way she attacked her critics head-on. you may remember when she said no, there is no way i would ever be associated with some fringe movement. i am a member of the tea party. i have a few skeletons in my own past, too, you may have read it's true a double with republicanism. it was 1980, it was the reagan era, i was young, everybody was giving yet. [laughter] nonetheless, during the campaign, someone dug up an old article i'd written in a college newspaper where i refer to myself as a bearded marxist. the proletarian a great deal of this, but i told them please come comrades, it was just a joke. [applause] ultimately so i think my victory really was the result of good old fashioned retail politics. during the campaign, i did a bus to work all the way up and down

my state. [laughter] it took about 20 minutes and cost $400 in tolls. [laughter] [applause] and today i am tremendously proud to serve as a senator from the state of delaware. after all, it's not the size of your state, it's how you use it. [laughter] especially in the senate. being a senator, i know it won't always be easy, but i have taken on tough challenges before, as you may know, i am a lawyer with a degree in ethics. that sort of like it superman had a degree in kryptonite. now i am addressing you tonight as a 47-year-old freshman, college, law school, all of that, and i'm a freshman again.

a lot has changed. back when i was 18, freshman year was all about keg parties and this year it's all about tea parties. as a freshman ulin on the seniors to give you advice. i went over to dick lugar the other day and said the senate can be the best for decades of your life. [laughter] freshman year is the time to try something new, sit on committees you've never sat on before, discover new special interests you never knew you really left. [laughter] think about what sort of caucus you want to rush, do some exploring, yourself. koln chris really does remind me of high school quite a bit. we have a recess, lockers of the gym, assigned seating at our desks. i remember when i went to sit at my desk on the floor for the first time, just as a high school i was nervous would be assigned to me if i found myself between tom carper and bernie sanders. [laughter]

to my left. sure enough, right before my first vote, senator sanders leans over and goes "i hope you're going to grow that beard back conrad." [laughter] once again, all of my friends were doing it, so i asked someone to the prom. i mean the state of the union. my date was senator bozeman of arkansas. i got him a wonderful corsage, something that went with his eyes but not so much his life back physique. once we got through talking about how we were both from chicken growing states there was a lot of awkward silence. [laughter] just like at my high school prom. actually been there for the state of the union was a high point for me. i was inspired, by the way democrats and republicans sat

together. and in the same spirit, joe lieberman sat by himself. [laughter] and by the way, sitting all yourself is not a euphemism for something christine o'donnell doesn't really approve of. after [laughter] i was so genuinely inspired by president obama's team, his call to win the future. of course it was a little unfortunate that the acronym for win the future is wtf. [laughter] that's why i was so glad our vice president stepped in and offered a different contract, building futures daily. yeah. [laughter]

but seriously, folks, what we in congress and you in journalism do every day is to build a better future for the country. if you will indulge me for just one more minute, i will say honestly how much i admire the folks who are here this evening, the people who don't just have a job, don't just work in the media but find in journalism a profession and calling. it was just in the past few weeks that we have seen individual examples of the sort of courage, bravery and risking of one's self to give a window into what's really going on on the ground. as journalists have braved the most chaotic circumstances to give a glimpse into the reality of change. in the world with more sources of information today than ever before, your work is more essential than ever and that is why the time is distressing to watch as it times profit has replaced principal, entertainment crowded out news

and so many areas of the media. i'm not sure deer has ever been a time when americans of needed high-quality professional journalism more than right now and that is why i was so honored to accept your invitation and join you hear in supporting this great organization, the washington press club foundation so thank you. thank you for the work that you do and the service to the public, the community and the nation and for providing a forum where reporters were allowed to listen to a freshman senator from delaware. [applause] [applause] >> senator bill baggens everyone. [laughter]

and i never told you i'm from philadelphia, your state is cute. [laughter] senator kelly ayotte was not just the first female attorney general, she and her husband in iraq war veteran created a snow removal company, and on the subject may i please suggest, senator, that you call me your gray and explain the process by which molecules of water vapor and hear directly to dust and other particles creating snowflakes which can land on the streets and caused traffic. thank you. unlike senator kunes, this is one of the smarter bets, dubbed the grand grisly coincidentally congressman nickname when he was at dartmouth. [laughter] the senate republican party leadership recently saw an ayotte to deliver the republican response to the president's weekly address neither of which were heard by anyone outside of the immediate family and friends. she lives with her husband,

5-year-old daughter catherine and some jacob. ladies and gentlemen, calfee ayotte of new hampshire. [applause] >> good evening. it's great to be here with all of you tonight. for those of you that don't know me, my name is kelly ayotte, and i naturally one of the few republican elected officials in america that has a reason to go to new hampshire every weekend. [laughter] and i know exactly why you invited me to speak tonight. you couldn't get marco rubio, come on. i'm still getting used to washington, but i've got to tell you this is one strange place. this is the first jobsites ever had where you are sworn in and then they give you two weeks off. i mean, it's a tough schedule. i do not know how i'm going to keep this up for the next six

years. [laughter] you know, i heard that congress is a lot like high school, but i never thought that i did get to relive my high school prom. but when senator blumenthal asked me to the state of the union, how could i say no? i mean, john thune was already taken. [laughter] and you know, the state of the union was quite an experience. did you know that they didn't even have a seat for me? no joke. they set up a folding chair and put me in the ogle. come on, they will get chris coons a booster and they won't even get me a seat? [laughter] [applause] but there was quite a speech the president gave. i found it interesting president obama called this our sputnik moment. i mean, we always kind of suspected he was a communist but

we -- [laughter] i don't think any of us expected him to be so obvious about it. [laughter] regardless, i am so thrilled to be here to support the washington press club foundation, and i am pleased to join all of you in recognizing the achievements of bonnie angelo and barbara barrett. it is also a pleasure to be here with congressional leadership and i am so excited and thrilled to be part, to be a new member serving in the 112th congress. and we have got quite a crew tonight. we've got sean duffy, i can't wait to hear what the real world, and terri sewell. i want to commend the house for coming together to read the constitution, or if least the christine aguillera version of

it. [laughter] i have to say i am delighted to be here with my friend and colleague, chris coons. and i think we all know exactly why chris coons is here. i mean, don't get ahead of me. he was really motivated. if he lost, his opponent would have turned him into a toad. [laughter] but, chris, i want you to know don't worry, i'm not a witch, but all i am a mamma grizzley. senator coons and i have something in common. we are seceding distinguished veteran senators to read and succeeding judd gregg, and chris is succeeding joe biden. chris, those are some pretty big shoes to fill. actually, vice president biden has been so great, god love him. he presided over my swearing in ceremony, and i had my entire family with me.

and this is a true story. i had my husband, my two children, and the vice president kneeled down and said to my 6-year-old daughter how were you? she said are you 17? she laughed and said 96. the vice president and said you're not allowed to date on till you're 40. i smiled at him and said mr. vice president, keep your individual mandates away from my daughter. [laughter] i do respect the vice president and of course president obama, and i appreciate president's overtures to work with republicans. but we have some real disagreements. i mean, the health care law we should clearly be overturned by the court. the precedent is right there in bush v. gore. we win, they lose. it's in the constitution. what can i say? is a tough business. i have to get used to it and so do my kids.

i mentioned my daughter. well, my son is three, and the campaign was really tough on him. i realized just how effective campaign ads or when he came up to me and called me job killing kelly ayotte. [laughter] but fortunate, i won and i am eternally grateful to the people of new hampshire for placing their trust in me. they should know that i am going to be hard working, a go getter just like every one of here tonight. in fact, the other day i was talking to mitch mcconnell, and i said to him leader, i want to learn everything. you have any tips? how do you pass legislation? how do you stop legislation? he said kelly, for starters, you're in the men's room. [laughter] but she wasn't the only one to offer me advice as a member of the senate. rand paul told me to buy gold.

[laughter] [applause] chuck schumer told me having a press conference every single day is just a good start. [laughter] and john ensign told me i should get to know my staff really well. [laughter] [applause] be on the senate, everyone has been so nice to meet. tim pawlenty, new gingrich, haley barbour, you know, they have all offered to come to new hampshire and shuffled my driveway. [laughter] and mitt romney has been very nice, too. he invited me to a reading from the paperback release of his book, no apology, the case for american greatness. it is a sequel to his other book. i apologize, i was governor of massachusetts. [laughter]

my husband joe and i get invited to a lot of these events as you can imagine, and for those of you that don't know him, he piloted combat missions in the war in iraq and he is my hero. he has been so supportive and he's had to put up so much as you can imagine with his wife running for the senate. people here in washington keep coming up to joe and congratulating him on his victory. and he put his arm around me and says i couldn't have done it without this little lady right here. [laughter] in all seriousness, i have been reminded more than a few times but i don't exactly look like a senator from central casting. for example, a couple of weeks ago i was sitting at my desk in the chamber waiting for boats and a door and came up to me and said three seriously i'm sorry, those tasks are for senators

only. i share that because the idea of this event, the organization and the purpose of this organization to promote equality, excellence and scholarship is something that we should all cherished. when you apply those ideals to journalism, like all of you do, every single day in the most difficult times and the most turbulent times of the country and around the world, you simply help make the greatest country in the world even better. i want to thank you for having me here tonight, thank you for what you do, and it's really fun to have politicians here that are being here and being funny on purpose instead of when we are funny and we are not trying to be funny. so i appreciate you having me. thank you. [applause] >> that's the funny thing about senator ensign, he and senator

vitter voted to promote secret holds, but i'm not sure -- [laughter] you are way ahead of me. [laughter] its weird, senator ayotte, but senator blumenthal to keep to the state of the union because he told me he took you to hanoi. [laughter] i told for anybody tweeting tonight life - tag is wpcf. the next speaker is congresswoman terri sewell, the democratic class devotee so much more impressive of the class didn't consist of only nine members. [laughter] not even enough to fill a table. but sewell has achievements on her resume, the first african-american woman elected from the state of alabama. [cheering] the first black to allow the

torian of high school, her mother was the first black woman elected to the sell the city council and member of travelers on the 1965 march from selma to montgomery, stephen her mother's homestead during that civil rights journey. i do not want to give away her age but she once interned in the congressional office of an alabama democrat named richard shelby. ladies and gentlemen, congresswoman terri sewell of alabama. [applause] >> what an introduction. it's a great pleasure to be with you this evening. it's also a great pleasure to have the opportunity to share the stage with such wonderful women and the work that you do hear the foundation. it's so important, and i just want to say it's a pleasure to share this evening with all of you. well, i have to say that it's exciting times in washington, d.c..

the 2010 election ushered in a new wave of newcomers. the political excitement and unpredictability was never ending. why just last week i heard congressman mike pence had decided not to run for president in 2012. this really shakes things up. i mean, who will be the tenth place winner in the iowa caucus if not mike pence? .. i am very happy and, frankly,

i'm sure he is very relieved that he won his senate race. he knew that it would be impossible to find another job if the last entry on this resonates was the person who lost to kristine o'donnell. and then there is delhi who i got a chance to sit next to and get to know. kelly, of course, won her 2012 election with the help of some mini republican presidential contenders. i mean, it was sarah braylon that gave you the most support, kelly. i mean, it was she who said, i can see the presidency from your house. give me a break. [laughter] as we celebrate fresh faces in congress this year, i have to tell you that this new job of mine is more like being a high school freshman. the names have changed, but experiences are still the same.

mornings -- learning to go when the bell rang, looking forward to recess, choosing a locker -- i mean, an office. running for class officer, presumably your class is larger than nine people. i was even a cheerleader in high school, and now i get to be a cheerleader for the best district in the state of alabama, the seventh congressional district, home of rich culture, good people, and great food. you all or should i say y'all know us albanians as the greatest state in the union. the states that have won back-to-back national collegiate football championships. more eagles. [applauding] we are also the state of two consecutive heisman trophy winners. i understand from my staff that it is heisman trophy winner. you can borrow that next time

you parachute into a combat zone. now, all of us have had our on combat zones. no one will forget the combat zone that chris faced when he won delaware. i have to tell you that contrary to what my staff make tell you, i am not a witch, and i do not have brims in my office. i do have two whips, one senior, and one. you will be happy to know that they were not made in china. they were made in america. [laughter] the land of the free and the whole of the brave. only in america can you rent your home, move to another city, go back to where you rented your home, be free to run for mayor, get kicked off the ballot, get back on, get kicked off again. you can't make up the stuff. this country we call home is a wonderful place. it is a place of dreams, where dreams can really come true, a young black girl from alabama

can go to college, law school, and even oxford, england that is. i think my neighbor's still think that i went to college with her nephew at old ms. and now i get the wonderful pleasure of representing my home district allowed to find out that i am a freshman in the lower chamber in the minority. i would like to just say that i am comforted by my grandfather's words, reverend tom gardner who would say that the last shall be first in the first shall be last. so i will enjoy being last first. i am not complaining. two weeks ago i received a great honor when i was chosen to serve on the escort committee to what president obama into the chamber for the state of the union. interestingly, what it was announced that i would be an escort by the time i got back to my office i had for messages but

from eliot spitzer. [laughter] what is it about these new york politicians? [laughter] i was impressed with how gracious the republican response was to president obama speech. i actually heard a number of >> alabama. a story keeps growing. by the time -- did you see the coverage of the cnn camera crew and reporters being beaten to the ground? that simply was appalling to see the cnn reporters on the ground. it was appalling to me, but fox news called it a feel good video of the year. the buzz continued. the big buzz now is bipartisanship, and i believe in doing my part. i look forward to seeking common ground with my colleagues across the aisle. on climate change, for example, even one skeptic admitted to me that we can and should lower

temperatures dramatically. of course, he said all we needed to do was just switched from fahrenheit to celsius. that is a start. president obama's appointment of bill daley as his new chief of staff was a real effort of bipartisanship. i mean, this is the same bill daley who part for mondale in 1984, by and in '88, gore in 2000 and most recently on wall street. that track record of success doesn't please my republican colleagues, i'm not sure what does. i have learned very quickly even in walking happier that the name of the game his seniority. congressman duffy, at least you should be used to that the lack of seniority. i understand that you are the tenth of 11 siblings. i also understand that you were 14 by the time you got to use the bathroom in your own house. as freshmen many of us rode in on this wave of change. i have come full circle.

the last time i lived and worked in washington d.c. i was a college intern for my then congressman richard shelby. things really have changed. back then richard shelby was a democrat, and show was lieberman. arlen specter was a republican. jerry brown was a washed up california politician. arnold told us he would be back. kristine o'donnell was actually a witch, and joe biden was getting in trouble for his mouth. well, i guess not everything has changed. it is amazing how life brings you to places you never thought he would be from alabama to princeton to oxford a harvard law school, all that end up in congress because there are no other jobs, right? that is why most of us ran. and so we made it and so it is exciting to be sworn in on january 3rd. my parents came in. all of my family came in from alabama. i was overwhelmed by the thought

of being sworn in in front of some mini family members. it was on january 3rd. two weeks later we celebrated martin luther king jr. day or as when beck calls it, monday. now, dr. king's legacy has always held a very special place in my heart. i know that folks marched, many in this audience, many in this audience so that i could be the first african-american woman to serve in congress and the state of alabama. i know that i am living proof that dr. king famous dream speech is now a reality. i can only think of ending this torture by paraphrasing dr. king's most famous speech. by hasan know that tonight i will be judged not by the color of my skin but by the contents of a comedy routine. please be kind.

[applauding] >> the nicest congressional district in alabama. what is that like? pablo it sounds awesome. [laughter] where are you, but? [laughter] americans were first introduced to our final speaker in 1997 when he appeared as the seventh most interesting cast member on the real world boston. [laughter] perhaps keeping in mind that footage might make its way into an attack ad 13 years later, john duffy, a conservative republican kept it pretty clean. must be honest, there was an exchange or two that was a little dicey. he knows what i am talking

about. duffy later married the only other conservative to appear on mtv, a cast member from the real world san francisco. they had six children. somehow during that ten years he has been a prosecutor he has posted a 90% trial success rate. ladies and gentlemen, a politician who can truly claimed real-world experience, the republican congressman from the seventh district of wisconsin, john duffy. [applauding] >> very kind. thank you. good evening and thank you, ladies and gentlemen. i do want to take a moment and think the washington press club foundation and the sponsors for tonight's dinner. a very nice job. the food is very good. my name is john duffy, freshman congressman from the seventh district of the great state of

wisconsin, also home to our super bowl champions, the green bay packers. a great game last sunday, right? [inaudible conversations] it is a great honor to be here with nancy pelosi. how are you doing? you may not know this, but we have something in common. we are both the last speaker. [laughter] listen, i know you guys have enjoyed -- [laughter] you all have enjoyed writing about me. for those of you who have not seen it, i did mtv 15 years ago, a show called the real world -- 13 years ago. thank you, jake. almost 20 years. a long time now. but it is a show that takes seven strangers, but some in the house, and they have them live their lives for six months

and film them. a great experience, except when they air it you see all of the cat fights, the arguments that take place between all of these people. i am so grateful, so thankful to have that well in my past. just to prove it i want to show you guys a glimpse of my more dignified life here in the u.s. house of representatives. if we can't you our tape. >> i ran for congress, in part, because i wanted to be that to the man from wisconsin. >> they talk about all of the freshmen being treated equal to be guided the smallest office, and i can't believe that stinking duffy get the biggest one. >> test to get the hottest notes. >> there were talking everyone

talk about what kind of skills never going to have. >> i hope he never gets to the senate. can you imagine if he is allowed test filibuster? >> one thing i have known for combusting might be votes on line with facebook, mike ipad. facebook, ipad, e harmony. pander. then she treats him that she already has. better luck if he would have told her it was a seat from her old air force plane. >> john runyon but on the freshman 15 so fast. when he sits around the house he sits around the house. >> these freshmen. i can tell you, we won't be doing a signed copy again. >> congressman don't even read bills.

back bay. >> yes. >> my new colleagues. they do, guys. some stated that i am a living testimony that the american dream is alive and well. i am a descendant of pioneers. by logroll, and now i am a member of the u.s. house. now, some of you have taken to comparing me to sarah palin. i get it. we are both outdoorsy like politicians. we both have shapely legs. i know. but there are some key distinctions. i am from wisconsin, and she is from alaska. i chop trees, and she hunts moose. she put lipstick on a big, and i put tanning lotion on the speaker's pac.

[laughter] now, the truth is that she told me i was for zero. my election to congress gives her hope and inspiration for the future and not because i help retire a 42-year incumbent who was in the chamber of appropriations, but because i am living proof that you can get elected to higher office after doing a reality tv show. now, some are amazed that i have six kids. you can imagine, my wife here tonight, she is hispanic. i am irish. we are both catholic. we give all of the credit to a long wisconsin winters. [laughter] which is why we are both for global warming or as my wife puts it, birth control. now, i here barney frank is in

the crowd tonight, and he is excited that jinnah bush is out supporting his new ad on gay marriage. by the way, i was just speaking to her. she said that she will try to hook you up with egyptian president. she has heard from a pretty reliable source that he is out. what do you expect from a reality tv star? come on. okay. you know what, we have a great republican freshman class. they are full of new and innovative ideas, especially on the environment. take, for example, a freshman from south carolina who has been instrumental in redesigning. this is that new nissan car that will run on electricity. thanks to his hard work it will now run on a tangle that goes up chris matthews leg every time he hears the president's speech.

great work. now, speaking of innovative ideas, i have my own. i know how we will secure the border with mexico. what we do is dig a longboat and fill it by having the speaker talk about the american dream. after 7i have to tell you, on a more serious note i want to taks time and tell you why my friends in the republican aisle and i are not going to support our democratic colleagues in their initiative to improve airline security. this is going to be a $35 billion bill, and it doesn't do anything to upgrade the training of tsa agents who will continue to go after their own pets. >> jake, how are you doing? i want to thank you for hosting tonight's events. nice job.

we appreciate you are filling in you are a great journalist, but you are no christina. the bottom line is for me she is one who truly embodies the diversity that is america. you may now she is have british and half iranian, which means that with her afternoon tea she likes a little yellowcake. now, listen. all kidding aside, i look forward to the work in congress. we are going to have a c-span covering every battle, disagreement, outburst on the house floor, a committee hearing. i will feel like i am back in a reality tv show. charlie rangel was lucky he did not get voted off the island. listen, i hope the congress can work productively together so our fellow citizens will not

merely see us as idol americans, but all of us will emerge as american idylls. thank you all very much and have a great night. god bless. [applauding] [applauding] >> in the last part of the presentation. [applauding] [laughter] somebody who led two of his jokes go over your head. [laughter] after 11 years as a washington correspondent covering politics at the white house the woman we are honoring with the washington press club foundation lifetime achievement award was appointed london bureau chief and became the first woman to have a time

euro overseas. her rich career has taken to all 50 states. we would like to thank bloomberg. do we have that tape cued up? hello? we would like to thank bloomberg for compiling this video. if they don't run it i will keep going. grauman's i am a journalist from the time i was old enough to wre my name which would have been about the third grade. i never wanted to do anything else. i pretty had my career, which was a wonderful experience. i was able to break a lot of traditions, shall we say, restraints is what i really mean against women. they sent me tell london as bureau chief, which was a real breakthrough. it was a grand assignment. my first major story over there was a woman named margaret

thatcher who talked about trying to be prime minister. >> bonnie gave the impression of graceful, composed, professional reporter, someone who obviously had enormous good taste and then you would come into this story conference with her. she was an absolute pistol. nobody had a sharper news judgment or a tougher, more critical eye for the story of the day. >> what i was involved in was breaking down the barrier where women journalists could not do the same things in washington that a male journalist could. and so as president of the women's national press club i was one of the leaders of that movement, and i also was one of the targets. that is not a pleasant thing, but we did when. i was the first white house correspondent when women were admitted to the dinner, and i was at the head table. >> it was a bitter battle, and

she took a lot of flak, but, you know, at all of 5 feet tall she was not going to have anything of it. you know, all of that, much more impressive to know this was a moment he made such a big difference and change and the culture in washington. >> i did not understand that i was a trailblazer. i knew that i was going places that may be no woman had before, but i thought of it as just getting the story. >> body is going to be remembered and discovered again by generations of journalists for what she did for women in journalism in this town, and that is the legacy that will last forever. >> it is a total picture that having worked these many years in journalism. it is just one i would not change for anything. [inaudible conversations] [applauding] [applauding]

>> president of the women's national press club when it was at the forefront in the battle to end the practices of discrimination that prevented women from doing their job as journalists. she wrote first mothers, the women he shapes the president, member of the international women's media foundation. my honor to introduce bonnie angelo. [inaudible conversations] [applauding] [applauding] >> i just want to say that it has been one hell of a run.

i have loved it. i started with my own little newspaper. it was so well as did. [laughter] when i was eight and a half years old i got in early. i stayed late. i loved every inch of it, and i am not out yet. [inaudible conversations] [applauding] [applauding] >> folks, thank you very much for being here. i think that was of fitting end to tonight's dinner, and i would like to thank all of our speakers, especially jake for his wonderful works tonight.

[applauding] so, good night. go out and have a blast at hour after party. don't wake up too late tomorrow. good night. [applauding] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

>> intelligence, experience, political leaders that this country has seen. look at the people that hold these jobs.

than we have right now. one of nose people that is with us today. i was talking, i work on a lot of different issue >> almost any question, this is

a guy who solves the principle. there are others on the conservative side. barber is a special guy to me. she'll remember when he got his first job in washington, we'll have to go out and find a place to live. then we went over to place of the city.

one of the best national republican chairman in the history of the party. from my perspective, one of my best friends and it is an honor for me to present my friend, haley barber of mississippi. [applause] >> thank you.

thank you, i appreciate our long friendship. it goes all the way back to reagan in 76. thank you for that warm welcome. man, this global warming is about to freeze me to death. i've spoke very many times. over the years, this conference focussed on what is wrong with the left, to deal with that subject today would take a month, not just a weekend. the policies of the left, our political for opportunities have changed trau magnetically. 9-10 key swing states for to 12. more than 600 new palestinian state legislatures in 65 years.

[applause] we call that a pretty good start. the 2010 election was the greatest reputation of the policies and party in november 2. the stunning rejection of the leftist political philosophy profoundly at odds with america's founding principals. for two years, the obama administration bent on living up to the demands of frustrated liberal.

president obama tried to impose the biggest tax increase on american history on small business owners by letting the bush tax cults expire. two years caused more uncertainty making them reluck

can't or spend any money a dollar that can be saved by a family hoping send their children to college. they believe reducing taxes is some kind of a government give away to the taxpayers.

despite job relations being the top priority in the country, obama's policy has been more hostile than any other i have seen. the interest rate has been stuck for almost 2 years. suddenly, paying lip service to job placement. the new conservative majority in the hougs house, understands jobs are createded by the private sek tr not by government. never forget the bigger government means a small er sma

policy. by the blizzard of job crushing regulations. we can't today do what needs to

be done for our country. as we prepare for starting today, i ask to you remember the words of my fellow mississippian, fred smidge, the founder and ceo of fed ex. fred said, the main thing is to keep the main thing the maining thing. and the main thick is electing a republican president next year [applause] . >> we can't put america on the right track until we ee electricitied a republican president in 2010 and republican senate to join innenable acting those crucial policies. we won't have the policies that lead to economic growth, job

creation, low er the rememberingless policies of the obama administration have brought america to a cross roads this year's deficit will hit a staggering record $1. ed 5 trillion. many of you will be handed the

bill, a huge debt for you to pay. it will only take in $2.2 trillion. friends, our problem is not that we tax too little but that we spend too much. [applause] . >> i remember how the liberals would mock my old boss, ronald reagan. they laughed and said, we can't

grow ourselves out of the pppppp

>> please come to order. pppppp the meeting today will be testimony from homeland security janet napolitano, on the homeland threat landscape. i look forward to the hearing and i now recognize myself for an opening statement. i want to welcome our returning and new committee members to this, the first hearing of the 112th congress. we welcome back secretary napolitano and direor lieda. while she's not here yet, let me take the opportunity to recognize the outstanding service of representative jane harmon who was announced she will be leavg congress to run the woodrow wilson international center for scholars. she's a leader in the congress. no one since september 11, 2001, or anyone before that has been more knowledgeable or informed or dedicated on intelligence and

homeland security issues and her departure is a loss to both sides of the aisle. everyone wishes her well in her new role. let me also express my deepest sympathies to the family of david hillman, the retired cvp officer who was killed by a suide bomb in kandahar. there's other cvp personnel, michael lacowski, terry cheryl an vernon regis injured in the attack. our thoughts and prayers are with them all. to me, that personifies the level of patriotism that cvp offices demonstrate no matter where they happen to belocated. again, perform a tremendous service for our country. also, there are members of the dh

dhs that serve all around the world. >> as we begin the work of the 112th congress,he goal of the committee today is to hear a comprehensive review of the terrorist threats facing our nation. today will be an open, unclassified session and so i would ask the secretary and the director if they could report back to us any member's questions which might require a classified response. the top priority for the committee is to counter the serious and evolving terrorist threats facing our country. let's put our work in context. a number of committee members heard from director lieda in a classified setting against the u.s. and our allies. as we aprech the tenth anniversary of september 11th, we are reminded that terrorists plot toill americans at home and abroad. according to attorney general lder, in the last o years alone, there we 126 people indicted for terrorist related

activity. there was the times square bomber, the ft. hood terrorist, there was little rock recruiting center shooter, the new york city subway bomber, jihad jane, dozens of individuals in minnesota and so many other plots and cases, portland, oregon, virginia, river kal section of the bronx dallas, texas, john f. kennedy airport, for example dix, baltimore, we can go through an entire list of cases in the last several years. home grown radicalization is a threat and one we can't ignore. this is shift is a game changer that presents a serious challenge to the law enforcement. attorney general hder says he loses sleep at night thinking of the young men who were raised in this country who are being radicalized and willing to take up arms against their own

nation. senator joe lieberman released a bipartisan committee report examining the events leading up to the terrorist attack at ft. hood. the report concluded that the department of defse should confront the threat of radicalization to violent islamist extremists ex publicistly and directly. i believe the statement is true for the entire government. we must confrontthis explicitly and directly. i entend to hold a hearing next month. the cost of policies the u.s. has implemented since september 11th, the threat of al qaeda has evolved. it is difficult for al qaeda to launch an attack similar to what happened on september 11th. obviously it's possible, but it's much more difficult for them and they realize that. they have adapted their strategy and their tactics so they are now recruiting from within the

country and looking for people under the radar screen, people living here legally, people who have green cards, people who are citizens, people who have no known terrorist activities. the classic cham example that would have been zhaozy in new york. small business in lower manhatn, brought back to afghanistan for training and attempted to blow up the new york subways. that's the type of person we have to be looking for. of the good side of that, i suppose, is that al qaeda feels it cannot launch a major attack from the outside. they cannot send the type of fully you trained and skilled terrorists to this country. the down side is these terrorists are people living under the radar screen who its very difficult to detect. on certain issues that i you have a particular interest in, one is the threat of chemical, biological weapons which i believe to secure the city's program is so important because it's very likely that the next

attack against a major city in this country will be launched from the suburbs, similar to what happened in madrid and london. the nightmare scenario were to have that attack involve a dirty bomb which would put that metropolitan area basically off limits besides the massive loss of human life that would result. that's a program the secretary and i discsed with particular interest in pursuing that. no doubt against the threat against the united states remains extremely high. we must remain vigilant. with tha i recognize the distinguished ranking member of the committee, mr. thompson from mississippi for any statement he may have. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman for holding today's hearing. i want to join you in welcoming secretary napolitano and director litton. before we hear the testimony on the threat posed by terrorism, i want to encourage my colleagues to remember that our words

travel far beyond the walls of these four walls. for several weeks we've seen protests against north africa and the middle east. in many ways these protests represent a demand for democracy. yet we know that this is the same region that has been home to some of those who call for jihad. the united states, the world's only remaining superpower, occupies a providencele position. if we take the right action, many of our concerns about a terrorist threat from this region could be significantly reduced. that is why i want to ensure that our examination of the global threat from terrorist activities does not complicate the job being done by the state department and others in this administration. weust recognize that this predominantly muslim area of the world is seeking to embrace democracy. let us take care that nothing we do or say here today works to

undermine those efforts, since september 11, the threat of terrorist attacks has become an undeniable and unsettling feature of american society. however, combating the terrorist threats depends on accurate intelligence and an unbiased assessment of the size, scope, depth and breadth of the strength. the lessons learned from past wars are clear. we cannot defeat an enemy that we do not know. unreliable information, person opinions or narrow agendas cannot inform our assessment of a threat to our nation. we've seen the results of unreliable intelligence in iraq. our examation of a global threat must look at the vulnerabilities within commerce, transportation, and all aspects of our modern lives. we must find and eliminate these vulnerabilities.

focus on what we can do and keep the nation safe. we can secure an airplane, we can secure the border. we can secure a federal building. we can secure a chemical plant or a nuclear facility. we must not become distracted from our basic mission to keep this nation safe and maintain the security of the people. finally, mr. chairman, i want to bid farewell to my colleague from california. she's demonstrated her commitment to the security of this nation by her service on intelligence committee and this committee. we'll miss her but we wish her happiness in her new undertaking. again, i want i'm just

moving down the street. i'm really not leaving this place. thank you very much. i yield back. >> thank you, jean. >> i remind the members of the committee, that opening statements maybe submitted for the record. we are pleased to have very distinguished witnesses today, probably no two more important in the entire government. secretary napolitano is the third homeland secretary. i have to say on the record, there's not a lot of partisan lines divide us, she meets us th us more than she wants to. she's always on the phone, both with compliments and criticisms,

i never know when i'm going to get a call from the secretary. she's totally dicated to the job. whatever differences we have are ones of policy. no one can ever question her dedicati or ability. similarly, mike lightner has done a truly outstanding job in the capacity. he was in the military, asis united states attorney. dedicated to combating international terrorism and protecting the homeland. >> i would ask you to summarize the testimony. because of the importance of it, i'm not going to cut you off, but i ask you to keep in mind, many members do have questions for you. with that, i now recognize secretary napolitano. secretary napolitano. >> thank you chairman king, ranking member thompson, members of the committee for the opportunity to appear before you

today to testify on the terrorist threat to the united states and what the department of homeland security and the yctc are doing to combat it. i also have to echo the thoughts about representative harmon. you will be missed. you have been totally dedicated to this effort and that effort has been producing results in terms of the safety of the american people. and i also have to echo your thoughts about the amount of congressional oversight of this department. we added up the 111th congress and our department testified over 285 times. testified over 20 times myself. i think that was the most of any cabinet official. that of course requires a lot of preparation and work. we provided over 3900 substantive briefings to different committees of the

congress. so chairman king, ranking member thompson, you and i have all discussed this, but that amount of oversight does have impacts. i thought i would just mention that. let me turn now to the subject and the very important subject of today's hearing. there is no question that we have made many important strides in securing our country from terrorism since 9/11, but the threat continues to evolve. in some ways, the threat today may be at its most heightened state since the attacks nearly ten years ago. in addition to the core al qaeda group which still represents a threatto the united states despite its diminished capabilities, we now face threats from a number of al qaeda associates that share its violent extremist ideology. among these groups, we are also seeing an increased emphasis on recruiting americans and west n

westerners to carry out attacks. people do not have strong ties to terrorist groups that could possibly tip off the intelligence community. they are also encouraging indivials in the west to carry out their own small scale attacks which require less of the coordination and planning that could raise red flags and lead to an attack's disruption. this means that the threat has evolved in such a way that we have to add to our traditional counterterrorism strategies which in the past have looked at the attack as coming from abroad. the realities of today's threat environment also means that state and local law enforcement officers will more often be in the first position to notice the signs of a planned attack. our focus must be on aiding law enforcement and helping to provide them with the information and resources they need to secure their own communities from the threats

they face. to this end, the department of homeland security is working to counter violent extremism here at home by helping law enforcement use many of the same techniques and strategies that have proven successful in combating violence in american communities. dhs is moving forward in this area based on the recommendations provided to us by the experts on the homeland security advisory council. we are releasing the first iteration of a community oriented policing curriculum forefront line officers which is aimed at helping them counter extremism in their cmunities. that curriculum is being focus grouped right now down at fletsy. we are sharing case studies about the signs of violent extremism. we are helping communities share best practices about forming community partnerships. this way, law enforcement across

can better know what works and what does not. we are helping law enforcement to reach out to american communities to include them as partners in the effort combat the presence of violent extremism in our country. americans of all stripes resoundingly reject violence, which we must use as an important ol in cntering violent extremism here at home. dhs is also expanding our own outreach to communities and conducting these initiatives in a way consistent with american's rights and liberties. at the same time, we are building a newhomeland security architecture that guards against the kinds of threats we are seeing right here at home. there are four major partings of this architecture i want to mention here today. the first are the joint terrorism task forces which are led byhe fbi. these task forces bring together agencies and jurisdictions to jointly investigate terrorism

cases. dhs has hundreds of personnel supporting the 104 jttfs across the country. the second is the network of state and locally run fusion centers that bring together agencies and jurisdictis to share information about the threat picture and what it means for our communities. this information sharing and analytical work complements the investigative work done by the jtts. dhs is intents on helping these fusion centers to develop their core capabilities to share and analyze information and to provide state and local law enforcement with useful, actionable information they can use to better protect their own communities. we're supporting fusion centers in many ways. among them, we are providing dhs personnel to work in them and are providing properly cleared law enforcement personnel with classified threat information. the third is the nationwide

suspicious activity reporting initiative or the sar initiative. we're working closely with our partners with theof justice on this project. the sar initiative creates a standard process for law enforcement to identify, document, vet and share reports of suspicious incidents or behaviors associated with specific threats of terrorism. the reports then can be used to identify and share broader trends. to date, the sar initiative is under various stages of implementation at 33 sites that cover two-thirds of the american population. it should be fully implemented across the country by september. we're also working with doj and major law enforcement associations to provide sar training to all front line enforcement officers in the country. they'll learn how to properly make, vet, share and analyze reports in accordance with best practices and with regard to

civil rights and civil liberties. thousands of officers have already been trained and we expect to train virtually all front line officers in the country by this fall. the pilots of the sar program have proven its tremendous value to law enforcement and i believe it will be a critical tool in strengthening the ability of law enforcement to protect our communities from acts of terrorism. the urth piece of the new homeland security architecture that i want to mention is the, if you see something, say something campaign. this campaign focuses on the positive role americans can play in our own security. it focuses en face ton fosterin public vigilance that we know is critical to community oriented policing. we constantly see examples of why this sort of vigilance is so important, not just in the attempted times square bombing last may, but also just last

month in spokane, washington, when city workers noticed a suspicious backpack and notified police before an mlk day parade. dhs is rolling out this campaign across the country and in many important sectors, including passenger rail, amtrak, sports stadiums, you may have seen it in the stadium at the super bowl. retail stores and more. on top of these four pieces, last month, i also announced changes to the national terrorism advisory system. we are replacing the old system of color coded alerts with a new system that aims to provide more useful information to the public and to those who need it. this new system was developed collaboratively by a bipartisan group and with the consultation of law enforcement. it reflecting our need to be ready while also promising to tell americans everything we can

when new threat information affects them. in addition, to what i have mentioned here today, there are numerous other areas of action i have detailed in myritten statement, mr. chairman, and is that that statement be included in the record. thank you again for inviting me testify today. i look forward to working with this cmittee and its leadersh in this new congress as we continue to make progress in securing our nation. i'll be happy to take your questions once you heard from director leiter. thank you, secretary, napolitano. your statement will be made part of the record. i now recognize director mike leiter. >> thank you for having me with secretary napolitano. i hate toound like a broken record, but i do want to add my personal thanks to congresswoman harmon who has been a leader in intelligence and humeland security for many years now. she's been a staunch supporter of nctc.

the one anecdote i would pass along beyond the laws you have worked on, the oversight you provided, congrewoman harmon spent two and a half hours with a packed room of analysts about 50 or 60 men and women to talk to them about what it was like to be a senior woman in national security. those young analysts came out glowing about their experience. i think it was the persona touch that y provided which helped i think inspire another generation of national security leaders. than you very much. >> i also want to thank the committee for coming out and visiting nctc. the opportunity to see young analysts and dhs are so entwined in our work on a daily basis was a great opportunity. as chairman king noted, the past two years have highlighted the ny dangers associated with a geographically and i had logically diverse group of terrorists that seek to harm the united states. these threats are not only from outside our borders but from

within. we've made enormous strides in reducing the likelihood of complex katz strophic attacks by al qaeda from pakistan, we continue to face threats from many other corners. i'll briefly outline those remarks and ask that my full statement be made part of the record. to begin, i'll touch on the threats that we face. today, al qaeda and its allies in pakistan still pose a threat despite degdation suffered from counterterrorism operations over the past couple of years and accelerated over the past two years al qaeda, we believe in pakistan is in one of its weakest points in the past decade and it's being forced to react to a reduced safe haven and personnel losses. it rae mains a determine d unit.

at least five disrupted plots in europe during the past five years, including the plot to attack u.s. airliners transiting between the u.k. and united states in addition to disruptsed cells in the u.k., norway and attacks against newspaper offices in denmark demonstrate al qaeda and pakistan's steadfast intentions. we are also concerned about future homeland attacks from one of al qaeda's key allies within the federally tribal areas of the fauta, the group that changed shahzad, the times square bomber from may 1st of last year, as well as the other threat from al qaeda allies within the pakistan and afghanistan region. >> we remain focused on the group behind the mumbai attacks which remains a threat to a variety of interests in south asia. althou lt has not yet

conducted attacks in the west, it does have individuals who have been trained and it could pose a threat to the homeland in europe and in addition to destabilizing south asia more broadly. of course, we continue to view yemen as a key base of operations from which al qda and the arabian peninsula can and has planned and executed attacks. over the past year, aqap expanded operations against the homeland, including of course the december 2000 nine attack and its following effort to down two u.s. bound cargo planes in october of 2010. in addition to the specific attacks, aq has made several appeals last year to muslims to conduct attacks on their own initiative. specifically, over the past year, aqap released four issues of its magazine, english magazine "inspire" which attempts to persuade adherence to launch attacks on their own in the west. east africa remains a key

operating area for al qaeda associates as well. last year for the first time, they struck outside of somalia killing 74, including one american in uganda and they continue to attract extremists from across the globe including from the united states. now, these were mostly threats from outside the country. as the chairman noted, we are extremely concerned with home grown violent extremists here in the united states. plots disrupted in washington, d.c., oregon, alaska and maryland during the past year were indicative of a common cause rallying independent extremists to attack the homeland. home grown bound extremists have yet to demonstrate a sophisticated ability but as ft. hood demonstrated attacks need not be sophisticated to be quite deadly. although time doesn't permit me to go into all the threats we watch, i would like to highlight, in addition to these threats, we continue to watch al qaeda in north africa and iraq,

hezbollah and other terrorists groups including greek anarchists that sent letter bombs to embassy in rome and elsewhere. in lightf this changing dynamic, we have significantly evolved our capabilities to try to reduce the likelihood of a successful attack. most notably as you saw last week or two weeks ago in your visit, nctc established a pursuit group that is designed to track down tactical leads. as i hope you saw, the pursuit group has repeatedly identified and pasd to r operational partners k leads which might otherwise have been missed. we're of course also focused on continuing to lead information integration across the u.s. government for counterterrorism purposes. we have always had access to a ethora of databases but in con junction with dhs, fbi and others, we have developed over the past year information technology architecture which

aims to improv our ability to detect this new sort of threat. finally, as this committee knows quite well, counterterrorism efforts are not just about stopping attacks but trying to address the upstream efforts that drive extremism. our focus is undercutting the terrorist narrative and billing safe communities, not nctc operationally, about with our partners like dhs in conjunction with other parts of the u.s. government. sn specifical, we are coordinating interagency partnering along with agencies across the u.s. government. we are helping to support and coordinate the federal government's engagement with american communities wher terrorists are already focusing their recruiting efforts. in my ew, while government has an important role in implementing these strategies, we along with dhs view the private sector and community institutions as key in kournlts

radicalization. addressing radicalization requires community organizations sensitive to local dynamics and needs. nctc developed a community awareness briefing that conveyed unclassified information about the realities of terrorist recruitment to the homeland on the internet. communities can be mobilized to fight the same fight we are involved in. >> chairman king, thank you very much for having us here today. as you know well, despite the improvements perfection in this endeavor is not possible. we are working every day, 24 hours a day to stop the next attack. we cannot guaranty 100% safety. in is regard, i believe we must continue to foster domestic resilience while highlighting the ultimate futility of al qaeda's fight. without your leadership and again without ms. harmon's leadership, we would not have

made the strides we have. i very much look forward to takingour questions and working with you for years to come. >> thank you. i thank both witnesses for your testimony. secretary, napolitano,wo years ago when you made your first statement before this committee, i pointed out the fact you did not use the rd terrorist or terrorism once. today you used it more than 60 times. is that a reflection of the changing emphasis of the administration or is it just something that happened? >> i think my initial statement before the committee was one of several speeches and it happened to be the one that didn't use the word terrorism. the plain fact of the matter is that i spend the bulk of my time working on counterterrorism related activities. it can be in the tsa wod, the cvp world, it can be with intel and analysis and working with our fusioncenters, the nctc and

others. this is a p priority for us. mr. chairman, one area that is really not up to bat today but as a new one and is also one i think we need to watch out for is the whole world of cyber and cyber security and how that is going to interconnect with the terrorists. >> chairman longman is going to be working on thatextensively. >> how prepared do you believe the department is ready to deal with the biological radiological weapons? >> that is an extordinarily difficult area in the sense that we are still working at the science and technology level on things like detection mechanisms that are effectiven all areas. mr. chairman, i think i would say that we are more prepared now than we were two years ago, and two years ago, we were more prepared than two years before

then, but there is still much work to be done. that's why we have funded and are continuing to fund pilots of different tes with laboratories and universities and actually private sector entities around the country. particularly, in th cbrn arena. that's why those things are so important. security cities is an example of that. >> director leiter, with the splintering, the development of these various splinter groups how much control do you see coming from al qaeda central to those groups? if there's not control, is that good or bad? >> mr. chairman, i think there remains certainly ideological inspiration from al qaeda senior leadership, but less and less operational control. i think that's in large part due to the offensive pressure we're applying to al qaeda in pakistan. i think to some extent that's quite good. it reduces the likelihood again of a large scale organized

attack. i think the negative aspects of it is it alls the franchises to innovate on its own. in the case of anwar al awlaki, they've been successful at being innovators that make our jobs more challenging. >> not to be rating them, but when you say that allackey is at least a threat today as bin laden? >> i consider al qaeda and the arabian peninsula with al awlaki, probably the more significant risk to the u.s. homeland. i'm hess tanltsz to rank them but they're certainly up there. >> would al awlaki be the one who has been the most successful as far as radicalizing through the internet? >> i think al awlaki certainly is the most well known english speaking idealogue speaking to

fos in e homeland. i think al awlaki does have the greatest audience in the internet so in that sense he's the most important. >> how effective do you find inspire? >> it's a difficult question, mr. chairman. we obviously look at "inspire" it's spiffy, great graphics, in some sense speaks to individuals who are likely to be radicalized. there's very little new information in "inspire." to that extent, it is not, i don't think, something revolutionary and new in the substance, but in the way it conveys the message, it is useful and we tnk it is attractive to english speakers. >> how concerned are you about the possibility of messages being sent thugh "inspire?" >> i would take that more in a aclassified setting. i think "inspire" is attempting t to build a secret network

between aqap between folks in english speaking countries. it's more looking to inspire them to act on their own. >> secretary napolitano, in your state of the homeland security speech, you mentioned deblock and the president made reference to it in the state of the union speech. we don't have the details of it. can you give us any indication of when it will beormally unveiled or what the specific details of deblock will be? >> i don't know the exact date. we will find that for you, mr. chairman. i know the president is intent on working with the congress to set aside the deblock for public safety. it's something that both our department and the department of justice advocated very strongly within the administration, but i don't know the exact date when they're going to approach the congress about the legislative change. >> i look forward to working with you and the administration on that. >> indeed. >> recognize the ranking member, mr. thompson. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman, again, for this very timely hearing.

secretary napolitano, in your testimony, you went to great lengths to describe the evolving threat on the homeland relative to home grown terrorists. law enforcement agencies have also talked about neo-nazis, environmental extremists and anti tax groups as more previous lants than al qaeda-inspired terrorist organizations. have you all looked at this to see if that in fact is the truth? >> representative thompson, not in that sense. i mean,e don't have like a score card. the plain fact of the matter is is that from a law enforcement, terrorist prevention perspective, we have to prepare law enforcement and communities for both types of acts. >> mr. leit, given what has occurred in the last two years

here in this country, have you been able to analyze what that threat looks like? >> congressman, by law, the national counterterrorism center only looks at international terrorism, so my analysts do not look at some of the groups that you described in your question to the secretary. >> but you do communicate to the people, am i correct? on the domestic side? >> we generally work through the department of homeland security and the fbi, the direct responsibility. >> madam secretary, can you help me with that? >> in what sense? >> in terms of individuals who deem a threat to the homeland. is it -- i'm trying to look at it in a broader sense. sometime we tend to narrow the

focus, but i think what we have to do in looking at the threat is look at the entire threat. can you share with the committee some of those other threats that you have deemed necessary to list? >> well, what we are focused on is helping law enforcement and communities look for the tactics, the techniques, the behaviors that would indicate that a violent act, terrorist act is impending. now, some of those are inspired by islamist groups, al qaeda and so forth. others can be inspired by, like, anti government groups, flying a plane into the irs building, for example. so the jtts are the ones on which we have members who, case by case, analyze what was the motivation of a particular act

or at a particular time. and i would say representative thompson, that we see a variety of different types of motivations in addition to the islamist motivation that we're here talking about right now. >> just for the sake of the record, give us some of those varieties, when you say varieties. >> well, they can be anti-fedal government type of motivation. i mentioned the individual who flew a plane in the irs building. tim mcveigh, i worked on the oklahoma city bombing case, would be another great -- i don't want to say great example, another example of that sort of motivation. it can be a variety of other things, as mike indicated, the

fbi works directly on those cases, has operational lead for their investigations. >> mr. leiter, let's take an international situation. the incident that occurred in october with the printer bomb. were you involved in that? >> yes, we were. >> can you share with the committee, if you can, whether or not security gaps like that are being reviewed going forward so that and others hopefully will be closed? >> congressman, i can and then i'll also defer again to secretary napolitano who has broad responsibilities for cargo. before that event, we were obviously concerned with the possibility of using cargo in a terrorist attack. you only have to look back at the lockerbie bombing to know this is something that could

occur. since that event, we have worked at nctc and the intelligence committee to fd new ways to support dhs to sharpen our ability to find individuals or shippers who we consider high risk, so those packages can be put through furtr screening. i think as secretary napolitano will echo, it is a challenge. >> yes, representative thompson, even prior to october, we had assembd an international initiative similar to what we've been doing on passenger air travel with respect to cargo. it involves the world customs organization, the international aviation civil organization, and the international maritime organization. what we are doing is working to have international standards, requirements and also working with the private sector who are the main air shippers, this of

course was an air shipment. we are now koreaning o inin ini 100% which is something we had not had the capability of doing until the last yr, so we continue to work across the world, across different modes of transportation, across different types of cargo, across different types ofersonnel who handle that cargo to secure the entire supply chain. >> congressman, if i could just add one point. i think this is an area where the cooperation between dhs and nctc has really improved and been stellar over the past year, not just with cargo, but with screening personnel. the movement of information as we see a threat in the intelligence stream about a country or a name or a region, and where we think an attack might be coming to, that movement -- that information is

moving in realtime to dhs, so dhs can rapidly adjust their protocol. that's happening on an hourly basis. >> gentleman from texas, mr. mccall. >> thank you, madam secretary, director leiter. novemb 2009, i attended the ft. ho memorial service. just north of my district in texas, and saw the 13ombat boots, the rifles, talked to the soldiers who had been shot that day. they described how the major ssain said allieu akbar. i think it's the deadliest attack we had since 9/11. since that time, the senate has issued a report called the ticking time bomb. it talks about the joint terrorism task force in san diego had information about

major hussain's contacts. and that's al awlaki. unfortunately that information was not shared with the commander at ft. hood who i talked to and said wouldn't you have liked to have known that. when he was quoted as saying you know 0 who that is, that's our boy. can you tell and the american people what happened that day and what mor hassan's conctions are to the terrorist community? >> congressman, to begin, i would just say at nctc, within about 48 hours of that attack, we designated that a terrorist attack in what we callhe worldwide incident trafficking system. so from our perspective, as soon as we had the initial indication of the motivation, we counted it as a terrorist attack.

it can always change back. in this case, it hasn't. with respect to his connection with awlaki and aqap, and i want to be very careful here, because obviously this is still a case for prosecution, but we've side publicly that it looks to us li inspiration rather than direction. finally, your question about what happened i want to be careful not to speak for either director mueller or the department of defense, i think they said quite clearly at the time that information was not shared effectively between the fbi and the department of defense. they have taken remedial action to address some of that. i kn on -- for nctc's part, nce then we have worked with the fbi to produce improved training materials and training for field ofces, so there really is no question for the next special agent when he's investigating a case that he will recognize the telltale signs of radicalization and moving towards mobilization and not just convey that to the department of defense, but probably be more aggressive in

following that up. >> i mean, i think the american people, it's hard to understa understand -- and we can talk about infiltration of the military and what the threat is there, but it's hard for e average citizen to understand how the fbi could have this kind of information, that you have a major -- the biggest installation in the united states, in contact with one o the biggest threats to the security of the united states, and yet that information is not shared at all. i think that's a major breakdown. and i hope -- and i know that's not totally within your purview and your jurisdiction, but i sure hope we can fix that problem. >> congressman, i'll say, again, i do know that the department of defense and fbi now have a much tighter relationship. so that information is shared. during the investigation, it was shared with a department of defense agent on the jttf, but not shared back to the army. we have also since then expanded nctc's access to some of that granular information that was the basis for the investigation. so nctc can help to fill those

gaps and make sure the information is properly shared. >> madame secretary, you were quoted in "the hill" newspaper as saying that respect to the border, it's inaccure to state that the border's out of control. we had a briefing with border patrol. they said about 44% of the border is under operational control. as you well know, the killings, the violence going on, coming fr arizona, me coming from texas, i would say my constituents do view it as an out-of-control state. the special interest aliens have creased by 33%. those are people coming from countries that may have potentially terrorist influences. there's recently a potential terrorist that was found in the trunk of a car, paid a mexican cartel drug dealer $5,000 to sneak across the border. could you just clarify the statement in terms of your

statement that it is not out of control down there? >> oh, absolutely. first, and i will give you the full talk that i gave at utep. but the border, thanks in part of bipartisan efforts of the congress, has more manpower, technology, and infrastructure than ever before. and the numbers in terms of seizures that need to go up are going up and the numbers in terms of illegal immigration are going way down. and the communities that are along the border, san diego, nogales, el paso and so forth are among, in terms of violent crime statistics, are among the safest in the united states. and so what i was saying at that -- from whichtime quoted in part was to the cartels in mexico, don't bring your violence you're doing in juarez, et cetera, over into the united states. you'll be met with an overwhelming response. it is true that there are crimes on this side of the border, the murder of a rancher in arizona

is oneexample. but it is inaccurate to extrapolate from that to say that the entire border is out of control. with respect to the 44% number, i think it's important to recognize that operational control is a very narrow term of art in border patrol lingo. basically, it is restricted to where you have individual agents located. it does not take into account infrastructure, it does not take into account technology, which is a force multiplier, as you know. so i think it would be inaccurate to take from that number or that phrase to say, well, that mean the other percentage of the border, 56%, is out of control. that would not be accurate. >> gentleman's time has expired.

the gentle lady from california, miss sanchez. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you both of you for being before us again. secretary napolitano, i am still worried about this whole issue of overstays with respect to visas. in particular because i belong to a couple groups that deal with the europeans, and as you know, the european uon is having a difficult time understanding why we accept some and not some others on a visa waiver. so i'm very -- i would like to know two things. first, can you discuss the security measures with respect to somebody being able to come from a country where there is a visa waiver going onnd how that might be infiltrated by someone like al qaeda to get people over here. and secondly, what progress are we making on the exit part of u.s. visit? >> well, in terms of visa waiver, what we have is esta.

and what esta does is give us advanced information on someone traveling to the u.s. from a visa waiver -- >> is it working? have we seen any places where someone like some cell group might be, in fact, coming in that particular way? >> it is -- well, that -- let me just say that it is working in terms of smoothly identifying individuals coming across and you know, we deal with so many passengers every day,and so from a systemic point ofview, it is working. however, i think it's important to say that there's no system, no matter how well working, is a 100% guarantee that someone will not be able, ultimately, to infiltrate it. it may be somebody about whom we have no advance information, it may be somebody who has managed to steal an identity of someone else. this is, unfortunately, a

business in which we cannot give guarantees. what we can do and what we are doing is maximizing our ability to catch somebody ahead of time. and minimize the risk that they will be filtrated. and in tes of visa overstays, in addition to u.s. exit, let me just suggest tha one of the most effective investments the congress can make is in i.c.e. investigative agents, because they are the ones that really find the visa overstays and get them into proceedings. so one of the things we are looking at doing as we move forward in the budget process is being able to staff i.c.e. appropriately in that regard. >> you were talking earlier i answer to one of my colleague's questions that you believe that all of technogy that we've been using at the border with respect to mexico is a force multiplier. the entire time that i was the

chair of board of the border subcommittee, we would get both gao and border patrol saying they didn't know if some of this technology was actually gointo require that we have more people or that we actually get that savings that we intuitively think should come from that. do we have any -- do you ve any studies, do you have new numbers, do you have something that is showing that relationship? because the entire time that i was the chr, which was for about three years, i could never, you know, it was intuiti intuitive, but we have on record people saying maybe it doesn't lower the amount of body power that we need. >> well, you still need manpower. i mean, technology is no substitute for manpower. but you're never going to have enough money to put a border patrol agent every 100 yards along the thousands of miles of border. so you have to have technology and infrastructure. that's a three-legged stool as part of a system. and then you have to have interior enforcent inside the country to back that up.

one of the reasons that i stoppedhe sbi net program was so that we could redeploy those moneys into technologies that we know work. that we know are force multipliers. that enab, for example, a small forward operating base near the tahoena nation in arizona to be at the turn and be ableo cover a larger distance than otherwise they would be able to do. >> and lastly, and this would be to our other guest, i represent a very large arab muslim community in our nation. have the second largest of community mosque, if you will. and we've had a lot of situations with fbi probes and local infiltratio et cetera. what are the safeguards that we now have in place so we aren't sending people into mosques and trying to elicit proactively

somebody to create some sort of terrorist attack? >> well, congresswoman, i want to be a bit careful, because although i'm familiar with them, i'm certainly no expert on the fbi, domestic intelligence operating guidelines and the attorney general guidelines. what i can tell you is the fbi, approved by the attorney general, has very strict guidelines on the level of intrusiveness and what they can do based on specific information about individuals not having radical thoughts, but moving to action, which would be terrorist action and one of the key requirements is that no investigations can be predicated on the exercise of first amendment rights. there always has to be additional evidence on which to predicate an investigation that would then lead to some of the tools that you reference. >> has that always been the case? because we he documented cases, of course, even out in the press and out in the public, where the fact of the matter was

there was instigation of these things within the mosques by our own undercover -- >> i can tell you that the current attorney general guidelines were developed during the end of the bush administration and ultimately approved under the obama administration and signe by the current attorney general. the key piece here, if i may, is that you have to -- obviously, there are going to be places where you have to do law enforcement investigations. in my view, you have to have a balanced approach of not just those law enforcement investigations, but you have to enge with those communities with other non-law enforcement elements of the u.s. government to make sure this is not an adversarial situation. in fact, this is a partnership. and as you know well, many of our tips to uncover active terrorist plots here in the united states have come from the muslim community. so we have to make quite clear that the communities are part of the solution and not part of the problem. anyou do that through using a variety of tools, not just law enforcement.

>> time of the gentlelady has expired. dr. brown of georgia. >> thank you, mr. chairman. secretary, director, i appreciate y'all being here today. i have several pressing questions for both of you. and in the limited amount of time, it will allow for only one or two. and i trust that you'll send a prompt response to my written questions. and my first question is for both of you, but i would like maybe director to give me a written response, but i would like to address this particularly here in this hearing, to secretary. most terrorist experts believe that given the list of incidts of homegrown radicals, lone wolfs and trained terrist recruits, the u.s. is now a little different from europe in terms of having a domestic terrorist problem inlving immigrant as well as indigent

muslim. however, in 2010, the obama administration announced it intended to removreligious terms such as "islamic extremism" from the national security strategy. moreover, in the 2010 speech at the center for strategic and international studies, the deputy national security adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism, john ennan, stated that the administration would not, quote, describe our enemy as jihadist or islamist. do you believe that by disregarding the ideological factor behind the recent rise in domestic and international terrorism, namely by islamic extremism, the administration is inhibiting our ability to address and combat this dangerous trend? >> representative, without having seen john brennan's speech or having recently reviewed the national security

strategy, let me, if i might, respond to that in writing. i would venture to say that what the concern was in addition to islamist terrorism or islamist-inspired terrorism we not overlook other types of extremism that can, windeed, be homegrown, and that we have experience with as i described to representative thompson. but as our testimony here today indicates, we understand full well that islamist-inspired, al qaeda-inspired, however you want to call it, terrorism, be it coming from abroad or now being homegrown, is part and parcel of the security picture that we now have to deal with in the united states. >> we, i'd appreciate tt written response. i went through a security tsa not along ago, and i went

through it, there was a guy who followed me, very obviously was of arabian or middle eastern decent. both of us were not patted down, there was a grandma that followed me, there was a small child with her and they were patted down. i have yet to see a grandma try to bomb any u.s. facility with chemicals in her bloomers. so i think we need to focus on those that want to do us harm. >> represtative, if i might respond to that because that is a common complaint -- >> i saw it myself. >> i know. and let me just suggest, first of all, that when we add random screening to whatever we are doing, it has to be truly random. otherwise you use tlose the val unpredictable. and separately, i wouldove to have you briefed in a classified setting that when we set firm rules about we won't set this

kind of person or that kind of person, that our adversaries, they know those rules and they attempt to train and get around them. >> thank you. and i'd appreciate that briefing. we've got to focus on those people who are going to do us harm. and this administration and your department has seemed to be very adverse to focusing on those entities that want to do us harm and have even at times back when your spokesman came and testified before this committee would not even describe that ft. hood massacre as a terrorist threat andtalked aut an alleged attack. i think this is unconscionable. we've got to focus on those people who want to harm us. and the people w want to harm us are not grandmas and it's not little children. it's the islamic extremists. there are others, and i want to look into those too, but your

own department has described people who are pro-life, who are pro-gun, who believe in the constitution and military personnel as being potential terrorists. now, come on. give me a break. we do need to focus on the folks that want to harm us and i encoure you to maybe take a step back and look and see how we can focus on those people who want to harm us and we'v go to profile these folks. y'all have not been willing to do so in my opinion. and i hope that you will look at this issue,because i think it's absolutely critical for the safety of our nation and for the american citizens. i'll submit the other questions for written comment. and thank you both for being here. >> mr. chairman, may i make a response to that? >> yes. >> first of all, representative, the hundreds of thousands of men and women in my department, they come to work every day to

protect the american people. the writing or the document i think you're referencing was something that was actually drafted at the end of the bush administration and issued by mistake at the beginning of this administration. and i would point out that we just established that in the hassan matter, he is a terrorist and he was an active duty military individual. >> time of the gentleman has expired. the gentleman from new york, my colleague, mr. higgins. new member, good to have you aboard. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. madame secretary, the peace bridge connects my area to southern ontario. it's the busiest crossing at the northern border and a vital asset to western new york and to the country and of profound national security impoance. we are advancing a project to reduce congestion at the peace bridge by building a new span

and customs facilities. but our progress has been slowed in part due to ambiguous and sometimes conflicting communications from the partment of homeland security. specifically, confusion exists about whether the project would include preclearance, a shared border management strategy, that would locate the american customs plaza on the canadian side of the bridge. on august 20th of 20, you wrote to me that preclearance was not possible because it would quire the united states accept a lower level of security at the peace bridge than at any other u.s. port of entry or require canada to accept actions contrary to its charter of rights and freedoms. mr. chairman, i would like to enter that letter to the record. >> without objection. >> yet in response to recent media inquiries on the issue, we

need to clear from department of homeland security clarity on this issue in order for this important project to proceed. so can you please tell us, does the position of the department of homeland security remain consistent with your letter, that due to security and constitutional obstacles that cannot be overcome, the peace bridge project will not include locateding the american customs facilities in canada. is it your position the department of homeland security will not reopen negotiations on preclearance at the peace bridge, and that the preclearance proposal is, for the purposes of this project, dead? >> representative, i will be very clear. we have looked into preclearance on the canadian side. we cannot do it.

the position has not changed. when and if the bridge and the facilities are expanded on the u.s. side, we are fully prepared to provide the staffing and support for that on the u.s. side. we understand the importance of the span for trade and tourism and so forth, but we are not gog to be able to resolve the preclearance issues in canada. >> all right. i yield back. thank you. >> gentle lady from michigan, miss miller. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i think i'll follow up a bit of my colleague from new york who raised sort of a norther border issue. if i could talk about secretary and director, and first of all, thank you both for coming and we appreciate your service to the nation, sincerely. we have a lot of people on the committee that town the southern border, and believe me, i'mnot minimizing. i realize the challenges we have on the southern border in facing our nation, but i do think sometimes we forgot about the northern rder. of one must have colleagues said there was 44% of control on the southern border. according to the gao report that came out last week, we have less

than 2% under operational control of our 4,000 mile with our wonderful, wonderful trading partner, our biggest trading partner is not mexico, it's canada by a huge, huge margin. and as you mentionedhe peace bridge in buffalo, which is, we've always thought, the third busiest croing, i think the first passenger, but in my district and my colleague from detroit mr. clark, where he has the ambassador bridge, the busiest commercial artery on the northern tier, and the blue water bridge in my district is the second busiest border crossing. and we were very concerned about what the gao said about essentially no operational corol for all practical purposes along the northern border. and i would like to address that a bit. because as we think about our wonderful trading partner, our

neighbors of canada, there are several islamic extremist terrorist groups that are represented there, as you're well aware. and i thought it was interesting with the gao report coming out on the heels of that, president obama and prime minister harper came out with the u.s./canadian agreement, which was a wonderful step forward, they're going to put this working group together, but talking about some of the unique challenges along our border, how we can have sharing of intelligence, et cetera, et cetera. and so from a high-tech perspective of the kinds of resources that i think are necessary along the -- obviously, we're not going to build a 4,000-mile-long fence along the northern border. so certainly the kind of technology we feed to be utilizing there, as well as low tech, k-9s. there are about 60 k-9s, as i understand it, at el paso. there are zero at the blue water bridge and maybe one at the ambassador bridge. so, believe me, i'm not minimizing what's happening on

the southern border, but for everything to be going on the southern border at the expense of the northern border, i think we need have a bit of a balance. even the uav missions, which i am heavily an advocate of now with a ground mission at corpus christi, and i know we do have one along the more northern part of our border, but i think in the detroit, certainly michigan, new york sector having those kinds of -- we need those kinds of technologies, off the shelf hardware, essentially, that's worked extremely well in theater that the taxpayers have already paid for that we can utilize along the northern border, so i just raise this as a concern and perhaps when we think about threat from abroad, et cetera, they're not all going to come on a plane from amsterdam. and of course, as the terrorists think to cripple our nation, and they think about doing it economically, just to use the blue water again as an example, at that as it comes into the

u.s., that is a genesis for i-69, i-94, two of the most major trade routes that we have. and as my colleague talked about, what we consider to be reverse inspection. that's another thing 've been trying to advocate for. could have reverse inspection, so that we are inspecting things before they start coming across our major infrastructure as well. and so i raise some of these questions. i'm not sure who i'm directing them all to. >> i think they're mine. mike's going like this. >> thanks, secretary. >> i'll be brief, mr. chairman. first of all, again, on the gao report, i encourage the committee, the term operational control is a very narrow form art. and it does not reflect the infrastructure and technology and all the other things that happen at the border. so it should not be used as a substitute for an overall border strategy. one of the most significant

things that has happened in the last month, quite frankly, o even in the last year, was prime minister harper and president obama signing the shared security strategy, border strategy between our two countries. it is our number one trading partner. cada is now beginning to do or conducting some of the same kinds of things around its perimeter that we used to be concerned about coming across inland on the border. we'll be working more in light of this shared vision stateme on an integrated northern border strategy. indeed, we have prepared one. it is in review right now at the omb, because as you recognize, representative, borders are law enforcement jurisdictions and you've got to protect the borders from that regard, but they are also huge trade jurisdictions. and you've got to be able to move the legitimate trade and commerce. we are very much in favor of

looking at ways to preclear certain things before they -- cargo, for example, before it gets to the border so that we can relieve the pressure on the lines and the technology for being able to do that kind of thing gets better all the time. and so that'sone of the things we'll be, i'm sure, working on and implementing over the coming months and years. >> thank you i know my time's expired, but i would also point out, inregards to the tides list, without quantifying it, there are much higher hits. much higher. >> congressman, i'd just say, i've been working extremely closely, going up to ottawa since 2005. it is a very different set of challenges on that border, but it is one that we are acutely engaged on with the canadians who are an excellent partner in information sharing and the like. so although we talk about it less than the southern border,

quite often, i don't want to leave anyone with the impression that it is not a very high priority for us and the canadians. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> on the other side of the aisle, one of the more enthusiastic new members, mr. clark. >> thank you, mr. chair. thank you for calling this meeting. thank you, secretary napolitano, director leiter. you know, i want to make sure i address you directly but i speak into this mic. >> that's okay. we're good. >> i want to thank chair miller for outlining the imrtance of the busiest international border crossing in north america, which is in the city of detroit. and also the fact that we have a large airport, which is an international hub. this makes this area a big, at high risk of attack and also

high impact, in case of a natural disaster or other emergency. in thevent of such an emergency, it will be local police, local firefighters, our local emergency medical providers that will be the first to respond. my concern, though, is with the security of those first responders. and i realize that this partment cannot be the local law enforcement or first responders. last week i visited a police precinct in detroit, which a few hours earlier had been attacked by a lone gunman who tried to kill virtually every officer in that precinct. to find out that that precinct needed a metal detector that would have cost $5,000, but because of the city's budget restraints, couldn't afford that. and i am aware of that many of

the grant programs are awarded on competitive basis or based by formula. there are some districts, some areas that will get resources, some that won't. in your written testimony, madame secretary, you rightfully say that homeland security starts here with hometown security. what types of resources in addition to the grants are available to protect our first responders so they can be in a good position to protect our citizens in case of an attack or other emergency? >> representative, i would suggest in addition to the grants, some of which are formula driven, others of which are based on analysis of risk and threat, one of the -- or two of the things that are of direct assistance to our first responders are, a, training.

that's why as we do our countering violent eremism curricula, we are testing it with representatives of the chiefs' association, the sheriffs' associations, and others who would have to implement this on the ground. and the second is information sharing. so that they have maximum access to actionle intelligence. now, the latter probably would not help much in the case of a lone wolf gunman. and i'llsk dirtor leiter of his comments on that. but the lone wolf situation is almost impossible to prevent from a law enforcement perspective. so when you deal with the first responders, you deal with maybe early tips that somebody is getting ready to come in and then the ability to respond very effectively. and that's s.w.a.t. training and equipment and the like. >> congssman, what i would

tell you is immediately after the mumbai attacks in november of 2008, we started working with dhs and fbi to look at the techniques that were used in india and how u.s. law enforcement and homeland security would be able to respond. out of that, we created a scenario that's been used in chicago and other cities by the local authorities in conjunction with the federal authorities to see what kind of response could be brought. and recently, we combined with fema and we now have a program for each of, i think, it's the eight fema sectors. the last one, the first one was run in philadelphia just several weeks ago. involved over 300 people, including the philadelphia police chief, dhs, fema, fbi. again, running through a scenario like mumbai with multiple shooters. because you're absolutely right, it's going to be the detroit police or the philadelphia police that are there first. how do they respond? whatspecialized tools can the u.s. government bring to bear? and certainly be happy to work,

i think it's sheriff bucharred to get that training to detroit. >> the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and i appreciate the opportunity to be with you here today. i've noticed that the gentlewoman from california has departed. but i did want to take a moment on the record to express my regret that i will not have the opportunity to work so directly with her, having been given the opportunity to chair the subcommittee on counterterrorism and it would have creed that chance. i think i spoke to my staff, it's a little bit like finally making it to the yankees and realizing that they just traded away derek jeter. but i'm very grateful for your presence here today and for helping us set the table.

let me ask both madame secretary and direor leiter, i came on to this issue just five days after september 11th, like many of each of us did in different capacities as an united states attorney. but we're sitting here now ten years later. we've done a lot. we've done a lot right. and i think the greatest marker of what we've done right is the incredible record of safety on the american homeland in that ten-year riod. but we've also spent a lot of money. as you said, madame secretary we've had hundreds of thousands of people deployed in this. we've done a lot right. what are we doing now to begin to look back at what we're doing and say, hey, where are we going wrong, where are we creating redundan redundancies? what is our process ten years later for asking tough questions about whether we could be doing something better. or if we're doing something,

that, you know, the institution keeps move forward because it's there,ut maybe it's not the best expenditure of dollars, making tough chois. >> i'll take that one first. we are always asking those hard question and i begin every morning with an intel briefing and i think my briefers would tell you, it begins with ha questions. why, where, how, what could have been done to prevent, what's needed, et cetera. with respect to those dollars, we all appreciate the fiscal discipline needed by our department, even though it's security and everybody says they want to protect security, we still have a duty to really protect dollars and use them in the wisest possible fashion. so everything from procurement reform that we have undertaken, acquisition management, which

sounds really goverent-ise, but i'll tell you, it's those kind of things that help find projects before they get too far along that are not really going to work or be value added to the process. and then the third thing -- and we've literally found hundreds ofillions of dollars that we have built into our budgets now of cost avoidances using some of those plain old management techniques. lastly, i think that our ability and just the -- and i've seen it just over the last two years, the increasing integration and leveraging of the data resources that nctc has with its pursuit teams, with our incredible data resources that we collect on the customs and the tsa side and the ability to leverage those resources together is a homeland security kind of architecture that we just plain didn't have before and allows us to make

maximum use of the dollars that we do get. but i'll ask the director if he has anything to -- >> congressman, i have three quick points. but i'll open with the fact that the yankees have traded a lot of greats, but they keep on winning, so -- but much to my hagrin. >> i share the director's chagrin. >> the mets keep making a lot of trades and not winning. three quick points, congressman. first, the amount of change that already goes on is really quite incredible miss sanchez asked about visa waiver program. the way in which we seen esta travelers today compared to how we screened them a year ago is radically different. so it really has not been a steady state in the first place. there have been lots and twists and tus unless you're kind of in the counterterrorism trenches, you don't necessarily ow that's going on. second, we, of course, try to learn lessons from our failures, but we also do a lot of gaming

to try to figure out what the next attack will be and how we have to shape things. now, that's an imperfect science and you'll end up going down some wrong paths. but as i said to congressman clarke about gaming here domestically of a mumbai-style attack. when you look at that, do we have t right resources, do we have the right commications? the third is, congressman, the nctc has a statutory responsibility to do net assessments and that is looking both at the change enemy, our u.s. capabilities with and the changed global environment, including here in the united states. and we provide that annual net assessment along with targeted net assessments to the white house. and we also work closely with the office of management and budget to try to look across all of these expenditures and see which one is being the most effective. i will tell you that is a huge challenge, because simply

identifying which satisfies part of a counterterrorism purpose, as you can imagine, is very difficult. the department of homeland security is a perfect example. it's not just counterterrorism, it's smuggling, drugs, all of these pieces. so trying to parse this out remains a challenge, but ones that we have made some good progress on. >> i agree with the -- i'm not looking at it just from, although in this d and age, are paying particular attention to how the dollars are spent, but at what point in time do we reach a tipping point? while i ascribe to the belief that we're doing the right things, when you hear people say, hey, when i have to walk through an airport screener and make the decision about whether i'm groped or photographed, are we going too far along? we keep pushing. i went to that u.p.s. terminal and the impact of trying to push off further and further the

screening of the packages, at some point it's going to have an impact on their ability to do business. where do we make those analyses that are tough choices, but we say, hey, maybe we're overcongressmove overcompensating to try to create some sense of safety or is it necessary? >> the time of the gentleman has expired but you can aner the question. >> thank you, congressman. first, with respect to the aits and the pat-downs, it was very interesting, but between thanksgiving and christmas, that heavy travel season, fewer than 1% of travelers opted out of using the aits. and as you may have seen, we're now piloting the new software that will be even less invasive and allow us to do even fewer pat-downs. but the plain fact of the matter is we do that from a security and intelligence perspective, and just looking at what abdulmutallab did going into detroit in christmas of '09 we know they try to hire non-based explosives to get on a plane, and we know that aviation, be it

cargo or passenger, continues to be a target. so that is something we have to deal, the tsa administrator, who is the former deputy director of the fbi, that has to al with on a daily basis. we're working with u.p.s. and fedex and the other major shippers on how we secure cargo and we're moving toward kind of a trusted shipper regime so that cargo can can move and we can meet the needs of realtime inventory. and that is part of the global cargo supply chain initiative i was describing earlier. and they are part and parcel of how we are deving that strategy. so we're not just sitting here as the government figing this out. we've got the private sector, who has to move those planes and move that cargo helping us. >> and congressman, i'll simply add. i think almost everything we do in counterterrorism, there is a second order of fact. and if we increas