cbp's greatest resource is occurring and facilitating travel these are professional workforce. thanks to the support in congress, the 2014 appropriations act including funding for 2,000 new cbp officers these additional officers will be allocated utilizing the workload staffing model and directed t it to the ports with the greatest need while the 2,000 additional officers bring additional support to the mission of workload staffing model identifies the need for an additional 2,000 officers. this has been included in the 2015 budget request along with a proposal for the user fee increases to fund this effort. we realize personnel a loan is in the answer to approving the process. cdt has been relentlessly self-critical to ensure the operations are as efficient and secure as possible. we are incorporating technological enhancements, developing self-service kiosks and reducing paper forms for travelers to be an example and programs that segment were arrived at travelers and efficient processing modes like an easy pass lane at a tollbooth

tbp trusted traveler programs like global entry provide expedited processing for the preapproved participants through the use of automated kiosks. .. with the cbp officer and allows the cbp officer to focus on the security aspects of that inspection process. in the past year 16 airports have launched apcs and several more that plan to join by the end of this year. had all these reports have launched these kiosks we seem

average wait times decreased by 30-35% after the installation of the kiosk. we've also automated the form i 94, arrival and departure record for foreign visitors it we gather arrival and departure information automatically from electronic records making the entry process easier and faster for travelers in addition to reducing agency costs. we are looking at paper customs declaration forms and ways to automate or eliminate that process. so waste nuclear cbp in the future through the use of the internet, mobile device, kiosk. just like the options of able when checking in for a flight. effective in efficiency duty should be -- not every. -- not a barrier. identifying and separating low-risk travelers from those who may require additional scrutiny is a key element in cbp's efforts to facility and secure international travel.

we are dedicated to quality customer service to travelers from training programs to offices to enhance audio and visual communicate until providing travelers with clear r instructions immediately which is on cbp's entry process. we can hinge to enhance the way we store the public. in conjunction with the travel industry we developed the traveler satisfaction survey and cbp professionalism. last year survey findings indicate 80% of the travelers agree the interprocess made them feel welcome in u.s. and over 90% of travelers agree the cbp officials are professional, helpful, efficient and easy to understand. members of the something thank you for the opportunity to testify today and i'm happy to answer your questions. >> thank you very much. we will start with our ranking member, mr. scott. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you to the members of them for taking time and investing your time and helping us have a clear path forward on improving our tourism, our economy and perhaps improving a reputation as well. ambassador bond, a question for

you. fy '14 of corporations over a requirement for the state department to compile videoconferencing technologies, future technology would allow states to conduct these interviews remotely and provide convenient solution for foreign travelers with limited access to u.s. consulate or can you please give us an update on the status of the pilot program and how effective you think it's been so far? >> thank you, senator. the. of consular affairs is concerned to look into whether they give could be incorporated into visa processing. we understand the allure and the attraction of the interviewing idea. we have serious concerns about the security, efficiency and integrity of videoconferencing, video interviewing. we believe that expanding the pool of low risk travelers who did not require an interview at all will realize far greater efficiencies then would video

interviewing. we are focusing our efforts on utilizing technology and advanced fraud detection techniques to help us expand the pool of applicants for whom interviews can be waived. that would allow us to focus resources on high-risk visa applicants, people we know less about. while better facilitating travel for the others. expansion of interview waiver and the visa waiver program are too efficient, effective methods for facilitating larger numbers of legitimate travelers. the video interview process can work when you're dealing with a known group. but when you're trying to india several thousand people who are just coming in one after the other sitting in front of the camera, we think that are really

serious security and efficiency questions about that process. >> so you perhaps focus more on identifying those low risk of travelers as opposed to moving forward today on the use of that technology. >> yes, sir. >> thank you. assistant secretary stroud, we've heard a little bit about the loan executive program, how dhs is leveraging private sector expertise to support some of the department's tourism initiatives can you give me a better idea of exactly what problems these roles will be focusing on and we're within the department they will be located whether in the field or at headquarters? >> sure. thank you, senator goodwin first explain that the loan because the program is basically a program that allows us at dhs to take advantage of private sector at essentially no cost. these folks continue to get paid by their private sector employers. we currently have in the travel

and tourism side can we have seven assignments actually posted, and they largely came about after a site visit to miami international airport we saw that very quickly with a couple of people from some of the larger theme park areas in florida, that their expertise on signage, their expertise on human, literally queuing people, was invaluable. and so we worked with the cbp and tsa to jointly develop these descriptions to basically create a task force team that could go around to arthur's gateway airports and look at each airport because as administrator pistole of tsa has testified, if you've seen one airport, you've seen one airport. so this team literally has to go to these airports and look. to address your question with respect to where they're located, they will actually do will report essentially to both tsa and cbp and also to the deputy secretary who under the law operates as a chief operating officer for the department. so that's where they will be

located. and they will be located ideally for about six month periods for maximum i think of a six-month period and they will be used sporadically during the timeframe in a focused effort. >> thank you. the real quick question because i'm running out of time. on the cbp's preclearance operations with our strong allies, canada, ireland, the caribbean, this really has facilitated low-risk travel opportunities in the canadian preclearance, especially the toronto location has done a lot of good for our economy in south carolina. i'd love to get you perspective on the effectiveness of these programs, from a phyllis nation perspective and a security perspective. >> it fills both bush and his force. we're looking to expand the program with a lot of different of the gateway airports overseas, but it does help with the facilitation benefits and certainly enforcement has a good benefits of being able to search someone or inspect someone and approve of some of her travel to

the united states while on the ground overseas before the board that aircraft. really essential for both the facilitated and security mission that we do. >> thank you. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, ranking member scott. avoid into my question to want to thank ambassador bond and her testimony for flagging the issue and the opportunities related to expanding the interview waiver program and commit to you that i know for myself and many members of the committee we are anxious to facilitate in any way possible, your work on the administrative side and is our legislative changes that need to be made, we are pleased to work with you on that. mr. wagner, as you probably know, cbp is working on resuming operations at the kona airport, resuming operations will provide another international gateway to hawaii and help increase economic activity there. i know there are facility issues, capacity issues, but from our standpoint we are not landing commercial flights at

the kona airport for lack of resources oath of the state and federal level. do i have your commitment to work with us to solve that problem? >> we will absorb the work with you. is facility requirements we need to operate and have the commercial airlines coming to bring the traffic to us. >> i can assure you the commercial airlines will, if we can square a way our end of the bargain. thank you very much. ambassador bond, i understand the interview waiver program has helped to reduce these away time and the state department would like to pursue possible legislative authority to expand that program. could you put into perspective the benefits of this waiver authority? >> yes, thank you, senator. the benefit of the waiver authority is that it allows us to carefully examine the people who are applying for visa applications, and separate out the people about whom we already

have quite a lot of information. and example would be someone from a visa waiver country can already traveled to the united states with that getting a tourist visa and is now applying for a student visa. if that person is in the states with information about the travel pattern. we have all of the screening that is done for 100% of travelers. we have the information that is provided in the applicants application. we really don't need necessary to interview that person. and because each application will be examined by an officer come if there is something in an individual application that raises the question we can invite that person to come in for an interview. there are other examples of people that we would be able to remove from key you of people waiting for appointments -- remove from cue. >> thank you very much. mr. wagner, where are we with the development of metrics?

are we at a point anytime soon where we are going to have a maximum wait time target as an official policy of cbp? >> so we measure the wait times at all the major airports today. that information is posted on our website. we take two pieces of information that we have good data on, and that's the block on aircraft at the time we reached the person's passport in the primary inspection area and we subtract that what the average full-time is to get from the plane to our area. so that david is calculated, tablet everyday, posted on the website for everyone to see and it's broken down into different increments of how long people actually wait. so how many people waited 15 minutes or less, "60 minutes" or less. like just yesterday about nationally 75% of the people cleared of cbp in 30 minutes or less. we break it into different useful boxes of information for the public. >> i mean, it seems to me that it's not just a question of aggregating the data but just

trying to eliminate the outliers were you create such a bad experience where people will come back. in other words, if people are moving through at two minutes and sort of non-hub airports, not that are consistent problems at hub airports from a special on the international side, then you're removing people from the sort of likely repeat traffic will even if you aggregate the data looks good. >> correct. so it is an average -- even at the gateway airports we are saying for instance, miami yesterday our maximum wait time was 79 minutes. the average was 20 minutes throughout the day but it's really those peak arrival times that, if 15 flights land within an hour and a couple thousand people all come out at once, we are working with airport authorities and airlines to find better ways to segregate that traffic into the risk announced. with over done all of our pre-our bible targeting and venting of these passengers and now we just have to match them up with our information.

that's where global entry comes in and we can remove those people from the queue completely, programs like one stop and people with no checked bags. trying to work this giveaway but we're also working with local authorities on mission to different points in the process. >> where are we setting a wait time gulf? >> we have not looked at a national wait time. we are looking more at what are the right measurements to measure the increase in travel, the economic benefits that data brings. so if travel increases and wait time stays the same that supports the goal. so we are looking more at what's the right metrics, what's the right things to measure in that process, rather than syringes and across the board go which a lot of those factors are outside of our control. the planes might lead all at once and all these people come at us. we don't have control over that and i don't want to get down the road of us regulating those arrival times to try to stagger

those words tell planes would have to park at the airport for people, and is in some type of structured environment. so it's a deeper discussion we need to have about what it actually means to implement a goal like that. >> my final question for ambassador bond. were on with negotiations between the united states and china on reciprocal visa validity? >> as you may know, senator, currently the visa reciprocity for a chinese tourism, for business visas, students and so forth is one year. we are talking to the chinese government about extending those visa validity is for several categories in order to allow people to make long-term plans. if you're somebody who has a visa that let you travel for several years of you will think ahead and start planning trips this year and next year and the year after. so we are in consultations with

the chinese government and they are also interested in finding a way to get the maximum of the. >> thank you very much. senator blunt. >> thank you, chairman. mr. heid come in your testimony you talk about the importance of we offer rising what's now called brand u.s.a. i appreciate that. sender culture and i have actually filed legislation to do exactly that. at the same time we have included what i think are some important metric reporting and some accountability standards. and i want to ask you about those two things. one is the matrix you gave us today were pretty impressive. the increase in numbers, the increase in money spent. and what i'm wondering is what can you do as you establish these reporting standards to measure the impact of marketing efforts, the marketing efforts themselves? >> we think of brain the u.s.a. as a global destination,

destination marketing organization of the united states and, therefore, the classic metrics to measure a destination marketing organization seem appropriate. they are the effectiveness of the marketing program themselves, the cooperative programs they do to market to a country. second, the degree to which they shape intent to travel. are people more likely to intend to travel to the u.s.? third, the results themselves, does it create additional travelers? and a fourth, the return on investment. that set of classic destination marketing metrics are those with which we are work with brand u.s.a. that seem to us to make sense as metrics. they built a pretty comprehensive dashboard to measure each of those as they engage their marketing spent the numbers you gave today, the

difference in what was a, 2012 and 2013 travel, would you say that brand. >> we don't have the data to determine what portion you responsible for, that are at a micro level marketing program after marketing program with a marketing partner talk about the results that brand u.s.a. creates. there's a lot of company by company destination marketing or decision by destination marketing organization responses suggesting tremendous return. in addition brand the u.s.a. had a study commissioned to oxford economics which also articulated the results, results that brand u.s.a. is creating. so the indications are there's value creation from brand u.s.a. in its activity. >> in the first year or so of them promoting this new program

or program largely funded by visa waiver fees paid by people visiting the country, ma and i may get back to that as a topic later but larger the funding is not any taxpayer funding from the united states to its visa waiver fees, but still has to be matched by private sector matching funds. the first year with the concern of the real value of any in the kind of match. i wonder what the department has done and can do to more fully value that valley of the in the kind of match? >> thank you, senator to come for the question. we spent a lot of time working with brand u.s.a. and also third party companies to help determine what is the most appropriate and effective way to determine the end kind of valley. the challenge has been that many of the contributions that are coming from the private sector

are two different countries, and companies are contributing in different media. billboards, space on the website. we have built now a set of procedures trying to incorporate best practices from around the government to value the end kind where it is a unique or more difficult to value in kind contribution, we rely heavily on third party valuation. 's both brand u.s.a. and we are accountable that the procedures in place now artificially and effectively measuring the in kind. spirit and are there other monitoring metrics you all have put in place to monitor the way money is being spent by the brand u.s.a. board and the people they hired to run the program? >> again as i said, the metrics that we are watching are the

metrics of the effectiveness of the campaign, of intent to travel, of result program by program. and again there's a dashboard of their that's built that we are working with. >> think you. chairman, if we have time for another round of questions, i'll have more. if not, i have more questions. >> senator nelson. >> mr. wagner, senator rubio and i are going to tagteam on the issue of miami and orlando. and i understand you obviously have this on your radar scope because you've mentioned miami several times. and it was curious to me when you specifically mentioned in miami a five hour period where some 12,000 people are arriving all at once. aside from the issue of the number of customs, and border

patrol officers, do you consider on a temporary basis shifting cbp officers from other locations for that high concentration of need? >> yes, absolutely. and that's what our local managers will do from other work areas within their environment, to make sure we have enough booths open every single day. but we've been -- my enemy is of significant importance to us, especially with the world cup travel and increases american airlines is projected out for the next couple of weeks. so we're looking at the wait times every day and getting a report every single day of how we are doing and how we're monitoring and adjusting to the traffic. i was just down there on monday walking through the facility at the operations, you come with american airlines and some of

the other of local stakeholders. but it's very important to us. we want to make sure the providing that level of service. >> so where would you give him? would you get them from the seaport on a temporary basis? would you get them from fort lauderdale? where would you get them? >> we could use them from other areas within the airport, save for cargo processing or other types of work environments that we can afford to take a few hours break from activity to put into addressing that peak arrival. taking them from another airport is more challenging because of the travel times and impact it brings on a place like fort lauderdale which also has some weight time concerns of themselves. >> so are you doing this no? >> we are doing it within the airport itself. >> not from the port of miami seaport? >> no. we haven't really got that but that's an option that is available to us as we look through the summer peak arrival times. >> i leave the other questions

on miami to senator rubio, but just remind you that there was a period about two years ago in orlando where they had to keep the passengers on an international flight from deplaning for about an hour and a half because of a lack of officers. you all responded, but then the sequester hit. and so i want you to be mindful of that as you're looking at your allocation. >> absolutely. >> now, i'm curious. i want to commend this from another standpoint for all of you. we are facing a situation where we are, look like we will have a lot of areas of iraq and syria that, at least in the short run is going to be controlled by an

extremely radical terrorist group. and presumably there are americans who have gone to syria for training. a floridian was the one who blew himself up recently. but also a lot of europeans. okay, if they've got a european passport, what are the extra precautions that you take, other than our over all terrorist search, in a visa waiver country, which it very well may be one of these homegrown terrorists, to catch them? mr. stroud? >> i would say that primarily through are using our national targeting center with cbp we

begin to look at the travel patterns of folks and we get that information well before the actually get on the plane. in addition to that, as you have taken a visit to miami international, you'll see that customs and border protection executes all of the regular protocol with respect to arriving passengers, regardless if they are visa waiver or even global entry people still receive check and i will defer to my colleague on the rest. >> is also working with our foreign counterparts and governments and allies to identify who these people are, whose associate with him and what else we can decipher from their intentions. as mr. stroud mentioned it using our advanced analysis through the airline reservation data, going to the data, drawing links to pieces of information we know would give us national security concerns and to can be associated to that but also looking at travel patterns based on prior activities or intelligence reports on what we think would present some

national security concerns. and then it's a matter of reaching i got to the travel continuum and what's the right point in that process to intercept this person, talk to them, have been inspected, have been searched before they get on board that plane. we have officers stationed overseas at about 11 locations, major airport, cbp officer's. not so much precludes but it's called the immigration advisory program. there in fine clothes but they get a list every day of travelers that give us concerns and to meet them at the boarding gates and talk to them and make a recommendation to the airline whether or not the airline should fly this person based on national city concerns, we'll bring them over to the host authority to have somebody fully search and check before allow them on to accra. preclearance gives us the other option because cbp officers in places like abu dhabi they give us a lot of concern with the types of connecting flights and travelers back or through there and the amount of national security activity that keeps us up at night to having are all

forces on the ground with full authority to be able to search people and ensure they are safe before put them on board that aircraft. >> senator heller. >> mr. chairman, thank you. into the ranking member, thank you for holding this hearing and for our witnesses, thanks for taking time. i think we have a hearing on this subject every month, and if i was chairman it would be every week. anyway, i'm not complaining is what i'm trying to say because as you can tell we are well represented from tourists states from hawaii to florida and nevada, after letter, missouri, tourism plays a huge part and you can imagine in the state of nevada where, for 20 consecutive years, we've been the number one meeting and convention destination in north america. this year las vegas projects over 40 million visitors. and tourism supports one in two local jobs.

it's what we're doing to do and what we're talking about is important and i want to thank you again, the chairman, and ranking ever for holding this hearing. today though i'm interested in learning what washington, d.c. can do to continue the hard work on your behalf and on the states behalf in the tourism industry. that's why i'm pleased you're here today. i take a interest in the ways we can open more international markets. markets like brazil will continue to reduce wait times and for those seeking to visit this country. this was a part of mind during the debate on immigration reform and continues to be today. according to the las vegas convention visit authority, international visitors stay longer and they spend more money. and with that in mind i'd like to ask a couple of questions. i'll start with you, mr. stroud.

specifically on may 2012 strategy, to expand travel. to the united states with the goal of attracting 100 main international visitors annually by 2021. how are we doing? can you quantify that? >> i think we are making some big strides towards it. i think we're headed where we're supposed to be. one of the things i would say that the secretary has already testified to is the fact that expanding we believe expanding and facilitating the travel arrival experience will greatly increase that number. one of the things is the precludes locations but also expanding global entry. if you look at the department of commerce numbers on our rivals for 2013, 3.3 million people from japan came to the united states. if you just took 1% of the that anaerobic and global entry and used the number of about 300 passengers on a triple seven, the most common airplane flown you see that takes a 124 airplanes off of basically off a

cbp lines and puts them into a global entry program which we could even use overseas if we have a preclearance location. we have global entry located overseas. that's what i think we are working towards that together. i think we're in the process of doing that and i would defer to my colleague from cbp to answer some of that as well. >> if you would, please. >> look at the different passenger our final expense. it's getting rid of paperwork, forms developer is building automated self-service kiosks that now don't give them a better experience but helps us then be more efficient and more secure in what we do. seeing things i global entry for that frequent low-risk travelers, keeping a program like that. we are getting 60, 70,000 applications a month. it's been steady at that for the last year, year and have, tremendous uptick in that program. usage can vary from five to 10%

depending on day of the week but it tends to trend with the business travel. so later in the week we see those percentages increased up to 10% of total arrival, automated passport control for the infrequent traveler, for the family travelers, for the casual vacationers. they can use some sort of automated process but still see the officer for a shortened process without officer and that helps make us more efficient because it increases our capacity. and then what's the travel experience after going through that. >> let me interrupt you. do you have all the authority to do all your talking about or do you need more from us in order for you to streamline the process like your talking about speed was authority wise, yes. where the authorities to do. we have good relationships with stakeholders that a design, build, deploy these kinds of activities and really support us. >> i'm running out of time. what's it going to take to open up countries like brazil?

what are the challenges we are facing? >> the visa waiver, the current visa waiver statute. currently right now brazil would not qualify under the current visa waiver statute. >> we need to address that. >> and, of course, expanded global entry to other countries like japan. that would be helpful. >> if i may just to add to that, the point that we did see a significant uptick in travel from brazil when the visa validity went from five years to 10, and what people were starting to get a visa that allowed them to travel in and out over a ten-year period. they started traveling more. and so that kind of step can also assist in increasing the number of travelers. >> ambassador, thank you. >> senator rubio. >> thank you. mr. wagner, i wanted to focus on the my everything as senator nelson previewed. this is a real mess and i fly to

the airport all the time. it's the second busiest port of entry for visitors to the united states. is the only airport and the top idol of double-digit growth this year. this year alone will get 1 million more visitors than it did a year ago which should be good news for the gulf of outlined for the purpose of this game. here's the math. from january to march, the average wait time has been 59 minutes but the problem with that is that sometimes the wait time is most long as 190 minutes. it's been document the longest wait time in the u.s. i know we'll brag about the fact that wait times are down about 20% which is good but the problem and i think you touched upon early when he talked about the numbers yesterday is that the average is basically the average of entire day in the flight to come in to international flights come in waves so below the peak time and then a downtime of flights and sometimes the weight is zero because there's no international flights. sometimes the way time has been document to be as long as three hours. so there's a problem with the

way that documented. the damage is incalculable. you have missed connections and uninsured on the airlines. people are missing the connections. the other is word-of-mouth. miami airport line is a nightmare. first world city, third world airport. miami airport is a joke. i stood in line for immigration for over an hour many, many times but we are now allowed three hours from expected london to departure of connecting flights. there's another chip advisor coming. warning to all continued passengers cling customs and immigration through miami. it is a nightmare. if you can avoid this, tried to do so. this is really, really obligated and problematic. then advocate some the models being used to make some decisions, about 2000 officers have been approved. i know it will take about 18 months to two years to get most of them online which is an of itself a very long wait given the damage that's happening. the model doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

new work which is not even on the chart and major delays, they got 100 new agents. miami only got 60. the second busiest international airport in america that 3% of the new agents. can you just explain to me first of all what was the model that led to that determination? >> correct. the workload model takes all of the activity a cbp office or does at a port of entry. it takes the average time to give each one of those activities and multiplies how many times a day it's done to comes up with the amount of hours needed to run a port of entry, divided by the billy workhours of an officer and comes up with a staffing number of what we think is the right number to run the port of entry. it's not optimal staffing. it would be the minimum needed to require to address that workload. this factors in that you can lay on top of that filters such as all that work arrives at one point in time and the overload the capacity of the entire system. there's other factors that we

look at remote ports or splitting terminals or splitting the work. they are several factors that influence. in a case of miami, we provided, we allocated between 80-100 officers the previous year, and airport in anticipation of the north terminal opening. the other airports in the country didn't get that. jfk is going to receive the largest number of officers out of the 2000 because jetblue is opening a new terminal this fall. we need to staff that the. miami got a large influx of cbp officers to a culminate that growth. we agree it's not enough. we received, we are grateful for the 2000 that congress gave us but it was about 60% of what we needed and really about two years after -- >> so the reason is why go back into miami airport, the reason why you'll get 60 it because you got 80 beautiful?

>> direct. the model try to balance out, try to spread that out evenly. and make places on a similar status with the major gateway airport, lax, jfk. the officers went to come from somewhere's were taken from an lax, jfk, las vegas, el paso, detroit, michigan, and moved them to miami. we try to use the model to balance that out to keep us on record to see how far from the gaps for each place be dished the second question i'm interested to what the response will be do that with the second question i have has to do with staffing once they are in place, how you allocate resources based on peak times but you talked about how yo you were with close court niche with the airport and airlines on when to surge up the number of agents versus when not to. miami airport has told us you will not share the staffing model. is the staffing model something to osha with the airlines and airports according to them they don't know what the staffing model is for how you search --

surge personal? >> i think we meet twice a day with the airlines and airport operators to plan out the days events. so we look at the manifest that we received an advance from the airlines. we do some calculations that it takes about one minute to process a u.s. citizen, about to announce minutes for a non-u.s. citizen because of fingerprint requirements. we model out with a projected wait times are going to be and what the projected primary boot camp should be and do we let our staffing over the to see how many booths can we afford to open in how much overtime we used to close those gaps and fill in the slots spent so you do share the staffing model? >> we share the information with the airports. >> what about the model to sure -- not the actual determination by how you came up with it. are they aware of what used to determine how much personnel -- >> they should be and if that we will share that information with them how we come about the workload staffing model numbers, the activities, about 170 different activities we counted

to come up with the workload for the ports of entry. we do sure the average processing time with each one of those i to be. there is nothing, say secretive or controversial or classified behind that kind of information. >> that's contrary to what the airport has told me. we've got to figure this out. >> happy to talk to them. >> i have one more question but i will wait. >> we have a vote at 11:45. senator klobuchar. >> if he wants to ask one more question. >> go ahead, senator rubio. >> you have this program where airports can pay to put the kiosks and they put in like 75 new kiosk. here's the problem they're having and hope we can address. this should be easy to address. the problem they have is that their wait times from those kiosk as they're currently configured only work for u.s. citizens that are returning as they're currently configured out in miami. they don't work for the international passenger yet

which is where their wait times are coming from. what they need is a software upgrade so that they work for international travelers. can you work with us or can you pledge we'll get how software in there so that the kiosks that are paid for will actually work for the cause of the what? >> they work today for u.s. citizens, permanent residents and visa wavered countless. we have the b1, b2 visa holders and people from -- >> that's a software upgrade. >> and a program to double to do that and the testing with a. with a. we have-nots are working on that yet but you but that is desperate we just deployed a lawful permanent resident. miami does about 35% of their total arrivals through those kiosk the 100% agree we need to expand it to the -- spent what is the time for a? >> we have-nots touched out with a timeline of that would be but that's where we are going to focus on within the coming weeks there will of a better projection of what that timeline should be. >> the sooner the better because they of ms on their hands.

i really worry about permanent damage being done to the port of entry. there's some orlando issues but we're out of time and i'll send you a letter on those as well. >> senator klobuchar. >> thank you very much for having to sing but i think it's been very useful, so many exciting things going on with tourism and challenges as well. it's good to be with my friend senator blunt. we're heading up the brand you as a reauthorization and also to senators from florida and hawaii and i would like them to know this, but minnesota actually has more coastline, true story, and the state of florida, california and hawaii combined because of our lakes. i know you might not have thought of that before the. >> but not as many beaches. >> okay. a lot of trees, a lot of trees hugging those leaks but we are proud of our tourism and the mall of america and really happy with the increases that we sin because of the good work many of you are doing. we thank you for that. i thought senator blunt did a good job of focusing some of the changes that we've made and

positive things were not only positive pass with brand u.s.a. but the bill that we have and the accountability measures. i thought i would ask you about global entry. first of all, mr. wagner, in addition to increase officers staffing, the continued expansion of global entry is another tool to maximize custom border and protection limited resources and a tight budget about it. while the program continues to grow as we all know with additional enrollment of u.s. citizens, expanding the reciprocal agreements with foreign governments would significant increase cbp staff inefficiency. we know we have these agreements with mexico, canada, the netherlands and korea. can you talk about the possibility of expanding to other countries, and while you're looking at your paper there, and also just have this is interacting with candida? >> out address the nexus peace first. they are integrated.

if yo your u.s. citizen with a global entry card you can use indexes length of the nexus of kiosk to, but you can use to ask to get into candidate and less general and the nexus program. they're all intertwined integrated. the card are all integrated. that title at the top of the card is different. >> audit issues on the canadian side or things we have to fix? >> no. it's just really the capacity and the reach of our we have the program the global entry we're at 52 locations now. we are still seeing 60, 70,000 applications a month to mean. nexus is about 25,000 a month, fairly consistent for the last couple of years. collectively with a such a program on the mexican border we are doing over 100,000 applications a month for all these programs. >> and the other countries imagine? >> we currently have agreements with you mentioned a couple of them, south korea, mexico, canada, the netherlands. we have pilots limited by numbers with the uk, qatar in

germany. we are working with those countries -- in panama, to increase the number of background checks that those governments can do. they are limited by how much work capacity those commas can take on into background checks. we would like to opened up to the uk without restriction. it's up to work with the uk government to take that on. we are fairly close with japan. just had a call yesterday with france but i think we are making progress with them, but all of our major travel sources, we would like to sign up and joined this program with and didn't speak i think you know how we get these tours in and they spent an average of $4500 when they come into our country. that's a good thing. but i just move onto something else with the candida. senator blunt and i were just in candidate and heard a lot about the issues and then one of the things that's important is the border crossings. the cbp has reached some private partner, private partner

partnerships for the appropriation legislation for 2013 and 2014. from my understanding it allows private money to be leveraged with public money to improve border crossings which helps with other things. right now those projects have been piloted on the mexican border. i was up in international falls one of the busiest ports of entry in minnesota, and we like to commit some commitment to add northern borders for this partnerships as soon as possible. do you know what is in the works of? >> so we have the reimbursable services availability keep us, and then we also have the donation of real property to us. we have a handful of locations that are currently using the reimbursement for services, and we have solicited for a next round of applications, which we received and we're going through selecting the final --

>> yeah, but arthur northern border locations in the group or even can use a? >> i can say but a dormant offense i will have to get back to you on the. we received a handful from the land borders. i'll just have to look to see who's on the list. we should be making those announcements by the end of the month as he was selected. no restriction on the land border locations. that are on some of the international airport. we're still working with tsa on the procedures for the donation of real property, however a little trickier for us. >> i just can we really need to get the northern project. i think it was more focus on the mexican border with those projects and we need to extend this up to the northern border. all right? and i just begin thank you for visiting minnesota. i'm going to turn this over to my colleagues now and the work that all of you doing to promote tourism. thank you. >> thank you, senator klobuchar. and thank you for leading on these issues over the year with senator blunt. we will wrap up with senator blunt with the final questions followed by senator nelson and then we have a vote in a few minutes.

>> thank you, chairman. mr. wagner, on the nexus global entry question, i'm assuming from what you are saying that the problem is canada won't accept the global entry card? >> is not that they won't accept it. we have qt up the approval for canada to approve your entry into candidate. so it's not that they won't accept it, it's just that they need to do their immigration and low risk analysis of that person with the nexus it's a joint application so both governments get a for approval at the same time and both governments interview the person so works in both directions. global entry is just for entry into the united states. so as a u.s. citizen you can use the the probe ram. you can always come up through one of the programs but for entry into in other countries to me that governments approval through their process to enter that. so the programs are linked but there's an extra step if you want to use global entry spent

have we ever asked them if they would accept the global entry card in lieu of the nexus card, or is this just they can't do from their point of view? my impression is that canadians always at least purport to be much more open to our folks coming across than they think we are to coming the other way. so here's a place where we could say why don't you accept this card as an expedited entry card? >> we've discussed it and it gets more into the authorities from the immigration and visibility and of who they can let into the country and who makes the determination, much like it is for ours. >> what is the cost for the application? >> nexus is $50 for five years. global entry is $100 for five years stick so people -- these are all people who are resident come reside in the united states. it would seem to me we would do them a favor if we could convince the canadians, and your

application process, you wouldn't have to go through it a second time for the people that want a nexus card if you can just issue, maybe issue than a nexus card. and maybe you do that. do you do that? if someone with a global entry card says we're going to go to canada, you say it's another $50 to get a nexus card, is that the current process of? >> cracked. and then we have to key them up with a canadian government much like we would do. in that interview they determine the identity admissibility into canada with their immigration regulations and laws. and then they will issue that approval spent this is something for us to talk to them about. just for the panel generally, and maybe mr. hyatt initially, when we first authorized rein in the u.s.a. there was a lot of critics that would say, well, if we charge this visa waiver fee,

that will discourage people from coming to the united states and we will have fewer travelers and they will choose to go somewhere else instead. is there any evidence that any of the four of you have that the visa waiver fee has discouraged people from coming to the united states and defcon to other countries instead of? >> we do not have any evidence of that. >> i agree with that. no sign of that at all. >> no, sir. we've seen record increases in international and travel. >> good. the last thing i wanted to mention, ambassador, on the visa reciprocity with china, generally our visa reciprocity is based on the fact that the of the country is equally eager for our travelers to go there, and that's, so it's a mutual kind of determination. i've been persuaded for some time that with the chinese who may based on a comment you made

me change it i if you this. it not appear to care very much about difficult it was for our travelers to go there. we benefit from their travelers coming here. i don't know that reciprocity is something that is a goal that we have to be rigidly pursuing if we think it's to our advantage to have more chinese travelers who. the interesting comment you made to me is we were both trying kashmir but i think he said was they were trying to get to yes. would you talk about that just a little bit more? are they beginning to change their view of we want americans to come here more and stay longer? and to return for that we are prepared to have a greater reciprocal relationship, or not? that would be my last question, mr. chairman. >> the short answer is yes, we very definitely have the understanding that china is also interested in looking at whether we can extend the civil liberties. demand for travel to china has

gone up, and they are as we are, they are thinking about how to stay ahead of that demand and make sure that they're able to adjudicate those visa applications. so we do believe that there's interest on both sides in finding a way to agree on an extended visa validity is. >> if we can't, what you have done on renewing travel visas, anand a much better way than a much better whether we have before us ask really make a difference. mr. chairman, thank you for your time and thank you for holding this hearing today. >> thank you. senator nelson? >> they called of the vote so i have a couple of questions. mr. hyatt, you testified about 40 -- know, let's see, it's up to $57 billion in trade surplus as a result of the travel and tourism industry in 2013.

at the same time we are running a trade deficit of about $471 billion. now, if we can get to the president's target of 100 million visitors, what do we estimate the diminution of that trade deficit to be? >> we have not calculated that. but that's something we could calculate. we estimated that the 100 million visitors would generate $250 billion in service exports. i don't know that we have modeled the other side of it, which is where we expect outbound u.s. travel to be but that's something we could get back to you. we're projected to under 50 billion to be the amount of services exports, if we hit the 100 millionth visitor number. >> does that equate to the $57 billion in trade surplus for

the industry? >> the 57 billion-dollar trade surplus is in calendar year 2013 with exports minus american expenditures abroad. but your second question what 2021 looks like we're not calculated. which is calculated the exports. >> and your target is 20 to one of? >> 2021 for 100 million visitors who we estimate would spend $250 billion. >> madam ambassador, let's go to brazil. you testified as to a huge number of brazilians who come to the u.s. i think he said something like 100,000. >> will i'm not sure that i had that number in my testimony but it's certainly more than that. >> you named about four countries that -- >> that account for, i think

close to 50% of all the pieces that we issue. >> okay. according to the commerce status, for 2013 from the still we had to .06 million visitors. >> okay. now, i can tell we had a lot of them are coming to florida. >> absolutely they are. >> and they're specifically going to miami and/or orlando. so we do not have a visa waiver with the brazil. so if you're a brazilian family and you want to go to disney world, you have to go to a consulate to have an eyeball to eyeball interview in order to get a visa, is that right? ..

and we also have what we call off site facilitation centers so that people who are planning to apply for a visa can go and get their fingerprints taken and picture taken and sub their application online so that when they come to the consulate they move through extremely quickly.

once they have the visa they never have to come back because it when it expires it can be renewed by mail. stack what is the application fee click >> $160. >> is that per person? >> yes and that is worldwide. his very discount for children? >> know there ino there is not. >> for a family of four you are looking just to apply for a vi visa. the fee that we charge, and it is a worldwide fee, but it is based on a very rigorous cost of service model that shows how much it costs to actually provide that service.

and that is what determines the fee and just to add a data is valid for ten years if the ape family wants to go to disney world about to go ahead because it is going to be good for ten years? >> that's exactly right and what we see across the world is they start thinking of themselves as a person who might travel again and again and again we have a 20th anniversary coming up, the 15th birthdays for and so they plan on traveling to the united

states we see that very clearly. >> what percentage do you reject giving a visa in brazil? >> i don't have the number exactly. i would like to take that question. i'm pretty sure for applicants for business and tourist travel is less than 10%. >> what about worldwide what is your percentage? >> i'm going to have to take the question. i don't know offhand but it varies dramatically from country to country. >> those that are rejected or the intelligence services basically the people that are rejecting what percentage are you think there is something

squirelly about this person as opposed to somebody that you think is going to be a flight risk that's going to get into the country and stay? >> i would have to take that for the record. >> we would like to thank the panel this has been an impressive group of witnesses you are working hard on this issue and smart indie scene from the participation and subcommittee that tourism knows no ideology. it is a nonpartisan issue and we look forward to working with your agencies to give the authority necessary the political support necessary and funding necessary to meet to the international visitors goal. thank you very much. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations]

he served as the republican party leader in the senate eventually stepping down after serving 18 years in congress. he went on to serve as president ronald reagan's chief of staff for two years. during his first day in the house march 21987 howard baker spoke to reporters and talked about his relationship with president ronald reagan. this briefing is 15 minutes. i intend to do this often and under circumstances. what me first say it's been an exciting day for howard baker. the first job is always challenging but the first day as

the chief of staff for the president of the united states is extraordinary. i thought i was busy in the senate and indeed, i was, but this is really a remarkable new experience. i've been with the president in a series of meetings beginning at 9:00 i've known ronald reagan since 1966 and worked with the most everyday from the tory leader until i left the senate in 1985 is never seen a more energetic, fully engaged and more in command for difficult circumstances and questions that we were dealing with throughout the day. he's never been better. and i've seen him up close in

many occasions and i see that from first-hand observations. as i say a number of things were dealt with today in the oval office and in the evenings throughout the day and i would touch on two of those. first i would like to announce on behalf of the president that on wednesday march 4 at 9 p.m. eastern standard time, the president will address the nation, it is available for live television and radio coverage. i might also say that we have handed out or i will shortly hand out a copy of the letter to the president of the united states from bob gates. he's the director of central intelligence and the acting rector for central intelligence and i will read that to you. it's dated today it is apparent that there are strong sentiments in the senate to await completion at minimum the work

of the senate select committee before acting on that nominati nomination. i believe a prolonged period of uncertainty with the harmful to the intelligence agency and the intelligence community and potentially to our national security. if you withdraw my nomination to ththe director of central intelligence. intelligence. i am honored that you chose me for this position and i pledge my support on the assistance to whomever you select and confirms that the next director. as the next director. bob gates came up this morning and we arranged the meeting ths afternoon is 2:30 for the president to receive mr. gates which he did and the president issued this statement which i will also be handing out after the session. the statement is as followed and it is a statement for the president.

with great regret i have agreed to the request that his name be withdrawn as the nominee to be their rector of central intelligence. i met with bob this afternoon. he asked me to withdraw his nomination rather than to proceed with extended consideration by the senate under a new director and i look forward to working with him during the next two years. he is remarkably talented and dedicated who's serve five presidents with skills and integrity i've been impressed with the class under the enormous pressures in the recent weeks and any other time he would have easily been confirmed without delay. the confirmation proceedings would not be in the interest of the cia or the nation.

the president has discussed a number of names to be submitted to the senate of the united states and i asked the director of central intelligence and the choice has been made by the president as of this moment. however i can assure you that it is an urgent item on the president's agenda and we hope to have a name to sub it very soon indeed. >> certain contracts are still underway and whether they are turned down i can't say that we do not yet have acceptance. >> [inaudible] off to make some recommendations

[inaudible] i went over a draft of the speech with the president today and i'm not going to try to beat up the president on this but let me tell you i think it is a marvelous speech and it's going to be a good speech. and i think it will have a profound effect on the country's perception of his role as president and the future ability to govern. >> something was getting out in front of the president. you had a long career in setting your views and relationships with congress. are you concerned are you going to be another prime minister? >> you bet i am not. i am acutely aware of the fact that ronald reagan is president and i am not and my role and responsibility is to serve him as his chief of staff to carry out his programs and proposals

to serve him in whatever capacity i can. he has to change his management style and apologize as well when he makes the speech. how has he reacted to that and what do you think about him giving the public requests? the device was heard and understood. i let the president know precisely i would like to say on my own responsibility however that i do not see a hands-off president. i see a man who is very much in touch with the issues before this country so as far as i am concerned that relationship today has been flawless.

>> is that since the report came out? because they found him to be very much out of touch. >> there were many things the president did not know and under better circumstances perhaps he should have known. the president has come a long way now in restructuring the national security council and many of those objections have already been dealt with. >> how do you attempt to structure what do you see yourself doing [inaudible] if i change my mind at all it has been through the difficulty of getting your arms around this mechanism down here is a big staff operation and enormous responsibilities and agree to diverse set of challenges to

meet with the staff this morning at 8:00 to assure them that there would be no wholesale firings and that changes were made to be done carefully and deliberately. i've put in place a two-man transition team over the weekend and they will continue and make recommendations on how the staff should be structured and how the names should be filled in when the staff decides. i don't carry these to the president because i'm aware of the fact that it's the president's staff and not howard baker. we have set no deadlines but it's not going to be within a week. it will be longer than that. >> one of your closest

associates said for the first time he's got to become a hands-on president are there changes that need to be made [inaudible] >> i talked to paul today and i understand what he is saying and i also told my friend paul but i just told you all at the beginning of this meeting. it's been two years now since i don't regularly but i've never seen him better than he's been today. >> why do you have to come here today to assure us are you concerned with the lack of alertness and are you concerned about the criticism that's more in control?

>> two parts. first i felt i wrote an application for you to come today on the first day and the second part is the opening remarks by making the visa operations because they are true. i thought they are uppermost this president is fully in control of his presidency. as he alert him is he fully engaged is he in contact with the problems and i'm telling you it is only one day of experience and maybe that is not enough but today he was superb. >> [inaudible] >> i haven't talked to her today. i intend to do that later today. >> [inaudible] and there is the following now. [laughter]

what else do you think the president needs to do after the speech >> i think a number of things and i would tell you very frankly i would consult with the president's friends and advisers to devise a strategy to get across to the country perception of ronald reagan today. >> if you want to ask what does the president know how would you be involved in the role helping to answer some of those questions. >> i'm not sure how i would be involved. >> i talked to david today and he has assured me to keep fully advised of the developments. it was a turning point.

the president was damaged by allegations in the commission come and i think that he is going to grow from this point in strength and popularity. speak to debate what are you planning to do about the insider trading and going to tell you what i'm going to do i have a list of things i'm going to try to be briefed on and about no doubt will be one of them

[inaudible] the kind of alertness. >> let me tell you the original plan, to be frank with you come is to announce the withdrawal and the designation and the president was prepared to do that and it didn't quite come together that way. it was decided that i would come down and do this but i expect you'll see the president very soon. he was willing today. do the other one later.

[inaudible] my experience as the majority leader i found about the president was as good as anybody in the give and take discussion on the sensitive important and complex issues but when your folks go about it two weeks or two months later you find out the half-life of the memory was short if you are on a particular issue that's one thing she is a lady of strong convictions. that's what i meant.

[inaudible conversations] in honor of howard baker. mr. baker died this week at home in tennessee at age 88. during his career he served as both the senate majority and minority leader, white house chief of staff for president ronald reagan and u.s. ambassador to japan. mr. baker will lie in repose in his hometown in tennessee. his funeral set for tuesday. check c-span.org for coverage plans. president obama criticized congressional republicans today

saying they blocked or voted down every single serious idea to help the middle class. the president was speaking in minneapolis minnesota at the state which is which are later y approved a 3-dollar minimum wage increase here's a look at what some of what the president had to say. >> if we do some basic things and make some basic changes that's what we should be doing. and i know it drives you nuts that washington isn't doing it, and it drives me nuts. o-oscaoscar and the reason thatt isn't getting done is today basic common sense ideas can't get through this congress.

i am supposed to be politic about how i think about this but i'm finding lately that i just want to say what's on my mind. [cheering] so let me just be clear. so far the republicans in congress have blocked or voted down every single serious idea that strengthens the middle class. you may think i'm exaggerating. let me go through the list. they said no to raising the minimum wage. they said no to fair pay. some of them hav have been eithr that there is even a problem that despite the fact that women are getting paid 77 cents for every dollar a man is getting paid. no to extending unemployment insurance for americans who are out there working every single day for a new job.

despite the fact that we know what would be good not just for those families that are working hard to try to get back on their feet but for the economy as a whole. rather than invest in the working families getting ahead of the voted to give another massive tax cuts to the wealthiest americans. don't boo by the way. i want you to vote. [cheering] over and over again they showed that they will do anything to keep in place systems that help folks at the top that don't help you. and they don't seem to mind. and they're obstructionist queuing system that is rigged against families like them and

rebecca. we get along just fine. many of them about college when i talk to them i know i wish we could do something more, but they can't be too friendly towards me because then they would be run out of town by the tea party. but sometimes i get the sense they just don't know what those folks are going through. >> watch all the president obama's remarks on our website c-span.org. we believe that all men are created equal, yet many are denied equal treatment. we belief that all men have certain unalienable rights yet many americans do not enjoy

those rights. we believe that all men are entitled to the blessings of liberty yet millions are being deprived of those blessings not because of their own failures but because of the color of their skin. the reasons are deeply embedded into history and the nature of man. we can understand without rancor help us all happened but it cannot continue. our constitution, the foundation of our republic, the principles of our freedom. morality forbids it. and the law that i would assign tonight forbids it.

>> the 50th anniversary of the 1964 civil rights act with president johnson's address to the signing ceremony and leader. was awarded the congressional gold medal during a ceremony this week at the u.s. capitol. following the presentation, the president spoke about what he called the unbelievable and under good friendship between his nation and the u.s.. vice president joe biden and congressional leaders also gave remarks during the ceremony. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our honored guest of the president of israel members of the united states house of

representatives, members of the united states senate, the speaker of the united states house of representatives and the vice president of the united states. [applause] ladies and gentlemen to speaker of the united states house of representatives, the honorable john boehner. >> mr. vice president, members of congress come ambassador of the members of the diplomatic corps, ladies and gentlemen, welcome this morning to the united states capitol. since the days of the american revolution everrevolution everys had one humble and privilege the wording a gold medal for extraordinary contributions.

it's the highest honor that we can bestow. the first recipient in 1776 was george washington the father of our country. today we will present the medal to another come a, the ninth prs to the state of israel shimon peres. [applause] like general washington, shimon peres spent his life serving his country even before there was a country to serve. he is a great prototype of the statesman and we only need to glance at titles a record 48 years in the legislature a minister in 12 cabinets, two-time prime minister, author

of at least 11 books, nobel laureate. these distinctions of course are only symbols of his service. they do not compare to the place he holds in the heart of freedom loving people all over the world. this is what this medal of honor means above all else. we have a great program in store. i know that for your 90th birthday you had barbra streisand serenade you and tony blair toast you. i hope you don't mind but in the interest of time we are asking the vice president to devote this is a special moment for all of us and the first time for presenting a gold medal to the israeli state. mr. president, because of your generation i have faith it will

not be the last. never get into expediency and know that america will always stand with israel and with all men and women of peace. thank you for being here this morning. [applause] ladies and gentlemen please stand for the presentation of the colors by the united states armed forces color guard the singing of the united states and israeli national anthem and the retiring of the colors.

[presentation of colors] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ owes a can you see by the don's early light speed and what so proudly we hailed as the twilight's last gleaming ♪ ♪whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight ♪for the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming ♪ ♪and the rockets red glare ♪the bombs bursting in air ♪gave proof through the night that our flag was still there ♪

♪oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪o'er the land of the free ♪and the home of the brave / [background sounds]

ladies and gentlemen please remain standing as the chaplain of the united states house of representatives, the reverend patrick gets the invitatio -- ge invocation. >> let us pray. god of abraham we give you thanks for the gift of life and the many blessings that life brings. today, we gather in this temple to the representative government dedicated to the enjoyment of life and its blessings for its citizens. to honor shimon peres the ninth presidents of israel. we are honored by his presence and his long life of service as

the nation and as a friend and ally towers. on her 20 years ago as a nobel laureate, shimon peres has been a man of peace in the region known for its lack thereof. and in our own time now, made her an evil enemies around the world be inspired by his recent meeting with pope francis praying for peace and grant that his efforts would be a future proclaimed by the prophet isaiah and joel. when the time of judgment comes be beaten into plowshares, our spears into pruning hooks may no nation continue to live up to

ward or against another and made a note longer learn more. bless our world with peace, bless israel, and god bless the united states of america. amen. >> please be seated. >> ladies and gentlemen the representative from the fourth district of massachusetts the honorable joseph kennedy iii. members of the congressional leadership that is an honor for me to join you this morning on the stage. thank you all for the work that you did to make this moment possible. i would also like to thank the

committee, the cosponsor in the house, the senator ayotte and bennett are there bipartisan legislation behind this award in the house and the senate and to our guest of honor. act 91 years young its famously said that you aren't ready yet to consider your legacy that the future much more interesting than your past. with all due respect mr. president, it would be hard to find a person in this room that it does not see the future that israel to your legacy. last year i had the honor of meeting president perez on a trip to israel with some of my colleagues. from jerusalem and ramallah and all of the memorable moments

there is one that shines through. at a dinner in tel aviv i met a young woman who founded an organization in parts of syria that other international assistance have been unable to reach. she helped one community in particular for years without disclosing much of who she was or where she came from. when one day she finally left the commander know that she was an israeli. he was stunned and right then and there he refused her help calling her a sworn enemy despite the lives that sh lies d saved and the selflessness that she had given. luckily she wasn't one to be easily detoured. she came to the community for hope.

as they said go, she would pack up. if they said stay, she would continue to serve. they've begged her to stay, so she'd. this is your legacy for the future as the past the generation of men and women that continue to put themselves on the front lines of peace no matter the risks were the roadblocks. refuse to let labels like i likr adversary influence the direction of their moral compass but believe that peace is possible in no small part because they have a leader by their side for over 70 years counseling patients, optimism and faith.

not only for the history that you carved into the future but that he will shape it is our honor to come together to recognize you with a congressional gold medal. it is for the passion of great conflict and humanity and the face of great suffering may your legacy light our way. thank you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, the united states senator from new hampshire, the honorable kelly ayotte. [applause] >> good morning. i am so humbled to be here in

the presence of the president shimon peres, vice president joe biden, speaker boehner, majority leader reid, were congressional leaders come so many distinguished leaders and citizens in this room. to congressman kennedy, congressman frank, thank you so much for your leadership in the house of representatives to ensure that we will award the president the congressional gold medal your efforts helped make today's ceremony possible. i want to express my gratitude to you for working alongside me in the united states senate to introduce the bill to award president shimon peres the presidential gold medal. and i know today's ceremony is particularly moving for you and your family. we are so honored to have your mother here with us today,

suzanne bennett is with us today. she was born in poland in 1938 8 as nazi forces gathered at the border. she and her parents endured not see occupation in and around warsaw. along with their aunt they were the only members of the family to survive. and unfortunately, every one else perished at the hands of the nazis. so i know how much this means to you, senator bennett. thank you. >> i cannot think of a more deserving individual to receive the congressional gold medal in president shimon peres. and i want to thank the people that came to me and to senator bennett and all who have worked on this because this has been one of the highlights of the work that i have been able to do in the senate. and by the way, if everything were as easy to do in the senate