[Senate Hearing 113-660]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR
FISCAL YEAR 2015
----------
THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met at 10:02 a.m., in room SD-192, Dirksen
Senate Office Building, Hon. Barbara A. Mikulski (chairwoman)
presiding.
Present: Senators Mikulski, Shelby, Murkowski, Kirk, and
Boozman.
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES B. COMEY, JR., DIRECTOR
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR BARBARA A. MIKULSKI
Senator Mikulski. Good morning, everybody. The Subcommittee
on Commerce, Justice, Science will come to order. This is our
first hearing on the fiscal year 2015 budget. We are starting
with the esteemed and much valued Federal Bureau of
Investigation. We will have a two-part hearing. This will be an
open session, with all Senators free to participate and ask
their questions. When this concludes, we will adjourn for a
classified hearing on the Bureau's needs, particularly in the
global war against terrorism and cyber security and some of
those that are more sensitive in terms of the need for global
protection and global cooperation.
We want to welcome Director Comey here for his very
important appearance and we look forward to hearing his
testimony in terms of the needs of the FBI. Last year we
concluded I think with a vote on January 20 in which we were
able to pass an omnibus bill for fiscal year 2014. Thanks to
the work, bipartisan and bicameral, Senator Murray and
Congressman Ryan were able to give us a budget and a top line
cancelling the sequester, which had a draconian impact on both
the function of core agencies like the FBI and on the morale.
We look forward this year to moving ahead in an expeditious
way to move this so that we could avoid that kind of crisis in
budgeting that has been characteristic of the Congress for more
now than 5 years.
To get our work done, we will again listen to Director
Comey on budget and priorities. It is his first time as the
Director, but not our first meeting. We appreciate his
competence, his candor and his long history of service.
In welcoming you, Mr. Director, we want to thank the entire
FBI for the way that they protect America. Whether it is
fighting crime in organized crime, whether it's dealing with
terrorists or predators, the FBI is on the job 24-7, 365 days a
year, and we want them to know that they're appreciated, and we
would like to show our appreciation to make sure they have the
right resources and the right tools so that they can do the job
that they were signed up to do. We believe that they are the
unsung heroes.
This hearing will focus on the FBI's vital work. As chair,
I've reviewed the FBI's budget, which comes in at $8.4 billion.
In fiscal year 2014 we had an increase of $762 million above
the sequester request. So it was $762 million, and it sounds
like it was a big bump-up, but it was a bump-up to keep us
running in place.
I'd like you to describe then about your need to retain
talent, to recruit talent, and to train and educate the
legendary training that goes on at Quantico. I understand that
the 2015 request would keep the FBI moving while making sure
our taxpayer dollars are spent wisely.
Now, we know that the sequester caused the FBI to cancel
training, to ration gas to 200 miles a week. We valued a much-
read and circulated document called ``Voices From the Field.''
This is where we heard from the FBI agents themselves. Not only
did they fear furlough for their families, but they feared the
impact on the mission. Then we heard they didn't have gas for
their cars. What kind of--we can't do this. So we're going to
make sure we're looking to you and listening to you to do this,
so we'll be looking at the 21st century threats.
We know that one of the major 21st century threats is in
cyber space, whether it's the hackers, the cyber spies, or the
cyber terrorists. We want to be clear in this hearing that
cyber security is not the cyber surveillance that is the
subject of much discussion at many levels in this Government
and in others. We know that cyber security means protecting us
from criminals out to steal credit card information, personal
identities, companies' trade secrets, and even worse, whether
it's to bring down the grid or bring down our financial
services.
We know the FBI's in the front line in this area, and that
the request is $392 million for the Next Generation Cyber
Initiative, $9 million less than 2014. So we want to know, what
is it you want to do, either at this hearing or the classified
one, and is this the resources to do it?
One of the hallmarks of the FBI has really been working
with local law enforcement. The joint task forces that have
emerged receive kudos from around the Nation. Certainly in my
own Baltimore metropolitan area, in the Washington metropolitan
area, law enforcement speaks with such enthusiasm and such
energy when they talk about these joint task forces, and that
they can rely on the FBI, but keep law enforcement. We don't
have a national police force in this country, but we have an
American joint task force.
So we want to know how in your budget, what this means to
State and local. We've been concerned that these two face
significant cuts.
Finally, I'd like to mention the fact that you need a new
headquarters. We know that the Hoover Building is dated and to
the point of even being dysfunctional, that you're in 20 leased
spaces. You know that two alpha delegations, Maryland and
Virginia, are duking it out. We'll go through the competitive
process, but my criteria, wearing my national hat, is that you
need full consolidation. You don't need a micro-consolidation,
because we want it to meet its functionality and security
requirements for the next 50 years.
So we look forward to listening to you and listening to the
needs of really what is it to make sure how we have a robustly
funded FBI, a 21st century FBI, for 21st century threats.
I now turn to my vice chairman, who's been such an advocate
in this area and has some key facilities in Alabama, Senator
Shelby.
STATEMENT OF SENATOR RICHARD C. SHELBY
Senator Shelby. Thank you.
Mr. Director, I want to welcome you to the committee. This
is your first appearance before the subcommittee as FBI
Director. I hope you will be coming to see us often.
We had a good working relationship with your predecessor,
Director Mueller, and we look forward to a similar relationship
with you and the Bureau. The mission of the FBI is broad and
multifaceted. Its responsibilities include, among other things,
investigating terrorist attacks and cyber threats, targeting
health care fraud, leading the Federal Government's efforts to
analyze improvised explosive devices, routing out gang
activity. The list goes on and on. You have a broad mandate.
This broad mission requires the FBI to maintain focus on
traditional criminal activities, while adapting to the new
threats of this country. Terrorists and criminals are agile and
sophisticated. The same is required of the Bureau. To remain
effective, the Bureau must have the ability, I believe, to
refocus and retool to address emerging threats. Without a plan
to address such threats or a process for regularly reevaluating
priorities, the FBI will find itself playing catch-up with the
criminal elements it seeks to eliminate.
The Bureau's 2015 budget, which is the subject of today's
hearing, outlines the FBI's strategic priorities. According to
the documents provided, these priorities have not substantially
been redefined since 2011. This is particularly troubling given
the growing cyber threat that the chairwoman mentioned that our
Nation is facing.
Recognizing the dynamic world in which we live and the
tough fiscal climate that we face here, I want to be sure that
the budget priorities of the Bureau truly reflect the threats
that are facing this country. The ultimate goal of any
prioritization effort should be an FBI that is efficient,
effective, and, more importantly, nimble for the foreseeable
future.
I'm committed to working with you and the chair to ensure
that we're targeting limited resources in a manner that
safeguards taxpayer dollars while preserving public safety.
Once again, we appreciate you taking this job as the head
of the Bureau and we look forward to working with you.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Senator Mikulski. I want to acknowledge that Senator Kirk
is here. Senator, could you hold your statement until the
Director finishes and we turn to questions, or do you need to
leave?
Senator Kirk. I will hold my statement.
Senator Mikulski. Thank you very much.
Director Comey.
SUMMARY STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES B. COMEY, JR.
Mr. Comey. Madam Chairwoman, Senator Shelby, Senator Kirk,
members of the subcommittee: it's an honor to be here
representing the great people of the FBI. This is my first
appearance in what is a 10-year term that I'm very, very
excited about because of those people. I have spent my first 6
months traveling around trying to meet my troops, and what I
discovered is that the magic of the FBI is its talent. We don't
have a lot of stuff; we have remarkable people.
What I found when I first took this job was that they were
people who were very stressed by the impact that sequester was
having on them, which Senator Mikulski, you mentioned.
Everywhere around the country I heard from my folks about the
difficulties they were encountering with vacancies, limitations
on gas, the abolition of training, and Quantico being a ghost
town.
Thanks to this committee and other members of the Senate
and the House, that changed in late January when the budget was
passed. I'm now in a position where I'm restarting Quantico.
I'm also looking to hire a thousand people to start to fill the
almost 2,500 vacancies that we have--hundreds of special agents
and intelligence analysts, to restock that magic of the FBI
that is our talent.
So, thank you so much for that on behalf of the men and
women of the FBI. And we need those people because, as Senator
Shelby said, the plate of threats that we face is remarkable.
I'll start with our top priority, Counterterrorism. The
threat that I've encountered returning to Government after 8
years away is one that remains incredibly serious, but has
changed. It has metastasized in ways that are striking. The
primary tumor along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan was
dramatically reduced by the fight of our men and women in
uniform and our Intelligence Community. But at the same time,
that threat has metastasized into the lightly governed or
ungoverned spaces in the world, especially in North Africa,
around the Gulf, and around the Mediterranean. And also here at
home with the growth of the people we call home-grown violent
extremists. I don't like to call them ``lone wolves'' because
that sounds dignified in a way that they don't deserve--folks
who are able to access Al-Qaeda's hateful propaganda on the
Internet and convince themselves, even without being directed,
that they need to engage in some sort of jihad here at home and
kill innocent Americans. So that metastasizing threat poses an
enormous challenge to everybody in the Intelligence Community,
but especially to the great people of the FBI.
Counterintelligence remains a top priority of the Bureau
because nation-states around the world still want to steal our
secrets and they are finding new and sophisticated ways to do
this, especially through cyber. So we remain on guard 24-7, as
the chairwoman said, to protect that which is most important to
our Nation.
Cyber, as the chair said, touches everything I do. The
reason is fairly easy to understand: we as Americans, as a
Nation and as a people, have connected our entire lives to the
Internet. It's where our children play, it's where our money
is, it's where our health care is, it's where our
infrastructure is, our secrets. So it's where those who would
do us harm come at us--for our children, for our money, for our
private information, for our Nation's secrets, and for our
vital infrastructure. It touches everything the FBI is
responsible for, so we are doing everything in our power to
make sure we are deployed, equipped, and trained to address
that threat.
And of course, we're responsible for a host of criminal
challenges, from public corruption to civil rights to white-
collar crime, gangs, human trafficking, and protecting our
children. And we're doing that in 56 field offices all around
this country and in offices all around the world every day.
As, Madam Chairwoman, you said, we also have a
responsibility to use the taxpayers' money to train and to
assist State and local law enforcement. We have world-class
facilities and world-class technical capabilities and we work
hard to make them available to our brothers and sisters in law
enforcement.
The last thing I'll say is my travels have convinced me
that the FBI is international in ways that would have been
difficult to see just 10 years ago. Nearly everything we do
that matters has an international dimension to it. So I am
extremely proud of our legal attaches deployed around the
world, who build relationships and do service for not just the
FBI, but all the American people.
PREPARED STATEMENT
So we're doing a lot of things and we do it through the
people. As I said, the magic is the talent. I thank you so much
for supporting those folks and for giving me the resources to
make sure we have enough of those great folks.
My hope for 2015 is to be able to sustain the progress we
have made since late January, restock the talent of the FBI,
and march out to meet those many challenges. I look forward to
working with you on that.
Thank you so much.
[The statement follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. James B. Comey, Jr.
Good morning Chairwoman Mikulski, Vice Chairman Shelby, and members
of the subcommittee. I look forward to discussing the FBI's fiscal year
2015 budget request, as well as FBI programs and priorities for the
coming year. On behalf of the men and women of the FBI, let me begin by
thanking you for your ongoing support of the Bureau.
Thanks to the support of this subcommittee, we now have a budget in
place that that allows us to do more operationally, to hire and train
new agents and intelligence analysts, and to backfill vacant positions
in our field offices. We pledge to be the best possible stewards of the
budget you have provided for us and to use it to maximum effect to
carry out our mission.
Today's FBI is a threat-focused, intelligence-driven organization.
Each employee of the FBI understands that to mitigate the key threats
facing our Nation, we must constantly strive to be more efficient and
more effective.
Just as our adversaries continue to evolve, so, too, must the FBI.
We live in a time of acute and persistent terrorist and criminal
threats to our national security, our economy, and our communities.
These diverse threats facing our Nation and our neighborhoods
underscore the complexity and breadth of the FBI's mission.
We remain focused on defending the United States against terrorism,
foreign intelligence, and cyber threats; upholding and enforcing the
criminal laws of the United States; protecting civil rights and civil
liberties; and providing leadership and criminal justice services to
Federal, State, municipal, and international agencies and partners. Our
continued ability to carry out this demanding mission reflects the
support and oversight provided by this committee.
The FBI's fiscal year 2015 budget request totals $8.3 billion in
direct budget authority, including 34,970 permanent positions (13,050
Special Agents, 3,048 Intelligence Analysts, and 18,872 professional
staff). This request includes two program enhancements: 14 positions
and $3.2 million for Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty reform, and $15
million for operations and maintenance for the Terrorist Explosive
Device Analytical Center (TEDAC) facility in Huntsville, Alabama.
Let me summarize the FBI efforts that this funding supports.
national security
The FBI is the lead domestic intelligence and law enforcement
agency in the United States. Our complementary intelligence and law
enforcement capabilities make up the key components of the Bureau's
national security mission. They also illustrate the unique authorities
and mission we have in the U.S. Intelligence Community. We collect
intelligence to understand and identify the threats to the Nation. And
when the time comes for action to prevent an attack, we disrupt threats
using our law enforcement powers through our Joint Terrorism Task
Forces (JTTFs).
Much of the FBI's success can be credited to the longstanding
relationships we enjoy with our intelligence, law enforcement, public,
and private sector partners. With thousands of private and public
business alliances and more than 4,100 JTTF members, including more
than 1,500 interagency personnel from more than 600 Federal, State,
territorial, and tribal partner agencies, the FBI's partnerships are
essential to achieving our mission and ensuring a coordinated approach
toward national security threats.
Counterterrorism
As the lead agency responsible for countering terrorist threats to
the United States and its interests overseas, the FBI integrates
intelligence and operations to detect and disrupt terrorists and their
organizations.
Counterterrorism remains our top priority. The Boston Marathon
bombings in April 2013 remind us that the terrorist threat against the
United States remains persistent. The threat from homegrown violent
extremists is of particular concern. These individuals present unique
challenges because they do not share a typical profile; their
experiences and motives are often distinct and personal. They are also
increasingly savvy and willing to act alone, which makes them more
difficult to identify and to stop.
In the past 2 years, homegrown extremists have attempted to
detonate improvised explosive devices or bombs at such high profile
targets as the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, commercial
establishments in downtown Chicago, the Pentagon, and the U.S. Capitol.
Fortunately, these attempts and many others were thwarted. Yet the
threat from such individuals remains.
The foreign terrorist threat is similarly complex and ever
changing. Overseas, we are seeing more groups and individuals engaged
in terrorism, a wider array of terrorist targets, greater cooperation
among terrorist groups, and continued evolution and adaptation in
tactics and communication.
Al-Qa'ida and its affiliates, especially al-Qa'ida in the Arabian
Peninsula (AQAP), continue to represent a top terrorist threat to the
Nation. These groups have attempted several attacks on the United
States, including the failed Christmas Day airline bombing in 2009, and
the attempted bombing of U.S.-bound cargo planes in October 2010.
To better address this evolving threat, the FBI has established the
Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Office. This office leverages FBI
resources and works with Federal counterparts to empower our local
partners to prevent violent extremists and their supporters from
inspiring, radicalizing, financing, or recruiting individuals or groups
in the United States to commit acts of violence. The CVE Office
facilitates an understanding of the catalysts to violent extremism, as
well as its behavioral components and radicalization factors, and
identifies possible inhibitors to these phenomena. The FBI is leading
efforts to conduct outreach and raise community awareness, while
upholding civil rights and civil liberties.
Counterintelligence
We still confront traditional espionage--spies posing as diplomats
or ordinary citizens. But espionage also has evolved. Spies today are
often students, researchers, or businesspeople operating front
companies. And they seek not only state secrets, but trade secrets,
research and development, intellectual property, and insider
information from the Federal Government, U.S. corporations, and
American universities. Foreign intelligence services continue to grow
more creative and more sophisticated in their methods to steal
innovative technology, critical research and development data, and
intellectual property, which erodes America's leading edge in business
and poses a significant threat to national security.
We remain focused on the growing scope of the insider threat--that
is, when trusted employees and contractors use their legitimate access
to information to steal secrets for the benefit of another company or
country. This threat has been exacerbated in recent years as businesses
have become more global and increasingly exposed to foreign
intelligence organizations.
To combat this threat, the FBI's Counterintelligence Division
educates academic and business partners about how to protect themselves
against economic espionage. We also work with the defense industry,
academic institutions, and the general public to address the increased
targeting of unclassified trade secrets across all American industries
and sectors.
Together with our intelligence and law enforcement partners, we
must continue to protect our trade secrets and our state secrets, and
prevent the loss of sensitive American technology.
Weapons of Mass Destruction
As weapons of mass destruction (WMD) threats continue to evolve,
the FBI uses its statutory authorities to lead all investigations
concerning violations of WMD-related statutes, preparation, assessment,
and responses to WMD threats and incidents within the United States.
The FBI provides timely and relevant intelligence analyses of current
and emerging WMD threats to inform decision makers, support
investigations, and formulate effective countermeasures and tripwires
to prevent attacks.
To ensure an effective national approach to preventing and
responding to WMD threats, the FBI created the Weapons of Mass
Destruction Directorate integrating the necessary counterterrorism,
intelligence, counterintelligence, and scientific and technological
components into one organizational structure. Using this integrated
approach, the Directorate leads WMD policy development, planning, and
response to ensure its efforts result in a comprehensive response
capability that fuses investigative and technical information with
intelligence to effectively resolve WMD threats.
To enable the prevention or disruption of WMD threats or attacks,
FBI headquarters personnel, 56 field WMD coordinators, and two WMD
assistant legal attaches oversee implementation of national and
international initiatives and countermeasures. The FBI conducts
outreach and liaison efforts with critical infrastructure partners, the
private sector, academia, industry, and the scientific community to
implement tripwires that prevent any actor--terrorist, criminal,
insider threat, or lone offender--from successfully acquiring chemical,
biological, radiological, or nuclear material or dissemination
equipment. Through these efforts, the WMD Directorate supports the
broader work of the U.S. Government as a leading partner and active
contributor to policy decisions.
The Counterproliferation Center (CPC) combines the operational
activities of the Counterintelligence Division, the subject matter
expertise of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate (WMDD), and
the analytical capabilities of both components to identify and disrupt
proliferation activities. Since its inception in July 2011, the CPC has
overseen the arrest of approximately 65 individuals, including several
considered by the U.S. Intelligence Community to be major
proliferators. Along with these arrests, the CPC has increased its
operational tempo to collect valuable intelligence on proliferation
networks.
Intelligence
The FBI's efforts to advance its intelligence capabilities have
focused on streamlining and optimizing the organization's intelligence
components while simultaneously positioning the Bureau to carry out its
responsibilities as the lead domestic intelligence agency.
One way the FBI is enhancing our partnerships and our ability to
address threats is through the Domestic Director of National
Intelligence (DNI) Representative Program. Through this program, FBI
senior-level field executives in 12 geographic locations are serving as
DNI representatives throughout the United States. The Domestic DNI
Representatives are working with Intelligence Community partners within
their regions to understand the threat picture and develop a more
coordinated and integrated Intelligence Community enterprise. A more
unified and effective Intelligence Community will enhance the Nation's
ability to share information with our law enforcement and private
sector partners, and will prevent and minimize threats to our national
security.
In addition, we expanded the fusion cell model, which further
integrates our intelligence and operational elements through teams of
analysts embedded with agents in the operational divisions. These
fusion cells examine the national and international picture and provide
intelligence on current and emerging threats across programs, making
connections that are not always visible at the field level. Providing
standard criteria, these cells inform the Threat Review and
Prioritization (TRP) process and develop National Threat Priorities for
the field. The fusion cells assess the FBI's ability to collect
intelligence to identify gaps, inform operational strategies, and
mitigate threats to drive FBI operations. As a result, the fusion cells
and TRP provide the field with clear guidance and a consistent process
to identify priority threats, while ensuring FBI Headquarters has an
effective way to manage and evaluate the most significant threats
facing the country.
This strategic, national-level perspective ensures the FBI is
developing a complete picture of the threat environment and directing
our resources at priority targets to stay ahead of our adversaries.
This integration provides a cross-programmatic view of current threats
and enables a nimble approach to identifying and addressing emerging
threats.
Cyber
We face cyber threats from state-sponsored hackers, hackers for
hire, organized cyber syndicates, and terrorists. They seek our state
secrets, our trade secrets, our technology, and our ideas--things of
incredible value to all of us. They may seek to strike our critical
infrastructure and our economy. The threat is so dire that cyber
security has topped the Director of National Intelligence list of
global threats for the second consecutive year.
Given the scope of the cyber threat, agencies across the Federal
Government are making cyber security a top priority. Within the FBI, we
are targeting high-level intrusions--the biggest and most dangerous
botnets, state-sponsored hackers, and global cyber syndicates. We want
to predict and prevent attacks, rather than reacting after the fact.
FBI agents, analysts, and computer scientists are using technical
capabilities and traditional investigative techniques--such as sources
and wires, surveillance, and forensics--to fight cyber crime. We are
working side-by-side with our Federal, State, and local partners on
Cyber Task Forces in each of our 56 field offices and through the
National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force (NCIJTF). Through our 24-
hour cyber command center, CyWatch, we combine the resources of the FBI
and NCIJTF, allowing us to provide connectivity to Federal cyber
centers, government agencies, FBI field offices and legal attaches, and
the private sector in the event of a cyber intrusion.
We also work with the private sector through partnerships such as
the Domestic Security Alliance Council, InfraGard, and the National
Cyber Forensics and Training Alliance. And we are training our State
and local counterparts to triage local cyber matters, so that we can
focus on national security issues.
Our legal attache offices overseas work to coordinate cyber
investigations and address jurisdictional hurdles and differences in
the law from country to country. We are supporting partners at Interpol
and The Hague as they work to establish international cyber crime
centers. We continue to assess other locations to ensure that our cyber
personnel are in the most appropriate locations across the globe.
We know that to be successful in the fight against cyber crime, we
must continue to recruit, develop, and retain a highly skilled
workforce. To that end, we have developed a number of creative staffing
programs and collaborative private industry partnerships to ensure that
over the long term we remain focused on our most vital resource--our
people.
criminal
We face many criminal threats, from complex white-collar fraud in
the financial, healthcare, and housing sectors to transnational and
regional organized criminal enterprises to violent crime and public
corruption. Criminal organizations--domestic and international--and
individual criminal activity represent a significant threat to our
security and safety in communities across the Nation.
Public Corruption
Public corruption is the FBI's top criminal priority. The threat--
which involves the corruption of local, State, and federally elected,
appointed, or contracted officials--strikes at the heart of government,
eroding public confidence and undermining the strength of our
democracy. It impacts how well U.S. borders are secured and
neighborhoods are protected, how verdicts are handed down in court, and
how well public infrastructure such as schools and roads are built. The
FBI is uniquely situated to address this threat, with our ability to
conduct undercover operations, perform electronic surveillance, and run
complex cases. However, partnerships are critical and we work closely
with Federal, State and local authorities in pursuing these cases. One
key focus is border corruption. The Federal Government protects 7,000
miles of U.S. land border and 95,000 miles of shoreline. Every day,
more than a million visitors enter the country through one of 327
official ports of entry along the Mexican and Canadian borders, as well
as through seaports and international airports. Any corruption at the
border enables a wide range of illegal activities, potentially placing
the entire Nation at risk by letting drugs, guns, money, and weapons of
mass destruction slip into the country, along with criminals,
terrorists, and spies. Another focus concerns election crime. Although
individual States have primary responsibility for conducting fair and
impartial elections, the FBI becomes involved when paramount Federal
interests are affected or electoral abuse occurs.
Financial Crimes
We have witnessed an increase in financial fraud in recent years,
including mortgage fraud, healthcare fraud, and securities fraud.
The FBI and its partners continue to pinpoint the most egregious
offenders of mortgage fraud. With the economy and housing market still
recovering in many areas, we have seen an increase in schemes aimed
both at distressed homeowners and at lenders. Our agents and analysts
are using intelligence, surveillance, computer analysis, and undercover
operations to identify emerging trends and to find the key players
behind large-scale mortgage fraud. We also work closely with the
Department of Housing and Urban Development, Postal Inspectors, the
IRS, the FDIC, and the Secret Service, as well as with State and local
law enforcement offices.
Healthcare spending currently makes up about 18 percent of our
Nation's total economy. These large sums present an attractive target
for criminals--so much so that we lose tens of billions of dollars each
year to healthcare fraud. Healthcare fraud is not a victimless crime.
Every person who pays for healthcare benefits, every business that pays
higher insurance costs to cover their employees, every taxpayer who
funds Medicare, is a victim. Schemes can cause actual patient harm,
including subjecting patients to unnecessary treatment, providing sub-
standard services and supplies, and by passing potentially life-
threatening diseases due to the lack of proper precautions. As
healthcare spending continues to rise, the FBI will use every tool we
have to ensure our healthcare dollars are used to care for the sick--
not to line the pockets of criminals.
Our investigations of corporate and securities fraud have also
increased substantially in recent years. As financial crimes become
more sophisticated, so must the FBI. The FBI continues to use
techniques such as undercover operations and Title III intercepts to
address these criminal threats. These techniques are widely known for
their successful use against organized crime, and they remain a vital
tool to gain concrete evidence against individuals conducting crimes of
this nature on a national level.
Finally, the FBI recognizes the need for increased cooperation with
our regulatory counterparts. Currently, we have embedded agents and
analysts at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission, which allows the FBI to work hand-in-hand
with U.S. regulators to mitigate the corporate and securities fraud
threat. Furthermore, these relationships enable the FBI to identify
fraud trends more quickly, and to work with our operational and
intelligence counterparts in the field to begin criminal investigations
when deemed appropriate.
Gangs/Violent Crime
Violent crimes and gang activities exact a high toll on individuals
and communities. Today's gangs are sophisticated and well organized;
many use violence to control neighborhoods and boost their illegal
money-making activities, which include robbery, drug and gun
trafficking, fraud, extortion, and prostitution rings. Gangs do not
limit their illegal activities to single jurisdictions or communities.
The FBI is able to work across such lines, which is vital to the fight
against violent crime in big cities and small towns across the Nation.
Every day, FBI Special Agents work in partnership with State and local
officers and deputies on joint task forces and individual
investigations.
FBI joint task forces--Violent Crime Safe Streets, Violent Gang
Safe Streets, and Safe Trails Task Forces--focus on identifying and
targeting major groups operating as criminal enterprises. Much of the
Bureau's criminal intelligence is derived from our State, local, and
tribal law enforcement partners, who know their communities inside and
out. Joint task forces benefit from FBI surveillance assets and our
sources track these gangs to identify emerging trends. Through these
multi-subject and multi-jurisdictional investigations, the FBI
concentrates its efforts on high-level groups engaged in patterns of
racketeering. This investigative model enables us to target senior gang
leadership and to develop enterprise-based prosecutions.
Transnational Organized Crime
More than a decade ago, the image of organized crime was of
hierarchical organizations, or families, that exerted influence over
criminal activities in neighborhoods, cities, or States. But organized
crime has changed dramatically. Today, international criminal
enterprises run multi-national, multi-billion-dollar schemes from start
to finish. These criminal enterprises are flat, fluid networks with
global reach. While still engaged in many of the ``traditional''
organized crime activities of loan-sharking, extortion, and murder, new
criminal enterprises are targeting stock market fraud and manipulation,
cyber-facilitated bank fraud and embezzlement, identify theft,
trafficking of women and children, and other illegal activities.
Preventing and combating transnational organized crime demands a
concentrated effort by the FBI and Federal, State, local, and
international partners. The Bureau continues to share intelligence
about criminal groups with our partners, and to combine resources and
expertise to gain a full understanding of each group.
Crimes Against Children
The FBI remains vigilant in its efforts to eradicate predators from
our communities and to keep our children safe. Ready response teams are
stationed across the country to quickly respond to abductions.
Investigators bring to this issue the full array of forensic tools such
as DNA, trace evidence, impression evidence, and digital forensics.
Through improved communications, law enforcement also has the ability
to quickly share information with partners throughout the world, and
our outreach programs play an integral role in prevention.
The FBI also has several programs in place to educate both parents
and children about the dangers posed by predators and to recover
missing and endangered children should they be taken. Through our Child
Abduction Rapid Deployment teams, Innocence Lost National Initiative,
Innocent Images National Initiative, Office of Victim Assistance, and
numerous community outreach programs, the FBI and its partners are
working to keep our children safe from harm.
The FBI established the Child Sex Tourism Initiative to employ
proactive strategies to identify U.S. citizens who travel overseas to
engage in illicit sexual conduct with children. These strategies also
include a multi-disciplinary approach through partnerships with foreign
law enforcement and non-governmental organizations to provide child
victims with available support services. Similarly, the FBI's Innocence
Lost National Initiative serves as the model for the partnership
between Federal, State and local law enforcement in addressing child
prostitution. Since its inception, more than 3,100 children have been
located and recovered. The investigations and subsequent 1,450
convictions have resulted in lengthy sentences, including twelve life
terms.
Indian Country
The FBI continues to maintain primary Federal law enforcement
authority to investigate felony crimes on more than 200 Indian
reservations nationwide. More than 100 Special Agents from 20 different
field offices investigate these cases. In addition, the FBI has 14 Safe
Trails Task Forces that investigate violent crime, drug offenses, and
gangs in Indian Country and we continue to address the emerging threat
from fraud and other white-collar crimes committed against tribal
gaming facilities.
Sexual assault and child sexual assault are two of the FBI's
investigative priorities in Indian Country. Statistics indicate that
American Indians and Alaska Natives suffer violent crime at greater
rates than other Americans. Approximately 75 percent of all FBI Indian
Country investigations concern homicide, crimes against children, or
felony assaults.
The FBI continues to work with tribes through the Tribal Law and
Order Act of 2010 to help tribal governments better address the unique
public safety challenges and disproportionately high rates of violence
and victimization in many tribal communities. The act encourages the
hiring of additional law enforcement officers for Native American
lands, enhances tribal authority to prosecute and punish criminals, and
provides the Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal police officers with
greater access to law enforcement databases.
science & technology
Laboratory Services
The FBI Laboratory (``the Lab'') is one of the largest and most
comprehensive forensic laboratories in the world. Operating out of a
state-of-the-art facility in Quantico, Virginia, laboratory personnel
travel the world on assignment, using science and technology to protect
the Nation and support law enforcement, intelligence, military, and
forensic science partners. The Lab's many services include providing
expert testimony, mapping crime scenes and conducting forensic exams of
physical and hazardous evidence. Lab personnel possess expertise in
many areas of forensics supporting law enforcement and intelligence
purposes, including explosives, trace evidence, documents, chemistry,
cryptography, DNA, facial reconstruction, fingerprints, firearms, and
WMD.
One example of the Lab's key services and programs is the Combined
DNA Index System (CODIS), which blends forensic science and computer
technology into a highly effective tool for linking crimes. It enables
Federal, State, and local forensic labs to exchange and compare DNA
profiles electronically, thereby connecting violent crimes and known
offenders. Using the National DNA Index System of CODIS, the National
Missing Persons DNA Database helps identify missing and unidentified
individuals.
TEDAC is another example. TEDAC was formally established in 2004 to
serve as the single interagency organization to receive, fully analyze,
and exploit all priority terrorist Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).
TEDAC coordinates the efforts of the entire government, including law
enforcement, intelligence, and military entities, to gather and share
intelligence about IEDs. These efforts help disarm and disrupt IEDs,
link them to their makers, and prevent future attacks. Although
originally focused on devices from Iraq and Afghanistan, TEDAC now
receives and analyzes devices from all over the world.
Additionally, FBI Evidence Response Teams (ERTs) are active in all
56 field offices and include more than 1,200 members. The FBI supports
and enables evidence collection capabilities of field ERTs and law
enforcement partners by providing forensic training, resources, and
expertise. The FBI also has forward-deployed evidence response
capabilities to respond to terrorist attacks and criminal incidents
involving hazardous materials (chemical, biological, nuclear, and
radiological) in concert with local officials and FBI WMD experts.
Operational Technology
Terrorists and criminals are increasingly adept at exploiting
cutting-edge technologies to carry out or to mask their crimes. To
counter current and emerging threats, the FBI actively deploys a wide
range of technology-based tools, capabilities, and training that enable
and enhance intelligence, national security, and law enforcement
operations. In addition to developing state-of-the-art tools and
techniques, the FBI also focuses on recruiting and hiring individuals
who possess specialized skills and experience. These dedicated
employees serve as technically trained agents, engineers, computer
scientists, digital forensic examiners, electronics technicians, and
other specialists. Collectively, these specialists enable lawful
electronic surveillance, provide secure communications, decipher
encrypted messages, reverse engineer malware, forensically examine
digital evidence such as images and audio recordings, and much more.
By way of example, the National Domestic Communications Assistance
Center (NDCAC) is designed to leverage and share the law enforcement
community's collective technical knowledge, solutions, and resources to
address the challenges posed by advancing communications services and
technologies. The NDCAC also works on behalf of Federal, State, local,
and tribal law enforcement agencies to strengthen law enforcement's
relationships with the communications industry.
The FBI has also established 16 Regional Computer Forensic
Laboratories (RCFLs) across the Nation. RCFLs serve as one-stop, full-
service forensics laboratories and training centers. All RCFL personnel
in each of the 16 facilities across the country must earn FBI
certification as digital forensics examiners and follow standardized
evidence handling and operating procedures. RCFLs are staffed by
Federal, State, and local law enforcement personnel who examine digital
evidence in support of all types of investigations--cases involving
everything from child pornography and terrorism to violent crime and
economic espionage.
Criminal Justice Information Services
The FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division,
located in Clarksburg, West Virginia, provides Federal, State, and
local enforcement and other authorized users with timely access to
criminal justice information through a number of programs, including
the National Crime Information Center, the Uniform Crime Reporting
program, and the National Instant Criminal Background Checks System.
In addition, CJIS manages the Integrated Automated Fingerprint
Identification System (IAFIS), which provides timely and accurate
identification services by identifying individuals through name, date-
of-birth, fingerprint image comparisons, or other descriptors, and
provides criminal history records on individuals for law enforcement
and civil purposes. IAFIS is designed to process criminal fingerprint
submissions in 2 hours or less and civil submissions in 24 hours or
less. In fiscal year 2013, approximately 62.7 million fingerprint
background checks were processed. The Next Generation Identification
program advances the FBI's biometric identification and investigation
services, providing new biometric functionality such as facial
recognition, improved latent searches, and immediate responses related
to the Repository for Individuals of Special Concern, a fingerprint
index of wanted persons, sexual offender registry subjects, known or
appropriately suspected terrorists, and other persons of special
interest.
CJIS also manages the Law Enforcement National Data Exchange (N-
DEx), a criminal justice information sharing network that allows law
enforcement agencies to share law enforcement records from more than
4,500 agencies with nearly 140,000 criminal justice users. The N-DEx
network contains more than 225 million searchable records (incident
reports, arrest reports, booking data, etc.). It is projected that by
the end of fiscal year 2014, N-DEx information sharing will be
available to law enforcement agencies representing almost 60 percent of
the U.S. population.
critical incident response group
The Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG) is a ``one stop shop''
for responding rapidly to crisis situations worldwide. Its
professionals are on call around the clock, ready to support FBI
operations and Federal, State, local, and international law enforcement
partners in managing critical incidents and major investigations.
The National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC)
provides operational support to FBI agents and law enforcement
personnel on complex and time-sensitive cases.
The Behavioral Threat Assessment Center (BTAC) assesses the
potential threat of violence posed by persons of concern and as
reflected in threatening communications. Issues traditionally addressed
by the BTAC include school and workplace attacks, threats against
Members of Congress and public figures, and threatening communications.
The Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) is the national
repository for violent crime cases--specifically those involving
homicides, sexual assaults, missing persons, and unidentified human
remains--helping to draw links between seemingly unconnected crimes. In
2008, the FBI launched the ViCAP Web National Crime Database, which is
available to law enforcement agencies through the secure Law
Enforcement Online (LEO) website. Investigators can search ViCAP Web
for nationwide cases similar to theirs and communicate with other U.S.
law enforcement agencies to coordinate investigations based on these
linkages. More than 5,000 Federal, State, and local law enforcement
agencies have contributed to the 85,000-case ViCAP national violent
crime database.
Active Shooter Training
In the aftermath of the tragedy at Sandy Hook elementary school,
the President announced the Now Is the Time initiative focused on
protecting children and communities by reducing gun violence. A
critical component of this initiative focuses on schools, institutions
of higher education, and houses of worship. The FBI was assigned to
lead law enforcement training to ensure coordination among agencies. To
that end, we have trained more than 9,600 senior State, local, tribal,
and campus law enforcement executives at conferences hosted by FBI
field offices, and trained more than 6,300 first responders through
tabletop exercises designed around facts similar to recent school
shootings. To date, the FBI has provided our Advanced Law Enforcement
Rapid Response Training course, an active shooter training program, to
more than 1,400 officers from 613 agencies.
Tactical Operations & Crisis Response
CIRG has a range of tactical resources and programs that support
and provide oversight to the FBI and its partners. For example, each
FBI field office has a SWAT team that is equipped with a wide array of
specialized weaponry and is trained to engage in hazardous operations
such as barricaded subjects, high-risk arrest/search warrants,
patrolling through adverse terrain, and--in some field offices--
maritime interdictions. These teams include crisis negotiators who
routinely respond to prison sieges, hostage takings, and kidnappings
nationwide and provide assistance to State and local police
negotiators. CIRG also manages the FBI Hostage Rescue Team--the U.S.
Government's non-military, full-time counterterrorist tactical team--
which provides enhanced manpower, training, and resources to confront
the most complex threats.
The Hazardous Devices School at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville,
Alabama, is the Nation's only facility for training and certifying
public safety bomb technicians to render safe hazardous devices.
Managed by the FBI, the school has trained more than 20,000 State and
local first responders since it opened in 1971. A natural extension of
this school can be found in the FBI's own 249 Special Agent bomb
technicians, who provide training to local and State bomb squads and
serve as the workforce for the FBI's explosives-related operations
worldwide.
victim assistance
Through the Office for Victim Assistance (OVA), the FBI ensures
that victims of crimes investigated by the FBI are afforded the
opportunity to receive the services and notifications required by
Federal law and the Attorney General Guidelines on Victim and Witness
Assistance. Among its many services, OVA provides on-scene help to
crime victims, assesses and triages their needs, and helps victims
identify and secure counseling, housing, medical attention, and legal
and immigration assistance. When other resources are not available, OVA
administers special Victims of Crime Act funds to meet victims'
emergency needs, including reunification travel, crime scene cleanup,
replacement clothing, and shipment of victims' remains.
Special services are provided to child victims. The Child
Pornography Victim Assistance Program coordinates support and
notification services for child victims of pornography and their
guardians. The Forensic Child Interviewing Program ensures that
investigative interviews of child victims and witnesses of Federal
crimes are tailored to the child's stage of development and minimize
any additional trauma. Additionally, a detailed protocol was recently
developed for providing support to families of abducted children and
assisting with post-recovery reunification and follow-up services. OVA
is partnering with the Criminal Investigative Division's Violent Crimes
Against Children Section and other agencies and organizations to
improve the response to and services for minor victims of sex
trafficking.
The Terrorism and Special Jurisdiction Program provides emergency
assistance to injured victims and families of American victims killed
in terrorist attacks and serves as a permanent point of contact for
terrorism victims. Victim Assistance Rapid Deployment Teams provide
immediate, on-scene assistance to victims of domestic terrorism and
mass violence, often at the request of local law enforcement agencies.
These highly trained and experienced teams have responded to numerous
mass casualty crimes since 2006, most recently to tragedies at Sandy
Hook Elementary School, the Washington Navy Yard, and at the Boston
Marathon.
information technology
The FBI's Information and Technology Branch (ITB) provides
enterprise-wide IT products and services to more than 36,000 FBI
employees, contractors, and task force members, including managing more
than 114,000 workstations and 46 mission-critical systems.
The target of the ITB's current modernization efforts is to create
the future FBI Information Environment. Technology provides a distinct
advantage, allowing FBI users access to their critical data when,
where, and how they need it. The FBI Information Environment will
support development of new mission and business functionality within a
defined and controlled IT framework. These modernization efforts will
move the FBI toward an agile, responsive, and efficient services-based
operating model, emphasizing reuse of enterprise services both to
increase cost savings and to enhance the reliability of IT
infrastructure and applications.
international offices
One of the fundamental challenges of the 21st Century is stopping
overseas threats from compromising the security of the United States.
For this reason, the FBI maintains more than 80 offices overseas that
cover more than 200 countries and territories. Though our successes
have been many, the increase in crimes with an overseas nexus shows we
must do more.
The FBI continues to look for opportunities to open offices
worldwide in the Middle East, Africa, Eurasia, the Americas, and Asia
to target emerging terrorist, cyber, and criminal threats. Staff have
strong cross-programmatic skills and work side-by-side with sister
agencies, host governments, and corporate partners to take on threats.
By targeting terrorists and criminals on their home turf--before their
plots take shape--the FBI can stop those who wish to harm the United
States before they have the capability to do so.
training
In fiscal year 2014, the FBI plans to graduate approximately seven
new groups of trainees by the end of the fiscal year--more than 300
Special Agents. We also hope to fill six classes of new intelligence
analysts.
The National Academy provides law enforcement executives and
investigators from State and local law enforcement agencies worldwide
with advanced leadership training. The National Academy has continued
to trained more executives, adding to its total of more than 47,000
graduates to date.
The FBI provides leadership, intelligence, and law enforcement
assistance to its international training partners through a variety of
programs designed to establish and strengthen cooperation and liaison
between the FBI and its overseas counterparts. Courses offered include
organized crime cases, anti-gang strategies, terrorist crime scene
investigations, and street survival techniques. The FBI also
administers the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in
Budapest, Hungary, and supports other academies in Bangkok, Thailand;
Gaborone, Botswana; and San Salvador, El Salvador; as well as the
Regional Training Center in Lima, Peru. The curriculums of these
academies are based on the FBI National Academy model. To date, more
than 11,100 students have received ILEA training.
Other key training programs include Leadership in Counterterrorism,
which has trained more than 400 upper-level counterterrorism executives
from State or national police agencies and chiefs or deputy chiefs of
local agencies to date; the Domestic Security Executive Academy, which
has trained more than 340 Federal executives and Fortune 1,000
corporate security executives; the Law Enforcement Executive
Development Seminar (LEEDS), a two-week program designed for chief
executive officers of the Nation's mid-sized law enforcement agencies;
and the National Executive Institute (NEI), a two-week executive
training program that provides strategic leadership education and
partnership opportunities for executives from the highest levels of the
FBI and the largest U.S. and international law enforcement agencies.
leadership development
We created the Leadership Development Program (LDP) to help prepare
FBI employees to lead before taking formal leadership positions, by
providing relevant tools, courses, and developmental experiences needed
for success. These efforts are fostering a Bureau-wide cultural shift
toward promoting long-term individual development to better operate in
quickly developing transitions and crises.
Since 2009, LDP has built a variety of integrated programs,
including onboarding for both new employees and specific positions such
as executives and senior managers, in-depth courses for both current
and new supervisors and program managers, and a developmental program
to prepare aspiring leaders before they are promoted. LDP's various
programs were created by employees, for employees, and are designed to
build upon one another over the course of an employee's career. They
were originally benchmarked against successful models from our
military, law enforcement, and intelligence partners, as well as
private companies; as LDP has grown, other government agencies now
reach out to benchmark against the FBI.
offsets
The FBI's fiscal year 2015 budget request includes an offset of
$168 million to pay for increases in existing costs, including pay
raises, Federal Employees Retirement System contributions, State
Department charges, and General Services Administration (GSA) rent,
among others. The offset will be achieved through a combination of
program efficiencies and administrative savings. In addition, the
fiscal year 2015 request includes a $12 million offset to the Secure
Work Environment (SWE) program. In fiscal year 2015, the SWE program
will continue to maintain existing facilities while providing an
increase in capabilities at high priority locations.
conclusion
Responding to this complex and ever-changing threat environment is
not new to the FBI. The resources this subcommittee provides each year
are critical for the FBI's ability to address existing and emerging
national security and criminal threats.
Chairwoman Mikulski, Vice Chairman Shelby, and members of the
subcommittee, I would like to close by thanking you for this
opportunity to discuss the FBI's priorities. Chairwoman Mikulski, we
are grateful for the leadership that you and this subcommittee have
provided to the FBI. We would not be in the position we are today
without your support. Your investments in our workforce, our
technology, and our infrastructure make a difference every day at FBI
offices in the United States and around the world, and we thank you for
that support.
I look forward to answering any questions you may have.
Senator Mikulski. Well, that was very compelling testimony,
Director. I think it was organized in the way our priorities
are in terms of our national security threats, our criminal
threats, support to our partners, particularly in our country,
and those that are around the world.
BUDGET
But the FBI is, in terms of its $8 billion--and I think
it's a bargain for what we get for $8 billion, when you think
of the magnitude, of the number of agents, the analysts, the
support staff, 60 places around the world, 56 field offices
here.
But your request really goes to people. It's not a big
plane, it's not a big aircraft carrier. What we were able to do
in fiscal year 2014 on a bipartisan basis I think allowed you
to bring in 1,000 new critical positions; is that right?
Mr. Comey. Yes, which I'm trying to fill by October 1.
Senator Mikulski. Now, what in terms of--what is it that we
need to help you keep that momentum going? The talent is not a
spigot you can turn on. Unlike--and we're not knocking our
friends in defense, but you know you can delay the purchase of
an aircraft carrier, you can buy one less fighter plane, save a
half a billion dollars. But here talent, both the trainers that
you need, again at Quantico, and then the ability to recruit--
people, they don't want to be in a spigot job; they want to be
in a real job, you know, where the spigot's on.
Tell us what we need to do in our line items to really
sustain the momentum and provide the adequacy in particularly
key areas?
Mr. Comey. Thank you, Senator Mikulski. As you said, the
FBI is people. I have no battleships, no satellites. I have
great men and women. What I need is to be able to hire the
people that I'm trying to hire by October 1st and then continue
to hire, because we're down almost 2,500 positions. So I need
to be able to hire the new folks next fiscal year and pay and
support those that we bring on this year. So just to continue
the progress is what I need.
Senator Mikulski. The purpose of this hearing is not fiscal
year 2016, but then the biggest threat to your momentum would
be not a stringent budget in fiscal year 2016, but a sequester
that just goes across the board; is that correct?
Mr. Comey. Yes, that would be sort of back to the future
for us. If that were to happen, we'd again be in the position
where we'd be rationing gas and not filling vacancies, and we'd
be back to what we experienced the last 2 years.
STATE AND LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT
Senator Mikulski. Now, let's go to State and local law
enforcement in my time. These partnerships are key. We don't
have a national police force. America doesn't want it. But we
have an FBI that provides national resources and deals with
Federal crime.
You, meaning the Federal level, rely on local law
enforcement to be eyes, ears, boots on the ground. It's the
local police commissioner and the local police officer that
often sees something and says something that makes a
difference, whether it's fighting crime or dealing with the
terrorist threat.
I note a cut in the State and local law enforcement area.
What do you anticipate in order, again, to sustain and maintain
the relationships and the effort at the local level, like
fighting gangs that I know Senator Kirk is so devoted to, a
great concern of mine in the Baltimore area, the whole issue of
child predators and the trafficking in children. So could you
share with us then what you need in that area?
Mr. Comey. Certainly, Senator. There's nothing we do--not
nothing we do at all, but certainly nothing we do that matters,
that we don't do in partnership with State and local law
enforcement. The days of the lone fed are long gone. We work
together to make sure we're gaining maximum leverage from each
other, whether that's protecting kids, protecting
neighborhoods, or protecting the Nation from terrorists.
A bedrock of our counterterrorism response is our Joint
Terrorism Task Forces. We have over 100. They are 50 percent
State, local, and other Federal law enforcement agencies. So
those partnerships are vital. Part of the glue that holds those
partnerships together is our ability to offer training and
technical assistance to our brothers and sisters at the State
and local level. We had to shut all that down before the budget
was passed at the end of January. So now we are again offering
that training and assistance, and I'd like to be able to
continue that.
Senator Mikulski. There are other questions that I have,
but I'm going to yield to Senator Shelby.
Senator Shelby. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll try to be
brief, but I have a number of questions, Madam Chair.
CYBER SECURITY
Director Comey, you've acknowledged the growing cyber
security threat that was mentioned by the chair, facing our
Nation and the challenges that are inherent in facilitating
private industry reporting of attacks. It's been told to us
that private industry often believes that their reports fall on
deaf ears because they receive no feedback or little feedback
or follow-up information about the status of some of the
reports. This perception could be a serious impediment to the
kind of information-sharing that you envision. I think it's
important.
My question is what steps are you taking or will you take
to foster relationships with private industry and in turn
increase the number of private industry participants in the
Bureau's reporting system, which I think is essential here? And
would you also speak directly to the concerns regarding the
industry reporting process and the fact that the information
exchange is perceived as a one-way street? You know, it's got
to be both because you have to rely on a lot of that.
Mr. Comey. Thank you, Senator. Great question and a really
important topic. One of the many great things about our amazing
country is that our Internet is almost entirely in private
hands. That's the way it should be. That's the engine of
entrepreneurship and creativity in this country. One of the
challenges that poses is that without the ability to share
information effectively between the government and private
enterprise, the law enforcers are left patrolling a street
that, if you imagine, almost has 30-foot high solid walls on
either side. I can declare that the street is safe, but I'm not
really protecting the neighborhood because it's on the other
side of the wall.
We have to find a way to share information in both
directions, consistent with protecting the great liberties that
underlie this country. So we at the FBI, and the Federal
Government as a whole, have to get better at sharing actionable
information with the private sector; not just telling them
there's a problem in your system, but telling them, here's what
it is, here's what it means, here's what you can do about it.
And they need to do the same. They have a lot of smart people
in private industry. When they see something, they've got to be
able to share it with us.
So there are two things need to be done. We have to get
better, and we're developing a whole host of ways to be more
effective at our information-sharing. And we have to offer them
clear rules of the road, so when they're looking to share
information with us they understand how it will be used and how
it might affect their shareholders, if it exposes them to
lawsuits, and all the other things that come in this great
country. So that bipartisan clarity needs to be offered.
Senator Shelby. You're going to work on that, aren't you?
Mr. Comey. We're working like crazy on that.
Senator Shelby. That's good.
HAZARDOUS DEVICES SCHOOL
The Hazardous Devices School. The FBI's Hazardous Devices
School trains and certifies public safety bomb technicians. You
know this well.
Mr. Comey. Yes, sir.
Senator Shelby. In addition to providing basic training for
bomb technicians, the Hazardous Devices School of the Bureau is
also responsible for providing training in electronic
countermeasures and advanced training in priority threat
scenarios. State and local technicians are the first line of
defense in responding to bomb threats, working with the Bureau.
Ensuring that they're aware of the latest trends and are
properly trained I think is very important and this school does
a lot of this.
Could you talk just for a few minutes about the training
capacity of your Hazardous Devices School today, specifically
the number of students that it can accommodate, the number of
classes offered annually, and the need that exists in terms of
recertifying, as we evolve, the bomb technicians? And is there
an unmet training need in the community, and if so how can we
address it, because we've got 300 million people and we do have
some threats.
Mr. Comey. Yes. Thank you, Senator. We have many.
One of the hidden gems of this country is the Hazardous
Devices School, where, as you said, Senator, we train all bomb
techs in the United States. So it's an effort that's a joint
Federal effort that includes the Department of Defense, which
is a key partner in the Hazardous Devices School. So it is a
vital basic building block for people who want to become
special agent bomb techs or want to become bomb techs in police
departments.
What we need to do to make sure we're taking advantage of
that gem is be able to offer advanced training certifications
for people who have gone out and become bomb techs to come back
to get refresher training and to get advanced training on the
latest devices and threats. So we've done a good job at
offering the basic training. What we need to find a way to do
is to re-source that additional training and sophisticated
refresher training for those bomb techs.
Senator Shelby. You're going to have to get ahead of the
terrorists in many ways, are you not?
Mr. Comey. Yes.
Senator Shelby. Because if you lag behind technically
speaking, we're in a real threat area.
Mr. Comey. Yes, sir. There are smart, evil people laying
awake at night trying to find ways to defeat us and to find the
next thing that we haven't caught up with. We need to be just
as smart and just as wide awake.
TERRORIST EXPLOSIVE DEVICE ANALYTICAL CENTER
Senator Shelby. The Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical
Center, as we call it, TEDAC, is the single inter-agency
organization to receive, fully analyze, and exploit all
terrorist improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. Much of the
TEDAC's work has come from Iraq and Afghanistan. But as U.S.
forces withdraw from Afghanistan, TEDAC's focus will shift. I
believe that the IED threat that we face at home or could face
in the future makes the work of TEDAC probably more important
than ever.
What's the FBI's vision for a postwar TEDAC and will the
skills and capabilities shift with the threat, and if so what
will it look like? Because you've got to be nimble here.
Although we've been fortunate and the Bureau's done a great job
and other law enforcement people, we can't be so smug or secure
to think that people can't build those improvised explosive
devices here, because they can. What are your thoughts in this?
Mr. Comey. That's exactly right, Senator. TEDAC is a
lifesaver. It has saved lives in Afghanistan and in Iraq. It
saves lives all around the world. And I agree with you
completely, the drawdown in Iraq and Afghanistan will not
signal a drawdown in terrorist efforts to kill us with these
explosive devices. In fact, what's happened is a lot of the
terrorists have learned techniques in the war zones that
they're now looking to spread around the world. So we have to
stay on top of our game there. We need to continue to make sure
we're drawing on the military for their advice and guidance.
But TEDAC will save lives for the indefinite future because the
threat is indefinite.
Senator Shelby. Madam Chair, I have a couple of more
questions that I'd like to submit for the record for the
Director, because I know we have another closed hearing after
this.
Senator Mikulski. Without objection, so ordered.
I want to turn now to Senator Boozman, but before I do I
want to acknowledge that Senator Kirk was here. He has a
longstanding interest and advocacy in this area.
We're doing 60 hearings in 6 weeks to move our deadlines.
So Senators are stretched. But we want to also acknowledge that
if Senator Kirk has any questions we'll submit them to the
record. We also know his longstanding interest in fighting
gangs, as we noted, and I'm sure he'll have questions in this
area.
Senator Boozman.
Senator Boozman. Thank you, Madam Chair, very much.
Thanks for being here. We appreciate you and appreciate the
great job that the FBI does and the dedication that's
represented there.
AGRICULTURE ESPIONAGE
Recently in Arkansas we had a situation where some people
were arrested for espionage in the farm sector. I'd like for
you to talk about that a little bit. I think there's a lot of
surprise that we saw that in Arkansas, again in the farm
sector. Something I think is really important, it's kind of
like--I'm an optometrist by training, an eye doctor, and so
it's much better to prevent things than it is to let them
happen. Can you talk a little bit about some of the things that
you are doing, some of the things you'd like to do that aren't
getting done, to really make our companies, make us as a
Congress, aware that these things are going on, how we can help
you in that regard?
ESPIONAGE
Mr. Comey. Yes, thank you, Senator. There's no doubt that
foreign nation-states, especially China, want to steal our
ideas. The ideas of America are not just in Internet companies.
They're often in the creative work that agriculture companies
are doing to develop disease-resistant seeds or crops that will
produce greater yields with less water, things that will help
people.
The source of that entrepreneurship and that energy are the
great people here in the United States working in labs and
working in companies. There are countries around the world
that, rather than do that work, would like to steal it from us,
which would sap that energy and that entrepreneurship and kill
that spirit that's at the center of this country.
So it's something we focus on constantly. It's the reason
we have counterintelligence at the top of our list, because
there are people in cases that we've brought who are looking to
steal seed technology, every bit as much as people want to
steal intellectual property on the Internet. So what we're
doing is trying to make sure we're aggressive in those cases,
so that when we catch folks doing that, they understand there's
a cost to it. We're going to lock people up for that. It's not
a freebie to take America's seed technology. And we're trying
to put in place tripwires so that companies, whether it's
agricultural companies or whether it's a software company,
understand when they see something that doesn't seem right to
them, they've got to call us, because bad people are looking to
steal things that matter to you enormously.
Those tripwires are very valuable and contributed in the
case that you were referring to and other cases that we've
brought that relate to agricultural theft.
Senator Boozman. Very good.
CYBER SECURITY
In a related area, cyber security, certainly you are doing
a lot in that regard, I think hopefully in educating and again
in getting after folks that are doing that. The private sector
is doing a pretty good job of that, and the private sector has
a tendency to perhaps be a little bit more innovative or move a
little quicker with things. Can you talk about some of the
public-private partnerships that you're pursuing in that
regard, or are you pursuing public-private partnerships?
Mr. Comey. Yes, we are, Senator, for the reasons you said.
I spent the last 8 years working at two world-class companies
in two different industries and there's no doubt that private
industry is spending the money to get the talent on board to
think in a good way about those challenges. So they've got a
lot of brainpower.
We have to be smart by connecting ourselves to that
brainpower. I've got a lot of smart people. I don't have all
the smart people in the world. A whole lot of them are in
private enterprise. So as I said in response to Senator Shelby,
we have to get better at connecting ourselves.
Therefore a bunch of different ways in which we're trying
to do that. We have an effort called Infraguard, where we're
trying to join together in partnership all around the country
with private industry. We have something called DSAC, the
Domestic Security Alliance Council, to accomplish the same
mission. But whatever it's name, we need to make sure we're
connected to them.
One of the obstacles is we live in a litigious society--I
was the general counsel of two companies and I know as the
general counsel you worry: if I cooperate with the government,
is someone going to sue me, claim that I violated some
obligation to protect information? It's one of the reasons I
think it's so important that we, through legislation, offer
those clear rules of the road to those general counsels so they
can tell their tech geeks, you can go ahead and share this and
here's what the rules are.
LEGAL ATTACHE OFFICES
Senator Boozman. You mentioned in your testimony about
opportunities to establish offices worldwide, in the Middle
East, Africa. Can you talk about some of the barriers that
you're running into in that regard or some of the obstacles
perhaps that you face in trying to get that done?
Mr. Comey. Well, in our Legal Attache program--we call them
``LEGATs''--we have 64, I think that is the number, around the
world. I have visited now ten of them and discovered that they
are, as I said, not just a representative of the FBI, but of
the entire United States, a tremendous force multiplier for us.
So the obstacle is I simply need to make sure that I
identify more good people and have the resources to develop
those offices at embassies around the world. So I'm going to be
looking to do more of that early in my tenure. It's simply a
question of identifying the talent and having the resources to
do it.
Senator Boozman. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Senator Mikulski. Thank you, Senator.
The question of the international assistance I think is
really something the committee needs to pay attention to. I
believe there are 60 LEGAT offices around the world. Am I
correct?
Mr. Comey. I think the number is 64.
Senator Mikulski. Some are micro, but some are robust in
countries where we need to be robust or have been invited?
Mr. Comey. Yes, that's exactly right.
Senator Mikulski. And they're not secret. They're known. In
other words, the private sector--first of all, the host country
knows, etcetera.
Mr. Comey. That's correct.
Senator Mikulski. They're usually cooperating locally and
working regionally; am I correct?
Mr. Comey. That's correct, Senator.
Senator Mikulski. You want to add 14--the President's
budget and I believe yours is 14 positions, for a modest $3.2
million; is that correct?
Mr. Comey. That's correct. That's what I meant by the
resources to spread that great thing a little bit farther out.
Senator Mikulski. Yes. And it would mean a lot to some of
these countries for us to have a presence?
Mr. Comey. Oh, yes. I got a call this morning with a
foreign counterpart who asked me about that. They find them
incredibly valuable as a gateway that swings both ways. It gets
our country information, but also helps them get assistance,
especially training for their law enforcement.
Senator Mikulski. And a presence, that the FBI is not the
KGB.
Mr. Comey. We are not.
Senator Mikulski. That's what I hear a lot.
Mr. Comey. Nice to show people that.
Senator Mikulski. Yes.
Senator Murkowski.
Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Good morning, Director. I appreciate your leadership here.
A couple years ago when your predecessor, Director Mueller,
appeared before our subcommittee--this was in 2012--Senator
Hutchison, who served on the committee as well, she and I asked
him about the possible FBI misconduct in the investigation and
the prosecution of Senator Ted Stevens. I'm assuming or I'm
hopeful that in preparation for today's hearing your staff
might have told you that it was a whistleblower complaint of an
FBI agent named Chad Joy that first brought the misconduct to
light.
EMPLOYER MISCONDUCT RELATING TO STEVENS INVESTIGATION
I haven't heard anything about the FBI's probe into Agent
Joy's allegations since 2012. So the question that I have for
you this morning: The Director at that meeting told the
committee that the FBI's investigation of employee misconduct
is still pending relating to the Stevens investigation. That
was 2 years ago. We're here in 2014. So the question is whether
or not the FBI's investigation has been concluded and, if so,
what was the outcome of that investigation, and if there has
been any corrective action taken if you could inform me?
SENATOR STEVENS INVESTIGATION
Mr. Comey. Yes, Senator. Thank you for the question and for
the opportunity to update you. I did learn about this in the
last week and get briefed in detail. The Office of Professional
Responsibility, OPR, inside FBI did investigate in response and
identified an agent who had engaged in improper conduct, and
the agent was severely disciplined. The discipline has been
imposed. On top of that, we pushed out refresher training to
the entire workforce, especially about our discovery
obligations and how we expect them to conduct themselves during
those investigations.
So both broad remedial work was done and individual
discipline was imposed for the agent involved.
Senator Murkowski. Was there a report that was prepared,
and if so would you be able to provide the subcommittee with a
copy of that?
Mr. Comey. I don't know--I'm sure something was written up
because we always have written support for discipline imposed.
I'll check and get back to you on it.
[The information follows:]
opr report on ted stevens case agent
Sensitive employee personnel information is contained in Office of
Professional Responsibility reports. As such, the FBI can provide a
briefing on these documents in an appropriate setting.
Senator Murkowski. I'd appreciate that.
I had also asked about whether or not the agent who had
brought this issue to the forefront, Agent Joy, had received
any recognition from the FBI for really stepping up there.
Director Mueller indicated at that time he didn't know whether
or not there had been anything that had been done to recognize
Agent Joy.
In fact what happened was that Agent Joy left the Bureau.
He believes that his career was undermined by the
whistleblowing. Again, as you are looking to this issue, if you
might look into this specific situation regarding Agent Joy and
really whether or not the Bureau did right by him, because I
think we all pay attention to what goes on with whistleblower
situations, but if there is a perspective or a view within the
agency that not only are whistleblowers not rewarded, but in
fact there are consequences, negative consequences at the end,
that's something that I think we need to certainly be aware of.
Mr. Comey. Thank you for raising that. I don't know, but
I'll find out.
[The information follows:]
agent joy whistleblowing
The FBI can provide a briefing on this sensitive personnel matter
in an appropriate setting.
Senator Murkowski. I appreciate that.
Mr. Comey. Because I share your belief that whistleblowers
are essential to a healthy institution. And I have a practice
now where I call individual agents and support people around
the country to thank them, for not famous acts, but for good
pieces of work. So I'm going to follow up and find out where
this fellow is, because maybe it's worth a phone call from me.
Senator Murkowski. I appreciate that.
HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN NATIVE COMMUNITIES
One final question then for you, and this relates to human
trafficking in our Native communities, not a subject that any
of us want to talk about particularly, but I think that this is
an area that is grossly underreported. Research that documents
the extent of a problem is often done in the universities and
think tanks. My alma mater out in Oregon, Willamette University
Law School, released a report on the extent of human
trafficking in Oregon. In Alaska, it's the Salvation Army that
has made the note that Natives are one of the populations most
vulnerable to human trafficking. Traffickers apparently will
sell Alaska Native women and girls believing that their
ethnicity is more appealing to buyers. It sickens you to even
be discussing it.
The FBI budget document speaks to the Bureau's role in
human trafficking, but it doesn't specifically address the
commitment of resources to human trafficking that involves
Native women, American Indians or Alaska Native women. We all
know that this problem is continuing to grow. So I'd ask what
the Bureau is doing today to address the problem, what more you
could be doing in these areas, and in terms of your statistical
capabilities to what extent is the Bureau able to track to
victimization of American Indians, Alaska Native women who are
trafficked, and is there more that we can do to focus on this
demographic?
Mr. Comey. Thank you for the question. The answer is I
don't know, but it's something that I need to get smarter
about, because I learned a lot in the 6, 7 months I've been on
the job about human trafficking and I've been shocked by it,
just as you are, and about crime in Native American
communities. But I have not thought well about this specific
human trafficking issue in Native American communities, but I
will.
This question of research is also very interesting to me. I
don't know whether we do a good enough job at the national
level to think well about the problem. Chairman Wolf in the
House has suggested that maybe we ought to add that capability
to the National Gang Intelligence Center, so that we have
people who wake up every morning thinking about it
holistically, which is also something I'm going to look at.
But I will get smarter and get back to you.
[The information follows:]
human trafficking of native americans
The FBI is actively engaged in efforts to identify and combat human
trafficking involving tribal communities. The FBI has strengthened its
work through ongoing collaboration with U.S. Attorney's Offices and
other Federal, State, local, and tribal partners. Through these
partnerships, the FBI provides training, conducts investigations, and
supports trafficking victims in tribal areas, including, in South
Dakota and the Bakken oil-producing region of North Dakota and Montana.
In January 2014, the FBI Office for Victim Assistance collaborated
with the FBI Civil Rights Unit and Violent Crimes Against Children
Section, as well as the Department of Health and Human Services, to
conduct Webinar trainings for FBI personnel to commemorate National
Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Training topics
included: coordinating large scale operations that focus on domestic
minor sex trafficking; human trafficking in Indian Country and the
Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana; identifying resources and
services available to adult and foreign minor victims of human
trafficking; and, understanding and identifying labor trafficking.
Senator Murkowski. I appreciate that. We have resources
clearly in Alaska that have been looking very specific to the
issues as it relates to Alaska Native women, and I know your
folks on the ground up north are very capable in this area. But
if we can have a broader understanding as to the issue in this
country as it relates to our indigenous people, particularly
our women and girls, I think it would be a very important
focus.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Senator Mikulski. The vice chairman has an additional
question. I just would like to amplify what Senator Murkowski
has said. Both she and then Senator Cantwell, who chaired our
Committee on Indian Affairs that's Pacific Northwest-focused,
have spent a lot of time really on what is happening to Native
Americans in this country and particularly the women and the
children. They're not only a great resource to you, but a great
way for you, to point you to these resources where a lot of
work has been done, but not a lot of action has happened.
Does that summarize it, Senator?
Senator Murkowski. Yes.
Senator Mikulski. So look to us here and we can help you
get smart about it, and then let's get a real action plan.
Senator Shelby.
Senator Shelby. Thank you, Madam Chair.
CHILD EXPLOITATION AND CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
I want to follow up on this area, Mr. Director. I have
visited Eastern Europe and the Ukraine and other areas where a
lot of the human trafficking of young women that have been
abused, to say the least, as you well know, into forced
prostitution of different kinds, child pornography, everything,
just small children. That is a big, big business, especially
the child pornography. It's international in scope. It's
obviously--it's hard to stamp out.
But in America, a lot of Americans are buying movies of
this. It's sickening. But on the Banking Committee I remember
Senator Sarbanes--I was chairman on the committee and he was
ranking, and then he was chairman and I was ranking. We worked
together on this a lot, dealing with the payment system,
because the key is the credit card system, how do you pay for
it?
The FBI and the Justice Department have been very good.
It's very complex, very hard to discern everything. But it's
one of the worst things that you could imagine, and you have.
And if you have children or grandchildren or both, you think,
my gosh. But the trafficking, the human trafficking of young
women and young children and the exploitation of it is
something that the Bureau has been very good and the Justice
Department. But it's such a massive thing to get our hands
around.
Do you want to address that at all, and the FBI's interest
here?
Mr. Comey. It is a massive problem, as big as the Internet.
The explosion of the Internet has brought with it an explosion
in child exploitation and child pornography. It's an enormous
machine that at the back end people are viewing child
pornography, at the front end children are being fed into the
engine. It's one of the reasons that it drives me a bit crazy
when I hear people say: Oh, they were just looking at child
pornography. Your just looking at child pornography, first of
all, is sick in and of itself and raises serious concerns about
whether you're abusing children in your own life.
Senator Shelby. But it pays for it.
Mr. Comey. Yes. But it's their desire to see fresh images
that powers the engine at the front and leads to this voracious
consumption of child pornography. So there's no such thing in
my view as just looking at child pornography. It's a serious
crime. It has to be taken seriously. It's something that, as
Senator Mikulski knows--who is one of the great supporters of
our ``Innocent Images'' program--it's something we are
passionate about. We have to send a message both to those who
would profit from the business, those who would view and become
the consumers that drives this engine, and those who would
touch the children and destroy them to produce those images. So
we have to hit the whole train.
Senator Shelby. Have you had real cooperation from, say,
the people of the Ukraine and Russia and some of these other
countries where a lot of this trafficking and filming and
everything takes place?
Mr. Comey. The answer is yes, because, despite what
political differences we may have, all humans are revolted by
the abuse of children, exploitation of children. So that's an
area in which we can find common ground even with the folks in
Russia.
Senator Shelby. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
ADDITIONAL COMMITTEE QUESTIONS
Senator Mikulski. There are many more questions to be
asked, but we're now going to move to our classified hearing.
So this subcommittee will temporarily recess and reconvene in
closed session at the secure facility in the Capitol Visitors
Center, where we can consider those matters that require more
classified conversation, particularly in the global war against
terrorism, espionage, and these other vile, vile, and repugnant
international crimes against children.
[The following questions were not asked at the hearing, but
were submitted to the agency for response subsequent to the
hearing:]
Questions Submitted by Senator Patrick J. Leahy
shooting of ibragim todashev
Question. What measures have you taken to ensure the American
people that FBI shooting incidents, including the one in Florida last
May, are investigated fairly and independently?
Answer. In 1982, then Director William Webster approved the
establishment of the Shooting Incident Review Group (SIRG) which is
comprised of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the
Department of Justice (DOJ) representatives to review and assess all
shooting incidents involving FBI personnel. The SIRG provides the
Director and FBI Headquarter Executive Management evaluative analyses,
observations, and recommendations concerning operational, training, and
other relevant issues, including the need for referral to the DOJ,
Office of Inspector General (OIG), or the FBI's Internal Investigations
Section for further administrative or disciplinary review, if deemed
necessary. In 1995, the DOJ Office of Investigative Agency Policies
adopted ``Resolution 13,'' which further formalized the process by
which DOJ investigative agencies conduct post shooting incident
reviews. Central to ``Resolution 13'' was the requirement that the
intentional and unintentional discharge of a firearm by a DOJ employee
be expeditiously reported, documented, investigated, and reviewed.
In accordance with the establishment of the SIRG and ``Resolution
13,'' the FBI utilizes a Shooting Incident Review Team (SIRT) to
conduct an administrative inquiry of every Agent Involved Shooting
(AIS) for the purpose of assessing and documenting the use of force
incident, and to provide the DOJ Civil Rights Division sufficient
information to make a prosecutorial determination. Each SIRT prepares a
comprehensive report for the SIRG. Each SIRG meeting is attended by a
representative of the DOJ OIG. The SIRG independently reviews FBI
shooting incidents to determine whether the use of deadly force was
reasonable, and in accord with the DOJ Deadly Force Policy and the law.
The SIRT process is designed to inform affected field offices, and
other FBI personnel, of findings or lessons learned from an
operational, administrative, tactical, and training perspective.
The FBI routinely conducts AIS reviews in coordination with State
and local authorities. FBI SIRTs jointly conduct post-shooting
interviews and coordinate reporting to ensure both State/local and DOJ
prosecutorial offices have information necessary to make an independent
prosecutorial decision. DOJ and State/local prosecutors have
independent, concurrent jurisdiction regarding Federal and State
charges and coordinate with each other as appropriate.
forensics reform
Question. Would you agree that there must be national leadership in
the area of forensic science, and that the Department of Justice,
working with the FBI and other elements of the executive branch, can
play a central role in the development of this important part of our
criminal justice system?
Answer. National leadership in the area of forensic science is of
utmost importance. For over three quarters of a century, the Department
of Justice and the FBI have served in such a leadership role, both
nationally and internationally, for the forensic sciences.
Question. Will you commit to working with me on the forensics
reform bill that I introduced today?
Answer. The FBI, in conjunction with other DOJ components takes the
issue of improving forensics seriously and the Bureau would be glad to
work with the Senator to provide feedback or technical assistance
sought on legislation.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Jeff Merkley
white-collar crime
Question. Could you please provide, in both real and proportional
to the rest of the Department of Justice's (DOJ's) resources, what
percentage of DOJ and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
resources have been dedicated to white-collar crime in general and
mortgage fraud specifically over the past 20 years with a particular
focus on times when high amounts of white-collar crime needed to be
pursued, such as the economic fallout of the savings and loan crisis
and the popping of the dot come bubble?
Answer. As an intelligence-driven, law enforcement and national
security organization, the FBI has responsibility to address a variety
of threats to include Terrorism, Counterintelligence, Cyber and a
multitude of Criminal threats to include Public Corruption, Civil
Rights, Organized Crime, Complex Financial Crime, and Violent Crime.
Each year, the FBI utilizes intelligence to determine the appropriate
ranking of those threats. Within the priority area of Complex Financial
Crime, the FBI addresses the threats of Securities and Commodities
Fraud, Corporate Fraud and Mortgage Fraud, among others.
Prior to the mortgage fraud crisis that emerged several years ago,
the FBI did not track mortgage fraud separately, outside of its White-
Collar Crime program, and thus cannot provide trends from the past 20
years. The chart below provides data since 2008.
WHITE-COLLAR CRIME
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Department of Justice
Mortgage Fraud........................................ $ 69,546,000 $111,508,000 $151,984,000 $114,475,000 $141,308,000 $121,731,000 $129,338,000
Other White-Collar Crime.............................. 435,120,000 478,570,000 436,598,000 532,399,000 528,001,000 569,322,000 586,553,000
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total........................................... 504,666,000 590,078,000 588,582,000 646,874,000 669,309,000 691,053,000 715,891,000
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Mortgage Fraud........................................ 32,203,000 66,763,000 94,287,000 70,131,000 69,048,000 53,564,000 59,497,000
Other White-Collar Crime.............................. 57,806,000 64,745,000 81,031,000 139,781,000 140,468,000 145,756,000 161,716,000
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total........................................... 90,009,000 131,508,000 175,318,000 209,912,000 209,516,000 199,320,000 221,213,000
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question. Please provide estimates in the differences in the
resource costs required for the pursuit of individuals versus that of
companies. Additionally, could you please provide estimates of
resources required to prepare a case to be taken to court versus
establishing non-prosecution and deferred prosecution agreements with
companies?
Answer. Investigations into complex financial crimes commonly
require the FBI to consider both individual and entity level criminal
culpability. The investigations into individuals and entities have
significant overlap as the individuals interviewed, documents analyzed,
and investigative methods typically serve the dual purpose of
uncovering the underlying facts, which may support charging
individuals, entities, or both. Therefore, the FBI is unable to
quantify the differences in resources required for the pursuit of an
individual versus an entity. When investigating individuals, due to
certain fact patterns, it is often appropriate to incorporate an
investigation into the entity as well. An entity can also serve as a
cooperator in investigations and the ultimate resolution reached with
an entity can be significantly influenced by its level of cooperation,
among other factors.
With regard to the differences in resources dedicated to
investigations going to court versus those that end in non-prosecution
agreements (NPAs) or deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs), the FBI's
investigative strategy is one that rests on the assumption that all
criminal investigations will be taken to trial. Doing so ensures a
comprehensive investigation has been conducted and that the FBI is
positioned to withstand the scrutiny of a trial by jury, if necessary.
Conducting an investigation in this manner enables the FBI to more
persuasively articulate the nature of the offenses and the evidence of
those offenses by the targeted individuals, thereby increasing the
likelihood of individual pleas or corporate resolutions without the
need for a trial. For that reason, there is no significant difference
in the cost for the FBI to investigate cases that proceed to trial and
cases resolved without a trial.
criminal referrals from financial regulatory agencies
Question. Please provide numbers for how many criminal referrals
the FBI and DOJ has received from financial regulatory agencies year by
year since 1990, broken down by referring agency. Has the number of
criminal referrals from financial regulatory agencies changed over the
past decade? Has there been a significant decline? If so, how does the
FBI account for such a decline? What could the FBI do to train and
encourage regulatory agencies to refer criminal activity for FBI
investigation? Does the FBI have adequate resources to take on such
activity?
Answer. The FBI does receive referrals from Federal regulatory
agencies, but the number of referrals is not tracked; therefore, the
FBI cannot assess trends in referrals. The FBI does work closely with
other law enforcement and regulatory agencies to address complex
financial crime. Understanding the current threat picture is essential
to appropriately address the complex financial crime threat. FBI
headquarters is actively engaged with private sector and other
governmental agencies to understand the nationwide complex financial
crime threat. This collaboration enables the development of a holistic
view of the threat and identification of nationwide and local trends.
On a local level, the FBI is committed to working with local, State
and Federal partners to investigate, prosecute, and collect and
disseminate intelligence related to complex financial crimes. The FBI
currently operates 21 Financial Crimes Task Forces throughout the
United States. These task forces include at least 11 Federal agencies
outside the Department, as well as partners within the Department, and
over 30 local or State law enforcement and regulatory agencies. In
total, the FBI is dedicating nearly 900 agents and more than $200
million to combat corporate, mortgage, and securities fraud and other
economic crimes.
The FBI recognizes the importance and value in continuing to build
and maintain strong working relationships with regulatory partners like
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). As such, the FBI embedded
Supervisory Special Agents and analysts within the SEC and CFTC to
conduct real-time review of complaints and tips received by these
agencies to determine if the information is relevant to an ongoing FBI
investigation or should be referred for the opening of a new
investigation. This greatly reduces the likelihood of relevant
information slipping through the cracks. The placement of FBI personnel
within these key regulatory agencies allows for earlier FBI involvement
in parallel investigations and increases opportunities for the
successful use of proactive and sophisticated techniques in complex
investigations.
investigating multinational companies
Question. The FBI is sometimes tasked with investigating very
large, complex multinational companies, which could cost millions to
investigate thoroughly. How does the FBI work with larger corporations
in investigating criminal activity? How dependent is the FBI on
information obtained through the internal investigations of companies?
Does the FBI have adequate personnel to verify information provided by
companies in their internal investigations? Could you please identify
some examples of when the FBI has brought on experts from other
agencies to assist in such investigations?
Answer. It is true that the nature of financial crime is becoming
more complex than ever before. The complexity is driven by the nature
of the offenses, the use of technology and more frequently, the
international scope of investigations. Companies may serve as
witnesses, victims, or as the targets of investigations. Regardless of
the role, if the company is not deemed to be inherently criminal in
nature, e.g., an established corporation with legitimate business
interests versus a corporation created for the sole purpose of
operating a Ponzi scheme, the company can serve as a tremendous source
of information and a resource that can be leveraged to develop a more
efficient investigative strategy. For example, cooperating companies,
through their internal investigations, can review documents, identify
witnesses, and provide an initial analysis of data. Although these
efforts on the part of the company can aid an investigation, it would
be inaccurate to describe the relationship as one where the FBI is
dependent on the company and its internal investigation. The FBI has
alternative methods to relying on the company's cooperation. For
example, the FBI can collect records via a search warrant (given
appropriate authority). Voluntary production of records can be mutually
beneficial to both the Government and the company, but it also
introduces the risks of completeness and accuracy of the data produced.
Given that the company is likely not impartial, the investigative
strategy must address these added risks. These risks can be addressed
through a number of investigative methods, including interviews,
independent verification from an external source, detailed descriptions
of the internal investigation process with company counsel, and/or
conducting our own analysis of the records.
FBI investigations into Complex Financial Crimes typically involve
a number of FBI personnel, to include Special Agents, Forensic
Accountants and Intelligence Analysts. The FBI also works closely with
prosecuting offices and regulating agencies such as the Security
Exchange Commision (SEC). The FBI regularly leverages experts and
industry specialists from regulatory agencies conducting parallel
investigations of Complex Financial Crimes. The use of these experts
and industry specialists ranges from witness testimony during trial to
serving as a resource during the investigation. For example, the FBI
has utilized individuals from the Financial Industry Regulatory
Authority-Criminal Prosecution Assistance Group (FINRA-CPAG) to analyze
financial data, assess the risks associated with certain types of
securities investments, review private placement agreements, and create
summary data for trial. Economists and industry experts from the CFTC
have identified, analyzed, and reported on brokerage records and
provided technical assistance on investigations of commodity fraud.
Industry specialists from the SEC have analyzed financial statements
and served as Government witnesses during insider trading
investigations. The FBI has also utilized the National Futures
Association (NFA) for expert testimony on matters involving commodity
fraud.
mortgage fraud cases
Question. In fiscal year 2013, the number of suspicious activity
reports (SARs) related to mortgage fraud dropped 25 percent to just
over 69,000, but could you provide a breakdown of how many SARs were
investigated, bundled into a larger investigation, or were found to
have insufficient information for investigation? Is there a backlog of
cases the FBI plans to pursue from this surge of SARs following the
financial crisis?
Answer. The FBI does not track, at the individual SAR level,
whether SARs generate cases or are bundled into larger investigations.
Each SAR filing does not equate to predication to initiate an
investigation as an individual SAR may not provide enough information
to open an investigation or multiple SARs may lead to one
investigation. The FBI is unable to address every complaint of mortgage
fraud, but attempts to work higher level cases which involve multiple
victims, higher dollar losses or fraud activity, and/or target
organized groups involved in the fraud. SARs are a valuable tool in
identifying such networks but very often multiple SARs are associated
with one group; therefore, these multiple SARs would be utilized to
initiate one FBI investigation.
The FBI does not track the quality or sufficiency of SAR data other
than to assess whether they can be utilized for lead value and
therefore incorporated into new or existing investigations. The FBI
does not currently have a backlog of cases from SARs associated with
the financial crisis.
follow-up on deferred and non-prosecution
Question. How does the FBI conduct follow-up on non-prosecution and
deferred prosecution agreements to ensure that companies are making the
necessary reforms?
Answer. As elements of some deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs)
and non-prosecution agreements (NPAs), companies are required to engage
in remediation or compliance reforms. In such agreements, the
Department of Justice includes a mechanism to ensure that companies may
be taking the required actions. Generally speaking, this mechanism
takes one of two forms: an independent compliance monitor who reports
to the Department on a regular basis, or Department oversight,
supported by mandatory self-reporting by the company on its efforts.
As an example of a corporate monitorship, in a December 9, 2013 DPA
resolving Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)-related charges against
Bilfinger SE (``Bilfinger''), Bilfinger agreed to retain a corporate
monitor for not less than 18 months. The monitor's mandate under the
DPA is to evaluate ``the effectiveness of the internal accounting
controls, record-keeping, and financial reporting policies and
procedures of the company as they relate to the company's current and
ongoing compliance with the FCPA and other applicable anti-corruption
laws[,]'' including an assessment of the executive board's and senior
management's commitment to, and effective implementation of, the
corporate compliance program imposed as part of the DPA. Furthermore,
under the DPA, the monitor is required to consult regularly with, and
disclose any violations of law to, the Department. If the monitor
concludes that the company has not instituted effective reforms or has
engaged in further misconduct, then the monitorship may be extended or
other action taken. Otherwise, the monitorship ends at the conclusion
of the 18 month period and, for the remaining 18 months of the DPA,
Bilfinger is required to self-report to the Department in a manner
consistent with that described below.
As an example of oversight and self-reporting, in an April 9, 2014
DPA resolving Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)-related charges
against Hewlett-Packard Polska, SP. ZO.O. (``HP Poland''), HP Poland is
required to report to the Department annually during the 3-year term of
the DPA regarding its ``remediation and implementation of the enhanced
compliance measures'' that it agreed to undertake as part of the DPA.
The Department, in its sole discretion, determines whether the terms of
the DPA have been met. Pursuant to a reporting schedule established in
the DPA, HP Poland is required to ``submit to the Department a written
report setting forth a complete description of its remediation efforts
to date, its proposals reasonably designed to improve the company's
internal controls, policies, and procedures for ensuring compliance
with the FCPA and other applicable anti-corruption laws, and the
proposed scope of the subsequent reviews[,]'' which shall ``further
monitor and assess whether the company's policies and procedures are
reasonably designed to detect and prevent violations of the FCPA and
other anti-corruption laws.'' Moreover, the DPA provides that, ``should
the company discover any evidence or allegations of possible corrupt
payments, false books and records, or the failure to implement or
circumvention of internal accounting controls, including the existence
of internal or external investigations into such conduct, the company
shall promptly report such evidence or allegations to the Department.''
Department prosecutors review the monitor reports and corporate
self-reports, meet with the monitor and/or corporate representatives as
appropriate to follow up on issues identified in the reports, and
initiate further investigation where warranted. Under the terms of DPAs
and NPAs, if the Department determines that a company has not made the
required reforms, or has engaged in further misconduct, the Department
has a range of options it may pursue, including but not limited to
extending the terms of the DPA or NPA or declaring the company in
breach of the DPA or NPA and instituting criminal prosecution against
the company.
oig report
Question. Has the FBI taken steps to raise the prioritization of
mortgage and mortgage-related securities fraud within its various field
offices?
Answer. In its response to the OIG report, the Department noted
that it has focused successfully on mortgage fraud violations. As the
FBI data in the audit report itself reflects, the number of mortgage
fraud convictions more than doubled from fiscal year 2009 to fiscal
year 2010, i.e., from 555 to 1,087 convictions, and then increased
further in fiscal year 2011 to 1,118 convictions. In addition, the
Department concurred with all of the recommendations made by OIG
including: ensure all agencies update online and other publicly
available material related to the Distressed Homeowner Initiative;
revisit results of Operation Stolen Dreams to determine if corrective
action on publicly reported results is necessary; implement methodology
for properly soliciting, collecting and reviewing information; revisit
existing guidance on initiating mortgage fraud undercover operation;
and develop a method to readily identify mortgage fraud criminal and
civil enforcement efforts for reporting purposes.
With respect to prioritization, in 2011, mortgage fraud was ranked
as a priority area under the Criminal Investigative Division's Complex
Financial Crime category. Not every type of fraud was ranked as a
priority threat during this time period, which demonstrates that the
FBI considered mortgage fraud to be among the most prominent financial
crimes we faced at the time.
We also recognize that the Inspector General contended that
mortgage fraud was a low priority or not listed as a priority at
various FBI Field Offices, including the Baltimore, Los Angeles, Miami,
and New York offices. We note, however, that during the period covered
by the audit, all threats were prioritized at the headquarters level,
and that FBI field offices did not re-rank threats within their own
geographical areas. As noted above, mortgage fraud was ranked as a
priority threat, and the various field offices would have utilized that
prioritization instead of coming up with their own rankings. Beginning
in 2013, however, FBI field offices were required to rank their own
threats based on domain assessments, ongoing intelligence collection
and ultimately, with approval from FBI Headquarters. We can report that
Baltimore, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York all rank mortgage fraud as
a priority threat.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Richard C. Shelby
cyber security efforts with private industry
Question. Given the growing cyber security threat facing our Nation
and the challenges inherent in facilitating private industry reporting
of attacks what is the FBI doing to facilitate participation in the
EGuardian program?
Answer. Uniquely tailored for the particular challenges of cyber,
the ``Guardian for Cyber'' application expedites the triage and
deconfliction of leads submitted from multiple sources, which are then
immediately assigned and assessed by the FBI and other government
agency (OGA) partners. The system now includes secure, cyber-specific
incident submission portals that consolidate critical information
provided by both law enforcement (eGuardian) and trusted industry
stakeholders (iGuardian). This response provides information regarding
engaging the private industry with iGuardian.
The FBI's trusted industry partners have access to iGuardian, a
secure method to report cyber intrusions and submit malware for
analysis and feedback through the InfraGard Network. InfraGard is a
partnership among the FBI and the private sector, educational
institutions, local, State, and Federal Government organizations that
are dedicated to protecting our national critical infrastructure by
sharing information regarding both cyber and physical threats and
vulnerabilities. InfraGard has a current active membership base of
approximately 25,000 members.
At the request of FBI's private industry partners, the FBI has
presented iGuardian overviews to critical infrastructure associations,
alliance councils, and conferences. The interest to join the iGuardian
portal has been significant. From concept to development, the FBI has
been working with these partners through a collaborative process to
build a system to fulfill their needs. Every step of the way we have
sought and incorporated private industry input.
The FBI is executing an iGuardian pilot program with five cleared
facilities and is scheduled to be launched through an enhanced portal
on FBI.gov. Once launched, the FBI will initiate the process for
industry to apply for access through FBI.gov. Additionally, the FBI is
in the process of enhancing the portal to be utilized to report
multiple hazards, to include Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence,
Criminal, and Cyber.
Question. Is this system open to all industries for reporting of
cyber attacks? If not, what industries are participating? Is there a
schedule to assimilate all industries into the system?
Answer. The system is accessible to all industries through the
FBI's InfraGard network. The enhanced iGuardian portal, to be used by
general industry, in addition to InfraGard members, has been launched.
Five large, cleared facilities have provided their assistance to the
FBI in enhancing this portal and piloting its initiation. This will
significantly expand the Federal Government's increased awareness of
vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure networks, to better
understand cyber-related threat vectors, and to facilitate a
coordinated overall cyber incident response by the U.S. Government. The
FBI anticipates the Defense Security Service (DSS) will support the
iGuardian portal as a threat submission tool that could be used by all
cleared facilities. This will satisfy numerous existing requirements
described in the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual
(NISPOM), section 941, among others.
The FBI is working as quickly as possible to fill the need to
assimilate all industry into the iGuardian system, but there is no
timeline established.
Question. Are there currently any requirements for industry to
report cyber attacks? If so, what are those requirements?
Answer. The FBI is not aware of any requirement for industry to
report to the FBI.
Question. Do you have any way of knowing the percentage of attacks
on each entity or industry that are actually reported?
Answer. Due to the lack of required reporting by industry, the
total number of cyber attacks made against entities and industries is
unknown. Therefore, the Cyber Division cannot estimate the percentage
of cyber attacks that are not reported to the FBI. However, based on
data collected thus far, currently there are more than 4,100 reported
incidents in Guardian categorized by sector, e.g. commercial sector,
information technology, cleared defense contractors, Internet service
providers, public health, financial services, education, and
communications.
cyber security
Question. Cyber security has topped the Director of National
Intelligence's list of global threats for the second consecutive year.
However, the FBI's mission prioritization does not seem to reflect the
significance of the cyber threat we are facing. What's more, the budget
request flat lines this growing threat. What reassurance can you give
us that your mission prioritization is evolving with the threats our
country is facing? Does this budget adequately resource the needs of
the Bureau in key areas such as cyber security?
Answer. Through the support of the Congress, the FBI received
funding in fiscal year 2014 that ended the hiring freeze and allows FBI
to start hiring again. The fiscal year 2014 hiring effort will include
personnel who will be dedicated to cyber efforts. Additionally, the
fiscal year 2014 appropriation included a program increase to support
the Next Generation Cyber Initiative. These fiscal year 2014 resources
are critical to enhancing the FBI's cyber capabilities in the face of
the growing cyber threat. The fiscal year 2015 President's budget
request includes funding to sustain the critical improvements and
enhancements in cyber security provided in fiscal year 2014. Cyber
Security remains an FBI priority in fiscal year 2015.
The FBI's Cyber Division has developed and is implementing a new
strategy, the Cyber Threat Team model, in which named threats are
explicitly prioritized using an objective model, specialized teams of
dedicated Field and HQ personnel are built for the highest priority
threats, and detailed and explicit mitigation strategies are developed
and implemented against these high priority threats.
hazardous devices school
Question. Could you detail the training capacity of the Hazardous
Devices School today? Specifically, the number of students that it can
accommodate, the number of classes offered annually and the need that
exists in terms of re-certifying bomb technicians?
Answer. The current maximum throughput for the Hazardous Devices
School (HDS) using the current curriculum is 1,214 students. HDS
intends to operate at capacity in fiscal year 2015. In fiscal year
2014, HDS is operating slightly below capacity due to cancellations in
October 2013 during the lapse in appropriations, and will train 1,014
bomb technician students in the following courses:
--6 Bomb Technician Certification Courses (six weeks), instructing 24
students per class--(maximum capacity: 8 classes);
--28 Bomb Technician Recertification Courses (one week, required
every 3 years for certified technicians), instructing 24 per
class--(maximum capacity: 30 classes);
--1 Bomb Squad Commanders class for 30 students;
--6 Stabilization Level III classes, with 12 students per class;
--4 Advanced Electronic classes, with 12 students per class--(maximum
capacity: 6 classes); and
--3 Electronic Countermeasure (ECM) classes, with 16 students per
class--(maximum capacity: 8 classes).
Regarding the need for FBI's training at HDS, the FBI has
approximately 1,300 students on the waiting list for its certification
and/or recertification classes.
Question. Is there an unmet training need in the bomb tech
community and if so, are there sufficient resources in the budget
request to meet that need? If not, please detail the unmet need and
what additional resources would be required to do so.
Answer. The Stabilization and Electronic Countermeasure (ECM)
courses require the use of temporary duty FBI Special Agent Bomb
Technician instructors, because the full-time instructor cadre at HDS
is stretched to capacity to keep up with the certification and
recertification course schedule. Also, HDS can only offer two
operational classes at any given time because the school's equipment,
vehicles, storage, and training facilities are used to capacity. At
this time, there is an eleven-month waiting period for bomb technicians
to attend the recertification course, a twelve-month backlog for the
certification course, and a 6 to 7-month waiting list for the Advanced
Electronics and ECM courses.
As the domestic Improvised Explosive Device (IED) environment
evolves, the need for advanced instruction to address sophisticated
explosive device designs and attack methods continue to grow. Based on
intelligence gathered from around the globe and exploited by the
Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center (TEDAC), the FBI has
developed several advanced courses for bomb technicians with a focus on
standardized tactics, techniques, and render safe procedures (RSPs).
These advanced courses focus on real, complex threats, such as vehicle-
borne, water-borne, and radio-controlled IEDs, suicide bombers,
homemade or improvised explosives, weapons of mass destruction, and
scenarios that require bomb technicians to operate side-by-side with
tactical teams. Advancing FBI instruction at HDS is crucial to
effectively meet the needs of the U.S. bomb technician community by
teaching standardized operating procedures for bomb squads to defeat
these threats. Central certification and curriculum development will
also reduce training costs to both public safety bomb squads and the
Federal Government. The FBI continues to evaluate resource needs and
will work to expand the delivery of this advanced training to public
safety bomb technicians within available resource levels.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Mark Kirk
online sex trafficking
Question. Approximately how many FBI agents are designated to sex-
trafficking investigations?
Answer. The FBI has more than 400 agents designated to
investigations involving the abduction or disappearance of children,
online sexual exploitation of children and the commercial sexual
exploitation of children, i.e. sex trafficking of children.
Question. How much funding is allocated to these sex-trafficking
investigations?
Answer. In fiscal year 2014, the FBI will spend approximately $107
million on cases involving the abduction or disappearance of children,
online sexual exploitation of children and the commercial sexual
exploitation of children, i.e. sex trafficking of children. This amount
includes both personnel and non-personnel resources.
Question. What Web sites has the FBI identified as the leading Web
sites for Internet sex trafficking?
Answer. The FBI has identified more than 100 Web sites that cater
to escort and sexual services advertisements. Many of these Web sites
may focus on particular cities and/or regions, while others advertise
escort and sexual services nationwide. In addition to these Web sites,
social networking Web sites and dating Web sites are also being
utilized to facilitate the advertisement of prostitution. For an
advertisement offering a commercial sexual service to constitute
Federal criminal sex trafficking, the victim induced to commit such
conduct must either be under the age of 18 or an adult subjected to
force, fraud, and coercion. Since the FBI does not want to promote the
Web sites, specific Web site information will not be provided.
Question. What is the FBI's determination of the percentage of ads
posted on Backpage.com adult-services section is for prostitutes? What
about other Web sites?
Answer. Federal investigative resources are focused on eradicating
sex trafficking, which occurs when children engage in commercial sex
acts and when adults are compelled to engage in commercial sex acts
through the use of force, fraud, or coercion. In the course of
investigating sex trafficking, the FBI does review advertisements on
Web sites for adult services. Through the course of that review, the
FBI has determined a significant number of the advertisements posted on
the adult-services section of identified Web sites are specific to
prostitution. In addition to advertisements, many of these sites also
offer review boards wherein active members can review and rate
``prostitutes,'' discuss popular areas and venues for prostitution, and
post intelligence of law enforcement activity and methodology. The
volume of prostitution advertisements on social networking and dating
Web sites is more difficult to quantify as the advertisements are
embedded within user profiles and are not always accessible to law
enforcement due to privacy measures implemented by the user. As for the
advertisements posted on other Web sites specifically for escorts, the
FBI has determined a significant number these advertisements are also
specific to prostitution.
SUBCOMMITTEE RECESS
Senator Mikulski. The committee recesses and we'll
reconvene in the Visitors Center.
[Whereupon, at 10:48 a.m., Thursday, March 27, the
subcommittee was recessed, to reconvene subject to the call of
the Chair.]