▶ 0:24:58Aachen people. We save lives. We secure. Control, secure and defend our border and maritime approaches far at sea. Facilitate life giving economic commerce and economic prosperity for the nation. And then we respond to crisis or contingency that may come without warning. The american people depend on us and we provide them remarkable return on their investment. And we need to return on investment starting now. This hearing, of course, is about the 27 budget. But today marks day 61 of the coast guard and dhs not being funded.
▶ 0:25:27This is harming our crews and our families. It's impacting operations and hollowing out our readiness. I thank the president for his decisive action to pay all of our people, including our 8901 civilian. Hardships and uncertainty over their pay, and they deserve better.
▶ 0:25:49We also have over 5000 unpaid utility bills, over 100 providers that have threatened to cut off electricity and water to our coast guard stations and air stations, and we've got a growing backlog of 18,000 merchant mariner credentials that are not processed at a time where the us is trying to rebuild our maritime might. Just two examples of mission impacts on behalf of the men and women of the coast guard and their families, I implore congress to take immediate action and fund the coast guard and the rest of the department of homeland security.
▶ 0:26:18Now on to 2027. With support from this congress, the coast guard is beginning to restore long term readiness and complete the most significant modernization in the past century. The $25 billion capital investment from the working families tax cut act was a strong start to recapitalize our aging assets, and we're successfully executing that investment with over 9 billion obligated this year already and on track to obligate over 22 billion by the end of the year to buy new cutters, boats, aircraft and technology.
▶ 0:26:48But that's only a start. Consistent, predictable top line growth in our annual appropriation is vital to our continued mission success. And as I've testified before, we're a 20 billion. The president's.
▶ 0:28:11Assets and cutting edge technology. The budget includes 2204 million to initiate the third stage of the offshore patrol cutter, the backbone of our fleet. It also funds the planning and design of new home ports, including those for the first two arctic security cutters that were just announced today that will be in the state of alaska. Bottom line, Mr.
▶ 0:28:30Chairman, we need immediate funding for dhs and the coast guard now, followed by the full funding of our 27 budget to ensure our ability to continue to deliver mission success and proven value for the american people today and into the future. If our distinguished history proves one thing, it's this with a ready coast guard crew and the strong support of the american people, there is nothing we can't accomplish. Thank you, and I look forward to the questions. >> thank you admiral, I appreciate those comments.
▶ 0:28:59Um, and I know these comments are probably in the rest of them, courtesy of omb. We understand you're not you're unfunded at the moment. We understand that we passed a bipartisan bill off the floor of this house three times to fund everybody. So if you would share with omb that, uh, the fact that things went south when they hit the north side of the building. So when you say congress, it's like this committee led the way in homeland, passed it through the full committee and passed it off the floor of this house with democratic votes to.
▶ 0:29:29And so when we hear congress do something, it's like, we'll do more. We'll make lemonade, lemonade out of those lemons. But, uh, as a general proposition, like congress needs to do something. It's like, yes, they do. And by the way, there's congress with a capital c, and there's congress with a small c, and I'll let it go with that.
▶ 0:29:49Director curran, things were great until I got a note from roger williams in texas saying, hey, sean curran's a good friend of mine, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, please be nice to him in the hearing or whatever. And you need to know, I wish we had a little more private of a conversation than this one here. I told him, I said, listen, I think it was 14 carat gold until I got that note from you, roger.
▶ 0:30:17And now the guys, you know, I don't know if the tide's coming in or going out, but anyhow, if you would pass that on back to him that you were doing just fine until he got involved, that would be great. I hope you're not trying to buy any chevys in the near future in texas, right? Great. Hey, the floor is yours for your non opening statement. Please proceed. Chairman. It's good to see you sir. And the rest of the committee when they they get in.
▶ 0:30:45Um I've hosted many of your colleagues at our training center. And I extend an invitation to you and your staff and your other other members. Sir, I think there's no better way to see what we do, what our men and women do each and every day, than being out there and seeing hands on what they do. At our training facility. I spent most of the last decade leading protective operations, but I've also been deeply involved in our investigative work. Protection and investigations go hand in hand. Both are vital to our mission.
▶ 0:31:13When I became director, one of my first briefings highlighted $2.3 billion in unfunded needs that have been brought before this committee in the past. And thanks to your support and the administration, we have received two supplemental injection funding, including $1.2 billion through the one big, beautiful bill. We are grateful for that investment in our mission, but recent events have shown how unpredictable the world can be.
▶ 0:31:38Threats against our protectees are up and our adversaries are getting smarter and using new technology. Just in the last ten days, we have seen a significant uptick in threat cases. We're going to need more resources to keep pace. I've taken a hard look at what we need. Listen to internal and external reviews, and compared our past requirements to today's threats. The president's budget is a good step forward, but there's still more to do.
▶ 0:32:03Last year, we conducted 7182 protective visits, and we are on pace to exceed that this year. Those numbers are astronomical. We've screened over 2.4 million people, which is more than double what we've done in previous years. Frankly, our workforce isn't big enough to keep up with those demands, but we're working to fix that. This budget includes 237 million to add 852 positions, helping us reach our goal of 2000 new law enforcement personnel by the end of fy 27.
▶ 0:32:33We're recruiting, hiring, and training with a purpose using new methods like accelerated candidate hiring events to reduce time to hire without lowering our standards. The president's budget also sets aside almost $42 million for training, operations and infrastructure, which nearly doubles our budget to maintain our aging infrastructure. However, our new recruits and officers are still training on the same firing ranges I use 24 years ago with little change.
▶ 0:33:02It's unacceptable to boost our training capacity by 250%. We need to upgrade our facilities. This is why it's critical that you and your colleagues join us at our training facility. See it firsthand. There's a $23 million increase for overtime, but we know we cannot keep working our people at this current pace. Rightsizing the secret service will take ongoing effort and resources.
▶ 0:33:28We're also leading the way to detect, deter and defeat drone threats by exploring and deploying new technologies such as kinetix solutions. Our personnel are also thoroughly investigating drone incursions and pursuing criminal prosecutions. The president's big budget includes $100 million for protective countermeasures, including areas like counter cos.
▶ 0:33:48It also provides $140 million to start preparing for the olympics and the 2028 presidential campaign, which will be our busiest year in history. Investigations are a critical part of our mission. Violent political rhetoric is up, and in fiscal year 25, our investigators handled over 12,000 protective intelligence cases. That's a 60% increase from the previous year. Cyber enabled financial fraud is growing, but we're making a difference there, too.
▶ 0:34:18In fy 25, we recovered 750 million, arrested more than 700 criminals, and earned nearly half $1 billion to the victims. We did all that with a field operations budget of $114 million. It's a pretty good return on investment for the american people. Partnerships are critical to our overall success. The president's budget supports our pledge to assist and support our law enforcement partners.
▶ 0:34:45Programs like the national computer forensics institute, our command staff seminars where we train our local partners and the national center for missing and exploited children are designed to give back to our law enforcement partners, all them from your districts. I came ready to make real changes and built a team that's doing just that. It'll take time, but it's not business as usual. The secret service, we're listening and making institutional changes together.
▶ 0:35:11The president's fy 27 budget gives us the resources to reshape and rebuild and provide our people with a path forward. We're on the verge of big reforms that will revitalize our agency, but will need more investment in your continued support to keep moving forward. Thank you for your time today and again, I look forward to having you at our training facility, sir. Thank you. >> for. Is yours in our. >> chairman.
▶ 0:35:38Thank you for the invitation to testify on behalf of the transportation security administration. Under the leadership of president trump and secretary mullen, tsa is focused on modernizing transportation security to deliver a more seamless and secure travel experience for the american people.
▶ 0:35:53To achieve this, tsa is actively pursuing solutions to bolster the resilience, security, and efficiency of our transportation systems by combining our human talent with cutting edge technology and leveraging public private partnerships, we will keep pace with the evolving threat and remain vigilant against challenges of the future. As of today, tsa has been shut down for 109 days. Nearly 60% of fy 26.
▶ 0:36:20If this year demonstrates anything, it is that the tsa workforce and our operations cannot depend on predictable congressional funding. Thankfully, president trump's fy 27 budget takes decisive action to infuse tsa with the capital it needs and insulate our amazing workforce from the impacts and disruptions caused by lapsed lapses in appropriations.
▶ 0:36:42The president's budget requests funding to deploy state of the art security screening technology to our airports, including checkpoint automation, identity verification, advanced 3d x-rays, next generation imaging technology, and electronic security gates. This capital investment accelerates tsa's ability to modernize its checkpoints and deliver consistent and reliable operations for the traveling public.
▶ 0:37:07To deploy screening technology at pace, the agency not only needs to receive the increased funding requested in the budget, it needs the aviation security passenger fee money returned to it as well. The fee was passed by congress in 2001 in response to the terrorist attacks of nine over 11 to help fund aviation security. However, for well over a decade, congress has diverted billions of dollars of this fee money away from tsa and used it to pay down the deficit.
▶ 0:37:35President trump's budget calls upon congress to stop diverting the fee money collected and return it back to tsa as it was intended. Additionally, president trump's fy 27 budget underscores the administration's commitment to utilizing strategic public private partnerships to drive innovation and maximize available resources to strengthen security while enhancing the overall passenger experience.
▶ 0:38:00The screening partnership program, which has been in existence since tsa's founding, exemplifies how collaboration with the private sector can be leveraged to optimize aviation security. Under esp, tsa enters into a contract with an approved private company to provide certified screeners to perform screening at commercial airports.
▶ 0:38:20Sbp airports are required to meet or exceed the same rigorous security standards as airports with federalized screeners, and are subject to robust oversight from tsa. The president's budget signals the importance of modernizing sbp, increasing small airport participation, and harnessing public private partnerships, tsa screening workforces unwavering commitment to the mission has been on full display during this challenging year.
▶ 0:38:49Expanding sbp is one of the many avenues the trump administration is pursuing to help protect our screening workforce from lapses in congressional appropriations. Until recently, tsa employees had missed nearly 1 billion in paychecks this fiscal year. In contrast, sbp screeners have not yet missed a paycheck. Throughout fy 26, tsa has been forced to be in damage control mode, doing everything we can to maintain our resilience and hold the agency together, relying on the goodwill and sense of duty of our workforce.
▶ 0:39:21The shutdown impacts are far reaching, including hindering our ability to procure and deploy critical technology to airports and mitigate drone threats. Every day the shutdown shutdown drags on. The long term implications to our security posture intensify, particularly as it relates to the us hosting of the fifa world cup. In less than two months, america's 250th anniversary celebrations, as well as one of the busiest summer travel seasons. We need to return tsa and dhs back to normal order.
▶ 0:39:50It is against this context that I urge congress to fully fund president trump's fy 27 dhs budget to ensure that we have the resources needed to protect the homeland and deliver on the golden age of travel. Chairman. Ranking member cuellar, members of the subcommittee, thank you for your support of tsa, and I look forward to your questions. >> thank you for your testimony, non testimony. Mr. anderson, the floor is yours.
▶ 0:40:19>> chairman, ranking member, cuellar and distinguished members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the president's budget request for fiscal year 2027 for the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, or cisa. Before I begin, I'd like to acknowledge the dedication and perseverance of the cso workforce. As I have said previously, while we are shut down, our adversaries are not. The people of cisa continue to perform the mission of defending critical infrastructure from cyber and physical threats.
▶ 0:40:49During this shutdown, we remain on the job. The president's fy 27 budget request of $2.5 billion for cisa reflects the trump administration's commitment to safeguarding our homeland, our values, and our way of life. The budget requests the resources it needs to strengthen the federal networks, empower state, local, tribal, and territorial governments with cybersecurity and physical security, and secure critical infrastructure nationwide, the fy 27 budget requests $1.4 billion for the cybersecurity
▶ 0:41:19Division to continue to build our national capacity to detect, defend against, and build resilience to cyber attacks against our critical infrastructure. These resources would allow us to engage with federal partners to bolster their cyber security and incident response efforts and safeguard our federal networks. Since january of 2025, we have added nearly 300 known exploited vulnerabilities and recommended remediations, bringing our total to more than 1500.
▶ 0:41:45Our catalog we've worked hand in hand with partners to assess threats, issue guidance and resources, and help critical infrastructure owners and operators not only to better manage these vulnerabilities, to shore up their defenses, and to make their systems more resilient. The integrated operations division provides intelligence context to support decision making, performs agency designated emergency support functions and monitors, and disseminates cyber and physical risk and threat information to stakeholders year round.
▶ 0:42:11This budget requests $178 million to deliver risk reduction services to stakeholders locally in their communities throughout our nation by maintaining a nationwide presence across all 50 states, our major territories. Since it provides tailored cybersecurity and infrastructure security assistance to our nation, we provide assessments, incident response, exercise planning and support, and national special events planning to critical infrastructure owners and operators and all levels of government.
▶ 0:42:37The fy 27 president's budget requests $391 million for systems infrastructure security division to allow risk informed decision making abilities for critical infrastructure operators. Furthermore, the budget requests an additional $5 million increase for enhanced support for the 2028 summer olympics in los angeles. These funds will directly support cyber and physical security exercises to inform incident response plans, bolster government capabilities and identify security gaps at the venues.
▶ 0:43:04The president's budget requests $98 million for emergency communications to ensure interoperability and assistance with federal and state local, tribal, territorial partners, since it enhances our public safety communications at all levels of government across the country through training, coordination, tools and guidance. These services provide strategic planning, grant guidance and common investment and infrastructure planning to enhance our emergency communications.
▶ 0:43:26$31 million request for assistance stakeholder engagement division to focus on executing cdc's role as the national coordinator and as the sector risk management agency for eight of the nation's 16 total critical infrastructure sectors. System continues to lead and coordinate the implementation of critical infrastructure partnership framework recommendations for any national level policy regarding critical infrastructure and resilience. Finally, the president's budget request $42 million in funding for the national risk management center and a diverse threat environment.
▶ 0:43:53Cis identifies and prioritizes critical infrastructure and provides assessments of physical and cyber risk to them on a tailored basis for the threat environment. President trump's budget request for fy 27 allows us to deliver on the statutory mission that the president and congress gave to us in 2018. This reflects an opportunity to be good stewards of our taxpayer dollars, while working with partners at every level to identify and manage risks to cyber and physical infrastructure that americans rely on every hour of every day.
▶ 0:44:23Sis will continue to defend our nation against today's threats and looks forward to building a more secure and resilient future. Thank you for your support and the opportunity to appear before you today, and I look forward to your questions. >> thank you sir. Um, chairman and ranking member, cuellar and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today on the fiscal year 2027 budget request for the federal emergency management agency.
▶ 0:44:52I am karen evans, currently serving as the senior official performing the duties of the administrator, and I look forward to our conversation today. Fema is taking active steps to refine its focus and mission.
▶ 0:45:07And when it comes to disaster response, our guiding principle is clear local governments respond, states manage, and federal government supports our fiscal year 2027 budget request of $38.5 billion is designed to uphold this model, advance the president's priorities, and ensure effective support for communities nationwide.
▶ 0:45:30The fy 27 budget request includes $28.4 billion for the disaster relief fund, which will sustain ongoing recovery and hazard mitigation efforts for a range of disasters impacting dozens of states, including hurricanes helene and maria. The hawaii and california wildfires, and the most recent incidences such as the january winter storm and the recent typhoon in alaska.
▶ 0:46:00Just this week, we are seeing catastrophic damage that typhoon sinlaku is having on the northern mariana islands and guam. And last week, secretary mullen and I visited north carolina, where the secretary reaffirmed his commitment to working with federal, state and local partners to cut red tape to expedite the community's long term recovery efforts.
▶ 0:46:22Fema continues to prepare for and respond to these and other disasters, but success depends on state and local governments playing a more active and significant role in preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery. In addition, in addition to our disaster relief and recovery efforts, fema's fy 27 budget includes non-disaster grant programs.
▶ 0:46:49Examples of these grants include emergency management, performance grant and assistance to firefighters grant, which provide critical resources to emergency management agencies and fire departments nationwide. Reflective of fema's realignment with its core mission. However, several of our non-disaster grant programs have received targeted reductions to funding levels compared to prior years.
▶ 0:47:14Fema strongly supports the president's budget and is committed to working with our partners to maximize the impact of available resources. Our fy 27 budget request will reinforce our readiness and posture and support long term planning and coordination with our state and local partners.
▶ 0:47:38Fema's budget request is designed to meet both current and future challenges, ensuring that we are prepared to serve the american people and deepen our partnerships nationwide. However, dhs also needs funding in the here and now, and as the longest shutdown in history continues, it's critical that fema has the resources needed not only to support ongoing life saving and life sustaining operations, but also respond in the event of future catastrophic disasters.
▶ 0:48:07This is why I urge congress to pass the dhs appropriations and end the current lapse. I look forward to working with you to build a stronger, more effective fema and a more resilient nation. And chairman ahmadi, on a personal note, I congratulate you on your retirement and thank you for your service. And thank you again for the opportunity to testify, and I look forward to your questions. >> thank you. Ma'am.
▶ 0:48:35You know, there's always one in every panel. There was one this morning that said, hey, congratulations on your retirement. Translation. Can't wait to see you in the rear view mirror. But at this point, since I've got no feelings or pride left, we're good. And now, and I know this is a little unusual for those of you who have only been to one type of meeting, please grit your teeth and bear with me.
▶ 0:48:58The subcommittee meeting on homeland security will now come to order for members who were getting over here as quick as they could from the votes. We are going to put all of these folks on the panel's opening statements in the record. While we were waiting, we let them go ahead and do them anyhow. Um, but we couldn't do that officially because we weren't convened. And also, there's another rule that I have no responsibility for.
▶ 0:49:23You know, in the old days this morning, you got to you got to go in the order that you appeared. Thank you. Uh, congresswoman, uh, hansen for, for being the first one to arrive, but I am told that the rules say when everybody's here at the convening, which you just witnessed, it goes by order of security, of seniority. Mr. king, my sincere apologies.
▶ 0:49:46Um, but anyhow, and since there were some people in the media that were mad because they couldn't come in early from the from the empire state and basically yelled at me in the hall. Good thing I got no feelings left, you know, sorry we got you in here as quick as we could, but now that we are officially convened and since, uh, that was not an opening statement and that my colleague from, uh, from texas. Yeah. That's right.
▶ 0:50:15Laredo, the 51st state, um, since he's waving his opening statement too, we are going to go straight to committee questions. The best news of this whole non opening statement is the three whatever vote series, I guess is at the call of the chair. And I'm just speculating. So nobody say I know this is kind of a secret meeting. Apparently there's a problem with getting votes for whatever we were supposed to vote in at that point in time. Mr. cuellar, the floor is yours for questions for these folks. >> thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:50:44I appreciate your leadership on this. And, uh, for to all of y'all, thank you for being here. Appreciate the work that y'all do. Appreciate the work that your men and women do, uh, every day. And, uh, we certainly have to make sure we get you funded. Uh, we still looking at 20, 26, uh, while we're looking at 2027. So hopefully we can address that. And I understand, you know, the, the hard times for your men and women that have not been paid.
▶ 0:51:09Um, I do want to say I have a few questions, uh, first of all, to, uh, to the admiral, uh, commandant, thank you again. Uh, appreciate meeting you. And, uh, I want to ask you a little bit about the coast guard rio grande back in 2008. I had a language at that time, coast guard didn't want to go up to brown waters called the rio grande. But we added some language. But I understand you all are doing that in the lower rio grande. Uh, could you tell us what your plans are for the rio grande presence?
▶ 0:51:37And I welcome you to the rio grande. >> thank you, ranking member. So the coast guard launched operation river wall in october of last year, um, to control, secure and defend the southern border along that that maritime part of the border, southern texas. It's the 260 river miles in cameron and hidalgo counties that extend out to our station, south padre island. Uh, they're in the gulf. And so the we are working closely with customs and border protection to secure that from illegal immigration, from drugs that are crossing that border.
▶ 0:52:07And we have over 300 personnel and 37 boats that are operating there right now. Um, and we are using uncrewed on autonomous systems as well as aircraft to secure that part of the border. >> very good. Um, and thank you. And I'd like to sit down and get a little bit more detail on that. So we'll find another time. So but thank you again for what you're all doing. Uh, uh, this goes to the administrator, tsa.
▶ 0:52:34Um, one of the things that I would like to get a little bit more information are the, um, I'll call it privatization of, of the tsa, uh, some of the smaller airports. I think there's about 250 airports that you're all looking at. Is that correct? Is it about 250? >> yes, it's 254, sir. >> and, uh, one of them is in my hometown, laredo, two of them in the chairman's district.
▶ 0:53:03Uh, one in the represent new house. Uh, rutherford has one. Uh, hinson has two. Uh, Mr. guest has one. Uh, and the rest of the colleagues, uh, underwood, Mr. escobar, and, uh, gentleman from ariza do not have any, but there's a lot of us are going to be impacted, uh, on it. Could you tell us what your plan is and how you're communicating with the local officials and especially the members of congress on this plan?
▶ 0:53:34>> uh, thank you, ranking member for that, for that question. Um, one thing that I would note is, uh, in the past year, during the lapses in appropriations, um, we had to make daily decisions looking at how we were operating across the board and for the smaller airports, any call out rates would have serious, um, outsized detrimental effects to our operations. And so that was a daily consideration.
▶ 0:53:55So what this proposal does, uh, is to leverage the strength of public private partnerships to ensure that we put a model in place that, uh, to deliver on, on that day to day operation and provide some resilience in those operations. Uh, in terms of the details, there's a legislative proposal that is being developed right now, and we'd be happy to come back and brief you once that proposal is submitted.
▶ 0:54:17>> uh, I would love to sit down and I'm sure some of my other colleagues that have 1 or 2, uh, airports will probably get the will be interested on that. So we would do that. And thank you again for your service. Uh, my last question, uh, I have a lot, but I'm just going to ask one more is, uh, csl, uh, good talking to you. Uh, Mr. anderson, uh, has about 30% fewer people working on staff than 15 years. I mean, 15 months ago.
▶ 0:54:44Uh, we know the reasons workforce transition programs, reduction in force, etcetera, etcetera. Um, I think the person that was here before you said that despite a 40% vacancy rate in key mission areas, she has not lost any capacity or in the vacancy rate is not a problem.
▶ 0:55:02I don't want to put you, uh, with that person, but just give me your your thoughts when you have vacancy problems, uh, you got, uh, reduction in force also, how does that affect, uh, you know, our protection of our country at this time? >> uh, yes. So thank you for that. Mr. ranking member um, that is, that is accurate.
▶ 0:55:26We do have a vacancy rate, uh, you know, somewhere in that neighborhood, I will tell you that the most significant near-term impact recently has been our reduction down to about 40% of staff during this extended shutdown period that we've experienced over this most recent, this most recent fiscal year that certainly has detrimental, uh, capacity impacts when it comes to our ability to deliver against this important mission space. Now, when we do look at this, I'm very appreciative for the support that we have from the department and the leadership and secretary mullin in particular.
▶ 0:55:55Uh, we have a 329 vacancy, uh, critical hires list that's been approved that we're moving out on expeditiously to be able to fill some of those key and critical areas like our cybersecurity workforce, our folks that are out in the field that are helping to provide services to each one of your districts and local communities, helping to secure critical infrastructure, you know, really where it matters most, where americans are relying on it every day. >> um, and I do want to follow up, my time is up.
▶ 0:56:20But, uh, on the issue that we talked about on clearance and how we can move that to get your people hired because, you know, there's a different type of clearance. And, uh, and it does take a little bit of time. So we want to work with you. So make sure you provide this to the chairman and myself on how we can help with that. With that, I thank you all. Thank you, Mr. chairman. >> I want to put on the record unequivocally. Thank you, Mr. ranking member. Mr. rutherford, the floor is yours. >> thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:56:49I thank all of our witnesses for being here today. And, um, I first want to begin with, uh, fema, uh, one of the concerns that I heard often during my time in congress is how long fema reimbursements can take place.
▶ 0:57:06Uh, and having experienced that in my own hometown of jacksonville, florida, one of the things driving these long reimbursement timelines is inconsistent documentation, uh, during disasters, you know, we put together the national incident management system just for that, the kind of standardize all that. But we never created any tools to actually carry that out.
▶ 0:57:30And so now I think there's upwards of $11 billion, uh, that are, uh, in arrears, haven't been paid back out. A lot of those cities and counties and others that are going to be receiving those dollars are right now paying interest on loans because they had to do the work immediately.
▶ 0:57:56Uh, so a lot of that 11 billion is just going to go to pay for, we're not going to get anything out of it. It's just going to go to pay for interest. And so my question is, can you talk a little bit about whether you think the standardization of data collection for localities and being able to reconstruct their, uh, operations in a, in a systematic way across the country, instead of having 50
▶ 0:58:26Different ways to report, we have one standard tool. Can you talk about whether that would you think that would help, um, remove this, uh, backlog? >> so I appreciate that you're bringing up a really good point, um, about data collection and, uh, improved processes that fema could do as we go forward. And these are some of the things that we're currently looking at now. And also what we're also looking at.
▶ 0:58:55And secretary mullen, um, brought this up and we brought this up when we were in north carolina, is the ability to be able to share information not just within fema, but also with our other federal government partners so that we can ease that data re entry all the time for the communities and that we can share that data among the federal agencies so that they only have to enter it once.
▶ 0:59:18Um, we're intending if everything goes right and we get our fy 26 appropriations going forward, um, and we're not in a lapse that we're going to try to run a pilot and have a pilot ready between us and hud to do some of the things you're talking about, sir. >> thank you.
▶ 0:59:37And I will, I will add this to the, I think what the jurisdictions will find, uh, we utilize this during the super bowl 39 preparations that we ran, uh, in jacksonville in 2006.
▶ 0:59:50Um, that also helps, uh, not only in reconstructing your operations, but also making sure that your operations are executed in the proper manner, both, um, uh, sequentially and, uh, so things don't get left out. So I think it's a win win for fema and for the local jurisdictions that would be be part of this.
▶ 1:00:20Um, the other thing that I would like to bring up very quickly, uh, secret service director korean, I know, um, you know, you have a tough year coming up, uh, a couple tough years coming up actually, because as soon as we get through fifa and some of these other, uh, events, we're going to have another presidential coming up.
▶ 1:00:44Um, there are issues, uh, with being able to staff up in time, uh, prepare for, uh, counter uas, um, attacks that may, may occur that that's one of the things that I'm greatly concerned about, uh, in, in some of our nss events coming in the future.
▶ 1:01:09Can, can you talk a little bit about how the, how this shutdown has actually hurt your preparation for, um, being able to, you know, requisition and prepare for these events? >> yes, sir. And I appreciate the question. Um, you're right. Uh, so for me, just coming off of off an operational role and having to deal with these systems personally, uh, we've actually made some strides over the past year.
▶ 1:01:37Uh, there are some supply chain issues with getting these, uh, some of the equipment, uh, up to speed. Uh, but I will tell you that we are, we are, we are leading the way right now. Um, we're spending just over $100 million over the past year and a half to get our technology up to date. Uh, you know, we recognize and certainly I do knowing that, uh, fifa is coming right up, you know, 55 days away from the first match, uh, you know, getting prepared for 28.
▶ 1:02:04That'll be our busiest year on calendar with, you know, the olympics, the paralympics, the presidential campaign, you know, um, it six censuses in one year. Uh, I will tell you that we are doing things thinking outside the box. Uh, we've partnered with the d o w and just after this meeting, I'll be heading to florida to, to see the system that we moved into place in south florida, partnering with the d o w you know, we're looking at kinetic solutions, something that we haven't done before and something I've asked our technology department to lean into.
▶ 1:02:31Um, so we are, we are paving the way, but the supply chain has slowed things down. But we got in ahead of time. Uh, we're able to buy a lot of those systems and get ahead of, uh, some of the stagnant, uh, you know, uh, purchases that are happening right now, but also helping our partners. I was just out in la, uh, having meetings for the olympics. Uh, yeah, we're having those meetings now. We are putting people into place recognizing those big events are coming up.
▶ 1:02:55And, um, you know, I want to see the agents, uh, have lead time, unlike I did when I ran the 2016 presidential presidential campaign, uh, given them almost two years to prepare for these large sites. Uh, I found out that lapd, they are not ready, uh, you know, for drone detection and mitigation. So we're helping to train them, uh, and they're accepting that that training happily, we're bringing them to our training facility. Uh, we just brought a team in from new jersey to help them. That will be the last match of fifa.
▶ 1:03:24Uh, I'm a new jersey guy, so it's giant stadium to me, sir. Uh, but, uh, we are bringing our partners down to train them and to show them, you know, proper mitigation and detection. >> okay. >> thank you very much, director. And I yield back. >> thank you sir. Miss newhouse, what is yours, underwood? >> either one. >> please proceed. >> thank you so much, Mr. chairman.
▶ 1:03:48Um, at a time when extreme weather and disasters are becoming more frequent and more severe due to climate change, communities across the country rely on fema for help in their worst moments. But under the trump administration, fema's workforce has been decimated, leaving too many americans to fend for themselves. As storms rage and waters rise. The frontline workers, known as known as core employees, are the first to respond to disasters. Under president trump, fema has eliminated over 1000 core employees. That's about 10% of the workforce.
▶ 1:04:17Emergency response experts are warning that these cuts will be devastating and will leave communities waiting hours, even days, just to reach someone for help during disasters. Some of the terminated workers say that they were actually in the field on hurricane relief deployments when they were fired. In fact, dhs and fema are currently being sued because these mass firings appear to violate a federal law passed after hurricane katrina to prevent more americans from dying due to incompetence at the department of homeland security.
▶ 1:04:48Miss evans, you and the doj attorney in the case have offered contradictory stories to the court about who authorized the findings. Under questioning, he was unable to provide an explanation for the discrepancy that did not involve you committing perjury. Miss evans, did you perjure yourself? >> I appreciate you asking the question and that you bring that up. Um, I, I did not perjure myself during that testimony. >> thank you.
▶ 1:05:16If you did not commit perjury, then hopefully you can clear this up. Who specifically authorized the termination of over 1000 of fema's core employees? >> so the way that that process works is, is that their term employees and they, um, don't get renewed based on the work and the process that we have in place is that the program office heads as well as the field office supervisors review the functions and those functions come up and the program office heads sign off
▶ 1:05:48On those. And then, um, I then approved the final, uh, non-renewal of those core, uh, employees. And it's based on function and whether the work is still there for them to do. >> okay. Is there a standardized length of time for that term? >> uh, right now? Um, it depends and what we're doing because, um, we're looking at it, we're looking at all the functions. >> sorry, I'm sorry. You're saying that for the term employees, there's not a standardized term for their employment.
▶ 1:06:18>> what, um, was given to us and what was, uh, what the term was. Some of them have two year appointments. Yeah. Some of them had three year appointments. >> so I'm sorry. Are you suggesting that they knew in advance what the term of their employment was? >> uh, they signed. Yes, ma'am. They signed a contract, and they know what the process is. And the way that the contract is done, there is a term end date. And then there is a process where the work that they're working on. So. >> miss evans, then, are you saying that they were not fired? Their contract expired?
▶ 1:06:49>> I'm saying that their functions and their work were reviewed, and there was a determination made by the supervisor or the program office head that that work wasn't needed and therefore the contract wasn't renewed. >> right. But that's not a term expiration.
▶ 1:07:05I just think that we have to be really clear here and with this committee, and when we are looking at the number of ftes that you all are requesting and the salaries to support their job functions, we have to be very clear if these are term employees, that should be really straight, straightforward for us to understand. And there seems to be some uncertainty, some lack of clarity in your testimony here and certainly in your disposition to the court. Um, and obviously, we just want to know who made the decisions around the firing.
▶ 1:07:34Now, you also said in a recent disposition deposition that you asked your staff to develop a plan to reach an arbitrary target of cutting fema's workforce in half. Uh, that's not a strategy for more effectively fulfilling fema statutory missions that by congress, the people's representatives, not a readiness assessment to determine what staffing levels are necessary to meet the needs of american communities. Just a number pulled out of thin air and reverse engineers in your own words. And I'm quoting from the deposition, we didn't have a plan.
▶ 1:08:03You're the federal emergency management agency. Your whole job is planning for emergencies, and you didn't have a plan. President trump was clear he wanted to destroy fema. So you gave him some made up concepts of a plan on how to do it. That's not trimming the fat. That's a death blow. And so while disasters are becoming more frequent and more severe, you're cutting staff at fema, creating confusion and operating without a plan. This will put lives and livelihoods at risk in the next emergency.
▶ 1:08:30Now, multiple whistleblowers have also reported that you proposed to ban all muslim organizations from receiving fema security grants. Um, did you withhold federal funding from qualified organizations on the basis of religious discrimination? >> uh. >> I appreciate being, um, being given the opportunity to clarify. Um, I would like to, um, also clarify the other piece of, um, that was an option.
▶ 1:08:57And the fiscal year 2027 budget reflects the president's priorities and it does not reflect a 50% cut for fema. So I would like to make sure that that part is clear for the committee overall. And then as far as the nonprofit security grants, there was a review done. And no, that money was not withheld based on religious. >> okay.
▶ 1:09:22And, ma'am, my statement was that in the deposition, you said that you were developing a plan to cut the staff in half. I understand that that might not be the budget request, but that's what you swore while under oath, I yield back. Thank you. >> I'm going to try, Mr. newhouse. Now, Mr. newhouse, the floor is yours. >> you got my name, right? Very good, Mr. chairman. Thank you. Um, well, thank you guys for being here with us today. I want to express appreciation for several of you have come to see me personally, admiral. Appreciated seeing you. Mr.
▶ 1:09:53Anderson. Thank you for reaching out as well. And others. Um, let me start with administrator evans with fema. Appreciate you being here. You know, I represent central washington. Uh, we've been seeing they're telling us now we're in our fourth year of drought situation. We've been dealing with the consequences and results of that. And for instance, uh, 2024, we had a something called the retreat fire that devastated something like 45,000 acres near the town of yakima.
▶ 1:10:23Um, and all up and down the state, we're seeing similar kinds of things happen. Many of our firefighters, as you know, and law enforcement officials, uh, rely on fema grants to improve readiness and maintain their capacity so they can quickly respond to such incidents.
▶ 1:10:42Um, so at a time when our communities need to have firefighters and first responders at their level best, it seems to me your budget proposes eliminating certain grant programs, uh, and significantly reduce others that are related particularly to, to training and preparedness and response of first responders.
▶ 1:11:04So, uh, I'd like to ask you if there's a plan in place to ensure that states have the appropriate infrastructure and support to absorb some of these cuts to those grant programs. And if you could share with us the thinking, the rationale behind these reductions that we're seeing at a time of, uh, I would say, an increased need to support our first responders to get ahead of some of these emerging threats that we're seeing and specifically respond to these natural disasters.
▶ 1:11:32So I'd love to hear what you have to say about that. >> so, um, the president's budget does, uh, show some targeted reductions in some of the grant programs. Um, and this is based on us working with state and local governments and also looking at several of, um, there are unobligated balances that are also out there.
▶ 1:11:55And then also looking at other programs that we already have and getting those programs more aligned, um, to help state and local governments, uh, again, the mission of fema and the way that the president's budget and his priorities are, is, is that we are there to help support the states, um, and not necessarily supplant the states.
▶ 1:12:18And so a lot of the stuff that we're talking about it, again, we would be working more with state and local governments if we weren't in a lapse, because we would be able to share that information. And some of this information that needs to be out there is not life saving, life sustaining. And so we are working to the best of our ability to make sure that we continue to have communications with state and local governments. >> did you see if we weren't in a lapse yet?
▶ 1:12:44>> because it's not a life sustaining, life supporting activity, a lot of the communications to be able to make sure that we're sharing information with them on a continuous basis. Um, we, we can't do based on the lapse plans that we have in place and the activities that. >> we can do. I look forward to. >> continuing working with you to make sure we achieve that balance, because these things are huge needs. Uh, can I turn to you, director anderson? Um, I'm sure you know.
▶ 1:13:15>> dan newhouse, could you suspend for karen? They would like you to move your microphone closer so that they can hear you. Yep. That'd be great. Please continue putting. >> seconds back on the clock. Correct. >> nope. We're not. >> doing that. I'll get back to you, Mr. anderson.
▶ 1:13:31Um, I'm sure you know more than I that about the ongoing threat that we've we have from nation state adversaries and affiliated actors that truly are launching a barrage of attacks on our cyber and as well as our physical infrastructure, um, amid the department's shutdown and the ongoing conflict with, with iran, um, that landscape is growing significantly, I would assume, uh, significant,
▶ 1:14:02Significantly more dangerous. And certainly we're seeing it transpiring in real time. At least I'm concerned about that. Um, particularly about, I think Mr. rutherford brought this up as well. Our critical infrastructure, um, our energy systems, our transportation systems, our utilities, hospitals, you name it. We are vulnerable in many of these aspects.
▶ 1:14:22So I just wanted to hear from you in our current situation, um, what is your capacity to deal with it, to detect, uh, to counter, uh, to protect these items of particular importance to our country. >> thank you very, thank you very much, sir. I appreciate it. So given given our current situation, I'll be honest with you and tell you it is it is more limited than I would like. >> more limited than we would like.
▶ 1:14:52>> more limited than I would like. And, you know, during the course of the shutdown, again, we've had approximately 40% of our staff working at cisa. A lot of those preparatory activities within the environment, a lot of the, uh, the outreach that we typically be able to do, uh, that's, that's not, that's simply not possible or legally, uh, legally required, legally allowed during the period of a shutdown. You know, we're doing everything that we can.
▶ 1:15:12You know, just last week we released a joint cybersecurity advisory, uh, specifically targeting some of the threat that we saw from iranian threat actors specific to programable logic controllers, uh, which has a particularly significant impact within the operational technology community, which supports that critical infrastructure. You know, the conversation I have with my staff nearly every day is that, you know, the american people have put special trust and confidence in cisa to be able to deliver cybersecurity and resilience for our nation's critical infrastructure.
▶ 1:15:40Uh, people panic a little bit if their computer doesn't work like it's supposed to at any given time. They panic a lot more when the lights won't come on and the water is not flowing the way it's supposed to. And I appreciate the support of the subcommittee as we continue to look to investing in the resilience of our nation's critical infrastructure. >> thanks for being with us. That's what we need to hear. Thank you, Mr. chairman. >> Mr. king, the floor is yours. Thank you very much, chair neuhaus. Appreciate it.
▶ 1:16:06I guess I the memo didn't get out that I'm renaming everybody on the committee, and since there's some resistance to it, we'll try. Okay, okay. Reclaiming my time. I don't want to. And your clock is restarted as opposed to. Mr. what was your name? Good. Um, miss evans, um, first of all, there's there's several good things to say about fema.
▶ 1:16:37Uh, from my perspective, my state's perspective, and I think from the perspectives of other places, including the cnmi and guam, which of course are being hit very hard and your folks are on the ground now. And so we wish them the very best. Um, the maui wildfires, tremendous tragedy for us. You guys did a really good job there and are still doing that job.
▶ 1:16:56Uh, we have obviously in hawaii suffered some major disaster flooding in the last month, uh, with our storms, uh, flooding estimated damage at about a billion plus and counting. Uh, appreciate very much the approval of the emergency disaster declaration. Your fema people were on the ground during that disaster. Uh, and, um, immediately after that. So all good.
▶ 1:17:22And let's not muck up a good thing, which fema has been for a long, long time and we've experienced that. And so we recognize that and there's a sensitivity, um, that we continue on in this same vein, uh, since we all will experience disasters at some point. So in that context, I just want to go back in the big picture to the disaster relief fund. So am I, am I understanding correctly that essentially you're down to about $1 billion in your, in your major balance right now and you're going to run out at the end of the month?
▶ 1:17:53>> um, right now the balance is, um, standing at $3.4 billion, sir, >> 3.4 but you're draining it right now. So you're, you're, is it correct that you would essentially exhaust it by the end of this month or you don't know, or you have a run rate on what's being expended out of it or what? >> well, and, and I appreciate being able to bring some clarity to what is happening on the crf because we're in a lapse. It did drop by 17 over $17 billion.
▶ 1:18:21And because we're in a lapse, what we have to really look at and we're actually we're not quite there, but we're, um, practicing the inf, um, way of looking at life sustaining, um, life saving activities of what we're doing. And because, um, of that lapse, we have, um, the backload of, uh, reimbursements that we do need to make, but we have to prioritize that.
▶ 1:18:45Just as you said, right now we have an active, um, disaster happening in, um, cnmi and in guam. And, uh, we also have tornadoes that are happening within the, you know, central america. We have, uh, we have a bunch of different things, wildfires that are going on.
▶ 1:19:02And so, um, I'm really encouraging, I guess the other part of congress to serve based on your comments to pass our appropriations, our dhs appropriations overall, because it's not just fema that needs to respond. Um, all my counterparts that are here, coast guard is there. All of us. >> well, we all have that goal. We would like to pass that bill. And we would definitely like to get the drf, uh, replenished.
▶ 1:19:32But if I, if I just understand what you're saying to me correctly, what you're saying to me is your fund is getting drained down, it's dangerously low and you are focusing on actual disaster assistance at the expense of reimbursements. So you're basically carrying the reimbursements for now. You're not you're not reimbursing out. You're you're prioritizing your funding. At this point. >> we're prioritizing the funding, but we're also prioritizing the reimbursements because we know that reimbursements are critical.
▶ 1:20:00Alright, going back to the communities, just as you mentioned, sir. >> okay, so you you're you're fy 27 budget request includes 28.4 billion for drf. Um, and just a basic factual question is that in replacement, uh, for the, uh, hopefully soon to be past, uh, fy 26 dhs bill or is it in addition to that, would you really need to, to be doing the job you need to do to take care of my state, to take care
▶ 1:20:31Of the western pacific, to take care of their tornadoes? Would you need are your projections that you would need both the 26.4 million billion, um, in fy 26 and another 28.4. Is that what you're aiming for? >> yes, sir. That is what we're aiming for based on the assumptions that we have for fy 26. And then based on, um, the assumptions and the amount of disasters that we are anticipating, then the 27 budget does take it up to, um, the, uh, 28.4 billion.
▶ 1:21:04>> okay. Okay. Thank you very much. I yield back. >> thank you, Mr. case. And also let Mr. king know we appreciated his participation as well. Miss henson, how am I doing on that name? >> thank you. Got it. Right, Mr. chairman. >> give me enough swings. Eventually I'll foul one off. The floor is yours. >> thank you, Mr. chairman. Thank you to our witnesses for being here today. I'm going to get right to the questions. Uh, director anderson, I appreciated our conversation, um, ahead of this hearing. And I want to kind of follow up on something that my colleague Mr. newhouse touched on.
▶ 1:21:33And that is, um, some of the cyber threats coming from our adversaries and specifically from iran. Um, and a week ago, cisa issued the notice of iran affiliated cyber threats. Um, so can you describe a little bit the threat landscape, what you can talk about, obviously out of a classified setting, um, what that threshold looks like from both the iranian and bad actors, china and how this is working to mitigate some of those threats before they hit our critical domestic infrastructure. >> yes, congresswoman, thank you very much for that. And I appreciate the conversation the other day as well.
▶ 1:22:02Um, so we are continuing to monitor and build resilience within our critical infrastructure owner, operator, community as well as our federal.gov family and our state, local tribal territorial partners that we collectively engage with in elements of cyber resilience. Now, when we look at our nation state level threat actors, our big four that are typically referenced across the board for national security threats are china, north korea, russia, iran.
▶ 1:22:28Most recently, uh, some of our focus on iran has been on the opportunistic targeting that we see of unsecured devices that are internet accessible, whether it's these programable logic controllers, like we're referenced in our recent joint cybersecurity advisory.
▶ 1:22:43Uh, but the fact of the matter is our nation has a tremendous amount of both information technology and operational technology supporting our critical infrastructure that is open and internet accessible today and is unsecured and is not necessarily taking advantage of modern security practices or even just basic security practices, like changing a default password, uh, that is provided for an exceptionally soft target area for our adversaries to be able to target, irrespective of which nation state threat actor it is, we continue to see significant
▶ 1:23:15Increases that are made and gains that are made by our adversaries within this space. And it continues to evolve every single week. >> so, uh, in the past, we've seen, you know, the reports about volt typhoon and some of the chinese, um, interdictions into our, our critical infrastructure. Are you seeing similar, um, attempts by the iranians at this point? >> um, I can say we can see significant attempts. Um, I would not say they've been successful.
▶ 1:23:37And again, when we look at them as a specific nation state threat actor, they've been very opportunistically focused, uh, where we see unsecured devices that are internet accessible, it provides them with an opportunity to attempt to make connections to those devices. We've been engaged very proactively with our intelligence community partners and with our law enforcement partners to provide pre victim notifications and victim notifications, where appropriate, to engage directly with those owner operators to share that information with them, to help them to secure those devices.
▶ 1:24:04And thankfully, today, you know, with that partnership that we built within this ecosystem to engage with those owners and operators, uh, we haven't seen those impacts actually materialize, which I think is at the end of the day, exactly what we want to be able to see for cisa performing this type of a mission for the american people. >> well, your password should not be password, exclamation point. Right? I think we can all agree everybody needs to have a, a robust security system in place, um, to, to stop those bad actors. Director kerr and I wanted to talk with you next.
▶ 1:24:32We know the secret service does incredible work, obviously to protect our elected leaders, but it goes beyond that. And fraud when you are tackling these, uh, unexcusable, um, efforts, a growing problem, um, whether it's committed by a us citizen or a foreign actor as a member of the china select committee, I wanted to talk a little bit about, um, fighting the chinese transnational criminal organizations that you do. Um, again, they are trying to attack us on, on many of these platforms.
▶ 1:24:55Um, secret service and doj in february received seized $580 million from the scam center that had ties to china, china. Um, so I want to say congratulations on that seizure. That's an incredible effort. So can you speak to the work that cyber task fraud fraud force is doing and the threat landscape that you were seeing by those bad actors like the chinese communist party? >> yes. And thank you for the question. I will tell you, uh, I started with my opening statement.
▶ 1:25:22Our partnerships with our with our local, state and federal partners are critical to what we do, both on the protection side and on the investigative side. Um, that we cannot do it without them. Uh, created recently an advanced threat interdiction unit that deals with those types of investigations. Uh, but they also cross over with our protection side. So they're always working hand in glove. Uh, that's why the investigative side of our agency is so important. It always leads to something or usually leads to something.
▶ 1:25:51When it comes to investigations, even. >> what, half a half $1 billion we're talking about there? So is this something that's, uh, existing? Um, how many of those scans would you say exist out there at any given time? Are you continuing to find things like this? >> we are, we are, uh, even something as recent as this past united nations general assembly, we were able to detect some boxes that were located in and around the un complex, uh, that, you know, start off as a, as a criminal investigation. But when you look at it, that has to deal with our protective mission.
▶ 1:26:22You know, we have at the time, we had 140 world leaders in one concentrated area to include the president of the united states, and that could have easily thrown the 911 call center offline to include, uh, interrupting people's cell phones and collecting data. So that's what we're doing. That's what the, the unit that I created at iu is working both on the investigative and protective side. >> thank you. And I'm out of time. I'll yield back, Mr. chairman. >> thank you, ma'am. Miss escobar, that's three in a row. The floor is yours.
▶ 1:26:52>> thank you, Mr. chairman. And thanks to the ranking member. Um, thanks also to our witnesses for being here to testify and for your service. Mr. anderson, thank you so much for reaching out to my office and for sitting down and answering many of my questions in advance of the hearing. I really appreciate it. Um, today is the 62nd day of the government shutdown that has impacted the department of homeland security.
▶ 1:27:19And I think it's really important for all of us to have some context in mind. Project 2025. I'm on the budget committee. And yesterday, um, russell vogt, the architect of project 2025, came and sat before our budget committee. And in project 2025, there was a call for the privatization of tsa.
▶ 1:27:45We know that the one big, beautiful bill provided $190 billion for the department of homeland security. That funding, uh, was pretty specific, but we've also seen the president move money around routinely within that bill.
▶ 1:28:04He moved money around in order to fund federal law enforcement agents under dhs, but not the support personnel that offer support within cbp and other agencies, not for cisa, not for a number of other agencies within dhs.
▶ 1:28:27The interesting question, I think, is why the president chose to fund some positions and not all positions. I guess that's a question for him. And despite the fact that tsa agents play such an important national security role, he chose not to pay tsa agents until the very end. And even now, there are still support personnel that aren't getting paid.
▶ 1:28:56Last year, um, acting administrator mcneil, when you were before us, I asked explicitly about the um project 2025 plan to privatize the tsa. And you told me that nothing was off the table. The president's budget this year reduces tsa budget by $52 million and begins that privatization process.
▶ 1:29:21I can tell you, the tsa agents in my district are incredibly dedicated, incredibly hard working. They do not want to see tsa privatized. What can you share with the hard working federal workforce within tsa about the efforts to privatize? >> thank you, congresswoman, for that question.
▶ 1:29:44Um, as I mentioned last year, uh, the, the esp program has always been part of the transportation security administration since its founding. Today, we have 20 airports that operate under the esp program. The president's budget looks to advance that public private partnership, uh, and expand that to, to other airports.
▶ 1:30:05And what we saw over the course of the multiple shutdown shutdowns this year is that as call out rates went up, the longer the shutdown went on, we had to put on the table very real considerations as to how we were going to continue to operate. Operating across the 440 airports, um, across the nation. And every day we had to make calls on whether or not there would be call out rates at a level where we might not be able to operate certain airports and checkpoints.
▶ 1:30:31And that is particularly acute for smaller airports that have 1 to 2 lanes. Uh, in many instances where a call out of just a few people would force us to have to shut down that operation. Now, in comparison. >> I'm running out of time. Ma'am, can you give me specifics about the privatization plan? >> yes. Um, and I mentioned to ranking member cuellar that a legislative proposal is being developed. And once that's submitted, we're happy to come in and brief you on it. >> okay.
▶ 1:30:59So there's nothing you can share right now about the proposal that y'all are working on. >> I mean, the president's proposal looks at category three and four airports. >> okay. Well, I, I appreciate that. I, I think it's important to point out to everyone that on our side of the aisle, we asked, uh, our colleagues to fund everything, but what the president chose to fund with, uh, the, the so-called one big,
▶ 1:31:29Beautiful bill the senate passed that bipartisan compromise. Um, I think many of us were ready to vote on that bipartisan compromise on our side of the aisle. No one likes shutdowns. Um, and I look forward to reviewing the privatization plans very closely. Uh, I'm out of time. Thank you, Mr. chairman, I yield back. >> thank you. Ma'am. Um, Mr. guest, the floor is yours. >> thank you, Mr. chairman. Um, to our witnesses. Uh, thank you for being here.
▶ 1:31:58Um, it is frustrating that we are here talking about fy 27 budget when we are now six months into an fy 26, uh, budget process. Uh, and congress has still not been able to resolve that. That is not your problem.
▶ 1:32:16Uh, and I will tell you that our ranking member and our chairman have worked diligently to try to see that we could find a compromise, uh, that would fund your agency. Uh, and so I apologize that your departments have been held hostage, uh, by the political process. Uh, it's not what you deserve. Uh, we deserve to fund your agencies.
▶ 1:32:42We deserve to pay the men and women who place themselves in harm's way to protect us and keep us safe. And even though many of your departments have not been funded or were not funded until the president's executive order, uh, they continue to show up at work. They continued to do their job, uh, and they continue to protect their fellow americans. Uh, director anderson, I want to thank you and your agency.
▶ 1:33:08Uh, during the shutdown, uh, there was a cyber attack at the university of mississippi medical center, our largest research and critical care hospital in our state. Uh, that, uh, cyber attack resulted in surgeries being delayed. It resulted in dialysis treatments, uh, being delayed. It resulted in the loss of critical care for many of the people that I represent.
▶ 1:33:36Uh, but even though your agency wasn't funded, your agency responded, your agency helped identify the source of the attack. Uh, you came in and you helped restore critical systems so that we could once again, uh, treat the people of our state. Uh, so thank you for your response during this time. Uh, director mcneil.
▶ 1:33:57I had the chance when I was home over easter to meet with several of the men and women who, uh, serve under tsa at the jackson international airport. Uh, these are individuals, men and women that I see every week is that I'm flying up, uh, to, uh, washington. I have the chance to visit with them. I have the chance on a weekly basis to thank them for their service. Uh, but I had a chance to meet with them and talk through the situation.
▶ 1:34:26Uh, I will tell you that they are very frustrated, not frustrated with you. Uh, but they are frustrated, uh, with once again being caught up in a government shutdown. Uh, they were extremely happy that the president intervened, that the president issued an executive order, uh, that the president saw that they were not being paid. Uh, and the president responded to that.
▶ 1:34:49Uh, and so, um, I appreciate all that the men and women who work in your department do every day. Uh, I appreciate you coming here having to answer questions. Uh, some questions are, um, questions that are very political. Gotcha questions in nature. Uh, and that's not what you're here to do. Uh, you're here to answer questions. Uh, but you're not here to advocate for politics.
▶ 1:35:17You're here to advocate on behalf of the men and women of the agencies that you serve. Uh, and so, Mr. chairman, I have no questions. Uh, I just wanted to thank these men and women for their service, uh, particularly those that have had direct impact recently on issues that impact, um, my constituents and the great state of mississippi. Uh, and with that, I yield back. >> thank you, Mr. guest. Go, bulldogs. Huh? Mr. kimani, the floor is yours. >> thank you, Mr. chairman. And thank you all for being here.
▶ 1:35:46I want to just piggyback off what, um, representative guest was saying in terms of thanking you for the work that you do and in spite of the circumstances that that, uh, that really this entire body has, has put you through. And when I say entire body, I mean just congress overall, but certainly it's clear that, uh, some, some of my colleagues can say they don't want the shutdown, but they still vote for one and they want the fund. You still vote to not fund you.
▶ 1:36:14So I, I, I'm only in my second term here in congress, but that's one thing that I still don't understand. When people want one thing and vote the other way. Uh, nevertheless, I'm proud of the, the, the votes that we've taken on this to fund you and to make sure that the not just use individuals, obviously, but all the men and women that work in your departments that, that are, that are doing the work.
▶ 1:36:35So with, with, you know, it's just as I started here, uh, express my, my sincere disappointment with the situation that we're in. We have even proposed a cr to go back to that and be able to, to pass that and still, uh, able to pass it out of the house with, with minimal support from the other side. But yet it was bipartisan. And then the senate not being able to do anything with that. It's very disappointing. And, and, and not a, not a reflection of, of where the people want us to be and do.
▶ 1:37:05So let me jump in here real, real quick. Uh, Mr. mcneil, last time you were here, um, we talked a little bit about this, but you had a gentleman named jonathan from from my district. I saw him at the airport on the way here. And, um, obviously now with with this executive order from president trump that has alleviated some of the pain, yet I can imagine that the recruitment efforts of the retention efforts for your, your, uh, work squad is just not at as strong as given that this is the longest shutdown in us history, the second one in
▶ 1:37:36The last six months that your that your team has gone through. Can you speak a little bit on the challenges you're facing on that? >> um, absolutely. Thank you for that question, congressman. So, um, you know, what we saw in the shutdown, uh, from october and november is an attrition rate that was 25% over that same period, the time before. And where we are today is we're eeking up right against that trend. Um, and the longer the shutdown goes, the more unpredictable it's going to be for us to see, um, to assess whether or not we're going to have a spike in attrition. This is unprecedented, right?
▶ 1:38:05So we've never been in the situation before. Um, and we are less than two months away from the fifa world cup. It takes us 4 to 6 months to train up a new officer. And so with any spikes in attrition, it's going to put us in a pretty difficult situation come the summer. >> you know, we we know that well in arizona that not this year, but we were used to hosting super bowls final four tournaments. And, and that those are, uh, high impact on, on what you're facing there. So, um, I'll jump over here on, uh, administrator evans on, on fema.
▶ 1:38:39We have wildfire season approaching in arizona. That is very concerning to me. And the disaster relief fund sitting at roughly 3.36 billion due to the lapse in appropriations. Once fy 26 funding is enacted, do you anticipate needing supplemental resources on top of that? And what are your project obligations? Uh, through the end of the fiscal year.
▶ 1:39:01>> if the fy 26 appropriations goes through, um, we do not anticipate that we would need a supplemental based on the assumptions that we have right now for the calculations and also the backlog. Um, because there is a lot of recovery that we're also doing. Um, and which adds to how those assumptions and those calculations have been done.
▶ 1:39:24Um, if it's a cr, we would have to go back and then also then also look at the assumptions at that point and look at the cr levels that we would get. But right now, sir, as you point out, we're at 3.4 billion. Um, we have wildfires happening. We have a disaster happening over in the pacific. And so we do remain really concerned about our ability to be able to respond. >> yeah.
▶ 1:39:52Concern is, is, is, um, one of the ways to describe this and, uh, thank for what are you doing? I mean, I am also very concerned when you look at the department of homeland security, if anything, to not fund in this country, to not fund that and keep on voting against that is, is beyond me how anybody can responsibly do that. Last question for you. Um, Mr. anderson, uh, the cyber domain continues to grow increasingly dangerous and dynamic, uh, making it even ever more challenging to stay ahead of our adversaries.
▶ 1:40:21At the same time, agencies across the government are being asked to be more efficient, effective, and to do more with less. Director anderson, what are some of his top priorities for the remainder of the fiscal year, and how is this, uh, supporting the recently released white house cybersecurity strategy? >> yes, sir. Thank you very much for the opportunity.
▶ 1:40:41Uh, if you look at the submission, it is, uh, very well represented within the recently released cybersecurity strategy from protecting critical infrastructure to shoring up and modernizing resources associated with our federal network to the workforce initiatives to protection and security related to critical and emerging technologies.
▶ 1:40:59So we are certainly well represented within the president's cybersecurity strategy as we continue to go through the remainder of this year, our focus areas are going to be continuing to build up and shore up our resilience on the federal infrastructure, our infrastructure, our partnership with state and locals, the risk reduction measures that we're trying to take with critical infrastructure, in particular, with the focus on where we can see the most significant risk reduction impact on those areas that impact national security, defense, critical infrastructure, public health and safety, and continuity of our nation's economy.
▶ 1:41:30>> thank you so much. Again, thank you for being here. And I hate the situation that you're all in that your departments are in and that the people that work for us and you are in as well, just due to political games. Mr. chairman, I yield back. >> thank you sir. Um. So I didn't make an opening statement. I didn't ask any questions. So here's the here's the bushwhack. I'm going to make some concluding remarks. Okay. Henry. >> you got my name right? That's right.
▶ 1:42:02>> well, it could be harry in a minute. So listen, you folks are all pros, okay? And and so as we sit here and talk about it and, and in the situation we're in, rightly or wrongly, the members of this committee, I think are speaking just for myself, have a lot of pride in the work that we did in fiscal year 26. Those guys asked for stuff. They got stuff we asked for stuff we got. None of us got everything we wanted.
▶ 1:42:29But we, you know, it's kind of an old fashioned concept, you know, let's work together and see what we can come up with. And we did. And that that bill ended up being the one that, you know, wrong place, wrong time, whatever. Let's forget about all that under the under the bridge stuff. Um, and all the talking point olympics that's going on now in absolute proliferation on both sides. This committee's bill is supposed to be on june 10th in front of the full committee.
▶ 1:42:58We're supposed to report it to that full committee on june 5th. You don't have to be a calendar expert. Well, you know, you got to do this and you got to do that and all. It's like, well, guess what? That's not far behind the well, you got to vote for reconciliation. Whatever you folks all know, it's like reconciliation is kind of the rule over here. The side with the most votes wins and that's it. And well, the senate's going to do some great.
▶ 1:43:25Our aim is to have a homeland bill to say you want to do reconciliation in the senate. Here's your homeland component. It's not going to have zeros for customs or border patrol in it. That's fine. Okay. We're going to meet like legislators used to do and say, okay, henry, what's your deal? What do you need? What do you need, Mr. king or Mr.
▶ 1:43:47Case, whatever we're calling him that day, you know, all that sort of stuff and come up with a bill that's like we can defend in front of our own appropriations committee and say, here you go. You want to do something on a partizan basis. Here's the work of republicans in the senate. And listen, we might get carried out on our shields, but we're not going to not get in the game on that. We learned a few things from the last time, and one of them is, boy, I sure hope everything goes well outside the room.
▶ 1:44:17Um, we're either going to get carried out on our shield or we're going to go, here you go. You want to put it on a partizan vote in front of the senate. This is the work of the homeland subcommittee, democrats and republicans. Why am I telling you that? I'm not telling you that. So it's like some I'm telling you that because, first of all, we asked the folks in the morning, if we ask for something, we want an answer in 48 hours. And you're like, hey, I got a full time job doing. I can't babysit you guys.
▶ 1:44:45And it's like, if you got the answer, give it to us. If in 48 hours you're saying, hey, here's where I'm at, here's what I can give you the answer, but do not do crickets. Please be the pros that I know you are because I'm not telling you like, hey, that'd be nice to have. And we want to be tough, folks. I'm telling you that because we're marking it up on the fifth, which is not that far away and the 10th.
▶ 1:45:11And by the way, if they're looking for a proposal, that's not no offense to my colleagues at the north end of the building. And I know congresswoman hansen, you aspire to that. Maybe you can give them some of your, you know, whatever. Um, but anyhow, um, yeah, she yields back her time. Um, but, but, but anyhow, that's the deal. So everybody's like, you know, I had this saying when we went through this stuff last year, we won't surprise you. Don't surprise us. I'll renew that this year.
▶ 1:45:40We won't surprise you. Don't surprise us. This ought to be collaborative. And so real quick, just off the top of my head, admiral, you guys are great. Love you. I can tell you that it was more than a phenomenal shock. And it wasn't you to find out that this committee said, okay, we're going to give you 75 million bucks or something for for command and control aircraft. And one day we got a note, oh, by the way, that went to, uh, 210 million, it tripled.
▶ 1:46:10And it's like, oh, but it's already done. By the way, that ain't what we're looking for. And I know. Oh, well, you know, the secretary had money under the big, beautiful bill and all that other sort of stuff. Even if you're like, hey, you're not going to like this. Here's we don't need any more of that.
▶ 1:46:28I can tell you, uh, that for the secret service, it's like, we want to know that you're doing great things with the unmanned stuff, and we want to know you guys are doing great things and have solved problems with who's talking to who on the same net. And you know, the problems I'm talking about. And that's not because it's going to make a great sex and violence ad. It's we're trying to do the blue collar work for the agencies that have come up. We want to know the suggestion for because like, well, just turn it over and do it for three years.
▶ 1:46:58Really that that worked, you know, well, let's just shut down appropriations for whatever. And listen, I don't live to be an appropriator, but it's like saying we're going to abolish article one for three years. No disrespect. I know it wasn't any of your ideas. It's like we want to give you your stuff in a in a in a consistent, predictable, sustainable way. That's our job. That's what we owe to you. So how do we solve that problem? And there's ways like somebody better come up with something.
▶ 1:47:27Just, just pre-fund me for three years. Really? Why don't you prepay me for three years? You'd be dumber than hell to do that. I can speak only for myself. That there's no way in hell. I believe that cutting your agency by the amount that it's been cut is responsible going forward. I don't want you to respond to that, because I know how some of that stuff used to work under the old secretarial administration. So the record should reflect you did not respond.
▶ 1:47:54I'm just telling you, we're going to be looking for a way to go, hey, how do we look ourselves in the eye and say we understand what's going on with china and russia and whoever the heck else? And we want to be able to look people in the eye and say, we've got our civilian cybersecurity folks on duty and doing their job. And by the way, we crossed our fingers and hope that, oh, we're just reorganizing. It'll be fine. That dog ain't going to hunt anymore. Okay. Thank you for your work.
▶ 1:48:21There are there is room for reforms in fema. You've got some great questions on this. Like obviously funding in terms of it shouldn't take forever after people have spent all their money on interest and stuff like that. And so if there are solutions, it's like, please feel free to share. It ought to scare the hell out of you that nine people like me to start are going to make operational decisions for you. You better give us some help. Otherwise we're going to guess and nobody should sleep well with that.
▶ 1:48:51So with that, and by the way, that was supposed to be a pep talk. Remember the. Yeah. Thank you for your service. Um, so we got the 48 hour thing. If you can't make it, um, then tell us. But at the same time, tell us, hey, listen, this is when I can get you something or if the paper trail sucks, which it often does, says I'd be happy to do a phone call or whatever to see if that'll do.
▶ 1:49:18It does not need to be a staff administrative, formal, triplicate action, whatever the heck. Now, I know you don't work for us, but we are part of the team. And so I think what we're looking for is to be treated like that. Um, thank you for being thank you for your resilience and also your ability to change on the fly. When I came in here and started to make sure we were going to do get done in time instead of like, well, have a nice day or whatever.
▶ 1:49:45Look forward to working with you folks and producing something that solves problems and lets all you guys basically go back to your troops and say, you know what, things are going to be okay, we got some stuff going and also give you something, hopefully, that all the political geniuses outside of this room can go, oh, if it funds them.
▶ 1:50:08Um, and, and we got some people that will vote for it, then let's all go over and be bullies to the senate and tell them to get off their keisters and go for it. We're adjourned.