▶ 0:18:26>> to consider for nominations. The first is pedro allende to be under secretary for science & technology, U.S. department of homeland security. He serves as the secretary of florida's department of management. He previously served in several roles in the executive brands including deputy assistant secretary at the department of homeland security.
▶ 0:18:52Second is sean plankey to be director of cybersecurity and infrastructure security, U.S. department of homeland security . He served as senior advisor of the department. He's a veteran of the coast guard and served with the department of energy during first trump administration.
▶ 0:19:11Next is christopher fox to be the inspector general of the intelligence community, office of the director of national intelligence. He is a veteran of the air force and operated his own business previously. The next is edward o'connell to be the associate judge at the D.C. superior court and Mr.
▶ 0:19:37O'connell serves as the chief of staff and general counsel and the offices of the inspector general for the united states nuclear regulatory commission and the nuclear safety board prior to that, he was a career prosecutor serving in the D.C. U.S. attorney's office as an assistant state attorney in baltimore, maryland. What did -- witnesses have submitted statements and I asked for unanimous letters of support for the nominees.
▶ 0:20:05Without objection, those will be entered into the record. In the interest of time, I will forgo opening remarks but I will recognize the ranking member, senator peters.
▶ 0:20:17Sen. Peters: Thank you, Mr. chairman. I am relieved to see the nominee to run the office of special counsel has been pulled from today's hearing. The office of special counsel is an independent, nonpartisan agency that investigates allegations of prohibitive personnel practices involving federal employees including whistleblower retaliation.
▶ 0:20:48Sen. Peters: Mr. ingrassia is not qualified given his long bigoted statements. And I asked to formally withdraw his nomination. We have a number of nominees for critical roles in the department of homeland security, intelligence community and courts in the nation's capital before us today. Sean playing sean plaplankey is up for the director of cybersecurity infrastructure.
▶ 0:21:18Sen. Peters: This has been gutted by the trump administration. It is the backbone of our cybersecurity system perfecting -- protecting security. It is the only civilian industry with the authority to carry out this critical work. Since president trump's first term coming his work to decimate it, most recently slashing the workforce by more than 30% and eliminating key leadership positions.
▶ 0:21:48Sen. Peters: The administration has also proposed a nearly 20% budget cut for the agency for fiscal year 2026. Cyber attacks are one of the most significant national security threats are nation faces and I am extremely concerned by this administration's actions that are undercutting their capacity to defend our nation great we are also considering the nomination of christopher fox to be the inspector general of the intelligence community, a role that demands full independence and credibility in this nomination also deserves
▶ 0:22:21Sen. Peters: Scrutiny. His fox to accept a political appointment in the office of the director of national intelligence even after he was nominated to serve as inspector general gives me pause. Not only is he a senior advisor to the director he is currently running the information management office which handles foia, declassification and record retention issues, all matters that would likely need to have independent review from the eventual confirmed inspector
▶ 0:22:52Sen. Peters: Director. We also have pedro allende to be under secretary for science & technology directorate. This is critical to make sure we have the technology to carry out homeland security missions for the threats we face are getting more complicated each day and dhs must have the right tools to address those threats and we have edward o'connell nominated to be the associate judge of the superior court.
▶ 0:23:23Sen. Peters: It functions as a state-level trial court in the nation's capitol. It handles of the highest in the country. Every day, judges on the superior court decide matters that impact freedom, livelihoods and safety of individuals and families across the district of columbia.
▶ 0:23:47Sen. Peters: Currently, 15 of the 62 seats on the court are vacant with two more judges set to retire in september. These vacancies delay cases and play -- place series burden on the current judges. I'm glad to see the administration is moving forward with nominees for this important role and will help carry out justice in our nation's capital cap. I look forward to -- nations cap itol.
▶ 0:24:18Sen. Peters: Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:24:19Chair Paul: It is the practice to swearing witnesses. Will nominees stand and raise your right hand? Do you swear that the testimony you will give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god?
▶ 0:24:36Chair Paul: It is a standard practice of this committee of the chairman to ask the nominees the following question, do you agree without reservation to comply with any request or summons to appear and testify before any duly committed constituted committee of congress if you are confirmed? Thank you. You may be seated. We will not proceed to questions were each member will have five minutes. We will start with senator moreno.
▶ 0:25:06Sen. Moreno: Congratulations to the four of you for this nomination to serve our country and thank you for your willingness to serve, that is a big sacrifice and certainly all of you will be doing a great service to your country. Mr. plankey, I enjoyed meeting with you and our conversation for the good news is you are not completely insane, which already makes you dramatically more qualified than your predecessor. A question for you would be, how are you going to restore the agency's reputation?
▶ 0:25:37Sen. Moreno: Over the last four years of the biden administration, we saw an agency that should have had the total trust and spect of the american public deteriorated into a spying agency on american citizens. How will you restore the confidence of americans in that agency?
▶ 0:25:52Mr. Plankey: Senator, thank you for the question and thank you for the opportunity to be here. I am extremely honored to be here and have the opportunity, if confirmed, to leave the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency.
▶ 0:26:10Mr. Plankey: If confirmed as the leader of cisa, I would focus on the missions that this body tasked it with, which is securing the federal executive branch and securing the critical infrastructure of the united states.
▶ 0:26:30Sen. Moreno: There are a lot of acronyms and I've only threw 10,000 of them and I think we have 200,000 acronyms to go. Can you explain, for the record and for my colleagues, the difference between cisa the agency would you are going to restore back to original and cisa 2015, which is set to expire in 2015 and what the implications are of not having that renewed and how that is very, very different than the agency that we just discussed?
▶ 0:27:01Mr. Plankey: Cisa, the agency, is mandated to follow the congressional direction to secure the federal computing executive branch and the computer systems for the executive branch and also protect the critical infrastructure of the united states, often thought of as the nations cybersecurity defense agency.
▶ 0:27:28Mr. Plankey: Cisa 2015 with the 10 year authorization of information sharing. That was critical for protecting liabilities of sharing information for a business to business and business to the government when a business has cyber security breach for concern.
▶ 0:27:49Mr. Plankey: They then could share that information to protect themselves and protect others without experiencing liability for sharing that information.
▶ 0:28:02Sen. Moreno: What would be the implications if that was left to expire?
▶ 0:28:05Mr. Plankey: If that was let to expire, in particular in the financial sector, who doesn't some of the largest and most prevalent amount of information sharing, they would experience difficulties in sharing and community protection of information security and other industries would as well.
▶ 0:28:29Mr. Plankey: I would note, senator, that secretary ne secretary noem supports the reauthorization of cisa 2015.
▶ 0:28:45Sen. Moreno: What are you doing now?
▶ 0:28:49Mr. Plankey: Director in the coast guard.
▶ 0:28:55Sen. Moreno: What is the morale on the coast guard knowing that the one big beautiful bill gave them historic funding?
▶ 0:29:00Mr. Plankey: The morale in the coast guard is high right now. They received the largest amount of funding, 24.9 billion dollars to restore airplanes, ships, infrastructure, piers, and training centers for the coast guard.
▶ 0:29:22Mr. Plankey: They did recruitment numbers up putting 5200 men and women in the united states through training which is an all-time high that we have not seen since 2002.
▶ 0:29:35Sen. Moreno: It is nice to have a chief focus on the vital role the coast guard plays in grad to see those -- and glad to see those numbers coming up. And representing ohio, a big presence there. Great to see we made that the historic investment in the coast guard. I wish more of my colleagues on the other side I'll had voted with us on that bill and that gave the historic funding.
▶ 0:29:59Chair Paul: Senator blumenthal.
▶ 0:30:02Sen. Blumenthal: Thanks, chairman. Welcome to all of the nominees. Thank you for serving our country. Mr. plankey, I have a couple of straightforward yes or no questions. Was the 2020 election rigged and stolen?
▶ 0:30:21Mr. Plankey: Senator, thank you for your question.
▶ 0:30:28Sen. Blumenthal: Is pretty much a yes or no question.
▶ 0:30:29Mr. Plankey: Thank you for your question, senator. I have not reviewed any of the cybersecurity of the 2020.
▶ 0:30:37Senator Blumenthal: You don't have an opinion on whether the 2020 election was rigged and stolen?
▶ 0:30:42Mr. Plankey: My opinion on the election as an an american private citizen is probably not really relevant, but the electoral college did confirm president joe biden into the office.
▶ 0:30:59Sen. Blumenthal: Were the "widespread election malfeasance and serious vulnerabilities within the voting machines" that changed the election outcome?
▶ 0:31:08Mr. Plankey: Senator come as you know, elections are state-run entities and many different sectors across the 50 states of the united states pursue different methods to secure their own elections.
▶ 0:31:26Sen. Blumenthal: Mr. planky, there ought to be no hesitation in your answer to this question. The agency that you've been nominated to lead, cisa, along with the entire national security and intelligence committee agree that the election was secure.
▶ 0:31:53Sen. Blumenthal: You are undermining the confidence of the nation in the election apparatus at a time when that credibility is as important as ever when you are about to leave an agency that has responsibility for that security, state and election officers across the country ran audits and examinations and on a bipartisan basis affirmed that president trump lost the election.
▶ 0:32:24Sen. Blumenthal: He won the next election. The answer to my question is no. The 2020 election was not rigged and stolen. There were no widespread election malfeasance in serious vulnerabilities, even though president trump said there were now. I know it is a contentious topic , but your role in the agency is to be above politics.
▶ 0:32:56Sen. Blumenthal: If you can't tell us with conviction that those elections are secure, I have doubts about your ability to lead this agency. If president trump comes to you and demands that cisa falsely claimed that the 2026 or 2028 elections were rigged, what will you do?
▶ 0:33:20Mr. Plankey: Senator, as a cybersecurity professional, these are state-run elections. I have not reviewed the cybersecurity posture.
▶ 0:33:35Sen. Blumenthal: With all due respect --
▶ 0:33:37Mr. Plankey: That is like a doctor diagnosing someone over the television.
▶ 0:33:43Sen. Blumenthal: It is like a doctor who has a patient come to him and is responsible for doing the diagnosis. It may be a second opinion, what it actually is the determinative opinion because you are the head of the federal agency that oversees the security of our election system for the entire nation, and your telling me, in effect, you are just going to dodge, jump ship, evade that
▶ 0:34:17Sen. Blumenthal: Responsibility. I think that answer is completely unsatisfactory.
▶ 0:34:19Mr. Plankey: Senator, I did not say I would dodge or evade any of my responsibility. I would remind you, senator, that cisa is a consent based cybersecurity agency and cybersecurity at cisa's posture to respond and support every state across the united states and we will gladly do our due diligence to support those states.
▶ 0:34:46Sen. Blumenthal: You seem not to understand this funds -- response ability of cisa. People turn to this agency for unbiased, objective, science evidence based expert information and you are, in effect, saying that if president trump comes to you and says, I want you to say this election was rigged, you're going to yield to him. Thank you.
▶ 0:35:13Mr. Plankey: -- chair paul: when we talk about elections and whether or not they are rigged or not, I don't and one party or the other is particularly immune to this. There are still people who believe that the mafia conspired in cook county in 1960. There is some evidence of it. It is a long time tradition for both parties to question the other party in elections.
▶ 0:35:40Mr. Plankey: I will say that in 2016 when donald trump won the first time, hillary clinton, to this day says he was an illegitimate president. Jimmy carter said he was illegitimate. For the very beginning, they try to delegitimize president trump. I was a it is no different and in fact if we are going to criticize donald trump for questioning the 2020 election, we should be equally critical of hillary clinton questioning the 2016 election.
▶ 0:36:09Mr. Plankey: Dozens and dozens of quotes and interviews. Hillary clinton to the state is unrepentant in this. But it is worse than that but it is worse. But that ended up doing is using the apparatus of government to try to delegitimize trump. They use the apparatus of government to spread something that was a falsehood that the russians got the election for donald trump and that he wasn't deserving and the people didn't vote for him, the russians did this.
▶ 0:36:37Mr. Plankey: It turns out that all of the intelligence reports saying the russians, of course they try to metal, -- meddle, they always do but it was deemed not consequential. Some at the top of the intelligence community decided, well, we think donald trump's illegitimate and we will spread this throughout government. There basically was a conspiracy using government and using the power of the intelligence agencies.
▶ 0:37:05Mr. Plankey: For people who complain that donald trump complained about the 2020 election, my goodness, the obama administration planted misinformation throughout government purposely and planted it in lots of different places. At one point, john brennan is asked the question by the analysts he has selected, this information, this steel dossier, is opposition research and is unchecked, unverified.
▶ 0:37:38Mr. Plankey: And brennan's fluid response said yeah, it sure sounds like they could be true. This is the head of the cia saying this. They got together and really cooked up for something to delegitimize. I really am not that interested in hearing oh, donald trump says it and will do it with the election wasn't rigged.
▶ 0:38:01Mr. Plankey: "rigged," by molly hemingway and goes into the great detail the democrats' disregard or does anyone remember that the democrats voted against seating electors. They said the electors are seeking. I said it wasn't a valid argument.
▶ 0:38:22Mr. Plankey: Democrats, including one of the ones who worked, raskin, to impeach the president come heat voted not to see the electors in 2016 because he thought the election was rigged. For goodness sakes, let's put this to rest. Both parties have accused each other of malfeasance and both parties have accused the elections are being rigged. Let's just try to move forward.
▶ 0:38:42Sen. Blumenthal: Nothing you set of solves this witness of the responsibility to answer these basic questions about the court responsibility of the agency he has been nominated to lead.
▶ 0:38:55Chair Paul: This has nothing to do with the elections in the state run elections.
▶ 0:39:02Sen. Reed: . . >> thank you to our nominees for being here today. I know this is not an easy process and we appreciate you standing ready to answer questions and to your families who are here with you and supporting you, not only today but after you are confirmed in these incredibly important roles . Public service is not easy and we are grateful for the service to the country.
▶ 0:39:32Sen. Reed: I would like to recognize, we did not do introductions for efficiency's sake. If we were doing them, I would have probably introduced one of our nominees today, pedro allende who has run the department of management services in florida that has business, technology and workforce and oversaw a $1 billion budget and workforce of nearly 1000 employees and previously served as deputy assistant secretary for
▶ 0:40:03Sen. Reed: Infrastructure, risk and resilience for the office of strategy, policy implants at the U.S. department of homeland security. In this role he led policy development to protect U.S. critical infrastructure against cyber, physical and natural threats while overseeing policy efforts to increase federal and local preparedness response and recovery capabilities.
▶ 0:40:24Sen. Reed: He has also served as a member of our floridai have no doubt, f of our floridai have no doubt, , you will once again serve the united states of america with great honor and we appreciate you stepping up. Mr. allende, for the position which you are nominated to serve it now, it will be responsible for integrating cutting-edge technology and reliable scientific research to support the department's mission of keeping america safe.
▶ 0:40:53Sen. Reed: Can you give this committee an example of how your role currently as florida's department -- secretary of the floor did from another management services, you would utilize new technology to better serve and protect the people of florida?
▶ 0:41:09Mr. Allende: Thank you for your kind words. I'm under for the nomination by president trump in this committee's due diligence and to my family and my wife behind the especially. In florida, we have had the great opportunity to do interesting things is how I would describe it. We have had the opportunity to work not just within government but also expand outward.
▶ 0:41:34Mr. Allende: The department currently has research agreements with the university of florida, south florida, fiu and idaho national laboratory to fill in the gaps were state governments are not well-equipped to provide solutions. Some of our innovative work has involved working on things such as assessments of leadfree -- levee and infrastructure security.
▶ 0:42:03Mr. Allende: We have a project coming up projected for next year with idaho national lab and florida national university -- international university to assess battery technology and including the issue that has recently been in the news about inverters on solar panels. This is just a few of the examples.
▶ 0:42:22Mr. Allende: One example of just leveraging existing technology has been during hurricane ian in southwest florida, the government and our team as directed ended up in addition to the traditional effort of bringing mobile devices from the three telcom care is to reestablish medications, we felt there was a need to expand that and we had the largest deployment of star linked satellites 56 hours after
▶ 0:42:52Mr. Allende: Landfall to restore conductivity to floridians to begin the recovery process. Grocery stores, pharmacies to establish communications to manage inventories and bring that service to floridians in need.
▶ 0:43:06Sen. Moody: Thank you and we look forward to you serving the united states of america. A lot of leaders coming out of the great free state of florida and we are proud of you. I would like to attend my attention to ed o'connell, welcome. You are nominated to serve on the superior court on the district of -- at the district of columbia.
▶ 0:43:27Sen. Moody: As a former judge myself for over a decade, I know what goes into it serving in a trial court when you are dealing with criminal, civil, family, probate matters, very important to this country in the jurisdiction you will be serving specifically is efficiency in court, the delay sometimes denies justice to the litigants before a pair what is your approach for maintaining efficiency in court as a judge?
▶ 0:43:54Mr. O'Connell: The superior court of the district of columbia is extraordinarily overburdened. There aren't enough judges on that court to move the caseload as it needs to be moved.
▶ 0:44:11Mr. O'Connell: I view my role as a new judge on that court as one of the most important things I would have to do which is managed the caseload expeditiously without sacrificing thoroughness with regard to any one individual case.
▶ 0:44:32Mr. O'Connell: I think the unique training I've had enables me to succeed at that role in that training was being an assistant united states attorney in the superior court system for almost 20 years. Part of my job as an ausa was to manage an extraordinarily high caseload without sacrificing the individualized attention due to any particular case.
▶ 0:45:02Sen. Moody: Thank you, sir.
▶ 0:45:07Sen. Peters: Mr. fox, you wrote in your opening statement that you will be "independent, impartial, and fair," which as we discussed in my office is a core responsibility of the job of independent counsel.
▶ 0:45:26Sen. Peters: And yet, you accepted a senior advisor position in the office of the director of national intelligence from director gabbard, after you knew she had put your name forward for the role of inspector general's, and you are now also acting chief of the information management office at od and office at od ani.
▶ 0:45:53Sen. Peters: How can we in the intelligence community trust that you will indeed be independent, impartial and fair when you chose to work in the very office that you were nominated to oversee?
▶ 0:46:06Mr. Fox: Thank you for the question and thank you for the time to to meet with me. Being truthful and being independent on my top priorities as an expenditure -- x -- inspector general. I was chosen for the roles because of my reputation for doing so. I only took this role as senior advisor, which in reality is just a title.
▶ 0:46:34Mr. Fox: My duties have been to perform as acting chief of the information management office which is overseeing the release of records to the public or foia request, privacy act, any number of other groups, and I am dedicated to transparency in building public trust.
▶ 0:46:48Mr. Fox: I would like to add, since day one, the entire leadership team has understood the importance of that independence and for that purpose, I have been properly insulated from any personnel decisions or significant organizational decisions, to the extent that if I'm in a meeting in one of these topics arises, I will literally leave the room and they have respected and supported that effort.
▶ 0:47:12Sen. Peters: You shared with me the same information in your office but I still think it raises questions about judgment as to why you would take that position, given your background. As a -- as senator moreno highlighted with his questions, cisa 2015 is a critical law that provides liability protections to businesses that share threat information with the federal government and each other.
▶ 0:47:39Sen. Peters: These authorities play a key role in coordinating public-private responses to cyber incidents, including the recent typhoon attacks. I am pleased with the insert you gather to my -- gave to my colleague.
▶ 0:47:56Sen. Peters: It is clear you fully support the reauthorization of that legislation as to how critical it is and I understand the secretary fully supports the reauthorization of that as well could we are headed toward the deadline at the end of september, so we have to take action before that time. Mr.
▶ 0:48:15Sen. Peters: Chairman, I know you and I have spoken about this on numerous occasions and look forward to working with you on the weeks ahead as we try to get legislation passed to make sure those authorities are continuing to be there. So thank you for your support. If confirmed, I would hope to deliver a bill that allows you to continue to work with all of the partners necessary to provide cybersecurity in this country. Mr.
▶ 0:48:41Sen. Peters: Fox, I am very concerned about signal gate, both sharing on the messaging app and the implication that those records have not been retained as they should have been. In our meeting on tuesday, you reiterated that nothing classified was shared because the defense secretary, who is the original classification authority of the information, has confirmed the messages were not classified.
▶ 0:49:08Sen. Peters: And yet, just yesterday after you and I met, the washington post reported that the information secretary hegseth shared came from an email worked secret. You know exactly what that means. Secret is classified information that should not be shared with foreign allies.
▶ 0:49:26Sen. Peters: My question is will it be your stance if confirmed that the secretary can simply retroactively say that operational battle plans involving men and women in uniform are not classified and thus try to avoid the consequences of sharing them in an unclassified manner?
▶ 0:49:43Mr. Fox: Thank you for the question. When we review information for classification, part that involves eight line by line review. If the document is marked secret, it is likely there are portions within that document that may be unclassified entirely.
▶ 0:50:04Mr. Fox: I can't speak to this because I am not aware of the facts and circumstances and national defense information and dod information would originate from dod and thus dod would be the appropriate entity for that. If confirmed, nobody is above the law and I'm committed to conducting every single activity at the inspector general's office in an impartial manner.
▶ 0:50:31Chair Paul: Senator scott.
▶ 0:50:35Sen. Scott: First I would like to thank all of you for being here. Congratulations on your nominations. Our country faces numerous threats in the work you are nominated to the central president trump's mission to protect american lives and infrastructure against communist china, russia and more.
▶ 0:50:52Sen. Scott: Under both the obama and biden presidencies, we saw the intelligence community and other agencies we can and weaponized against its own citizens, putting americans at risk and saw politicians put in the undermine the credibility at the expense of hard-working americans. Thankfully, we have president trump back in office.
▶ 0:51:11Sen. Scott: He and his administration take the threat that xi jinping and others post our country very seriously and he knows to the experience of intelligence agencies being weaponized for political purposes, with no one being held accountable. Let me ask the first question, we have known for years that the biden and obama administrations weaponized every element in the government against president trump, including the intelligence committee.
▶ 0:51:37Sen. Scott: Tulsi gabbard released over 100 declassified documents last week that she said provided overwhelming evidence of a treasonous conspiracy by senior obama administration officials to undermine president trump's 2016 election. If confirmed, how would you prioritize the actions of the intelligence agencies during the 2016 transition and how would you share the full independence when investigating current and former senior government officials?
▶ 0:52:07Mr. O'Connell: -- Mr. fox: thank you for the question. There is a lot involved in restoring trust. If confirmed, I will take every action as appropriate to properly investigate or conduct audits and inspections as needed , aligned with the national intelligence priorities as best we can and consistent with congressionally directed actions.
▶ 0:52:34Sen. Scott: , based on what Ms. gabbard put out, what would you do to advocate any weaponization of the intelligence committee?
▶ 0:52:39Mr. Fox: That is a complex answer and I appreciate it. Step one would be a review and if confirmed to understand the roles and responsibilities with the office and make sure we have the right people in the right positions with the right tools.
▶ 0:52:57Mr. Fox: It has the authority to oversee all 18 elements and I work with the forum to ensure we are working together as appropriate and ensuring that the watchers are conducting their oversight in each element of the ic appropriately.
▶ 0:53:15Sen. Scott: And make them use energy officials found secret communication from the chinese used for solar panels and wind turbines and found in batteries, heat pumps and electrical chargers. The biden administration recklessly rescinded the executive order from president trump to dan chinese procurement -- to ban chinese procurement in the grid.
▶ 0:53:46Sen. Scott: I filed a bill to codify that. Does that, you need -- chinese communist party have a kill switch in the use of chinese renewable infrastructure like solar panels and chinese batteries and how do we combat this to make sure we are not procuring ccp made energy the structure?
▶ 0:54:06Mr. Allende: Thank you for the question. I'm not at present in the department of homeland security. I don't currently have any insights into that matter. If confirmed, I look forward to studying that very deeply with the experts at the directorate of science and technology. Based on public reports, that is a concern we have had in florida and have taken action.
▶ 0:54:30Mr. Allende: We had started some work with idaho national laboratory to assess battery technology which will include the inverters and solar panders -- panels. We looked at the levees in the florida legislature in the 2023 session banned the use of chinese drones which our department effectuated regulations to ban those radios were ultimately sent to the university of south florida for testing for those very issues
▶ 0:55:00Mr. Allende: That you are describing paired I am not aware with the results of those tests.
▶ 0:55:08Sen. Scott: Thank you -- Mr.
▶ 0:55:15Plankey: We worked together on this very issue. We are both concerned and I am concerned and if confirmed, it will be a priority of mine to remove all chinese intrusions, exploitations or infestations into the supply chains. I look forward to working with you on that.
▶ 0:55:40Sen. Hassan: I think you come Mr. chair and ranking member peters for holding this important meeting and I think all of the nominees -- thank all of the nominees for your willingness to serve and congratulations to you and your families and I think your families for their support. I will start with a simple question and we will go right down the line. If you are directed by the president to take an action that would violate the law, would you follow the directive for the law.
▶ 0:56:11Mr. Allende: If confirmed, I find it very unlikely that the president or anyone acting on his behalf would instruct me to break the law. I don't believe that would ever happen. Supple hassan but if it did?
▶ 0:56:26Mr. Allende: It would -- if it did I would consult with counsel as to the interpretation of the law and if it persists or for some reason I disagreed with the interpretation, I would resign. Simple hassan are you committed to following the law or not? Forget for the minute who instructs you to follow the law or whether there is a difference in opinion, are you committed to following the law or not?
▶ 0:56:59Mr. Allende: I am.
▶ 0:57:01Mr. Plankey: Thank you, senator. I share the process that I don't believe the president would ever ask me to violate the law but I do believe in upholding the rule of all.
▶ 0:57:16Mr. Fox: In my capacity and if confirmed I will always follow the law.
▶ 0:57:22Mr. O'Connell: As a judge on the D.C. superior court, my only job would be to follow the law and I couldn't anticipate any circumstance where anyone, the president of the united states or anybody else would try to influence me to do anything other than follow the law. Simple hassan I appreciate your commitment to following the law.
▶ 0:57:44Mr. O'Connell: For those of you who said out loud you do not believe or expect the president of the united states to instruct you to break the law, that reflects a disconnection from reality that concerns me. I know you may have to say those things to satisfy the president or the people watching on his behalf but it is an extraordinary statement given events. Mr. plankey, as you know, cisa state and local governments to protect critical assets.
▶ 0:58:15Mr. O'Connell: One of the key programs that supports this is the state and local cybersecurity grant program. This program provides grants to state and local governments to bolster their cybersecurity and better protect americans from hostile actors and criminals. Unfortunately, this program runs out of money in september. My question to you is, do you support continued funding for the state and local cybersecurity grant program and what would the impact be should congress failed to fund it?
▶ 0:58:41Mr. Plankey: Thank you for the question. I absolutely support state and local grant programs for cybersecurity. I think there are many rural areas in america and cisa exists to support all americans across the united states in one of the best ways to do that is through the state and local grant program.
▶ 0:59:11Sen. Scohassan: Many small towns don't have the resources and the bigger impact is not necessarily on each town or county but also the weakest link in cyber and it impacts everybody. I appreciate working with you on that. Mr.
▶ 0:59:25Sen. Scohassan: Allende, come under the 2024 dhs ai roadmap, the science and technology directorate is sought -- set to build out infrastructure needed to evaluate the risks that terrorists and criminals could misuse powerful ai models.
▶ 0:59:42Sen. Scohassan: Just the past week, openai released a new model that for the first time they classified as having a "high capability of producing biological harm, including dangerous pathogens." given these very real risks to national security, I would like to hear you about how you would prioritize specific types of ai risk as undersecretary of science and technology and how would you approach that prioritization?
▶ 1:00:08Mr. Allende: Thank you for the question. For background, I am an attorney and manager. I have a very strong technical interest and I study the material but I am not a scientist or engineer. If confirmed, however, the director of science and technology has a number of experts within that I would consult on this matter.
▶ 1:00:31Mr. Allende: I can say that the kinds of models matter, whether large or small language models opened and closed. It gets very granular. I'm happy to work with you and your team to discuss each of those options and how each one could be managed in a very granular way.
▶ 1:00:48Sen. Hassan: On are you concerned about the risks -- are you concerned about the risks that ai poses?
▶ 1:00:56Mr. Allende: I am in florida we have designed a policy to design those risks, both on privacy aspects of what can be -- and disclose to a model and how to responsibly use it.
▶ 1:01:11Sen. Hassan: You must have some expense in prioritizing the risks you are looking at. This is urgent. This is a national security and public safety matter and it is an urgent one. We've got openai saying they now have an ai that is highly capable of producing biological harm. So this is on our doorstep and a national security issue.
▶ 1:01:39Sen. Hassan: Do you feel urgency about it and what is your plan to make sure you are focused on the most serious threats?
▶ 1:01:44Mr. Allende: I absolutely feel urgency behind it. The scope of what the department of management services and the director of science and technology are very different and I can't relate one to the other. If confirmed, simple hassan how are you confirmed -- qualify for the job? -- several hassan how are you qualified for the job? -- Sen.
▶ 1:02:11Mr. Allende: Hassan: on -- Sen. hassan: o how are you qualified for the job?
▶ 1:02:17Mr. Allende: I worked with scientists, engineers, data analysts to bring those methodologies to bear on the problems we had at the department of management services. I am happy and comfortable working with people much smarter than I and enabling them to do the job they need to do.
▶ 1:02:36Sen. Hassan: I am over time. I will follow up but perhaps I can make this observation. This isn't necessarily about how smart people are, although that helps but this is about whether technologists who are engaged in this kind of work understand the risks and are willing to put some guardrails up and willing to prioritize how we go after making sure these risks do not impact our national security and public safety.
▶ 1:03:05Chair Paul: I think the question of whether we follow laws is important. We should always follow the law. What makes it a difficult question is we all know you're not supposed to steal, commit fraud, but if the president orders you to fire 10% of your people, is he breaking the law? There have been accusations been made by the minority party that the president is authorizing people to break the law. So it is a question, can the president hire and fire people?
▶ 1:03:35Chair Paul: The supreme court is siding with them. We have to be careful about accusing the president and saying the president is breaking the law but the courts have decided with him on that. The court may not side with him on everything and that is why we have courts and it is complicated. So when Mr. allende response, he is a little removed from the president and hast to ask for counsel and if you feel that resigning may be the ultimate answer.
▶ 1:04:05Chair Paul: I would argue it is not always as simple as we say follow the law, follow the law when there is a dispute over the law. A lot of these things like separation of powers, we are probably going to have more separation of powers issued under president trump he pushes the envelope in any president in the history.
▶ 1:04:25Mr. Allende: -- Sen. hassan: you know my respectful dissent from some of your characterizations. >> congratulations for the nominees for being here today and your willingness to serve and we think your families as well. Mr. pl,ankey -- Mr.
▶ 1:04:58Mr. Allende: Plankey, we have a chart and we have the rings and the commitment to cut through red tape. Federal agencies have been tied up in knots with outdated technology and many bureaucratic hurdles. Currently, the federal government maintains over 10,000 unique forms and processes approximately 125 billion forms annually.
▶ 1:05:25Mr. Allende: That is not just a paperwork problem but a symptom of deeply antiquated systems that are ranging anywhere from 8-50 years old and unfortunately, modernization efforts so often become boondoggles. Take the bureau of land management and the attempt to modernize oil and gas activity tracking, which ballooned to three times the projected cost.
▶ 1:05:52Mr. Allende: It was four years late and it added 565,000 labor hours resulting in $19 million of productivity losses. Outdated technology also leaves the federal government dangerously exposed. Mr.
▶ 1:06:10Mr. Allende: Plankey,, as cisa assesses the critical state and local infrastructure to meet current cyber security protections, what we do to ensure the federal government isn't falling behind while helping others catch up.
▶ 1:06:27Mr. Plankey: Thank you for the question. I was nervous you were going to ask me about the logo. We can change it.
▶ 1:06:36Sen. Ernst: We may have to work on that after we fix the problems.
▶ 1:06:39Mr. Plankey: Senator, one of the ways I like to attack the problem is somebody who has worked in private industry from startups to fortune 10 companies, I think too often we love to focus on how we fix the problem and when you are fixing something in the private sector in business, you are stopping the bleeding. You have stopped the detrimental decrease of what you are trying to process.
▶ 1:07:11Mr. Plankey: The problem is, you really need to grow or change the service. You need to make a shift in what you do and change the way you approach the problem to deliver something better, in this case for the taxpayer. When you focus on fix, all you are doing is stopping the bleeding. What I would like to focus on and what I have done in my technical experience is wholesale changes.
▶ 1:07:41Mr. Plankey: So instead of investing more in bad processes and policies or making small adjustment, micro changes in a process that is outdated to begin with, we will invest in wholesale changes and moves forward to deliver better outcomes for the american taxpayer.
▶ 1:07:58Sen. Ernst: That is outstanding. I appreciate that. Let's stop doubling down and spending additional money where we don't have to. It is throwing up many of the window. I want to Mr. fox. Your job ensures whistleblowers can trust the system they are reporting into and as you know, last friday, the director of national intelligence declassify documents exposing what she called "the treasonous conspiracy" carried out by some
▶ 1:08:28Sen. Ernst: Of the highest ranking officials in the nation, to weaponize the intelligence committee against the incoming president of the united states, framing him as being the agent of a foreign government. We know today it was all a made up fly -- lie. This has real costs. The house of representatives impeached president, in part over accusations built on fiction.
▶ 1:08:57Sen. Ernst: Taxpayers were stuck with a $32 million bill for miller's witchhunt. Trust in our intelligence apparatus was undermined and despite all of this, the american people saw through the lies and reelected president from last november. May clear, weaponizing government against political opponents is un-american. Mr.
▶ 1:09:20Sen. Ernst: Fox, will you commit to turning over every rock, regardless of how uncomfortable or embarrassing the truth may be , for the intelligence committee -- community?
▶ 1:09:33Mr. Fox: Absolutely. That is what I have been asked to do.
▶ 1:09:40Sen. Ernst: Do you agree they should be partial -- impartial and never weaponized against U.S. citizens and the leaders they choose?
▶ 1:09:47Mr. Fox: Absolutely.
▶ 1:09:50Sen. Ernst: Thank you all very much and congratulations on your nominations.
▶ 1:09:55Sen. Lankford: Thank you for going to the process. It is not a fun process to do the preparation and go through this. I appreciate your dedication to the country and willingness to be able to serve. Mr. o'connell, I want to ask you a question because you are being left alone. The office of the inspector general coming of serve as a prosecutor in the past and stepping into one of the roles as a judge here in D.C.
▶ 1:10:19Sen. Lankford: And it is an incredibly important role but my concern is people get access to justice. One of the challenges we have had is attorneys are prepared with a walk in and they ask for an extension and for more time. The judges just keep giving that . The person who is trying to get to justice can never get to justice. The family of the victim can never get an answer because everything gets delayed. How are you going to run your courtroom to make sure people actually get justice in a timely manner?
▶ 1:10:50Mr. O'Connell: Thank you for the question and I certainly don't take it personally. These are important questions that are being addressed. My experience as an assistant U.S. attorney in the superior court division of the U.S. attorney's office here in D.C., I was -- I encountered it frequently where defense counsel were not prepared for trial, not prepared to proceed.
▶ 1:11:19Mr. O'Connell: And I think the judges of the superior court who are successful in managing those caseloads has -- were able to use the number of tools to ensure that -- told accountable counsel that were unprepared and certainly this was done with the interest of the client of those counsel.
▶ 1:11:47Mr. O'Connell: Judges have to ensure that litigants, especially criminal defendants, are adequately represented. So a number of tools were used by judges. Certainly when an assistant U.S. attorney would be unprepared, the judge would outright dismiss the case. So that was a circumstance that nobody ever wanted to encounter as a prosecutor.
▶ 1:12:13Mr. O'Connell: I think it is a broader question that you are asking about the volume of cases in D.C. superior court. It is overwhelming it under burdened. There are not enough judges and there are too many cases.
▶ 1:12:32Sen. Lankford: There is an expectation when it comes to court that the attorneys are prepared and the case is going to get hurt other than one more delay. And folks are able to get to the court and they can get it. Mr. fox, thank you for stepping into this role. Your job is a tough one.
▶ 1:12:54Sen. Lankford: You work for congress and congress is one of the inspector general and we have the expectation you are the eyes and ears of this united states congress. You also work for the white house and the office of the director of national intelligence and for the american people. Your job is to be able to oversee people who literally we hire them to go steal secrets and other places and be as clandestine as possible. That is a tough job to say we need you to go in and say we need it done correctly.
▶ 1:13:26Sen. Lankford: We cannot have our secret stolen. If the processes in place that lead to somebody that is a contractor or individual that is hired that is taking our secrets, part of the responsibility of that is the inspector general to be able to make sure we have processes in place to prevent that how are you going to engage in that way?
▶ 1:13:49Mr. Fox: I share your concern. Maintaining appropriate transparency with the public. That is a balancing act in some ways. When it comes to holding individuals accountable or sellg information to a foreign power there are a number of steps we can take. Hopefully to deter the activity in the first place.
▶ 1:14:18Mr. Fox: I cannot commit to it now given our many different priorities. I have to understand the resources we have available but I will stand ready to address that issue for that issue f.
▶ 1:14:30Sen. Lankford: Thank you for stepping into this role, Mr. plankey. It expires in september of this year. Secretary nome asked for the reauthorization. What are the challenges if it is not reauthorized?
▶ 1:14:51Mr. Plankey: Thank you for the question. The cisa act of 2015 created before cisa was created is necessary that it provides the sharing of information from business to business and business to government without exposing liability to those said parties.
▶ 1:15:15Mr. Plankey: A business that has experienced an issue, detects an adversary, they can share it without feeling pressure of liability across to other businesses so they may protect themselves into to the government so the government may then distribute the information in a way that protects the greater good of america. That is contained in the bill.
▶ 1:15:40Sen. Lankford: If it expires?
▶ 1:15:43Mr. Plankey: They lose their liability protection authority.
▶ 1:15:48Sen. Lankford: Thank you.
▶ 1:15:51Chair Paul: Senator hawnley. Sen. a
▶ 1:16:08Sen. Hawley: The effort by the government to coerce and otherwise pressure social media companies to engage in citizenship -- censorship across a range of topics. Covid, vaccines, elections, school board meetings. The agency you have been nominated to lead was right in the thick of cisa the thick of ciit. It's a direct violation of the first amendment.
▶ 1:16:35Sen. Hawley: What the supreme court said is the government cannot use private entities to do with the first amendment bars the federal government from doing. There has been much litigation about this. The discovery is damming for many agencies, including cisa. What you do to ensure that cisa gets out of the speech regulation business? Their surveillance business when it comes to private american citizens and gets back into what it is supposed to do which is keep a safe?
▶ 1:17:08Sen. Hawley: Cannot regulate speech or follow us around the line that stop cyberattacks.
▶ 1:17:12Mr. Plankey: Thank you for the question. It's an important one and so does the secretary and president trump. Cisa -- it is not cisa's job to censor or determine the truths, whether it's on social media or any level of media. Cisa will not do any of that work, not be a part of that work.
▶ 1:17:42Mr. Plankey: I would like to focus cisa on what it is mandated to do, protect the federal civilian executive branch and protect the critical infrastructure of the united states. Cybersecurity is a big enough problem. We have adversaries inside our house and all over us every day.
▶ 1:18:04Mr. Plankey: I need my people at cisa focused on eradicating those adversaries from the federal government and critical infrastructure.
▶ 1:18:15Sen. Hawley: Let me read the euphemisms your predecessor used to talk about cisa's mission and the censorship effort. Narrative control, perception management, information integrity -- that's my favorite. You tell me you will get cisa out of policing narrative control. Good lord. What could be more orwellian than that? The most powerful government in the world engaged in narrative control.
▶ 1:18:44Sen. Hawley: Your testimony is that people get cisa out of this business and comply with the first amendment and not engage in censorship of american citizens of any kind?
▶ 1:18:58Mr. Plankey: To put it bluntly, yes, you understand me correctly.
▶ 1:19:01Sen. Hawley: Let's talk about what that will look like in the election context. Cisa protects our election infrastructure. That's important work designated by statute. That is different than monitoring political speech and monitoring political campaigns. How would you draw a line? Tell us how to make the line clear between cyber security protections for elections and political content moderation, which is unfortunately what your agency has been involved in recent years.
▶ 1:19:31Mr. Plankey: Thank you for the question. If confirmed, cisa's role of election security is a subsector of critical infrastructure. It is election infrastructure that is the piece of that. The president has given guidance on this in his recent executive order. It says the department of homeland security will focus on electronic election systems.
▶ 1:20:00Mr. Plankey: Eg, like a voting system that an american might use devote to ensure it is assessed prior to an election that there is no evidence serial actions or vulnerabilities in it. That is tasked and the president of the executive order -- the president's executive order.
▶ 1:20:25Mr. Plankey: If the secretary tasks cisa to do that, my team will focus on the assessments of the election infrastructure.
▶ 1:20:36Sen. Hawley: Everything you said is encouraging. I know you appreciate this. Cisa has a major trust deficit given what's happened in the last four years. That's a problem. There are tasks that cisa ought to be performing including the security of hospitals which is very important to me in my state. 40% of the hospitals in my state or rural. We need to help.
▶ 1:21:02Sen. Hawley: We have been reluctant to use cisa because cisa has been a censorship machine for the last four years. We have got to get this agency back on track and I hope you are the right person to do it.
▶ 1:21:13Chair Paul: Senator slotkin. Simple slotkin -- senator
▶ 1:21:23Slotkin: I understand if this was raised before but Mr. fox, you are asking to be the inspector general or nominated to be inspector general of the entire intelligence community. Having relationships with the inspector generals in providing the objective stanback investigation into really important questions of integrity in the intelligence community.
▶ 1:21:54Slotkin: I am a former c.I.a. Officer so this is important to me. If we expect you to do that behind closed doors, we have to know that you're going to be objective. What is your assessment of whether classified information was shared in the signalgate exchange? Was there classified information that you are aware of placed on an unclassified system and shared with the journalists?
▶ 1:22:26Mr. Fox: Thank you for the question. It is important we protect our sensitive information. The secretary of defense, the original classifier authority on the content from the dod determined it was unclassified. In my capacity as the acting chief of information management, our practice is to defer to other agencies for information originating out of those agencies.
▶ 1:22:52Sen. Slotkin: Even though we have a report that information was directly taken from a document labeled secret with no declassification process that I have heard of formally going on, you believe just because the secretary of defense got to declassify it just by putting it on signal?
▶ 1:23:14Mr. Fox: I'm not familiar with dod's policies when it comes to determining the classification of information.
▶ 1:23:25Sen. Slotkin: That is a strong statement, the not familiar with dod's processes but saying it's unclassified. I want you to be familiar if you're going to be the inspector general. You have to weigh in on a million of these cases when people, rank-and-file officers lincoln for -- leak information.
▶ 1:23:45Sen. Slotkin: It is hard to understand how the senior officer in charge of inspections and investigations on this issue can't speak clearly about how a potential leak of classified information is bad. To be not familiar with the procedures is concerning. Let me ask another question related to the reporting. I believe you are now the senior advisor to tulsi gabbard, is that correct?
▶ 1:24:19Mr. Fox: I'm performing in that capacity, acting chief of information management.
▶ 1:24:21Sen. Slotkin: Ok. Got it. What I'm having trouble understanding is, you know, there's been reports out that your current boss has put forward going after barack obama and a bunch of reporting from nine years ago now on the exact same day that president trump's name appeared in the wall street journal as being in the epstein
▶ 1:24:51Sen. Slotkin: Files. The exact same day. It is hard to imagine that in the four years of the trump administration previously and the six months leading up to now when there has been plenty of time for your boss, you all in your front office to refer to the department of justice, you picked the exact same day that the president knew he was going to be named as being in the files of a known pedophile and non-sexual offender. -- known sexual offender.
▶ 1:25:23Sen. Slotkin: My 10-year-old nephew understands that was a distraction. We were talking about something that was 10 years old on the exact day the president did not want to be talking about his name being in those files. Can you answer for that?
▶ 1:25:40Mr. Fox: I appreciate the opportunity to address this. The declassification process is lengthy and significant. We have an excellent team of officers --
▶ 1:25:50Sen. Slotkin: You just said secretary hegseth could declassify under his authority and put out on public information a piece of secret no foreign information. That took seconds. I have seen presidents do this. Presidents can declassify very quickly. Are you saying that the reason why tulsi gabbard made that decision to announce yesterday or whatever it was two days ago was because of a lengthy declassification process?
▶ 1:26:20Sen. Slotkin: You were talking to an officer who has watched those things happen, so please tell me how in the four years of the trump administration previously it did not get done but yesterday I got done.
▶ 1:26:29Mr. Fox: I appreciate the question and your service as a clandestine officer. These documents are reviewed very carefully and redacted to protect sensitive information. That is not an overnight process.
▶ 1:26:43Chair Paul: Time is expired. We are getting close to the end. Senator peters.
▶ 1:26:49Sen. Peters: Thank you, Mr. chairman. I have introduced a bipartisan legislation to establish a pilot program with strict federal oversight that permits state, local, tribal and territorial law enforcement agencies to conduct operations to counter drone threats that are going to continue to be a persistent challenge for us.
▶ 1:27:16Sen. Peters: My question is if confirmed as the undersecretary, how would you help ensure these law enforcement agencies have access to the safest, most effective technology necessary to accomplish this mission? >> thank you for your question. I share your concern. In florida, drones are something we have a great concern about. We have the florida facilities which includes the capital and governors mansion.
▶ 1:27:47Sen. Peters: Those are two sensitive subjects for us, particularly when someone is flying a drone that is unauthorized. If confirmed, in the context of your question in the federal space, my first step would be to get with the components in the law enforcement space within dhs to understand what their needs, gaps in wants would be for critical operations and work with the experts within the
▶ 1:28:19Sen. Peters: Director -- to bring to bear the already available technologies that can be incrementally modified to adjust to those needs. If needed, specialized research. I think in the drum space we have seen a lot of breadth of the market. I would probably lean heavily on the first two.
▶ 1:28:41Sen. Peters: Very good. We will do a lot more than that so I look forward if indeed confirmed that we get to have further conversations. We are way behind in our ability to protect the american people in the homeland. We need to take aggressive actions.
▶ 1:28:59Sen. Peters: Cisa has a number of statutory requirements such as critical infrastructure protections, stipulations under homeland security act, mission communications, infrastructure security mandates. You are aware of the long list of responsibilities. There has been some questions about the focus of cisa.
▶ 1:29:22Sen. Peters: We can debate the past but I think it was a unit that folks are concerned about that had 15 people out of 3000 people working at cisa. The secretary says this is back on mission, ready to protect our country from cyber threats. We have to lean in to make this happen. You are aware of the threats we have and understand the significant nature of them and how they are persistent and we need resources to deal with it.
▶ 1:29:51Sen. Peters: How would you ensure all the agency's statutory requirements are met given potentially millions of dollars in budget cuts that we are seeing in hundreds of personnel leaving that agency? You are walking into an agency that is critically important and having its -- it is being cut off at the knees because of alleged things that are not happening now happening no w according to the
▶ 1:30:22Sen. Peters: Secretary.
▶ 1:30:22Mr. Plankey: Thank you for that. One way I found that is most effective when you come into the the organization is to allow the operators to operate. Cisa has a number of the most capable cybersecurity people in the world.
▶ 1:30:44Mr. Plankey: If confirmed, to provide the direction and tell them what I would say is that who we are going to take charge of and protect the american public from cyber security attacks on critical infrastructure in state and local areas, mom and pops, small businesses come up with the federal civilian executive branch. I will empower the operators to operate and do the best they can.
▶ 1:31:15Mr. Plankey: If that means reorganize in some form or fashion, that is what we will do. If that means that we need a different level of funding that we currently have now I will approach the secretary and ask for the funding and the support. I'm heartened to her understanding of the department of home insecurity and where she has applied her resources.
▶ 1:31:41Mr. Plankey: They have seen the united states coast guard needed the resources and provided those. I have no doubt if I go and tell her that we are driving this direction to protect the american public she will work under the president's leadership to work with congress to get us the funds we need.
▶ 1:31:59Sen. Peters: I appreciate that. These are folks that are already working very hard. The cyber threat is increasing like this and our protection is going like that. Reorganizing might be something to look at but you have your coast guard experience. There are regularly coast guard men and women, reserves. We don't have that cisa. We cannot call up the cyber protection reserves to help us because the bad guys are coming at us with everything they have.
▶ 1:32:29Sen. Peters: I would hope you are focused on the resource needs and have the willingness to step up and tell folks this is really important. As a committee we need to be engaged to back you up not just from funding but any additional authorities you need and I hope you make that commitment to me now.
▶ 1:32:48Mr. Plankey: You have that commitment absolutely.
▶ 1:32:49Chair Paul: Thank you all for your testimony. As we come to the close so want to complement the trump administration and secretary nome for changing the policy on censorship. Cisa released a video in 2020 when that occurs people to report their own family to facebook if they challenged the government's narrative on covid-19. Many of the things the government turned out to be not to be true.
▶ 1:33:17Chair Paul: Things people have as far as opinions on medicine, vaccines, masks, a lot of times they are simply opinions. Almost always are opinions and you can hear both sides of these things. I complement you for stopping this. I realize it's only temporary until the next administration. The way to make it permanent is when we reauthorized cisa. We are going to put in there anti-censorship language and we need to make this part of the law. It is called the first amendment.
▶ 1:33:48Chair Paul: We need to prohibit cisa from getting involved in political speech. People on the other side of me say what about sex trafficking and this and that. That's against the law. That is not constitutionally protected speech. Crimes, cisa will still be allowed to be involved with. Political speech they won't.
▶ 1:34:11Chair Paul: I think we can get some permanence and we can come to a bipartisan agreement on this to add language to keep cisa out of this. It simply distracts cisa from the job we want. Not to be hacked in by iteris, etc. Although things are reasonable requests. We are wasting time and money and angering. It hits us all against each other whether or not a cloth mask works or not.
▶ 1:34:41Chair Paul: Is it six feet of separation or 30 feet of separation? If you catch covid once, can you catch it again? Will you die if you catch it again? There are opinions and facts to support opinions but cisa has no business being involved in this. There is something unseemly about it.
▶ 1:34:59Chair Paul: The idea that agents from the department of home insecurity or the fbi would be meeting with the media, meeting with the media to tell them we are just not so sure the interviewer rand paul seaid cloth masks don't work should be aired. That is something you see in a totalitarian regime. I complement the trump administration and the secretary for changing it.
▶ 1:35:23Chair Paul: I want everybody to know that we are going to reauthorize cisa but put language in and hope we can be bipartisan language to protect the first amendment. Thank you for coming. At this point -- let's see where I'm going to.
▶ 1:35:47Chair Paul: Somewhere I have mine -- the nominees' responses to questionnaires, answering prehearing question submitted to the committee and had their financial statements reviewed by the office of government ethics. The committee has received letters of support for the nominees. For that objection, this information will be made part of the record except for financial information. Thank you all.
▶ 1:36:17Chair Paul: . We are adjourned.