the house and saskin the senate for the armed services the various branches  we need you to exercise what lee hamilton calls for that is a call for the political will to consolidate jurisdiction in this committee and that's what he was trying to get you say what have you done if you have you asked for it we've had so many of your people in leadership positions testify before this committee but their frustration of having eighty six different committees and subcommittees they have to answer to heard mr richardson make reference to the our our joint concern about the firebran cite for grants those come out the science committee transportation has coastguard as well as a well known judiciary oversight it's a it's a political lift because they're going to aggravate a lot lot of chairman when they start trying to take it here but it needs to be done to make sure your department has a uniform and and consolidate leadership in the congress know what the congress is expecting for you and take a lot of the burden off of you all so i would like to ask would you are you willing to do that are you committed to legitimate complaints really about the delay in getting some reports but i think he was surprised when i pointed out the just in that subcommittee we had three hundred mandatory reports and that doesn't even include this committee or the volume of correspondence and hearings that this committee generates so the answer is that that is one recommendation of the nine eleven commission we would like to see pursued it is  something that we have spoken with congressional leadership about great he spoke with the president about as well i have excellent thank you very much mr chairman thank you very much gentleman from texas had a follow up yes and you indicated madam  chair secretary that you were going to deploy the twit card readers but you did not give me the date i'd like to have the date of deployment for those readers please i think some have been deployed there is a schedule by which they are rolling out i will get that schedule to you i don't have it in my fingertips all right i'd like to get the schedule and finally i'd like to associate myself with the comments of the chair with reference to the nine eleven commission recommendation of one hundred percent cargo screening it is important to us thank you thank you very much madam secretary i have one question before we close the hearing on the stand that the  requirements for loans and grants and the rest if it is part of a long term recovery from a natural disaster that you otherwise wouldn't have i believe we are scheduled to give our recommendations to the president in early april of the issues i want to to look at is to what extent does pre disaster mitigation come in being we're still as you know paying a tremendous tab for katrina and some other natural disasters but if we had in place some pre disaster mitigation program even though hurricanes and other things would come to the extent that we could fortify areas with significant construction requirements and some other things t cost over time would be less than what we have faced with right now and so i would hope that you would look at it we have been working with a number of  s especially for homeowners and other people who live in some of those impacted areas with a little help from her and d h s i think we could push the concept that would drive down insurance rates and the number of other things so that the dollar thing for the cost would not be less let your office we will provide you some information on it and these are just people who come up with bright ideas and i would think that some of those vetting of those