at a recent hearing the fbi assistant director michael steinbach told the house homeland security, and i'm quoting this, the administration has, quote, learned its lesson, unquote, since the problems it had with the iraqi refugee admissions effort. can you tell us what specific measures in your agency have been taken to remedy the problems? and what did we learn from that exercise that we can apply here? >> absolutely. so, let me reasonably describe the checks and how it's changed. sorry. let me just briefly describe the nature of the checks we do now and how they've changed. so, the checks are multilayered. they involve both biographic information and not just one data element but multiple biographic data elements and fingerprints, so biometric data. the checks are done not just at one time. they're done over a period of time, and in some cases continuously throughout the process. they touch against a broad range of u.s. government holdings. so, our biometric check, our fingerprint check checks against fbi fingerprint holdings. it checks against dod fingerprint holdings which include

february 11th before the house committee on homeland security fbi assistant director of the fbi michael steinbach expressed concerns with screening syrian refugees. i don't see how this could be denied. the concerning syria is that we don't have systems in places on the ground to collect information. that would be the concern if web vetting databases. that would be a concern. you're talking about a country that's a failed state, that does not have any infrastructure, so to speak. so all of the data sets, the police, intel services that normally you would go to to seek information don't exist. now, you query this system, is that your responsibility, it's yes or no? do you supervise making inqueries? >> i do. >> if there's no database to query, how can you have valid information? >> there's data that we check against and we would be happy to describe this to you in a different setting. >> well you just tell us under oath. you're a public official. do you think there's adequate data, are you likely to have any valuable information from them? >> i will tell you that we often find valuable information

ve, but in february over the house committee of homeland security, the fbi assistant director michael steinbachxpressed significant syrians with screening refugees. i do not see how this could be denied. i don't see how it can be glossed over. in syria- that concern is that we do not have systems in place on the ground to collect information to that -- to vet. the concern would be that we are vetting database is that do not hold information on those individuals and that is a concern. he went on to say that you are talking about a country that is a failed date. it does not have any infrastructure. , thef the data sets police, the intel services that normally you would go to to seek information do not exist. systems -- is that your responsibility? do you serve -- supervise that? mr. emrich: i do. >> if there is no database to query, how can you have valid information? mr. emrich: there is data that we check against and we would be happy to describe this to you in a different setting. you just tell us under both. you are a public official. do you think there is adequate data, when you query these

, but in februa february, before the department of homeland security, fbi assistant director michael steinbach expressed concerns with screening syrian refugees. i don't see how you can gloss over this. he says, quote, the concern in syria is that we don't have systems in places on the ground to collect information to vet. that would be the concern is, we would be vetting databases that don't hold information on those individuals, and that is a concern. he went on to say, you're talking about a country that is a failed state. that is, does not have any infrastructure, so to speak. so all of the data sets, the police, the intel services that normally you would go to to seek service don't exist. now, mr. emrich, you query the system, is that your responsibility? just yes or no. do you super vise making the inquiries? >> i do. >> and if there's no database to query, then how can you have valid information? >> well, there is data that we check against. and we would be happy to describe those to you in a different setting. >> well, you just tell us under oath. you're a public official. do you think