>> as an agency with limited resources, we would not be able to do the critical work of intercepting high-risk products before they reach consumers without the assistance in support of d.h.s. and c.b.p. although cpse's primary focus is targeting products that violate the requirements. many of the investigators are former c.p.b. officers and specialists and they have been trained to identify i.p.r. issues.

as a result the staff is often able to identify possible i.p.r. violations in the course of their normal duties. when cpse identifies an issue, we refer the shipment to c.b.p. because they have the authority to efficiently seize the products. on a case buy case basis, we'll also test that a product for compliance with cpse mandatory standards or to determine whether they are otherwise hazardous. cpse and c.b.p. have clap brown-waited on many shipments where a potential violation and safety violation were found. examples include holiday lights, cell phone wall chargers, lithium byon batteries. children's backpacks and numerous toys. although cpse's import surveillance activities have prioritized large ports of entry, like many agencies we're facing challenges and regulating

products imported through direct to consumer sales over e-commerce platforms of the the volume of these shipments in the limited amount of data required when the shipment arrives in the united states makes targeting difficult. with cpse's small size and limited resources, we currently do not have investigators stationed at locations where these small packages arrive other than j.f.k. airport. however they will continue to evaluate its staffing model to identify efishen ways to target and example potentially unsafe products shipped directly to e-commerce consumers. thank you for the opportunity to share my remarks. i am happy to answer any questions you may have. >> thank you so much. mr. brady, we conclude with you. mr. brady: good morning, chairman hatch, ranking member widen, distinguished members of the committee. my name is terence brady, as the newly appointed president of the underwriters laboratories, aim honored to appear before you today to share u.l.'s experience

gatting the rise of counterfeit goods in e-commerce and offer our perspectives on the challenges face facing the right holders in this evolving global market. u.l. is a global independent safety science company that has championed safety for nearly 125 years. our 14,000 professionals around the globe are guided by our mission, to promote safe, living and working environments for people everywhere. we use research, standards, and conformity assessments to meet ever evolving safety challenges. we partner with manufacturers, retailers, trade associations, and regulatory authorities internationally to provide solutions to address the risks of increasing the -- increasingly complex global supply chains. u.l. takes counterfeiting very seriously and devote significant resources to fight t we do this because we don't make or sell foods. our product is our brand, our mark. which are built on a foundation

of trust. when u.s. consumers see our u.l. mark, they know that an independent, third party has determined that the manufacture has demonstrated compliance with safety performance or other standards. unfortunately, counterfeiters also recognize that value and misappropriate our name and marks to try to legitimatize the goods they sell. too often consumers are unwilling victims of counterfeiting. they may suspect that the cheap handbag or watch they are buying is a knockoff, but many are entirely unaware that important other product categories are frequently counter fitted -- counterfeited. as the chairman noted in 2016 we partnered with apple to evaluate the dangers of counterfeit i-phone chargers like this small device. in a controlled test program, as the chairman stated, our engineers tested 400 counterfeit adapters bearing our u.l. marks and the results were literally shocking. the overall failure rate

exceeded 99%. and all but three adapters prevented fire and shock risks. were so poorly made that they pose a direct risk of electrocution. in 2017, we conducted over 1,200 investigations around were so t resulting in the seizure of 1.5 million individual products. let me give you a couple highlights. in terms of e-commerce the focus of this hearing, we selected intelligence on more than 5,000 listings across multiple platforms. we were able to identify more than 130 unique sellers with over 500 listings of u.l. counterfeit products. we worked listings with the onl platforms to remove the listings and take appropriate actions against the sellers. as a result, law enforcement seized an estimated 660,000 worth of counterfeit smart phones, hard drives, flashlights, head lamps, and whoever boards. maced on information u.l.

provided, the d.h.s. seized approximately 3,200 counterfeit u.l. safety labels and power adapters valued in excess of $200,000. we partnered with the los angeles county sheriff's department to seize 2,500 counterfeit whoever boards, an a2,300 loose labels the counterfeiters could stick on other goods. these were shipped in the united states marked as wheelborrows. finally u.l. cooperated with authorities on many other investigations resulting in seizure of lithom ion batteries, fire sprinklers in buildings in india, household fans in panama, and fake life jackets in peru, including for children. my written testimony contains much more statistics and numbers than time permits here, but they underscore the issue of counterfeiting extends in many product categories and countries. in our 22-year history in this

fight, we deployed a comprehensive, multidimensional strategy based on three essential tenets e. education, enforcement, and partnerships, public-private partnerships. we work with our clients, law enforcement, custom officials, and others to stem the proliferation of counter fits. the issues we see in the traditional marketplaces are amplified in this world of e-commerce. as was noted that online shipping has become an online direct consumer sales made it much harder for brands, law enforcements, and customs officials to fight because the counterfeit penalties for a million dollars of counterfeit goods are far less than a million dollars worth of drugs. as shippers go direct to consumers rather than risking entirely -- entire cargo container, this becomes very, very difficult. this is a challenge that legitimate platforms and i.p. rights holders have to work on together. thank you for the opportunity to testify today u.l. welcomes the

opportunity to work with you in the fight against counter fits. i welcome any questions the committee may v thank you. chairman hatch: thanks. your testimony is riveting and it's got to concern every american citizen. we appreciate you taking the time to be here with us today and appreciate the work you are doing. and hope that you step it up even more. ms. gianopoulos, you discussed two recommendations to c.b.p., can you exchain what factors make it difficult for c.p.b., i.c.e., and private sector actors to address the problems -- problem of counterfeits, then reiterate why you feel the changes will help address those concerns. >> thank you, mr. chairman. there are a number of things that are changing the e-commerce environment today. you could probably go down into three v's. the volume of goods each of us

has talked about where the number of shipments is just tremendously exploded over the past several years. it's very difficult to focus in and find counterfeit foods on an individual by individual shipment basis. there's also the value of those goods. the value has tremendously increased. i believe talked a little bit about the seizure rates that has taken place. that's one factor you can look at to determine how well seizures or how well enforcement is taking place. and then finally a variety. the variety of goods that are being counterfeited these days has just tremendously exploded. everything from yeti tumblers, to duck decoys, to kitchen sinks. it's not something that a consumer or c.b.p. or anyone for that matter can target as easily as they could in the past. our recommendations focus in on two of the things that the agencies can do to try to improve their processes.

first of all, in working with the private sector, they allowed c.b.p. to share more information, there are some restrictions on that sharing. when we spoke with folks from the private sector, they expressed some concerns about their efforts to try to shut down these counterfeiters and the amount of information that they needed in order to target their efforts as well. they thought that could be improved. then secondly in looking at the evaluation that could be done for c.b.p. and i.c.e.'s activities, certainly in a legitimated budget environment, we all want -- federal agencies, we all want to put our money in the right places where it can do the most good. we encourage c.b.p. to take additional steps to evaluate the activities it has under way in order to address some of these counterfeiting activities so they can put their money in the best places. airman hatch: ms. smith,

c.b.p. is on the frontlines of this quickly evolving problem or set of problems. in your written responses you agreed with g.a.o.'s recommendations to better evaluate i.p.r. enforcement efforts and explore opportunities for better information sharing with the private sector. what steps do you plan to take to implement these recommendations? mids smith: -- ms. smith: senator, we think both of the recommendations were very productive for us to focus our efforts. the scope of the challenges, as the other witness vs. laid out, is tremendous -- witnesses have laid out, is tremendous. one of the things we have done to address g.a.o.'s recommendations is to charge our e-commerce working group to work with us, to work through which information would be valuable to share and who it should be shared with. as you pointed out, they provide us good authority to share

properly promulgated regulations. and our intent is to address the issue of information sharing through additional regulatory framework. the other thing properly that w done to address some of the challenges the g.a.o. identified today evelop and release an e-commerce strategy to help us focus our efforts. we look forward to working with you and our colleagues here at the table to understand exactly where we can mange the greatest impact. chairman hatch: thank you so much. mr. brady, u.l. has a vested interest in billions of individual products bought and sold each year. as such you have an important and valuable perspective as i see it in all of this. what steps do you as the company take to protect your intellectual property rights? what can u.s. agencies do better to assist you in your efforts? mr. brady: thank you, mr. chairman. as i noted earlier and most of

the people in the room know, our only product is trust. it's the trust that consumers place when they see our mark. we fight very hard to protect that trust because it's consistent with our 125-year-old mission of helping to create safe living and working environments for people everywhere. our team is small but mighty. therefore we depend heavily on private-public partnerships to help us continue this fight against counter fits. hat we need is real time and transparent intelligence because we rely on civil and criminal enforcement procedures beyond seizure and destruction, we pursue civil and criminal cases against the counterfeiters. if we bring stale data to f.b.i. or l.a. county sheriff, then they can't do anything with it. we need ream time intelligence sharing. we're happy and always share transparently with law enforcement, with government agencies what we find. we would like to reciprocate in that transparency and keep the

data fresh. intelligence goes stale very quickly and these criminals quickly change their websites, their email addresses, their physical locations, their methods of shipment. they move fast and we together with shofment need to move faster. - with government -- with government need to move faster. senator wyden: thank you very much, mr. chairman. i want to thank the panel. let me start with you, ms. smith. as i indicated to me what's going on is the rip-off artist, the counterfeiters, are trying to undercut the american brand. so this is really high stakes stuff. i want to ask you the two questions that our staff asked your staff. the first one is a yes or no answer. so that we're clear on this. does the agency need more authority to crack down on the counterfeiters, the rip-off artists? yes or no. do you need more authority because the fed asked it and

you-all wouldn't give us a direct answer. i want to give you a chance, yes or no. do you need more authority? ms. smith: yes. senator wyden: thank you. that is good to finally have hat on the record. when will you be able to give us the details with respect to exactly what it is you need? as you know, the staff asked you do you need more authority, couldn't get an answer then. you now have given us an answer, to your credit. and then they asked, can you tell us when we will get the details of what you need in this area and how you would like to proceed so we can up our game to be tougher on these counterfeiters. when will we get that? ms. smith: senator, i think we should start the conversation now.

but what i would recommend is that we gather the information about what data is available and who it should come from and who it should be provided to from our private sector participants group.e-commerce working it's important to have the private sector respect -- reflected. as you know coac important intermediary, provided for, and i would like to suggest that they work for several months so that we can come back to you as they are working and walkthrough what the recommendations are from the private sector. senator wyden: you said we need time to have this conversation. we have been having this conversation for what feels like longer running battle than the trojan war. it has gone on a long, long time. we know who the people r the

platform. the right holders. i would like a date. and i think you moved again in an encouraging way. can we say within 60 days, you said you want to have this discuss the relevant private sector parties. all for it. can we have a commitment today that you will lay out for us what it is you're prepared to do in terms of the authority and you'll talk with the private parties within 60 days from today? ms. smith: sir, i will do my best to meet that 60-day benchmark. senator wyden: let me turn now to the question of priorities. get your thoughts on this. i understand that the agency is moving to hire 5,000 border next agents here in the five years, 2,000 officers.

i have supported billions of dollars in terms of security at the borders. and i'm prepared to do what it is going to take to ensure that we protect the american people. as you know, illegal crossings are now at a historic low. how are we going to do it if we're putting twice as many people on this question of yet more agents at the border as we're in terms of getting the people we need to up our game in terms of the counterfeiters. how are we going to do it when that balance seems so out of whack? ms. smith: senator, i think as you have worked with us over many years to look at the very diverse portfolio of c.b.p.'s mission, to make sure that we have the right people on the

border, whether they are wearing green uniforms, blue uniforms, or tan uniforms, you have also been very supportive of us in terms of making sure we have the expertise on the trade side. as you know, the president's budget in fiscal year 2018 asks for 140 new positions to implement tiftia, i think that the combination of hiring those with trade expertise as well as those with border security responsibilities is a big challenge for c.b.p. senator wyden: you're being very diplomatic. i'm going to let you off the hook. i think you get my sense. i think the priorities are way out of whack when you have twice as many people in this area where the evidence shows that illegal activity is going down as opposed to what we're dealing with here. you're going to have a real -- you described it as a challenge. i think the priorities are out of whack and we need to get them

straightened out. one last question for i believe this will be for mr. brady. mr. brady, what you think you basically said, i'm going to direct the staff to look into t. you basically said that the rip-off artist, given the penalties, may in effect just say, hey, this is just the cost of doing business. let's rip people off. the penalties aren't that meaningful compared to the amount of business that we can rack up by doing all this counterfeiting and just moving online quickly and ripping people off. that's pretty much what you're saying, right? mr. brady: that's correct. senator wyden: would you recommend to the chairman and i as part of this effort we beef up the penalties given what you have said that it may in effect be treated, part of the cost of doing business? mr. brady: we would recommend that's something very fertile and important area to look into.

we see evidence from, for example, the l.a. prosecutors that counterfeiters get out very quickly and go right back to business the same day. they are actually trying civil suits against these people because they don't know how to manage the civil suit, burr their jailhouse lawyers they can get themselves out on the slap on the wrist today. senator wyden: could you funnish in write to the chairman and i your thoughts of what might be a set of penalties that would ensure that this would not just in effect cost of does business? can you furnish that sn. . senator hatch: thank you. senator isakson. ms. gianopoulos, i was in the real estate business before coming to congress and did a lot of shopping centers and watched the increase of sales over the internet at christmastime. i think 20% to 22% of sales at christmas are made by the

internet and not going to the store and shopping and buying which is exponentially grown retail sales over the internet. is a growing in comparable rate other products other times of the year? ms. gianopoulos: you know, senator, we didn't take a look at the growth of ecommerce per se. we were focused on the challenges that were associated with ecommerce as it relates to counterfeits. as i said in my statement, it's very difficult when you're going online and just looking at a photo of an item to determine whether or not it's real. you may go into a store and be able to pick it up and see if it's a different weight or color or something like that. what some counterfeiters do, they take a photo of an actual item and put it online even though they're giving you something that's counterfeit and may not resemble the photo you see online. senator isakson: and give you a knockoff? ms. gianopoulos: they import

the labels separately and put the labels on in the united states. senator isakson: both ways are a problem for them. ms. gianopoulos: absolutely. senator isakson: i have a habit of reading the resumes. you may be the person we need to answer the question. chairman hatch asked and senator wyden did too. you received the 2017 distinguished presidential rank award, is that correct? ms. gianopoulos: yes. senator isakson: less than 1% of the executives receive it in the federal government. and protect the american consumers. ms. gianopoulos: yes. senator isakson: you should go through the blueprint. ms. smith: we are working on it, sir. you did say you need more authority. what authorities specifically do you need more of to do your job? ms. smith: sir, i believe the authority request will touch on several things. the data we can share and who

we can share it with. i think as mr. brady noted, the penalties and the other civil enforcement actions we can take in this area are also an important thing for us to consider and talk about. the specifics i'd like to consult with both our other government agency partners and with the private sector to make sure that we're hitting the mark with it but we will do that fairly quickly. senator isakson: are part of the problems antitrust rules and regulations? just out of curiosity. ms. smith: that has not been raised to us as an issue. senator isakson: it's a big enough issue we need to have enforcement, not allow people to abuse it but allow people to enforce it? ms. smith: we will do it. senator isakson: we appreciate you all being here today and the good work you do. senator hatch: thank you. the senator from louisiana. >> sms smith, when a vendor is flagged as a possible seller of

counterfeit goods, does that trigger an examination of their entire business? for example, with other possible offenses like trade-based money laundering? ms. smith: senator, we do -- once we have identified a particular business entity as a risk we do try to take a broad-based approach to looking at all of their business activity. we have some challenges because oftentimes they will disappear and we need to find them through either corporate officers or other targeting information. we are also looking to make sure that when we see a pattern of conduct from one business entity that we look for that some pattern of conduct with similar types of businesses. >> now, that leads to my next question. data analytics are being used needle.to find that

it sounds like you would start off, is it from china or is it from hong kong? senator cassidy: is that being done? ms. smith: yes, senator, it is but i think we can do more. there are -- there are amazing developments in the technology space around analytics. c.b.p. have used a number of tools over the years to determine risk but i think the next frontier for us is applying some of these innovative technologies to find that needle in a haystack. senator cassidy: our office has been trying to figure out how well our agencies work together on trade-based money laundering. it's always point out estimated cartels move $110 billion a year from the united states to mexico but we can confiscate about $7 billion. now, senator wyden spoke about the cost of doing business. we're getting 5% of $110 billion. what would you say is the state of cooperation between the

different agencies tasked with tracking trade-based money laundering and the other issues related to that in this panel? ms. smith: senator, i think it's good. the cooperation -- senator cassidy: i heard from others off the record that it's bad, that it's siloed and it is not the cooperation between agencies required for it to be effective and i am not accusing you but if we're moving $110 billion a year and only getting $7 billion it begs the question. ms. smith: i think this area is a very -- it's a very complex area. trade-based money laundering is not -- is a fairly sophisticated version of trade violation. i think it behooves us to take a whole of government approach, both from a criminal perspective and a civil perspective and applying the information that we can get

from our intelligence agencies to both recognize and share that information to ensure we're going after in real time. senator cassidy: i guess what i'm probing for is if what i'm hearing off the record it's not occurring now, how do we make that occur? ms. smith: i think by your message today, your question today to identify that as a high-risk area that the congress is interested in and then i think what we do is pull together those key agencies, whether it be i.c.e., whether it be the department of treasury to focus on trade-based money laundering with the mandate to share information and take aggressive action. senator cassidy: does anybody on the panel have anything to offer on this particular topic?

ok. i think i saw mr. brady nodding. even though he's from u.l. i thought he would have anything to offer on it. mr. brady: senator, not at this time. senator cassidy: let's see where my other interests lie in. using your current data analytics, are you able to identify small shipments through the mail through the united states postal service as well as larger shipments or shipments going through fedex or d.h.l., u.p.s., etc.? ms. smith: yes, sir, we are. we get very advanced electronic data in the express courier data. senator cassidy: what about usps? ms. smith: we are getting better. -- advanced electronic data senator cassidy: it can be from 1% to 2% which will be 100% improvement but the percentage

is lousy. of usps, what percent illicit our counterfeit goods do you feel you're detecting when it comes to usps? ms. smith: we are getting advanced electronic data on approximately 50% of small packages in the postal environment now. which is significantly up. it represents data from 30 countries. which is significantly up from hat we got five years ago. senator cassidy: it sounds like hong kong and china matters. what percentage are you getting from hong kong and china? ms. smith: we are getting all the advanced electronic data from china. and hong kong -- if you'll give me just a moment. yes. hong kong as well. senator cassidy: are we seizing illicit counterfeit goods from those areas? ms. smith: yes, we are seizing counterfeit goods. we are also focused on things

like fentanyl. senator cassidy: what percent of the -- thank you, mr. chair. what percent of the counterfeit illegal, illicit goods coming through the usps do you feel you're compensating, 5%, 10%, 100%? ms. smith: sir, i don't have an answer to that i think that's what g.a.o. has asked us to look at. we will look at that going forward and try to get that estimate. senator cassidy: ok. thank you. i yield back. senator hatch: the senator from new jersey. >> thank you, senator, for holding today's hearing. the united states is the world's leader in trust and recognized brands, the ones most in demand, the ones that command the best prices and therefore the must vulnerable to knockoffs. that's why protecting our reputation and the investments we have put into it is so important. four years ago families and businesses in new jersey began contacting me about the increasing prevalence of counterfeit goods available for purchase online. particularly fake prom and wedding dresses.

it's a significant industry in new jersey but also significant to the people who wind up at their wedding with something they totally didn't expect. senator menendez: this recent g.a.o. confirms what i have been hearing from my constituents. now the enforcement act congress passed in 2016 contained report language that i authored with the chairman to raise the enforcement priorities for fake products, specifically those shipped as gifts to avoid customs, duties and detection. ms. smith, i know there has been a line of questioning on this. i'm still unclear as to how the agency has implemented that language? does a package marked as a gift that originates from a business address in a country like china, which is one of the worst offenders, which is documented by c.b.p. and other forces as being a major source of counterfeit trigger any red flags for our agents? has the screening process change since the passage of the

trade enforcement and facilitation act? ms. smith: senator, i think what we have done is focus our targeting efforts in this area with specific targeting rules around gifts, as you note, which are identified as small packages or other areas like household goods that can be a generic description but may contain counterfeit goods as we've seen in the past. i think the other important area in this instance is to ensure that the representatives of the fashion industry and the folks that your constituents are looking to buy safe, legitimate goods from is to work with customs and border protection to record their marks, to ensure we know exactly what a legitimate product looks like and we are working with that company to provide training to our officers and product information. we will be happy to work with

you and your staff. senator menendez: are you using an algorithm? what are you using to actually flag something that is quote-unquote a gift and is the preferred vehicle by which these counterfeit goods come to the united states? ms. smith: so we do have targeting algorithms. we call them rules which knit together a variety of risk factors, both the description of the goods as gifts along with the high risk countries they may come from -- china, hong kong -- and then any additional information we have about specific business entities -- manufacturers, shippers, carriers that may have brought previously counterfeit goods into the country will also be reflected in that targeting algorithm. -- ms. enendez: mr.

gene, what did you find? ms. gianopoulos: well, our work, while we did purchase 27 items and found 20 of them counterfeit we did speak to c.b.p. and i.c.e. as far as their enforcement efforts. we also put out a report last year where we looked at international mail facilities and looked at some of the differences between the information that c.b.p. receives from those usps facilities as opposed to express mail and found the amount of information they received from usps is significantly less because they are not required to put as much information that would be sent ahead of time to c.b.p. so c.b.p. is limited in its ability to respond as opposed to, say, the express mail carriers where they are required to submit more information ahead of time. senator menendez: is there a suggestion by the g.a.o. how to meet that challenge? ms. gianopoulos: one of the things recommended in this report was for c.b.p. and i.c.e. to work more closely with the private sector to see what information would be most helpful for the private sector

and c.b.p. to share in order to address some of these counterfeiting shipments. because some of the shipments are coming from within the united states. in fact, all 47 of the items we purchased were shipped from u.s. addresses. so they wouldn't have been able to use that chinese or hong kong address as a flag because that's not where it was sent from to the consumer. senator menendez: one last question -- senator hatch: i am going to go vote so he'll be the last questioner. i just want to thank everybody for being here. it's been a very informative hearing and we will see what we can do to back you up and help you. ms. gianopoulos: thank you. senator menendez: thank you, mr. chairman. one last question. on search engines, it seems to me that some online search engines and other websites aid and abet these counterfeiters by failing to police the use of copyrighted product imagery on online ads. they may bear some responsibility. it seems the companies that sell online advertising have

some compass toyota prescreen advertisements and reflect those that are found in a more legal product. i heard some search engines will remove counterfeit websites from their organic search results but continue to display those same companies' advertisements. in other words, some sellers of online ads may be continuing to receive advertising fees from companies they know to be breaking the law. so a search engines like google and social networks and other sellers of online ads are unable to filter these types of illegal advertisements i hope forward we look forward to working with the committee to -- i wrote google a letter last year asking them to address this issue and explain their policies on cracking down on advertisers of counterfeit goods but i still haven't had a response. so the question for any of our witnesses. in what way can we look to cooperate with search engines and those who sell online advertising to make it more

difficult for counterfeiters to reach their targeted audiences? are there ways to share additional information to crack down on counterfeit ads? anybody have any insight into that? >> senator. from yalls perspective and particularly given the shift to individual shifments from overseas directly to a u.s. home, we think the most important thing is to prevent that shipment in the first place, prevent the purchase in the first place. therefore, we think it's critical to work with the platforms and the search engines to shut down these people offering fake goods so the purchase never happens in the beginning. mr. brady: once that little envelopes leaves and heads to constituent in your state it's hard for the authorities to intercept it. i think stopping the purchase in the first place by shutting down these bad websites is very important. senator menendez: look forward. ms. smith. ms. smith: i just wanted to support what mr. brady said and also reiterate we think that

the platforms, the marketplaces have to be part of the solution. they are sort of a new business entity for us that's popped up over the last couple of years and i think we as a government community need to consider what their role, what their information is and what the expectation for them should be. senator menendez: we look forward to following up on those. ms. gianopoulos: i'll address it from the other end of the spectrum as far as the consumers. if a consumer receives a product that's counterfeit, the websites that we spoke with were anxious for those consumers to report it back to the website. if they don't know the consumers are purchasing counterfeit items on their websites it's difficult for them to do something about it. as part of our recommendations in the appendix for consumers suggestions we received, we suggest consumers report those counterfeit items promptly. senator menendez: i appreciate them doing it and they take it out of the organic search but they keep the advertisements

on. you're drawing revenue from the counterfeit sites. if we take out the organic search you should take out the advertisements as well. on behalf of the chairman we thank you all for being here and answering questions today. colleagues who have written questions are asked to submit them by the close of business next friday, march 16. and with that this hearing is adjourned. thank you very much. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> this morning house speaker kevin mccarthy announced the republican conference leadership briefing that the house will vote next week on the stop violence act. it's a bill that provides grants to train students, teachers, school officials and local law enforcement to prevent school violence. this, of course, in the wake of the span of school shootings. the house will be back at noon eastern for legislative business. we'll have live coverage here on c-span. until then speakers from this morning's aipac conference. >> throughout the week we heard from officials from both parties on the importance of a strong u.s.-israel relationship. today we're going to have two back-to-back interviews with members of the senate foreign relations committee. on