system by june of 2012? >> senator, i believe we are. the final plan is in the clearance process with omb, but that is our intent. >> good. will dhs be able to provide overstay rates per country by may of 2012? >> we should be able to provide some of that information if not all. >> good. thank you. >> we will now go to senator grassy, senator kyle. no, senator kyle. senator kyle is behind me, then we'll go to senator schumer. >> thank you. this isn't the first time that senator feinstein and i have

been thinking about the same thing. let me touch on the three things which were a concern. on student visas it's not just the sham schools but also the failure of i.c.e. to follow up with student who is have overstayed air visa and the poor record of schools providing information to ice. on the ag workers, the regs could be reformed. it's not just our failure. h 2-a regulations were more workable i'm told, that was then changed with the obama administration. if we could work more toward the kind of regs that existed toward the end temperature bush registration that might be a help for some. on the visa overstays, i think your budget was denied $30 million by the appropriations committee because of its frustration with the lack of a plan. we need to get that plan implemented as well as up here.

let me go on to -- >> if i might, can i talk about the visa overstay issue with a bit. one of the things we have done over the last few years is the -- we have added data bases and been able to link them so that before visas are issued there is a check against our data, nctc's data and certain nsa data. we have done now the same thing. we've gone backwards to find visa overstays. we have looked at and prioritized those that provide any public safety or security risk. and we have now looked at the entire backlog. i will give you the inventory of what we have found and we are prioritizing those visa overstays. >> i understand. what is your estimate now of just approximately, of the

number of the visa overstayers as a percentage of the total of illegal immigrants as opposed to those who crossed illegally. the number you usually hear is around 40%. is that? >> that may be a high number. what we have found is a lot of people had in fact left. >> so 40% might be too high. that's the number that is usually given when we complain about the lack of security at the border. 40% of the people here illegally overstayed visas. you think that's high. >> it may be high. >> it's a big problem and it's fine to prioritize for criminals but that's a very small percentage. >> senator, what we have done, look, we have to make the best use of the resources. >> excuse me for interrupting but every year i say if you need more resources ask for them. no, we've got everything we need. then the excuse of not moving

forward is we don't have enough. you can't have it both ways. if you need more resources ask for them. >> senator, thank you. as you know we're all working under the constraints of the budget control act. to your point, yes, and to senator feinstein, yes, we believe they over stay our keen interest. >> we appreciate that. another parochial but important point, i know you appreciate this. every time i go to the board the first thing people talk about is not illegal immigration it's the incredible delays at the ports of entry. we need a lot of things including more officials at the border on the american side. that's not the total solution to the problem. a lot has to do with the inadequate linkup. but at st. luis, i know you're familiar with, we need more agents. that's what they tell us.

and yesterday that was not in the budget request. i would ask you to please either ask for the agents that we need, just to facilitate commerce between the two countries. >> yes. >> and to make life easier for people who have to cross every day. ask for it in the budget or find some place where we coop get it or make a recommendation how we can move money around to provide for those additional agents. the estimate at mayor a po is a is 250. doesn't seem like that many. we ought to be able to find the money for that. would you agree to try to work with us? >> we will work with you. >> i appreciate it. i know you know the problem. it's not a partisan problem. we all agree we need to resolve it. >> and we want to facilitate that trade. a lot of jobs depend on it. >> last point. six months ago and then three months ago written a let ber the lack of enforcement of federal

detakeners. specifically for example in cook county. last night at 6:30 we received a response to our letter. it certainly is a good response in terms of pointing out the problem. where i fail to see the responses and what you're doing about it other than writing letters. this one from nelson peacock, i think it lays out the problem from i.c.e.'s perspective and your perspective. cook county is not abiding by federal law in detaining officials. for example, since the ordinance was enacted i.c.e. according to this lodged against 432 removable aliens. cook county has not honored any of these 432 detainers and they

point out a case of gravity, recently reported in the chicago tribune. and mr. peacock notes that this probably violates federal law. the only action that i can see taken here is that two letters have been written. and cook county has been encouraged to change its policy and has been adviced if it don'ts this policy it may result in denial of reimbursement to the state of costs under the scap program. the federal government has been aggressive in filing lawsuits against states that are trying to do something about illegal immigration but doesn't look to me like the government is doing that much to enforce the law that currently exists with respect to detainers. what more do you plan to do with entities like cook county who are obviously flounting federal law and jeopardizing american security in the process? >> i agree.

i think cook county's ordinance is terribly misguided. and is a public safety issue. we're evaluating a lot of options. we start off trying to work with the local authorities and work things out. we to date have had no success so we're evaluating all options. >> i mope more than evaluating you'll take action soon. will you report to us as soon as you decided what kind of action to take. keep us advised. >> we will keep the committee staff -- probably the best way, advised how we're proceeding there. >> thank you. >> thank you, senator. i also note today is senator kyle's birthday. >> please don't sing. >> last birthday as a senator. >> it is his birthday and

appreciate him being here. senator schuman. >> thank you. i wish senator kyle a happy birthday, i guess the last as senator. your next birthday may be even much happier than this one. thank you. mutually seriously. senator feinstein and i were mentioning that a second ago. first, to two points of housekeeping. i am not going to -- good news for you, i'm not going to ask you questions on the secret service. i have a lot of faith in your ability to get to the bottom of this. all of us are shocked and terribly troubled by it but i think the kind of investigation you and your department will do i have a lot of faith in. >> thank you. >> second, senator feinstein mentioned the student visa which i believe she mentioned -- i came in the middle -- she and iasked for a gao report and our subcommittee on immigration with the chairman's permission will

have hearings on that report when it comes out. so let you know about that. okay. two questions here. on other issues in your vast jurisdiction. the first relates to passenger advocates over the past several month there is have been increasing number of news stories about passenger complaint over tsa screening, including a female passenger being told she could not carry her breast pump on board the plane while the milk bottles were empty. imagine how her child is that way. asking female passengers to submit to repeated inspections through body scanner machines for nonsecurity reason, asking elderly and disabled passengers to remove critical medical equipment and undergo strip searches prior to clearing security. i like the tsa i think they do a good job. i was involved in setting them up. it's hard to balance security and commerce.

but you can always make it better without impeding -- without one impeding the other. tsa's original response at the the lower levels was to first deny wrong doing, then issue apologies, so in light of these incidents, senator collins and i decided to introduce legislation called the rights act, and the rights act will help curb abuses in the tsa screening simply by requiring the tsa ombudsman office to establish a passenger advocate program to resolve public complaints and conduct training of tsa officers, would also require that every category x airport, is that x or 10? big airport, let's strike category x. x. it's a funny category. a through v. we don't know. every category x airport to at least have one tsa passenger

advocate on duty at all times so somebody's faced with the choice, they are lined up, asked for an intrusive exam they think is uncalled for, i don't expect every tsa officer to be schooled in each thing. at tornado airport that handles tens of thousands, someone who can come over in 10 minutes, just one, no new people, no new cost, one of the existing employee, who knows about how to do this and can resolve a sticky situation. it avoids the passenger the choice of undergoing an examination that they think is intrusive or humiliating or not going on the flight. so, do you support the creation of passenger advocates at airports and will you work to roll those out at airports without the need for act of congress in >> absolutely. if i might just to go through, first, as you know tsa i think does a very good job and it's a very difficult job. every morning i start my morning

with a threat brief of what's facing us, in the evolving world of terrorism and aviation security still remains the number one threat. but we have taken steps to try to make it less onerous, we've taken those over 75, children under 12, out of the routine lines. the breast pump incident you mentioned was not in accord with how we do that and the employee received appropriate retraining, so we keep trying to do that. but the idea of having cross trained advocates among our tsa personnel in the category x airports is something we support and tsa is already moving toward that goal. >> that's great news. thank you. and will avoid senator collins and i having to pass legislation. since legislation moves so quickly these days through the senate. okay. second is a parochial issue but of great importance to western

new york, it's the niagara air force base. air base. i want to ask you about the possibility of constructing a new border patrol station at niagara air base to replace the existing niagara falls border patrol station, as you know the existing station is insufficient for your current needs, we all agree to that given all of the new security we have had terrorists cross over the buffalo border. it lacks the capacity needed to accommodate the number of agents now housed at the station, doesn't have the space and resources your agents need to do the job, a new station at niagara air base can comfortably accommodate 50 agents, could be modified to accommodate even 75. it will include critical items that the border patrol needs such as main administration building will be suited for mustering and training, include an armory and necessary storage space, answer larry buildings that house vehicle maintenance and closed parking and kennels obviously we have the dogs at the border too. this would be a win for the

border patrol and the niagara air force base which his mission is being curtailed because of the cutbacks in the military. would you support the creation of a new border patrol station. >> niagara is under consideration. the issue is money for construction after new facility but niagara is under consideration. >> you think it's a good idea to have it there and we have to find the funds. >> that's one way to put it, yes, sir. >> yes. i like the yes part of that answer. thank you. mr. chairman. i am finished with my -- i would yield back my remaining time. >> thank you, mr. chairman. first, just a statement i want to give you an update on some of the -- first of all i want to put a statement in the record. i was going to have a -- yeah. >> senator, i don't know that your microphone is on.

>> i'm not talking into it. that's the problem. i'm surprised you want to hear me. but thank you. first an update. about 99% of the time when i write you i don't get a response directly from you, the response comes from allege affairs. second many times my questions are rarely if ever answered. third, that delays are unacceptable. and just last night i received a response from the department about cook county, six months after my initial letter of inquiry and also, you just responded to questions we posed at last judiciary committee oversight hearing which took place last october. that's just to bring you up to date. that's not a question. i don't want a response to that. both the chairman and i want to get to the bottom of this secret service matter. and i know the chairman has covered a lot of the issues i wanted to cover so i'm not going

to go back over that. i thank the chairman for asking those questions. i was briefed by the secret service director and he responded about the inspector general being involved. and i've asked for that involvement, but he said he was already involved before i asked for it so i compliment director sullivan on that. director sullivan has included the inspector general in the investigation up to this point, but i want to know if the inspector general is truly conducting an independent and impartial investigation, i think the same independent investigation is necessary from the inspector general in defense and from the white house, to get to the bottom of the story for all of the advance team staff that was in colombia. you mentioned that in previous answer to questions you mentioned that the ige is

supervising investigation. do you agree that the inspector general should conduct a full scope investigation determine if this is a cultural problem routinely occurring in additional cities instead of just reviewing what occurred in colombia. question one. question number two, do you have any reason to believe that the inspector general isn't receiving full and complete access to the secret service investigation. and three, you referred to previous answers that as far as you know in the last 2 1/2 years this has not been a cultural issue. why do you keep saying just 2 1/2 years and don't you think we ought to make sure before 2 1/2 years that it wasn't a problem as much as not being in the last 2 1/2 years. >> senator, let me address that. i use that time frame because

you know, we're going back now through all of the records and we've gone back that far, probably even further at this point. in terms of the ig's involvement, and supervision of the investigation, i'm sure the i.g. would be willing to answer those questions, but we have an m.o.a., memorandum of agreement with the i.g. and the secret service, that they are in these kinds of cases where there's alleged misconduct, they actually, they meaning the ig, supervise the investigation but use the investigatory resources of the secret service. that's how we're managing this one and i believe the i.g. has been with the director during the congressional briefings to confirm that point. so, we expect the i.g. to be conducting a full investigation. >> okay. on another matter dealing with cyber security, specifically one

cyber security proposal would place your department the lead agency in over seeing regulations for covered critical infrastructure. i have concerned that this proposal because it creates a new regulatory bureaucracy. i'm also concerned this new regulatory power given dhs background on overseeing the chemical facility's security, congress gave your department regulatory power over chemical facilities. regulations were issued, 2007. five years later nearly 4200 chemical facilities have complied with the regulations but your department has yet to approve a single security plan so far spending $500 million and not getting anything approved. i've obtained a copy of an internal review by under secretary rand beers by two

subordinates that details the problems dhs faces in implementing cfats. this is the most kacandid revie of a failed government program i've seen and documents failures at an unprecedented level, poor hiring, hiring people not skilled, poor staff morale, management leadership failures, lack of subject matter expertise, union problems, and, quote, catastrophic failure to ensure personal and professional accountability. the memorandum also states that inspectors lack experties to effectively evaluate site compliance with cyber security requirements. on top of this memorandum, the department has failed to implement ten outstanding gao recommendations. taken together, these reports paint an agency that cannot control costs, manage employees and effectively implement mission. if it costs dhs $480 million to

effect live regulate zero chemical facilities, how much can we expect that the cost to taxpayers of the department to regulate cyber security among thousands of private businesses? >> senator, let me take those issues, both of them, first the cfats or chemical facilities. yes, we did a candid, internal review, because we were not satisfied that we were achieving the results that we need to achieve which is the safety and security of our chemical facilities and their possible security issues with them. we now have a very aggressive corrective plan in place. be happy to brief you or your staff on that. we have been approving site specific plans. they're not at final approval. they just about are but that process is really moving forward with great speed. so we've moved a lot -- learned a lot from c fats and we are

fixing those problems. we have put new people in charge, done all the things one needs to do to make sure a program moves forward effectively. with respect to cyber, this is an area where our deep concern is that the nation's core critical infrastructure on which farmers depend and small business depend and everyone depends on, is very susceptible to attack. and the attacks can occur in a variety of ways. and we are seeking some means to, a, have basic performance standards by that core critical infrastructure, have real time information sharing so that we can swiftly move in to help mitigate and share information if need be, and we're actually asking the congress to give us some hiring authority so it's easier for us to hire people who are experts in the cyber field. so as the congress begins to consider, and the senate begins to consider this legislation, we hope they do it in the sense of

what the risk posed is to the country right now. >> next, senator klobuchar? >> thank you very much, mr. chairman, and thank you secretary napolitano for being here and good work that you've done. i share in senator feinstein's views that you have done a good job with very challenges. i also wanted to thank you for being here to answer questions about what happened in colombia. in my old job as a prosecutor, i had very positive interactions with the secret service and i am hopeful that the actions of a few won't over shadow all the good work that they do every day. >> indeed. >> i do want to ask some questions because i think it shook the trust of a lot of

people. the way you make sure the actions of a few don't over shadow the actions of many, good actions and how they sacrifice their lives every day and put them on the line is by making sure we clear up what happened and make sure it doesn't happen again. and that we have a clear understanding of what's going on. there was a washington post report recently that talked about the fact that this may have been going on before. in fact, the person isn't identified but one agent that was not implicated in the matter remarked that of course it has happened before. this is not the first time. it really only blew up in this case because the u.s. embassy was alerted. and i just wondered if you could comment on that, how you think we need to move forward and how, you know, to me it just -- this does seem to create a risk when you're in a country like colombia and you have people doing things where they could potentially be bribed.

if you could potentially comment about that. >> well, again, the actions were unacceptable and unacceptable taken by themselves. every mother of a teenager knows a common defense is everybody else was doing it so git to do it. first, not everybody else was doing it and, second, this behavior is not part of the secret service way of doing business. they're very professional. but we are going to get to the bottom of this. we are going to make sure that standards and training, if they need to be tightened up, are tightened. and we have moved with great speed to deal in a disciplinary fashion with the 12 agents involved. >> i don't expect you to reveal things that aren't public but have there been other incidents where people have tried to bribe or blackmail agents because they believed or they had some kind of interaction with prostitutes or someone with some kind of illegal activity? >> senator, i'm not aware of

any. as i said before, the office of professional responsibility in the secret service went back two and a half years. that covers 900 foreign trips and 13,000 domestic trips, and did not have in that period any kind of complaint. that doesn't obviously include the i.g. that is an independent entity. but we are looking to see and make sure this was not some kind of systemic problem. and, most importantly, to fix it. >> and there was one agency, one agent that was in the president's hotel is that he correct, that was also just identified? >> i believe that's correct. >> okay. another question that was completely different incident and i think every employer has had incidents of people posting things on the internet and pictures of themselves like maybe in their boss's chair

drinking a beer. that happened to me five years ago with an intern. it was innocent but i don't think he ever thought we would see it. but these are things that happen. and so -- but when they happen with law enforcement it seems a step above and i think much more of a security risk. recently one of the secret service agents posted photos on facebook purporting to be himself on duty protecting sarah palin. can you talk about the agents sharing details of their assignments online and does the secret service have policies regarding agents' use of facebook and other social media websites? >> yes we do have a social media policy. we'd be happy to provide you a copy. yes, to the extent there was such a posting, unprofessional and unacceptable.

>> very good. we're working very hard on cyber security initiatives here going forward. can you talk about how homeland security is currently working with state and local law enforcement to prevent and mitigate cyber threats and discuss the connect campaign and your efforts to educate the public on the role they have to play in this important fight? >> right. we are trying just as we have the see something say something campaign, stop, think, connect is one of our efforts to educate the public about everyone's shared responsibility who is on the internet. everyone has a responsibility to have good cyber habits just like when you get into a car you should buckle your seat belt. it should be reflexive above anything else. we continue to push on that. with respect to coordination with state and local governments we do that quite a bit, senator. we have the inkick in northern