[House Hearing, 114 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
OVERSIGHT OF THE URBAN AREA SECURITY INITIATIVE GRANT PROGRAM
=======================================================================
JOINT HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON
TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC ASSETS
AND THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL SECURITY
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT
AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
JULY 15, 2016
__________
Serial No. 114-98
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
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COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
JASON CHAFFETZ, Utah, Chairman
JOHN L. MICA, Florida ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland,
MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio Ranking Minority Member
JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR., Tennessee CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York
JIM JORDAN, Ohio ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of
TIM WALBERG, Michigan Columbia
JUSTIN AMASH, Michigan WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri
PAUL A. GOSAR, Arizona STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts
SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee JIM COOPER, Tennessee
TREY GOWDY, South Carolina GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
BLAKE FARENTHOLD, Texas MATT CARTWRIGHT, Pennsylvania
CYNTHIA M. LUMMIS, Wyoming TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois
THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina BRENDA L. LAWRENCE, Michigan
RON DeSANTIS, Florida TED LIEU, California
MICK, MULVANEY, South Carolina BONNIE WATSON COLEMAN, New Jersey
KEN BUCK, Colorado STACEY E. PLASKETT, Virgin Islands
MARK WALKER, North Carolina MARK DeSAULNIER, California
ROD BLUM, Massachusetts BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania
JODY B. HICE, Georgia PETER WELCH, Vermont
STEVE RUSSELL, Oklahoma MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM, New Mexico
EARL L. ``BUDDY'' CARTER, Georgia
GLENN GROTHMAN, Wisconsin
WILL HURD, Texas
GARY J. PALMER, Alabama
Jennifer Hemingway, Staff Director
David Rapallo, Minority Staff Director
Mike Howell, Counsel
Willie Marx, Clerk
Subcommittee on Transportation and Public Assets
JOHN L. MICA Florida, Chairman
MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois, Ranking
JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR. Tennessee Member
JUSTIN AMASH, Michigan BONNIE WATSON COLEMAN, New Jersey
THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky MARK DeSAULNIER, California
GLENN GROTHMAN, Wisconsin, Vice BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania
Chair
------
Subcommittee on National Security
RON DeSANTIS, Florida, Chairman
JOHN L. MICA, Florida STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts,
JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR., Tennessee Ranking Member
JODY B. HICE, Georgia ROBIN KELLY, Illinois
STEVE RUSSELL, Oklahoma, Vice Chair BRENDA L. LAWRENCE, Michigan
WILL HURD, Texas TED LIEU, California
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing held on July 15, 2016.................................... 1
WITNESSES
Mr. Brian E. Kamoie, Assistant Administrator for Grant Programs,
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Oral Statement............................................... 7
Written Statement............................................ 10
Sheriff Jerry Demings, Orange County Sheriff's Office
Oral Statement............................................... 16
Written Statement............................................ 19
Chief John Mina, Orlando Police Department
Oral Statement............................................... 48
Written Statement............................................ 52
Mr. Walter Purdy, President, Terrorism Research Center
Oral Statement............................................... 57
Written Statement............................................ 59
APPENDIX
Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Bill and Report
Language for FY 17, Entered by Chairman John Mica of the
Transportation and Public Assets Subcommittee.................. 78
Government Accountability Office's Report on Preparedness for the
City of Orlando, Kissimmee, and Stanford Florida, Entered by
Rep. Gary Palmer (AL).......................................... 79
February 19, 2016, Letter from Brian E. Kamoie, Assistant
Administrator for Grant Programs,FEMA, Department of Homeland
Security, to Chairman John Mica, Entered by Chairman John Mica. 81
June 29, 2016 Letter from Chairman John Mica to Chairman of the
House Judiciary Committee Bob Goodlatte, Entered by Chairman
John Mica...................................................... 85
House Homeland Security Committee's list of Select
Counterterrorism Bills, Entered by Chairman John Mica.......... 86
The 2016 Allocation of Urban Security Grant Funds and Threat
Levels......................................................... 87
OVERSIGHT OF THE URBAN AREA SECURITY INITIATIVE GRANT PROGRAM
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Friday, July 15, 2016
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Transportation and Public Assets,
Joint with the Subcommittee on National Security
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,
Washington, D.C.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 9:03 a.m., in
Room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. John L. Mica
[chairman of the subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Mica, DeSantis, Turner, Palmer,
Meadows, and Lynch.
Mr. Mica. Good morning. I'd like to welcome everyone this
morning to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
This morning we're actually conducting a joint hearing with the
Subcommittees on Transportation and Public Assets and also the
National Security Subcommittee. The title of the hearing this
morning is--and subject, is Addressing Oversight of the Urban
Area Security Initiative Grant Program.
I probably can't start this hearing without just maybe a
moment of silence both to remember the 49 individuals who were
killed in Orlando, and then as we all saw last night in Nice,
our great allies, the French, lost some 84 people. So we'll
just take a minute and pause here and remember those folks.
[Moment of silence.]
Mr. Mica. Thank you. It's quite fitting that we do meet
today to discuss one of the government programs that tries to
deal with the terrorist threat. I'd like to thank our witnesses
for being with us and the members attending this morning.
First I want to say that the Subcommittee on Transportation
and Public Assets and the Subcommittee on National Security
will order, without objection, and the chair does state at this
point that he is authorized to declare a recess at any time in
this hearing.
Now, the order of business will be as follows. We will have
opening statements from the members that are here, then we will
introduce our witnesses, witnesses will be sworn. Each of them
will testify. After we have those introductions and testimony,
we will go to questions. We'll wait on having questioning until
we've heard from all of the witnesses.
So with that, I want to welcome again everyone,
particularly our witnesses, and I'll start with my opening
statement.
Again, we come together to look at a Federal program that
is designed to help our local and State governments deal with
the terrorist threat that our Nation and the world is facing
right now. This program, which is the Urban Security
Initiative, was established after 9/11 to aid our State and
local governments, and particularly our first responders, with
giving them Federal assistance, because they are our first line
of defense in terrorism, and providing Federal grants.
Over the last few years, we've given on average a billion
dollars a year on these grants to State and local governments.
Unfortunately, I had the experience of working with some of my
local governments in Orlando, and my district 3 years ago was
changed to represent more of the urban core of Orlando, and at
that time I got a chance to hear from both the sheriff of
Orange County and also the police chief, John Mina, who are two
of our witnesses today. They told me there was something wrong
with the assessment under this program that's conducted by DHS
and FEMA, and they told me that our Central Florida area had
the risk assessment changed, in fact, lowered, and it was
lowered so much that, in fact, they were denied Federal
assistance under the program that was designed to give them
additional resources to deal with the terrorism threat.
So unfortunately, the Federal Government failed. We won't
get into other failures of the Federal Government we've heard
about, by Federal law enforcement and other agencies, but today
we're going to focus on the issue of the failure, the dramatic
failure of missing the target in Orlando, Florida, in that
particular instance.
And then this isn't just a criticism of that particular
failure. This is also an effort to find out how we can make our
communities safer, how we can make this program work better,
and how we can get the resources to those who are on the first
line of defense, and do that in an orderly and more effective
and targeted fashion.
Unfortunately, again, working with this issue even before
the horrible events that took place in Orlando, with Sheriff
Demings and Chief Mina, we wrote to and appealed the decisions
by FEMA and DHS, saying that Orlando had a significant security
terrorist risk threat. Each time, we were denied.
I have to put up on the screen my comments on January 27th
of this year. In the next to last sentence, I wrote Secretary
Johnson and I said, ``If Central Florida became a target, it
would be a national disaster.'' Those were my words to the
Secretary back then.
Since DHS and also FEMA would not change their assessment,
we moved forward. And even before, again, the horrible Pulse
massacre, we began changing legislative language. I'd like to
submit for the record also language that we have included in
the DHS appropriations bill, and that's both legislative
language and report language to make changes in this program,
get back to Congress some of the data and information and
assessment prior to it becoming effective. So without
objection, we'll put that in the record.
Since, again, the horrible events in Orlando, our committee
and subcommittees have conducted an investigation. Let me just
go over briefly and conclude with some of our findings. Some of
this is astounding. Of the money since 2011, almost half of the
Urban Area Security Initiative funds, almost half of these
funds are unexpended. We have a slide here that shows $1.1
billion of the $2.8 billion in these awards, or about 40
percent, remain unexpended. It's stunning that while Orlando
got no money the last 2 years, there are unexpended funds, now
listen to this, from Boston, 2011, $591,000, in New York City,
$11 and a half million since 2012 sitting idle, Los Angeles,
sitting idle, $18, almost $19 million, and since 2014, $68
million sitting idle. Tampa, which was one of the recipients
and Miami are the two that received awards in Florida, Tampa
had $170,000 left over from 2014.
So we're going to need to look at how we get this money
distributed, how it doesn't sit idle, particularly when we have
the terrorist threat that we have today.
This grant program has awarded $8.2 billion since 2003.
Also we found in our investigation, and reviewed, 2012 is the
most recent support, but we found expenditures that weren't
justified in this program. Michigan bought 13 snow cone
machines; in Ohio, we saw funds from their award given to
support a 5-day spa junket featuring the actors on ``The
Apocalypse''. These are just a couple of examples that we found
of wasteful spending in the program.
So we are in fact asking today, and I'll ask with--Chairman
Chaffetz has agreed to ask and we will have a letter that we'll
submit later in the record for review by the inspector general
of three areas, both looking at the assessment area, looking at
unexpended funds, and then thirdly, at wasteful spending. We
need an update and we need that now.
So, again, we know that Orlando had received money before,
was denied money the last 2 years. We do know that Orlando and
Central Florida used money on equipment, training, readiness
exercises, and communications systems, and other things that
probably could have helped. Would it have stopped this
terrorist attack? We don't know that, but, again, it's our job
to make certain that these Federal resources are used in a
proper manner.
So those are some of the things that we found. We've tried
to warn FEMA. We tried to correct this before this took place.
That didn't happen. Now with the threat that we face in our
community and across the Nation, as we've seen we're all
vulnerable, we've got to do a better job.
I thank you again as witnesses for coming today. Let me
yield to Mr. Lynch, our ranking member.
Mr. Lynch. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Mr.
Chairman DeSantis. And to our witnesses, Sheriff Demings, thank
you so much, Chief Mina, thanks for coming up from Florida. We
appreciate it. And Mr. Purdy and Mr. Kamoie. Is that the right
pronunciation, Kamoie?
Mr. Kamoie. It is.
Mr. Lynch. Or is it close enough?
Mr. Kamoie. It is, Congressman. Thank you.
Mr. Lynch. You're sure? Okay. All right. Thanks for being
here.
Mr. Chairman, at the outset, I want to join you in my
thoughts and prayers for the people of Nice, France, the
victims, their loved ones, and all those affected by the
horrific terrorist attacks in southern France yesterday. This
is the third major terrorist attack in France in the last 19
months. The State Department has confirmed that the victims
include two American citizens. They are Sean Copeland and his
11-year-old son, Brody. They are from the Austin, Texas, area.
And our hearts and prayers go out to the Copeland family and
the people of Texas.
Mr. Chairman, again, I think this hearing is especially
important in the wake of the horrific attacks in Orlando, and
we continue to grieve and to pray for the victims' families in
Orlando as well.
I'd like to thank both committees for participating in this
hearing. And I do want to say that, Sheriff Demings and Chief
Mina, we have heard, it has been widely communicated that your
activities and your loyal, dedicated service has been a
blessing before and after and during the attacks in Orlando,
and I think that experience makes you especially valuable in
terms of your perspective on how we might more effectively
allocate the resources, substantial resources that we have out
there, especially with these urban area grants.
The Urban Area Security Initiative, also known as UASI, is
one of the three programs that make up the Federal Emergency
Management Agency Homeland Security grant program, and they
collectively provide vital Federal funding to States and
localities to prevent and respond to potential terrorist
attacks and other emergencies.
We have had our own struggles with this program in the city
of Boston and the greater Boston area. I think we were helped,
ironically, because of the fact that we had the attacks during
the marathon, and that the realization of vulnerability and the
threat assessment in that area gave us leverage, but we were
not always recognized as an area that needed this funding. And
there are several cities that, because of the factors that are
applied in these allocations, there are other cities across the
country, San Antonio, I know, in Texas has also been dropped
from the list, and there's got to be a better way for us to
recognize and do this threat analysis so that places like
Orlando and Central Florida will receive the funding that they
need.
The purpose of the urban area security grant is to assist
cities in their anti-terrorism preparedness and response
efforts. In particular, the program provides financial
assistance to address the planning activities, organizational
resources, equipment, training and exercise needs of the high-
threat, high-density urban areas. That's right from the
statute.
As Representative for the Eighth Congressional District of
Massachusetts, including Boston, Quincy, Brockton, and 21 other
towns, I can tell you that nearly $18 million that the Boston
area received in Urban Area Security Initiative funding proved
critical in the aftermath of the devastating Boston Marathon
bombings in April of 2013. As reported by the Federal Emergency
Management Agency in its July 2013 testimony before the U.S.
Senate on Lessons Learned from the Marathon Bombing, UASI
funding helped to secure onsite security and protection, bomb
robots, x-ray equipment, and ballistic helmets and vests that
were used during the event.
Program grant funds also helped to provide regional mutual
and radio systems to increase information sharing between law
enforcement, fire service, and emergency medical services. This
funding supported the Boston Regional Intelligence Center's
work on bombing-related operations and analysis, and provided
camera systems that were used for post-incident investigation.
Moreover, the Boston area directed Urban Area Security
Initiative funds, to train SWAT teams, was critical in our
ability to integrate bomb technicians into law enforcement,
tactical operations, which was a crucial capability that was
demonstrated following the marathon bombings, according to
FEMA.
Given the importance of Urban Area Security Initiative
grants to the antiterrorism preparedness and response efforts
in our cities, it is imperative that we conduct meaningful
oversight of the program in order to ensure that no city, no
city is arbitrarily or unjustifiably denied this assistance.
It is my understanding that while the Orlando area study
steadily indicated that the Orlando area was to receive nearly
$45 million in UASI funding from 2004 to 2012, the area did not
qualify for assistance in 2013, 2015, and 2016. For a
metropolitan area that just last month experienced a tragic
terrorist attack perpetrated by a shooter, Omar Mateen, who
pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, and the presence of a
major densely settled population, a lot of people, a lot of
tourist activity in Orlando, the absence of an Urban Area
Security Initiative assistance grant certainly merits re-
examination.
I would note that a primary reason behind Orlando's loss of
funding from year to year is that Congress has imposed some
additional guidance and restrictions when it comes to
determinations made by the Department of Homeland Security to
distribute urban area grants. In three of the last five
appropriations cycles, Congress added report language to the
annual Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill that
required the agency to place greater weight on certain risk and
vulnerability criteria. Regrettably, these restrictions have
resulted in a loss of funding for several cities, including
Orlando. Other large and highly populated metropolitan areas
include Kansas City, Sacramento, California, and San Antonio,
Texas, as I mentioned before. These cities have also lost urban
area initiative funding in the past. So hopefully we'll be
able--through the re-examination of what happened in Orlando,
we might be able to help those localities as well.
Mr. Chairman, I look forward to discussing with the
witnesses what steps we can take to further strengthen the
Urban Area Security Initiative training program. And I thank
you for the time. I yield back.
Mr. Mica. Well, I thank you, Mr. Lynch, as the ranking
member too of the National Security Subcommittee, and
particularly I want to thank Congressman DeSantis, who chairs
the Subcommittee on National Security, for their cooperative
effort on this hearing and on this matter.
Let me now recognize the chairman of the National Security
Subcommittee, my colleague from Florida, Mr. DeSantis.
Mr. DeSantis. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you
for spearheading this hearing and thank you for raising the
alarm about the need to protect Central Florida.
Terrorism's on the march. Last month's attack in Orlando
was the deadliest attack in the United States since September
11, 2001, and, of course, last night terrorists mowed down more
than 80 people in Nice, France, by running them over with a
truck. Our Homeland Security efforts must adapt to this growing
threat, a threat posed by what is a global jihad.
As Chairman Mica mentioned, despite numerous appeals from
Orlando officials and Chairman Mica himself, the Department of
Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency
denied Urban Area Security Initiative funding to Orlando for
the last 2 years, and has only allocated $1 million in the last
4 years. FEMA's reasoning was that the terrorists were unlikely
to attack Orlando, but FEMA was wrong.
The Department of Homeland Security and the Federal
Emergency Management Agency must allocate preparedness funding
in a way that recognizes recent terrorist trends, specifically
FEMA must change its risk ranking methodology and needs to
listen to the appeals of cities that are closest to the threat.
They're on the ground, they're the first responders, they know
what the risk is.
People pour into Central Florida every year, and the
greater Orlando area contains a number of so-called soft
targets, such as amusement parks, which see large numbers of
people congregate in one location. Suicidal terrorists seek out
soft targets because it allows them to inflict a large amount
of damage in a relatively short period of time. The Orlando
area is at risk, and we need the government's methodology to
reflect this fact.
I agree with law enforcement personnel from Central
Florida, including Sheriff Demings that the relative risk score
for Orlando should also include Volusia and Brevard Counties. A
cohesive strategy that includes these counties, both of whom
sent assistance following the terrorist attack at the Pulse
nightclub, will better protect communities in Central Florida,
and UASI funding should recognize this.
I look forward to hearing from Sheriff Demings and Chief
Mina on their appeals to the Federal Government and how UASI
funding can help Orlando. These are very busy and trying times
for law enforcement, and I appreciate Sheriff Demings and Chief
Mina testifying today.
And I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Mica. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate, again, the
National Security Subcommittee cooperating on this hearing.
We will hold the record open for 5 legislative days for any
members who would like to submit a written statement for this
hearing.
I'd now like to recognize and introduce our witnesses. I'm
pleased to welcome from Central Florida, Sheriff Jerry Demings
of Orange County, Florida. He heads our sheriff's office. He's
also distinguished by just being named the President of the
Florida Sherifs Association. Welcome, Sheriff Demings.
Then we have Chief John Mina. John Mina probably is known
across the country, both Sheriff Demings and Chief Mina, for
what they've been through, just unbelievable nightmare in our
community, and he leads that force with distinction, the City
of Orlando police chief.
We have Walter Purdy, who's President of the Terrorism
Research Center. Welcome.
And then we have Mr. Brian Kamoie, Assistant Administrator
for Grant Programs at FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management
Agency.
Gentlemen, this is an investigations and oversight
committee of Congress. We do require that all of our witnesses
be sworn. If you'd please stand, I'll administer the oath.
Raise your right hand.
Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you're
about to give to this joint subcommittee hearing of Congress is
the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Let the record reflect that all of the witnesses answered
in the affirmative. Thank you.
Some of you are new to the congressional hearing process.
We try to get you to submit anything you'd like for the record,
like the statement documentation. We'd like to have you
summarize in about 5 minutes your key points and then we can
get to questions.
So with that, we'll first turn to our Federal witness, Mr.
Kamoie, with FEMA. And FEMA--again, the order of this, the
investigational review--Mr. DeSantis, Mr. Lynch oversee the
National Security Subcommittee, and they oversee DHS, but in
this program, this urban area terrorism risk assessment, FEMA
actually conducts the assessment. And, in fact, we'll put in
the record reference to their response to me after Central
Florida was denied back in January, and multiple times their
response on behalf of DHS.
Mr. Mica. So with that introduction, let me welcome Mr.
Kamoie, the representative from FEMA, to testify.
WITNESS STATEMENTS
STATEMENT OF BRIAN E. CAMIOE
Mr. Kamoie. Thank you very much, Chairman Mica, Chairman
DeSantis, and members of the subcommittee. Good morning. I'm
Brian Kamoie, Assistant Administrator for Grant Programs at
FEMA. On behalf of Secretary Jeh Johnson and Administrator
Craig Fugate, thank you for the opportunity to discuss DHS and
FEMA's efforts to assist our State and local partners to
prepare for and respond to terrorist attacks.
The recent shootings in Dallas and Orlando and last night's
tragedy in Nice, France, are reminders of just how important it
is for our Nation to be ready to respond to all types of
hazards, including manmade threats. Our thoughts and prayers
are with the victims of these tragic events, as well as with
the law enforcement officers who risk their lives every day to
protect our communities, including Sheriff Demings, Chief Mina,
and their officers.
Today I will outline some of FEMA's programs to provide
first responders with the resources they need to prevent these
events and to plan, equip, and train for them should they
occur. I will also discuss how we've supported Orlando through
these programs before and after the shooting at the Pulse
nightclub on June 12.
Thanks to your support, since 2002, Congress, through the
Department of Homeland Security, has awarded more than $47
billion in preparedness funding to State and local governments
and to a broad array of Homeland Security partners. In fiscal
year 2016, more than $1 billion was awarded to our partners
through the Homeland Security Grant Program, or HSGP, to build
a more secure and resilient Nation. The HSGP includes three
programs: the State Homeland Security Program, the Urban Area
Security Initiative, or UASI, and the Operation Stonegarden
Program.
This year, the State Homeland Security Grant Program
provides $402 million to support preparedness capabilities,
with more than $11 million allocated to Florida. Florida also
received more than $1.3 million through the Operation
Stonegarden Program to enhance the security of the Nation's
borders.
Each year, DHS prioritizes UASI funds by conducting a risk
assessment of the 100 most populace metropolitan statistical
areas, as required by the Homeland Security Act. The annual
assessment is based on three key factors for each urban area:
relative threat, vulnerability, and consequences from acts of
terrorism. Threat scores are derived from intelligence data
compiled by the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis. This
information includes data on any acts of terrorism, disrupted
plots, credible threats, and known or suspected terrorist
presence in each urban area.
Vulnerability scores take into consideration any
infrastructure that is a potentially high value target for
terrorists, as well as any border crossings.
Finally, consequence scores factor in an urban area's
population, economic, national infrastructure, and national
security indices. The results of the risk assessment, including
the scores and relative ranking, inform the Secretary's
decisions regarding eligible urban areas and funding
allocations.
Orlando received more than $44 and a half million in total
UASI funding from fiscal years 2003 to 2012. In 2013, Congress
for the first time directed DHS to limit the number of
jurisdictions funded under the program to 25 in order to focus
resources in the highest risk urban areas. Orlando had a
relative risk rank of 30 that year and, as a result, did not
receive funding.
In 2014, Congress lifted the restriction on the total
number of urban areas that DHS could fund under the program.
That year, Secretary Johnson exercised his discretion and
funded 39 areas, including Orlando, which was ranked 33rd, and
received $1 million.
In the annual DHS appropriations acts for fiscal years 2015
and 2016, Congress again directed DHS to restrict funding to
the urban areas that represent up to 85 percent of the assessed
nationwide risk of terrorism. Secretary Johnson followed that
direction, and designated 28 urban areas as eligible for UASI
funding in 2015, and in 29 areas in 2016. Orlando fell outside
the funded range in both of those years, ranking 32 in 2015 and
34 in 2016.
Though not currently eligible for dedicated UASI funding,
Orlando can still receive funding support through the State
Homeland Security Program. HSGP funds awarded to Florida and
the city of Orlando in previous years demonstrated their value
during the June 12th attack. For example, an armored vehicle
and the bomb detection robot used during response efforts were
both purchased through these programs. Following the attack, I
also immediately approved two requests from the Florida
Division of Emergency Management to reallocate up to $253
thousand in unspent HSGP funds for law enforcement overtime
expenses.
In addition to DHS funding, the Department of Justice has
made $1 million available to help cover response costs. Also,
thanks to congressional action, DHS now has new funding
mechanisms to support jurisdictions in their counterterrorism
efforts. For this fiscal year, Congress appropriated $49
million for the complex, Coordinated Terrorist Attack and
Countering Violent Extremism Grant programs.
It is important to note that FEMA also has a comprehensive
emergency management training curriculum for first responders
that includes counterterrorism courses. In coordination with
the National Counterterrorism Center and the FBI, we developed
the Joint Counterterrorism Awareness Workshop series.
Participants work through an attack scenario to identify
planning gaps and mitigation strategies. In 2014, Orlando
hosted this workshop, with nearly 300 participants. And since
2011, FEMA has also trained more than 700,000 personnel,
including many from Orlando, to respond to active shooter
situations.
FEMA's honored to support Sheriff Demings, Chief Mina, and
the Nation's first responders through these programs.
I am grateful for the opportunity to appear before you
today and I'm happy to respond to any questions the
subcommittee may have. Thank you.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Kamioe follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Mica. Thank you. And we will get to questions after
we've heard from the other witnesses.
Let me now recognize and welcome again Sheriff Demings, the
Orange County sheriff. You're recognized.
STATEMENT OF SHERIFF JERRY DEMINGS
Sheriff Demings. Good morning, Chairman Mica and Chairman
DeSantis.
Mr. Mica. I'm not sure if your mic's on.
Sheriff Demings. Good morning, Chairman Mica and Chairman
DeSantis and members of the committee. It is indeed an honor
and a privilege for me to provide testimony today.
Let me begin by saying that I wish we didn't have to
provide testimony, because there is no risk of a terror attack
in Orlando, but sadly we know that that is no longer the case.
I will be addressing the valuable projects funded in
previous years by the Urban Area Security Initiative, or UASI
grant program, our DHS and FEMA efforts to reassess the
Orlando, Kissimmee, Sanford, Florida, MSA, and the need to
strengthen and secure the Central Florida region from another
terror attack like the Pulse nightclub incident.
The Central Florida region has been fortunate to receive
approximately $45.5 million in UASI funding since 2004. The
Orange County Sheriff's Office is the agency which has managed
those funds. The funding received prior to 2013 was critical to
our region's ability to prevent, protect, respond to, and
recover from not only terrorism, but a broad range of other
threats and hazards.
We are only as good at preventing a terror attack as the
quality of information that we receive about that attack. One
of the assets that we have in our region is the Central Florida
Intelligence Exchange Fusion Center. The fusion center is a
center that operates in Central Florida in Orlando. It is
located just outside of the airport. It serves as a central
repository of databases that are currently being used by the
Florida Department of Law Enforcement and other Federal, State,
and local law enforcement agencies.
In addition to its counterterrorism focus, CFIX serves as
an all hazards fusion center, assisting agencies in the
mitigation and assistance needed to recover from hazards such
as hurricanes and other natural disasters. CFIX assists with
investigations of crimes that possibly contain a nexus to
terrorist activity or other Homeland Security issues.
Due to a lack of funding, some critical needs of CFIX have
been lost. We have reduced the number of analysts, which could
have worked to provide intelligence information that could
prevent a terror attack.
Examples of CFIX success stories include an incident in
which CFIX assisted the U.S. Marshals in locating Federal
fugitives. In another instance, CFIX assisted the United States
Secret Service and the United States Coast Guard in locating a
disgruntled citizen, who made concerning statements about the
President prior to the launch of a Space Shuttle Endeavor
mission, and numerous other instances in which they provided
information with a nexus to national security.
Through the National Infrastructure Protection Program, we
received UASI funding for a video camera surveillance project
in the tourist quarter, downtown Orlando, and in areas near the
University of Central Florida. Chief Mina will talk more about
that.
Due to a loss of funding, we have not been able to expand
the camera project into areas around our top tourist
destinations.
On June 12th, we experienced the benefits of more than a
dozen or so UASI-funded training exercises of the past years. I
believe the agencies responding to the Pulse incident
flawlessly initiated an active shooter response because of
training paid for through historical UASI funding. You have a
list of the training exercises in your material.
We train to respond as a region to a terror attack or other
disaster. In fact, on June 12, approximately 150 of my deputies
responded, with the Orlando Police Department, to the Pulse
incident.
Because of the infrastructure connections in our region, it
is natural to have a regional capability and vulnerability
assessment. Presently, FEMA uses the Office of Management and
Budget's geographical boundaries defined in the Federal
Register when calculating the risk score. We believe that the
boundaries should be expanded to include the Brevard County
area to the east and Volusia County Metropolitan Statistical
Area to the north.
In September of 2015, we began the process of lobbying the
Federal Government to combine the metropolitan Orlando MSA with
Brevard and Volusia. This was broadly supported by our Members
of Congress from Central Florida as well as other State and
local elected officials, and numerous letters were written to
the FEMA assistant administrator of grant programs, the OMB
statistician, and the OMB Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs. You have a list and copies of the letters in your
material.
I really don't have time this morning to get into the
details of the methodology used in assigning risk, but we
suggest that DHS include domestic and international visitors in
the equation, and not just permanent resident population in the
scoring. One credible attack in Central Florida to a theme park
would be disastrous for our economy.
With the recent attacks in Orlando, the incidents in Dallas
and San Bernardino, there is a need in this country to have an
overall perhaps increase in UASI funding, or at the very least,
a redistribution of UASI funding across the Nation. That could
increase the top MSAs with the most risk from the current 85
receiving funding to perhaps 90 percent of the MSAs on the high
risk list of the top 100.
Congressman Mica has been a staunch supporter of many of
these efforts, and we appreciate the fact that he invited us to
participate today.
In 2016, the Orlando MSA was 34th on the list, when only 29
metropolitan statistical areas were funded.
In closing, thank you for allowing me to speak. And I ask
the committee to analyze the current MSA methodology formula
and the data used in the formula to reflect current threats and
vulnerabilities in Central Florida. We have now been probed,
which makes us more of a target. Thank you very much.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Demings follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Mica. Thank you, Sheriff Demings.
Let me recognize Orlando Chief Mina now. Welcome, and
you're recognized.
STATEMENT OF CHIEF JOHN MINA
Chief Mina. Good morning, Chairman Mica, Chairman DeSantis,
members of the committee. Thank you for inviting me to testify
and allowing me to provide an overview of the immense security
challenges we face on a daily basis in Central Florida and our
use of the Urban Area Security Initiative funding.
On behalf of the City of Orlando, I want to offer our
thoughts and prayers to the victims, and families and friends
of those victims in Nice, France, as well.
As the committee is well aware, on June 12, Orlando fell
victim to the second largest terrorist attack in history on
U.S. soil. A self-radicalized extremist entered the Pulse
nightclub at 2:02 and began shooting at the more than 300
patrons that were inside the club. Fortunately, an Orlando
police officer working an extra duty assignment at the
nightclub immediately engaged the suspect, and within minutes,
more arriving officers broke a large window to enter the club.
Within minutes, more arriving officers entered, and the suspect
retreated into a bathroom, where he was isolated and holding
hostage. The suspect reemerged into a hallway, where officers
exchanged gunfire with him, forcing him to retreat into the
bathroom. Immediately afterwards, the suspect was contained,
and officers on the dance floor began to evacuate the victims
out of the club.
That night, we were faced with many challenges, as the
suspect claimed to have explosives that were strategically
placed throughout the nightclub, including suicide vests that
he was going to place on the victims. Although faced with
almost certain death if the suspect detonated any explosives,
officers remained in the nightclub and, instead, pulled many of
the critically injured victims out to safety, transporting them
to the hospital in the back of police vehicles.
For the next 3 hours, the suspect held hostages and talked
on the phone with crisis negotiators, where he pledged
allegiance to the Islamic State. After negotiations broke down,
we were forced to breach the concrete wall using explosives and
a BearCat armored vehicle to save the remaining hostages and
victims and make contact with the suspect.
As rescue efforts were underway, the suspect emerged from
one of the holes created by our armored vehicle and engaged our
SWAT officers in gunfire. The suspect's rampage was ended at
that time. Forty-nine innocent victim tragically lost their
lives.
The Orlando Police Department our regional partners have
prepared for these types of incidents since the Columbine
massacre. And although I believe we demonstrated great courage
and resolve to mitigate this horrible tragedy, but we can
always learn from our actions and work to make them even
better.
I would like to share with you some of the unique
characteristics that make the Central Florida region an ideal
target for terrorism. We have a combined resident population of
3.7 million people, and in 2015 Orlando, had an increase in
tourist population from 62 million to 66.1 million in one year,
making it the number one tourist destination. Orlando is ranked
number four in the top U.S. destinations for foreign travelers.
Six of the top 50 attractions in the world are in the Orlando-
Kissimmee area, in our UASI region. And although our resident
population is 3.7 million, that number grows exponentially
every day as millions of visitors call Orlando home while they
live in our hundreds of area hotels and visit all of our
region's venues.
The Central Florida region seeks funding under the UASI
grant program on an annual basis. And the purpose of UASI is to
enhance our capabilities to prevent, protect, and respond to,
and recover from not only terrorism, but a broad range of other
threats and hazards affecting our entire region. The intent of
this funding allows us to establish measurable ratings
priorities and balance threats and consequences.
Since 2002, when the Homeland Security Act was signed into
law by President George W. Bush, the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford
MSA received UASI grant funds annually from 2004 until 2012.
However, the funding stream drastically changed in the past 4
years. Starting in 2013 and continuing up to 2016, the Orlando-
Kissimmee-Sanford area has not ranked high enough in relative
risk score to receive UASI funding even though we are ranked
number one on the MSA for domestic visitor population in the
Consequence section of the formula.
From 2012 to 2016, our area has appealed the relative risk
score and asked the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA to
reassess the data. In May, members from our region traveled
here to Washington, D.C., and met with representatives from the
Department of Homeland Security and FEMA regarding the
concerning threats to our region and the lack of UASI funding
our region has received.
These critically needed funds are used to strengthen our
region's preparedness and competency in prevention, protection,
response, and recovery.
The UASI funding we have received in the past has assisted
in accomplishing many goals. Hazmat training has been provided
for individuals to participate in various recognized and
approved technician and specialist level courses specific to
identified required competencies. There have been trainings,
including intelligence, bomb training, incident command
training, fusion center training, radiological and nuclear
detection training, and interoperable and communication
training. Through these training exercises, we have
strengthened our core capabilities within our UASI region. The
majority of the UASI funds that we receive are allocated--are
used to purchase and sustain protective equipment within the
region. This includes the continuation and build-out of a
camera and video surveillance system which supports our
protection plan.
When complete, this program will give us access to
approximately 500 cameras which can be viewed remotely from
fixed and mobile command centers. This ability will aid us in
the protection, prevention, as well as response and recovery
from an act of terrorism or natural disaster that would
directly affect the area's critical infrastructure and identify
venues that are key resources to sustaining the economic
viability of our region.
We have also utilized UASI programs to fund regional
exercises, subsequent after action reports, and improvement
plans. The last full-scale exercise in 2013 funded by UASI was
a medical surge exercise at the Orlando International Airport,
which involved multiple hospitals in the surrounding six
counties and the city of Orlando. These vital tools have
assisted us in measuring and gauging the progress of regional
collaboration and communications capabilities within the
Orlando metro area.
It is absolutely critical that we as a region monitor and
keep up with emerging trends, improvements in technology,
updates to equipment.
Due to the lack of funding in the past 4 years, this has
caused serious response and mitigation constraints as a whole.
From a law enforcement perspective, this affects the much
needed training and equipment for our bomb teams in Central
Florida to have the opportunity to train and purchase equipment
needed for adequate bomb response. This was a critical
component to the Pulse nightclub incident.
In 2015, we identified through gap analysis a need to
purchase a tactical robot for our SWAT teams and refurbished
one of the aging regional bomb robots. Due to lack of funding,
these programs we not funded.
Finally, for the last few years, we have sought funding
through the UASI grant program to conduct Swift Assisted Victim
Extraction, or SAVE, training for the region. This critical
training teaches law enforcement and fire service the tactics
and skills necessary to save lives. In a typical response to an
active shooter casualty incident, fire personnel will stage a
safe distance from the scene until law enforcement declares the
scene is clear, even though law enforcement is confident they
have captured, contained, or killed the suspects. This course
is designed to teach law enforcement officers and the fire
department the tactics necessary to enter a semi-secure area,
which will reduce time to render aid to victims and save their
lives. Without continued training, these perishable skills
would surely deteriorate.
In closing, I would like to bring to the attention of the
committee, the paradigms of traditional terror attacks are
changing. In the past, our identified critical infrastructures
were and obviously still are targets of terror attacks.
Based on the horrific event we experienced at the Orlando
Pulse nightclub and that of the brave Dallas police officers
who gave their lives while protecting innocent civilians last
week, I urge the committee to consider that these attacks are
becoming more frequent at venues identified as soft targets. I
ask the committee review the relative risk formula to better
address the risk profile unique to the Central Florida region,
also known as the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford MSA.
I would personally like to thank Congressman Mica for his
continued and unwavering support, not only from the Pulse
assistance, but your assistance with the UASI grant funding.
I would also like to thank the committee for allowing me
the opportunity to give my statement today, and I look forward
to any questions. Thank you.
[Prepared statement of Chief Mina follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Mica. Thank you, Chief Mina.
And we'll hear from our last witness, Mr. Walter Purdy,
President of the Terrorism Research Center. Welcome, and you're
recognized, sir.
STATEMENT OF WALTER PURDY
Mr. Purdy. Well thank you, Chairman Mica, Chairman
DeSantis, Ranking Member Lynch and other distinguished members
of this committee. Thank you for inviting me today to testify
about this very important issue.
The terrorism threat in America is one that is constantly
evolving. In the wake of the terrorist attacks last night in
Nice, previous attacks in Paris, Brussels, Boston, Charleston,
Chattanooga, Garland, San Bernardino, and Orlando, the last
thing we should be doing is reducing the levels of funding to
certain cities that need these funds to protect America.
It is truly unthinkable at this time that President Obama's
2017 budget reduces the level of funding for Homeland Security
initiatives through the Urban Area Security Initiative, known
as UASI, as well as in other funding mechanisms to protect the
homeland. The threat to America from terrorists has not a gone
away and is constantly evolving.
The director of the FBI, James Comey, has warned that the
FBI is investigating ISIS suspects in over 50 States, with more
than 900 active investigations. Just this last week on the
front page of the Washington Post, Adam Goldman wrote an
article talking about 92 ISIS individuals here in the United
States.
Even the funding for State and local antiterrorism
training, SLAT, conducted through the Department of Justice,
has been reduced and cut back. Talking to an individual with
that bureau yesterday, they said, I'm not sure what we're going
to do to help local law enforcement that needs this critical
training today. Yet the terrorism threat to America seems to
continue to grow.
Last week, Secretary of Homeland Security Johnson testified
at a Senate hearing on funding for Homeland Security. He said
he was constrained by the budget agreement, wasn't happy, but
had to make hard choices. Yes, we all know budgets restrain
people, but we have to think about how we're spending those
resources and giving those communities, and cities, counties,
and regions that need them the tools and resources to do the
job to protect American citizens, and as you just heard, all
the tourists that go and visit the Orlando area.
If the terrorism threat to America was reduced to going
away, I would be the first one to support a reduction in
funding both for UASI and the Department of Homeland Security,
but we all know this threat is not going anywhere. It's
actually increasing.
Today, we see homeland radicalized terrorists conducting
attacks, as we saw in San Bernardino. We see individuals 1.2
miles from my residence in Fairfax, Virginia, getting locked up
last Friday. We see out in Sterling, Virginia, individuals,
inspired by ISIS, going and purchasing weapons, seeking to
attack targets in this particular region.
We need to be funding local law enforcement. They are the
first responders. Both the police and sheriff's department, and
the officers in Orlando bravely dealt with that particular
critical incident. Yet we're asking the law enforcement
community in places, and first responders, firefighters and
others, to deal with this ever-growing, complex challenge as
funding levels in places get cut. We can't expect law
enforcement as a community is going to be prepared to deal with
these changing situations over time when we're cutting funds.
UASI funds, Homeland Security programs, Congress has heard
from mayors, chiefs of police, sheriffs across from America,
that have lobbied for a departure and a reexamination of how
the funding takes place. The threat is real. I would ask you to
kind of change the direction and approach in which these funds
and mechanisms provide critical resources and assistance to
those first responders in America. Training is critical. It is
a critical step to getting individuals so they can respond
effectively to this growing threat.
I thank you for the time today and look forward to
answering any questions. Thank you so much.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Purdy follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Mica. Thank you, Mr. Purdy.
And I want to thank all of our witnesses today. And I'll go
directly to questions.
First of all, we have a program in place, and it's been in
place since 2003, many years. We provide about a billion
dollars a year in funding. Well, what we've got to do is make
sure we don't leave any American city or community behind. My
dad used to say, and I told this to Sheriff Demings and Chief
Mina this morning, my dad used to say, it's not how much you
spend, it's how you spend it, and then getting money out.
In looking at--and unfortunately, we were involved in this
even before the horrible Orlando terrorist massacre. We were
looking at trying to see what was wrong with the formula, why
we were denied, and we found several things. In the response
that--I don't know if you were the--let's see who signed this,
but it came back from FEMA to me, again, before--this is back
February 19th. Yeah. This is from you, Brian, Mr. Kamoie. You
said, DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis uses a holistic
approach to analyze threat information and juxtaposed its
review of intelligence community.
So, again, we've got different agencies doing different
things. You're relying on information you're getting from them.
I'm told some of that information is outdated. For example, in
Orlando, they're using assessment data that's from 2011 on the
tourism visitation. Hasn't been updated since then. Did you
know that?
Mr. Kamoie. Sir, that's not accurate. We've got more recent
data than that. And we'd be glad to provide----
Mr. Mica. Well, we were told, again, that that was what was
used. Maybe now there has been an update. So we're told, again,
that that information, that they have, is not up-to-date. You
don't do that. They do that. You analyze their data, right,
their intelligence and what they supply you?
Mr. Kamoie. So the reason we use the term ``holistic'' is
it's a partnership between us and the Office of Intelligence
and Analysis for the threat piece of the formula.
Mr. Mica. Right.
Mr. Kamoie. Threat vulnerability and consequence. The
threat piece looks at acts of terrorism, credible threats,
reporting terrorism presence----
Mr. Mica. You gave us threat vulnerability, consequences,
all of those things----
Mr. Kamoie. Yes, sir.
Mr. Mica. --but, again, the information we have is some of
that data on which you based, at least Orlando, was outdated.
That's one.
Then, two, somewhere, and Mr. Purdy referred to it, we are
missing the mark. We missed the mark dramatically in Orlando.
And, again, Mr. Purdy cited it. We've had San Bernardino, we've
had Boston, Mr. Lynch's community, my community, and they're
hitting soft targets. We went back and tried, as you heard
Sheriff Demings, because we found out that some of the basis on
which you analyzed us is we didn't have a port, Orlando doesn't
have a port. So money went to Tampa and then money went to
Miami. They have ports.
And we tried to change the area Mr. DeSantis represents,
over to Volusia County, we tried to get that in, and Brevard
County, and we were denied that.
So my point here is somehow the threat assessment isn't
dealing with the reality of what they're doing to us. They're
coming at us in soft targets. And then we said, we are a soft
target. We've got great security at Disney, at Sea World, at
Universal, at these big attractions, but look at the death toll
list from Orlando. These people came from all over. Young
ladies who were Googling a good place to go, which was the
Pulse nightclub in Orlando. They were from Philadelphia. I
mean, you look at the roster of the dead and where they came,
and they came to a soft target. This guy scoped, he scoped
Disney and then came back and slaughtered people at that
nightclub.
We are missing the mark. Now, maybe we should give the
Secretary back to more discretion. Maybe we should--again,
leave no community behind. Maybe we should divide the billion
dollars between everybody and get some to at least address the
problem.
But Orlando, Central Florida, the biggest terrorist attack
in the history of the country since 9/11, got zero the last 2
years. Don't you think something's wrong?
Mr. Kamoie. Chairman Mica, I'm going to address a number of
the things that you've raised. In terms of leaving no State or
city behind, the billion dollars you are referencing goes
through two programs: The State Homeland Security program, $402
million this year. That provides funding for all 50 States.
Mr. Mica. Yes.
Mr. Kamoie. The District of Columbia and the U.S.
Territories. So that is a baseline of Homeland Security funding
for all jurisdictions.
Mr. Mica. Again, and maybe you're not here to speak on
behalf of a policy for the Secretary of DHS and beyond, but I'm
telling you we aren't getting it right. We are not getting it
right. And also, just for the record, this is provided by you,
daily visitors, the data is based on 2011, 2012 and 2013 survey
data. This is what you gave us. Okay? So don't say that I'm
incorrect. That's what you gave me.
Now, Sheriff Demings, he summed a lot of this up. We're
only as good as the information that we have in intelligence.
We have got to go back to getting better intelligence,
connecting the dots, getting that information. Obviously, they
missed the mark. We're only talking about this program. But
they missed the mark with our particular terrorist, who was
identified multiple times, put on a watch list, taken off a
watch list. Sheriff Demings, you've got to have that
information right to know who poses a risk, either coming into
or in our community. Is that correct?
Sheriff Demings. Congressman Mica, you are correct. And I
will have to say that we have a wonderful collaborative effort
between our Federal, State and local law enforcement
authorities in Orlando, as I indicated, who operate out of the
Central Florida Intelligence Exchange.
There is classified and unclassified information that goes
through that center that assists us in responding to
counterterrorism efforts as well as our day-to-day crime
prevention efforts.
Mr. Mica. Well, the other thing too is, and, Mr. Purdy, you
said--I think it was you--we've got to change the paradigm, the
San Bernardinos, the Orlandos, the Chattanoogas, the Bostons.
They aren't done with us. This isn't over. We've got a
responsibility, and if we're going to spend even one penny, it
has to go most effectively.
And I'm calling today for--again, we have a billion dollars
sitting there. That's another issue, a billion dollars sitting
there, some of this since 2011. We've got to get that money
out. It shouldn't be sitting here. So if they don't use it, we
should find some way that they lose it and it goes to where
people can use it.
But you saw the chart. I saw it this morning the first
time. It's stunning. Almost a third of the money sitting there.
Something's wrong and we've got to change it. But my time is
over and extended.
Let me recognize the gentleman and Ranking Member Mr.
Lynch.
Mr. Lynch. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Kamoie, all right, so, as the chart showed, there's
about a third of the resources that were authorized but not
expended. I'm rather surprised to see that the people in Boston
left half a million dollars unspent, we're not known for that.
But could you explain to me why the allocation--there's two
problems here: One might be the amount of resources that we're
allocating; the other is the effective use, how we deploy and
whether we deploy those resources to protect the people. That's
my first question.
So can you explain why there is that residual amount not
spent?
Mr. Kamoie. I'd be glad to, Congressman Lynch. And I
believe the word that Chairman Mica used was that the money is
idle. There are three timelines that you need to keep in mind
with respect to this money. The first is, it is 1-year funding
when it is provided to us from the Congress, meaning we need to
make the awards in the same fiscal year in which they are
appropriated. So we announce the awards, we move----
Mr. Lynch. I don't want you to burn all my time on this,
because I have some more questions. But, please, if that's the
case--so that money is going to be spent, is that what you're
going to tell me?
Mr. Kamoie. The money is all booked against projects that
they are spending against. You can think of it as your own
budget. When you have a budget at the beginning of the month
and you put on your ledger that you're going to pay your
mortgage on the 25th, it doesn't mean the money is idle. It
means it doesn't get paid until later in the----
Mr. Lynch. So it's targeted; it's going to be spent later.
Mr. Kamoie. Yes.
Mr. Lynch. You can just say that in a short amount of time.
Thank you, I appreciate that. So we're going to spend that
money later, it just hasn't been spent yet. Okay.
What about the factors that we're using here? Orlando, you
know, they've got Disney World and all that going on. I'm sure
they have huge fluctuations of population.
Manhattan, same thing. I worked there. You know, Manhattan
has very little population maybe on a Saturday morning, but
then Monday morning all these millions of people come on in and
there's a huge problem there.
So in the factor, in the formula, do we consider the
inflow? Like, you know, some of the areas in Orlando,
obviously, there's a certain season when they get swamped with
people.
Mr. Kamoie. We do. Population counted as nighttime census,
meaning people who both live there, who are visitors overnight,
and then people who commute during the day and leave.
Mr. Lynch. Okay.
Mr. Kamoie. We count all those folks. And we also count the
infrastructure that you're well familiar with in Orlando.
Mr. Lynch. Yeah. It was quite surprising to me that the
Pulse Nightclub in Orlando was attacked. Just, I mean, come on.
You know, who could predict that? You could say similar
thoughts, as someone from Boston, the marathon, I've run that a
couple of times, that is not somewhere where you would even
think, but now we have to, right?
So if we're going to start protecting soft targets, the
list is endless. The opportunities are endless. And you just
almost get into this sort of whack-a-mole type situation where
we try to guess where they might strike next. And I don't think
there's anything short of full-spectrum surveillance of
American society that could even approach addressing that
problem, as far as something programmatic, in terms of giving
people money out, you know, across these jurisdictions to sort
of make sure nothing happens in their district. I don't know.
That's a tall order for law enforcement and for our
intelligence services.
And I'm just wondering is there a better model out there? I
know that the British have put a lot of money into
surveillance. They've got cameras everywhere, especially their
transportation systems. We haven't done enough of that yet.
But is there another model out there, Mr. Kamoie and Mr.
Purdy, that you think offers some hope?
Mr. Kamoie. Congressman, I'll defer to the sheriff and the
police chief on what the best policing tactics are to address
the threat. On the financing, I can just tell you on the
funding levels, you pointed out something very important in
your opening statement, which is the direction that Congress
gives to the Secretary about how many jurisdictions to fund,
how far to spread the funding. The Secretary takes that
guidance very seriously.
So Congress has a choice about the breadth of jurisdictions
you wish the Department to cover with the funding. So I would
encourage you to have discussions among the committee and with
the appropriators about the appropriate intent that you'd like
to convey to the Secretary.
Mr. Lynch. I can just say in closing, from our own
experience in Boston, the fact that we had a very robust public
safety infrastructure there, we've got great--a suburb police
department, fire department, emergency medical services,
hospitals. They were all onsite. They were all onsite. We have
a great Joint Terrorism Task Force, where FBI, DHS, State
Police, local police. So I think that a lot of people were
saved that day, because we had medical tents already set up, we
had that infrastructure in place. We had great leadership. And
that continues to this day.
So that that's sort of the first line of defense, and then
the stuff that we're doing here with these special programs. So
we've got to support the sheriff and the chief in their basic
jobs, and then plus that up, plus that up with enhanced
resources at this level. But thank you for your courtesy.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the time I don't have.
Mr. DeSantis. [Presiding.] I thank my friend from
Massachusetts. I now recognize myself for five minutes.
Sheriff Demings, the amount of people that are coming into
central Florida every year, what's the ballpark estimate of how
many people come to visit?
Sheriff Demings. In 2015, it was 6 to 6.1 million people
came to visit. And in my county, our permanent resident
population is 1.3 million. So effectively, on any given day,
our county population doubles, and that's the service
population that we have to deal with.
Mr. DeSantis. And those figures would put Orlando in
probably the top five in the country for visitors. Is that your
understanding?
Sheriff Demings. It would certainly move us up from number
34, where we currently reside on the list.
Mr. DeSantis. So you combine a huge influx of people with a
lot of different soft targets. I mean, people think, oh, you
know, they'll go to Disneyland or Disney World. Yeah, that's
one, but there are amusement parks everywhere. There are,
really, a high number of soft targets and probably more soft
targets in Orlando than just about any other city certainly in
the Southeast, I would say. Do you agree with that?
Sheriff Demings. Certainly. Because we have now had an
attack in Orlando, I believe that we will remain at risk. And
that's the unfortunate thing about it. And we simply want to be
prepared and prevent something from occurring. And then if it
should happen, we want to be able to respond quickly.
Mr. DeSantis. But a huge number of people and then the
proliferation of soft targets, that's not really reflected in
how FEMA analyzes this presently, correct?
Sheriff Demings. As best as I can tell, that is perhaps
some of the factors that they look at. But we are seeing a
paradigm shift in the way terror suspects are identifying their
targets, as Chief Mina indicated, and they are looking more at
the soft targets.
Mr. DeSantis. So, Chief, how would the funding--say this
changes and you guys are getting more funding, what would be
your first order of business to use that, in terms of terrorist
preparedness?
Chief Mina. Well first of all, going back to the formula
and the amount of visitors, and that may be factored in, but we
believe, since we are such a target, that the number of
visitors in our venues should hold greater weight.
But secondly, that funding has provided us with much needed
training for our response and much needed equipment. But
training skills perish and equipment, you know, is needed to be
replaced. So, you know, just looking at the Pulse incident,
there's so much more equipment that I would have liked. There's
thermal imaging, to see where the suspect was behind those
walls.
Sir, I met with officials from France to discuss the Paris
attacks, and they had ballistic protection for their face
shields for their SWAT officers, which we do not have. So
there's all kinds of equipment out there, equipment----
Mr. DeSantis. Do you guys have the--the Dallas police used
the robot to deliver a bomb to kill the guy who was shooting
the cops. Do you guys have access to that type of technology?
Chief Mina. We do have a similar robot. But, again, we
haven't had the training to deploy such a device, as you know,
the first time used ever to kill a suspect in that type of
situation. But that's, again, training that could be provided
with that funding.
Mr. DeSantis. Sheriff Demings, you talked about in your
testimony having Brevard and Volusia be included in that. Why
is that important?
Sheriff Demings. It's important because it is really--it
speaks to more of how our metropolitan area functions, the
infrastructure, the roadways, how we advertise our tourism
destinations, how our commuters travel to and from work.
We truly are one big metropolitan area. Whenever there's an
incident, let's say in Volusia involving the raceway, we
support their efforts. When there is something that's going on
at NASA, the Kennedy Space Center, we support the efforts there
as well.
And so even with the Pulse incident, we had a regional
response. There were police agencies and sheriff's officers
from throughout the region in question who responded to assist
us in our recovery efforts.
Mr. DeSantis. I agree. And I join Chairman Mica in
supporting your efforts to get that change.
This is just a little bit off this particular subject, but
there's obviously been a lot of issues going on in our society.
The Dallas shootings. So how is the morale with the Orange
County Sheriff's Department for officers? Are they feeling the
support that they need from the community and the public?
Sheriff Demings. I've got to tell you for the last 2 years
law enforcement across the Nation has been criticized mightily,
sometimes justly so, sometimes unjustly so.
But what we saw happen immediately after the Pulse incident
was this tremendous outpouring of support and love, if you
will, that was shown to all first responders, not just the law
enforcement officers. And there were various random acts of
kindness to our personnel that has continued right through
today. And I'm sure that Chief Mina could echo my comments and
sentiments in this regard.
Mr. DeSantis. Is that your experience?
Chief Mina. Absolutely. It's been tough times for law
enforcement these past few years, but the morale is good
because of the great support from our community. And we're
lucky in Orlando and Orange County. We have a rich history of
community policing and community engagement with our community.
But there has been just a huge outpouring of support from the
community.
And certainly, any time a police officer is targeted
because of wearing that uniform, it is very concerning to them.
So they are very on guard and aware and concerned about their
own safety, but the morale is good and they feel the support
from our community.
Mr. DeSantis. Great. Well, thank you, and I am done.
And I guess we'll now recognize the gentleman from Alabama,
Mr. Palmer, for five minutes.
Mr. Palmer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And I want thank the witnesses for being here and echo the
sentiment that we've already heard here about our support for
law enforcement and first responders at every level. We really
do appreciate you guys and want to help any way we can.
Mr. Kamoie, does FEMA have the capabilities to do
evaluations of regional preparedness?
Mr. Kamoie. We do. We've got extensive reporting by our
grant recipients against core capabilities for preparedness. So
we've done a great many things to advance our ability to assess
preparedness.
Mr. Palmer. How long have you been doing these?
Mr. Kamoie. The President issued Presidential Policy
Directive 8 on national preparedness in 2011, and we have been
working since then on identifying the core capabilities and
working with our State and local partners to align investments
of these grant funds against those capabilities.
Mr. Palmer. Prior to the Orlando attack, considering the
high profile of that city and of that region, was there a
preparedness evaluation report done for central Florida and
specifically Orlando?
Mr. Kamoie. As an Urban Area Security Initiative
jurisdiction, Orlando has reported to us the funding----
Mr. Palmer. No. I'm asking, this is FEMA's responsibility.
There's a GAO report. You mentioned the President's initiative.
I want to know was there a report done for central Florida and
specifically for the city of Orlando?
Mr. Kamoie. I'll have to follow up with you, Congressman.
Mr. Palmer. Okay. When you follow up, I would like for you
to respond to the committee as to whether or not a report was
prepared, and if it was I'd like for you to provide that to the
committee. Could you do that, please?
Mr. Kamoie. I will.
Mr. Palmer. Isn't it the responsibility of the UASI program
to make sure that the program's goals are met?
Mr. Kamoie. That the program----
Mr. Palmer. Goals are met.
Mr. Kamoie. Yes.
Mr. Palmer. One of the goals is to make sure that these
regions are prepared. And what I find stunning--and I was at
the classified briefing in which Mr. Mica laid some documents
on the stage for Secretary Johnson.
It is stunning to me that more wasn't done to prepare
Orlando for this, to view Orlando as a target. It's stunning to
me that Orlando was turned down for the grant, and particularly
considering the threats that we face, and it's been in an
escalating nature. I mean, it's not like one happened 5 years
ago and then something else happened. I mean, these things are
escalating. It's almost as though the Federal Government,
particularly this administration, is tone deaf or blind to it.
And I just don't understand why there's a billion dollars that
wasn't used. And I heard your answer a while ago that there's
other things going on, but they are critical needs and Orlando
should have been one of the top areas for this.
What accountability and oversight is FEMA exercising to
ensure that program funds are being used effectively?
Mr. Kamoie. We monitor 100 percent of all open awards. And
where we see indications that additional monitoring is needed,
we do site visits. We work both on the programmatic monitoring
and financial monitoring, to make sure the funding is spent for
the purposes for which it is appropriated.
Mr. Palmer. Well when you look at the fact that there's
over half a billion--$662 million, half a billion dollars that
was unused from 2011, and you couldn't come up with some----
Mr. Kamoie. The award amount was $662 million. The award
balance was----
Mr. Palmer. I'm sorry, you're right. There's half a billion
was--$1.1 billion that's left over, and it's accumulated over
that time. Thank you for pointing that out.
Mr. Kamoie. It's not idle or left over. The grantees for
2015 have 3 years to spend the money. So they are in progress
with that $585 million, and they'll spend against it until
2018. In 2014, they had a 2-year period of performance. They
have until August of 2016 to spend down that funding, and when
they conduct or complete large projects, they then request
reimbursement.
Mr. Palmer. Are you saying that most of the funding is
spent on the back end of that?
Mr. Kamoie. I'm saying the timing for which they request
reimbursement can accelerate toward the end of the period of
performance. So it's a reimbursement grant. So they submit
bills to us; we pay them. So that $585 million for 2015 is
ongoing. The $445 million, the period of performance will close
in August. Some projects will get legitimate extensions to
their period of performance, because they're still in progress.
That billion dollars is very actively being spent right now;
it's not left over.
Mr. Palmer. Well, what I was asking is, is it looks like a
lot of this is spent on the back end, if you've got 2014
funding and you still have $445 million left and it closes out
in August.
Mr. Kamoie. So whether it's spent on--I mean, we reimburse
on the back end, yes. As we're closing the grants,
jurisdictions submit a large number of bills to us.
Mr. Palmer. I want to look into this a little bit more and
make sure that I fully understand how this is done, but I want
to get back to this.
I understand the senior policy group oversees the
allocation and implementation of UASI funding, determines
priority actions for increasing the region's preparedness and
response capabilities, as well as reducing vulnerability to
terrorist attacks. The group is comprised of senior emergency
management officials. They're from the District of Columbia,
they're from Maryland and Virginia.
Why isn't there more diversity in the context of regional
representation on that, or is there? And I'm asking this in the
context of I'm trying to learn something here about how they're
coordinating.
Mr. Kamoie. The senior policy group for the District of
Columbia's Urban Area Security Initiative? That is not----
Mr. Palmer. No, senior policy group. I understand they
oversee the allocation and implementation of the UASI funding,
and they determine the priority actions.
Mr. Kamoie. Not nationally. So in every urban area, there's
typically an urban area working group, whether a jurisdiction
calls it a senior policy group or by some other name; but every
urban area has a governance structure to determine the
priorities among the jurisdictions. But I have no senior policy
group from those jurisdictions that govern nationally what the
program's priorities are.
Mr. Palmer. Well, that came from the GAO report and it
indicated it was for the whole country, the whole UASI.
Mr. Kamoie. Congressman, we'll take a look at that. I'm not
familiar with that senior policy group.
Mr. Palmer. You're not familiar with the group?
Mr. Kamoie. There is no senior policy group that sets the
Urban Area Security Initiative priorities nationally. I think
that is likely referring to a specific urban area jurisdiction.
Mr. Palmer. Okay. Then who does determine?
Mr. Kamoie. So I go back to the President's preparedness
policy identified 32 core capabilities that are the priorities,
how this administration has defined preparedness against which
all of the grant investments should be invested. They are very
broad. They range from prevention capability, such as
information sharing and interdiction, search and detection, all
the way through to response and recovery capabilities.
So we have, as an administration, determined priorities for
preparedness grant funding. We work with grantees to make sure
the funds are spent against those priorities. We monitor how
the funds are spent. Of course, the Department's inspector
general audits grant recipients; and where we find that funds
have not been used properly, we take enforcement action.
Mr. Palmer. I'm trying to figure out, though, how you make
a determination that would result in Orlando and central
Florida not getting a grant. Is there a ranking process? Is
there a committee or is it an individual--I tell you what, for
sake of time, and I've gone over my time, could you give us a
report on that that outlines how this is done?
Mr. Kamoie. Absolutely, Congressman.
Mr. Palmer. I'd appreciate that.
Mr. Chairman, you've been very generous with time. I yield
back.
Mr. Mica. [Presiding.] Thank you. Appreciate your questions
and participation.
Let me yield now to the Ranking Member, Mr. Lynch.
Additional questions?
Mr. Lynch. Mr. Kamoie, we're getting hung up again on the
allocations and the unspent amounts. What happens, you know, so
we've already--we're joining in a letter to have the inspector
general look at this and see how much money has been lingering
and unspent for how much time.
Obviously, if something has been sitting there for 5 years
and hasn't been spent, it's probably not going to get spent.
And if we could somehow reallocate to our Tier II risk
jurisdictions, that might help some of the problems that we've
identified here.
Mr. Kamoie. It's why I mentioned the money to us is 1-year
money. I can't reallocate it if a grant recipient doesn't spend
it. I don't have the authority.
Mr. Lynch. Well, we need to do that. We need to--we have
provisions in our general transportation budget that if you
don't use money, we take it back after a certain period of
time. We could have a similar provision in this, in this grant
program, that either puts the money back in the pot for re-
issuance or automatically goes to these underserved
jurisdictions that don't have the robust security apparatus
that some others do.
How much control does the State have? My Governor is pretty
good on this stuff, but in terms of allocation within areas,
how much involvement does the State have in where to allocate
the resources? Is any of that tied in with the government?
Mr. Kamoie. In the State Homeland Security program, the
Governor designates a State administrative agency and they have
control over the State Homeland Security program funds. The
Urban Area Security Initiative funds pass through a State,
which, by statute, is allowed to keep up to 20 percent of the
funding, and then passes the 80 percent down to the urban
areas, who, again----
Mr. Lynch. Are they earmarked for those urban areas?
Mr. Kamoie. They are directed to the urban areas, yes.
Mr. Lynch. Okay.
Mr. Kamoie. When an award is made to Orlando, it passes
through the State to Orlando.
Mr. Lynch. And they can take 20 percent out?
Mr. Kamoie. They can take up to 20 percent.
Mr. Lynch. For what, administrative costs or----
Mr. Kamoie. For activities and projects that benefit the
urban area or benefit statewide.
Mr. Lynch. I see. Okay. I have a few, some seconds left
here. Any other points you want to make?
Mr. Kamoie. I'll just go back to something you mentioned in
your opening statement, Congressman, which is the guidance on
the number of urban areas that the Secretary provides the
funding to is critical, because Congress has a choice to make
as to where the line is drawn in the top 100 Metropolitan
Statistical Areas. The Congress can draw the line; they can
provide discretion to the Secretary to draw the line.
Mr. Lynch. Okay. Thank you.
I yield back. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Mica. Again, I thank you, Mr. Lynch and Mr. DeSantis,
for participating, and other members today as we wind this up.
Let me go back and ask Sheriff Demings if there's any
points he would like to make, having heard what has transpired
and the information we have now about the program. And we'll go
to Chief Mina and then Mr. Purdy.
Sheriff Demings. The last comment by Mr. Kamoie I believe
certainly has merit, and which some discretion should be given
to the Secretary to determine where the line is drawn, because
if the Secretary has discretion, perhaps the Secretary can make
that--use that discretion based on current events and what is
happening today and not what occurred 1, 2 or 3 years prior.
Mr. Mica. Chief Mina.
Chief Mina. Yeah. And just again, that we ask that more
weight be given in the formula to the 66 million visitors. And
also, I think it was important to mention that the Orlando FBI
offices run out of Tampa. So that those--the investigations and
intelligence received through Orlando are actually attributed
to and out of the Tampa office. So we would like that to be
looked at as well.
Mr. Mica. Thank you. Mr. Purdy.
Mr. Purdy. I think one of the issues here is metrics,
factors, formulas of risk and threat. And maybe if the
Secretary of Homeland Security had more discretion, maybe some
of those funds would then be able to be allocated to maybe
those Tier II cities and regions that maybe need some of these
things.
Congressman Lynch was spot on the money when he talked
about soft targets. You know, terrorists are looking at
targets. We harden stuff with UASI money and then they look at,
okay, nightclubs, in Paris, a stadium, nightclubs, restaurants,
a concert hall. So they're also looking to see what we're
doing, and they're very adaptive. So we spend money to harden
something, but we also have to think of an evolving process.
And so maybe the Secretary does need more discretion, and
Congress can give him that.
Mr. Mica. Thank you. Any quick comment, Mr. Kamoie?
Mr. Kamoie. No. We look forward to continuing to work with
the sheriff, with the police chief, with the Orlando community,
and the other urban area jurisdictions to secure our
communities.
Mr. Mica. Okay. We always have these hearings and then
people wonder what's coming from it. I want to thank Mr. Lynch.
He's agreed to sign on with myself. Chairman Chaffetz last
night agreed to be a cosigner of a letter to the inspector
general.
And we're going to ask for three things to follow up this
hearing: One, we're going to ask for a review of the assessment
process. Somewhere we're missing the mark. The assessment
hasn't caught up with what the terrorists are doing and hitting
us in these soft targets. So somehow we've got to do that.
We also have the issue of the discretion for the Secretary.
We need to look at that congressionally. We do have, with the
amendment that I've offered, which is in the DHS appropriations
bill, some look-see from Congress, but we may want to go beyond
that.
The second thing we want the inspector general to look at
is the leftover money. We have money back to 2011. Maybe if you
don't use it you lose it or it becomes redistributed. When I
saw the chart again this morning that they had shown me when
they did the final analysis, we've got about a third of the
money, over a billion dollars sitting behind. That's not
acceptable. These people are after us. We've got to stay ahead
of them with every resource possible. It can't be sitting
somewhere. So that's the second thing.
And then we've seen some wasteful spending. That last
report was 2012. We want that updated. People can't waste the
money. It has to be effectively expended to target our needs to
combat terrorism and get the funds to the local government.
So we can't afford not to get it right here. We've got to
get it right. There have been multiple Federal failures. This
hearing only looks at one of them. I have a letter, and we'll
make it part without objection, I hope, to Chairman Goodlatte
and also to Chairman Chaffetz, to look at the elements that I
don't have jurisdiction, your subcommittee might, but under the
judiciary looking at the FBI and some of the failures there:
Our watch list that failed; our identification of somebody who
posed a risk and months of investigation and then nothing done
to track them.
So we've got to get that right. So I'm going to put in the
record a letter that I submitted on June 29 to Chairman
Goodlatte and also shared with Chairman Chaffetz to follow up,
so we look at that.
Mr. Mica. Other items. I just wanted to put into in the
record--people wonder sometimes what me, Mr. Lynch and others
are doing to combat terrorism. And I got this just this week, a
summary of the Homeland Security Committee. These are select
counterterrorism bills. Every one of these bills, 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, there must be 20 of them, I want to put this in
the record. These are bills that were passed, we voted on to
deal with terrorism. Unfortunately, many of them are sitting in
the Senate, but we have not neglected trying to change laws and
our approach from a legislative standpoint. So, without
objection, I would like to put that in the record. Thank you.
Mr. Mica. And then finally, this was just released that
says ``for official use only,'' and if we could put this in the
record or refer to it, this is the 2016 allocation of Urban
Security Grant funds and threat levels. This was just released
a couple weeks ago. Orlando is not on the list. We've got
something wrong that needs to be corrected. So we have some
challenges. People are counting on us. Our Nation is under
attack, our communities under attack.
Mr. Mica. I can't end the hearing without thanking my two
local law enforcement guys. They have been there. Even before
that attack took place in Orlando, the worst terrorist massacre
since 9/11, they were there. They warned us. The Federal
Government didn't hear it. And now we'll probably get hunting,
we'll probably make these changes, but 49 people aren't with us
and their families are suffering. And we missed the mark in
Boston, we missed it in San Bernardino and others, so we've got
to do a better job.
I thank every one of you, on behalf of the committee, on
behalf of the Congress, for coming and testifying and working
together. I am very confident we can get it right and meet this
challenge.
There being no further business before the joint
subcommittee hearing today, again, thank you, this hearing is
adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 10:38 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
APPENDIX
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