vitiello and agents at border customs and patrol. i have witnessed first hand on plane rides up to the capital brownsville your agents caring for these unaccompanied minors. i know how hard they are working. i want to thank you and your agency on behalf of all the people that i represent. >> thank you, sir. >> chair recognizes the gentleman from south carolina, mr. duncan. >> thank you, mr. chairman. let me say for the record thank you, gentlemen, for your service for our country. secretary johnson, i'm a big fan. i think you are the right man at the right time in this job. you have an immense challenge ahead of you. all the different hats you have to wear to protect our country. we are in a crisis situation in this country. if my comments show frustration, let me tell you i am frustrated. i'm frustrated by the crisis on the border. i'm frustrated that last night we saw the irs commissioner continue to obstruct congress' investigation into irs' targeting of conservative groups by a crashed hard drive and lost e-mails. i'm frustrated

vitiello? thank you, sir. how long have criminals been smuggling people across the border, to your knowledge? >> in my career, 29 years. >> have smugglers lied to people south of the border that might be interested in seeking to cross the border about the conditions or what they might encounter or their status when they come here? have smugglers lied to people in the past? >> that's the experience of the border patrol. >> in your opinion in your estimation, what has changed in the last two, three years that has fostered this immense increase in traffic, especially of people that are young, 17 and below, coming -- what has changed? are there any metrics at all that you know of to support the claim that you might make shortly? >> i think lots of things have changed. i mean, we've talked about all of the push factors. i've seen these reports. people are fleeing difficult conditions. they're reuniting with family in the united states. they're fleeing economic uncertainty and failed governments, both locally and na

vitiello and mr. fugate will not be here to answer any opening questio statements but will be answering any questions we have. the chair now recognizes mr. johnson for five minutes. >> members of this committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today about our efforts to address the recent rise of unaccompanied children and others crossing our border in the rio grande valley. with me today to answer questions are craig fugate, the administrator of fema, and ron v vitiello of the border patrol. to be clear, we face an urgent situation in the rio grande valley. last year, the cbc stopped 50,000 children at the border. those from guatemala, el salvador and hon dduras make up three-quarters of that migration. on friday i traveled to south texas for the fourth time in office, this time to lead an administration team to oversee our efforts there. while there we met with officials at mcallen and lackland to review the situation and hear directly from those on the ground what their needs are. while th

stacie vitiello. thank you so much for coming.ause we have two completely diverse ideas about mammograms. and i am unconvinced about either. so, stacie, please tell us, you are pro mammogram. >> i certainly am. >> why? >> i see every day the effects of what happens when women don't go for mammograms. and those are the days that are the worst days in my practice. everyone knows what they should be doing to lead a healthy lifestyle and not everyone does it. we are humans. and i think that in order to catch the cases that can't be caught with a healthy lifestyle we need to absolutely continue mammographic screening. >> you disagree. tell me why. >> you know what happened is we have a lot of studies that have come out recently that came to the same conclusions which is that mammograms do not show any increased benefit over women just doing physical examinations. so there is not a change in mortality rate, no difference between mammograms and physical examinations. >> there is the question about radiation. the big elephant in the room.

vitiello, can you tell us whether or not the border patrol as it's presently staffed can meet this influx of young people coming across the border? >> as is typical, the men and the women of the border patrol have stepped up to this task. i think you heard the secretary describe that we were there on friday. we watched the hard, diligent, heroic work they are doing to make the best of the situation. it's our -- it's my assessment and what we heard from the leadership on the ground down there, the agents that are involved in this crisis, we are adequately staffed and even better staffed than we were this time last year. so we are concerned as this goes on about staffing levels and our ability to do the other patrol border functions. but the reports that we got on friday, i'm very comfortable that they have the resources that are available and they're using them in an adequate way to protect the border. this isn't a security problem in the sense that this population, both the family units and the children, are not trying to evade apprehension at the border. they're essentially coming in an