chaffetz: i wholeheartedly agree. what you see at homeland security issued by secretary johnson is different than what the individual agencies within his department have in front of them. there should be a uniform standard across the board and there is not. i think that's one of the fixes we need to work with the agency. ms. norton: or a higher standard for a secret service agent. mr. chaffetz: amen. let's recognize the gentleman from north carolina, mr. walker, for five minutes. mr. walker: let me pick up what we were discussing when it comes to off duty and on duty and it comes to government vehicles. did you determine whether any any other atentees drove government-owned vehicles after consuming the alcohol? mr. roth: we did not. we interviewed some of the individuals who were at the sort of farewell party in which the alcohol was served. some of them had alcohol and then for example, went back to the office to continue to work. we didn't really press that. my point with regard to that is that the d.h.s. policy was

chairman chaffetz: why? you told the ranking member, you told the world, he said at a saying he was being transferred. but he still works for the secret service, doesn't he? mr. clancy: he gets a secret service paycheck. chairman chaffetz: how long is he detailed for? mr. clancy: it has not been defined. chairman chaffetz: it's been since february. mr. clancy: yes, sir. rep. cummings: is he actually working for the secret service in this detail type of position? mr. clancy: no sir, i have had no contact with mr. smith. rep. cummings: we have details up here too. they have a limited time there with us. can you tell is with the limitations are with wherever he is? mr. clancy: i will have to get back to you. chairman chaffetz: you have done a very good job, mr. clancy, of building trust and confidence. it is flushed down the toilet when i hear these things. you said to me personally multiple times, white house did, homeland security did, that you were implementing fundamental changes. mr. clancy: yes, sir. chai

chaffetz: amen. let's recognize the gentleman from north carolina for a few moments. >> let me pick up what we were discussing when it comes to off duty and on duty and it comes to government vehicles. did you determine whether any other entities drove government vehicles after consuming the alcohol? mr. roth: we did not. we interviewed some of the individuals at the farewell party. some of them had alcohol and then went back to the office to continue to work. my point with regard to that is that the dhs policy, really unknown to the secret service. no one within the secret service understood it. we did not see any attempts by the department to promote this policy. the policy was in the manual for maintenance of government cars. it is not a place in which one would nationally -- naturally look to see a policy like that. it is difficult for us to blame somebody for violating a policy that they did not know about and no one made an effort to tell them about. rep. walker: i understand there are certain

chaffetz: amen. let's recognize the gentleman from north carolina for a few moments. >> let me pick up what we were discussing when it comes to off duty and on duty and it comes to government vehicles. did you determine whether any other entities drove government vehicles after consuming the alcohol? >> mr. roth: we did not. we interviewed some of the individuals at the farewell party. some of them had alcohol and then went back to the office to continue to work. my point with regard to that is that the dhs policy, really unknown to the secret service. no one within the secret service understood it. we did not see any attempts by the department to promote this policy. the policy was in the manual for maintenance of government cars. it is not a place in which one would nationally -- naturally look to see a policy like that. it is difficult for us to blame somebody for violating a policy that they did not know about and no one made an effort to tell them about. >> rep. walker: i understand there are ce

chaffetz: so why didn't they do it? >> mr. roth: i think it was a failure on those individuals' parts. >> rep. chaffetz: anybody else who should have reported? >> mr. roth: those are the four individuals who i believe had primary responsibility. there were others, including the 18 special agents supervisor who was there that evening probably should have reported it up. there are the uniform division individuals themselves who could have reported as well. >> rep. chaffetz: my concern is that they did not preserve all the video that was germane to both the leaving of the package, the fleeing of the person, and the incident is. with that, i yield back. >> rep. cummings: picking up exactly where the chairman left off, i noticed that in the beginning of your report, you mentioned that you were deferring specific conclusions about systemic issues facing the secret service until you have completed your investigation into at least five or six other incidents. is that correct? >> mr. roth: that is correct? >> rep. cummings: what form i

during the two-hour hearing the chairman of the panel republican jason chaffetz said the gyrocopter should have been blown out of the air. >>> committee on oversight and government reform will come to order. without objection the chair is who authorized to declare a recess at any time. as we get going i need to first express my thoughts and prayers to my league elijah cummings and what the people of baltimore are going through, our hearts and prayers and thoughts are with you and your neighbors and your friends and your community the police officers and we're roud of you and the way you're conducting this and getting through it and you are a true leader. i would hope the people of baltimore, maryland, would listen to your message and -- but know that our thoughts and prayers are with you. >> mr. chairman, i wanted to take this moment to not only thank you but thank the members of our committee and who have expressed their concern about baltimore. and you, mr. chairman, have a kind of unique perspective because you had a chance to visit baltimore with me before you even became chairman. so

chaffetz: i recognize ms. watson coleman from new jersey. mrs. watson coleman: i want to ask you a question, the secret division is a component of drment h.s.? mr. roth: correct. mrs. watson coleman: do you think it makes better sense that there are department-wide policies regarding such important things? -- as opposed to a component-wide policies? mr. roth: it's not an issue that i looked at or thought about. there is certainly a validity to have uniformity across d.h.s. which there clearly is not right now. mrs. watson coleman: we hear that in the other committees i'm on. according to the memorandum of understanding between the secret service and your office, certain misconducts must be referred to you. mr. roth: correct. mrs. watson coleman: did it constitute something of that level? mr. roth: yes, it did. mrs. watson coleman: in youres

chaffetz. mr. chaffetz: thank you, madam speaker. i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. chaffetz: i yield the remainder of my time to mrs. black for controlling the time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. mrs. black: i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman reserves. the gentlewoman from the district of columbia is recognized. ms. norton: thank you, madam speaker. unfortunately, our thought this is evening have to be with ranking member of the oversight and government reform committee , elijah cummings, who could not be here due to ongoing events in his baltimore district. i ask unanimous consent that the statement of ranking member elijah cummings, strongly opposing h.j.res. 43 be entered into the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, general leave will be granted on the measure. ms. norton: i yield myself such time as

chaffetz: he could be put on non-paid leave. do think this is an aggravated situation? rep. chaffetz: unfortunately you are getting into areas of employment law that are beyond by competence. i think that is a fair situation. as mr. russell pointed out even if they were not drunk and they interrupted a potential scene, that is acceptable. if they lied to somebody who works for the secret service that is unacceptable. if you look at what happened in the e-mail chain, there is monday of. this is a pivotable moment for the secret service. this is when we find out if they have the guts to do what needs to be done. in my opinion, these people should be fired. they should have their security clearances revoked. those that did not report it, i have a list of people who have at least according to your report highlighted policy that could lead to their removal. mark connolly. perhaps and probably michael. at the very least, they need to be taken to the woodshed and should lose their security clearance. i was the president, i would never want to see them again. i don't want to see the

grover's. >> good morning chairman chaffetz and other staff. screening systems must work properly to deliver the security protections that they promised. over several years gao is found weaknesses in tsa's oversight of the screening systems raising questions of whether tsa is falling short in its ability to ensure aviation security. tsa has taken some steps to improve oversight of these systems that additional actions are needed. today i will focus on four areas. first a secure flight program which matches passenger information against federal government watch lists to ensure that those who should not fly or should receive enhanced screening are identified. second a i.t. systems which are the full-body scanners that are used to screen passengers for items at the checkpoint. there have been inclusions screening process which tsa uses to provide expedited screening to passengers who were not previously identified as low risk and for criminal history checks done to airport -- to set airport workers. regarding secure flight we found september 2014

. >> [indistinct chatter] chairman chaffetz: the hearing will come to order. without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time. i need to first express my thoughts and prayers to my colleague elijah cummings and what the people of baltimore are going through. our hearts, prayers and thoughts are with you and your neighbors and your friends, community, the

congressman jason chaffetz chairs the committee. rep. chaffetz: committee on oversight and government reform will come to order without objection of the chair as authorized to declare a recess at anytime. we are meeting to talk about the united states secret service and the accountability for the march 14 2015 incident. on march 14, 2 senior secret service special agents -- one has the title of deputy special agent in charge, a presidential protective detail, mr. conley. the other had the title of assistant to the special agent in charge, mr. george ogilvie. the allegation was that they drove through a criminal investigation of a potential bomb at the white house be following the incident, there were allegations that the agents were intoxicated after being at a bar found -- downtown. nor were the agents reprimanded in any way. part of the concern was what happened and what did they do about it. how did they report it up the chain of command. instead, everyone involved was told to go home and pretend nothing happens. ranking member cummin

grover, you're recognized for five minutes. >> good morning chairman chaffetz chaffetz, ranking member cummings and other members. thank you for assessing the oversight of tsa's screening effectiveness. screening systems must work properly to deliver the security protections that they promise. over several years, gao found weaknesses in tsa's oversight of its screenings systems, raising questions about whether tsa is falling short in its ability to ensure aifviation security. tsa has taken some steps to improve oversight of these systems. but additional actions are needed. today, i will focus on four areas. first, the secure flight program, which matches passenger information against federal government watch lists to ensure that those who should not fly or should receive enhanced screening are identifyied. second, the full body scanners used to screen passengers for prohibited items at the checkpoint. third, the management inclusion screening process which tsa uses to provide expedited screening to passengers not previously identified as low risk. fourth, criminal history checks done t

jason chaffetz went to mexico city to see it for himself. >> i'm not going to step on it. >> reporterthe cost has rized from $577 million to $763 million. add on the cost of the land and the unique design and it's over $939 million, one of the most expensive u.s. embassies in the world. >> the chase didn't changed the way they built these. they went from a standard embassy design which we're coming in under budget and they were coming in swifter and they're now to the point where they've got a in new process and it's much more expensive and a lot slower. >> reporter: we were told that costs have grown based on a staffing plan that provided office space for approximately 890 desks but that staffing needs have grown due to increased bilateral activities with mexico on trade, drugs, and migration. she acknowledged that the plan to award a construction contract in 2016 will not hold. she flew to mexico to meet with officials last week to discuss the embassy project but state department under secretary patrick kennedy told us last year that the agency is simply tailoring its embassies to l

>> [indistinct chatter] chairman chaffetz: the hearing will come to order. without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time. i need to first express my thoughts and prayers to my colleague elijah cummings and what the people of baltimore are going through. our hearts, prayers and thoughts are with you and your neighbors and your friends, community, the police officers, and we're proud of you in the way you're conducting this and getting through it. and you're a true leader, as i would hope the people of baltimore maryland would listen to your message but know our thoughts and prayers are with you. >> mr. chairman, i want to take this moment to not only thank you but thank the members of our committee and who have expressed their concern about baltimore. and you, as determined, -- mr. chairman, have a kind of unique perspective because you had a chance to visit baltimore with me before you even became chairman. so you had a chance to see what the issues are in our city. so i'm looking forward to working with you and others to try to

in our intelligence gathering because there's a congressional fight over the nsa program and what chaffetz and josh earnest were saying is we know that they have been communicating by phone and e-mail with people overseas whether that be in the united states or not, that is something that we have to be really mindful of. it happened at a really bad time. >> the timing is conspicuous and it does kind of highlight the fact that those people are very strong about the nsa and overreach by the government counterbalance on the other side with the idea of liberty and freedom and privacy rights. eric you're on the other side of the issue. >> i don't see what one has to do with the other. of course every taliban phone call who calls someone who ends up calling the taliban, the nsa issue is far bigger picture, far more wide sweeping than people who have any contact. >> how so? >> the nsa issues that you can't hope to find the needle in the haystack. >> we can rehash this if you want. i'm fine with it. are we saying that the taliban -- we're not going to track the phone calls? >> your in favor of pro

in our intelligence gathering because there's a congressional fight over the nsa program and what chaffetz earnest were saying is we know that they have been communicating by phone and e-mail with people overseas whether that be in the united states or not, that is something that we have to be really mindful of. it happened at a really bad time. >> the timing is conspicuous and it does kind of highlight the fact that those people are very strong about the nsa and overreach by the government counterbalance on the other side with the idea of liberty and freedom and privacy rights. eric you're on the other side of the issue. >> i don't see what one has to do with the other. of course every taliban phone call who calls someone who ends up calling the taliban, the nsa issue is far bigger picture, far more wide sweeping than people who have any contact. >> how so? >> the nsa issues that you can't hope to find the needle in the haystack. >> we can rehash this if you want. i'm fine with it. are we saying that the taliban -- we're not going to track the phone calls? >> your in favor of profiling, b

. >> thank you, chairman chaffetz, ranking member cummings, members of the committee. think inviting me here today. asiaweek made public our report concerned the incident at the white house complex on the evening of march 4. our objective was to conduct a factual inquiry and to assess the reasonableness of the actions of the individuals involved. we conducted this investigation for march 12 until april 30. this inquiry centered on activities that two senior secret service supervisors. marc connolly is a deputy special agent in charge of the presidential protective division position yourself for the last two years. condoleezza these include all aspects of white house security. george ogilvie is the assistant special agent in charge of the washington field office and as a supervisor and the protection squad. ps3 does work in the presidential protection division. the report that we wrote is a summary of the investigation and it is attached to my written testimony. the materials of our investigation that we produced our reports of interviews physical evidence and the docum

cummings: chairman chaffetz and i discussed this. he was trying to avoid a subpoena. and what we are going to try to work out -- i mentioned it a little bit earlier in my opening is get -- i agree. we really do need caraway here. and so i -- carraway here. and so i asked the chairman to get a date certain to get him in so we can get him in here to ask the questions because you're absolutely right. mr. mica: i would agree with mr. lynch. you asked me in the beginning. mr. lynch: sure. mr. mica: we talked about it with the chairman. i would be supportive of a subpoena if necessary. mr. lynch: if it's needed. i just want to voice my support for that as well. mr. mica: thank you. mr. lynch: and the fact that the gentleman is not here sort of feeds into the whole narrative here that we have a bureaucracy that's not really responding to the problem that's out there. but i do want to thank the witnesses who are here. that should not diminish your attendance and i appreciate your valuable testimony. it's already been helpful. as i said, we got some major gaps in security. the

i want to thank senator chaffetz for calling this hearing and i believe mr. before the hearing began -- ought to be here and as i said before the hearing began we need to fix a date for him to come in so we can hear from him. i know the chairman has focused on these issues extensively and i want to thank him for all his hard work in this area and i also look forward to the testimony today and with that i yield back i yield back. tonight i thank the gentleman. i will hold the record open for five legislative days for new members who would like to submit a written statement and now we will recognize a panel of witnesses. mr. melvin carraway active administrator for the department of transportation security at the department of homeland security was scheduled to testify but has not arrived, not shown up and has elected to not testify today which was not an optional activity.

roth: thank you, chairman j katz -- chaffetz, ranking member cummings, and all the others. we have made public our report concerning the incident at the white house complex on the evening of march 4. our objective was to conduct a factual inquiry and assess the reasonableness of the actions of those involved. we conducted the investigation from march 12 until april 30. this inquiry was centered this inquiry was centered around two senior secret service services, mark connolly. deputy special agent in charge of the presidential protective division, a position he's held for the last two years. connolly's duties include all aspects of white house security. george ogilvie is the assistant to the officer in charge. at the washington field office. he's previously worked in the presidential protection division. the report that we wrote is a summary of the investigation. it is attached to my written testimony. the materials of our investigation that we produced are reports of interviews, the physical evidence, and the documents we found, have been turned over to the secret service

. >>> stand by i want to bring in republican congressman manman chaffetz.you returned from your own trip to the region where you met the crown prince there. what's your reaction to what we heard from the president? >> we want the president to be engaged and having dialogue but the problem is when the president talks when what he's going to do in syria, in libya, what he's going to do in yemen, these are all places where we had u.s. ambassadors and we've had to flee our embassy. when you meet with the senior leadership there in saudi arabia as i met with the new crown prince the foreign minister who used to be the ambassador to the united states they're very definitive in that they do not believe the united states has their back. they are mystified as to why we are negotiating with iran when they are there in the arabian cease with agrees proximity doing things to destabilize the region. if you look at the houthis and the problems we are having there, it clearly has a line back to iran. why negotiate with somebody who is on a daily basis destabilizing the re

chaffetz of utah for today and the balance of the week and mr. donovan of new york for today and the balance of the week. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the requests are granted. under the speaker's announced policy oo-- of january 6, 2015 the gentleman from the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time, mr. schweikert is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. mr. schweikert: thank you, mr. speaker. i'm going to do a budget presentation a couple of moments but i wanted to actually come up here and with my good friend from south carolina, mr. mulvaney, talk about an article that popped up in "che economist" last week, and there's the issue. this place has fairly short memories but about two years ago, there were a handful of us coming here and talking about sort of an esoteric issue, something called what is it, wheelchair lifts. for those of us who represent tourist areas, like i am, i had a resort owner call me and in a gruff voice say, david do you know what the justice department is doing to me? i h

i thank chairman chaffetz his committee and the entire new york delegation for their strong support and look forward to its passage in the full house soon. mr. speaker as we approach memorial day weekend, we pause to remember sergeant dietz and all those men and women who lost their lives in defense of our free toms. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida seek recognition? the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. mrs. wilson: mr. speaker, -- >> mr. speaker, today i along with many of my colleagues wear red to pressure nigerian president elect into taking aggressive action against boko haram. mrs. wilson: next week as nigeria welcomes a new president, we here in congress want to put a spotlight on the immense threat boko haram poses to nigh jeer yao's democracy and freedom. mr. speaker, we want president elect to though we will hold him accountable just as we held his predecessor accountable. we urge this new administration to bring with it a swift and lasting change i