testify regarding the department of homeland security ongoing efforts to assist state and local election officials and those who own and operate systems with improving the resilience of elections across america. for over a decade i worked with state and local officials to advance the use of technology to better serve american voters. the last two years of service the commissioner at the nitrates election assistance commission working to modernize standards used to test voting systems and provide best practices to help support election officials and since 2016 respond to threats against our nation's election systems. noise serve as senior advisor for dhs focused on the work that apartment is doing to support the thousand election officials across this country and this decade of war i can tell you the absolute best part is working on the professionals seated at the table that administer elections. in the face of real sophisticated threats these officials have responded by working with us, state and local resources in the private sector and academia to mitigate risk and improve the resilience of the

state and local election officials and federal government have worked very hard to create a productive relationship since the critical infrastructure designation for election systems in january 2017. as you may know nasa and its members raised many questions and expressed serious concerns about the potential federal overreach into the administration of the elections. clearly a state and local government responsibility. while we remain vigilant about possible federal overreach we will work together to ensure that the critical infrastructure designation functions in an effective way. that's we have chosen to actively focus on improving communications between the states and the federal government and to achieve our shared goal of securing elections. in particular we have utilized the election infrastructure subsector governing council with secretary lawson mentions in her testimony to open communication channels and guide future collaboratives election security endeavors. as i transition to the nass president in less than a month i will take the place of the executive committee. it is my

however, and at the risk of being overly broad, i must underscore today local election officials are the one that control, secure and run elections. we locals, 108 in illinois, and over 8,000 nationally, have on the front lines of this new battlefield. we deploy a variety of network connected digital services. such as voter registration systems. informational websites. unofficial election results displace. election day command centers. not to mention the less connected vote counting systems. each of these is a target for our adversaries. most of us are simply county officers and facing down shadowry adversaries. we need advice, support and resources of the first for modern defendable technology. tan routine hand counted aud itsd, which can give additional confidence that digital results are accurate. and, second, and more critically today, we have a pressing need for top notch security personnel with the skills to navigate the current cyber mine field. in cook county we have studied this, undertaken significant efforts securing our infrastructure and helping raise awareness broadly th

to testify to assist state and local official, those who own and operate election systems with the resilience of elections across america. for over a -- for the last three years. i served as commissioner and chairm chairman, for my best practices to support officials and respond to the threat of the nation's election systems. now i serve as senior adviser at dhs. in this decade of work, i can tell you the absolute best part is working with the dedicated professionals maryland administer -- to mitigate rigat- it's to ensure officials across this country. to protect, detect and recover from those risks. at no cost to military technical assistance -- and ransom and directive malware. dhs stands ready to help and offer tailored support. through these efforts, we've made -- to improve improve the resilience of the practice. we've created counsels who work to share information, promote best practices and strategies to reduce risks to the nation's election systems. we've created the election infrastructure, information sharing and analysis center with members from every state and hundreds of local j

working not only with state and local election officials, but also the private sector to help generate best practices and solutions. the department has continued to work to strengthen partnerships with state and local election officials. nevertheless, elections are controlled by states. that means these partnerships are completely voluntary. that puts the onus upon states to seek help from and cooperate with our federal government. if they don't, of course, it is impossible for the department to step in. other responses from government include president trump's decision to levy sanctions against russian organizations and individuals that participated in election interference. year, treasurys department targeted five entities and 19 individuals. including the internet research agency and the individuals associated with it. in april, the administration imposed additional sanctions on seven russian oligarchs and top government officials for interference in the 2016 election and other aggressions. among the individuals sanction ed was an individual who had close ties to former trump campai

local officials. those who own and operate election systems with improving the resilience of elections across america. for over a decade i've worked with state and local officials to advance the use of technology to better serve american voters. for the last three years i served as a commissioner and chairman of the united states election commission. working to modernize the standards used to test voting systems and provide best practices to help support election officials and since 2016 responded to the threat against our nation's election systems. i now serve as a senior advisor at dhs. focused on the word the department is doing to support the thousand of election officials across the country. in this decade of work i can tell you the best part is working with a dedicated professionals that administer elections. in the face of real and sophisticated threat, these officials have responded by working with us, state and local resources, the private sector and academia to mitigate risks and improve resilience. election security is a national security issue. and a top priority for the department. our mi

such attack occurred i believe in 2016, there was an fbi notice that went out to certain local elected officials, not state but local, about a ransomware attack. we witnessed the difference that threat intel can make. going back a few years before, as you may remember, in the city of ferguson it was under siege. we had civil unrest that occurred for a period of months. the state of missouri was in the mix. the threat intel that we were able to gain through our critical partners from the i, dhs and others, it was what kept us going and breathing. and operational. so, the threat intel was vital to the key of our success and the lifeblood of how we do edr, it is a key component of our security operations center and without it, i am not sure where we would be today. >> thank you. and most of us focus on the larger agencies but we have a small business administration. there are smaller agencies and this is a good use case because we have a lot of small mom-and- pop companies that are dealing with similar types of resource constraints. let me turn to you and talk about how you view threat intelligence

there was an fbi notice that went out to certain local elected officials, not state officials but localfficials, about a particular ransomware attack. and we witnessed firsthand the difference that threat intel can make that is actionable, timely, and targeted. going back a few years before, as you all may remember, the city of ferguson was under siege. we had civil unrest that occurred for a period of months, and the state of missouri was right in the mix. and the threat intel that we were able to gain through our critical partners from the fbi, dhs, and others, it was -- it's what kept us going. it's what kept us breathing and operational. so the threat intel has been vital to the key of our success. it's the lifeblood oflife blood it's a key component of our security operation center, and without it i'm not sure where we'd be today. >> thanks very much. and now most of us focused on some of the larger federal agencies, but we have the small business administration, smaller agencies, and this is a good case because we have a lot of small mom and pop companies out there dealing with si

the day, was that we had been covering the emergency manager law in michigan where your locally elected officialsan be pushed aside, taken out of all decision making process and the government, the governor specifically can say we're not going to recognize the results of your local elections anymore, we're going to do it our way because we know what's best. that's part of the flint water crisis story because it was an emergency manager who was in charge when the switch was made. how's democracy? that's a big part of how you tell the story about what went wrong. >> absolutely. kudos to you, rachel, you were the first to elevate that issue of democracy. you were on the story before it was a water crisis story. so thank you we would be nowhere without you. in 2011, flint lost democracy overnight. we had a state appointed emergency manager in charge and their only job was to save money. no matter what the cost. and it was too expensive, i guess, for us to get great lakes treated water. instead we got it from the flint river and it wasn't treated properly. all of this happened because of y usurped dem

in west virginia 55 counties, 55 county clerks, 55 local election officials and 1768 precincts and 232 municipalities in a little state that has 1.2 million registered voters. it's a real challenge to make sure the right ballot gets to the right place. >> with my position i travel quite a bit and i go out into the field and meet a lot of election administrators and there is, david, a lot of satisfaction about that system. i also travel to a military base installations, been to really big ones like camp pendelton and the naval air station on the florida panhandle and talk to their voting action officers that deal with members of their military and kind of their experiences with voting. they think that, again, some of those improvements and those developments have been helpful. >> excellent. so now is my time where i challenged you to come up with a deep technical analysis and explanation of blockchain voting in three minutes or less, but actually here's the question, you've implemented a block chain voting pilot you mentioned for military members and their spouses, for military members

association, common sense kids action, the california federation of teachers and hundreds of local elected officials, education, community based organizations, in the fields of health, housing, faith, seniors, social justice, environmentalis, business, among others. therefore be it resolved that the board of education of the san francisco unified school district strongly supports the 2020 schools and local communities funding act and urges individuals, organizations and communities to also support this important measure to restory sources to california's public education and local services. >> thank you. so we had public comment already. any comments from the board? commissioner sanchez? >> commissioner sanchez: thank you. thank you, commissioners merase and cooke for authoring this resolution -- haney, sorry. my bad, yeah. i confuse them a lot. sadly. thank you both. [inaudible] >> that's what i was going to say next, if i could be a coauthor -- okay, and if maybe we could all put our names -- add our names to the resolu,

basis to go out and offer advice, services, counsel, help to any candidate, any state election official, any local election official who wants to build the resilience of the system. most important thing we need to do is to have an audit trail. no matter what happens. whether you go back to a paper audit trail or an encrypted electronic audit trail. we must ensure that when we have an election in 2020, we actually know with confidence, who when i appeared we need to communicative vladimir putin that we will come after the things that he and his oligarchs care about most. if he crosses that line again. >> thank you very much. [applause] now we will take on the middle east. at harvard, we have courses where they do this over 3 and a half months. we will do this and will ask megan and david who both know a lot after decades of experience in the middle east. here is the question i posed to both of you. i think meghan will take the lead and david will speak second.we've just come out of a very bloody war. in iraq. we are back in the fight against the i which is ending. we are in syria, iran is a regiona

for our local and elected officials who standby and support this man you will always be put on notice they are not being met. >> still ahead here can european leaders reach a new deal on migration? they were set to gather in brussels. well have deday taitails ahead. stay with us. more information straight ahead. at&t gives you more for your thing. your getting serious thing. that moving out of the friend zone, moving in together and getting two of everything thing. those fur babies preparing you for real babies thing. that one for me, one for you, us together for the rest of everything. buy one iphone 8 and get one iphone 8 on us. more for your thing. that's our thing. visit att dot com. introducing e*trade personalized investments professionally managed portfolios customized to help meet your financial goals. you'll know what you're invested in and how it's performing. so you can spend more time floating about on your inflatable swan. [ding] benjamin franklin capturedkey lightening in a bottle. over 260 years later, with a little resourcefulness, ingenuity, and grit, we're not only c

brownsville and meeting with various federal agency officials and nongovernmental organizations and local elected officials at the wesleco border patrol station what we learned is the situation is far more complex than meets the eye and many of the narratives that have been spun about what's happening at the border are just simply false or maybe based in part on fact, but in part on nonfactual information. so what we did is we had the federal officials at the wesleco border patrol station went through a step by step process of what happens to immigrant families when they are apprehended at the border. what happens when they're detained, and what happens when their cases are heard in a court. this is very useful information, and i want to particularly credit rio grande valley border patrol chief manny padilla and custom and border patrols david higginson and all the men and women doing a great job in difficult circumstances across the border. i'm glad to know that the processes are changing based on the executive order president trump issued last week. that order stated that immigrant families should be det

community groups, activists, elders, children, companies, international and local, performers, celebrities and elected officials marching side-by-side down market street. is a massive organic expression of a million voices simultaneously erupting as we march down market street and gather at civic centre. for all of those voices building to a crescendo that calls out in the name of strengths, solidarity, and unrelenting demand for equality. [cheers and applause] our theme this year is generations of strengths. as a supervisor pointed out earlier. i think you would agree that this years grand marshals and honourees are wonderful examples of the strength that is found throughout our communities. this is where i will ask for michelle's help. first, i want to acknowledge that kate kendall has been an incredible inspiration for me. [cheers and applause] i also want to thank you for starting out by crying, because i normally do as well. this is perfect. thank you. [laughter] with that, i will give michelle some airtime. [laughter] >> oh,, i don't know anything about airtime, but i love it. thank you so much. i'm very

really the protest symbolic of the week we have seen in which time and time again, local and national elected officials have tried to get in, but haven't been able to. senator udall just got in yesterday for the first time, but he was disappointed about what he was told. i asked him, what is the plan? he said, i asked that to the officials inside that compound and the answer was shocking, . that he would have to check bulk in a week. >> considering the fact these are all children and another week that will go by without them being reunited cal, thanks very much. find a cool place. >>> while stripping away their trial rights, today the president tweeted in part this -- when somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no judges or no court cases, bring them back from where they came. the house is scheduled to vote early this week on a so-called compromise immigration bill. there are reports that republican lawmakers are preparing a narrower bill that would allow kids to stay in facility with their parents more than 20 days. that's part of the flores judgment we have talked about the last week or so i wa

some alignment of political forces in this country through constituent pressure and local leaders and elected officialswashington say enough, stop, we cannot do this. this is madness. and unless and until that happens, they will keep doing it. so local officials standing in the way of licensing of these facilities, political leaders of washington, constituents who have been burying congressional offices with phone calls. i heard someone say it's the most they've seen since health care care, all that needs to be sustained thor will continue. >> maria teresa kumar, it seems that basically four the total will be secret baby jails in south texas changes the nature of this story. >> it won't work unless people take a page from the play book of health care, flood your town halls, talk to your representatives, make sure they recognize this is not who we are because we have to make sure we are present. come to tornillo, texas, this sunday because it's a march but it's talking about who we are. these children have to know they are loved and cared for. whatever the american government is doing they have gone rog

what this bill does is make it easier for local elected officials to get the information in ream time when hacks are going on in other states that they may n know about and have the classified information they need by getting the security clearance they need to protect eirwn election system. we have worked with the secretary of states all over the country on this, and senator burr and senator warner, the heads of the intelligence committee support this bill. i also thank senator lindsey graham and senator harris who worked with us on this bill. we are working to get it on with the defense act, knowing that war is not the same as it was ten years ago, 20 years ago, and our laws need to be sophisticated. the protection of our country needs to be as sophisticated as those trying to do us harm. we're hopeful we will be able to reach an agreement on this given the intelligence committee has held enormous hearings about election security as has homeland security as has judiciary. today i am here in opposition to the federal communicio commission on monday to repeal the net neutrality protec

>> okay, peter, i want to walk through local officials it sounds like -- excuse me, elected officials might be touring the centers. it was frustrating when we were down there, we couldn't get in. what do you know about that? >> what we do know, one example, senator bill nelson in homestead, florida, was trying to get into one of these detention centers where young people were being held in his home state. he was unable to do it. obviously he was very frustrated by that. he described it as a cover-up after he was denied access to this immigration center in homestead, florida, where they were holding more than a thousand migrant teenagers including 94 who were reportedly separated from their parents. whether he'll get to go in there at any point we do not know just yet. that's obviously as you have indicated not the only site where there have been problems and where officials have been turned away. we have witnessed that playing out over the course of the last several days. on screen righnow, we're showing you some of the pictures and the video. not independently shot by journalistic or

confirm these information this these videos and we'll have to wait for some official reports by election observers both local and international i'm sure tomorrow we'll be we'll have more information on that w.'s yulia hung with the very latest from thank you your ear. now to some other stories making news around the world in a tweet us president donald trump has said people entering the country illegally should be immediately deported without any judicial process trump's remarks come amid outcry over his administration's policy of separating families at the border he eventually signed an executive order to end that policy. police in nigeria say at least seventy people have died in clashes between farmers and nomadic herders the fighting took place in the central plateau state where the government has imposed a curfew the deaths are the latest in a long running battle for land and resources authorities in zimbabwe have ruled out an election delay after an explosion hit president emerson and god was campaign rally both of the country's vice presidents and at least forty seven others were injured in the blast w

elections. state and local officials talk about steps they were taking to secure the election process, including testing their infrastructure, creating back-up paper ballots, and boosting cybersecurity.