for today from you. we want to give you the tools you need to help you to protect the homeland. and if there's a flaw in what we have, it's not strong enough, we need the feedback from all of you. i don't know if anyone has any comment on that. >> briefly the state department does have the authority to evoke passports on national security grounds. we are very concerned about the over 100 americans in the foreign fighter ranks. we do work very closely with law enforcement intelligence partners on information because we don't just unilaterally revoke passports, of course. so we are reviewing right now in consultation with the law enforcement intelligence partners our current tools at our disposal and authorities because this is a big concern. that we want to look to be able to use the authority if we need it, but not interrupt legitimate

travel of other u.s. citizens engaged in the region. >> now i appreciate that. i would just mention time is of the essence here, i think. i i think you're going to be looking at, as i say, one member that is going to be introducing legislation today about these issues. i'm trueing to assist you and you know, we'll see quickly the congress can act. but we are looking for feedback from all of you. with that, the chair recognizes miss jackson lee from texas. >> again, let me thank the chairman and thank my ranking member and as well as the chairman of the full committee. again, this hearing is not to draw you over here to the united states house as much as it is to make an important statement of oversight to act. and i started my remarks by

saying that in the -- on the eve of 9/11, and although there had been much commentary of the potential threat that isil poses, i'm not willing to agree to those who have a perspective that the united states may not be in the eye of the storm. i think the way we respond to it is experienced, and balanced and sure as it relates to providing security for our citizens. and i thank you all for being on the the front lines of doing that. that is what the department was created for. and that is what the committee is created for as well. so i want to go to a pointed question in the collaboration between state and the department of homeland security in particular, intelligence. and dealing with cbp.

is it your thought that the isil actions in syria and iraq and the isil profile could be a threat to the united states? mr. miller? >> yes, ma'am, as you stated over 100 americans to fight with isil and the western europeans, do believe it could be a short-term and long-term threat to the united states. >> mr. wagner? >> yes, i also agree. and looking at the systems we have and how we look at the information we get with a person's reservation information and looking at itineraries and other characteristics of their travel, do they fit what we know about, you know, what the intelligence reporting are known

factors? try to talk to them and determine what their purpose and travel is. we have good systems to help us do that. we have good intelligence reporting to help us build those. we get good information from the department of state and other entities when we do want to take action against known individuals. then we have the systems in place to identify them and figure out what point in the process we need to intercept them and have that discussion. >> ma'am, we certainly assess that isil presents a long term threat to the country. we know the leader back in january spoke of but they do have a very sophisticated and savvy media campaign. especially a social media

campaign. and i think our near-term concern is that that campaign will be appealing to individual who is seek to radicalize. whether other in europe or here in the homeland. they could contact an attack on their own at any time based on that media campaign. so that is a very clear near-term concern that we have. >> miss johnson. >> -- isil stated threats against the united states. so we look at the protection of the u.s. overseas and the missions and always adjusting our posture accordingly. >> let me ask you a question. as we both know, the two acts of beheading were clearly directed towards the sentiments of the infrastructure values of the

united states. and certainly attack on the citizens overseas. to mr. miller and mr. wagner. following on the questioning of chairwoman miller. i'm concerned as to whether or not we do have the kind of coordination that is actually needed. i guess i don't want to use the term intimate. creating hysteria is not the idea of this committee. i also hesitate to solidly predict isil's threat level in as much as we're reminded of our posture on the day before 9/11, 2001. so let me just -- in the manner in which you can answer the question, feel comfortable about the level of coordination in this climate. and mr. miller, i would like to hear what level, how intense

your coordination is, how comfortable you are with the coordination, and what do you need to make it better? and i ask mr. wagner that question. >> our coordination with the intelligence community and the law enforcement community in the u.s. is stronger than ever. we're working this threat daily. whether with the fbi or intelligence community. our foreign counterparts, we're working with them. with the australians and the uk yesterday, there's stronger and stronger sentiment for information sharing from our european partners as well. and we can explain our classification more fully. >> and we take that information based upon it. and gettinging that information is critical to us making the right decisions on how we

operationalize the information. in one of the things we would like to see is a stronger response from our partners overseas and emulating some of the ways we do our border security management, as was referenced earlier. in trying to take advance and not waiting until they show up on your doorstep to try to figure out what to do with them. i think we would encourage our allies to consider those practices. we work closely to help them build up the capacity. >> we have two questions if we might finish quickly. miss johnson, i understand it's somewhat difficult to track the travel of foreign terrorists. i would like to know what the state department is doing and how you're improving tracking the travels of foreign terrorists. and coordinating with your fellow collaborating nation

states about whether you're doing that and lastly, if i can ask you the question of our level of intelligence in this climate of what we're in now, and backtrack it to 9/11. where we were saying quite the contrary. we didn't have an inkling of what would happen in the next day. are we in a better place? miss johnson? >> obviously it's an ongoing effort. everyone has different legal ideas. we are working with them very closely, as i mentioned. the european is now looking at the passenger name record situation hoping to adopt something by the end of this year. that will help us as the us for the officers to be able to understand who is coming and who is traveling. >> you think the no-fly list can be made more robust?

>> the no-fly list? >> yeah, make it more robust. >> i think for the no-fly list we're talking all the time about how to work the no-fly list to make sure it has accurate information, and we do share it with foreign partners so they know who is on the list. they are enhancing their own screening efforts and that helps us prevent people from getting on planes, is including from other parts of the world. and as i mentioned, our information sharing agreements particularly with visa waiver countries but also additional countries under homeland security directive six. we share biographic information with foreign partners. a lot of that is individuals on the no-fly list and individuals who need to be more screened. we also have the preventing serious crime agreements, which also collects biometric

information. mostly fingerprints to exchange that information. so there's a lot of information to enhance the border security screening and track terrorist travel. >> >> she answered her question in writing and the share now recognizes, the ranking member, mr. thompson. >> thank you very much, madame chairman. mr. wagner, from time to time congress has in in ininfts infi wisdom cut the budget for the agencies tasked to keep us safe. in the present budget, are you comfortable to provide the security and assurance necessary that cbp is doing all it can to keep bad people from getting

into the country. >> yes, i believe we can. i think cvp was fortunate enough to be one of the few organizations that did see a very generous budget, including the addition of 2,000 officers this fiscal year, and in the administration's request for 2015, there's also a request for another 2,000 plus officers. which we know are critically important to securing the economy and encountering this threat. >> i understand the manpower. i'm concerned about technology and other things necessary to support the increase in people along the border. i'm looking at the international side of it. >> well, we use those officers to deploy them in places like preclearance overseas. deploy them in the immigration advisory program. deploy them to the national targeting center. when we collect the information,

we collect the intelligence reports and others too. for instance, the officers based on their experience and their knowledge in turns that into actionable operational entities and being able to question them and continue to address that. >> so it's not a matter of resource. are you satisfied with the coordination between the agencies in terms of identifying these individuals coming to this country? >> yes, i think we've seen that it's been better than ever at this point. as these threats continue to appear, you know, the information sharing and the coordination get stronger and surer. and our systems integration to make sure the data bases are talking to each other. so when state department takes an action against a visa or

passport, it appears in our data base so we can take action. >> is that realtime, or is that a lag time? >> it would be a realtime identification that that information appears in the different systems and we try to access it in foreign advance of a person's travel if we can. in order to take the appropriate action or address whatever kind of questions we have. so, yes. >> miss johnson, there's been some discussion about revoking of passports. for the committee's edification, are the present rules as robust as they need to be give tennessee present isis threat that potentially is expanding? >> thank you, i know our bureau is working with our law

enforcement intelligence community partners to review all of our options, and i believe they are looking at that as well. i can take that back to have our lawyers and tto provide more an. >> well, i would, but if if you would, are you comfortable with the present protocols in place that if those individuals are identified, that the passport cancellation process would fully comply with that cancellation? >> i think that's a question ha the the affairs bureau could answer better. i don't know how many we've done, i believe it's pretty quick. we do it in consultation with the law enforcement and community so they should be working side by side on that, i

imagine. >> can anybody else address that question? can you get counselor affairs to address that? i think one of the questions we are contemplating is whether or not when these individuals are identified that we're doing everything we can to keep them getting back here to american soil. if there's some question as to whether or not that is, in fact, taking place, we need to plug in a potential gap that exists. i yield back. madame chair. >> i thank the gentleman very much. we now recognize the gentleman from texas, chairman mccall. >> thank you for holding this important hearing. very timely. i thank you for your leadership as well. tomorrow we will observe the 13th anniversary of the 9/11

terrorist attacks. and while we've made a tremendous amount of progress since the tragic day in 2001, we have to continue to be vigilant, be one step ahead of the adversaries. today isis is the biggest threat to the homeland. these terrorists are brutal, driven and intent on attacking the united states. the job of this committee is to help ensure that that does not happen. the largest concern is isis's recruitment of foreign fighters. many of whom have western passports. they could ease their travel into europe and into the united states to carry out attacks. the fact is you don't know what you don't know. and we only have estimates of how many westerners these foreign fighters are in isis ranks. and potentially thousands that we do not know who they are. one of the biggest worries for a counterterrorism perspective is the unknown terrorists.

those with no where will record or intelligence traces, who could use a valid u.s. passport or the visa waiver program to enter and commit the homeland. for example, in may a 22-year-old florida man who joined in syria, an al qaeda affiliate, killed 16 people and himself in a suicide bombing attack against syrian government forces. u.s. officials say he was on their radar screen, but acknowledged that he travelled back to the united states before turning to syria without detection. also key for the administration to take the real steps to stop the radicalization of our youth so they do not leave for jihad. this week i visited the vcp's national targeting center to observe the hard working mane women who were responsible for preventing travel by terrorism

and others we have on various watch lists. the work they do targeting obscure information, connecting the dots to keep dangerous people out of the united states is vital to stopping isis. and when we say i'm very hopeful that tonight, and i talked to the secretary, jay johnson, very hopeful that tonight we'll hear from the president to take the advice of the chairman of joint chiefs, general dempsey, that the only way you can defeat isis is to attack them wherever they exist. and i'm hopeful the the president will come out strongly on the issue. it's a matter of national security. and it's a matter of homeland security that we do so. that we stop it over there before we can come here. and that's really the whole purpose of the hearing, one flight away. because these individuals are just one flight away.

and so i would like to ask the panel, you know, we have seen this gentleman from florida get in and out undetected. we saw tamerlan tsarnaev leave and pull off a terrorist attack in boston. what assurances can you give me that that will not happen in the future? mr. wagner? >> thank you. and so looking at the lessons we learned with tsarnaev and looking at, you know, we had access to certain pieces of information. and certain pieces of information weren't being followed up in closing those gaps. we learned a real hard lesson with the christmas day bomber. and here was a guy we had in our sights, but not really realizing his intentions at the time. we were waiting for him on the the ground. and taking a look at the procedures and connecting the

pieces of information we have and taking action against a person as far as in advance of boarding the plane as possible. whether that's revoking the visa so they check in the with the airline, they're not able to print a boarding pass because it's been revoked or having the preclearance officers question and talk and search a person before they get on the aircraft. and working to question people and talk to them and try to determine a person's intent. with all the systems that we have and all the data we collect, we can look for patterns and pieces of information. we can connect known pieces of information. determining the person's intent is a really difficult, difficult challenge. one best brought by questioning a person and using our skills to be able to do that. l. >> when i talked to the secretary, we talked about the visa waiver program countries. the ability to get more

information and more data from the countries so we do know more about the travelers, would you agree with that? legislatively would that help you? >> yes, as an operational organization we're always looking for organizations to help us or if we can figure out what their intentions are by having access toed a diggal information. but yes, i would agree with that. >> and lastly, on the intelligence side of the house, my biggest concern is we don't have sufficient intelligence, human intelligence particularly in syria to identify the 100 to 200 americans over there. intelligence on the tens of thousands of foreign fight fighters who could board an

airplane and come into the united states. i know we're not in a classified setting, but does that disturb you? and is it possible some of the foreign fighters have actually returned to the united states, like the man from florida and are currently here? mr. miller? >> chairman, yes, sir. it does concern us. and we continue to look at the known terrorists, to look at travel patterns, to look at who they're connecteded to. to look at the the data elements we may be able to utilize to identify future people. we identify -- we continue to work with the law enforcement and intelligence community to see if there's additional data elements that we can yut lisz to help us identify those folks. and we continue to work with our foreign partners as well. but as you state, we can get

more of what we're doing to put the full picture together. >> sir, i would agree with my colleague's comments. we don't have a full picture in all cases. i think thars why our interaction with our foreign counterparts in particular is quite important, so that they have citizens fighting there. we share those identities and that information with each other. and i know in our department and work with state department, both dhs and state are working very closely to make all that information known and shared. >> and all that sounds great. when i ask the question do we have a high degree of confidence with who the people are, i'm not satisfied with the answer. i think the honest answer is we don't. and the vacuum here now that's

developed into what is one of the biggest threats in the homeland and iraq and syria that we regain that intelligence on the ground to determine who is over there so we can stop them from coming back to the united states and killing americans. and with that i yield back. >> thank you chairman for his very insightful questions and comments. chair now recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania. >> thank you, madame chair. we spent a lot of time today discussing the threat ofs laumic state terrorists gaining entry into the united states. but i'm also very concerned as the rest of the committee, about those who may already be here. last year the government's nonpartisan fact checker, government account about office reported the homeland department of security has lost track of

nearly 1 million foreign visitors. mr. miller, what steps is dhs taking to identify these individuals and ensure the american people that they're not affiliated with the islamic state, and wouldn't the completion of the system help against this threat? >> we have over the last several years taken several steps. >> along with hsi or immigration and custom enforcement to prioritize them through the targeting system. with respect to the biometric i would yield to mr. wag inner. >> and thank you.

we're using biographical data. >> but we're not doing land exits. >> we're doing some of it. >> well my problem with that is if we're not doing everywhere, we really don't know if somebody has left the country. >> absolutely. and those tr the gas we're trying to close. we set up a demo lab with the science and technology branch we opened a few months ago. invite everybody to come up and visit it in dover, maryland. we have scientists there helping test out what are the right biometrics to collect and record that entry and then exit in the united states and then in realtime sochlt the course of this year and next year we'll be piloting different types of biometrics in this demonstration lab. we're looking to do a few over the course of next year and then have a good pilot in place at

the beginning of 2016 at a single airport with what we think will be the right technology that we would expand to additional locations. zble we know they are using the southern border and a broken immigration system to enter the the united states. hezbollah has been setting up terrorist networks for decades now and are working with the the mexican drug cartels to move contraband into the united states. al shabaab has been senting individuals through central america take advantage of our broken immigration system and claiming asylum upon injury but never showing up for the hearings. what measures are the department of homeland security taking to ensure they do not take similar advantage of our porous borders. and is the problem a concern that now hhs are taking minors

and just dispersing them across the united states without governors or states or communities knowing who the individuals are. if you can touch on that. >> sir, certainly we've had a long standing concern in the department about known or suspected terrorists and groups moving in and out of all of our border areas. and so we are continually looking at the information and the intelligence that we receive. determine credibility of that information. to date we have not had credible reporting that either hezbollah or any other terrorist group has been taking advantage of our borders to move individuals in and out. it's something we are always looking for, but to date we have not seen credible evidence of that. >> just this week identi've introduced a bill to stop the

federal government from sending unaccompanied minors around the company into our schools and neighborhoods without any knowledge at all of what's happening. you know, i think we really need to look at what they're looking at as how to get into the united states and kill americans. and so, thank you. >> madame chair, just an inquiry. could you give the gentleman an additional 30 seconds so i can pose a question to the gentleman? >> yes. >> and i thank the gentleman. we've worked together on a number of issues. do you have documentation that unaccompanied children age 2 years old and 4 years old and 6 years old and 10 years old are known terrorists spread throughout the the nation? you have present documentation. but do you have known documentation? >> i'm not saying that we have

known documentation. unaccompanied minors are known terrorists. but shouldn't we consider that a threat that we don't know anything about the individuals and they're being sent around the united states, especially with the threat going on in in iraq with isis, with our known intelligence that they want to come to the united states. don't you think that we are vulnerable without knowing that? >> all right, time has expired. and the chair will now recognize the senator from texas for his comments. >> thank you, madame chair. appreciate you bringing us together for the hearing today and assembling the panel that we have. i want to clarify the response miss lasley made to mr. barletta's question or comment and seek further clarity from any member of the panel who would wish to offer it.

when a member of the congress says we all know they are using the southern border to enter the u.s., i think it's very important for all of us to know whether or not that's a true statement. i have been told by dhs as recently as last month that there's no evidence, nor has there ever been, through the southern border, the border of mexico or terrorist plots were foiled or intercepted at the border or terrorist plots carried out within the u.s. that have a connection to the southern border. that is what i heard directly from dhs. >> will the gentleman yield? >> i will. >> they tried to cross the southern border, contacted what he believed was a mexican drug cartel. turned out to be a dea undercover operative in mexico.

his intent was to cross the southern border and bring nefarious objects with him to assassinate the ambassador of saudi arabia here at a restaurant we may have been attending that night. >> and i'll ask the the experts a the panel to answer the question. sir, i would reiterate what i stated earlier, that we to date don't have credible information that we are aware of of known or suspected terrorists coming across the border, particularly related to this threat stream. >> mr. miller and mr. wagner, would you like to clarify what we have heard so far. either from members of congress or your copanelists? >> yes, thank you. and building upon that the numbers of known watch listed individuals that we have encountered at the ports is

minimal compared to what we see in commercial aviation. you're talking tens versus thousands. it's minimal from what we have seen from watch listed encounters. >> mr. miller? >> i would reiterate what mr. wagner said. in addition, we do have very robust information sharing with the counterparts in central america, in mexico, with the state and local partners. we're imbedded in the texas fusion center. so we continue to look at this, and when and if that surfaced we would take appropriate action. >> i may submit a question for the record. i would like to know once and for all what the facts support in terms of these repeated

accusations that the southern border is unsafe. that terrorists are exploiting it into the united states, i want to make sure that we address the i want to make sure i know the truth on that. thgs not new, by the way. i'm going to ask for consent to submit to the record the herald of 1981. border checked for libyan hit squad. we have been projecting our anxiety -- >> without objection. >> thank you, madame chair. -- about threats to the united states on the u.s./mexican border for as long as i have been alive. it does not mean we should not be vigilant. does not mean we should not take the threats seriously. we should only traffic in the facts and the data and we should only raise these kinds of fears and anxieties when there are facts to support them. so i would ask for my colleagues

to do that. there are a number of questions i have. most of them would be more appropriate in a classified hearing. here's a general one and with time permitting, we would love to get everyone's answer. we're at war in iraq. we have service members flying missions over there. we have boots on the ground and advisers. we're about to formalize that war perhaps to some greater degree after the president's speech and with congressional action. what does a greater state of war in iraq and syria mean to you in the jobs that you do? what additional resources, as the ranking member asked earlier, authorities, and procedures would you need to meet additional threats following a greatest u.s. involvement in those two countries? i don't know if we can just have one of you answer briefly. i'm out of time. so with the chair's permission,

would love another 30 seconds to hear from miss lasley. >> sir, i would say that we have an imperative, and that imperative increases as the threat increases to share information. so that we can identify and stop individuals who want to come to the country. whether that's with the foreign partners, cl that's with the intelligence community or whether that's with the state and local law enforcement. so i think we will continue to be very vigilant in making sure that information is broadly shared. >> thank you very much. and the chair now recognizes the gentleman from florida. >> thank you for the work you do. thanks for coming and being willing to sit in the crossfire a little bit. and for your efforts to keep us as i went through, it felt like

the vwp is yesterday's tool for today's world. and so at a 20,000 foot level, the question that kept coming to my mind as i worked it with my team, do we optimize yesterday's tool for today's world? or do we need to go to a new program all together? maybe that means at one end of the continuum would be visas for everyone. could be less restrictive than that. would be more costly than we currently do. and we would probably hear pushback from the tourism industry and others. i'm not taking a position on that. what i would like is for you to take a position on whether you feel we should optimize

yesterday's tool for the world or do we need to break the mold and look for something more current. implied in my question, of course, is bang for buck. how much are we spending? how do we measure what we get for those expenses? >> i understand 300, but i know you have more sophisticated ways of measuring what we are getting for our resources in this effort. so i would leak to hear all four of you answer how you feel whether we ought to continue this current road. if we can see around corners good enough with in information, or do we need to go to a new level to protect the future? start with mr. miller. thank you. we need to look at the information we're currently

connecting. and then take the appropriate action and decide if we need more information to collect. as mr. wagner pointed out earlier, as operators are using the targeting system, generally more information is better as long as we can collect it in the right way given the civil rights, civil liberties, privacy and we're able to operationalize it. >> i would just say it's an important program. it does get us information sharing agreements and allows our close ally to share very important information with us that we're not getting from countries we don't have a vwp agreement with. it requires them to issue electronic passports, which helps them to report lost and stolen passports to us.

like mr. miller mentioned, we're taking a hard look at are we collecting other data elements and what other information could we make use of and how would we collect it? as we are with many of the programs. i think it dusz have value. and a side by side of vwp versus the visa program would offer and what types of benefits. and what is a good study time to take. >> is anybody doing that? >> sir, we are reviewing the program. we are reviewing a lot of different programs. as we constantly do in life, the different threats that arise. and are there gaps in there. are there gaps in how we connect the system. >> and i would say that's across the department. the department leadership is really looking at all the tools we have in our tool kit and how we can optimize them to make sure we have the data that we

need and we're stopping people from coming into the country who shouldn't be here. one of the tools that we have if i could just highlight one is our watch listing effort. so we are making a concerted effort with the department to share as much of the data with the intelligence community to make sure individuals are in fact put on the watch list. we do that for the entire department, working with the colleagues. and over the last three years, we have significantly increased the number of that we in the department have given to the intelligence community from about 4,000 two years ago to well over 9,000 this year. that's one way we're trying to stop travelers from coming. >> and as i mentioned we have our information sharing agreement with visa waiver

program partners. we are increasing those sharing agreements and arrangements, in addition to beyond visa waiver program, we're expanding the number of agreements, and we work closely with the inner agency partners on the watch list to make sure the foreign partners have those as well. i think those are strong tools. >> i urge you and i urge us to look at secondary and incremental and more than incremental efforts in this, in what we're doing here. i'm a user of global entry for my business before i came here. it makes me nervous that you all interview me but you don't interview people that could be face-to-f face, that could be somewhere in europe that could be wanting to come to our country. to my knowledge, i don't think we do that. am i right about that? >> we get interviewed upon arrival by the cdc. but there is no interview to issue that. unless we have it come through a preclearance location where we

would interview them before they got on a plane. or unless our targeting systems and analysis gave us cause for some time of reason to have immigration advisory program officers coming through one of the 11 locations talk to them before boarding and address any types of questions that we have. so the possibility is there. and we are in a lot of the countries. we are in london heathrow. we're inm manchester. we're in frankfurt. we're in amsterdam. major places of travel. so we have the opportunity if our other systems flag them for scrutiny. >> if you do a face-to-face with me, i would love you to do it with potential bad guys coming from outside our country as well. thank you for your answers. >> thank the gentleman. the chair recognizes south

carolina. >> thank you madame chairwoman. thank you to the panel for being here. thank you for your service to the country. in february of 2014 this year the director started out testifying before the senate armed services committee by saying looking back over my now more than half a century in intelligence, aye not experienced a time when we've been beset by more crisis and threats around the globe? two days ago we have a staff meeting on fly-in day. i shared a video with my staff of an isis produced video. but it showed young iraqi men loaded in the back of pickup trucks and dump trucks taking out into the desert. and murdered. hundreds of iraqis. harken times of the holocaust to watch the images that were disturbing of men shot multiple

times to make sure they were dead as they laid in the trench. this is a real threat. and we may not think as americans we may not be interested in islamic extremism and isis and the establishment of calaphate. but i tell you what, isis is interested in america and they're interested in you. in june i traveled to europe. i couldn't get many members of congress interested in going. we were looking at border security and foreign fighter flow. in june. i was to have that same congressional delegation trip today i would have to turn members away because the plane wouldn't be big enough to travel to europe to meet with our allies about foreign fighter flow. i grew up during the cold war. nation state versus nation state tracking the movement of tanks and large number of troops among

borders in mainly eastern europe. we're not tracking troop movement or tank movement today. we're tracking individuals. foreign fighters who lead not only european countries but this country to travel to fight ji d jihad. often times being radicalized and coming back possibly to the united states of america to create and commit heinous crimes. is that a farfetched idea? well, before i left to travel to br brussels, a young man who travelled to syria through turkey came back through germany. germany tracked its movements but failed to let the allies within europe know about the individual. he entered brussel, is and shot up a jewish museum. at least three or four individuals were killed. have you heard about that?

probably not. i know it because i was headed to brussels and it was on our radar screen. this was a jihadist, shot up a jewish museum, killed people. free travel. free travel among those countries. no border crossings. they're visa waiver countries as well. he would have been part of the visa waiver program, traveled back to his country unbeknownst to the united states personnel, had a valid travel document could have boarded an aircraft and flown to this country. we need to be concerned about that. we also need to be concerned about americans. we have now identified a number that have traveled over to fight with isis. whether it's in syria or iraq or the islamic state and whatever it looks like going.

we should be able to revoke the passports of united states citizens if they do travel to fight for another organization. in fact, u.s. law says that a u.s. citizen shall lose its nationality by volunteering and performing illegal acts. now there is a part of law that says with the intention of relen kwishing united states nationality. maybe we w need to strike that in future law. but if you go on, committing act of treason or bearing arms against the united states. that's exactly what isis and isil have said. if you go onto other laws, we can revoke a united states passport if the secretary receives certification from a state agency that the individual owes child support in excess of $25. we can revoke their passport because they don't pay child support.

you can't tell me we're going to revoke the passports of people going to fight with isis that said we're coming to the wlous. we're going to fly that al qaeda flag over the white house. who have made threats to the united states. who have beheaded two american journalists. but we can revoke the passport if they fail to pay child support? secretary should issue the past port of 19:26 that gives broad power to revoke the passport when necessary for security purposes. we need to keep them from reentering the united states when we know who they are, and we need to understand, america, the challenges of tracking individual foreign fighters and as they fly around the world through ally countries, where they end up. madame chairman, i hope this isn't the last committee hearing. we have a lot of threating

facing our country. and i hope that the president comes out strongly tomorrow night against this threat to the united states of america and the very freedoms that we enjoy. and with that i yield back. >> thank you, gentleman, very much. and i think we are all very interested to hear what the president has to say about this sure. i think it's -- i would guess certainly in my direct and most members when they were home in their districts over the last month we heard about this isis threat over and over and over. and it has certainly -- i think the nation understands and is looking for the president, he is the commander km chief, to outline to the country how serious of a threat it is, and what we need to be doing as a country to address it. and really the purpose of this hearing -- in a moment. really the purpose of this hearing was to talk about what we can do legislatively to

assist all of you, and as i mentioned, i have currently two different bills that we're looking at, and introducing and i would also encourage all of you, for instance, mr. wagner, you mentioned you're looking, you're reviewing, as you always are about what kinds of things would be helpful. please keep us in the information loop. you don't have to wait until we have a hearing to let us know what you're doing. and i know that maybe what you're looking at doing is better talked about in the skiff, but in a classified in situation, but still, keep us in the information loop. does the ranking >> i do, thank you very much. let me just hope to make sure that ms. lasley responds to my question and to just put on the a looming question of watch list, no-fly list.

i think this hearing should leave the american public that we are being vigilant and we're knowledgeable that isil wants to form as an islamic state, but we balance that with our civil liberties and facts. so, i would ask for anyone who may have documentation, i guess it's in different jurisdictions, but i want to put on the record, documentation on the status or the type of unaccompanied children. i would like to get that report from anybody who has access to that. i would like to yield 15 seconds to -- and thank the witnesses very much, too -- mr. o'rourke, very briefly. >> you don't have to yield to him. i'll recognize him. >> when i asked about a connection to known terrorist plots and the u.s./mexico border, mentioned the iran terror plot to assassinate somebody here in washington, d.c., there is, in fact, from everything that i know about

this, absolutely no connection to the border. in fact, the plotter was interdicted at jfk airport where he was arrested due to our coordination with government of mexico. the person he thought he was dealing was actually a dea agent posing as a cartel member. the border was never exploited. while i think this is a serious issue, one which we must remain vigilant, there is no connection to the border. i invite anyone, especially those who have the subject matter expertise to tell me if i am wrong. my understanding is the border is as secure as it has ever been and we do not have any terror plots tied to the border. doesn't mean there might not be some, shouldn't guard against it, but let's deal with the facts. >> i thank the gentleman for his comments. i recognize the gentleman from south carolina, if you would like to respond. >> i thank the gentleman. i think the iranian threat was to come across the southern border.

it was thwarted, so you're right and wrong. we have no idea who's in our country. for us not to recognize that we have open borders and that we have no idea who has entered our country illegally, and what their intentions were -- whether it was the intention to get a job and provide for their family or intention to maybe create a terrorist cell and do something nefarious in the future, we don't know. i met with the security force of the king ranch in your state. 30, 40 miles north of brownsville. 837,000 acres, as large as the state of rhode island. so they have their own security force. this was two years ago. he said, mr. duncan, we're watching on our property some otms. the term otm is only be applied to unaccompanied children from

nick rag ra, el salvador. he said, we're catching folks on our property that are african, that are asian and that are middle eastern. this is 50 miles north of the border. they came across the border illegally. just met with a secret service agent on the sidewalk in washington that was riding a bike. former military guy. served nine tours in afghanistan. that ought to tell you what he did in the military. he said part of his training was on the southern border watching and they saw thousands of people come across the border and they called cbp and nobody showed up. he said, part of our work was radio and communications intercept, because they were getting ready to go do the same thing in afghanistan. he said, everything we heard was not spanish. wake up, america. with a porous southern border, we have no idea who's in our country. i yield back. >> i thank, the gentleman. i thank everyone for their passion on this issue. obviously, there's a lot of

interest in this. and i certainly want to thank all of the witnesses for their testimony today. and i know some of the questions that were asked will be -- answers will be submitted in writing to the committee. we appreciate that. and with that -- >> thank you, madame chair. i want to say thank you. i know you're ending. just want to say that this is a committee of facts. no one knows and has documented that those otms were terrorist. i yield back. >> i appreciate that. >> thank you. >> we would also mention that pursuant to the committee rule 7-c the [no audio]

>> on tomorrow's washington journal am a we will continue to look at the u.s. a strategy for combating isis with james gold geier. before that, a discussion on the upcoming midterm elections with political strategist jim manley and david winston. we will take your calls and comments on facebook and twitter beginning live at 7:00 eastern here on c-span. >> with a lock on their plate lot onek, the -- with a their plate next week, the house has added to their schedule. they ended the week hearing from the president on his request for how to deal with the islamic militant group isis. the headline in the examiner --

how is congress planning to move forward? with the president's request? guest: there's going to be enough support to get through this -- get this through the house and senate. the issue is members getting their hands around the policy. arming syrian rebels and training them just a few weeks after the president had said the strategy was a fantasy. members are eager to do something to try to fight back against isis because this is a huge concern among voters. >> is there any indication that they had to a separate authorization vote to do this? >> the president asked for this through a continuing resolution. from what i'm hearing from republicans, republicans intend to support the president's request for authority to train the syrian rebels. they want a separate boat because they feel like an issue of this magnitude deserves a

separate vote. ultimately, we are going to see a separate boat. .- separate vote what if it takes members longer than this next upcoming week to get their arms around the president's strategy? congressionalthat leaders on the congressional side in the house want to let the cr hang out there until the end of september when you start to get close to that government shutdown territory. everybody expected them to take up the cr last week. on thursday and reported that house republicans are not likely to combine the cr and isis because of resistance from members. it looks like they will complete that our work on that completed

next week. what is in this continuing resolution? will's a resolution that run until december 11. you keep it clean so you don't have a bunch of opposition. the only big deal thing that is attached to that is a temporary extension of the export-import enck. it is controversial among conservatives because they wanted to get rid of it. understand, the house financial services chairman has agreed to a temporary extension through next june. although there are hurt feelings among conservatives who thought they might be able to get rid of this thing, the feeling among republicans on the hill who would like to either reform it or get rid of it is that possibly with the republican senate elected in november, that is what happens. republicans and conservatives have a lot more leverage to mess with the bank after that. republicans are divided on the export-import bank.

i think a lot of democrats are for it. with a pieceague about the agenda. here's the headline. house and senate recycle partisan agendas in pre-election session. what do those agendas look like? >> that is standard for this time of year. nobody wants to stick their neck out before an election. they want to try to score political points, and that is what this is about. you have seen a lot of that in the senate this past week with the constitutional amendment that would amend the first amendment and make it harder for a lot of big campaign contributors to influence elections that went nowhere, as expected. republicans and democrats alike are doing stuff like this. republicans, this week in the house, had another bill related to obamacare and trying to restrain the limitation or the effects of obamacare.

both sides of the aisle are playing politics. why shouldn't they? that is what this particular season is all about. it annoys many americans, but these guys want to win, and that is what they are trying to do. >> david drucker is senior correspondent for "the examiner." read all his work and more at washingtonexaminer.com. >> thank you. >> the senate begins its week monday at 2:00 p.m. eastern time . items on the agenda include a vote to move forward on a bill requiring equal pay for men and women with similar job qualifications. senators will also decide whether to advance two nominees to serve on the nuclear regulatory commission. votes scheduled to begin at 5:30 in the senate. the house returns monday at noon eastern for general speeches. at 2:00 mama members will consider a series of bills, including one that would reauthorize medical services for

children. votes in the house scheduled for after 6:30. the house rules committee will be meeting monday to consider the rules for debate on a temporary spending bill that would fund government programs and services until mid-december. we will have that for you live beginning at 5:00 p.m. eastern on c-span3. of the are just a few comments we have recently received from our viewers. >> the discussion you had with the three panelists this morning , professor butler and mr. armstrong, was extremely enlightening. i wish there were more discussions like that. pretty in-depth and very enlightening. i am an african american and i have been watching what is going on in ferguson. hope that the department of justice always does the fair

and exact thing. thanks to c-span for all their continuing coverage and discussions upon these issues concerning our country. thank you. >> i congratulate c-span. i stopped watching television. i gave up watching c-span as i realized it was nothing but a sounding board for republican representatives. i just could not take it anymore. but i'm back to watching c-span again. i know what you're up against. i understand what's going on there. keep up the good fight. god bless america. >> it would be fun if c-span would have some transparency programs. schedule it way ahead of time. just take it right out there in the open.

who sponsors these people? the people with all these bundles of bucks. if the communist chinese people are sticking money into funds that ends up sponsoring some allegedly tank, please put it out there. when people get on there, they should have jackets just like the guys do in the auto races with the cars and their uniforms. whoever sponsors them has got to have a nice little patch on their deal. and their hat, too. transparency. that's what they all want -- we all want. >> continue to let us know what you think of the programs you're watching. join to c-span conversation. like us on facebook. follow us on twitter. >> in his weekly address,

president obama discussed the administration's efforts to degrade terrorist groups such as isis. gave thee candidate republican response. he talked about government regulations and the impact on the economy. >> as commander in chief, my highest priority is the security of the american people. whode it clear that those threaten the united states will find no safe haven. our military and counterterrorism professionals, we took out osama bin laden, much of al qaeda's leadership in afghanistan and pakistan, and leaders of al qaeda affiliates in yemen and somalia. we have prevented terrorist attacks, saved american lives, and made our homeland more secure. today the terrorist threat is more diffused from al qaeda affiliates and other extremists, like isil in syria and iraq.

its leaders have repeatedly threatened the united states. if left unchecked, these terrorists could pose a growing threat beyond the middle east, including to the united states. so we are staying vigilant. we are moving ahead with our strategy to degrade and ultimately destroy this terrorist organization. to me, -- to meet a threat like this, we have to use our power wisely. we have to avoid the mistakes of the past. an american military power is unmatched, but this can't be america's fight alone. the best way to defeat a group by -- like isil is not by sending a large number of combat forces to wage a ground war in the heart of the middle east. it would only risk fueling extremism even more. what is needed now is targeted, relentless counterterrorism campaign against isil that combines american air power, contributions from allies and partners, and more support to

forces that are fighting these terrorists on the ground. that is exactly what we are doing. we are moving ahead with our campaign of airstrikes against these terrorists, and we are prepared to take action against isil in syria as well. the additional american forces i have ordered two iraq will help iraqi and kurdish forces with the training, intelligence, and equipment they need to take the fight to these terrorists on the ground. we are working with congress to expand our efforts to train and equip the syrian opposition. we will continue to strengthen our defenses at home. we will keep providing the humanitarian relief to help iraqi civilians who have been driven from their homes and who remain in extreme danger. because we are leading the right way, more nations are joining our coalition. this week arab nations agreed to strengthen their support for the new iraqi government and to do their part in the fight against isil, including aspects of the military campaign. saudi arabia will join the effort to help train and equip syrian-- moderate

forces. retired general john who during the iraq war work with sunnis in iraq as they fought to reclaim their committees from terrorists, will serve as our special envoy to help build and coordinate our growing coalition. today every american can be proud of our men and women in uniform who are serving. when our airstrikes help break the siege of the iraqi town, one kurdish fighter on the town said it would have been absolutely impossible without the american planes. one resident of that city said, thank you, america. today we are showing the world the best of american leadership. we will protect our people. we will stand with partners who defend their countries and rally other nations to meet a common threat. 13 years after our country was attacked, we continue to stand tall and proud because we are americans and we do not give in to fear. we carry on and we will never waver in defense of the country

we love. >> i'm anti-taliban. as service speaker of the house. i'm the republican candidate for arizona's first congressional district. before i begin, we have had terrible flooding in our state this week and several arizonans have lost their lives. our hearts go out to their families. i want to thank our first responders. their service inspires us always. day after day, the powers that be in washington, d.c. try to bury us in more regulations. this has got to stop. not just here, but everywhere. people are working harder, only to have washington take away more of their money and more of their freedom. how do we restore the balance of power for hard-working taxpayers? one thing we can do is we can go after over-regulation. the epa'srizona, mandates threaten to shut down the navajo generating station. the coal power plant is vital to

our state's economy. these mandates will mean higher water prices and electricity prices for all arizona residents . they also threaten the viability of this plant, putting hundreds of jobs in jeopardy. instead of perpetuating a war on coal, washington should be protecting these jobs and supporting american energy. second, we need to repeal obamacare. i have seen firsthand the rate increases, and the way this law is crushing businesses and pushing people into part-time work. it is also costing our seniors money. they don't have the doctors they have relied on for years. let's start over. let's focus on ideas of lower cost and put the patient back in charge. third, we need to get ourselves out of all this debt. it is a drag on our economy and investments, and it is not something we should be passing on to our kids. not too long ago, our state was

one of many caught in the grip of this great recession and budget crisis. working together, we can turn things around. we cut government by 25%, balance the state budget, ed pastor largest tax cut in arizona's history, saving taxpayers millions of dollars. now we are building a better future for our children and their children. you know how we got it done? by finding common ground. arizona willhat only recover if we all recover together. that is why the gridlock in washington is so disappointing. you have republicans making a good-faith effort, bringing real ideas to the table to help our economy. but senate democrats will not give them a vote. they did not even pass their own bill to help us deal with the crisis. more worried about losing the senate majority than the concerns of the american people. service is what led me to run for public office. it was installed in me as the son of a police officer.

to get america back on track, we need to put people first. be their voice, especially for parts of the country like rural arizona, that have been forgotten by washington, d.c.. thank you for listening to me. may god bless arizona and united states of america. next, senate homeland security hearing on cyber terrorism and other threats from homegrown extremists and terror groups like isis. witnesses include officials from homeland security department, the national counterterrorism center, and the fbi. this is an hour and 45 minutes. >> good morning, everyone. thank you for joining us. we look forward to your testimonies. almost every year this committee holds a hearing to review a multitude of threats to our homeland, examine how the government is working to counter those threats.

theoutinely hear from department of homeland security, the fbi, the national counterterrorism center about how we can best keep america safe. from those who would seek to carry out the deadly attacks, against a country and its people. we want to hear about individuals who would want to steal our identities. assessing these ever-changing, broad threats and making sure our government continues to harness the ability to stop them remains a top priority for this committee, particularly as we approach another 9/11 anniversary. this hearing takes on the added significance as the nation confronts a growing terrorist threat in iraq and syria. as we sit here today, our military is engaged in limited airstrikes in iraq in an effort to dislodge and repel that

threat. obama is expected to share with us the steps he is recommending we take in iraq and syria to reverse the expansion of the islamic state of iraq and syria, which will enable the people who live in those countries to reclaim their lives. much of the world has been exposed to a steady stream of deeply disturbing images from those regions in recent weeks. executions, human rights atrocities, repression of women, and the seemingly endless procession of masked militants waving black flag of jihad in celebration of their brutality. effectively addressing the will require multifaceted strategy. that strategy will need a military component and the development of a robust international coalition to execute it. among the goals of that strategy is to ensure that the islamic of israel and syria, which

--known as isis much like weise -- like we saw al qaeda do before 9/11. that's not all we are going to do. to examining the more conventional terrorist threats, we will closely examine another major threat that affects our homeland. that is daily cyberattacks. every day, nation states and their affiliates, criminals, terrorists, and hackers launch cyber attacks against our government agencies, our businesses, important parts of our daily life such as utilities and financial networks.

some of these actors want to steal our information to sell it on the black market or gain a competitive edge. others are trying to make a political point. some would like to use a cyber attack to cause widescale economic damage or even physical harm. we need to stay a step ahead of them. congress clearly has a role to play here. actually, several roles. one of them is an oversight role. it is one that we take very seriously. another is a legislative role that involves developing legislation to help enable america to anticipate and repel cyberattacks we face on an almost daily, 20 47 basis. -- 24/7 basis.

one bill would significantly enhance the capabilities of the department of homeland security's cyber workforce. another would better protect federal agencies from cyber attack. the senderld codify that the department uses to monitor and respond to the attacks to strengthen its ability to do so. i'm grateful to the doctor and his staff. yesterday in "the hill" newspaper, secretary jeh johnson recognize the efforts of this committee and he talked about the critical need to pass legislation. i could not agree more. his remark, the anniversary of 9/11 tomorrow, let's keep in mind the key lessons we learned since that fateful day 13 years ago. that is the threat is always evolving. not that long ago, crooks used to rob a bank to steal our money. now they click a button on a distant computer and accomplish

the same goal. now they send a spear phishing e-mail. it used to be a distant threat. now an increasing number of them are homegrown. they may be using european or even american passports. as the threat becomes more sophisticated, more elusive, and more diffuse, we need to remain ever vigilant to ensure our government is nimble enough to keep up with tomorrow's threats as they confront us. we have come a long way since 911. the world in which we live remains a dangerous place. there is always more work to do. when it comes to securing our homeland and anticipating the next threat, we owe it to the american people to strive for perfection. in order to form a more perfect

, it wasn't to form a perfect union but to form a more perfect union. the consequences of failure are too high and the costs are too severe. i'm pleased to have a panel of witnesses here who work every day to tackle the terrorists and cyber threats we face. we are grateful to each of you. partner in ally of this. doctor? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i concur with what you said. i want to thank each of our witnesses today for testifying. one, for what you do. two, for your vigilance. three, for the criticism you take. it is not informed criticism. the department of homeland

has lots of problems. i'm so thankful jeh johnson is there. general, and thankful you're there. suzanne, i'm thankful for you there. we have a long way to go. were i would disagree with senator carper is i don't think we are any safer today. the threat to our country is just as great as it was pre-9/11 , based on what is happening in the world. of absolute lack of control our border, especially our southern border, and the inability and the corruption on both sides in terms of law enforcement on the border. we have a long ways to go, but i know we have dedicated leadership now and all the areas that are concentrating on the same goal. >> i think it's a shame that the leader will not put a cyber security bill on the board.

let the senate debated so we can actually start to protect the cyber aspect of our government. that requires all of us to work together in the cyber realm. vulnerable today. we have seen in homeland security and the private sector significant breaches. they will continue. most of them are on nationstate actors. should not fall back from talking about what they are doing, and why they are trying to steal our intellect and damage our economy. these are real issues. this is an important hearing for the american people to hear in as much detail as possible what is going on, and where we need to improve. i would thank you all for your viable, the fbi and nctc

contributions. having the privilege to study on intel and homeland security, i get to see as well as anybody what everybody is doing. everybody is working in the right direction except the u.s. senate. my hope would be that we would start helping you rather than hurt you. i yield back. >> i would like to associate myself with the remarks of my colleague. some version of the information sharing came out of the intel committee. is thate is a -- hope we will have a chance to go through all four of them this year. god bless us. on behalf of all the members of our committee, thank you for joining us today. our first witness is retired brigadier general francis taylor.

how long you been in a job now general, -- now, general? >> one month. >> one month. [indiscernible] for years in the state as counterterrorism coordinator as the assistant secretary for diplomatic security and eight years as vice president at general electric. second witness is the undersecretary for national protection and programs director at the department of homeland security. as undersecretary, one of his responsibilities is coordinating responsibilities is cord knitting policy. -- coordinating policy.

this includes extensive experience working with critical infrastructure. welcome. witness is nick rasmussen, deputy director of the national counterterrorism center. servedumes and has also on the national security council, where he was responsible for providing staff support for the president, national security advisor, and counterterrorism policy and strategy. prior to this he served a variety of key positions for the department of state. nick, welcome. our final witness is robert anderson, executive assistant director of criminal cyber response and services branch of the federal bureau of investigation. in this position, mr. anderson overseas fbi criminal and cyber investigations, critical

incident response, and victim assistance. during the 20 years he has worked at the fbi, mr. anderson served in the hostage rescue team, counterintelligence division, and the intelligence division as well. what did you do before you are part of the fbi? >> i was a state trooper for nine years. >> were you any good? >> help so. >> -- hope so. >> where you ever trooper of the year? >> in 1989. >> did you ever escort the former governor -- >> he told me over a time or two. [indiscernible] [laughter] no damage was done. great to see you. thanks for what you did for us back in delaware. thank you all for your service. these testimonies will be made part of the record. all right, taylor, would you

like to lead us off? >> think you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss threats to the homeland of the current threat environment. i am mindful that tomorrow is the 11th of september and i vividly remember where i was on that day 13 years ago, sitting at the state department as the coordinator for counterterrorism. it has changed since 2001? are we any safer now? those questions have been repeated countless times, and rightly so. i come before the committee today to outline the lessons we have learned since 9/11 and how we are now postured to address evolving threats in ways we were not on september the 10th, 2001. the key lesson we have learned from 9/11 is the need to develop an agile homeland security enterprise that constantly

collaborates and shares information and intelligence to identify threats and risks and to adjust operations as necessary to address the range of challenges that the nation faces. within the homeland security enterprise, whether they are first responders at the local level or decision-makers in capital cities across america or here in our nation's capital required productive intelligence and analytical products to help them make informed decisions. our missionone of at dhs has always been and remains protecting the nation against terrorist attacks. secretary johnson just yesterday reiterated that counterterrorism is our most important mission at dhs. andre vigilant in detecting preventing terrorist threats that may seek to penetrate the homeland from land, sea, or air. i will first address the current

terrorist environment, and then discuss threats to our efforts as they relate to each of the secretary's four priorities. mr. chairman, i am mindful of the time limit. i will submit other remarks for the record and summarize just a couple of things. core aln terrorism, qaeda and the arabian peninsula and their affiliates remain a major concern for the department of homeland security. maintain the intent and capability to conduct attacks against u.s. citizens and facilities and have demonstrated the ability to adjust their tactics, techniques and procedures for targeting the west in innovative ways. the islamic state of iraq and the labonte is a terrorist group evante is a- l terrorist group operating.

dhs is unaware of any specific, credible threats to the u.s. homeland from isil. however, we recognize that isil constitutes an active and serious threat within the region and could attempt attacks on u.s. targets overseas with little or no warning. sophisticated propaganda displaying high-quality media content on multiple platforms including social media to enhance its appeal. the conflicts of and the propaganda in particular play a role in inspiring u.s. citizens to travel to syria. we are aware that a number of persons, more than 100, have either made their way or try to make their way to syria over the past few years to join the

international foreign fighters. aqap hasnclude with attempted to attack the homeland. attemptiner fought an against a u.s. bound cargo plane on october 2010 and an airline in may of 2012 demonstrated their efforts to adapt to aviation security procedures and underscore why aviation security is a priority area outlined by secretary johnson. these recento threats, generally from overseas over the past few months, dhs has taken steps to enhance aviation security at overseas airports and airports with direct flights to the united states. other nations have followed suit with similar enhancements. mr. chairman, i will conclude my remarks. if you would, allow me to submit the rest of them for the record. >> without objection. thank you, general.

please proceed. ranking you, chairman, member coburn, distinguished members of the committee. thank you for the opportunity to be here today. i'm particularly pleased to be here today with my colleague, undersecretary taylor, and with our partners from the federal bureau of investigation and the --n to -- national carriage national counterterrorism center. i'm going to amplify a bit with regard to the threats to cyber security. to discuss the actions that we are taking with our critical infrastructure partners to understand and address these cybers, both physical and , through information sharing and capability building. first, however, i also want to note as we approach this 13th anniversary of the attacks of 9/11, three efforts we have

underway to heighten public vigilance and public awareness. this month, september, is national preparedness month. october is national cyber security awareness month, in which we focus on enhancing the real -- resilience of this nation against cyber threats. november is critical infrastructure security and resilience month. all three of these are key mission areas for the department , and all require daily collaboration with our stakeholders in the private sector and government at all levels. growing cyber threats are an increasing risk to critical infrastructure. to our economy, and to our national security. dhs uses cyber security information to reduce risks, to detect and block cyber attacks civilian agencies, to

help critical infrastructure entities improve their own protection, and also to use the information that we develop collaboratively to protect their customers. trustedain a environment for the private sector partners to collaborate on cyber security threats and trends. this trust is based in large part on our commitments to privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties. across all information sharing programs, with a particular emphasis on safeguarding personally identifiable information. so far this year, dhs's 24 by seven cyber operations center, the national cyber security and communications integration center, has processed over 600,000 cyber incidents, issued more than 10,000 actionable alerts, detected more than 55,000 fold or, and dispatched over 78 incident response teams

for on-site technical assistance. recenttell you about one success. in the last few weeks, the u.s. secret service shared information on some malware with our security center. analysists of that formed a basis for an actionable alert that was distributed wisely to our critical infrastructure owners and operators and lead u.s. businesses to check their systems for this malware and identify and stop ongoing cyber intrusions, thereby protecting their customers' data. cyber security threats and the nation's dependence on cyber infrastructure has grown legalntially, the framework, particularly regarding the articulation at the department's authority, has not kept pace. as the chairman and ranking member have noted, legislative action is vital.

both the house and senate have made real progress on cyber security legislation. i would like to personally thank this committee for all of this hard work that has insured progress on this front on a bipartisan basis. but we are not over the finish line yet. as secretary johnson wrote today, there are areas of legislation with strong consensus. codifying the cyber security responsibilities at the department of homeland security, making it easier for dhs and the private sector to work together to mitigate cyber related folder abilities, and enhance the department possibility to recruit and retain that essential cyber security workforce. vital tohorities are ensuring that the department has the tools it needs to carry out its mission on behalf of the nation. well deliberations continue on other elements of cyber security legislation, we should not wait to pass bipartisan and broadly

supportive bills. , and thecome so far threat is so great. i urge congress to pass what it can now, even as we continue to work hard on remaining provisions. let me close by emphasizing that dhs's mission to strengthen the security of critical infrastructure requires us to focus on physical risks to that infrastructure as well as cyber risks. because the majority of the nation's critical infrastructure is owned and operated by the private sector, dhs works with those partners to understand the range of threats and hazards, share information, and promote training and other capability building. of and the department energy, along with other interagency partners, provided classified and unclassified threat briefings. we do this on a regular basis to energy, ceos, and industry executives.

in the wake of the terrorist attack on the shopping mall in nairobi, kenya, dhs and the fbi engaged more than 400 major malls across the united states to facilitate tabletop exercises based on a similar attack involving active shooters and the use of improvised explosive devices. working collaboratively with our partners in the private sector, we are advancing our core mission of strengthening the security and resilience of our nation's critical infrastructure against cyber and physical threats. chairman carper, ranking member coburn, thank you for this opportunity to testify today, and i look forward to taking your questions. >> think you very much, suzanne. mr. rasmussen, welcome aboard. make sure your microphone is on. you, chairman carper, ranking number coburn and members of the committee for the opportunity to testify here

today. nctc director matt olson and i often don't testify in open hearings, and so today is an important opportunity to share our understanding of what we see as an evolving dynamic terrorist threat and to share that understanding with the committee and the american public. summer, the 9/11 commissioners challenged national security leaders to communicate more regularly about the threat. morning, i would like to frame this evolving threat in broad terms that are generally applicable across the broad groups of terrorist networks. the threat from terrorist groups we see today is geographically diffused from a diverse array of actors and is proving over time to be resilient and adaptive to the counterterrorism pressure we are putting on it. the global jihadist movement continues to increasingly decentralized itself in terms of geography and command and control. geographically speaking, it's no longer generally confined to the

afghanistan-pakistan-asia region. and now contains the indian subcontinent across the entire middle east throughout the levant and northern and western africa as well. our greatest concern are the terrorist groups that have taken a foothold in areas where where lax is lax, and security has allowed groups to coalesce, train and plot. in terms of command and control, we also see a trend of decentralization, with the al qaeda in the arabian penicillin now serving as a general deputy -- peninsula now serving as a general deputy. no longer holding an expectation the regional affiliates will discuss or clear their operational plans with al qaeda senior leadership prior to execution. this evolution is a result of an adaptive enemy. our counterterrorism operations continue to degrade al qaeda's core ability to lead the global

terrorist movement and plan sophisticated attacks from its place in the fatah. as a result of leaks and , terrorists now understand the scope and scale of western collection capabilities and are changing the way they communicate. they are adopting encryption technologies. all of which frustrate our counterterrorism efforts. if wenot connect the dots can't collect the dots that matter the most. our collection is challenged in this new environment. focus on three specific areas, the threat from and, the threat from aqap, the threat from homegrown extremists. starting with isil. is insidest threat iraq right now, which combined with thierry, constitutes isil's power center. at present to

develop and execute significant, large-scale, sophisticated attacks diminishes. this is not to say it does not pose a threat outside the region. the arrest in france of an individual and subsequent discovery of explosive devices in his possession, as well as the killing of four individuals at a jewish museum in belgium, provide clear indication of isil's ambition to operate outside the middle east. reportedlyduals fought alongside isil elements in the middle east. isil's ability to carry out complex, large-scale attacks in the west is currently limited rate left unchecked, that capability is likely to grow and present a direct threat to the homeland. with over 2000 westerners now believed to be fighting in syria and iraq, the threat to europe is perhaps even more immediate. the united states is not immune, as the chairman and ranking

member noted her at over 100 persons have traveled or attempted to travel or communicated intent to travel to the region, including some who have looked to engage with isil. most of these individuals are known or believed to have western travel documents that would ease their reentry into the united states or other countries, which is why identifying them as a top priority. that is why it is so important that the international community regional isil's ambitions now, degrade their capabilities, and work together to defeat and destroy isil. provides aned, isil increasing threat to all governments it considers apostate. let me quickly turn to al qaeda and the arabian peninsula. we continue to assess that aqap remains the al qaeda affiliated most likely to attempt transnational attacks against the united states. the group lost efforts to conceal explosive devices

demonstrate its continued pursuit of high-profile attacks against the west, it's increasing knowledge of western security procedures and efforts to adapt to those features. the group continues [indiscernible] trackinge time we are inside the arabian peninsula plots hatched by al qaeda. its effortsntinues to radicalize and mobilize individuals outside yemen through the use of inspire magazine, their english-language publication. the most recent issue, its 12th issue, was released back in march and continues to encourage lone wolf attacks in the west, citing specific targets in the united states, the u.k., and france. let me say a few quick words about homegrown, violent extremists. the boundless online virtual environment we see today

combined with terrorists increasingly significant use of social media makes it increasingly difficult for us to protect our youth from messaging designed to radicalize and motivate action. we are working very closely with our partners at dhs, fbi, and the department of justice to inform and equip families, communities, local governments and local institutions, all of whom provide the best defense and have the greatest ability to counter the narrative of violent extremism in their communities. despite our efforts, hge's remain the good is that to the homeland. we expect the level of activity to remain about the same as we have seen in recent years over the course of the next year. we would expect to see a handful of uncoordinated and mostly unsophisticated lots emanating from a pool of hge's that amounts to a few hundred individuals. last yours boston bombing underscored the threat.

bombings boston underscored the threat. these loan actors -- lone actors are the most difficult to detect or disrupt. during your april 30 hearing, you noted that identifying and deterring terrorist plots was extremely challenging. everyone would agree with with that assessment. by putting a face and a name to that threat whenever possible. with protecting . nctc's terrorist identities data mart environment is our database of known and suspected international terrorists and helps ensure that all relevant information collected by the government about identified individuals, including

individuals we have identified as syrian foreign fighters, all that information is shared with appropriate law enforcement and screening agencies. we are relentless in the efforts to ensure that the data is as accurate as possible, entered accurately, in our records are as comprehensive as they can be. privacy andul of civil liberties concerns, particularly with respect to u.s. persons. in the case of u.s. persons, and a nomination goes through at least four layers of review to ensure that the underlying derogatory information is significant and meets established legal standards. our management at nctc is unique in this created a valuable forum for identifying and sharing information with our partners in the community. it is better integrated our collective efforts. -- has better integrated our collective efforts. this work greatly increases the

chances we will be able to disrupt potential terrorist activity by individuals as they seek to return from syria. face an evolving, decentralized threat from a diffuse set of actors who are adopting constantly to our countermeasures. that is why nctc and our partners must continue to adapt to this threat, operating within the bounds of existing resources. we appreciate the community's continued strong efforts, and i encourage the senators to visit nctc to see the breadth of the work we are doing with our counterterrorism partners. we had the honor of hosting you and several other members of staff to talk in great detail about some of those threats. it was very gratifying to see your interest in the work we are doing along with fbi and dhs. thank you again for this opportunity. not only enjoyed being with you and had a chance to personally meet the folks there, but thank you for your service. it was very informative for me

and quite encouraging. thanks for that. mr. anderson, welcome. please proceed. you, mr. chairman, wrecking dr. coburn and members of the committee. thanks for the opportunity to talk to you about the cyber terrorism threats to our nation and how we are working together with our partners to prevent and combat them. in my role as executive assistant director of the fbi, i manage multiple divisions within the fbi. the two i will concentrate on the most are the criminal and cyber program. as the committee knows, the number of sophisticated cyber attacks against our nation's network have increased or medically over the recent years. we expect them to continue to climb and grow. i could break down the threats to our country in four categories. spies, transnational organized criminals, terrorists, and hacktivist groups. we are losing a lot of data, money, ideas, and innovation to

a wide range of cyber adversaries. director has recognized this and the severity of the threat and made cyber one of the number one top priorities in the fbi. bi's continuing to strengthen our cyber capabilities in the same way we enhanced our intelligence for national security capabilities in the wake of 9/11. uses intelligence to prevent and respond to all types of threats. we constantly seek to understand the threats we face in each of our offices, both here and abroad. it is out there, what we see, and what we might be missing. we know that to effectively combat the cyber threats, we must continue to expand our partnerships in government and the private sector. komi at dhsrector secretary johnston will soon sign a new cyber unified message for state and local law

enforcement. this message makes clear that federal agencies are working callher to ensure that a to one is a call to all. when law enforcement partners report information on cyberattacks. for law enforcement partners we launched the cyber shield alliance, an online one-stop shop that provides cyber training as well as the ability to report cyber incidents to the fbi. earlier this month we deployed a malware investigator. our intelligence and law enforcement partners, and allows them to submit malware directly to the fbi and we share with our partners for triage and analysis of what is going on in cyber. we are also significantly enhancing our collaboration with the private sector. in the past, industry has provided us information about attacks. we have investigated them, but we really did not share information back. now we are. as part of our enhanced

outreach, we have provided nearly 40 classified sector specific threat briefings to private companies over the past year alone. over the past several months, the fbi and department of partnerslong with many have announced a series of indictments in cyber criminals. just to name a few, encore performance, and the indictment of the chinese hackers. a remote access computer software that can steal and infect hundreds of thousands of computers around the world. we are calling these indictments the new normal. we expect them to continue on a regular basis. while the cyber threat is one of the guy's highest priorities, combating terrorism continues to be the number one priority in the fbi.

due to the prolonged nature and high visibility of the searing conflict, we are concerned that u.s. persons with an interest in committing jihad will be drawn to that region of the world. issues inress these the closed session that follows the session and we look forward to doing that. chairman, to, mr. counter the threats we face we are engaging in an unprecedented level of collaboration within the united states government and with our private sectors around the world and with the international law enforcement organizations that we each at this table talk to each and every day. we look forward to continuing to expand these partnerships and work with the committee to defeat our cyber and terrorist adversaries. thank you again very much for the opportunity to be there -- be here today. >> great to see you. thanks for joining us.

would be for mr. rasmussen or general taylor. recurring themes in my life is fine at what works and do more of that. more ofhat works and do that. iraq, sunni awakening, and the predecessor to isis [indiscernible] and then, not so much. due to the enlightened leadership of general petraeus --working with the sunni tribal iraqrs -- al qaeda in stopped, and was greatly diminished, pushed act -- back. what can we gain from that lesson? is there anything there that can inform what we do today? >> one of the things we have

tried to do is think about the problem and the threat posed by to think about potential vulnerabilities the group has, and ways in which the progress they have made can be addressed. you point to some of the lessons we may be able to learn from previous efforts against al qaeda in iraq. we learned that the group for a much struggled to gain legitimacy across the broader population of iraq when the population in iraq in baghdad saw a responsive government. transition in baghdad you are seeing now that you just alluded to is an important step in potentially giving the sunni population in iraq a signal that they do not have to turn or ally with isil in order to have their issues addressed to feel that they are represented and their interests are protected inside iraq.

that is an important lesson learned. it is one where we have seen progress in the last few weeks. i don't know that we can say yet how quickly that will happen, but it is something that was a necessary precondition to any strategy against isil. >> thanks very much. general taylor and maybe for you, nick -- one or both of you mentioned the ability for isis to monitor an effective attack against our homeland is limited. not time for us to sit back and assume it will not come. ways we can do, and should be doing to prepare for that reality? mr. taylor will leadoff. as i mentioned, we assessed

the threat from isil primarily to be in the region. nonetheless, the number of europeans and americans that have gone to fight in syria, that threat can manifest itself back in europe or the u.s.. we have begun with the aviation security changes that we have made and still i to make it more difficult for people to try to get explosives onto aircraft, to bring those aircraft down the could be traveling to the u.s.. we have increased our intelligence cooperation with our partners across the world in attempting to identify people who have gone to serve and/or to because syria intelligence is the one thing that helps us identify these individuals before they are able to act and use intelligent

systems to learn who they are makes us much more effective in interdicting them. on cve,he focus getting our communities aware of the risks -- >> [indiscernible] >> sorry, sir. homegrown, violent extremists. as nick mentioned, probably the most immediate threat comes from homegrown violent extremists who listen to the propaganda, reads he or she ares going to answer the call and take up arms in the u.s. community awareness, resilience around these issues with our law enforcement partners in the field, so they understand what those elements are to look for as they encounter folks in communities is a big step towards helping

>> the only thing i'd add are two things. one related to offense and one related to defense. i think if you're going to get ahead of isil we have to over time shrink the safe haven inside iraq. that's something i mow the president and the secretary of state have spoken to in talking to our foreign partners. absent that, to ability to bring additional western potential operatives into iraq or syria, into that safe haven and potentially train, equip, and deploy them back out to europe and the united states will remain a threat. the more defensive pasta piece of business and i think we're making good progress on is aggressive information sharing with all foreign partners who face a similar problem. this is an issue we've been engaged with with