there is no stronger, clearer voice in the senate than sheldon whitehouse in terms of the threats we face on the criminal front and the terrorist front that come from cyber misdeeds, and congress is having a difficult time organizing ourselves to combat both threats, but to make sure this is not an academic exercise, i guess it was last year, it might have even been a bit longer, but the department of revenue in south carolina was hacked into by -- we don't know all the details, but a criminal enterprise that stole thousands -- millions of social security numbers and information regarding companies' charters, revenue, and that's required the state of south carolina to purchase protection. i think it was a $35 million per year allocation to protect those who had their social security numbers stolen we believe by a criminal enterprise. it happened in south carolina. it can happen to any company, any business, any organization in america, and our laws are not where they should be so the purpose of this hearing is to gather information and hopefully come out and be a friend of law enforc

and i can tell you, you know, and i mentioned sheldon whitehouse just because i dealt a lot with him when i was in the justice department especially about surveillance matters. he knew that area chapter ask verse. so when he asked a question in a hearing, i knew i was going to get a follow-on question that found whatever issue i didn't address in my question. same thing when i got questions for the record or written questions from them. and and so you had to prepare and respond very differently to somebody like him than you did to somebody who would be part-time oversight person who really doesn't spend a lot of time in your world. because that person's just knot going to know -- not going to know no ask those follow-on questions. it's asking the tough questions to help agencies improve. and if you don't have the knowledge because you're not doing it day in and day out, you're not going to know to ask the right questions. >> so given the difficulty that congress has had organizing itself just to pass legislation, are we surprised that it hasn't embraced measures that would also requi

senator sheldon whitehouse chairs this our 35 minute hearing. >> i'll call this hearing of the subcommitteeism to order.eldon thank everyone for being here. i have the permission of my ranking member to get under way. he will be joining us shortly, but allowing for opening statentsts and so forth, i think it's probably the best way to do this, to s simply proceed and go under way. today's hearing is entitled taking down botnets, public and private efforts to disrupt and dismantle cyber criminal networks. we are going to be hearingtle testimony about these botnets and about the threats that they pose to our economy, to our personal privacy, and to our national security. to a botnet is a simple thing. tional sec it's a network of computers connected over the internet tha can be instructed to carry out specific tasks. the problem with the botnets is typically the owners of thoseic computers don't know that they are carrying out of those tasks. botnets have existed in various forms for well over a decade and they are now recognized as a weapon of choice for cybercriminals. and it is easy to see

there is no stronger, clearer voice in the senate than sheldon whitehouse in terms of the threats we face on the criminal front and the terrorist front that come from cyber misdeeds, and congress is having a difficult time organizing ourselves to combat both threats, but to make sure this is not an academic exercise, i guess it was last year, it might have even been a bit longer, but the department of revenue in south carolina was hacked into by -- we don't know all the details, but a criminal enterprise that stole thousands -- millions of social security numbers and information regarding companies' charters, revenue, and that's required the state of south carolina to purchase protection. i think it was a $35 million per year allocation to protect those who had their social security numbers stolen we believe by a criminal enterprise. it happened in south carolina. it can happen to any company, any business, any organization in america, and our laws are not where they should be so the purpose of this hearing is to gather information and hopefully come out and be a friend of law enforc

you know you have folks like sheldon whitehouse that knew the issues that you were dealing with down to the granular level, and that meant that effective oversight that meant tough questioning and follow through and deep understanding on the part of the members about the mission and about us as individuals coming and that was a real oversight and i do not see that in the situation. and i get that it is not easy to rectify this problem. we have heard about the issues. my co. panelists can speak to this for the diversity of the issues that we deal with everything from the border control to the secret service, they have such a wide range of activities that the understanding of the oversight is not only just pulling together the challenges but pulling together the legacy jurisdictions into one or several places. but it is a subject matters. they are so diverse it's hard to put them in place. place. so we wouldn't diminish the difficulty of the challenge, but we do want to emphasize the need to meet the challenge. just to kick off some of the issues i can tell you firsthand when i was at

is there the bad of a very very amorphous legally the good senator sheldon whitehouse of rhode island senator gave an epic speech yesterday blasting his colleague oklahoma senator jim in off for blocking a resolution that would have acknowledged the global warming is real here's some of that seven minute speech in which senator whitehouse rips into in the hopper citing a petition signed by global warming deniers. you can take a poll or a petition and say that it had thirty thousand names on it. i'm told that among the names on that petition are the spice girls. are people from mash like dr frank burns. i would say it's almost a comedic effort the idea that we should base our policy. on a petition. that imaginary people are on rather than on what nasa and no way in the united states may be in the u.s. conference of catholic bishops and every major scientific society in the entire property casualty insurance reinsurance to descry are telling us. it's just extraordinary. well said senator wellstone good to see someone is sticking up for senate he on capitol hill the bad house republicans

you know you have folks like sheldon whitehouse that knew the issues that you were dealing with down to the granular level, and that meant that effective oversight that meant tough questioning and follow through and deep understanding on the part of the members about the mission and about us as individuals coming and that was a real oversight and i do not see that in the situation. and i get that it is not easy to rectify this problem. we have heard about the issues. my co. panelists can speak to this for the diversity of the issues that we deal with everything from the border control to the secret service, they have such a wide range of activities that the understanding of the oversight is not only just pulling together the challenges but pulling together the legacy jurisdictions into one or several places. but it is a subject matters. they are so diverse it's hard to put them in place. place. so we wouldn't diminish the difficulty of the challenge, but we do want to emphasize the need to meet the challenge. just to kick off some of the issues i can tell you firsthand when i was at

department of justice had been asked both in the senate hearing and subsequent letter from sheldon whitehousewhether the department and treasury department had an effective mechanism for communicating about potential false statement submitted to the irs by organizations seeking tax-exempt status. an attorney in the public integrity section reached out to ms. learner to discuss the issue and ms. learner indicated someone else from the irs would follow up with a section but that all of it not occur. in some, these two instances show attorneys in the public integrity sector were merely fulfilling their responsibilities as law enforcement officials. they were educating themselves on the ramifications of changes, and the area of campaign finance laws, and ensuring the department remains vigilant in its enforcement of those laws. as we have asked into the committee previously, in 2010, in conjunction with the meeting i previously described, the irs discs tovia die with contain only public portions of files returned from tax-exempt organizations. as we have indicated in letters to the committee, the

. >> so a break in this hearing on crime and terrorism as the chairman sheldon whitehouse just said. a vote now on the floor of the senate. and this hearing will resume after he returns from voting there. a hearing today on cyber crime and the efforts of the government and private industry to stop so-called botnets. we're hearing on this panel from representatives from microsoft, symantec, far sight security and the online trust alliance. our live coverage should continue in a few minutes here on c-span3. while we wait for the resunks of this hearing, we'll show you at least part of a discussion from this morning's "washington journal" on the influx of unaccompanied children crossing the southern u.s. border. >> the morning, representative jeff dunham of california on the veterans affairs committee. good morning. >> good morning. >> could you give a little bit of your personal take on being from the part of the country you are and parlay that with what's going on with the border? >> sure. i mean, california is a border state that has a much higher immigrant population. you know we ar

of justice had been asked both in a senate hearing and in a subsequent letter from senator sheldon whitehouse whether the department and the treasury department had an effective mechanism for communicating about potential false statements submitted to the irs by organizations seeking tax exempt status. an attorney and the public integrity section reached out to ms. learned to discuss the issue. ms. lerner indicated that someone else from the irs would follow up with the section, but that follow-up did not occur. in sum, these two instances show that attorneys in the public integrity section were merely fulfilling their responsibilities as law-enforcement officials. they were educating themselves on the ramifications of changes in the area of campaign finance laws and ensuring that the department remained vigilant in its enforcement of those laws. as was explained to the committee previously, in 2010 in conjunction with the meeting i previously described, the irs provided the fbi with discs that we understood at the time to contain only public portions of filed returns of tax-exempt organizati

you had people like sheldon whitehouse who knew what you are dealing with down to a granular level. that meant effective oversight and follow through and a deep understanding on the part of the members about our mission, us as individuals. that was real oversight. i do not see that with the dhs situation and i get it that it is not easy to rectify this problem. we have heard about the turf issues. there are turf issues in the hills -- in the hill that my co-panelists can speak to. they have such a wide range of activities that it is understandable that the oversight is not only the challenge of pulling together live to see -- legacy jurisdictions but there is the subject matter. we are not trying to diminish the difficulty of this challenge but we do want to emphasize the need to meet the challenge. just to tick off some of the issues. i can tell you firsthand when i house,at -- in the white the difficulty of answering them. oversight demands. telling event. when he got to the point where he said i cannot appear, i have to do my day job and we need to get your shop in order that was

committee member sheldon whitehouse will be serving as the acting chair of the hearing. there is a chance that the hearing will go into recess at about 10:45 so members can attend a series of votes. it should get under way in just a moment, live coverage on c-span3. >>> good morning everyone. the hearing will come to order. i'm delighted to see you all here, and i welcome the witnesses and thank them for coming. i welcome my ranking member, the distinguished senator from iowa. i welcome senators klobuchar and blumenthal from minnesota and connecticut. i have one procedural announcement which is that we evidently have a vote scheduled at 10:45. so towards the end of that vote i plan to -- and senator hirono from highway', nice to see you. i plan to adjourn the hearing or recess the hearing briefly to allow us to catch the end of one vote, the beginning of the next and reconvene. that will probably take about 15 minutes total, just so you all know. >>> on june 18, 1999 carmen cruz was watching television with her 8-year-old son travis when her ex-boyfriend, frederick escob

sheldon whitehouse is the acting chair of the hearing. it's just over two hours. >> good morning, everyone. the hearing will come to order. i'm delighted to see you here. i welcome witnesses, ranking member from iowa, welcome klobuchar and blumenthal from minnesota and connecticut. i have one procedural announcement, we evidently have a vote scheduled at 10:45. towards the end of that vote, i plan to -- senator from hawaii, nice to see you. i plan to recess to catch the end of one vote, beginning of next and reconvenevene. that will take about 15 minutes total just so you know. on june 18th, 1999, carmen cruz was watching television with her 8-year-old son travis when her ex-boyfriend, frederick job esc broke into her apartment and calmly walked toward her carrying a pillow. when he was a few feet away from mrs. cruz, mr. escobar pulled a gun from the pillow and pointed it at her. travis watched as his mother fell from a bullet from his father. she was hospitalized for three weeks and wore a colostomy bag for two years following the shoot

we have sheldon whitehouse. we have ben cardin. and we have senator fischer. so we have a broad diversity. i haven't mentioned senator sessions, and senator gillibrand and senator booker. this is a committee that represents the ideological spectrum of the senate. and i will tell you, we passed a bill out for six years. we know it has to be paid for, but we were very, very, i think reasonable in what we said. we said this isn't the time for a giant new increase. we kept it at current levels of spending plus inflation. god bless senators wyden and hatch. they're working to come up with a plan to pay for this bill. and we have colleagues, as i mentioned; senators murphy and corker, who came together and said, look, the chamber of commerce makes a good point. we haven't raised the gas tax in a very long time. if we do a few cents a year, we'll be able to patch up this trust fund, and more than patch it up; get it going for six years. so i would put my, the rest of my statement in the record, mr. president, if that's all right. the presiding officer: without object

and i'm pleased today to be joined by two leaders on this issue, senator sheldon whitehouse as well as chairman barbara boxer, the chair of the environment and public works committee. mr. president, we have an obligation to our constituents and to this country to address global climate change. we must tackle the challenge head-on. this is an issue facing all americans, from farmers struggling with extreme weather from drought to floods to seaside communities threatened by rising waters to habitat changes that are impacting our hunting, fishing, and outdoor economy to businesses trying to mitigate the financial risks posed by the effects of climate change. it is clear that climate change poses a grave threat to food security, the environment, and our national security as well as to our businesses. and yet achieving a commitment to at least admit that this problem is going on in the united states senate has fallen short. that's the point of our direct resolution that simply states the facts, the science about climate change and the impact that it's having on our country. the resolution d