>> i have to tell you i think you've told a brilliant story of what i call the obama story. occasionally obama does it, but i would say most of us have no idea what app extraordinary job he's done because somehow you're not getting story out. i've felt this from the very beginning and i'm so puzzled. >> excuse me. can you move to a question? >> i'm wondering why they haven't more aggressive about getting story out because it's been so good. >> well, we're going to put you on the rung. look, you know, i'm going to give a serious answer, which is i think that, you know, any white house lays out, tries to show the country you're focusing on a specific thing one at a time, making sure everybody

understands the pros and cons. when you inherit a crisis, when you inherit a potential economy that could be going into a depression, you don't have that luxury. you have to come with overwhelming force and overwhelming speed on so many different areas. i remember so well i was at treasury those first two years and most importantly i was at treasury the first six months. what was happening, the things we were dealing with from the recovery act to stabilization to chrysler to gm to aig, i mean it was just -- it was just overwhelming, and so that's not a communication strategy. that's an economic crisis strategy, and you have to do what you can. and i do think that people will see that story, and i think -- i think -- i mentioned the automobile industry. i think that is the most clear aspect. that was something the president did in march of 2009, which his political advisers would be happy to tell you they knew was

going be enormously politically unpopular and he did it because it was the right thing to do, and i don't think there's anybody anywhere, unless they have a very, very specific and cla calculated and political agenda who does not recognize what a difference that has made, not only for a comeback for the american auto industry, not only for the perhaps million jobs that were saved or more, but for what that has done to our manufacturing base and our economic future. >> i'm afraid that is all we have time for. gene, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> thank you so much. and you can see more from the atlantic ek noimices summit if you go to our website. go to c-span.org. we're live on capitol hill now for a hearing with fbi director robert mueller. he's testified before a senate appropriations subcommittee on

justice. he's calling for an increase, 1.4% increase over last year. director mueller is the sixth fbi director, having taken that position in 2001.

good morning, everybody. the subcommittee will come to order. today we're taking the testimony and engaging in a conversation with our director of the fbi,

the federal bureau of investigation, with director mueller. this will be a two-part hearing. one will be here in open and public session. and then because of the sensitivity of issues and budget involved for the fbi's fight against the global war against terrorism, we will have a classified briefing. so upon the conclusion of this phase, we will recess and reconvene in a classified environment at the visitors center. and all members are welcome. and this is where we can have an additional in-depth conversation. today the subcommittee will hear from the director of the fbi. we're grateful for director mueller's service and his agreement to serve two more years to work with our president in order to keep our streets, communities, and countries safe.

we begin our examination of the fbi's 2013 budget request with this open hearing. as chairwoman of the subcommittee, when we look at the fbi budget, i have three priorities. national security, which is how is the fbi working to keep america safe. community security, how is the fbi working with local law enforcement to keep our families and our neighborhoods safe. and then also oversight and accountability to ensure that we're spending taxpayers' dollars wisely and ensuring that we get value for our dollar. today we'll learn -- i'm going to ask unanimous consent in the interest of time that my full statement be included the record. having said that, my oral statement to the point is that we know that we ask the fbi to carry out extraordinary responsibilities. keeping 330 million americans

safe from terrorism and also violent crime. to continue their work to dismantle organized crime, which now has new -- many new faces, many new location, and many new techniques. and then the despicable drug cartels that continue to exist in our country and threaten our borders. we also ask the fbi to work to come-bat gang violence, illegal drug and gun smuggling, and at the same time, help us catch sexual predators. the president's budget request for the fbi is $8.2 billion. this request reflects the stringent budget reality in which we find ourselves. there are no new initiatives in the fbi's budget request this year and only one modest targeted increase, and that's the fbi's ability to fight mortgage fraud. in fact, the fbi will ask -- will be asked to do more with us

in 2013. in order to afford to continue fbi's critical efforts, we will have the budget proposes $63 million in savings from lower fbi programs, and the fbi will also have a give-back provision. they're asked to be the banker for all law enforcement, helping with interoperable communication purposes, not just for fbi but dta and us marshals. we watch it very carefully. as we look at our cousins in the department of homeland communication, interoperable communications has been one of the biggest things i ever saw. everybody bought a gadget and giz moe and at the end of the day none of the gadgets and gizmos were talking to anybody. we're counting on the fbi to get

it straight and at the same time we need to get an update on the program, our virtual case management file. also we want to be sure we take a look at the sequester consequences and what would be the impact on the fbi if there was an 8% cut. and we need to know how it will carry out their mission. the fbi was charged with protecting us from international terrorism. we disrupt terrorist plots before they happened by identifying tracking and defeating them and then also working to dismantle weapons of mass destruction. this definitely is not j.f. hoover's fbi anymore. counterterrorism and counter intelligence make up a substantial part of the fbi budget. just weeks ago wu sea the fb i-'s terrorism efforts up close when they arrested a man who wanted to blow up the u.s.

capitol. our nation also face as new kind of threat. that threat occurs in cyber space, so we have cyber spies, cyber terrorists, organized crime involved with cyber. cyber is the new area. and we look forward to getting ideas and a concrete budget from the fbi director on how we can keep us safe in that area and how they work with other intel agencies. i also want to know how the fbi's protecting americans from violent crime and also fraud in their communities. the fbi targets sophisticated criminal organizations who prey on the vulnerable. the child pornographier, the trafficking of children in prostitution, the schemes and scams and bilking people either out of medicare or out of mortgage fraud, and i'm concerned that this budget is flat to fight violent crime and

gangs. i know my very able and wonderful colleague senator hutchison ipson is going to talk about the southwest border. she's jazzed about it and so am i because of the ongoing threat at our border. state and local bunts are under stress and we want to hear how you are meeting that. i'm going to conclude my remarks, though, by saying this budget is not about numbers and statistics. it's about people. make sure that americans are not victimized byny bad person or anyone with a predatory intent toward them. but we couldn't do it without the people who work for the fbi. so director, before i turn to senator hutchison inson, i just want to thank you, and in thanking you not only for your service, but i'd like to thank you on behalf of all those wonderful people who work every single day for the fbi, those that are out there in the field offices, working on joint task forces, those that are around

the world and at times very rugged positions. know that the fbi works every day to protect us, that the people who work hard there every day are duty-driven and dedicated, and they are in many ways our boots on the ground in local communities and also working with their intel and military agencies around the world. this is why i want them to know i respect them for the work they do, and i will fight for them in terms of their pay, benefits and pensions. so if we're going to say thank you, we want to say it not only with words but with deeds. thank you. i'll send it over to senator hutchison inson. >> thank you very much, mr. muller, for coming before our committee. i'm happy to say that last year we thought it would be the last time you would appear before our committee, and i was very pleased that the president offer

and you accepted an exception of your term because i think what has happened and the fbi during your term is exponential. i think the terms that have taken place and the ronlt sponlts that you have had have been more transformational than probably any time since the beginning of the fbi. i do want to start my remarks just very briefly by wreck niegz also the chairwoman of this committee who will on saturday become the longest serving woman to serve in congress in the hit of the united states congress and we're going to make a big deal of that because we're really brought of this little point-sized mighty might who has outlasted them all. so mr. fbi director, let me just

state a couple of points. think that senator mulkiski has really outlined the big picture. there are a couple of areas of interest that i have and concern. certainly i think the southwest border has to be as much of a national security issue as any place that we have. and yet this request cuts the southwest border funding. i would question the priority of the administration in increasing the financial fraud enforcement and decreasing border security. so i'm going to say that i'll be looking carefully at that and hoping to restore the -- at least the $5 million that was included to make it look like it was even funding, but it really -- that was just required to

sustain the positions that had been added in the fy-10 border supplemental appropriations bill, so i'm hoping that we can add more where you think you need it the most because that would be 13 border corruption task force members located in field offices across the border as i understand it, and these are kind of the backbone of the fbi's southwest border mission that provide intelligence and coordinate with the southwest intelligence group epic and the national border task force. so i'm going to be looking at that very carefully. i'm also concerned and am going to ask you about the $162 million recession, and what exactly that is going to impact. if it is as it appears that it

would be the processing for fingerprinting and dna on ieds, that's an area where i think we could really link it to terrorists, and i wouldn't want to cut that unless you have other plans for using money to assure that that is able to be done. so -- and then the other area is cutting the contractors of counterintelligence programs, which would be the informant validation, the screening center and foreign task force. i will ask your opinion of those. and then the other area that i will ask you about is the fbi ajejts that were involved in the prosecution of ted stevens. we had a disturbing hearing with mr. holder last week in which we

talked about the department of justice employees who apparently are still prosecuting at the department of justice even after the report was leased and the attorney general himself excused it on the part of the misconduct of the prosecutors. so i want to know if there are people still at the fbi -- i think there were just two agents that were accused of being involved in it. so i'd like to know your opinion of that as well. so i thank you for all that you're doing in the other areas that the senator mentioned, but especially knowing the role of the fbi now and international intelligence and law enforcement. so that expansion has been on your watch, and i appreciate

that you have been able to handle it and work with the intelligence agencies so well. thank you. >> director mueller, please proceed. >> thank you, madam chairwoman. let me also join others on the committee in congratulating you on the tenure. far longer than mine, i might add. also let me thank you for your comments with regard to the fbi personnel. i'm reminded of that because recently i had an opportunity to talk to a number of agents, analysts, and others who worked 24 hour as day over the holidays in a case that we recently took down in tampa, which was indicative of the degree of sacrifice that you see from the personnel in the organization. so my thanks for commenting on that. let me start by saying the fbi continues to see unprecedent and complex challenges. as you know and pointed out we

must stop terrorists before they launch attacks against our citizens. we must protect our government, our businesses and our critical infrastructure from is pia knowledge and from the sigher base attacks. we must rule out white collar and organized crime, stop child predators and uphold civil rights and uphold civil liberty earths and the rule of law while carry out this broad mission. and for fiscal year 2013 the fbi has "a budget of $8.2 billion. this funding level will allow the fbi to maintain, maintain, just maintain our base operations with a small increase, as you pointed out, for financial and mortgage fraud investigations.

let me summarize what it will address. first the terrorist threat. while osama bin laden and others have been removed. al qaeda remains the top terrorist threat in the united states. core al qaeda operating out of pakistan remains committed to high-profile attacks against the west, and meanwhile all kai da affiliates here have attempted attacks in the united states. such attacks include the failed 2009 bombing and the attempted bombing of u.s.-bound cargo planes in october of the same year. we're also concerneden the threat from home grown violent extremists. as you pointed out, madam chairwoman last month. the fbi arrest add 29-year-old moroccan immigrant. khalifi allegedly attempted to detonate a bomb in a suicide attack on a u.s. capitol

building. over the past year we have seen similar attempted by home grown ssachusetts, texas, and washington. these cases exemplify the need to continue to enhance our intelligence capabilities and to get the right information to the right people before any harm is done. turning to foreign intelligence, while foreign intelligence continues their traditional efforts to maintain military secrets they also seek technology from intellectual property and companies and universities. for example last year a northrop grummond engineer was sentenced to 32 years in prison for selling secrets related to the b-12 stealth bomber to several nations including china. a chemical scientist pled guilty to trade secrets. these are a few examples of the

growing insider threat from employees who may use their access to commit economic espionage. turning to the cyber threat, this will be an air afterof particular focus for the fbi in the coming years as cyber crime cuts across ought of our programmes. terrorists are completely cyber savvy and like err other organization they're using the internet to grow their business and connect to with like-minded individuals and they're not hiding in the shadows of cyber. al ka die da has released a magazine. extremists are not just using the internet for propaganda and recruitment. they're using cyber space to conduct operations and while to date terrorists have not launched a full-scale cyber

attack, we cannot underestimate their attack. one proclaims that cyber war will be the war of the future. then you have state-sponsored computer hacking and espionage which poses significant challenges as well. just as traditional crime has migrated online, so, too, has s espiona espionage. trade secrets for military and economic advantage. the results of these developments is that we are losing data, we're losing money, we're lewising ideas and we leer losing. as citizens we're increasingly vulnerable to losing our private information. the fbi has in the past seviers built a substantial expertise. we now have psycher squads in every one of our 56 field offices with more than 1 now specially trained agents,

analysts, and forensic sick specialists. borders and boundaries pose no obstacles for hackers so the fbi uses or 63 attaché offices around the world. we also have special agents embedded in romania, estonia, you crane and the netherlands, working to identify key players and here at home the national group briggs together 18 law enforcement, military and intelligence agency in order to stop current and prevent future attacks. they operate through threat focused cells. special agents, officers and analysts who focus on particular threats such as botnets. just last week we announce d

targets of six hackers known as an anonymous. they target the companies, media, and law enforcement since 2008. this case was successful because we worked extensively with our overseas parters and we use our sophisticated intelligence techniques in the psycher arena. we must continue to push forward and enhance our collective capability to fight cyber crime and we do need tougher penalties for cyber centimeters to make the cost of doing business more than they are willing to bear. just as we did after september 11, we must break down walls to succeed in combatting this cyber threat and just as we do or did with terrorism, we must identify and stop cyber threats before they do harm. it is not enough to build our defenses and to investigate the harm after the fact.

now let me spend a moment if i might to discuss some of the criminal threats in the arena. from foreclosure frauds to sub krooim scams mortgage frauds remain a serious problem and in fiscal year 2011 the fbi had more than 3,000 pending mortgage fraud investigations, more than four times the number of cases we had in 2005. nearly 70% of these investigations include losses of more than 1 million dollars. and this budget year for fiscal year 2013, the fbi is requesting a program increase of $15 million and 44 new positions to further address the mortgage and financial fraud schemes at all levels. the focus on health care fraud is no less important. the federal government spends hundreds of billions every year to fund medicare and other health care programs and together with our partners at the department of health and

human services the fbi has more than 2600 active health care fraud investigations. in fiscal year 2011 these efforts led to the recover oi of more than $4 billion, taxpayer dollars. violent crimes and game activities continue to exact a high toll on our communities. according to the national gang intelligence center, there are more than 30,000 gangs with more than 1 million members active in the united states today. with sate streets and safe trails the fbi identifies and targets them. targets them as criminal enterprises. turning to the southwest border, the continuing violence along the southwest border remains a significant threat. and we rely on our collaboration with the southwest intelligence group, the in fusion center and the el paso intelligence senner

to the track and disrupt this threat. with regard to crimes against children, we remain vigilant in our efforts to remove predator and to keep our children safe. we have ready response teams across the states to dries abductions. . the fbi and its partners are continuing to make the nation safer for our children. lastly turning to the budget, we seek to maintain our current resources and capabilities in a restrained fiscal environment. but these resources are critical for us to continue respontding to the broad range of national security and criminal threats we face today. ranking member hutchinson, members of the committee, let me close by again thag