[Senate Hearing 114-178]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 114-178
Senate Hearings
Before the Committee on Appropriations
_______________________________________________________________________
Commerce, Justice, Science,
and Related Agencies
Appropriations
Fiscal Year 2016
114th CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION
H.R. 2578
BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, FIREARMS AND EXPLOSIVES
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE--OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE--OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
NONDEPARTMENTAL WITNESSES
UNITED STATES MARSHALS SERVICE
S. Hrg. 114-178
COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR
FISCAL YEAR 2016
=======================================================================
HEARINGS
before a
SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE
COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
on
H.R. 2578
AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE DEPARTMENTS OF COMMERCE AND
JUSTICE, AND SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING
SEPTEMBER 30, 2016, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
__________
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
Department of Commerce--Office of the Secretary
Department of Justice--Office of the Attorney General
Drug Enforcement Administration
Federal Bureau of Investigation
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Nondepartmental Witnesses
United States Marshals Service
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/
committee.action?chamber=senate&committee=appropriations
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
93-106 PDF WASHINGTON : 2016
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing
Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800;
DC area (202) 512-1800 Fax: (202) 512-2104 Mail: Stop IDCC,
Washington, DC 20402-0001
COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi, Chairman
MITCH McCONNELL, Kentucky BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland,
RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama Vice Chairwoman
LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont
SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine PATTY MURRAY, Washington
LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California
LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois
MARK KIRK, Illinois JACK REED, Rhode Island
ROY BLUNT, Missouri JON TESTER, Montana
JERRY MORAN, Kansas TOM UDALL, New Mexico
JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire
JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon
SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware
BILL CASSIDY, Louisiana BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii
JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
STEVE DAINES, Montana CHRIS MURPHY, Connecticut
Bruce Evans, Staff Director
Charles E. Kieffer, Minority Staff Director
------
Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama, Chairman
LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland,
LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska Ranking Member
SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont
LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California
MARK KIRK, Illinois JACK REED, Rhode Island
JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire
SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware
JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi, (ex CHRIS MURPHY, Connecticut
officio)
Professional Staff
Jeremy Weirich
Allen Cutler
Kolo Rathburn
Steven Wall
Jean Toal Eisen (Minority)
Jennifer Eskra (Minority)
Molly O'Rourke (Minority)
Administrative Support
Hayley Alexander
Jordan Stone (Minority)
C O N T E N T S
----------
hearings
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Page
Department of Commerce--Office of the Secretary.................. 1
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.............. 89
Drug Enforcement Administration.................................. 83
Federal Bureau of Investigation.................................. 65
United States Marshals Service................................... 77
Thursday, April 16, 2015
National Aeronautics and Space Administration.................... 159
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Department of Justice--Office of the Attorney General............ 187
----------
back matter
List of Witnesses, Communications, and Prepared Statements....... 307
Nondepartmental Witnesses........................................ 253
Subject Index:
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.......... 309
Department of Commerce--Office of the Secretary.............. 309
Department of Justice--Office of the Attorney General........ 311
Drug Enforcement Administration.............................. 313
Federal Bureau of Investigation.............................. 314
National Aeronautics and Space Administration................ 315
United States Marshals Service............................... 316
COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR
FISCAL YEAR 2016
----------
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2015
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met at 10:33 a.m., in room SD-192, Dirksen
Senate Office Building, Hon. Richard Shelby (chairman)
presiding.
Present: Senators Shelby, Collins, Kirk, Capito, Lankford,
Mikulski, Shaheen, Coons, Baldwin, and Murphy.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Office of the Secretary
STATEMENT OF HON. PENNY PRITZKER, SECRETARY
opening statement of senator richard c. shelby
Senator Shelby. The subcommittee will come to order. Today,
I want to welcome Secretary Pritzker, who will testify about
the Department of Commerce's 2016 budget request. This
subcommittee has had a productive relationship with the
Commerce Department under Secretary Pritzker's tenure, and we
appreciate very much her being here today.
The Department of Commerce is responsible for a variety of
activities critical to our Nation's well-being, including:
weather forecasting, economic development, fisheries
management, cybersecurity standards, and trade enforcement,
among others. Few departments have such potential to directly
impact the strength and sustainability of our communities and
local businesses back home.
The Commerce Department's request for fiscal year 2016
totals $9.8 billion, which is $1.3 billion, or 16 percent,
above the 2015 enacted amount of $8.5 billion. This request
represents a significant increase in spending at a time when
America is still living within a constrained budget. The
Department's request proposes increasing funding for several
important programs that are already expensive, including the
build up to the 2020 Decennial Census and efforts to launch the
next generation of weather satellites. These large increases
are coupled with substantial funding proposals for new
initiatives, which will continue to add financial pressure on
existing core programs and operations.
Such a disjointed request, I believe, ignores current
fiscal realities and raises immediate questions about the
administration's priorities for establishing a balanced budget
within the Commerce Department. Strict oversight and fiscal
responsibility are essential for the Department's success in
2016.
One of the growing pressures on the Department's budget is
the anticipated budgetary and personnel build up to execute the
2020 Census. And while the Department is working to the make
the 2020 Census as efficient and cost-effective as possible,
any delay in testing and activities now will have very costly
ramifications in the future. The Department, I believe, simply
cannot afford to have another $1 billion setback similar to
that experienced in 2010.
Madam Secretary, I believe if you're not watchful of plans
and schedules with the Census today, important programs
throughout the Department could suffer in order to keep the
Census on track.
When it comes to accountability, ensuring the timely
delivery, launch, and operation of weather satellites remains a
primary concern for this subcommittee. According to NOAA's own
budget request, polar orbiting satellites provide the primary
input, up to 85 percent, of the data needed for NOAA's
numerical weather prediction models, the underpinnings of high
impact weather forecasts. Eighty-five percent, I think, is a
big deal.
Despite the continued support and full funding provided by
the subcommittee to NOAA for these satellites, recent reports
by GAO and the Department of Commerce Inspector General suggest
that a gap in polar satellite data is likely to occur. GAO
continues to predict a gap that could last anywhere from 17 to
53 months, while NOAA and NASA say there is only a potential of
a 3 month gap. I'm disappointed in the lack of a specific plan
to address the potential near-term data gap that could occur
this calendar year.
Madam Secretary, this mixed message on the potential gap
deeply troubles me. It's clear that the loss of this data would
negatively impact the capability of our Nation's weather
forecasters, potentially putting lives and property in harm's
way. This gap debate and incongruent information does little to
dissuade my concerns or that of the American people.
In addition, I'm concerned about the Department's 2016
request of $380 million for a proposal to build a follow-on
polar satellite program after the Joint Polar Satellite System.
The 2016 request is only an initial down payment for this new
satellite program and lacks specific details on the overall
price tag, which could cost several billion dollars. The
subcommittee will need further information from the Department
and NOAA on this new satellite system to determine what exactly
the taxpayers are being asked to invest in beyond 2016.
Finally, I want to touch on the Department's role in
economic development. For fiscal year 2015, I expressed concern
about the rollout of the Investing in Manufacturing Communities
program. This program gives selected communities a seal of
approval and priority access to Federal resources, resulting in
the Department picking winners and losers. This is a concern
that a lot of us have.
I'm similarly troubled by a new initiative proposed in the
2016 request that would establish two new institutes for
manufacturing and innovation. The question is, do we need them?
Last year's omnibus spending bill included authorization to
build out a network of these manufacturing institutes. And
while I support efforts to drive innovation and spur private
sector growth, I'm concerned that institutes may benefit only
certain communities while disadvantaging others. I believe this
manufacturing initiative will create a fiscal commitment that
we might be unable to meet.
The administration proposes $1.9 billion in mandatory
spending in 2017 to fund these manufacturing institutes, but
these funds have yet to be authorized. With no mandatory
funding available or identified, the administration proposes
spending $150 million of discretionary funding in fiscal 2016.
This is discretionary funding that the Department simply can't
afford. I'm concerned that funding new initiatives like this
will come at a cost to Commerce's core functions. To be
financially successful, I believe the Commerce Department's
role in this initiative should be limited in scope, focused on
its core mission of economic development, and assisting the
most economically distressed communities, while being mindful
of taxpayers' dollars.
I look forward, Madam Secretary, to hearing your views on
these matters and working with our subcommittee to address the
concerns in the 2016 bill.
Now, I want to recognize Senator Mikulski, the former
Chairwoman of the subcommittee and my friend and colleague, for
any remarks that she might want to make.
statement of senator barbara a. mikulski
Senator Mikulski. Thank you very much, Chairman Shelby, and
I want to congratulate you on your chairmanship and once again,
reaffirm our bipartisan working relationship on what's going to
be good for our country. And we know today that there are some
new members on our subcommittee from both Wisconsin and
Oklahoma, and it's wonderful to welcome you to the
subcommittee.
Secretary Pritzker, of course, is the Secretary of
Commerce, which is a hybrid agency that does deal with
everything from fish, which is so crucial to our mutual
economies--especially Senator Collins and myself and I know
Alabama--to technology, to the prediction of weather, which we
can see we're highly dependent upon.
But her mantra and her mission has been the phrase that
America is open for business. And we look forward to hearing
from her how she feels the budget request from the President
will enable the Department of Commerce not only make wise use
of taxpayers' dollars, but how this will promote our economy
and promote job growth, both today and tomorrow. So we look
forward to hearing how this ``Open for Business'' has actually
worked in the real world and how it will do this. We're not
here to fund Government programs. We're here to fund American
outcomes. And those American outcomes are to create American
jobs, promoting economic growth, particularly in manufacturing,
which so many of our communities have been hard hit, an
increase in exports, and also to make sure that as we do R&D,
that this is leading, really to markets.
I am thrilled, particularly in my own home State, where we
have so many Nobel Prize winners. But I want us to not only win
the Nobel Prizes, but I want us to win the markets. So we're
going to look forward to what does the money mean. And of
course, protecting America's jobs, and not only new trade laws,
but enforcing the existing ones, and safeguarding our
intellectual property. We here in America are inventors. We are
discoverers. But I believe that when you invent something, you
should own it, and it should not be stolen from you, and we
need that.
The other is to be able to protect our people, and whether
that's accurate weather forecast--because again, Senator
Collins and I have talked about how we've had firefighters
rescuing people and nurses with snowmobiles. We have people out
there now on our waterways in cold and frozen waters, either
worrying about where our fishermen are or promoting commerce.
We need accurate weather, whether you're Oklahoma or Wisconsin
worrying about a tornado or--we need this. So it is the weather
forecasting.
We're particularly interested in the Commerce Department's
role in cyber. When we think of the word cyber, we immediately
think of the defense of our Nation. We think of the Department
of Defense, the Cyber Command, the National Security Agency. We
certainly are thinking about the responsibilities of the
Homeland Security that could be facing a shutdown. But what is
the role of cyber at a Commerce Department? And quite frankly,
you've been hacked yourself, so we want to know that.
The other is that we appreciate your work in reform. Going
back to really Secretary Gutierrez, he and I worked as
reformers together on things like, especially, the Census,
which was of great concern. We worked together on the techno
boondoggle of the NOAA satellites. We need to hear how you've
made progress and how we cannot have boondoggles again. And I
know you've carried on the spirit of reform that was created
under Secretary Gutierrez, Becky (Acting Secretary Rebecca
Blank) continued it, and you have, because with an
approximately $9 billion budget request, we've got to make sure
we use the money that we have well, and leverage that to make
sure that America is not only open for business, but stays in
business.
So I look forward to your testimony and working with you to
achieve those goals.
Senator Shelby. Secretary Pritzker, your written testimony
will be made part of the record. You can proceed as you wish.
Welcome, again, to the subcommittee.
summary statement of hon. penny pritzker
Secretary Pritzker. Thank you very much, Chairman Shelby,
Vice Chairman Mikulski, and members of the subcommittee. Thank
you for the opportunity to lay out President Obama's fiscal
year 2016 Budget for the Department of Commerce.
This budget advances the core tenets of the Department's
mission, to develop and implement policies that support
economic growth, to help America's businesses expand and
thrive, both at home and around the world, and to ensure that
the country remains competitive, stays at the forefront of
innovation, and continues to lead the global economy in the
21st century. To support this mission, the fiscal year 2016
budget provides $9.8 billion of discretionary funding to
reinforce the priorities of the Department's strategy, our Open
for Business agenda, by promoting U.S. exports, trade, and
investment, by spurring high tech manufacturing and innovation,
by unleashing more data for economic benefit, by gathering and
acting on environmental intelligence, and by making our
agency's operations more efficient and more effective.
Today, I want to highlight some key initiatives supported
by this budget. First, the Commerce Department collects,
analyzes, disseminates data that informs everyday business
decisions. In particular, the Census Bureau creates data
products used by businesses, policy makers, and the public. The
fiscal year 2016 budget reflects the fact that this is a
critical year for preparation of the 2020 Census as we test the
use of administrative records, reengineered field operations,
and Internet data collection, as we create new systems to
improve coverage and quality of the Census, and as we develop
plans for the fiscal years 2017 and 2018 integrated tests of
the entire process, all of this combined at a potential savings
of $5 billion to taxpayers. But to achieve these savings, we
must invest today.
Another part of our agenda is to help communities and
businesses prepare for and prosper in a changing environment.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's budget
will enhance our ability to meet this goal through two
investments. First, the budget proposes $2.4 billion to fully
fund the next generation of weather and environmental
satellites, which provide our communities with forecasts that
protect lives, property, and the economy. Funding the
development and launch of future satellites is absolutely
critical to reduce the risk of a potential gap in weather data
in 2017 and beyond.
Second, the budget requests $147 million to develop a high
endurance, long range ocean survey vessel. Our fleet is in
desperate need of renewal. Making this investment now will
enable NOAA to take advantage of design work previously done by
the Navy and of openings in the shipyard's schedule, both of
which will save taxpayers millions of dollars in acquisition
and design costs. Time is not our ally. We need to replace
eight ships in the next 12 years, and this ocean survey vessel
is just the first.
For generations, manufacturing has been a key to
innovation, a source of middle class jobs, and a pillar of our
global leadership. Over the last 5 years, America's
manufacturers have made a comeback, adapting, innovating, and
adding more than 870,000 jobs, growing for the first time in
decades. Recognizing the importance of manufacturing to our
competitiveness, you passed the Revitalize American
Manufacturing and Innovation Act, which calls for the expansion
of the national network of manufacturing innovation, or NNMI.
This initiative brings together industry, university
researchers, community colleges, NGOs, and government to
accelerate the development of cutting-edge manufacturing
technologies. From the start, the competition among communities
to host and to provide matching funds for these advanced
manufacturing sites has been fierce. Our fiscal year 2016
budget requests funding to oversee and coordinate current and
future institutes and to support two institutes led by the
Commerce Department, which would focus on lab to market
opportunities that the private sector industry determines have
the most potential.
This budget will also provide the International Trade
Administration with the resources needed to advance President
Obama's robust trade agenda. These investments will enable our
export assistant centers and foreign commercial service to help
small, medium, and large size businesses expand their exports
to new markets and to ensure that American made products make
their way to the 95 percent of customers who live outside of
the United States.
Finally, our budget will allow us to continue the
renovation of our building's headquarters here in Washington,
D.C. This multi-year project is designed to upgrade our 80-year
old facility's heating, cooling, plumbing, and electrical
systems. The $24 million requested by our department will
enable us to make better use of our space, and ultimately
reduce the amount of funds required to house our employees.
These priorities only scratch the surface of our
department's work to support U.S. businesses, U.S. communities,
and our economy. So I look forward to answering your questions
today and to partnering with this subcommittee to keep America
open for business. Thank you.
[The statement follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Penny Pritzker
Chairman Shelby, Ranking Member Mikulski, and members of the
subcommittee, thank you for this opportunity to discuss with you
President Obama's fiscal year 2016 budget request for the U.S.
Department of Commerce. The investments included in the fiscal year
2016 budget request build upon the important investments you enacted in
fiscal year 2015 and I am grateful for your support.
The Department plays a critical role in promoting U.S. economic
growth and providing vital scientific and environmental information. To
support this mission across its diverse bureaus, the budget provides
$9.8 billion in discretionary funding for Commerce. This funding level
will enable key investments in areas such as promotion of exports and
foreign investment; development of weather satellites; wireless and
broadband access; and research and development to support long-term
economic growth. At the same time, efficiency gains, such as
streamlining operations in the Census Bureau and reductions in lower-
priority activities enable Commerce to reduce costs and operate more
efficiently.
The fiscal year 2016 budget request reflects and advances the
priorities of the Department's ``Open for Business'' Agenda. It
maintains our role as the voice of business in the Obama administration
by making critical investments in areas that will grow our economy and
create good American jobs. This budget prioritizes promoting U.S. trade
and investment, spurring high-tech manufacturing and innovation,
unleashing more of our data, and gathering and acting on environmental
intelligence, while also streamlining operations to help businesses
grow. We are committed to working with Congress to achieve these goals
so we can continue to build on our economic momentum and keep America
more competitive in the global economy.
The fiscal year 2016 Department of Commerce budget includes key
investments in the following areas:
strengthening u.s. trade and investment
Increasing trade and investment is critical to growing our economy.
Exports have driven nearly one-third of economic growth since 2009 and
support 11.3 million jobs. Ninety-six percent of companies that export
are Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Today, 95 percent of potential
customers are outside our borders and growing the number of export-
related jobs, which pay up to 18 percent more on average, will require
expanding our ability to reach these foreign markets.
The budget includes $497 million for the International Trade
Administration (ITA) to strengthen the competitiveness of U.S.
industry, promote job-creating trade and investment, and ensure fair
trade through the rigorous enforcement of our trade laws and
agreements. Funding for ITA includes $15 million to accelerate
operations of the Interagency Trade Enforcement Center (ITEC), a multi-
agency effort to address unfair trade practices and barriers that
impede U.S. exports.
The budget also provides $20 million within ITA to further
strengthen SelectUSA, which is the government-wide effort to promote
and facilitate business investment into the United States. From a vast
domestic market, to a transparent legal system, to the most innovative
companies in the world, America is the place for business. We are very
grateful to this subcommittee for its past support for this important
program. Building upon the successes of the inaugural SelectUSA Summit
in 2013, the Department will host its second SelectUSA Investment
Summit in March 2015. Other funds will support ITA's efforts to make it
easier for U.S. companies of all sizes to reach consumers who live
beyond our borders, including program and policy improvements to
provide exporters more tailored assistance and to strengthen
partnerships at the State and local level that support export promotion
and foreign direct investment attraction strategies.
The President's fiscal year 2016 budget requests $115 million for
the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). Following the successful
realignment of significant license application responsibilities from
the Department of State to BIS, our focus on capacity-building now
shifts from export administration to export enforcement. This level of
funding will allow us to increase the number of enforcement agents
within BIS to ensure enforcement of export controls and compliance-
related activities to ensure that exporters and re-exporters are
following our export control regulations.
If we are to ensure that we can export U.S. goods more quickly,
while also ensuring that sensitive technologies do not end up in the
wrong hands, we must be able to educate exporters and re-exporters
about our regulations and their responsibilities, and we must put
sufficient teeth into our enforcement efforts. Strong enforcement
levels the playing field for exporters, while lax enforcement threatens
our national security and permits violators to flourish at the expense
of the compliant.
To continue supporting the national growth of minority-owned U.S.
businesses, the budget includes $30 million for the Minority Business
Development Agency. Minority owned firms make a significant and
valuable contribution to our economy and export at a higher rate
compared to all U.S. firms. This investment will promote further growth
and global competitiveness of our Nation's minority-owned businesses.
spurring innovation, growth and competitiveness
Strengthening U.S. Manufacturing: As global competition continues
to increase, the United States must find ways to foster the innovation
that produces economic growth and creates well-paying middle-class
jobs. A national effort to create institutes focused on manufacturing
innovation will accelerate development and adoption of cutting-edge
manufacturing technologies for new products that can compete in
international markets. The National Network for Manufacturing
Innovation (NNMI) provides a manufacturing research infrastructure
where U.S. industry and academia collaborate to solve industry-relevant
problems. To date, five institutes, funded by the Department of Defense
and the Department of Energy, have been launched, involving more than
300 companies and universities and attracting $480 million in private
funding in the institutes. NNMI will keep America on the front-lines of
discovery, which will result in our businesses, our manufacturers, and
the American economy becoming more competitive in the 21st century
global economy.
The budget supports the President's vision of creating a full
national network, expanding NNMI with up to 45 manufacturing innovation
institutes across the Nation during the next 10 years. In total, the
budget includes discretionary funding for seven new institutes in
fiscal year 2016, including $140 million for the first two Commerce-led
institutes. The budget also includes an additional $1.9 billion
mandatory proposal to fulfill the President's vision. The budget
includes an additional $10 million for the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) to coordinate the activities of the
current and future institutes, leveraging the authorities in the
bipartisan Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act (RAMI),
enacted as part of the Consolidated and Further Continuing
Appropriations Act, 2015, thanks to your support.
The budget also provides $141 million for NIST's Hollings
Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), which will continue to focus
on expanding technology and supply chain capabilities to support
technology adoption by smaller manufacturers to improve their
competitiveness.
Supporting 21st Century Economic Development: Economic Development
creates the conditions for economic growth and improved quality of life
by expanding the capacity of individuals, firms, and communities to
maximize the use of their talents and skills to support innovation,
lower transaction costs, and responsibly produce and trade valuable
goods and services. The budget invests $273 million for the Economic
Development Administration (EDA) to support innovative economic
development planning, regional capacity building, and capital projects.
Within this amount, $25 million is included for the Regional Innovation
Strategies Program to promote economic development projects that spur
entrepreneurship and innovation at the regional level. The EDA budget
also includes $39 million for Partnership Planning to support local
organizations with their long-term economic development planning
efforts and outreach. Additionally, $53 million is provided for
Economic Adjustment Assistance for critical investments such as
economic diversification planning, and implementation, technical
assistance, and access to business start-up facilities and equipment.
Supporting the Digital Economy: The fiscal year 2016 budget request
demonstrates the administration's continued commitment to broadband
telecommunications as a driver of economic development, job creation,
technological innovation, and enhanced public safety. The investment of
$49.2 million will allow the National Telecommunications and
Information Administration to develop, implement, and advocate policies
to help meet challenges related to the digital economy, Internet
openness, privacy, and security. The President's broadband vision of
freeing up 500 MHz of Federal spectrum, promoting broadband competition
in communities throughout the country, and connecting over 99 percent
of schools to high-speed broadband connections through the ConnectED
initiative will create thousands of quality jobs and ensure that
students have access to the best educational tools available.
The budget supports implementation of telecommunications provisions
enacted in the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012,
which are expected to reduce the deficit by more than $40 billion over
the next 10 years through spectrum auctions. These auctions will
increase commercial access to wireless broadband spectrum while fully
funding an interoperable public safety and first responder broadband
network.
Beyond our efforts to promote innovation, the budget highlights the
administration's commitment to cybersecurity by supporting NIST's
efforts to work with industry on implementing the Cybersecurity
Framework of standards and best practices, as well as sustaining
initiatives associated with cybersecurity automation, cybersecurity
information, and the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in
Cyberspace (NSTIC).
Spurring Innovation for American Businesses: Through implementation
of the America Invents Act, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
(USPTO) continues to make it easier for American entrepreneurs and
businesses to bring their inventions to the marketplace sooner,
converting ideas into new products and new jobs. The budget supports a
program level of $3.5 billion for USPTO, a level that would allow USPTO
to fund operations and to further implement administrative actions
proposed by the President's Patent Task Force.
Fueling a Data-Driven Economy: Data is the fuel that powers the
21st century economy, and Commerce Department data touches every
American and informs business decisions every day. The budget will
support data-related efforts ranging from our preparations for the 2020
census to unleashing more NOAA data through public-private
partnerships.
Improving Federal Statistical Measures: The budget provides $1.5
billion to provide critical support for the U.S. Census Bureau to
research, test, and implement innovative design decisions made at the
end of 2015. Funding in fiscal year 2016 supports the rapid system and
operational development necessary to achieve the goal of conducting a
census at a lower cost per household than in the 2010 census,
potentially saving up to $5 billion compared to the costs of repeating
the 2010 census design in 2020. The budget also includes a planned
cyclical increase for the Economic Census. The budget includes $10
million in additional funding for the Census Bureau to lay the ground
for acquiring and processing administrative data sets in an
administrative records clearinghouse that will benefit program
evaluation and statistical work across the Government as well as
amongst private researchers. The Bureau will accomplish this by
building on its existing strengths to develop a more comprehensive
infrastructure for linking, sharing, and analyzing key datasets.
Gathering and Acting on Environmental Intelligence: The
Department's environment agenda aims to help communities and businesses
prepare for and prosper in a changing environment through the models,
assessments, forecasts, and tools generated based on data from our
network of satellites, ships, and world-wide sensors.
The budget provides $6.0 billion to advance the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) ability to understand and
anticipate changes in the Earth's environment, improve society's
ability to make scientifically informed decisions, deliver vital
services to the economy and public safety, and conserve and manage
ocean and coastal ecosystems and resources. The budget invests in
NOAA's observational infrastructure, including $2.4 billion to fully
fund NOAA's weather and space weather satellite programs. This includes
$380 million for the Polar Follow-On satellite program, allowing for a
launch schedule that is necessary to improve the robustness of the
satellite systems that provide critical weather data.
The Department continues its commitment to support a Weather-Ready
Nation, and evolve the National Weather Service to become a more agile
decision support organization capable of providing more accurate and
more timely weather forecasts. The United States has the greatest
number and greatest variety of severe weather events of any country on
the planet. The Budget invests $1.1 billion for the National Weather
Service, including funding increases for critical infrastructure.
The President's budget makes investments to fill information needs
in observations, surveys, and fisheries management, including $147
million for a new ocean survey vessel. The budget also provides $50
million for an expanded Regional Coastal Resilience Grant Program,
which will help reduce the risks and impacts associated with extreme
weather events and changing ocean conditions and uses, along with $30
million for ocean acidification research to improve understanding of
its impacts and support tool development and adaptive strategies for
affected industries and stakeholders. Additionally, the budget requests
an increase of $19 million for expanded Endangered Species and Magnuson
Stevens Act consultation capacity that will reduce permitting
timeframes.
Streamlining Operations: To further the President's goals of
improving customer service and enhancing the efficiency of Government,
the budget includes $6 million to support a Commerce Digital Services
team to adopt private sector best practices and recruit talent to
improve Commerce's information technology systems. This team will be
responsible for driving the efficiency and effectiveness of the
Agency's highest impact, client focused information technology systems.
In addition, the budget includes $3 million to support the development
of an ``Idea Lab,'' which will house a team dedicated to incubating and
investing in innovative approaches to more efficiently and effectively
meet Agency strategic goals and objectives through greater employee
engagement.
conclusion
With the fiscal year 2016 budget, the Department seeks to advance
the core tenets of its mission: to create the conditions for economic
growth; help U.S. businesses expand; and to ensure that America stays
competitive, stays ahead, and continues to lead the global economy in
the 21st century. The smart investments proposed in President's fiscal
year 2016 budget will support a globally competitive economy by
promoting trade and investment, spurring innovation, fueling a data-
driven economy, and gathering and acting on environmental intelligence.
With this budget, I am confident that we will keep America ``Open for
Business.'' I look forward to working with the subcommittee to achieve
these important goals.
POLAR FOLLOW-ON SATELLITE PROGRAM
Senator Shelby. Thank you, Madam Secretary. I'll try to get
to the point on these. The Polar Follow-on mission, how long
will this new Polar Follow-on satellite program last beyond
2016?
Secretary Pritzker. Well, the Polar Follow-on program is
one that has, I think, actually quite a long life, and I can
get you specifically, Senator--
Senator Shelby. Will you furnish that for the record?
Secretary Pritzker. What?
Senator Shelby. Would you furnish that for the record?
Secretary Pritzker. Yes, I will, sir.
[The information follows:]
Question. Polar Follow-on.--The Polar Follow-on mission, how long
will this new Polar Follow-on satellite program last beyond 2016? Will
you furnish that for the record?
Answer. The Polar Follow-on (PFO) implements a long term strategy
to build a robust \1\ architecture that will extend operations of the
overall polar satellite system to as far as fiscal year 2038. PFO is
essential to maintaining continuity of polar observations, ensuring
NOAA continues to provide accurate and timely weather forecasts and
warnings beyond JPSS-2.
NOAA is focused on achieving polar-orbiting weather constellation
robustness. The fiscal year 2016 President's budget request includes
$380 million for PFO activities designed to achieve robustness as early
as fiscal year 2023 and ensure continuity of NOAA's polar weather
observations. There are three activities funded within PFO:
--initiate development of PFO/JPSS-3 to meet a launch readiness date
(LRD) in the second quarter of fiscal year 2024, and PFO/JPSS-4
development to meet a LRD in the third quarter of fiscal year
2026.
--provide the option to accelerate PFO/JPSS-3 as a contingency
mission with critical sounders Advanced Technology Microwave
Sounder (ATMS) and Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) only.
--invest in development of an advanced technology Earth Observing
Nanosatellite-Microwave (EON-MW).
NOAA will manage the PFO as an integrated single program with JPSS
to incorporate efficiencies planned and implemented under JPSS.
Authorizing PFO in fiscal year 2016 will allow NOAA to take advantage
of the ongoing JPSS-2 instrument and spacecraft bus development to
reduce schedule, risk and life cycle costs for the follow-on missions
and implement a simultaneous instrument block buy for PFO/JPSS-3 and
PFO/JPSS-4 instruments for the most efficient acquisition strategy and
production cadence.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The definition of a ``robust'' architecture has two
characteristics: (1) two failures must occur to create a gap in data
from Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) or Cross-track
Infrared Sounder (CrIS) instruments and (2) the ability exists to
restore a two-failure condition within 1 year of an on-orbit failure.
Secretary Pritzker. The Polar Follow-on is a very important
program for us, and thank you for the support that we've
received in the past for this program.
One of the things that is important to know is that our
satellite program, years ago, was not so well run. Today, we
run a program that is on time and on budget. GOES-R Series
program and our JPSS program are on schedule and on budget. But
this potential for a gap that you talked about in your opening
statement is one that we're very concerned about. The
opportunity to do the Polar Follow-on is to allow us to use
instruments that would be used for our JPSS-3 and -4
satellites. We would order them today, and if, God forbid,
there's any kind of disruption in the satellite program that we
have coming along, we can use those instruments for the
disruption, which will help address the gap, but if there's no
problem, then we will use those instruments on JPSS-3 and -4.
So this is a prudent way to manage our risk of a gap, but
also, if there's no problem, then to use those instruments on
our future satellites.
Senator Shelby. What's the overall cost of the program, and
do you have some projections on that? I would think it would
be----
Secretary Pritzker. I can get you those numbers. I know the
request this hour is $380 million, but I don't know the--I'll
get you the precise numbers.
[The information follows:]
Question. Polar Follow-on.--What's the overall cost of the program,
and do you have some projections on that?
Answer. NOAA has an initial life cycle cost (LCC) estimate for the
PFO of $8.2 billion. NOAA will continue to refine the LCC estimate
through 2016.
Senator Shelby. But generally, these kind of programs cost
billions of dollars.
Secretary Pritzker. Yeah. I'm sorry, Senator?
Senator Shelby. I said, these programs cost billions of
dollars.
Secretary Pritzker. Right. What we've been doing is trying
to manage, right at this moment, how to deal with the gap, but
also not waste money, so that if there is no problem, then the
monies that we spend today, the $380 million, can be used in
future satellites. But I'll get you the--we're working right
now on the total cost of those programs.
Senator Shelby. Some specifics. The JPSS currently has an
overall cost cap of $11.3 billion. How is this follow-on
program, how does it differ from the JPSS and not just an
extension thereof?
Secretary Pritzker. No. It's included in the JPSS program,
I believe.
Senator Shelby. Ma'am.
Secretary Pritzker. I believe it's part of the JPSS
program.
Senator Shelby. So it's an extension of it in a sense.
Would you call it that, if it's part of?
Secretary Pritzker. I don't think it's an extension. I
think it's actually within the program you're discussing.
NATIONAL NETWORK FOR MANUFACTURING INNOVATION
Senator Shelby. On the Network for Manufacturing
Innovation, given our fiscal constraints, how would you balance
the funding request for this new initiative with that of
necessary funding for core programs, such as the Decennial
Census? And how would the Department go about selecting the
locations of these new institutes that you propose, and what
assurances can you make to this subcommittee that the process
would be transparent and fair?
Secretary Pritzker. Well, Senator, first of all, running a
transparent and fair process is something that we, at the
Department, are committed to in all of our programs.
In terms of ensuring that the monies would be spent wisely,
first of all, the National Network of Manufacturing Innovation,
I think, is one of the best crafted programs that we have for
innovation development, because it requires a partnership
between the private sector, universities, the supply chain,
community colleges, local government, and the Federal
Government. And I've gone to visit the institute in Chicago
that's devoted to digital manufacturing, and what you learn is,
is that for these programs to be able to be successful, it
takes the best of all of these stakeholders in order to bring
the best technologies.
What differentiates the two institutes that we're proposing
for the Department of Commerce to run is that the technologies
that we would promote are technologies that would be determined
by the private sector, as opposed to determined by the Federal
Government. And the Department of Defense's and Department of
Energy's Advance Manufacturing Institutes, those technologies
have been driven by the needs of those departments.
The other thing to remember is is that our proposed budget
of $150 million is made up of really three components, two
institutes that would be funded each at $20 million a year in
year one, $20 million a year in year two, and then $10 million
a year each for years three through five, and then $10 million
to run the network. And one of the things that I think is
extremely important is that we actually put together an effort
to support this as a network.
Your point about making sure that there are not communities
left out of these technologies, one of the things that we've
seen as these institutes have continued to be competed, is that
more and more universities are reaching out to partners in
different parts of the country, and also the companies that are
participating are from all over the country. So the geography,
they have to exist someplace, but the truth is the participants
tend to have a multiplicity of locations.
And I can give you examples. I could get our staff to give
yours specific examples. For example, in Chicago, I think there
are a number of universities throughout the Midwest all the way
down to Texas that are participating, and this is true of the
other institutes as well. It's become much more of a consortia
process, where then researchers go to that location, but
they're still affiliated with their local universities.
Senator Shelby. That information would be helpful.
Secretary Pritzker. Terrific. Happy to supply it.
[The information follows:]
Answer. NIST/DOD Response.--There are three existing DOD-led
manufacturing institutes: America Makes headquartered in Youngstown,
Ohio focused on additive manufacturing; Lightweight Innovations for
Tomorrow (LIFT) headquartered in Detroit, Michigan focused on
lightweight metals; and Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation
headquartered in Chicago, Illinois focused on the digital thread for
manufacturing. Each institute serves to anchor the region on their
respective technologies while growing to national prominence as
reflected in their diverse and growing memberships as outlined in the
two examples below:
1. America Makes--currently has 6 Federal Government Agency
members, 36 Universities and other Academia members, 62 Industry
members, 14 Non-Profit Organizations, and 3 Manufacturing Extension
Partnerships all spread across 28 States including: Alabama, Arizona,
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois,
Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan,
Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York,
Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia,
Wisconsin, West Virginia.
2. Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation, headquartered in
Chicago, Illinois, currently has the following members who have signed
a membership agreement: 1 Government member, 20 Universities and other
Academia, and 47 Industry members, spread across 25 States including:
Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana,
Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri,
Mississippi, North Carolina, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. There are
an additional 9 Federal Agencies and Services involved including Army,
Navy, Air Force, NIST, National Science Foundation, NASA, Defense
Logistics Agency, DOE, and Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Additionally, original team members are in the approval process for
signing the current membership agreement: 3 Government members, 10
Universities and Academia, and 31 Industry members, adding 5 States and
the District of Columbia including: District of Columbia, Florida,
Georgia, Maine, New Hampshire, and Washington.
Secretary Pritzker. My last point on this, Senator is one
of the things that is so important to remember about this
effort is that, for us to remain competitive, we need to get
our best technologies out of the laboratory and to market, and
we need to do it expeditiously.
To give you an example, today, we have five institutes,
five or six, that have been called for. And Germany has 60 of
these today. So this is an important part of our remaining on
the cutting edge of innovation. And we know that a third of our
economic growth since 2009 has been through innovation.
Senator Shelby. Senator Mikulski.
NOAA SATELLITES
Senator Mikulski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary
Pritzker, I'm going to pick up on NOAA satellites, an issue
that we began--first of all, I've been NOAA satellite obsessed.
Number one, because of the role they play in helping us predict
the weather. Second, that our satellites are aging in place.
But third, that our satellites were really--and the operation
was bordering on a techno boondoggle.
Starting with Secretary Gutierrez, then with Dr. Becky
Blank under the Obama administration, and now with you, we
really wanted to reform the satellite program. NOAA's
satellites, why am I so hot on the satellites? It makes up 20
percent of your budget and 60 percent of the NOAA budget. So if
satellites don't work, we're impeded, because it's a negative
on our ability to provide contemporary and global weather
forecasting, and it knocks the hell out of our budget.
So my question to you is three-fold. Number one, do you
continue to reform and do the vigorous oversight that was at
the highest level under the Department of Commerce? Number two,
does this budget that you're asking fund the satellites that we
have while we're looking at the cool new stuff. And number
three, for the cool new stuff and the JPSS, the satellites -3
and -4, what is it that you're doing now to prepare yourself,
because I do worry about our satellites aging in place?
Secretary Pritzker. Well, Senator, thank you.
Senator Mikulski. So that's reform, how are we doing with
what we've got now, and number three, are we really doing the
right planning for the future?
Secretary Pritzker. Well, Senator, first of all, thank you
for asking. I mean, the satellite program is near and dear to
my heart, as it is to yours, to make sure--because what's at
stake here? What's at stake are lives and property as well as
the ability for our businesses to get their goods and services
to market, as well as for our employees to get to work. And so
it's a very serious and very important endeavor that we have.
So the reform and good management are of the highest
priority for our team at NOAA and at the National Weather
Service. And Dr. Uccellini, who you know well----
Senator Mikulski. I just need you to keep moving it,
because I've got only three more minutes to go.
Secretary Pritzker. Got it. Sorry about that. Anyway, in
terms of satellites, yes, we're totally committed to reform. In
terms of the JPSS program, this is one that it's extremely
important that we fund our polar satellites, and yes, that's
included in our budget. And then as you call it the cool new
stuff, or the Polar Follow-on, is extremely important, because
what it will do is serve two purposes for us. One, in case
there's any kind of launch disaster, we'll have instruments in
the pipeline. And second, if there is no disaster, or in case,
for example, the existing polar satellite Suomi National Polar-
orbiting Partnership (NPP) that's up there that is past its
useful life, if we have a gap, we have instruments in the
pipeline. And otherwise, we will use those instruments on JPSS-
3 and -4.
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF STANDARDS
Senator Mikulski. I appreciate that. And I think you see
here a bipartisan support for the necessity of the satellites,
but to make sure we're getting our money's worth.
I'd like to go into another agency, the National Institutes
of Standards. And I say to my colleagues, particularly the new,
if you want to look at cool stuff, come to Maryland and what
your great Federal labs are doing. And everyone here is
familiar and enormously supportive of NIH. I know the Chairman
certainly is. But the National Institutes of Standards, which
it sounds kind of geeky, because they do measurements, really
helps move jobs to the private sector.
My question to you, Secretary Pritzker, could you elaborate
on the labs to market and also how you're working with the
private sector?
I have an example here where MedImmune, a pharmaceutical
company in my State that employs 2,000 people, that's just a
few miles from NIST, has signed a contract with them, a 5-year
Government agreement, giving it access to NIST expertise and
measurement, and is helping pay for seven post-doctoral
researchers to be used in pharmaceutical research. And
MedImmune is crazy about this. They're going to be what the
private sector does, but they need the Government to help them
with the new measurements and the new way of accessing things
for the new biosimilars and other products. So MedImmune says
it can't grow and bring other ideas to market without NIST.
Could you talk about what NIST means in labs to market?
Because whether it's our Federal labs, whether it's our
universities and so on, it is about, ultimately, the new ideas
that create new products, that will create the new jobs. Could
you elaborate?
Secretary Pritzker. Yes, Senator. Recently, I was out at
Stanford. And one of the things to remember, what does NIST do?
NIST sets standards for everything that we use, whether it's
buildings or it's biosimilars. So right now, in terms of
biotechnology and bioengineering, it's extremely important that
we begin to figure out how to measure things that are being
developed in the laboratory so that then they can--first of
all, those products can be replicated to a certain specificity.
But if there's no way to measure what it is you've got, there's
no way then to know if you've replicated it.
So it's an extremely important function that we play. It's
a very broad function. But it's absolutely--for innovation in
America, and for the ability of our businesses not only to be
successful in our country and innovate here, but also around
the world, NIST, the development of standards, is something
that is critical in this development of measurements. And that
role is something that is one I've come to really appreciate.
Senator Mikulski. So what is the labs to market going to
do?
Secretary Pritzker. So labs to market, we have a number of
efforts. First of all, we have the National Network of
Manufacturing Innovation, which is about how do we take
technologies in manufacturing, and how do we bring them to
market. And those are in different areas, whether it's 3D
printing, composite materials, lightweight materials.
There's other efforts in our Centers of Excellence at NIST
that are focused on advanced materials, whether they're in
biosimilars, forensic sciences, disaster resilience. These are
areas where NIST will provide and work with a new business
model to leverage outside research expertise with university
expertise to bring these concepts and new discoveries to
market.
And these are topics that are developed in partnership. And
that's what NIST is also really good at, is working in
partnership with the most cutting-edge researchers, but also
with the private sector, so that ideas don't just sit in our
universities, or sit in our laboratories, whether they're
Federal or they're private universities, it's important that we
get those technologies out into the marketplace.
Senator Mikulski. Okay. My time is up. But I just say to my
colleagues, when we all worked with mammogram standards, it was
NIST that helped develop what the standards should be, and I
could give lots of examples. Come on down and visit. We'd have
a good time.
Senator Collins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Madam Secretary,
welcome.
Secretary Pritzker. Thank you.
UNFAIR SUBSIDIES
Senator Collins. Along with my main colleague, Senator
King, and Representative Poliquin, I recently wrote you about
the unfair subsidies provided by the Provincial Canadian
Government of Nova Scotia to a paper producer in Port
Hawkesbury. I very much appreciate your very prompt response.
Our highly skilled paper workers in Maine can compete
successfully whenever there's a level playing field, but they
cannot compete when a foreign government is providing more than
$100 million of subsidies to a mill that is manufacturing the
same kind of product.
I understand that the coalition for fair paper imports,
which includes Madison Paper Industries, which employs 240
workers in my State, will soon file a petition for
countervailing duties covering the imports of supercalendered
paper from Canada in response to the more than $125 million in
subsidies already provided by Nova Scotia.
Can you update me on what the next steps would be in
dealing with these unfair subsidies once the petition is filed,
which will happen shortly?
Secretary Pritzker. Senator Collins, first, as you know, we
take enforcement and compliance very seriously at our
department. Ensuring a level playing field is one of our number
one priorities at the International Trade Administration, and
enforcing trade remedy laws is something that is very, very
important to me personally.
We will keep you informed as we can. There are rules about
what we can say at different points during the process. But as
appropriate, absolutely, we would be happy to keep you
informed.
Senator Collins. Thank you very much. The other issue that
I want to mention to you today is the U.S.-Canadian Softwood
Lumber Agreement. This was negotiated in 2006, and it had been
said to expire in 2013 but was extended to October of this
year.
I will tell you that this is an extremely complicated
agreement. It involves different patterns of ownership of the
land in Canada, different stumpage fees. The location of cross
border mills makes it extremely complicated. And the previous
agreement was plagued by a failure of our Government to enforce
it fully when the Canadians, on occasion, violated it.
As the deadline approaches for the expiration of the
agreement in October, I ask that the Department as well as the
U.S. Trade Representative, and I know you can't speak for him,
but I ask that your department be very engaged with U.S.
forestry stakeholders and the Canadian Government. And
specifically, because of the complexity, because the maritime
provinces are different in their ownership than British
Columbia for example, because we have mills right on the border
that process lumber that is cut, where the wood is cut in
Maine, I would ask that you develop a process to ensure that
the views of Maine stakeholders are considered as you go into
the new negotiations.
Secretary Pritzker. Well, Senator, I appreciate your
raising this agreement. And we'll work with you and your staff
to better understand the issues at stake and to make sure that
we take the citizens of Maine's interests into consideration as
we deal with it.
Senator Collins. Thank you very much.
Secretary Pritzker. Thank you.
Senator Collins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Shelby. Senator Baldwin.
Senator Baldwin. Thank you. I don't know how often it is
that a previous set of questions so well sort of queues up for
what I want to ask you about the paper industry and a level
playing field.
So my first question is in relation to the Department's
role in ensuring a level playing field for U.S. manufacturers,
and particularly in the paper manufacturing sector. It's
especially important in my home State of Wisconsin.
And I do want to applaud the administration's recent WTO
challenge to China's Export Subsidy program, which provides $1
billion in illegal subsidies over 3 years. And while this $1
billion subsidy, it's large, it pales in comparison to the
estimated $33 billion in government subsidies that Chinese
paper companies have received over the last decade.
Now, not only are paper companies in China receiving
extensive State-backed support, but we continue to see
importers bringing Chinese paper products, especially thermal
paper products, into this country that are subject to
antidumping and countervailing duties, without paying a dime in
duties.
And I understand that the budget request contains $15
million for the Interagency Trade Enforcement Center, which in
my mind, should be working to eliminate these kinds of
practices. In addition, there is $16.4 million specifically for
China antidumping and countervailing duty enforcement and
compliance activities. These amounts are similar to previous
years, and yet paper companies in my State do not feel like
there has been adequate attention to stem this tide.
So do you agree that this is a significant problem? And if
so, how is your budget going to help stop it?
Secretary Pritzker. Senator, thank you. You know, trade
enforcement is a big priority for us at the Department and this
administration, and we need to be very serious about this to
ensure that American workers and businesses are competing on a
level playing field, as you mentioned, around the world.
And the President established the Interagency Trade
Enforcement Center in 2012 to enhance our ability to identify
and address violations of trade agreements. And that's why
we've asked for an additional $15 million in this budget to
allow us to add personnel to the ITEC and continue to enhance
these efforts to fight challenges like you were talking about
for your paper industry and challenge and address unfair trade
practices.
[The information follows:]
The Department of Commerce has had frequent conversations with
Senator Baldwin's office on a number of requests the Senator had with
Secretary Pritzker during the hearing. Per the request of the Senator's
office, we held an AD/CVD briefing with her office. This briefing-
covered the basics of AD/CVD as well as included a focus on cases
involving China. Additionally we are working with Senator Baldwin's
office to hold a joint DOC/USTR briefing on the basics of the ITEC
program. We expect that briefing to take place soon.
And I'd be happy to have our staff follow up on the
specifics of the paper challenge for Wisconsin. I just want you
to know though that, in terms of today, we have about 310
antidumping and countervailing duty orders in place, and 40
percent of those are on products from China. So we take this
role extremely, extremely seriously. And last year alone, we
brought more cases than we have any year in the past 10 years.
Senator Baldwin. Thank you. I want to turn to another topic
that was raised earlier, which is the National Network for
Manufacturing Innovation. And I'm actually pleased to see that
the President's budget request is working to make sure that the
next wave of high-tech innovation is happening here in America
rather than overseas.
I can tell that, in my home State of Wisconsin,
organizations like the Water Council and the Midwest Energy
Research Consortium are really already doing the hard work of
on the ground organizing of clusters of innovation around
private industry and academia. And I give you an open
invitation to come visit those efforts, which are very
impressive.
But as we move forward, I want to kind of dovetail on
Chairman Shelby's question of what sort of input are you taking
from the private sector, from academia in making decisions
about what these next institutes will embrace? Is there an open
call for ideas? Are you holding workshops? My constituents are
very eager to know how they can highlight the work that's
already being done on the ground.
Secretary Pritzker. So as you know, the legislation passed
at the end of last year, but NIST has been focused on how to
run, how to garner this kind of information for the past
several years and is putting in place--and that's why we've
asked for the $10 million, but we have ideas and plans, but we
want to garner that kind of input from the private sector to be
able to have a broad effort outreach, so that we're gathering
the best ideas available from the private sector.
Senator Baldwin. Well, as those are developed, I hope you
will come and have your staff brief interested subcommittee
members on how that's developing, because our constituents are
very eager to know.
Secretary Pritzker. Would be delighted to do that. I know
it's an area of interest to many of you.
Senator Shelby. Senator Lankford.
Senator Lankford. Thank you. And thanks for being here as
well.
INTERNET CORPORATION FOR ASSIGNED NAMES AND NUMBERS
Secretary Pritzker. Thank you.
Senator Lankford. Grateful to be able to have the
conversation. I want to talk a little bit about where we stand
with ICANN, once favored conversation, and DNA--or I'm sorry,
DNS, not DNA. DNA would be fun to talk about as well, by the
way, if you want to talk about that.
But the budget request has a note in it that I thought was
interesting. It says in fiscal year 2016, NTIA will continue to
develop, implement, and advocate policies positioning the U.S.
to meet growing complexities and political challenges related
to Internet governance and the domain name system.
Tell me the status of where you're headed on this. And
obviously, Congress has spoken back on it, is a little
hesitant. So specifically, while you're talking about status on
it, how are you balancing the foreign policy objectives with
United States commerce, and I mean commerce as a whole of our
business world, and how dependent we really are on this
Internet.
Secretary Pritzker. Well, let me start by saying NTIA, our
role is stewardship of the Internet. And so our goal has been
to continue to move ICANN to a multi-stakeholder model. And in
fact, we deal directly with ICANN, and the leadership of ICANN
and their CEO is coming in tomorrow.
Senator Lankford. Can I interrupt for just a second? The
question there is the why. And I think it's the----
Secretary Pritzker. Why?
Senator Lankford [continuing]. Policy question, why try to
move that outside of stewardship? Has it been a problem that
we've been a steward with it? Why remove American stewardship
from the Internet?
Secretary Pritzker. Well, we're not giving up our
stewardship of the Internet. But the challenge that we face
with the ICANN IANA transition is this is a--and first of all,
we're not going to give up our position of overseeing the IANA
domain name situation, unless we can assure ourselves there's a
multi-stakeholder process, and it's not going to be
jeopardized, that there's going to be stability and resiliency
and security in the domain name system, and that it meets the
needs of global customers, and that the Internet will remain
free and open.
The challenge we face in our role is the perception of our
role in the global environment. There is a lot of pressure, as
you said, from foreign governments to, in essence, take over
control of the Internet and try and create places where
governments are in control of what's happening with the
Internet. We think that is the wrong direction to go, and
therefore, what we feel is that we're really an oversight.
ICANN is actually performing the IANA functions.
And so our goal is that ICANN continue to perform those
functions. But the appearance of our engagement creates this
notion of that the U.S. is a government in control, and that's
against where we ultimately--we want to be able to argue with
the rest of the world, that's not what we want to see of the
Internet.
Senator Lankford. Right. I understand. And the skepticism
is when we release the first generation, there may be some good
oversight of that, and then what happens 5 years from now and
etc., so what happens with China and Russia? And we can have a
longer conversation. I just want to be able to express some
continuing skepticism on it.
Secretary Pritzker. Senator, I share your concern about
that. And one of the criteria that I've said is is we've asked
for ICANN to explain to us how they're going to be accountable
to a multi-stakeholder process, and there cannot be what I call
a hostile takeover of ICANN.
Senator Lankford. Correct. And I would affirm that. One
other thing I just want to be able to chat about as well are
the IG reports. As I got a chance to go through some of those,
some of the high risk contracting, it sounds like you're
working through that process on that. I'd just affirm that, to
continue to press on that.
COMMERCE BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CUBA
And then one other question that I wanted to be able to
bring up to you deals with Cuba and the Cuba policy at this
point. You and I have exchanged letters back and forth, and
thank you for being prompt in your response on that. I really
do appreciate that.
As we've exchanged letters, the question that I had is, the
Administrative Procedures Act is pretty clear that you can only
use the statement about this being foreign affairs related if
there's an emergency situation. I'm still trying to determine
what the emergency situation was to make the change in Cuba
policy without going through the Administrative Procedures Act,
without opening this up.
Secretary Pritzker. Senator, I would have to work with my
staff and your staff to address that specific issue, because
I'm not familiar with it particularly, but I'd be happy to do
that.
Senator Lankford. Yeah, because glad to be able to follow
up on it. What I don't want to do is open the door, which it
appears to have just happened, because the President, any
president--and this is not about a personal thing on the
President by any means and their agreement and disagreement on
Cuba policy and where it's going, but when we make a change in
policy that doesn't follow the Administrative Procedures Act
and you reach back on a 70-year-old law and say, we're going to
practice this a little different than what has been done in the
past, it concerns me.
Secretary Pritzker. I understand your concern.
Senator Lankford. And the change in Cuba policy seemed to
be connected to, this is foreign, and so it's allowable. With
that exception, anything related to a foreign government would
be allowable. And the Administrative Procedures Act was pretty
clear it had to be an emergency situation.
Secretary Pritzker. Well, following the law is our number
one objective here at the Department of Commerce, and in terms
of the specifics of the Cuba policy as it relates to the
Administrative Act, we'll be happy to follow up with your
staff.
Senator Lankford. Thank you. We'll follow up from there.
Thank you. I yield back.
Secretary Pritzker. Thank you.
Senator Shelby. Senator Shaheen.
Senator Shaheen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you,
Secretary Pritzker, both for your service and for being here
today.
NOAA MANAGEMENT OF FISHING
Secretary Pritzker. No, thank you.
Senator Shaheen. My first concern that I want to raise
today is about the impact of NOAA's management decisions on our
fishing industry in New Hampshire. I think we all share the
concern that we want to see stocks rebound in the Gulf of Maine
and in the Atlantic. But in November, NOAA announced the
immediate implementation of additional closures in the Gulf of
Maine and other limitations on fishing capacity for the
remainder of this fishing season.
I've heard concerns from fishermen in New Hampshire, not
just about the decisions that were made, but also about the
lack of notice and about the lack of transparency in how this
process was handled.
New Hampshire, which started out as the smallest fishing
fleet in New England, has been hit hardest by management
decisions for years now. The latest regional economic impact
estimates predict that New Hampshire fishermen are likely to
see their reduced revenues cut by an additional almost 50
percent from this year to next. And that's more damage than any
other State in our region is experiencing.
So not only am I concerned about the decisions that have
been made and the impact, but also about the lack of
transparency, the lack of engagement with the industry, and the
lack of notice. So I wonder if you could speak to that, and if
you could give me a commitment that you will personally look at
what's being done there and see what we can do to make some of
those decisions less impactful on New Hampshire?
Secretary Pritzker. Well, Senator, first of all, I know how
important fishing is to all the coastline communities, and
particularly in New Hampshire. And, you know, it's a difficult
time, as you know, for New England fisheries and communities.
And that is why we put John Bullard up in that area, to work to
assist, and working with the communities and fishermen.
And I will follow up with him to understand what the issue
might be around notice and transparency. He prides himself in
trying to work very closely with all of the stakeholders, and I
have a lot of confidence in him, so I want to find out exactly
what happened.
Obviously, it's a tough time, because the stock is in the
worst shape that we've seen in 40 years. And so we appreciate--
I am very sensitive to the impact on families, on the
businesses of these decisions, and I will personally look into
this issue around transparency and notice, because we
absolutely--our goal is to work very much with the
stakeholders, local stakeholders, and that's why we actually
put someone in the marketplace.
Senator Shaheen. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I hope
that thought will also be given to how to ameliorate the impact
on the fishing industry in New Hampshire, which, as I said,
started out with some obstacles that are not shared by other
states in New England.
Secretary Pritzker. And we're working on making sure the
fishery disasters funding----
Senator Shaheen. Which has been very helpful. Thank you.
Secretary Pritzker [continuing]. It gets to the State as
quickly as possible.
EXPORT CONTROL
Senator Shaheen. Thank you very much. I was pleased to
hear, both in your testimony and your written testimony, the
emphasis on exporting. I think it's very important. It's been
very important to our small businesses in New Hampshire. And
one of the aspects that has been challenging for many of our
businesses has to do with our export control system, and I know
that has been under reform over the last several years.
And I wonder if you could both talk about where we are in
terms of reforming the export control system and also what kind
of efforts are being undertaken to get the word out to small
businesses about the changes that are being made and what kind
of reaction you're getting from them with respect to those
changes.
Secretary Pritzker. Well, Senator, I appreciate your
asking. As you're aware, the Export Control Reform, we have
about 15 of the 21 munitions lists are completed at this point,
and we're continuing to make progress on the simplified system,
so that we can strengthen our national security and
competitiveness. That will mean for BIS that our number of
licenses per year will go from 25,000 to over 50,000 by fiscal
year 2016. So we're sort of more than doubling both licensure
work.
In order to do that well, it's really important that we
have funding to be able to get the word out. We have not had
funding over the past several years to be able to really go out
and promote what's happening in terms of Export Control Reform.
That would be extremely important. And then the second is,
we're requesting funding to increase enforcement, something
that I know is of interest to a number of the senators here.
As we increase the number of licenses, we need to be able
to increase enforcement as well as we need to be able to
increase our ability to gather information before we give a
license to someone. So we're very much focused on how all of
this is connected together. We want to service our clients as
well as possible, and that's why you see us asking for an
increase here. It's really due to the fact we're being asked to
do much more work because of the new items, I think it's tens
of thousands of items, that have been transferred from the
State Department to us.
Senator Shaheen. Well, my time is over, but again, I want
to applaud that effort and encourage you to continue to work
very hard on that and to suggest that maybe there's an
opportunity working with SBA to help with outreach to small
businesses, because they have fewer resources to be able to
export, and anything that can be done here is really important.
Secretary Pritzker. And I'm quite focused on helping small
and medium sized businesses export. I've had a lot of
opportunity to meet with them over the last several months.
Senator Shaheen. Thank you.
Senator Shelby. Senator Collins, you have a comment.
Senator Collins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Since I had 40
seconds of my time that I didn't use, I would just want to
reclaim it, and I thank the Chairman for allowing me to do so.
I just want to associate myself with the comments made by
the senator from New Hampshire on the fishing issues. I've
heard exactly the same concerns from the lobstermen and the
fishermen who fish and do lobstering in the Gulf of Maine. And
there's a great deal of anger about the new regulatory
restrictions, the lack of consultation, and I'm very concerned
about it. So I just wanted to associate myself with Senator
Shaheen's comments. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Shelby. Senator Kirk.
Senator Kirk. Secretary Pritzker, Penny, I wonder if I
could raise an issue with you about OSI, one of our largest
food processors in Illinois, who has had problems with the
Chinese Government. I know you may have raised these issues at
the JCCT, which you graciously held in Chicago.
Secretary Pritzker. Senator, let me tell you. I did speak
at the highest levels about OSI to the Chinese Government. We
are following this case very carefully to make sure that OSI is
being treated fairly. There have been some positive signals
that we have received, and so this is something that's high on
our priority list to follow.
Senator Kirk. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Shelby. Senator Murphy.
Senator Murphy. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Welcome,
Madam Secretary.
Secretary Pritzker. Thank you, Senator.
FISHING REVISITED
Senator Murphy. I wanted to follow up on questions
regarding New England fishing. In Connecticut, our fishing
industry has been decimated. We were largely a shellfish
economy along the shoreline. And as our lobsters have moved
northward to Maine, we have struggled to figure out how we
replace that capacity. But aquaculture has been a part of that,
and we've had some real encouraging developments regarding new
technologies through which we're able to harvest some pretty
serious new amounts of oysters and other native species through
the sound.
We have a lab in Milford, Connecticut that gets about $3.4
million in Federal funding along with lab in Manchester,
Washington. These are the two facilities that house NOAA's
shellfish research. That's an industry that, right now, even
with the declines, produces about $30 million for Connecticut
along.
I just wanted to make sure that there's still going to be a
commitment to this aquaculture research, both in Connecticut
and in Washington. We're seeing real progress and real gains
because of that funding, and it's important to us that that
commitment continue.
Secretary Pritzker. I appreciate that. And as far as I
know, there's no change. But I will make sure and confirm that.
[The information follows:]
Question. Aquaculture and Milford Lab.--We have a lab in Milford,
Connecticut that gets about $3.4 million in Federal funding along with
lab in Manchester, Washington. These are the two facilities that house
NOAA's shellfish research. That's an industry that, right now, even
with the declines, produces about $30 million for Connecticut. I just
wanted to make sure that there's still going to be a commitment to this
aquaculture research, both in Connecticut and in Washington. We're
seeing real progress and real gains because of that funding, and it's
important to us that that commitment continue.
Answer. Yes, that commitment will continue. Science is essential to
supporting aquaculture expansion in an intelligent and sustainable
manner, and NOAA supports U.S. aquaculture development in part through
world class research. It is clear from past experience both at home and
abroad that poorly sited or managed marine aquaculture operations can
have negative impacts to the marine environment. But with sound
scientific advice and science-based tools, it is possible to avoid such
potential impacts and allow for the industry to grow in environmentally
and economically sustainable ways.
NOAA' s aquaculture science portfolio comprises complementary and
coordinated efforts in three NOAA line offices. Together these efforts
are critical to achieving the administration's goal of supporting
sustainable marine aquaculture. NOAA Fisheries focuses on developing
science-based ``tools for rules'' to help inform permitting and other
regulatory decisions, as well as working with industry partners on a
range of topics such as hatchery techniques and disease management. The
NOAA National Ocean Service develops coastal planning and management
tools and services. The Sea Grant program at NOAA's Office of Oceanic
and Atmospheric Research provides grants to external partners for
industry development, as well as technology transfer and extension.
These efforts and those of other Federal agencies (e.g., USDA) are
coordinated under the 2014 The Strategic Plan for Federal Aquaculture
Research, published with NOAA' s assistance and leadership by the White
House's Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Two laboratories house the bulk of NOAA Fisheries' aquaculture
science portfolio--the Northeast Fisheries Science Center's Milford,
Connecticut lab; and the Northwest Fisheries Science Center's
Manchester, Washington lab. Milford has traditionally been a shellfish
aquaculture lab (e.g., siting tools, disease management, and ecosystem
services) and Manchester has been a finfish aquaculture lab (e.g.,
feeds development, finfish hatchery and growout methods). However,
there is growing coordination and collaboration in certain areas such
as some aspects of feeds research.
NOAA's science, regulatory, and outreach activities have made a
substantial and measureable impact on the sustainable development of
marine aquaculture and related jobs, especially in the northeast. From
Virginia to New England, aquaculture has grown significantly over the
past several years, with booming production of shellfish leading the
way. Aquaculture in the northeast has grown to be the third most
valuable fishery in the region, behind only lobster and scallops and
roughly three times the value of the groundfish fishery. All
indications are that, with continued support, there will be additional
growth, providing more domestic seafood and jobs.
NATIONAL NETWORK FOR MANUFACTURING INNOVATION
Senator Murphy. And then if I could just ask a second
question on the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation.
I know you made reference to this in your prepared testimony.
I'm so glad that we're continuing to expand this program. I
think it's absolutely transformational. It's discouraging to us
in the Northeast, which is the most densely populated part of
the country, that with five centers, and not yet one has found
its way to our neck of the woods.
You, I think, in your testimony said that you were going to
be guided by industry in terms of what the focus should be. I
would love for you to expand on how your process is going to
occur, so that we can make sure that industries in the
Northeast, the aerospace industry, I would argue, at the top of
the list, get a fair shot at making their case.
We really believe that, as you have this tsunami of
aerospace purchasing coming, both from the private sector and
the public sector over the course of the next 10 years, that if
we are innovating at a pace that's fundamentally different than
other competitors, that we can gain a greater lion's share of
that work. So we believe that an aerospace focused
manufacturing innovation center should be one of the next
that's authorized.
But if you could just share how we can get the best input
into your process of decisionmaking, I'd appreciate it.
Secretary Pritzker. Well, obviously, at the time that the
competitive process would be run, it would be open,
transparent, and a broad request for proposals. That process
will be dictated by NIST, as they are really our expert at
taking things from lab to market, and they've been preparing
for how to run these types of competitions. But I can get to
your staff kind of the specific processes that they will use.
And I appreciate the value of the aerospace industry, and I'm
sure it's one that's high on the list of priorities.
Senator Murphy. It's a moment in time where, if we capture
the best available technology, there's a mountain of work to be
had. And we used to just have a natural competitive advantage
over the rest of the world that is declining, decreasing as
time goes on.
Finally, just to use my last 30 seconds of so, it's my
first opportunity to be a member of this subcommittee and to
have you testifying in front of us. I just want to tell you how
excellent your staff is in Connecticut. Anne Evans runs the
local office, and if she had two or three more people, she
could be creating hundreds, if not thousands, more jobs, just
to make an advertisement for the scope of your personnel in our
states.
When you have good people on the ground doing outreach to
especially these small and medium sized businesses that have no
idea how to compete globally if not for the expertise you lend,
the power, the multiplication of business that your presence
creates is pretty substantial. So please, pass my thanks along.
Secretary Pritzker. Thank you very much. And Senator and
Mr. Chairman and Madam Vice Chairman, one of the things I have
asked our ITA to do is to do a review of the effectiveness of
our U.S. Export Assistance Centers and our Foreign Commercial
Service.
As the success of more and more of our communities around
our country depend upon exporting, I want to come back to you
with a report as to where I think it would make sense for us to
do more, because we do get this kind of response as to the
effectiveness, particularly for our small and medium size
businesses, which are so important to everyone's States.
[The information follows:]
The Department looks forward to working with the Congress on a
funding profile for our export assistance program which ensures that
U.S. small and medium sized businesses are on a strong competitive
footing internationally. The Department is currently assessing our
domestic and international capacity for meeting this goal and will
provide any new information concerning the proposed direction of this
effort at the appropriate time.
Senator Murphy. Thank you.
Secretary Pritzker. Thank you.
Senator Shelby. Senator Capito.
Senator Capito. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And since this is
my first hearing of this subcommittee, I want to extend to you
and the Ranking Member congratulations. I look forward to
working with both of you, and I'm very honored to serve on the
subcommittee.
HERBERT C. HOOVER BUILDING RENOVATION
Madam Secretary, thank you for having the freshman class
down to your building, which when you mentioned in your opening
statement that you wanted to modernize, I think you'll get all
of us to agree, that's probably a good idea. It was beautiful
in the library, but as you explained to me, this is as good as
it gets.
Secretary Pritzker. Right.
BROADBAND ACCESS
Senator Capito. So anyway, I appreciate that. A recent
study by the FCC indicated that 56 percent of West Virginia
residents do not have access to broadband services that meet
the FCC benchmarks. In rural areas in West Virginia, it's as
high as 74. It is the worst in the Nation. And I don't claim
that as a source of pride, either. But I don't need a study to
understand this. I mean, when I'm seeing constituents driving
around, there are small businesses and individuals and
residents who absolutely are hamstrung in terms of being able
to get broadband in West Virginia.
Within your department, the National Telecommunications
Information Administration recently released a study talking
about the economic benefits of broadband access in terms of
increased economic output and higher levels of employment.
Understanding how these funds are spent, I think we find
ourselves, in our State, in a bit of a quandary, because there
are many states that have access, and so what they want now is
faster, broader, bigger capacities when there's still parts of
the country, and particularly where I live, where we're still
not even getting a minimal standard.
And so if you're looking at allocating funds and
emphasizing where you're going to place your real strength in
terms of dollars, I think that presents a--not controversy, but
you have to make decisions. So I guess I would ask you, how are
you looking to help build out those areas that are underserved
and still lacking in access? And are there any programs that
you're developing that will target these areas, particularly
the rural areas, because that's what's left, the more sparsely
populated areas, which do not meet the national average for
access?
Secretary Pritzker. So Senator, NTIA used to have grant
money under the BTOP program, which actually exceeded our goals
and put about 113,000 miles of broadband networks down in the
United States and connected schools, libraries, I think 25,000
schools, libraries, health facilities.
Those funds have been spent. I think they were appropriated
in 2009 and 2010. And so now what we're doing is, we're talking
the expertise that we have, and we're working with communities,
such as the ones that you're talking about in West Virginia, on
technical assistance. And in fact, I went out to Cedar Falls,
Iowa with the President to look at what communities can do to
bring state of the art--they have one gigabyte of broadband----
Senator Capito. That's what we have.
Secretary Pritzker. Which is equivalent to the best in the
world, one gigabyte.
Senator Capito. Oh, no, we have----
Secretary Pritzker. No. You've probably got one megabyte or
something.
Senator Capito. One megabyte.
Secretary Pritzker. Right. Exactly.
Senator Capito. I'm getting my megas and gigas mixed up.
Secretary Pritzker. I'm right there with you. But
basically, we're working with communities to how can they come
up with plans to actually do broadband themselves. And so we're
using our technical expertise to help them.
And Cedar Falls was able to borrow the money and pay it
back in 5 years by virtue of putting in this broadband access.
And in fact, what they're hoping to do is do more in more parts
of their State. So I've seen where communities can kind of take
the reins in the own hands and really improve their access to
broadband, which we know is so critical for not just economic
prosperity, but for education and for communication and for
safety.
Senator Capito. Well, thank you. And I hope that we can
work together to try to meet this challenge.
Secretary Pritzker. Absolutely.
Senator Capito. Lastly, I would say, your department,
through NOAA, has quite a substantial infrastructure investment
in Fairmont, West Virginia, and we're very, very happy about
that. The I-79 Technology Park, which has your backup data
system, I would just like to put a plug in for expanding your
footprint in that area. You already have made quite an
investment. The park is the location for the backup ground
stations for your GOES-R Series and your JPSS satellites.
Secretary Pritzker. Oh, terrific.
Senator Capito. Yes. And I know it's not complete, but I
think there will be excess capacity there, we are told, not
just as your backup data center, but there will also be some
possibilities for growth. I'd like to work with you to try to
grow that footprint.
Secretary Pritzker. We would be delighted to work with you.
Senator Capito. All right. Thank you so much.
Secretary Pritzker. Thank you.
Senator Shelby. Thank you, Senator. We'll go into a second
round, Madam Secretary.
THE CENSUS
The Department of Commerce has the responsibility, as you
well know, to administer a constitutionally mandated census
every 10 years. The 2016 budget request that I mentioned in my
opening statement includes a significant investment in
enterprise computer system that will help not only the Bureau's
annual statistic activities, but will be scalable in order to
accommodate the activities of the upcoming 2020 Decennial
Census.
Having an enterprise system that can serve the data
collection backbone of the Bureau holds great promise for both
cost reduction and efficiency. If this new computer enterprise
were to fail, we could see costly impacts across the Census and
the Department. We've been there before. This comes at a time
when Census currently only has, as I understand it, 17 of 34 of
its own 2020 Census requirements base-lined.
The question is this, Madam Secretary. What is the
Department of Commerce doing to ensure that this system, a
CEDCaP will not become another costly technological setback
that could potentially endanger all of the other data
collection activities at the Census? You have a lot of that.
Secretary Pritzker. Senator, you know, CEDCaP is a very
important endeavor, because what we need to do is bring
together I think it's 14 different systems in order to
streamline the way that we do the Census. So it's a system of
systems. So why should we have any confidence that we can do
this?
First of all, it's something that we are working on the
development of CEDCaP at this time. We have to test it. I know
this from my private sector experience, Senator. I ran a
company that was a complete bits and bytes company, and we did
a total systems transformation, and I know how perilous those
can be. This has enormous attention and profile within our
department. We are very focused on this, not just at the Census
level, but in the Office of the Secretary and with our Chief
Information Officer for the entire department.
But the way one does these types of systems is you have to
chunk them out, and you have to test them as you go, so that
you don't have one big moment, whether it either works or
doesn't work. And that's why it's so important that we get
funded for fiscal year 2016, so that we can do, I keep harping
on this, and you'll hear me say this, testing, testing,
testing. Because we need to know that the opportunity, to not
just put a system in place but to run the Census at cost of $13
billion rather than a cost of $18 billion, is one that's
achievable.
And as a steward of the taxpayers' dollars, this is
extremely important to me. But we have to invest in order to
save that money, because we have to test to know these systems
will be reliable, because we're held accountable for an
accurate census, and that's something we take near and dear to
our hearts as our core responsibility.
Senator Shelby. I know you bring a lot of private sector
experience here, but failure can't be an option here. It
wouldn't be in the private sector. The business would be gone,
would it not?
Secretary Pritzker. I hear you, and I have been in this
situation before in the private sector where failure is not an
option as you transfer systems in. So therefore, we bring a
very disciplined approach to this.
FISHERIES
Senator Shelby. Absolutely. Appreciate that. I want to get
back into fisheries. We've been talking about it from every
perspective. The Department has the important responsibility of
managing our Nation's fisheries through the National Marine
Fisheries Service. Regulatory decisions which are based on
fishery stock assessment data, getting back to your database,
can significantly affect commercial and recreational fishermen
and cause economic harm and disruption when the data is
erroneous.
For example, Madam Secretary, last year, a Federal judge
ruled that the Department mismanaged the red snapper fishery
industry in the Gulf of Mexico. The result was a nine-day red
snapper season. Nine days, down from 40 days the year before.
Well, it's needless to say, the shortened season was very
disconcerting to me and to thousands of fishermen in the Gulf,
especially around Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida.
New technology may facilitate better decisionmaking to
allow more days at sea for our fishermen. While I'm pleased to
see the Department taking steps to use new technology, I'm
concerned that the program is not moving fast enough.
My questions are these. How is the Department prioritizing
the use of new technology, such as electronic monitoring and
reporting, to better understand and manage our Nation's
fisheries? And the second question is, what is the biggest
obstacle facing your department, the Department of Commerce, on
the timely transition to electronic monitoring and reporting
for fisheries.
Secretary Pritzker. Thank you for your question. First of
all, the fact that the red snapper stock is rebuilding is one
that we're very pleased with, and getting the allocations right
in terms of who has access to fishing and for how long is
something that's extremely important to us. I'm not familiar
with the specific case you talked about, but I will look into
that. Making sure that we get that right is a high priority.
As it relates to electronic monitoring of fisheries, we
have asked for $7 million to continue to find new ways to
accurately monitor fisheries. In terms of your question as to
what are our obstacles, one is more work needs to be done to
know whether this is accurate. You just talked about being
accurate. What's most important is that we figure out that
these technologies are actually accurate.
And we've run some pilots. We've asked for money in the $7
million to support pilots in different parts of the country to
make sure that this is something that's accurate, because there
are real consequences, the finding, as you said, of electronic
monitoring. And we want to make sure that we can both maintain
our healthy fisheries for generations to come but also have our
commercial and recreational fishing industries can be healthy
and reliable.
Senator Shelby. Well, I know myself that a lot of people on
the Gulf are pretty good at all this, have shown me how large
the snapper have gotten.
Secretary Pritzker. Huge.
Senator Shelby. Because they've gotten so big, and there's
so much of them, we want an accurate count, because this is
very important to a lot of us on the Gulf.
Secretary Pritzker. I appreciate that, and I understand the
challenge.
NOAA RESEARCH VESSELS
Senator Shelby. My last question to you, I hope it'll be my
last, has to do with the new ocean research vessel. The 2016
budget request for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration includes $147 million for a new ocean going
research vessel to support the agency's operations. The agency
needs a new ship, because the fleet is aging, as you pointed
out.
Out of 16 large vessels, and I believe you mentioned this,
only 6 are operating within their design life. Three of the 16
ships are well past their prime, including the oldest ship in
the fleet, the Oregon II, which operates out of the Gulf Coast.
Aging ships not only create operational shortfalls with low sea
days, they also pose safety concerns for the crew and
scientists working aboard.
I'm not sure how many people realize this problem at the
Department. The 2016 request for this new ship seems like a
one-time ask and lacks context about the overall need for the
whole major ongoing ship construction, the whole program.
My question is this. This subcommittee has asked for, but
has not received yet, a new fleet recapitalization plan, which
was last updated in 2008. When will the administration provide
this plan to the Appropriations Committee?
Secretary Pritzker. Senator, I commit to you that we will
put that plan together. I think it's being progress.
Senator Shelby. And it's important to hear, because----
Secretary Pritzker. But absolutely, the idea of--we have 8
of our 16 ships that absolutely need to be replaced over the
next 12 or 13 years, and so there is a plan in terms of the
scope of what we need to do. More specifics, I will get to you
and your staff.
[The information follows:]
Question. NOAA Fleet Capitalization Plan.--My question is this.
This subcommittee has asked for, but has not received yet, a new fleet
recapitalization plan, which was last updated in 2008. When will the
administration provide this plan to the Appropriations Committee?
Answer. NOAA's Fleet Composition Report (2012-2027) is currently
under Administration review; however, I do not have a specific time
line in which it will be available. This report, outlining
recommendations for recapitalization, was coordinated with the overall
Federal fleet. NOAA convened the NOAA Fleet Advisory Committee, a group
of external experts from other Federal agencies involved with the
management of at-sea assets, which was charged with providing advice
and guidance to help the NOAA team shape strategies for the future of
the fleet. Specifically, the committee reviewed and provided input on
each stage of the effort including the overall approach, requirements
validation process, technology infusion analysis, business process
improvements, and internal and external communication plans. Committee
membership included representation from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast
Guard, National Science Foundation, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management,
Environmental Protection Agency, and University-National Oceanographic
Laboratory Systems.
NOAA is requesting $147 million in the fiscal year 2016 budget for
the construction of a new Ocean Survey Vessel (OSV). This request is
based on a robust Requirements Validation Assessment and analysis
process that built upon the 2008 recapitalization plan.
Per the Federal Oceanographic Fleet Status Report, released May
2013 by the National Ocean Council, the Federal oceanographic fleet
will experience a 50 percent decline in the number of active vessels by
2026 without further modernization. Without an investment, NOAA
estimates that its fleet will decline by 50 percent from 16 to 8 active
ships between fiscal year 2016 and fiscal year 2028.
Senator Shelby. Okay. Will the contract for the ship
construction be awarded through open competition?
Secretary Pritzker. It would be awarded, yeah, I believe
so. Yes. Yeah, absolutely.
Senator Shelby. Thank you.
Secretary Pritzker. I don't know any reason why it isn't.
Senator Shelby. Thank you a lot. Senator Coons.
Senator Coons. Thank you.
Senator Mikulski. Excuse me, Senator Coons.
Senator Coons. Yes, ma'am.
Senator Mikulski. Madam Secretary, I'm needed at the
Capitol, because of the Homeland Security.
Secretary Pritzker. Yes.
Senator Mikulski. We're going to follow up. Thank you for
the great job you're doing. And aren't we proud of these new
members and how engaged they are?
Secretary Pritzker. Absolutely.
Senator Shelby. Thank you.
Secretary Pritzker. Thank you.
Senator Shelby. Thank you, Senator Mikulski. Senator Coons.
MANUFACTURING
Senator Coons. Thank you, Chairman Shelby and Vice Chair
Mikulski. As you well know, Madam Secretary, I'm an enthusiast
for manufacturing.
Secretary Pritzker. Yes.
Senator Coons. And look forward to continuing to work with
you on promoting manufacturing nationally. Last October, I
participated in Manufacturing Day, touring a variety of
manufacturing plants up and down my State, and was joined by
NIST director, Dr. May, and associate director, Dr. Singerman,
and we had a great time visiting Air Liquide, and PPG, and
Hirsh Industries. And I'm just grateful that you and your
department and its leadership have been so engaged in all the
challenges and issues facing manufacturing.
One of the things we saw that day was the real challenge in
the reputation that manufacturing has with young people,
getting guidance counselors and parents to recognize that
modern manufacturing is cleaner, more advance, higher paying,
uses a wider range of skills than the manufacturing of 20 or 30
years ago.
So first, I'd love your input on what we're doing together
and what more we could do to help persuade young people that
manufacturing jobs are fundamentally different and ensuring
that they are engaged and attracted to it as an option, and
that we're investing enough in their skills.
And related to it, is the MEP, the Manufacturing Extension
Partnership, I'm pleased your budget request is at $141
million. I think it's a tremendous and effective program. It's
had a big impact up and down my State, and they typically
generate three dollars for every one Federal dollar. There have
been some challenges in my State in terms of raising the match,
and I would be interested in your thoughts about whether or not
the MEP match ratio is too high.
It has prevented them from working with some smaller
businesses, some more rural companies that had difficulty
raising the match. MEP charges fees in order to get the match.
And in my view, that cost share may actually be defeating the
broader purpose, which is to deliver timely and efficient and
effective interventions that promote exporting, promote hiring,
promote growth for the small and medium manufacturer.
So if you'd answer those two questions on manufacturing,
we'll move onto one other topic.
Secretary Pritzker. Certainly, Senator. In terms of the
image of manufacturing and what are we doing about both the
image and skills acquisition, as you know, I've made skills a
priority for the Department of Commerce. In terms of the image
of manufacturing, Manufacturing Day is only one day. We had
50,000 young people go through. I think we doubled the number
of companies. Over 1,500 companies opened their doors in their
communities and had kids and their families. And most
importantly their guidance counselors visiting modern
manufacturing plants so they could understand what is a career
today in the 21st century and manufacturing in the United
States of America.
I do think it's misunderstood. It's something both the
Advanced Manufacturing Partnership that the President oversees
and I'm a part of, as well as the Manufacturing Council that
reports to me at the Department, are focused on a number of
initiatives to improve the image of manufacturing.
In terms of the MEP match, we are in the middle of
recompeting our MEP relationships around the country. We just
did ten of them. We changed the match from two to one to one to
one for exactly the reason you're talking about. The small and
medium size companies were struggling to be able to take
advantage of the much needed services that MEP offers to help
them garner 21st century processes and capabilities that keep
their companies globally competitive.
INTERNET CORPORATION FOR ASSIGNED NAMES AND NUMBERS
Senator Coons. Let me ask about a very different field for
a moment, if I might, which is ICANN. When I was in the private
sector, I did some work around web domains and website
acquisition and control. We had a trademark, the company I was
in, that had been inappropriately taken over as a web domain by
a company with no relationship to it. And I got involved in
this, this was a long time ago, and was struck how, at that
point, NTIA was playing a critical role in oversight of ICANN,
excuse me, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers, which I think is widely known to the small community
of people who pay a lot of attention to this.
And I'm frankly very concerned that there is a proposal to
transition ICANN completely away from Commerce Department
oversight and management. And I just want to make sure that
ICANN is really prepared to make that transition and will have
adopted some core key principles about protection from
government capture, budgetary restraint, and a separation of
functions. And this is something I wrote to you about back in
December and cosponsored a resolution that passed the Senate,
calling for these reforms before there is any transition. I
just wanted to make sure that I had your sense of whether you
thought these reforms were important to complete before there's
any movement towards it.
Secretary Pritzker. Well, Senator, I share your concern. I
think the transition, the IANA transition, is one that's
important, because there are downsides for our engagement
there. Having said that, making sure that ICANN can responsibly
continue to carry out that function, making sure that it is
multi-stakeholder managed and driven, making sure it meets the
needs of customers and in a timely and efficient manner, and
that we remain a free and open Internet, all of those are
priorities.
We are awaiting proposals. We're not in any rush. We're
working very carefully with ICANN, but we're waiting for
proposals as to how they can make sure they would satisfy all
those performance requirements, and also proposals for how they
will improve the accountability of ICANN, so that there cannot
be what I call a hostile takeover of the board of ICANN.
HERBERT C. HOOVER BUILDING RENOVATION
Senator Coons. Good. Please. I'm very concerned about that,
and I'm glad you're moving deliberately. As we're talking about
performance, just on a side point, part of your budget request
is $24 million for renovating the somewhat dated Commerce
central office and headquarters buildings. And I just wondered
whether you had looked at an Energy Services Performance
Contract, or an ESPC, as a mechanism for achieving savings in a
way that is, I think, creatively and appropriately financed.
I used ESPCs both in county government and in the private
sector, and I'm joining with Senator Gardner in trying to make
sure that the Federal Government is able to take advantage of
this as an opportunity. I see several heads nodding behind you
vigorously.
Secretary Pritzker. Yes. Yes, we have.
Senator Coons. So I'm glad to know that you've taken a hard
look at that.
Secretary Pritzker. Senator, one of the things that we're
doing, I think the theme of our budget is about invest to save.
When I arrived, as you know, one of my business endeavors prior
to this was being in the real estate business. We do not
efficiently use our building as it is. One of the things that
we are doing is--and we brought in Gensler to help us to look
at how we use our space, because the modeling plan that was in
place was one that was really just fix the heating and cooling
and electrical and put it back the way it was. That makes no
sense in the 21st century.
So we actually took part of the space that was, at that
time, under renovation, and have created a pilot that we're now
going to replicate throughout the building that's much more of
what I would call open space contemporary office usage. It's
far more efficient.
And the other thing that we're trying to do is do the
renovation in fewer chunks, because this was going to go out
over decades, and get it done more quickly. It will allow us to
give more of our space back and to have it be used for other
purposes and to use the space more efficiently, but also
provide an environment that's effective and efficiently, and
allows us, frankly, to attract talent, which is an issue that
we've got in an 80-year old building. People walk in, they
don't want to work there. And so that's a challenge that we've
got.
So what we're trying to do is, this is not just about
fancying up our space. This is about making it more productive
for the American taxpayer.
Senator Coons. Thank you. I have two other questions I'll
just reference briefly, and perhaps my office will submit them
record. I'm trying to be respectful of the Chairman's time.
First, as the lowest mean elevation State, Delaware has
great concerns as to why about a resiliency and planning. We've
just had evidence that the sea level rise of the last few years
was unexpectedly significant in the Mid-Atlantic and
Northeastern states. We face both subsidence, which is the
natural geologic movement down of the part of the coast that
we're on, and a rise of sea level. I'm just wondering what
NOAA's budget might provide for coastal resiliency.
Last, hubs. The National Network for Manufacturing
Innovation, as you know, I was bitterly disappointed Delaware
was not selected for the last competition but remained very
enthusiastic about it programmatically. I think it is a
tremendous investment for the American people, a wonderful
model for promoting and accelerating innovation, and would
welcome any brief comments you care to make about how that will
move forward and how that will continue to accelerate
innovation and manufacturing.
Secretary Pritzker. Well, as for resiliency, our budget
calls for expenditures at NOAA to provide resiliency products
to states and local governments as well as to the private
sector. There's enormous demand for products to understand what
is happening with the rise of sea level, with drought, with
different changes as a result of what's going on both with our
weather as well as with our climate.
In terms of NNMI, we have proposed in our budget that we
will both create the network of the existing and to be planned
manufacturing institutes which is called for in the Revitalize
American Manufacturing and Innovation Act (RAMI) legislation
that was passed at the end of last year. That's a $10 million
budget item.
And then we've asked for $70 million each for two different
institutes that their unique characteristic would be from the
other institutes--obviously, these remain institutes that bring
together the private sector as well as all the various
stakeholders, including universities and the community colleges
and the supply chain. But these would be technologies chosen or
proffered by the private sector as opposed to by government as
the most technologies, would be the ones that we would want to
focus on.
Senator Coons. Terrific. Madam Secretary, thank you for
your service and leadership. Mr. Chairman, thank you for your
forbearance with my questions.
ADDITIONAL COMMITTEE QUESTIONS
Senator Shelby. Thank you, Senator. If there are no further
questions, and I don't believe there are this morning, Senators
may submit additional questions for the subcommittee's official
hearing record, and we'd request a Department of Commerce
response to those questions, if there are.
Secretary Pritzker. Absolutely.
Senator Shelby. Madam Secretary, thank you for appearing
today before the subcommittee.
Secretary Pritzker. Thank you.
Senator Shelby. We look forward to working with you. And
we've requested a lot of information, that I'm sure you will
make sure it's forthcoming.
Secretary Pritzker. Absolutely.
Senator Shelby. Thank you.
Secretary Pritzker. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much.
[The following questions were not asked at the hearing, but
were submitted to the Department for response subsequent to the
hearing:]
Questions Submitted to Hon. Penny Pritzker
Questions Submitted by Senator Richard C. Shelby
cybersecurity
Question. The Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) Subcommittee
strongly supports and continues to prioritize cybersecurity initiatives
at the Department of Commerce. However, despite the subcommittee
providing funds for critical cybersecurity upgrades, the Inspector
General has found persistent deficiencies that make the Department
vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
How would the Department's fiscal year 2016 budget request
specifically address cybersecurity concerns outlined by the Department
of Commerce Inspector General's written testimony to this subcommittee?
Answer. The Department's fiscal year 2016 request supports concerns
expressed by the Commerce Inspector General by:
--Replacing outdated equipment and software tools with new software
tools and more capable sensors on the Department's networks.
These will be connected to the Commerce Computer Incident
Response Team (DOC-CIRT) and computer security monitoring
teams, resulting in enhanced detection and mitigation of cyber
threats and vulnerabilities.
--Adding watch officers and cyber forensic experts to our DOC-CIRT.
--Adding skilled cyber contractor support for conducting the supply
chain risk analyses mandated by Section 515 of Public Law 113-
235.
--Establishing the Department-wide trust identity management
solution, which will increase the overall security posture of
the Department's data and systems.
Question. How would the fiscal year 2016 request help expedite and
sustain Department-wide cybersecurity initiatives, such as the
Enterprise Cybersecurity Monitoring and Operations (ECMO) and the
Enterprise Security Oversight Center (ESOC) initiatives?
Answer. The fiscal year 2016 request would accelerate the
capability to provide relevant computer data feeds from Commerce
Headquarters to the Enterprise Security Oversight Center (ESOC). The
request additionally supports the ability to provide real-time access
to the Enterprise Cybersecurity Monitoring and Operations (ECMO) data
which provides the current cyber risk profile and status of Commerce
information technology assets, both hardware and software.
Commerce will continue to leverage the Department of Homeland
Security's Continuous Diagnostics and Monitoring (CDM) program to
deploy and integrate additional capabilities.
Question. What cybersecurity deliverables can the Department
highlight from fiscal year 2014 and fiscal year 2015, that best justify
the top cybersecurity-related items included in the Department's fiscal
year 2016 request?
Answer. In fiscal year 2014, Commerce reached deployment of 85,564
ECMO client systems and initiated the ESOC project. As of March 2015,
ECMO client systems deployment has reached 92,202. The ESOC project is
a joint venture established between the Commerce Office of the Chief
Information Officer (OCIO) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA). The ESOC began functional operations September
2014 and led the Department's response to the Shellshock vulnerability.
In Q4 fiscal year 2014, Commerce conducted the first set of supply
chain risk assessments for acquisitions targeted for installation on
Commerce owned and operated National Security Systems and Federal
Information Security Information Management Act (FISMA) High-impact
systems.
In Q1 fiscal year 2015, the ESOC achieved initial operating
capability by establishing basic security operations tools and network
connectivity from our NOAA-partner site. This capability includes the
ability to automatically share indicators of compromise across the
Department and ability to ingest cyber security intelligence feeds into
the ESOC security event information management system. The ESOC will be
fully staffed in early Q3 and will begin 24x7 operations by the end of
Q3 fiscal year 2015, significantly increasing the ability of the
Department to rapidly detect and identify cyber security threats and
incidents.
Effective January 1, 2015, the Department implemented policy
requiring all operating units to centrally report all cybersecurity
incidents via the Commerce Computer Incident Response Team. Previously,
several bureaus independently reported computer incidents to US-CERT.
This previous policy left the Office of the Secretary unaware of some
incidents.
In February 2015, the Department reached 100 percent compliance in
its implementation of Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC).
noaa vessel
Question. The Department proposed $147 million for construction of
a new NOAA vessel in its fiscal year 2016 budget request. While I am
concerned with the future of NOAA's fleetpotentially losing half
between now and 2028, this subcommittee finds it difficult to justify
supporting such a large capital expense without a plan from the
administration to address the broader issue. In order to provide
adequate and fiscally responsible funding for NOAA to update its fleet,
this subcommittee needs the Department to provide context and a
proposed path forward to ensure critical mission work, such as ocean
floor mapping and fisheries management, is not put at risk.
When will the administration be in a position to provide this
subcommittee and Congress with NOAA's future fleet recapitalization
requirements, including vessels that are planned to be taken out of
service and vessels or technology planned for their replacement,
similar to the information that was provided in the 2008 NOAA Ship
Recapitalization Plan?
Answer. The request in the fiscal year 2016 President's budget of
$147 million for the construction of a new Ocean Survey Vessel (OSV) is
based on a robust requirement validation and analysis process and
supports several NOAA missions.
NOAA also continues to work closely with the NOAA Fleet Advisory
Committee, a group of external experts from other Federal agencies
involved with the management of at-sea assets. Committee membership
includes representation from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, National
Science Foundation, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Environmental
Protection Agency, and University-National Oceanographic Laboratory
Systems.
Per the Federal Oceanographic Fleet Status Report, released May
2013 by the National Ocean Council, the Federal oceanographic fleet
will experience a 50 percent decline in the number of active vessels by
2026 without further modernization. Without an investment, NOAA
estimates that its fleet will decline by 50 percent from 16 to 8 active
ships between fiscal year 2016 and fiscal year 2028.
NOAA is currently analyzing its current and future fleet
capabilities to ensure that its mission critical priorities are
addressed in the most cost-effective and efficient manner, and we will
use this information to guide future fleet investments. This
challenging but important exercise will help us develop the best path
forward in support of core work such as ocean floor mapping and fishery
management, and we will share some of the results of that exercise when
they become available.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Lisa Murkowski
arctic policy
Question. Last year, I began almost all budget hearing with a
question on the Arctic, and I will be doing so again this year. In
April, the U.S. assumes the chairmanship of the Arctic Council, and
beyond the issue of climate change, it is not clear to me what our
national strategy in the Arctic is. Searching through your budget
documents, the term ``Arctic'' only appears a handful of times, and is
mostly in reference to oil spill response and studying the effects of
``human-induced change on Arctic ecosystems.'' The Commerce
Department's jurisdiction is so much broader than this, so I hope this
is not all your department is doing in terms of Arctic policy.
Please tell me what are the specific Arctic priorities of the
Department of Commerce?
Answer. The Administration's 2013 National Strategy for the Arctic
Region (hereafter, Strategy) (https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/05/
10/national-strategy-arctic-region-announced) and the priorities
developed for U.S. Arctic Chairmanship of the Arctic Council are the
latest statements of U.S. policy in the Arctic, and all actions by
Department of Commerce agencies fit within the goals and tenets set
forth in these documents. Within Commerce, NOAA is the primary agency
that executes the priorities set forth in the strategy. To support the
strategy and provide NOAA scientists, stakeholders, and partners a
roadmap to make shared progress, NOAA developed the 2014 Arctic Action
Plan (http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/NOAAarctic
actionplan2014.pdf ).
In support of the Strategy and the NOAA Action Plan, NOAA is
working on:
--filling gaps in Arctic weather/sea ice observations, forecasts and
warnings;
--improving understanding of climate impacts on biological resources;
and
--improving navigation services.
Question. In your role as Secretary of Commerce, what are your
directives to the agency in terms of Arctic policy?
Answer. The Department of Commerce supports the National Strategy
and our work in the Arctic region fits within that strategy to better
position the United States to respond effectively to emerging
opportunities while simultaneously pursuing efforts to protect and
conserve this vast, valuable, and vulnerable region. Our work in the
Arctic Region establishes the foundation for U.S. Arctic development in
support of
--advancing our security interests;
--pursuing responsible Arctic region stewardship, and
--strengthening international cooperation.
Question. What, if any, focus does the agency have on better
understanding the Arctic and growing our Arctic infrastructure?
Answer. The Department, mainly through NOAA, is actively engaged in
the Arctic, providing science, service, and stewardship to this rapidly
changing region, its inhabitants, and the Nation. Through its broad
range of activities, NOAA is well prepared to make significant
contributions, to the extent possible within existing resources, to all
three lines of effort in the national strategy.
Advancing U.S. security interests in the Arctic requires improved
maritime domain awareness for which NOAA's weather and sea ice
forecasts are critically important. NOAA's sea ice research strengthens
forecasts of both ice and weather conditions and improves understanding
of the links between sea ice and climate. As a result of this research,
the complicated linkages among melting sea ice, changing climate, and
weather patterns in the Arctic and around the globe are becoming more
apparent, allowing for better planning to cope with and capitalize on
Arctic change.
NOAA plays a key role in pursuing responsible Arctic region
stewardship. Foundational science enables better understanding of
Arctic ecosystems, the atmosphere, climate, and their dynamic
interconnections. NOAA's fisheries research and management programs are
likewise vital, particularly for the economically important U.S. Bering
Sea fisheries. Research and stewardship of marine ecosystems and
protected species like marine mammals promote sustainable use,
conservation, and protection from potential impacts of offshore
development, increased shipping, and environmental degradation. NOAA
provides important services to coastal communities by improving safe
Arctic maritime access with mapping and charting, as well as increasing
preparedness and communities' resilience to intensifying weather. NOAA
is also an important partner in hazard response and mitigation (e.g.,
providing scientific support to the U.S. Coast Guard after oil spills).
Research relevant to oil spills, sea ice, and marine ecosystems will
help to prepare for and protect against potential environmental
disasters in the Arctic.
All of NOAA's Arctic activities are united in one aspect:
leveraging national and international partnerships and collaborating to
support common Arctic goals. NOAA works collaboratively through the
Arctic Council on joint research opportunities, and provision of
services. NOAA also has many successful Arctic national partnerships,
within and outside the Federal Government. Existing partnerships will
be strengthened and new ones developed in the coming years as NOAA
continues its work to address the Nation's challenges in the Arctic.
Specifically in terms of infrastructure, NOAA is engaged in the
following:
--assessing Arctic maritime infrastructure gaps in conjunction with
the U.S. Committee on the Marine Transportation System;
--the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's
Arctic telecomm assessment; and
--oil spill preparedness and response infrastructure enhancement
efforts with the U.S. Coast Guard, the Bureau of Ocean Energy
Management, the State of Alaska, and international partners.
national strategy for the arctic region
Question. Within the Administration's Implementation Plan for its
National Strategy for the Arctic Region, the Department of Commerce is
identified as the lead agency for four programs: Develop Communication
Infrastructure in the Arctic (National Telecommunications and
Information Administration); Conserve Arctic ecosystems (NOAA);
Implement the Pilot Distributed Biological Observatory in the Pacific
Arctic (NOAA); and Chart the Arctic Region (NOAA). The Department is
also designated as a support agency for a number of other projects.
What funding is included in your fiscal year 2016 budget request
for the programs for which Commerce has the lead, as well as any other
Arctic-related programs within your purview?
Answer. NOAA is the lead agency for three objectives in the NSAR
Implementation Plan: Conserving Arctic Ecosystems, Implement the Pilot
Distributed Biological Observatory in the Pacific Arctic, and Chart the
Arctic Region. NOAA is a supporting organization for nearly two dozen
objectives in the NSAR.
Work on the associated activities with agency partners is
progressing within existing resources. In 2016, NOAA estimates $110
million, including reimbursable funding, to continue to provide and
develop products and services in support of its Arctic strategic goals
(this includes funding transferred to NOAA for research needed by
external partners). The largest share of NOAA Arctic funding is
directed to supporting Arctic region stewardship, with substantial
investments also being made to advance U.S. security interests and
partnerships.
The fiscal year 2016 request proposes increases for
--arctic spill preparedness ($1.3 million);
--implementing a distributed biological observatory to detect climate
and human-induced change on Arctic ecosystems ($0.9 million);
and
--supporting northward development of NOAA's Arctic Observing Network
($2.2 million).
ringed seals
Question. First, I would like to thank you for the work you have
done and the efforts NOAA has made to work with Alaskans and fisherman
on Stellar Sea Lion restrictions. This is an example of the agency and
Alaskans working together and I hope we can continue this in the
future. By the same token, I would like to bring to your attention to
what is happening right now with the Ringed Seal. It is outrageous for
NOAA to propose critical habitat for the Ringed Seal that stretches
350,000 square miles, based on a 100 year weather prediction despite no
sign of population decline and the Ringed Seal occupying its entire
historical range. This proposed critical habitat will have very real
impacts on the economic livelihood and survival of an entire region of
Alaska, stretching from the border of Canada to the EEZ. The effects
will span not only great distances, but through our State's fibers,
from local recreation to subsistence lifestyles.
Secretary Pritzker, how can you justify such action despite the
overwhelming lack of evidence supporting it and how much is the Agency
proposing to spend on this proposal, including implementation of any
current or future proposed rulemaking?
Answer. NOAA listed the Arctic subspecies of ringed seals as a
threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), effective in
February 2013. The primary threat to this species is the loss of
suitable sea ice habitat, including ice with sufficient snow depth for
the formation of lairs the seals use to give birth and nurse their
pups. The best available scientific information indicates that the
effects of habitat loss caused by climate change are likely to develop
over the next 50 to 100 years.
The ESA requires that NOAA designate critical habitat for listed
species. NOAA's proposed rule to designate critical habitat identifies
three physical and biological features that are essential to the
conservation of Arctic ringed seals: sea ice suitable for the formation
and maintenance of the lairs (snow caves) used for sheltering pups
during whelping and nursing, sea ice suitable as a platform for basking
and molting, and primary prey resources to support Arctic ringed seals
(Arctic cod, saffron cod, shrimps, and amphipods).
Arctic ringed seals have a wide geographic range and a broad patchy
distribution. The sea ice they depend upon is spatially and temporally
dynamic, changing throughout the months when sea ice is present. The
area proposed for designation as critical habitat is large because NOAA
did not have sufficient information to identify a smaller area, such as
data on the distribution and relative abundance of ringed seals that
might indicate habitat areas that contribute the most toward
reproduction and pup survival. In the proposed rule NOAA solicited
public comments on the areas to be identified as critical habitat and
areas that should be considered for potential exclusion. NOAA is also
having the proposal peer-reviewed by external scientists before we
proceed with a final rule.
The process of designating critical habitat for Arctic ringed seals
will likely cost NOAA about $850,000 over the course of fiscal year
2013-fiscal year 2016, including costs for staff time, required
economic analysis, legal review, and public hearings.
Section 10(e) of the ESA specifically provides for the taking of
threatened or endangered species by Alaska Natives for subsistence
purposes, providing such taking is not accomplished in a wasteful
manner. Based on the numbers of subsistence harvested animals reported
via the Ice Seal Committee (an Alaska Native co-management organization
under the Marine Mammal Protection Act), the level of subsistence
harvesting for Arctic ringed seals is not a concern for the population.
Therefore, NOAA has not proposed and is not contemplating any
restrictions on continued subsistence harvests by Alaska Natives.
Question. Further, the agency has previously claimed that there
would be no local subsistence impacts, where does this information come
from and how can it be proven?
Answer. See response above.
hydrographic charting & ocean survey vessel
Question. Modern, accurate geospatial information is critical to
producing high quality navigation charts, which are to navigation,
public safety, infrastructure planning, and resource management. This
is particularly important in Northwest Alaska and the Arctic, where
increased maritime traffic in the Bering Straits region and in the
Arctic underscore the need for current hydrographic information. In
some areas, the ``state-of-the-art'' mapping information still relies
on lead-line survey work conducted by Russian whalers in the 1800s
while there are still huge gaps in modern charts in the waters off
Northwest Alaska and the Bering Straits Region in U.S. Arctic waters.
This creates unnecessary risks for mariners and local communities. With
the increasing maritime traffic in the Bering Straits region and in the
Arctic there is even more need for modern charts. There is an urgent
need for updated charts, yet NOAA has indicated that it has an 85 year
backlog for hydrographic surveys in Alaska.
Secretary Pritzker, your agency plays a critical role in supporting
hydrographic charting, including in the Arctic and Bering Straits
Region. Last year we discussed hydrographic charting and what it means
to my State and economic development in the Arctic. You'll recall that
I asked you about your commitment to dedicating the necessary resources
to conduct hydrographic surveys and prepare navigational charts
adequate to address the increasing maritime traffic in these regions.
In your answer, you stated that NOAA has developed a 5-year
hydrographic survey plan to identify about 40,000 square nautical miles
of critical area and address the most critical survey needs in Alaska.
You also stated that NOAA planned to resume full Arctic operations in
2015 under the President's budget request. What steps have been taken
toward this 5-year plan, what Arctic operations have resumed, and what
does full operations mean?
Answer. NOAA continues to implement its 5-year hydrographic survey
plan, which prioritizes and addresses the most critical survey needs in
Alaska (and elsewhere). With the requested base resources in fiscal
year 2016, NOAA plans to survey at least 500 square nautical miles in
the Arctic, a continuation of the fiscal year 2015 resumption of full
annual hydrographic survey operations. As a result of mechanical issues
with the NOAA Ship Fairweather and budget uncertainties associated with
the Government shutdown in October 2014, NOAA was forced to cancel many
Arctic surveys planned for 2014. In fiscal year 2015 and beyond, NOAA
plans to employ one surveying contractor and the NOAA survey vessels
Rainier and Fairweather. In addition, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy
will acquire depth measurements while transiting to evaluate
requirements for future charting updates.
Question. This year, you are requesting $147 million for
construction of an ocean survey vessel. If this vessel is constructed,
will it be built with the capabilities to operate in the Bering Sea and
Arctic Ocean, helping to reduce the backlog of needed hydrographic
surveys? If not, what are the Department's other plans for producing
modern nautical charts in the Arctic?
Answer. The requested Ocean Survey Vessel (OSV) will be tasked with
operating in numerous challenging environments, many of which will be
near U.S. borders and in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The
coastal areas are divided into four main regions, including: the
Northeast, Southeast, Western, and Alaska. Additionally, the OSV will
perform research in other regions within the design limitations of the
vessel such as portions of the Arctic, Antarctic, and Pacific Islands,
as well as within Marine Sanctuaries and Marine Protected Areas. The
OSV is designed with the ability to map the ocean floor for updating
nautical charts. In future years, NOAA will continue to acquire
hydrographic survey data in the Arctic using a combination of NOAA's
hydrographic survey ships and contractors.
electronic monitoring
Question. At the Headquarters level, year after year it seems as if
NOAA supports efforts to deliver cost-effective and sustainable
electronic data collection solutions. The goal here is to validate the
functionality of cameras, facilitate the collection of data, and
improve the logistics of deploying electronic monitoring equipment on
small fishing boats in Alaska. When I met with you last year you
expressed an understanding of the importance of this issue in Alaska,
and the potential for it to benefit fisheries around the Nation.
However, efforts to make progress on the water in Alaska are hampered
at the Regional level and I am concerned that the staff in the Alaska
region are not working effectively. Further, despite continued promises
by Headquarters staff, small boat fisherman are having serious problems
receiving hardship waivers for lack of bunk space due to the observer
program.
Secretary Pritzker, can you commit to working with me to not only
ensure that NOAA is dedicating the resources necessary to make progress
toward the deployment of viable electronic monitoring technologies on
vessels, like we agreed to do last year, but also to bridging the gaps
between Headquarters and the Regional Offices on goals, plans, and
actions?
Answer. The fiscal year 2016 President's budget requests
approximately $7 million to support further development of cost-
effective, appropriate technologies for monitoring Federal fisheries.
Of this amount, $5.6 million is requested within the Fisheries and
Ecosystem Science Programs and Services for development, testing, and
installation of electronic monitoring and reporting technologies across
the country. The remaining $1.5 million is requested under the
Fisheries Management and Programs and Services to expedite the use of
appropriate electronic technologies.
This past year, NOAA Fisheries developed a national policy on the
implementation of electronic monitoring and reporting, with the intent
to stimulate regional implementation of these systems. To this end, the
Alaska Regional Office and Science Center have developed an Alaska
Region Electronic Technologies Implementation Plan for initiatives that
are currently being undertaken in Alaska. This plan has been endorsed
by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) and shows how
committed NOAA is to advancing electronic monitoring technology in
Alaska fisheries. Indeed, NOAA is working with the National Fish and
Wildlife Foundation to provide $4 million in fiscal year 2015 for
national implementation of electronic monitoring and reporting. A
significant portion of these funds are expected to go to Alaskan
fisheries.
As we move into implementation in Alaskan fisheries, we look to the
Council's Electronic Monitoring workgroup for advice. This workgroup
includes industry representatives as well as staff from the Council,
the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, and both NOAA
Fisheries' Alaska Regional office and Alaska Fisheries Science Center.
The workgroup was established so that industry, agency, and electronic
monitoring service providers have a forum to cooperatively and
collaboratively design, test, and develop electronic monitoring
approaches that are consistent with Council goals and objectives to
integrate electronic monitoring into the observer program.
The Council's Electronic Monitoring workgroup has developed an
Electronic Monitoring Cooperative Research and Implementation Program
that describes analytical and fieldwork projects targeted for 2015 to
address:
--Deployment and operation testing of electronic monitoring systems
on 12 vessels. Vessels participating in the electronic
monitoring cooperative research are relieved of the requirement
to carry an observer.
--Research and development of electronic monitoring technologies.
--Infrastructure to support electronic monitoring implementation.
--Analyses to support electronic monitoring implementation decision
points.
This cooperative research in 2015 will collect information that
will inform 2016 pre-implementation decisions by the Council and the
Regional Office, assess the efficacy of electronic monitoring for catch
accounting of retained and discarded catch, identify key decision
points related to operationalizing and integrating electronic
monitoring systems, and develop performance standards and operational
requirements in regulations. Part of the discussion of 2016 pre-
implementation in the small boat longline fleet will focus on vessels
that have trouble carrying an observer.
Finally, NOAA is working with the Council to integrate electronic
monitoring tools into the Observer Program for the fixed gear small-
boat groundfish and halibut fisheries (2015 Annual Deployment Plan for
Observers). The intent is to develop electronic monitoring to collect
data to be used in catch estimation for this fleet.
marine mammal deterrence guidelines
Question. Alaskans are fishermen and fishermen must use some means
of deterrence for marine mammals. On my most recent trip to Juneau, I
met with the United Fishermen of Alaska who brought up concerns
regarding NOAA publishing a Notice in the Federal Register of its
Intent to Issue Guidelines with respect to marine mammal deterrence
devices and techniques that are used by commercial fisherman. The
details of what is happening have been hard to find and there has been
very little information disseminated about reasoning or plans. This is
concerning for Alaskan fisherman and I echo their concerns.
On December 16th, this notice was published and the comment period
just ended on January 15, 2015. What is the current state of these
guidelines? Where do you see this process leading?
Answer. The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) section 101(a)(4)
provides an exception to the prohibition of take for fishermen to deter
marine mammals for the purpose of protecting fishing gear and catch,
provided the deterrent does not result in serious injury or mortality.
NOAA received over 50 comments in response to our notice requesting
information from the public on which non-lethal deterrents to evaluate
and consider for approval pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Several comments provided specific information on both acoustic and
non-acoustic devices and techniques to safely deter seals, sea lions,
whales, and dolphins. NOAA subsequently convened a technical expert
workshop to review the devices/techniques submitted by the public.
Nearly all scientific information currently available focuses on the
effectiveness of the deterrent and not on a deterrent's impact to the
marine mammal; however, the Marine Mammal Protection Act requires that
any deterrents used not result in serious injury or mortality of marine
mammals. Therefore, the experts (e.g., veterinarians, acousticians,
marine mammal biologists) at the workshop evaluated the potential
likelihood and severity of impacts to animals that could potentially
result from a deterrent. NOAA will take the input from the workshop and
develop guidelines for safely deterring marine mammals as well as
specific measures for marine mammals under NOAA's jurisdiction,
including those listed under the Endangered Species Act. These
guidelines and specific measures will go out for public comment. NOAA
anticipates publishing a proposed rule in early 2016.
fisheries finance program
Question. The President's fiscal year 2016 budget request includes
proposed language to authorize $100 million for fiscal year 2016 in
direct loan authority for NOAA's Fisheries Finance Program (FFP)
Account as authorized by the Merchant Marine Act. FFP loans have a
negative subsidy rate and no appropriated funds are required. I have
supporting the proposed language which I believe will increase
opportunities for vessel owners to build and refinance new vessels and
make major modifications to existing vessels to improve fishing vessel
safety. These loans will help the fleet modernize and provide
significant economic benefits to shipyards and support industries.
Last year, you explained that the Advance Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking was currently being developed to seek industry input and
that the rulemaking process would be completed by the end of the year.
Could you please update me on the ANPR and the status of FFP Loans?
Answer. NMFS published its Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
(ANPR) on June 13, 2014, and received 10 comments from the public as
well as an inquiry from the Government of New Zealand. NMFS is
reviewing the comments consistent with the rulemaking process. NOAA
Fisheries is still reviewing and considering its response to those
comments. Although, the Spring 2015 Semiannual Agenda of Regulations
identifies that the proposed rule will be issued in July 2015, the date
will have to change pending completion of review of public comments on
the ANPR.
ocean acidification
Question. Integrated Ocean Acidification has seen increased funding
from fiscal year 2014 to fiscal year 2016 to the tune of $24 million,
leaving the fiscal year 2016 budget request at $30 million. This is
much needed funding to address a very real issue facing our oceans,
however, it is unclear how and where this money is distributed.
My question to you, is how much of this increase will go towards
Alaska and the Arctic?
Answer. To date, NOAA research and monitoring within Alaskan and
Arctic waters has fared comparatively well within the merit review
system established by the Ocean Acidification Program (OAP). In fiscal
year 2014, 34 percent of the total OAP directed research investments
were devoted to investigating the effects of ocean acidification on
Alaska fisheries, notably various king crab species.
Given the geochemical setting and societal dependence on impacted
species in the region, Alaska coastal waters have been identified as a
potential `hot-spot' with respect to ocean acidification. This habitat
naturally exhibits waters which are seasonally corrosive to shelled
organisms and is undergoing rapid change in response to climate
warming. The warming waters cause accelerated melting of glacial ice,
which can further exacerbate corrosive conditions in the coastal waters
off Alaska. As a result, the OAP perceives Alaska research and
monitoring as a high priority to the program.
Furthermore, an additional $2.5 million provided to the OAP within
the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015, has
given the program the ability to increase its Alaska research and
monitoring investments. OAP has also leveraged NOAA's fleet to: (1) to
support the scientific work aboard the Gulf of Alaska Ocean
Acidification cruise, the first of what NOAA hopes to repeat every 4
years to monitor Alaska ocean acidification; (2) to adopt the long term
maintenance of two OA moorings originally procured and maintained by
the State of Alaska; and (3) to continue and enhance a multi-year,
technology development project at the Alutiq Shellfish Pride Hatchery
in Seward, Alaska. This last project was initiated in fiscal year 2014
in collaboration with the Alaska Ocean Observing System (AOOS). For
additional information on NOAA's OAP see: http://
oceanacidification.noaa.gov/WhatsNew/OANews/
TurningtheHighBeamsonOceanAcidification.aspx).
Other significant OAP resources, while not exclusively funding
Alaska research and monitoring, benefit those efforts. For example, in
fiscal year 2015 the OAP will invest more than $1.1 million in data
management, quality assurance, and advanced technology projects that
provide direct capacity across all the OAP supported research and
monitoring efforts, including those exclusively focused on Alaska
waters.
Alaska will also benefit from work that would be funded through the
proposed increase of $21.4 million for OAP in the fiscal year 2016
President's budget. Approximately 50 percent--$10 million--of the
requested increase will close existing gaps within the Ocean
Acidification monitoring network and fund biological research
activities. Alaska will be eligible to apply for approximately $5
million (about 25 percent of OAP funds) that is made available for
competitive grants to establish a more efficient and effective
monitoring system as a key element of the National Ocean Acidification
Network (NOAN).
Final fiscal year 2016 allocations for OAP directed research
investments to Alaska and the Arctic will be determined through NOAA's
competitive (merit) review process and the fiscal year 2016 enacted
appropriations.
steller sea lions
Question. NMFS is currently considering revisions to the critical
habitat designation of the Steller Sea Lion under the Endangered
Species Act. NMFS has indicated there should be a draft proposed rule
released in August. Alaskans, especially in the fishing industry and
affected communities, have expressed concern over the lack of
transparency and peer review in the process. The North Pacific Fishery
Management Council, in a letter dated October 28, 2014, made several
recommendations to strengthen the science and improve the public
process in this review.
Do you agree with me that we should work to strengthen the
scientific analyses, and improve the transparency and communication in
this important review of Steller sea lion critical habitat? What steps
will you take to address the Council recommendations to have 3rd party
independent scientific peer review of the analyses, and provide
enhanced opportunity for the Council and the public to review and
comment on these analyses prior to the preparation of the proposed
rule?
Answer. NOAA Fisheries is pursuing appropriately rigorous
scientific analyses and open communication to ensure that any revisions
to Steller sea lion critical habitat are well supported and that
stakeholders are well informed. For example, NOAA Fisheries is
providing regular updates to stakeholders, including the North Pacific
Fishery Management Council. We held two public meetings specifically to
solicit information that we should consider during our review of
Steller sea lion critical habitat an extra step that was not required
by law, but helped to engage stakeholders. We have informed
stakeholders that a proposed rule to revise critical habitat for
Steller sea lions should be released by the end of 2015. We also intend
to complete independent peer reviews of the biological report from the
Critical Habitat Review Team and the economics report that will support
our analysis under section 4(b)(2) of the Endangered Species Act. In
response to a request from the North Pacific Fishery Management
Council, we will complete those peer reviews before issuing a proposed
rule, which will allow the public to consider (during the public
comment period on the proposed rule) what the peer reviewers had to say
and how NOAA Fisheries responded. We also plan to hold at least one
public hearing during the comment period on the proposed rule.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Susan M. Collins
Question. I would like to thank the Department and NOAA for
supporting the Penobscot River Restoration project (over $20 million).
I am told that this project has raised more private dollars than any
other river restoration project in the country. Thanks to a partnership
effort, we are on the cusp of completing what could be one of the
largest and most successful fisheries restoration efforts in history.
Across the Gulf of Maine, the restoration of the sea-run migratory
fish species is essential to rebuilding a thriving ocean fishery and
healthy river communities. The Penobscot River Restoration Agreement
has three main components: the removal of the Great Works Dam, the
removal of the Veazie Dam, and the construction of a bypass of the
Howland Dam. The first two are complete; the third is pending. It is
important that NOAA remain committed to seeing through the full
implementation of the agreement. If NOAA is not able to commit to the
Agreement, which includes the building of a fish bypass, the project
will be incomplete and the fisheries benefits will not be maximized.
Will you help to ensure that NOAA will work with the State of
Maine, the communities along the Penobscot River, including the Town of
Howland, the tribes, and the Penobscot Trust to ensure that the
Agreement is fully implemented in a timely fashion?
Answer. Yes, NOAA Fisheries is committed to working with the State
of Maine, the communities along the Penobscot, and the Penobscot River
Restoration Trust (Trust) in an effort to implement the agreement in a
timely fashion. As you pointed out, we have committed substantial
resources to this effort to date and will continue to work with the
Trust to fully realize the restoration potential of our collective
accomplishments. We remain committed to restoring access to important
diadromous species habitats throughout the watershed, and to that end,
we are working to improve fish passage at a number of different project
sites in the basin with several other partners in the State including
the Atlantic Salmon Federation, The Nature Conservancy and the
Penobscot Indian Nation. In addition, in May 2014 NOAA announced the
designation of the Penobscot River Watershed as a Habitat Focus Area
(HFA) under the agency's Habitat Blueprint Initiative. This designation
creates an opportunity for the agency to combine its fiscal and
technical resources to comprehensively address fish passage needs in
the watershed. Through the Habitat Focus Area designation, we are
working with The Nature Conservancy and local communities to evaluate
potential dam removal and fish passage projects in portions of the
watershed.
The construction of the Howland bypass is well underway and the
Trust expects to complete the project by October 2015. It is our
understanding that the Trust raised adequate funding to complete the
construction of the bypass which allowed them to go forward with the
project in late 2014. While NOAA Fisheries did not provide funding for
this component of the project, our staff participated in engineering
design review with the Trust and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to
provide technical advice for fish passage for diadromous species and to
help ensure satisfactory compliance with Federal regulatory
requirements.
We look forward to working further with the Trust to enhance fish
passage effectiveness and project reliability and to design an
effective maintenance and monitoring plan. Diadromous fish monitoring
will document the project's success and determine if improvements are
needed to the bypass channel to ensure the long-term success of this
project. As stewards of both the resources in the river and the public
funding supporting this project, we are concerned about the unresolved
ownership and long-term maintenance and monitoring plan.
The fiscal year 2016 President's budget request includes an
increase of $1.3 million for ESA Salmon, part of which is requested for
Atlantic salmon. With this increased funding, we would be able to
better support the Maine Department of Marine Resources field
operations in each of three salmon recovery areas (including the
Penobscot) enabling better monitoring of adult abundance and freshwater
production. Additional funding would also be used to better support
non-governmental organization (NGO) efforts to restore habitat in the
Penobscot and other critical habitats of the Gulf of Maine Distinct
Population Segment and to provide more seasonal staff to support salmon
and diadromous fish passage operation oversight and studies. The new
fish passage on the Penobscot River requires more seasonal staff to
ensure salmon safety and sorting from the anticipated 500,000 to one
million river herring as their populations respond to the dam removals.
This increased funding will provide support for that essential
monitoring.
NOAA Fisheries anticipates publishing several Federal Funding
Opportunities (FFO) later this year through our competitive Fisheries
Habitat Restoration and Species Recovery grant programs. Funding
provided through these Federal Funding Opportunities could support
other high priority fish passage projects in the Penobscot watershed.
The fiscal year 2016 President's budget also includes a request to
substantially expand the Species Recovery Grant Program by $17 million
potentially providing even more support for Atlantic salmon recovery.
Question. Earlier this month, NOAA announced its proposal to expand
the designated critical habitat for endangered North Atlantic right
whales in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean. Currently, the area in New
England is comprised of waters off the coast of Massachusetts,
including Cape Cody Bay. NOAA's new proposal would greatly expand the
designated critical habitat to include nearly the entire Gulf of Maine.
I have heard from concerned fishermen and lobstermen in Maine who
are still trying to understand the implications that this proposed
expansion might have on their operations. According to NOAA, this
proposed expansion does not include any new restrictions for commercial
fishing operations or shipping lanes. It is my understanding, however,
that NOAA has imposed more stringent fishing restrictions on the
existing critical habitat. For example, the lobster fishery in Cape
Cody Bay has been regulated far longer than any other trap fishery, and
the agency's recent rules regulating vertical lines included the
closure of Cape Cody Bay to lobster fishing during the winter.
Will additional restrictions be imposed on commercial fishing
operations in the Gulf of Maine should NOAA's proposal be implemented?
Answer. No. The proposed critical habitat will not result in any
additional fishing restrictions. The fishing gear restrictions in place
in the former Cape Cod Bay and Great South Channel critical habitat
areas were implemented to prevent the take of large whales, including
the North Atlantic right whale, not to protect the essential features
of right whale critical habitat. Those measures were implemented under
the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan through the Marine Mammal
Protection Act to address fishing interactions with large whales in
those areas during specified times.
The preamble of the proposed rule to revise critical habitat for
right whales under the Endangered Species Act states that additional
fishing gear regulations will not be imposed within the proposed right
whale critical habitat expansion within the Gulf of Maine or Georges
Bank areas. The proposed rule and 4(b)(2) Impact Analysis explicitly
state that we have concluded that current fishing practices, with the
exception of a possible future fishery targeting copepods, will not
affect the essential features of foraging habitat and therefore do not
affect critical habitat.
Question. For years, China has manipulated its currency to provide
its companies with an unfair trade advantage a problem that has not
been sufficiently addressed by the U.S. Government. In Maine, China's
currency manipulation has devastated communities that rely upon paper
production. Since 2000, Maine has lost nearly half of its jobs in the
paper manufacturing industry, and in the past year alone, three Maine
mills have closed their doors and left hundreds of workers suddenly
unemployed. Other mills may be subjected to a temporary shut down or
reduction in operations, leaving workers with their jobs, but without a
steady paycheck. This uncertainty and upheaval causes lasting damage to
communities.
Earlier this month, I joined a bipartisan group of colleagues, led
by Senator Sessions and Senator Brown, in introducing the Currency
Undervaluation Investigation Act, which would apply the countervailing
duty law to currency manipulation practices and hold foreign countries
accountable for these practices.
How will you ensure that those harmed by currency manipulation can
have their concerns addressed by the Department of Commerce?
Answer. The issue of currency manipulation or undervaluation is a
very important one; the President has made clear that it is
inappropriate for any country to try to grow its exports by actively
maintaining an undervalued exchange rate. While the authority to
monitor and report on currency manipulation rests with the Department
of the Treasury, Commerce separately has the authority under the U.S.
countervailing duty law to investigate an allegation that foreign
producers may be benefitting from unfair subsidies conveyed through a
foreign government's currency practices, provided the allegation meets
the requirements for initiating an investigation under the U.S.
countervailing duty law. A currency-related countervailable subsidy
allegation made by a petitioning U.S. industry is examined by Commerce
based on the initiation requirements of U.S. law. If those requirements
are met, Commerce would initiate an investigation of the allegation. We
recognize that various bills with currency provisions pertaining to
countervailing duty proceedings are currently before the Congress.
Regardless of the ultimate disposition of the proposed legislation,
Commerce remains committed to vigorously enforcing the trade remedy
laws to ensure that U.S. companies and workers have every opportunity
to compete on a level playing field.
Question. Last September, NOAA's systems were breached in a cyber
attack leading to some loss of weather data and delays in satellite
data transmissions. Representative Frank Wolf said he was told that the
Chinese may have been behind the attack. Commerce Inspector General
Todd Zinser's testimony for today expresses serious concerns with
Commerce's incident detection and response capabilities. This testimony
follows the IG's previous findings before the cyber attack that founds
``significant security deficiencies'' in the National Environmental
Satellite Data and Information Service that pose a ``risk in its
national critical mission.''
Can you describe what vulnerabilities led to the breach of NOAA's
information systems, and have those vulnerabilities been addressed?
Answer. Last fall, vulnerabilities in three public facing Web sites
allowed attackers to compromise some NOAA systems. This incident, which
started in September, was contained quickly and the specific Web
application vulnerabilities have been fully addressed. A report
describing these vulnerabilities and the mitigations is under review to
determine if the report contains classified materials, so NOAA is
unable to provide additional details in this answer. However, NOAA can
say that the actual effects of the breach were limited. However, taking
the affected networks offline to contain the attack did result in
extensive Web site and data flow outages. In response to the identified
shortcomings, NOAA has vigorously worked to correct cybersecurity flaws
and continues to incorporate enhanced security as it modernized
existing and designs and implements new systems. Nothing can completely
protect an organization from all malicious cyberattacks, but following
this course of action will improve the security posture of NOAA's Web
sites and IT systems and help ensure that NOAA can continue to perform
its critical missions.
Question. The trade enforcement role of the Commerce Department and
other trade agencies is very important for U.S. industries across the
United States. I would note that the U.S. Trade Representative's Office
has recently been addressing a concern related to a Moroccan export
quota on goods that are critical to a manufacturer located in Maine. I
appreciate the efforts being undertaken to make sure our trading
partners are living up to their free trade agreement commitments, as
this will ultimately make the difference in ensuring that trade
agreements result in benefits to U.S.-based employers and workers.
How extensively is the Commerce Department coordinating with USTR
and other agencies to ensure trade agreement compliance?
Answer. Ensuring that our trading partners live up to their trade
agreement commitments is critical to the success of U.S. exporters and
investors, and to the integrity of those agreements. When U.S.
businesses sell abroad, the Department of Commerce works to ensure that
they are able to do on a level, competitive playing field. The Commerce
Department's Trade Agreements Compliance Program systematically
monitors and investigates foreign compliance with over 250
international trade agreements.
Commerce proactively monitors trade agreement compliance and helps
ensure U.S. business compete on a level playing field by identifying,
investigating and resolving trade barriers. There is no cost to U.S.
businesses for this service. Once a barrier is identified, Commerce
assembles a case team to investigate the problem and develop a strategy
to address it. This process includes coordinating interagency efforts
on both an informal basis and formally through the interagency
Compliance Task Force and the Trade Policy Staff subcommittees chaired
by USTR. In taking action, Commerce teams can gradually escalate trade
issues and, as appropriate, bring the full weight of the U.S Government
to bear in an effort to resolve the issues, using relevant trade
agreements, multilateral/WTO fora, Free Trade Agreement negotiations
and other diplomatic means.
As appropriate, cases identified by Commerce may also be referred
to USTR and the interagency for formal dispute settlement action
consideration. Commerce works particularly close with USTR in defending
the rights of U.S. workers and manufacturers under World Trade
Organization (WTO) trade remedy rules and challenging foreign
countries' use of trade remedies when they violate WTO rules and
present a barrier to fair competition from U.S.-produced goods.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator John Boozman
Question. First, I want to thank you for your hard work and the
constructive role you played in resolving the crisis we faced during
the West Coast port slowdown. For Arkansas farmers, businessmen and
women, this really was a serious crisis where a lot of people were
harmed by the slowdown.
When this type of situation occurs again, how could this issue be
resolved much more quickly so that it does not cause so much economic
damage to the country?
Answer. The negotiations over the functioning of the West Coast
Ports had been taking place for months with the administration urging
the parties to resolve their differences. Helping resolve this dispute
was a top priority, and on February 14, 2015, the President directed
me, Secretary Perez, and Secretary Foxx to travel to California to meet
with the parties to help them reach a resolution.
On February 20, 2015, both parties reached a settlement and agreed
to fully restore all port operations starting the following evening.
This is great news for the parties involved in the negotiation and a
huge relief for our economy particularly the countless American
workers, farmers, and businesses that have been affected by the dispute
and those facing even greater disruption and costs with further delays.
President Obama has called on the parties to work together to clear
out the backlogs and congestion in the West Coast Ports. We remain
ready to help both sides on the West Coast to work together towards
this goal. We are also ready to provide similar assistance in future
seaport contract negotiations on the West Coast and at other U.S.
seaports.
Question. I am sure you agree that oversight at the agencies is
necessary and an important and worthy goal. Therefore, I am concerned
and disappointed that the OIG is experiencing difficulties accessing
information needed to investigate and has faced threats not to release
reports publicly.
What are you personally doing to ensure this does not continue and
do you agree that the IG should have access to the information they
need to conduct appropriate oversight?
Answer. I take compliance and oversight very seriously, and deeply
appreciate the critical role Inspector General's Offices play in
improving management and preventing waste and abuse in the Government.
I am fully committed to working cooperatively with the Department's
Inspector General on his oversight work and, as the IG Act requires,
providing full and open access to information the Inspector General
needs to do his job. As the Inspector General acknowledged in his
testimony before this subcommittee, when issues arose regarding the
Inspector General Office's access to monthly Program Management Council
meetings for the weather satellite program, I stepped in to ensure that
the Inspector General had the access that he needed. I will continue to
take such actions as necessary to ensure that the Inspector General has
the legally required access to information he needs to conduct his
oversight work.
Question. I am concerned with the OIG's cybersecurity findings.
While the IG identifies actions that the Department has taken to
strengthen cybersecurity, more needs to be done to protect IT systems
and information. A recent FISMA audit revealed ``significant security
deficiencies'' in the NOAA high-impact systems and identified
weaknesses in the Department's incident detection and response
capabilities.
Are you taking these findings seriously and will you follow-up on
the IG's recommendations?
Answer. The CIO is taking the OIG findings, plus his own internal
findings, very seriously. The CIO reports on the Department's cyber
risk profile, using the NIST cyber framework, on a monthly basis to the
Secretary and Deputy Secretary, and updates the Department's Executive
Management Team members on the status of their Bureau on a regular
basis.
Our fiscal year 2016 request specifically addresses the
Department's plan to improve incident response. We have requested an
additional 2 full-time equivalents (FTEs) and funding to address
directly the OIG findings and the results of third party assessments.
We have requested additional information security FTEs to enhance our
ability to perform security and cyber risk assessments. We are
currently improving our capabilities through the addition of the ESOC
capabilities, centralized reporting of computer incidents, and the
hiring of additional incident response staff to include a digital
forensics analyst. The primary focus for the Office of Cyber Security
is shifting from a risk averse policy/compliance mindset to cyber
operations/risk management mindset.
Question. Access to broadband is vital to economic development and
is a real issue for rural States like Arkansas.
Can you talk about how the fiscal year 2016 budget request supports
this goal and what concrete steps the agency will take to expand
Internet access, especially in rural areas?
Answer. The Department is committed to building on our broadband
expertise to enable more communities to harness the power of broadband
for social and economic opportunity. The BroadbandUSA initiative
outlined in the President's budget will help more American communities,
including rural areas, expand broadband by leveraging the experience
and expertise of the Department's National Telecommunications and
Information Administration (NTIA).
Through its Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), NTIA
invested more than $4 billion in projects across the country to deploy
broadband networks, expand public access to broadband, and train
Americans in the use of computers and the Internet. BTOP projects have
delivered over 110,000 miles of broadband networks; connected more than
25,000 schools, libraries, and healthcare facilities to broadband;
deployed more than 46,000 computer workstations across the Nation; and
generated more than 650,000 new household broadband subscribers through
education and training. But these benefits do not meet the tremendous
demand for increased broadband that we know exists in America today.
As we close out the few remaining broadband grant projects, we are
implementing the new BroadbandUSA initiative to help more communities
in rural and other disadvantaged areas expand broadband opportunities.
The goal is to share lessons learned and best practices with
community leaders, businesses, and others working on the front lines to
close the digital divide. We plan to employ toolkits, training
programs, workshops and other strategies for communities working to
expand their broadband capabilities. For example, in February 2015,
NTIA hosted a workshop in Jackson, Mississippi, that brought together
leaders from small and large communities with businesses throughout the
Gulf region to share lessons learned and strategies to help expand
broadband.
We also intend to work with other Federal agencies whose programs
can benefit from broadband expertise, and look for opportunities to
maximize the impact agencies have on expanding broadband access and
adoption. The Broadband Opportunity Council recently announced by the
President will be co-chaired by the Department of Commerce and will
bring Federal agencies together to help identify steps to reduce
barriers to broadband deployment.
As evidence of the progress that we have made, NTIA recently
announced that the United States has met President Obama's goal of
ensuring 98 percent of the country has access to wireless broadband at
a speed of at least 6 megabits per second (Mbps) down/1.5 Mbps up.
It is also important to note the NTIA's progress towards
identifying 500 MHz of spectrum for commercial use by 2020 is also
making a tremendous difference in the wireless broadband availability
and speeds in rural and other underserved areas of the United States.
The Department is very committed to helping expand broadband
opportunities for rural and other underserved areas.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Shelley Moore Capito
Question. As the grants from the BTOP program are spent down, does
the NTIA have any programs or plans to analyze those areas which are
still underserved, such as in West Virginia?
Answer. There are a number of ways in which NTIA is working to
deliver benefits to underserved areas of the United States.
Since 2009, NTIA and the FCC have collaborated on the development
of the National Broadband Map, http://www.broadbandmap.gov/, which
provides detailed data on broadband availability in the United States.
The broadband map has become a vital tool for consumers, businesses,
policy makers and researchers by providing an easy to use and
searchable way to find out who is offering broadband, what types of
broadband they are offering and where are they providing it. This tool
is especially valuable for rural areas that are looking to develop
strategies to expand broadband in their community. We are in the
process of transitioning the responsibility for continuing the data
collection and updates to the Map to the FCC due to budget constraints.
Through NTIA's State Broadband Initiative, we also funded capacity-
building efforts at the State level. Partly as a result, the State of
West Virginia recently released a Broadband Strategic Plan (http://
www.wvgs.wvnet.edu/bb/reports.php) identifying goals and targets for
additional broadband investment that will help fill the gaps in the
State's broadband infrastructure.
Additionally, NTIA's Office of Policy Analysis and Development will
continue to analyze the status of the ``digital divide'' and the use of
broadband technologies, including deployment and adoption in rural
areas. This work, begun in 1994, has resulted in a series of detailed
reports based on data from the Census Bureau's Current Population
Surveys and American Community Surveys.
The BroadbandUSA initiative outlined in the President's budget will
help more American communities expand broadband access and adoption by
leveraging the experiences and expertise of the NTIA.
Through its Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), NTIA
invested more than $4 billion in projects across the country to deploy
broadband networks, expand public access to broadband, and train
Americans in the use of computer and the Internet. BTOP projects have
delivered over 110,000 miles of broadband networks; connected more than
25,000 schools, libraries, and healthcare facilities to broadband;
deployed more than 46,000 computer workstations across the Nation; and
generated more than 650,000 new broadband subscribers through education
and training. But these benefits do not meet the tremendous demand for
increased broadband that we know exists in America today.
Question. What initiatives or investments can be made to provide
service to those areas?
Answer. As we close out the few remaining broadband grant projects,
we are implementing the new BroadbandUSA initiative to leverage our
expertise and help more communities expand broadband opportunities. The
goal is to share lessons learned and best practices with community
leaders, businesses, and others on the front lines of working to close
the digital divide. We plan to employ toolkits, training programs,
workshops and other strategies to communities working to expand their
broadband capabilities. We are working with other Federal agencies
whose programs could benefit from broadband expertise, and look for
ways to maximize the impact agencies have on expanding broadband access
and adoption.
The Department is committed to building on our experience with BTOP
to enable more communities to harness the power of broadband for social
and economic opportunity.
The Broadband Opportunity Council, recently announced by the
President, will be co-chaired by the Department of Commerce and will
bring Federal agencies together to help identify steps to reduce
barriers to broadband deployment and adoption.
In addition to our work, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural
Utilities Service continues to invest in broadband infrastructure
projects, and the Federal Communications Commission is updating the
Universal Service Fund to better target investments toward broadband
for rural and other underserved areas.
Question. Could you please provide an overview of the mission of
the recently formed BroadbandUSA within your department specifically
mindful of communities in areas such as rural West Virginia that are
still lacking in adequate broadband access?
Answer. As described above, the BroadbandUSA initiative builds upon
the lessons learned from our successful BTOP and leverages our
expertise to help more communities expand broadband access and
adoption. The goal is to share lessons learned and best practices with
community leaders, businesses, and others on the front lines of working
to close the digital divide. We also intend to work with other Federal
agencies whose programs could benefit from broadband expertise, and
look for ways to maximize the impact agencies have on expanding
broadband access and adoption.
NTIA understands that many States such as West Virginia demonstrate
significant need for additional broadband infrastructure and adoption
resources. Technical assistance will be directed toward areas of
greatest need, including rural and tribal areas. As we continue to
develop and implement this important program, we will focus our efforts
to improve the broadband capabilities in areas with demonstrated need,
such as West Virginia.
Question. How do you gauge success for the BTOP program regarding
access in rural areas?
Answer. Whereas the complementary Broadband Initiatives Program
implemented by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities
Service was intended to specifically focus on rural areas, Congress
instructed NTIA to address the unmet broadband needs of ``unserved and
underserved'' areas through the BTOP program.
Many of the more than 230 projects funded by NTIA delivered
broadband infrastructure, computers, and training to rural areas. For
example, the $126 million infrastructure grant to the State of West
Virginia deployed new or upgraded broadband capabilities to nearly
every school in West Virginia, including those in some of the most
rural areas of the State. The nearly $2 million public computer center
grant to WorkForce West Virginia improved broadband at 95 workforce
centers, libraries and Veterans Affairs facilities in rural communities
such as Buckhannon and Durbin. The $4.4 million broadband adoption
grant to Future Generations Graduate School provided computer training
and access through local fire stations and helped more than 30,000 West
Virginia households become broadband subscribers.
Question. What lessons have you learned that could help Federal/
State/local governments in expanding access in the future?
Answer. The Department's NTIA is committed to helping stakeholders
at the Federal, State, and local level in expanding broadband access
and adoption. The recently launched BroadbandUSA initiative described
above will be integral to achieving this goal. By leveraging lessons
learned from the successful BTOP program and sharing best practices
among private and public stakeholders, NTIA will assist more
communities with their goals of expanding broadband opportunities.
NTIA has already identified a number of lessons learned that can
assist leaders at the Federal, State, and local level. In January 2015,
NTIA released a Public Private Partnership primer, which provides a
basic introduction to a variety of partnership models for communities
considering new broadband projects. The primer provides a high-level
overview of steps to establish partnerships, and presents case studies
of successful public-private broadband partnerships. This document is
available at: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/report/2015/broadbandusa-
introduction-effective-public-private-partnerships.
Question. How do you view your continuing role in providing access
in rural areas?
Answer. Building on the primer, we are working on a series of
guides to assist communities that want to increase the level of
broadband infrastructure and adoption in their areas. These will
provide solid and field-tested advice on how to plan for network
development, create useful applications and build projects that will
sustain themselves for years to come.
Another way we are helping communities is through our broadband
adoption toolkit, published in 2013, that serves as a reference manual
for municipalities and other organizations that want to increase the
level of adoption in their communities. The toolkit contains clear,
sensible advice, as well as practical ideas and tips for bringing a
wide array of individuals online from senior citizens who may never
have touched a mouse before to minority populations who might not even
speak English. See http://www.ntia.doc.gov/toolkit.
Additionally, the recently announced Broadband Opportunity Council,
established in a March 2015 Presidential Memorandum, will collect
recommendations from 25 Cabinet agencies about how to promote broadband
deployment and adoption within the context of existing programs.
The BroadbandUSA initiative described in greater detail above
represents the Department's priority effort for expanding broadband
access and adoption in the United States.
Question. In those rural areas that expanded broadband under BTOP,
what was the impact on unemployment, wages, and number of new jobs?
Answer. BTOP projects have demonstrated a significant positive
impact on jobs and economic development in the communities they served,
with benefits that far surpass the taxpayer investments.
In January, 2015, NTIA released an independent research study
showing that its broadband grants program resulted in billions of
dollars in economic benefits to the communities served, including
increased economic output and higher levels of employment. The 4-year
study, prepared by the research firm ASR Analytics, examined the social
and economic impacts of the $4 billion in Recovery Act grants awarded
by NTIA. In communities where grantees built new broadband
infrastructure, broadband availability grew by an estimated 2 percent
more than in communities not served by a broadband grantee. That growth
could be expected to translate into increased economic output of as
much as $21 billion annually, the report concluded.
ASR Analytics' final report summarizes and synthesizes the findings
of 42 separate case study reports, two interim reports, and a short-
term economic impacts report. Key findings of ASR's final report
include:
--On average, in only 2 years, BTOP grant communities experienced an
estimated 2 percent greater growth in broadband availability
than non-grant communities, which is estimated to generate
increased annual economic activity of between $5.17 billion and
$21 billion.
--The additional broadband infrastructure provided by BTOP could be
expected to create more than 22,000 long-term jobs and generate
more than $1 billion in additional household income each year.
--Community anchor institutions, like schools and libraries, served
by BTOP infrastructure grantees in the sample experienced
significantly increased speeds and lower costs. As an example,
the median price paid by libraries in the sample was $233
megabits-per-second (mbps)/month before BTOP, at a median speed
of 3 mbps. As a result of the grant, the median price dropped
to $15 mbps/month and median speed increased to 20 mbps.
For more information, please see: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/press-
release/2015/research-study-shows-ntia-broadband-grants-provided-
billions-economic-benefits.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator James Lankford
Question. The foreign affairs exception to the Administrative
Procedure Act is only for those ``affairs'' which so affect relations
with other governments that the public rule making provisions would
clearly provoke definitely undesirable international consequences.
Given that the United States has not had formal diplomatic
relations with Cuba since 1961, how would providing notice and comments
provoke definitely undesirable international consequences? The
precedent this action could have on future issues pertaining to foreign
policy as particularly concerning. Was it the expectation of Commerce
that the status quo foreign policy related to Cuba would imminently
provoke undesirable international consequences? If so, what are the
consequences?
Answer. The Administrative Procedure Act's (APA) legislative
history confirms that rulemakings that ``provoke definitely undesirable
international consequences'' would clearly fall within the exemption;
however the legislative history makes it clear that this is merely an
example of the type of actions that would qualify for the exemption.
Case law confirms that the phrase ``provoke definitely undesirable
international consequences'' is only an illustration and is not meant
to be an exclusive definition of ``foreign affairs function.'' See,
e.g., New York v. Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, 618
F.3d 172, 202 (2d Cir. 2010) (finding that quintessential foreign
affairs functions such as diplomatic relations and the regulation of
foreign missions clearly and directly involve a foreign affairs
function, and declining to turn the phrase ``provoke definitely
undesirable international consequences'' from an illustration appearing
in the APA's legislative history into the exclusive definition for
``foreign affairs function''). Thus, ``undesirable international
consequences'' is not the only basis for publishing rules involving
foreign affairs without public notice and comment and Commerce's rule
promptly implementing the President's change in foreign policy towards
Cuba did not require public notice and comment.
Question. What assurances will NTIA provide to Congress that if the
Internet DNS governance is transitioned to another entity that it will
not next transition to a nation or entity that is hostile to free
speech and religion?
Answer. I appreciate your concern about foreign nations exerting
control over the Internet domain name system. I assure you that nothing
about the proposed transition of the role of the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in the domain
name system will increase the likelihood or ability of foreign
governments to exert greater control. Indeed, a main driver behind the
IANA transition is to strengthen the multistakeholder process, thereby
decreasing the likelihood of and opportunity for repressive regimes to
exercise control over the domain name system at a global level. Moving
forward to complete the privatization planned in the 1990's is our best
response to recent calls from around the globe for greater control of
the Internet by intergovernmental bodies like the United Nations.
It is important to understand that no single entity including the
U.S. Government--controls the domain name system or the Internet today.
The Internet is governed through the bottom-up, consensus-based
multistakeholder model in which private industry, engineers, civil
society, and governments work together to develop policies. The
proposed transition of NTIA's limited role is fully consistent with
this multistakeholder model and will only strengthen the model against
capture by anyone, including foreign governments. For this reason, the
proposed transition has widespread support from Internet stakeholders,
including AT&T, Verizon, Microsoft, Google, human rights groups, and
the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Moreover, in addition to a transition plan, Internet stakeholders
are working on a proposal to enhance ICANN's future accountability. We
expect the proposal to include the ``stress testing'' of solutions to
safeguard against future contingencies, such as attempts to influence
or take over ICANN. As we have stated publicly, the Department will not
approve a proposal that would allow our role to be replaced by a
government or intergovernmental organization. We will continue to keep
Congress apprised of any developments through quarterly reports, which
NTIA will supplement with additional information as appropriate.
Question. What steps have been taken to implement the reforms
required in the 2012 authorization of the Export-Import Bank?
Answer. The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank)
equips U.S. businesses with the financing tools they need to tackle new
markets for their goods and services and to expand and create U.S.
jobs. Last year, Ex-Im supported $27.4 billion of exports and 164,000
American jobs at no cost to American taxpayers, with nearly 90 percent
of Ex-Im Bank's transactions directly supporting small businesses. All
of the reforms required by the bipartisan 2012 Ex-Im Bank
reauthorization bill have been completed and implemented. Please see on
the next two pages the section-by-section analysis provided by Ex-Im
Bank. For further information, I recommend that you contact Ex-Im Bank
management directly.
export-import bank reauthorization act of 2012: every reform completed
section-by-section analysis
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Question. Regarding product promotion overseas, which product
groups do not have the ability to promote their products on the
international marketplace?
Answer. The International Trade Administration (ITA), with its
country- and industry-specific expertise along with a global network
across the United States and around the world, plays a unique role in
addressing barriers to broadening and deepening the U.S. exporter base.
This includes: (1) Providing market- and industry-specific information
where it would not otherwise be available at an affordable cost,
particularly for small and medium-sized businesses; (2) Facilitating
business opportunities by connecting qualified foreign buyers with U.S.
suppliers; (3) Strengthening the social networks and institutions which
underpin private sector activity in trade and investment, especially in
culturally distant markets; and (4) Helping businesses overcome
barriers to market access, including through political and diplomatic
support.
As part of ITA, Global Markets assists and advocates for U.S.
businesses in international markets to foster U.S. economic prosperity.
Utilizing our network of trade promotion and policy professionals
located in over 70 countries and 100 U.S. locations, Global Markets
promotes U.S. exports, especially among small and medium-sized
enterprises; advances and protects U.S. commercial interests overseas;
and attracts inward investment into the United States.
Global Markets has a Federal Government presence both across the
United States and in countries that represent 91 percent of worldwide
GDP with authoritative, impartial, accessible professionals who have
specific trade and investment expertise. As trusted intermediaries with
extensive public and private sector contacts, credibility and influence
in foreign markets, Global Markets effectively assists U.S. businesses
and partners in entering and expanding international markets,
addressing barriers to accessing foreign markets, winning foreign
government procurements and attracting inward investment.
Global Markets places a primary emphasis on promoting the exports
of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs face internal and
external barriers that inhibit their ability to access the information
and contacts needed to fulfill their export potential. Over 80 percent
of U.S. export value is attributable to less than 10 percent of U.S.
exporters, which are predominately large companies with exports to more
than 10 markets. The majority of SME exporters only export to one
market and do not export in consecutive years. Global Markets is
focused on helping SMEs overcome the internal and external barriers to
exporting so that more SMEs export to multiple markets and do so on an
ongoing basis.
Finally, Global Markets promotes all product and service groups.
Regarding which product groups are not able to be promoted in the
international market place, in accordance with the U.S. and Foreign
Commercial Service's fiscal year 2011 Fee-Based Services Eligibility
Policy and the Consolidation Appropriations Act of 2010, USFCS is
prohibited by law from promoting the export of tobacco or tobacco-
related products and policy restricts export promotion concerning
munitions or sexually explicit material. Additionally, local laws and
regulations in all markets can further complicate or even prohibit the
ability to promote certain product groups in the international market
place (i.e. alcohol, chemicals or weapons).
Question. If the State Department is not part of the President's
new proposed trade department, do you expect that trade policy
objectives, such as ensuring that our trade partners respect human
rights and religious freedom, will be assumed by the new department or
remain part of the State Department?
Answer. The President is asking Congress to give him the authority
to submit to Congress for expedited consideration proposals to
consolidate executive branch agencies so long as the result would be to
reduce the number of Government agencies or cut costs. If he were
granted such authority, the President has put forward a proposal that
would consolidate six primary business and trade agencies, as well as
other related programs, integrating the Government's core trade and
competitiveness functions into one new department. Specifically, the
department would include the Department of Commerce's core business and
trade functions, the Small Business Administration, the Office of the
U.S. Trade Representative, the Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private
Investment Corporation, and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. This
Department would be responsible for expanding trade and investment,
growing small businesses, and supporting innovation, and would be more
effectively aligned to strengthen trade enforcement and implement a
strong, pro-growth trade policy.
Question. If the State Department, what level of coordination would
you expect from the new department and State to ensure these concerns
are addressed?
Answer. If Congress grants him that authority, we will consult with
Congress, other agencies and stakeholders and develop a more detailed
proposal for the creation of the proposed new department. Unless and
until that authority is granted, we remain focused on our current
mission.
Question. Regarding the American Community Survey.--What is the
total cost per completed survey?
Answer. In fiscal year 2014, the cost of the American Community
Survey (ACS) was $230 million. The Census Bureau conducted about 2.4
million interviews that year, thus yielding a cost of approximately $96
per completed survey. Each year only a small percentage of households
are selected to participate in the survey, yet the entire country
benefits from the wealth of information the ACS provides--over 11
billion estimates each year. For just $1.72 per household a year, our
communities and businesses get the data they need to help them plan and
make decisions to invest and grow our economy.
Question. Is there a problem with moving to voluntary completion?
Answer. Yes. Census research, and experience in other countries,
show that moving to a voluntary survey would make the American
Community Survey (ACS) more expensive, less accurate, or both. Because
the ACS would have far fewer completed interviews, the resulting data
would be much less reliable. To achieve the same level of quality of
the current mandatory survey, the Census Bureau would have to spend an
additional $90 million annually to implement a voluntary ACS. Making
the survey voluntary would disproportionally affect rural areas and
small populations throughout the Nation. A voluntary ACS at current
funding levels would result in the loss of data for approximately 61
million people, representing about 24 percent of counties--mostly rural
and small communities.
The Census Bureau's top priority is respecting the time and privacy
of the people providing the information. We are accelerating our
program of research to address these concerns, including how best to
operationalize needed changes. We are focused on specific ways to
reduce the concerns of survey respondents. For instance: (1) can we
remove questions by using other data sources, including information
people have already provided to the government? (2) can we better
phrase our questions to reduce respondent concern, especially for those
who may be sensitive to providing information? (3) can we ask some
questions every other year, or every third year? The Census Bureau
continues to place a high priority on this work and will report to the
Secretary of Commerce by the end of the fiscal year (2015).
Question. In written testimony before this subcommittee, Inspector
General Zinser testified that ``from fiscal year 2012 through February
18, 2015, around 38 percent of the contract obligations awarded by the
Department have been high-risk obligations.''
What steps are you taking to ensure that the Department properly
awards, administers, and reports high-risk contracts?
Answer. In response to recommendations set forth in the published
Office of Inspector General audit report entitled, The Department's
Awarding and Administering of Time-and-Materials Contracts Needs
Improvement, the Department of Commerce has taken significant steps to
improve the use and management of high-risk contracts to include:
--Incorporated definitive control objectives specific to high-risk
contract actions into Acquisition Management Reviews;
--Increased the focus of the Acquisition Review Board and Investment
Review Board processes to require further details when awarding
high-risk contracts, including the use of a standardized list
of considerations to evaluate proposed acquisition strategies;
--Monitoring the use of new contract dollars awarded with high-risk
contracting authorities through the Department's Acquisition
Council on a monthly basis; and
--Re-issued departmental policy to the Department's contracting
workforce on the proper use, management and documentation
requirements of contracts awarded under high-risk contracting
authorities.
With these tools in place, the Department is assured that
sufficient awareness and oversight is in place to ensure high-risk
contracts are awarded, administered and reported properly.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Dianne Feinstein
noaa efforts regarding salmonid populations
Question. Since the issuance of the 2009 salmon biological opinion,
operations of California's Central Valley Project (CVP) and State Water
Project (SWP) are required to adhere to stringent regulations in order
to protect endangered and listed salmonid species.
However, nearly 6 years after the actions required by the salmon
biological opinion has taken effect, the species is still suffering,
and population recovery is still a distant goal.
While there are many debates about the effects of the CVP and SWP
on salmonid species, there is general consensus that water pumping is
not the only action that affects salmonid populations.
Based on the best available science today, what factors besides
water pumping negatively affect the extent and pace of recovery in
salmonid populations?
Answer. Habitat loss and degradation are primary limiting factors
for anadromous salmonid populations. Currently, dams block Chinook
salmon and steelhead from over 90 percent of their historical spawning
habitat in the Central Valley. In addition, 98 percent of riparian and
floodplain habitat in the lower river and Delta is no longer available
to support healthy fish runs.
Numerous additional factors (besides water pumping) impair
recovery, including: blocked access to historical spawning areas;
drought conditions; disconnected floodplain habitat along tributaries
and mainstreams; impaired flow and sediment regimes below dams that
degrade rearing habitats in stream channels and reduce the frequency
and magnitude of high and turbid flows beneficial to juvenile
migration; channel revetments and levees that eliminate shallow rearing
habitat; commercial and recreational fisheries; impaired water quality;
predation by non-native fish; and unintended effects of hatcheries all
contribute to declining populations. Many of these factors are related
to the existence and operation of the water projects, but are not
directly related to pumping.
In July 2014, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) issued a
recovery plan for Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon, Central
Valley spring-run Chinook salmon, and California Central Valley
steelhead that identifies and prioritizes the above factors, and other
threats and stressors to each of the life history stages of the listed
salmonids.
Question. Since the issuance of the 2009 salmon biological opinion,
what steps has NOAA taken to address these other factors and to improve
salmon recovery efforts?
Answer. NOAA has taken the steps shown below to improve salmon
recovery efforts:
Habitat
NMFS has been actively pursuing salmonid reintroductions to
historical habitat in the Sacramento River watershed upstream of Shasta
Dam, in Battle Creek, in the upper Yuba River watershed, and in the San
Joaquin River. NMFS has also been engaged in the California Department
of Water Resources' FloodSAFE initiative in order to integrate
floodplain and riparian habitat restoration into the State's flood
protection system and associated conservation strategy.
Fisheries
NMFS established a regulatory management strategy for protecting
winter-run Chinook salmon in the ocean salmon fishery such that the
fisheries' impacts will be lessened if the population's abundance
declines below key thresholds.
Hatcheries
NMFS' Southwest Fisheries Science Center was directly involved in
the California Hatchery Scientific Review, and NMFS has been engaged
with other agencies in implementing the recommendations developed
during the review.
Salmon Loss in Colusa Basin
NMFS has been directly involved in multi-agency efforts to rescue
salmon and steelhead that were trapped in the Colusa Basin Drain and
has been working closely with agencies and stakeholder groups to
minimize impacts.
Drought
The five agencies primarily involved in the coordinated operation
and regulation of the Federal Central Valley Project (CVP) and State
Water Project (SWP) are planning for a fourth year of drought. Working
in close coordination, the United States Department of the Interior
Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) and the Fish and Wildlife Service
(USFWS), the United States Department of Commerce National Oceanic and
Atomosphieric Administration (NOAA) through the National Marine
Fisheries Service (NMFS), the California Department of Water Resources
(DWR), and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) have
developed an Interagency 2015 Drought Strategy in order to rapidly and
equitably balance between all of the competing needs for limited water.
Core principles in the drought strategy include specific protections
for salmon and steelhead.
Recovery Partner Collaboration
NMFS has been working closely with its agency partners and the
Golden Gate Salmon Association, the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District,
the Northern California Water Association, Trout Unlimited, Cal-Trout,
and American Rivers to develop and pursue salmonid recovery actions.
This collaboration resulted in on the ground results in 2014 with the
completion of the Painter's Riffle habitat restoration project on the
Sacramento River.
In 2014, NMFS released its Final Recovery Plan for Central Valley
Chinook Salmon and Steelhead jointly with California Department of Fish
and Wildlife's Ecosystem Restoration Program Conservation Strategy.
Parallel with the release and implementation of these plans, Golden
Gate Salmon Association and Northern California Water Association
developed salmon restoration initiatives, and multiagency efforts are
underway to strengthen implementation of the Central Valley Project
Improvement Act's fish program. NMFS continues to be heavily engaged in
these stakeholder and agency partner efforts in order to help achieve
salmon and steelhead recovery goals.
Budget
The fiscal year 2016 President's budget request includes an
increase of $1.3 million for ESA salmon recovery for a total of $68.5
million. Under this proposal, NOAA will address Atlantic and Pacific
salmon recovery including expanded Pacific salmon monitoring
capabilities and increased ESA section 7 consultation capacity on the
West Coast to improve our on-time consultation completion rate in
support of the regional economy.
Specifically, NMFS' work in the Sacramento and San Joaquin
watersheds occurs in three main program areas:
Central Valley/State Water project ESA review and permitting
These activities include immediate action on the drought, work on
the biological opinion for the Long-term Water Operations for the State
Water Project and Central Valley Water Project Remand, and development
and review of the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan.
ESA administration for the broader suite of actions across the entire
Central Valley/San Joaquin geography
These activities include continued work on large-scale programs
such as the San Joaquin River Restoration Program and the Central
Valley Flood Protection Program, development and review of Hatchery
Genetic Management Plans, and ESA section 7 consultations.
Monitoring and technical support (for the activities mentioned above)
This includes NMFS activities to develop salmonid life cycle
modeling for the Central Valley, as well as any research and monitoring
needs that may be carried out. Adaptive management is central to
planned future water project operations, and adaptive management
requires ongoing research support for development and updating of
conceptual and quantitative models, design and execution of monitoring
programs, and management and synthesis of scientific information. This
will require an ongoing investment in our anadromous fish research
program as well as infrastructure to conduct monitoring.
The recent drought emergency has increased short term stress on
completing our regulatory requirements and highlighted the need for
more comprehensive management of the system focused on the long term
protection and recovery of salmonids.
The budget also includes an increase of $19 million for expanded
consultation capacity nationwide, including in California.
Question. Please provide a list and description of the habitat
restoration projects NOAA has supported or conducted in the Sacramento-
San Joaquin River Delta since the issuance of the 2009 salmon
biological opinion to help improve endangered/listed salmonid recovery.
Answer. NMFS is significantly involved in many important
collaborative restoration projects in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
in a technical advisory capacity. NMFS works with numerous partners to
shape these efforts, ensuring that projects are designed to avoid
jeopardizing ESA-listed salmon and steelhead and to contribute to
recovery goals and actions consistent with the recent Central Valley
Recovery Plan.
Since 2010, NMFS has supported and participated in the Fish
Restoration Program (FRP). The FRP is an agreement between California
Department of Fish and Wildlife and California Department of Water
Resources (CDWR) that was signed following the 2009 salmon biological
opinion. The primary Fish Restoration Program obligation is to restore
8,000 acres of intertidal marsh and associated subtidal habitat in the
Delta and Suisun Marsh. This includes 800 acres of marsh in the low-
salinity-zones of the estuary made up of the Suisun Marsh and the
westernmost part of the Delta. The Fish Restoration Program also
includes a number of actions to benefit winter-run and spring-run
salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and other native fish species. The focus of
these restoration efforts has been in the Delta, Suisun Marsh and Yolo
Bypass, as well as connected upstream watersheds. For example, CDWR
acquired a substantial portion of Prospect Island in 2010 and has been
leading the restoration of this important intertidal habitat. In
addition, the State of California contributed $12 million toward the
restoration of Battle Creek for salmon and steelhead. NMFS is a partner
of the multi-agency effort (approximately 10 agency and public
partners) implementing the Battle Creek Restoration Project. For a
summary of the FRP, including annual reports, see http://
www.water.ca.gov/environmentalservices/frpa.cfm.
There are a number of other Delta restoration and planning efforts
underway in which NMFS is involved to provide technical guidance. These
include the following major restoration projects:
--Delta Stewardship Council Delta Plan;
--California EcoRestore (formerly par of the Bay Delta Conservation
Plan BDCP) \1\;
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ On April 30, 2015, the Governor of California announced new
parallel plans for restoring the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta
ecosystem and the modernization of California's aging water
infrastructure. The Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) will no longer
be pursued as a habitat conservation plan. The new approach entails two
separate, but parallel, State plans:
1. A habitat plan California EcoRestore aims to restore nearly
40,000 acres to support the long-term health of the Delta's native fish
and wildlife species.
2. An infrastructure plan California Water Fix to achieve and
sustain these restoration goals, while protecting the state against the
catastrophic threats of climate change, earthquakes and levee breaks.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--Suisun Marsh Habitat Management, Preservation, and Restoration
Plan, and
--Ecosystem Restoration Program (for 2014 highlights report see
https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/
FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=93380&inline.
Question. What steps has NOAA taken since the issuance of the 2009
biological opinion to reduce/mitigate the effects of non-native
predator species (such as striped bass) on the recovery of endangered/
listed salmonid species? Please specifically describe the projects
involved and their status.
Answer. Predator fish, including striped bass, are one source of
Chinook salmon mortality, and it is a priority in our Central Valley
Salmon and Steelhead Recovery Plan to implement projects to reduce
predation at weirs and diversions in the Delta. Per our 2009 Biological
Opinion, NMFS is working with the California Department of Water
Resources (CDWR) to develop and implement predator control methods for
Clifton Court Forebay on the State Water Project.
In 2014, NMFS initiated a study in the south Delta to examine
whether predator removal could be a viable management strategy to
improve survival of salmonids migrating through this area, and to learn
about predator identity, activity, abundance, and behavior. Preliminary
results show that striped bass are a frequent predator of salmonids,
but many salmon are also consumed by catfish. Removing striped bass
from small areas can improve survival of salmonids transiting that
area, but striped bass are very mobile and quickly repopulate areas
from which they have been removed. Predators were found to be
concentrated in certain places with particular physical conditions such
as holes scoured by the current in the bends of armored channels, areas
with underwater structures that provide cover to predators, and water
diversions that concentrate salmon (these have been noticeable,
although we still have more to learn from careful analysis of the data
collected). Efforts to alter these locations to make then less suitable
for predators might be more effective than removals. This study will be
repeated in 2015, with funding from the California Department of Water
Resources.
NMFS is also developing a model that should help us understand the
relationship between inflows to the Delta, pumping, and salmonid
survival. The model includes an agent-based salmon model that
incorporates swimming and navigational behaviors and predation, and a
hydraulic model of the Delta that includes tidal forcing, pumping, and
operations of barrier gates. The salmon model has been successfully fit
to tagging data (described briefly in response to the question below).
The model will be used in 2015 to evaluate the impacts of alternative
water project operations, and to more generally understand the
conditions under which and the mechanisms (direct entrainment or
increased exposure to predation) by which pumping impacts salmon. This
study is ongoing, with funding from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Question. What steps has NOAA taken since the issuance of the 2009
biological opinion to improve monitoring, surveying, and detection of
salmonid species in the Delta, so that the agency has a clear
understanding of the presence and distribution of salmon in the Delta?
Please specifically describe the projects involved and their status.
Answer. Since 2007, NMFS has been employing acoustic tag technology
to monitor the migration and survival of salmonids between spawning
areas and the Pacific Ocean. In 2013, tags became small enough to
implant in endangered winter-run Chinook, and in 2015, receivers were
deployed in the river and Delta that transmit their data in real time
to a Web server, allowing water and fishery managers to know when
tagged winter Chinook are entering key areas. These studies have
revealed the importance of flow pulses to the migration and survival of
winter Chinook and threatened steelhead, and the existence of mortality
hot-spots within and outside of the Delta. NMFS is also starting a
pilot project in 2015 to examine the potential of radio-frequency
identification tags (which are 100x cheaper than acoustic tags) to
greatly expand the scope of salmonid monitoring studies. This work is
ongoing, with funding from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the
California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW).
In addition, NMFS Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) is
modifying the existing particle tracking model to develop an enhanced
particle tracking model that assigns advection and ``swimming''
behavior to particles as part of their effort to develop a life cycle
model for winter-run Chinook Salmon. By inserting a number of these
particles at select Delta locations into a simulation of current and
forecasted hydrology, the enhanced particle tracking model can provide
information on predicted route selection and fate of particles to
inform management of various hydrodynamic effects of operations on
salmonid movement. Using the enhanced particle tracking model for real-
time operations in 2015 would provide an initial trial of the
calibrated modeling and analytical efforts and techniques required for
rapid response. Funding for this effort is provided by the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation.
Kodiak/Midwater trawl monitoring stations were implemented at
Jersey Point and Prisoners Point in the Delta in 2014-2015 in order to
establish a baseline understanding of the timing, duration, and
frequency of anadromous salmonid species at those monitoring locations.
The trawl monitoring was also utilized before, during, and after a
storm event, and also in anticipation of and during flexible operations
that are different than required in the biological opinion, in order to
inform operations and better understand the influence of storm events
and operations on the timing, distribution, and magnitude of the
anadromous salmonid species.
Question. What steps has NOAA taken since the issuance of the 2009
biological opinion to test and/or implement physical and non-physical
barriers in the Delta that would better protect salmon from
entrainment? Please specifically describe the projects involved and
their status.
Answer. In 2009 and 2010, the California Department of Water
Resources (DWR) implemented a bio-acoustical fish fence (combination of
bubbles, lights, and sound) study at the Head of Old River to determine
the effectiveness of the technology in separating fish (keeping them in
the mainstem San Joaquin River) from flow (down Old River to the
Federal and State pumping facilities). The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
issued a report in 2012, but the California Department of Water
Resources is reanalyzing the data, with another report expected
sometime this year.
The California Department of Water Resources implemented a bio-
acoustical fish fence in 2011 and 2012, and a floating fish guidance
structure in 2014, in Georgiana Slough at the upstream confluence of
the Sacramento River to determine the effectiveness of the technologies
in separating fish (keeping them in the mainstem Sacramento River) from
flow (down Georgiana Slough and into the Central Delta). The California
Department of Water Resources expects to issue a final report this
year.
NMFS staff are part of an interagency team, including California
Department of Water Resources (lead), Reclamation, USFWS, and
California Department of Fish and Wildlife, to consider engineering
solutions to further reduce diversion of emigrating juvenile salmonids
to the interior and southern Delta, and reduce exposure to California's
Central Valley Project and State Water Project export facilities
(pursuant to RPA Action IV.1.3). A final report with recommendations
from the California Department of Water Resources was shared with NMFS
on March 26, 2015, and we are working together to determine next steps.
Question. What steps has NOAA taken since the issuance of the 2009
biological opinion to reduce or eradicate aquatic invasive weeds in the
Delta that may negatively affect oxygen and nutrient levels in Delta
water for endangered/listed salmonid species? Please specifically
describe the projects involved and their status.
Answer. The California Department of Boating and Waterways (CDBW)
and U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (USDA)
are the lead agencies in California that execute the water hyacinth
control program (WHCP), which includes both herbicide and mechanical
removal of the plant.
NMFS' role in control of aquatic invasive Delta weeds is to assist
the USDA and California Department of Boating and Waterways in
compliance with their Endangered Species Act (ESA) section 7
consultation requirements, since herbicide treatment and mechanical
removal activities can be otherwise harmful to the aquatic environment.
USDA consults with NMFS (and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) to
ensure Endangered Species Act compliance for water hyacinth control
program actions.
On February 27, 2013, NMFS issued a concurrence letter to USDA for
its proposed water hyacinth control program for 2013-2017. On March 13,
2013, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a biological opinion to
USDA for the same. Previous consultations requests from USDA have been
on annual water hyacinth control program operations, however, this
consultation was on a 5-year permit, giving longer term certainty to
USDA and California Department of Boating and Waterways that their
program was in compliance with the Endangered Species Act.
NMFS also issued a concurrence letter to USDA on February 2, 2014,
for their Spongeplant Control Program for 2014-2017. NMFS acknowledged
the inefficiencies in consulting on individual aquatic invasive weeds
in the Delta, even if it is for several years at a time. Therefore, in
2014, NMFS initiated an interagency effort to assist USDA and the
California Department of Boating and Waterways in their development of
a comprehensive multi-year program to control all aquatic invasive
weeds in the Delta.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Tammy Baldwin
noaa--aquaculture
Question. In many Wisconsin communities along the Great Lakes, we
are seeing growing entrepreneurial interest in urban aquaculture
systems. We also have both university- and non-governmental
organizations providing training and support, encouraging innovation
and growth in this industry. The NOAA budget proposal recommends a
stronger focus on the development of aquaculture systems. Along with
ocean coastal States, I believe Wisconsin has the potential to expand
its aquaculture production significantly in coming years.
What is NOAA's position on the future role of Great Lakes
freshwater aquaculture and urban aquaculture systems in increasing U.S.
domestic aquaculture production?
Answer. Currently, the United States imports 90 percent of our
seafood. This extensive importation has led to a large and growing
seafood trade deficit that exceeds $12 billion (Fisheries of the United
States, 2013). Part of NOAA's mission is to develop sustainable marine
aquaculture across a broad range of systems and technologies, e.g.,
coastal shellfish and finfish farming, offshore aquaculture, stock
enhancement activities, and land-based systems (aka ``urban
aquaculture''). NOAA will continue to support urban aquaculture
development primarily through the National Sea Grant College Program.
Urban aquaculture has been the subject of research and extension
projects by several Sea Grant programs, including both within and
outside the Great Lakes region, and was the subject of a major
symposium sponsored by Rhode Island Sea Grant in 2002. NOAA anticipates
that Great Lakes freshwater aquaculture and urban aquaculture will
continue to play an important role as the U.S. aquaculture industry
continues to develop.
(2013). Fisheries of the United States 2013. Silver Spring, MD:
National Marine Fisheries Service, Office of Science and Technology.
URL: http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/Assets/commercial/fus/fus13/
FUS2013.pdf.
Question. Would NOAA's proposed aquaculture funding be available to
these non-marine systems?
Answer. Yes. The NOAA Sea Grant National Marine Aquaculture
competitive program is designed to support the development of
environmentally and economically sustainable aquaculture within ocean,
coastal, or Great Lakes settings. The fiscal year 2014 and fiscal year
2015 Federal Funding Opportunity (FFO) announcements for this important
Sea Grant program have stated explicitly that the Great Lakes are
included. Additionally, Great Lakes aquaculture projects are eligible
to apply for NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service Saltonstall-
Kennedy grant competition. NOAA intends to continue this policy of
supporting Great Lakes aquaculture in fiscal year 2016.
noaa--coastal resilience in the great lakes
Question. Climate change will significantly impact the Nation in
coming years, Wisconsin included. With rich natural resources, many of
Wisconsin's economic sectors and coastal communities will be highly
impacted by a changing climate. Our Lake Michigan and Lake Superior
coasts include highly developed and rural areas, forests, and protected
shorelines. NOAA's fiscal year 2016 budget request emphasizes increased
support for community, ecosystem, and economic resilience.
What support will be available to support Great Lakes coastal
resiliency?
Answer. In fiscal year 2016, NOAA is requesting a suite of program
increases to enhance resilience of coastal communities, economies, and
ecosystems nationwide, including those in the Great Lakes region.
Regional Coastal Resilience Grants will catalyze regional-scale
implementation of resilience plans such as hazard mitigation, land use,
and adaptation (+$45 million for a total of $50 million in fiscal year
2016).
--Capacity to Respond to Extreme Events will improve NOAA's
capabilities to assess inundation risks, communicate them to
at-risk coastal communities, and help those communities take
action to mitigate those risks (+$4.8 million).
--Ecosystem-based Solutions for Coastal Resilience will encourage the
use of natural infrastructure for coastal protection by helping
communities to compare the economic impacts of ecosystem
protection and restoration vs. other uses of coastal lands and
waters (+$5 million).
--AmeriCorps Resilience Corps Pilot Program Training and Technical
Assistance will provide training to on-the-ground AmeriCorps
members who will work directly with communities to improve
their resilience to climate change ($2 million).
These initiatives will build on NOAA's ongoing efforts to emphasize
coastal resiliency in the Great Lakes region. This includes NOAA's
Great Lakes Coastal Resilience Planning Guide. This is an online guide
for planners and practitioners to share proven solutions, best
practices, and lessons learned for resilience building, as well as the
tools, data and maps, and publications to get them there. Coastal
Resilience Grants will assist with the implementation of the guide
(http://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/gl-resilience).
noaa--high performance computing
Question. The President's fiscal year 2016 budget requests an
increase of $9,000,000 to begin recapitalization of the R&D High-
Performance Computing (HPC) systems (i.e., Gaea) located at Oak Ridge
National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and to establish a
permanent source of funding that would allow NOAA to maintain regular
refresh and recapitalization of supercomputing resources.
What is the status of NOAA's response to Appropriations Committee
language requiring submission of a long-term plan to upgrade its high
performance computing technology and architecture?
Answer. NOAA is currently working on a report regarding our long-
terms plans on high performance computing (HPC) but will not meet the
June deadline outlined in Senate Report 113-181 that accompanied Public
Law 113-235 (180 days after enactment). Additional time is needed to
draft and review the report due to the complexity of this topic. NOAA
anticipates submitting this report toward the end of August (2015).
Question. What would be the impact if Congress did not fund the
$9.0 million requested this year in terms of NOAA's ability to perform
its primary missions, and the cost and research implications for the
Agency of deferring the project to another fiscal year?
Answer. By 2016, NOAA's research and development (R&D) High
Performance Computing (HPC) system Gaea, located at the Department of
Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, will be at the end
of its useful life. Without additional requested funding, NOAA will
have to fund recapitalization of the Gaea supercomputer within current
resources, resulting in diminished R&D HPC capacity (approximately 50
percent of the capacity of today's system) for weather and climate
modeling and research that operate on Gaea now. Reductions in R&D HPC
capability will slow down mission critical scientific advancements,
model development and transition of research applications into
operational applications. Specific examples of the impacts to NOAA's
mission include:
Loss of high-resolution modeling capability for skillful seasonal
predictions of surface temperature, precipitation: Seasonal predictions
of temperature and precipitation over land are in particular demand due
to their importance to the agriculture, energy, transportation and
marine ecosystems systems sectors for planning and decisionmaking.
Skillful seasonal prediction of near-surface air temperature and
precipitation over land has been achieved using a new high-resolution
model running on the R&D supercomputer. Predictions with this model are
being made available to global partners through the North American
Mulit-Model Ensemble for Seasonal Prediction (NNME). NOAA may have to
downgrade to a lower resolution, less accurate model if it has to fund
the replacement.
Seasonal Forecasting of Regional Tropical Cyclone Activity:
Tropical cyclones (TCs), which include hurricanes and typhoons, are a
major climate hazard across the Northern Hemisphere, and have exhibited
variability and change on year-to-year timescales. Understanding and
predicting TC activity is central to NOAA's mission. A new high-
resolution model running on the R&D supercomputer exhibits substantial
skill at determining the key features of regional tropical cyclone
activity. Predictions using this model are being made available to the
NWS and other global partners through the NNME. Funding for the
replacement HPC is needed so NOAA can continue the research that would
lead to these improved capabilities to predict TCs.
commerce--trade promotion coordinating committee
Question. A May 2014 GAO report found that there have been limited
results from the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee which is
intended to advance Federal-State collaboration in promoting U.S.
exports. The Commerce Department responded to the GAO report stating
its intention to obtain comprehensive data on the overall Federal
relationship with State trade promotion entities and that once this
data was obtained, it would work to identify and implement strategies
to enhance collaboration with State trade promotion entities.
Can you provide the subcommittee with an update on the status of
this effort?
Answer. Partnering with States and regions to foster local
ecosystems that support exporters of all sizes is one of five key
priorities of the NEI/NEXT, which I announced in May 2014 and is the
overarching policy reflected in the National Export Strategy. Since
then, the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee (TPCC) member agencies
have begun working even more closely with State trade offices and
entities representing them at the national level (State International
Development Organizations or SIDO) to coordinate calendar year 2015
Federal-State trade promotion priorities and ensure collaboration in
serving U.S. businesses. The International Trade Administration, Global
Markets, U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service (US&FCS) also added to the
fiscal year 2015 performance plans for its U.S. Field Network Directors
an element on collaboration and planning with local partners, including
States.
The International Trade Administration is actively in the process
of gathering data to obtain a clearer picture of the Federal-State
trade promotion relationship and a nationwide view of state resources
devoted to promoting international trade.
(1) The TPCC Secretariat is coordinating with the US&FCS U.S. Field
to gather the Federal perspective on current Federal-State cooperation;
information on each State's trade promotion programs, e.g. staffing
levels and State budgets for trade promotion; the extent to which State
offices provide assistance to companies other than through referrals to
US&FCS programs and services; challenges to Federal-State coordination;
and the extent of State activity focused on inward investment
attraction.
(2) ITA will analyze its database of reported trade promotion
events to identify events in which the local US&FCS office mentioned
they worked with their corresponding State office. ITA also is mining
its customer satisfaction-related market segmentation and branding
studies which contain information on use of alternative service
providers.
(3) In addition, the TPCC Secretariat is aware that SIDO is
conducting its own survey to obtain information on the level of trade
promotion activity within State offices, and SIDO has indicated its
intent to share that information with the TPCC member agencies. SIDO
has indicated that its survey will yield information on whether State
offices have industry focuses; the size of client companies; export
financing options for risk mitigation; how the State offices use
Department of Commerce export and inward investment promotion programs,
such as trade missions, and what programs they use; the frequency of
meetings with representatives of TPCC agencies; and the most common
barriers that prevent companies in their State from exporting.
The TPCC plans to present preliminary findings from the ITA survey
in April at the annual SIDO meeting, which is a gathering of State
trade offices. We understand that SIDO also anticipates having results
from its own survey, which SIDO reports usually has a 50 percent
response rate, around the same time.
Following this meeting, the TPCC member agencies will use the
findings from this data to draft and implement plans to further enhance
collaboration with State trade promotion efforts. During this process,
the TPCC Secretariat will continue to work closely with SIDO and the
various State trade offices to identify opportunities for greater
Federal-State trade promotion collaboration to maximize efficiencies
and the impact on export promotion.
commerce--patent protections
Question. American universities, along with related nonprofit
research institutions, conduct over half of the basic research in the
United States. Universities are allowed to license the resulting
patents to the private sector for commercialization. University
technology transfer provides a rich return on both public and private
funding for basic research in the form of countless innovative products
and services that benefit the public, create jobs, and contribute to
U.S. economic competitiveness and global technological leadership.
Can you please tell the subcommittee what the Department of
Commerce is doing to ensure a robust patent system that provides strong
protection for inventors and supports the continued success of
university technology transfer?
Answer. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), an
agency of the Department of Commerce, provides support, outreach and
collaboration for universities and their technology transfer systems.
The USPTO provides training at the university level to faculty and
students alike to enhance the role of innovation and creativity at the
university level. This outreach provides current and future scientists,
engineers and business-minded people the skills to understand and
utilize intellectual property (IP) in our high-tech economy.
Furthermore, the USPTO collaborates with the university technology
transfer offices across America to provide training on all aspects of
IP. The USPTO works with the Federal national laboratories to assist in
training staff on the aspects of IP and the technology transfer process
as well. In addition, the USPTO frequently collaborates with the
National Academy of Inventors and InventNow in reaching out and
supporting university patent holders and collegiate inventors.
Some specific examples of USPTO activities include:
--An enhanced USPTO University Outreach program is underway and is
providing training to colleges and universities across the
country on the basics of IP and its importance as well as the
resources that are available at the USPTO to assist inventors,
innovators, entrepreneurs and small business owners.
--The USPTO is part of the Inter-Agency Group Working on Technology
Transfer (IAGWTT) and Inter-Agency Network Enterprise
Assistance Providers (INEAP), which is in the process of
creating a ``Technology Transfer Playbook'' that outlines the
best practices for the technology transfer process.
--The USPTO provides training for Small Business Innovation Research
(SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. Of
particular note is the relationship with the Small Business
Administration (SBA) and supporting their efforts to educate
grantees through the SBIR Road Tour designed to reach out to
colleges and universities.
--The USPTO has a variety of resources on its USPTO.GOV Web site in
the form of videos, tutorials and Web pages that explain the
patent process and how to apply for a patent.
--The USPTO, in a joint effort with partnership with National
Institute of Standards and Technology/Manufacturing Extension
Partnership (NIST/MEP), created an on-line, Web-based IP
Awareness Assessment Tool that allows an individual to answer
questions about their knowledge of IP and following the
completion of the assessment, the user receives customized
training materials.
commerce--patent reform
Question. There have been some proposals in Congress and from the
While House to reform the U.S. patent system in an attempt to reign in
patent litigation abuses. However, in a letter from 145 American
universities, they share their concerns that some of the patent reform
proposals currently being discussed go well beyond what is needed to
address the bad actions of a small number of patent holders, and would
instead make it more difficult and expensive for patent holders to
defend their rights in good faith.
Can you please share with us what the Department of Commerce is
doing to ensure that any reforms do not discourage universities and
other patent holders from legitimately defending their patents?
Answer. The Department and particularly its U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office are actively working within the administration, with
Congress, and all stakeholders, including the university community, to
craft fair and balanced legislation to address the adverse effects of
abusive patent infringement litigation and mass mailed, vague and
threatening settlement demand letters. As a general matter, we are
guided by the principle that any final legislation should effectively
target truly abusive practices while maintaining a patent owner's
legitimate right to enforce his or her patent. Further, we believe that
any final legislation should take a balanced and fair approach that
neither favors nor adversely affects any particular area of technology,
industry or sector.
commerce--reorganization
Question. The administration's budget includes a proposal to
reorganize the administrative structure of several agencies and
includes moving NOAA out of the Department of Commerce to the
Department of Interior.
Can you provide this subcommittee your thoughts on this proposal, a
justification for this proposal and what impact it may have on NOAA?
Answer. I support the President's request for the reorganization
authority.
I recognize that any reorganization of our Department would impact
our employees' morale and productivity and our operations.
Until the Congress grants the President this authority, we do not
anticipate conducting any active planning on this specific proposal and
remain focused on our current missions.
The reality is that if the Congress grants this authority, the
President would consult with various stakeholders before submitting a
specific proposal to Congress that reflects the best interests of each
agency involved and the American people.
Right now, we are focused solely on providing the best possible
services for the American people.
SUBCOMMITTEE RECESS
Senator Shelby. The subcommittee stands in recess until
Thursday, March the 5th, at 10:30 a.m., when we will take
testimony of the NASA administrator, Charles Bolden.
[Whereupon, at 12:04 p.m., Thursday, February 26, the
subcommittee was recessed, to reconvene subject to the call of
the Chair.]
COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR
FISCAL YEAR 2016
----------
THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2015
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., in room SD-192, Dirksen
Senate Office Building, Hon. Richard C. Shelby (chairman)
presiding.
Present: Senators Shelby, Boozman, Capito, Lankford,
Mikulski, Feinstein, Shaheen, Coons, Baldwin, and Murphy.
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Federal Bureau of Investigation
STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES B. COMEY, DIRECTOR
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR RICHARD C. SHELBY
Senator Shelby. The subcommittee will come to order. We
welcome all of you to today's open session of the Commerce,
Justice, Science Subcommittee hearing on the Department of
Justice fiscal year 2016 budget request for Federal law
enforcement agencies.
I want to welcome first our four witnesses, Federal Bureau
of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey, U.S. Marshals
Service Director (USMS) Stacia Hylton, Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) Administrator Michele Leonhart, and the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
Director Todd Jones. They will later each testify about their
agency's 2016 budget request.
This morning, I want to begin by thanking the men and women
of the FBI, the Marshals Service, the DEA, and the ATF, who
work every day to protect this Nation. We are indebted to them
and grateful for their service and their sacrifice.
In particular, I want to express my condolences to the
family of Deputy U.S. Marshal Josie Wells, who was killed in
the line of duty on Tuesday while participating in a fugitive
task force in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Deputy Marshal Wells was
attached to the Marshals' Southern District Office in
Mississippi and had dutifully volunteered for this recent task
force.
Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and
the entire Marshals Service community for their loss here.
The constantly changing landscape of criminal activity at
home and abroad has challenged the Justice Department's ability
to deal with emerging threats. We expect our Federal law
enforcement agencies to be more nimble and sophisticated than
the criminals and terrorists they pursue.
The goal of this joint law enforcement hearing is to
determine how the 2016 budget would give each law enforcement
agency the tools and the capabilities needed to tackle those
changing threats, whether they are cyberattacks, drug
trafficking, financial fraud, or terrorism.
I believe our Federal law enforcement agencies must work
together, particularly in tough budget environments, to target
limited resources in a manner that safeguards taxpayers'
dollars while preserving public safety.
The FBI's mission includes protecting and defending the
United States against terrorism and foreign intelligence
threats, fighting cybercrime, as well as tending to traditional
criminal activities, such as violent crime, public corruption,
and white-collar crime. In order to carry out these priorities,
the FBI's 2016 budget request is $8.5 billion, which is an
increase of $47 million above the 2015 enacted amount.
In the past year, we have seen terrorist threats and
increased cyberattacks. I believe it is imperative that the FBI
appropriately balances the bureau's diverse responsibilities
while targeting the highest needs and criminal threats facing
our Nation.
The Marshals Service has the honor of being America's
oldest Federal law enforcement agency. The Marshals provide
judicial security, apprehend fugitives, protect witnesses, and
transport prisoners, among other important duties. The 2016
budget request of $2.7 billion for the Marshals Service is $100
million less than the 2015 enacted level of $2.8 billion. The
funding reductions are largely isolated to the Federal Prisoner
Detention account.
I want to hear how the 2016 budget request will allow the
Marshals Service to continue its critical missions for the
pursuit and arrest of fugitive sex offenders who are targeting
our children.
The Drug Enforcement Administration's 2016 budget request
totals $2.5 billion. The agency serves a central role in our
society, working with domestic and international partners in
enforcement of controlled substance laws and regulations of the
United States.
In addition, the DEA's Diversion Control Program prevents,
detects, and investigates the diversion of controlled
pharmaceuticals and listed chemicals. This mission is critical
with prescription drug abuse arguably being the country's
fastest growing drug problem.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is
tasked with combating the illegal use and trafficking of
firearms, the illegal use and storage of explosives, and acts
of arson and bombings, among other crime-fighting roles. ATF's
2016 budget request is $1.3 billion, which is $60 million above
the 2015 level.
I am interested in how the agency would use this increased
funding, particularly in light of recent complaints from
hunters and sportsmen who believe that ATF overstepped its
authority by attempting to ban certain ammunition for
recreational use.
I look forward to hearing the views and explanations of our
four witnesses regarding the details of their 2016 funding
request totals, and working with our subcommittee members to
prioritize the necessary funding for our Federal law
enforcement agencies.
Now at this point, I would like to recognize my friend and
colleague, Senator Mikulski, the former chairwoman of the
subcommittee.
STATEMENT OF SENATOR BARBARA A. MIKULSKI
Senator Mikulski. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for
this hearing today and really bringing the full complement of
Federal law enforcement before the subcommittee, not only to
review their budget, but so that we could first of all truly
express our appreciation. And we do appreciate every single man
and woman who works for the agencies represented here today,
who are so much valued and so much appreciated. And they should
know that.
I think we need to be able to do that in three ways. Number
one, give them respect. Make sure we respect them and respect
the sacrifices they do and their families do every single day
while they are often away protecting us.
Number two, let's have the right resources, and let's make
sure we don't do another sequester where FBI agents were
digging into their pocket to pay for gasoline, and DEA agents
were wondering what they could do to do their job, and while we
were looking at sequester, how we go after the sexual predators
while we were protecting the judges.
And, of course, for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and
Firearms (ATF), that wonderful lab in Ammendale that does this
incredible forensics, not only what you are enforcing, but
enabled us to identify that the terrible sniper situation we
had here a few years ago came from a single gun, through the
forensics that you did.
And it's that: some carry a gun, some work with a
microscope, but all are on their job, and I wanted to say that.
Tomorrow, I will be at a Maryland, Montgomery County
Chamber of Commerce event, in which they honor those who
provide public safety, firefighters and also police officers.
The Baltimore field office, Mr. Comey, will be receiving an
award for being the best public safety partner. So it is not
only what you do, it is how you do it, actually engaged in the
community, leveraging the assets of both the Federal Government
and then State and local, where everybody is best at what they
are best at and best at what they are most needed for. So we
appreciate that.
Of course, we want to express our condolences over the
death of Deputy Marshal Josie Wells killed in the line of fire.
And, of course, we wish our police officers in Ferguson a
good recovery.
So we have a big job to do, and the way we start, with
respect, I believe, with the right resources. While we are
looking at the law enforcement agencies, the FBI, DEA, and ATF
make up almost half of the Justice Department's budget, close
to $15 billion. I think that is a bargain. I think that is a
tremendous bargain for what we get in the way you are out there
protecting America.
There is only a modest increase in here of $98 million, and
I am concerned whether that enables you to keep on hiring the
people that you need to do the job, to be able to sustain the
effort with the people that you hire, and also will we be able
to do the cost-of-living adjustments for the people who work
with you, whether they are agents or intelligence analysts or
computer analysts.
These needed increases come in the context of the
President's request. Yes, we do know it is above the caps, and
we will be having a robust discussion. But while there are many
who are calling and pounding the table for let's lift the caps
on defense, a needed debate, there is another way we need to
defend America.
We need to defend America in the streets and neighborhoods
of our communities, and we need to defend them from sexual
predators. We need to defend them from murderers and killers.
We need to defend them against the lone wolf, who could be
roaming around one of our big cities or small towns.
So if you want to protect America, you not only want to
lift the defense caps, you want to lift the domestic caps and
have parity with that.
I want you to know, I feel very strongly about it. And when
I say I didn't want to run again because I didn't want to raise
money, but raise hell, this is one of the areas that I am going
to raise hell about. And we are going to do it here today.
So we look forward to hearing what it is you need for those
resources. We count on you to be able to do this job.
I could go through the data, which I will when we get to
the questions. Two areas I hope we could also focus on, in
addition to your specific mission, of course, is the heroin
crisis that we hear from every Governor, including my own in
Maryland.
And we look to work with our Governor. Yes, he is a
Republican and, yes, I am a Democrat. But we are 100 percent
Marylanders, and we are 100 percent involved in dealing with
heroin.
Of course, the women of the Senate, joining with very good
men, are now focusing on the issue of human trafficking, and we
look forward to hearing it.
But I need to know what are the right resources for you to
be best at what you are best at, and be best at what you are
needed for. And we best better get our act together and make
sure we support you.
I look forward to the dialogue.
Senator Shelby. Thank you.
We will start the hearing testimony with FBI Director Comey
and then go right to left. We welcome all of you. Your written
testimony will be made part of the record, if you will sum up
your remarks.
Director Comey, welcome again.
SUMMARY STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES B. COMEY
Mr. Comey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, it is good to be here.
Vice Chairwoman Mikulski, Senators, thank you for this
opportunity. Thank you for the opportunity to sit with three--I
was going to say old friends but I don't want to criticize
anyone--people who I have worked with for many years, maybe
more than we would like to admit.
We all very much appreciate your expression of condolence
for the Marshals Services' terrible loss. It is a reminder of
the quality of the people we have, and the risk they take to
protect this country. We are very grateful for that.
The FBI's 2016 budget request is about maintaining the
capabilities that you have given us. It is about being good
stewards of the taxpayers' money and ensuring that we recover
from the effects of sequester by filling the ranks that were so
depleted over the last couple of years.
There are two enhancements requested in our budget, each
for about $10 million--one relates to our cyber-capabilities,
trying to build those, and the second relates to our efforts to
try to integrate better in a technological way with the rest of
the intelligence community.
As the members of this subcommittee know, the FBI, like my
colleagues here would agree, it's all about the people. Sixty
percent of our budget goes to our good folks. We have
remarkable men and women who are working 24 hours a day all
around this world to protect this country and its citizens.
The members of this subcommittee are very well-aware of the
threats the FBI is responsible for addressing. Counterterrorism
remains at the top of our list, for reasons that make good
sense.
The world of terrorism has shifted just in my 18 months on
this job, particularly in the growth and flourishing in
ungoverned or lightly governed spaces of the progeny of al
Qaeda, most prominently with ISIL, and with the use in groups
like ISIL and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). They
use sophisticated technology and social media to spread their
poison, to attract recruits to their so-called caliphate, and
to try to motivate people who don't travel to do harm to
innocent people in the United States.
This poses an enormous challenge to us to find the people
who are responding to that siren song, to track those who are
traveling, and to find those who might be motivated to
radicalize and stay in place but engage in murderous behavior
in the name of some misguided effort to find meaning in their
lives.
So counterterrorism remains at the top of our list, for
reasons that I know the American people appreciate.
As Chairman Shelby mentioned, we also have responsibility
for counterintelligence. The spy game is not a thing of the
1950s or 1960s. It is alive and well, and increasingly, as with
all the threats we are responsible for, manifesting on the
Internet.
Cyber dominates the FBI's life. You have to be digitally
literate to protect kids, to fight fraud, to fight terrorism,
to protect critical infrastructure, to protect our secrets. And
so we are working very hard to make sure we have the workforce,
the technology, and that we are deployed in a smart way to be
able to deal with the threats that come at us through the
Internet, which are all the threats we are responsible for.
And we spend a tremendous amount of time working with our
partners here at this table to address a variety of criminal
threats: Vice Chairwoman Mikulski mentioned our efforts to
protect children, we work very hard on that; to fight public
corruption, as Chairman Shelby said; and a host of other
efforts we do around the country.
We do them almost entirely in partnerships with Federal,
State and local partners. There is literally nothing that the
FBI does alone. We accomplish great good, but we do it in
partnership with lots of other folks.
I wanted to close by just mentioning a couple of our
capabilities that this subcommittee has supported that don't
get the attention, in my view, that they deserve.
The first is our Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical
Center (TEDAC) that we, together with ATF and other partners,
run. It is the analysis center for improvised explosive devices
used by terrorists around the world. It is a tremendous
resource for this country and its allies.
In Huntsville, Alabama, we are putting together a world-
class facility so that we can do with explosive devices what we
have done with fingerprints, which is allow us to connect dots
and save lives. I had the chance to visit the new facility
there very recently. I am extremely excited about the
opportunities that offers for this country and our allies to be
safer.
And we are very grateful to the subcommittee for its
support.
We also run the Hazardous Devices School down there, where
we with partners are training the bomb techs of today and
tomorrow, who are working around this country to defuse devices
and to protect the American people.
Two tremendous resources that don't get much attention. I
will mention one other.
In the great State of West Virginia, we have thousands of
people working at our Criminal Justice Information Services
Division, which is literally the frame on which hangs the law
enforcement of this country. They facilitate the information-
sharing. They run the fingerprint database. They run the DNA
database. They run the sharing of vital information that
protects law enforcement officers.
I told them when I visited them that your work to a lot of
people sounds boring. It is only boring because it works so
well. We take it for granted that this work will be there, so
when a cop pulls somebody over and runs their name or their
fingerprints, they know immediately whether that is a
terrorist, a rapist, an escaped fugitive, and people are
protected by virtue of that.
They are underappreciated but they are the frame on which
hangs law enforcement in this country. We are hugely grateful
for the support of this subcommittee of our West Virginia
colleagues.
With that, I will stop and just thank you again. This
subcommittee has been tremendously supportive of the FBI. We
recognize it and our great folks are extraordinarily grateful
for the support they've gotten from the subcommittee, and I
look forward to taking your questions.
[The statement follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. James B. Comey
Good morning Chairman Shelby, Vice Chairwoman Mikulski, and members
of the subcommittee.
As you know, the FBI is asked to deal with a wide range of threats,
crime problems, and operational challenges across the national security
and law enforcement spectrum. Today, I appear before you on behalf of
the men and women of the FBI who step up to these threats and
challenges. I am here to express my appreciation for the support you
have given them in the past and to ask your continued support in the
future.
I would like to begin by providing a brief overview of the FBI's
fiscal year 2016 budget request, and then follow with a short
discussion of key threats and challenges that we face, both as a Nation
and an organization.
fiscal year 2016 budget request overview
The fiscal year 2016 budget request proposes a total of $8.48
billion in direct budget authority to address the FBI's highest
priorities. The request includes a total of $8.4 billion for Salaries
and Expenses, supporting 35,037 permanent positions (13,074 Special
Agents, 3,083 Intelligence Analysts, and 18,880 professional staff),
and $68.9 million for Construction. Two program enhancements totaling
$20 million are proposed: $10.3 million to increase cyber investigative
capabilities and $9.7 million to leverage Intelligence Community
Information Technology Enterprise (IC ITE) components and services
within the FBI.
The fiscal year 2016 request includes the cancellation of $120
million from Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) excess
surcharge balances and $91.4 million in non-recurred spending ($50.4
million in the Salaries and Expenses account and $41 million in the
Construction account).
Overall, the fiscal year 2016 request represents a net increase of
$47 million over the fiscal year 2015 enacted levels, representing an
increase of $88 million for Salaries and Expenses and a decrease of $41
million for Construction.
key threats and challenges
As a Nation and as an organization, we face a multitude of ever
evolving threats from homegrown violent extremists to hostile foreign
intelligence services and agents; from sophisticated cyber-based
attacks to Internet facilitated sexual exploitation of children; from
violent gangs and criminal organizations to public corruption and
corporate fraud. Within these threats, we face growing challenges, from
keeping pace with constantly changing and new technologies that make
our jobs both easier and harder; to the use of the Internet and social
media to facilitate illegal activities, recruit followers and encourage
terrorist attacks, and to disperse information on building improvised
explosive devices (IEDs) and other means to attack the United States.
The breadth of these threats and challenges are as complex as any time
in our history. And the consequences of not responding to and
countering threats and challenges have never been greater.
The support of this subcommittee in helping the FBI to do its part
in facing these threats and challenges is greatly appreciated. That
support has allowed us to establish strong capabilities and capacities
for assessing threats, sharing intelligence, leveraging key
technologies, and--in some respects, most importantly--to hiring some
of the best to serve as Special Agents, Intelligence Analysts, and
professional staff. We are building a workforce that possesses the
skills and knowledge to deal with the complex threats and challenges we
face today--and tomorrow. We are building a leadership cadre that views
change and transformation as a positive tool for keeping the FBI
focused on the key threats facing our Nation.
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
ability to carry out this demanding mission reflects the continued
support and oversight provided by this subcommittee.
Countering Terrorism
Preventing terrorist attacks remains the FBI's top priority. The
terrorist threat against the United States remains persistent and
acute.
The threats posed by foreign fighters, including those recruited
from the U.S., traveling to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant (ISIL) and from homegrown violent extremists are extremely
dynamic. These threats remain the biggest priorities and challenges for
the FBI, the U.S. Intelligence Community, and our foreign, State, and
local partners. ISIL is relentless and ruthless in its pursuits to
terrorize individuals in Syria and Iraq, including Westerners. We are
concerned about the possibility of individuals in the U.S. being
radicalized and recruited via the Internet and social media to join
ISIL in Syria and Iraq and then return to the U.S. to commit terrorist
acts. ISIL's widespread reach through the Internet and social media is
most concerning as the group has proven dangerously competent at
employing such tools for its nefarious strategy. ISIL uses high-
quality, traditional media platforms, as well as widespread social
media campaigns to propagate its extremist ideology. Recently released
propaganda has included various English language publications
circulated via social media. We are equally concerned over the
execution of U.S. citizens taken as hostages by ISIL.
As a communications tool, the Internet remains a critical node for
terror groups to exploit. Recently, a group of five individuals was
arrested for knowingly and willingly conspiring and attempting to
provide material support and resources to designated foreign terrorist
organizations active in Syria and Iraq. Much of their conspiracy was
played out via the Internet. We remain concerned about recent calls to
action by ISIL and its supporters on violent extremist Web forums that
could potentially motivate homegrown extremists to conduct attacks here
at home. Online supporters of ISIL have used various social media
platforms to call for retaliation against the U.S. In one case, an
Ohio-based man was arrested in January after he stated his intent to
conduct an attack on the U.S. Capitol building. The individual is
alleged to have used a Twitter account to post statements, videos, and
other content indicating support for ISIL.
Echoing other terrorist groups, ISIL has advocated for lone wolf
attacks in Western countries. A recent ISIL video specifically
advocated for attacks against soldiers, law enforcement, and
intelligence community personnel. Several incidents have occurred in
the United States, Canada, and Europe over the last few months that
indicate this ``call to arms'' has resonated among ISIL supporters and
sympathizers.
Al Qaeda and its affiliates--especially al Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula (AQAP)--continue to represent a top terrorist threat to the
Nation and our interests overseas. AQAP's online English magazine
advocates for lone wolves to conduct attacks against the U.S. homeland
and Western targets. The magazine regularly encourages homegrown
violent extremists to carry out small arms attacks and provides
detailed ``how to'' instructions for constructing and deploying a
successful improvised explosive device.
With our domestic and foreign partners, we are rigorously
collecting and analyzing intelligence information as it pertains to the
ongoing threat posed by ISIL, AQAP, and other foreign terrorist
organizations. Given the global impact of the Syria and Iraq conflicts,
regular engagement with our domestic and foreign partners concerning
foreign fighters is critical. These partnerships are critical to
performing our counterterrorism mission and ensuring a coordinated
approach towards national security threats.
The FBI, along with our local, State, tribal, and Federal partners,
is utilizing all investigative techniques and methods to combat the
threat these terrorists may pose to the United States. We must maintain
robust information sharing and close collaboration with our State,
local, tribal, and Federal partners. Individuals who are affiliated
with a foreign terrorist organization, inspired by a foreign terrorist
organization, or who are self-radicalized are living in their
communities. We recognize it is our responsibility to share information
pertaining to ongoing or emerging threats immediately. Our local and
State partners rely on this intelligence to conduct their
investigations and maintain the safety of their communities. It is our
responsibility to provide them with the information and resources to
keep their communities out of harm's way. In each of the FBI's 56 field
offices, Joint Terrorism Task Forces serve as a vital mechanism for
information sharing among our partners. These task forces consist of
more than 4,100 members--including more than 1,500 interagency
personnel from more than 600 Federal, State, territorial, and tribal
partner agencies. Together with our local, State, tribal, and Federal
partners, we are committed to combating the threat from homegrown
violent extremists and ensuring the safety of the American public.
Among the FBI's counter-terrorism capabilities is the Terrorist
Explosive Device Analytical Center (TEDAC). TEDAC is a whole of
government resource for the exploitation of IEDs and combating the
terrorist use of explosives. TEDAC is proving to be a valuable tool
supporting the military, homeland security, international partners,
intelligence, and law enforcement communities by developing and sharing
intelligence about terrorist explosive devices. Prior to TEDAC, no
single part of our Government was responsible for analyzing and
exploiting intelligence related to terrorist IEDs. TEDAC will begin
occupying the first phase of its new facilities this Spring. The second
phase of construction, which will include a joint partnership with the
Department of Homeland Security, is expected to be completed in fiscal
year 2016. The third phase of construction will provide a collaboration
center that is expected to be completed in fiscal year 2017. Also,
consistent with funding provided by the subcommittee this fiscal year,
the FBI is expanding facilities and training at the Hazardous Devices
School (HDS). This effort is just getting underway.
Countering Foreign Intelligence and Espionage
The Nation faces a continuing threat, both traditional and
asymmetric, from hostile foreign intelligence agencies. Traditional
espionage, career foreign agents acting as diplomats or ordinary
citizens and asymmetric espionage, typically carried out by students,
researchers, or businesspeople operating front companies, is prevalent.
And they seek not only State and military secrets, but also commercial
trade secrets, research and development, and intellectual property, as
well as insider information from the Federal Government, U.S.
corporations, and American universities. Foreign intelligence services
continue to employ more creative and more sophisticated methods to
steal innovative technology, critical research and development data,
and intellectual property, in an effort to erode America's economic
leading edge. These illicit activities pose a significant threat to
national security.
We also remain focused on the growing scope of the insider threat--
that is, when trusted employees and contractors use their legitimate
access to steal secrets for personal benefit or to benefit 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, we are working with academic and business
partners to protect 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.
Cyber-based Threats
An element of virtually every national security threat and crime
problem the FBI faces is cyber-based or facilitated. We face
sophisticated cyber threats from state-sponsored hackers, hackers for
hire, organized cyber syndicates, and terrorists. On a daily basis,
cyber-based actors seek our state secrets, our trade secrets, our
technology, and our ideas--things of incredible value to all of us and
of great importance to the conduct of our Government business and our
national security. They seek to strike our critical infrastructure and
to harm our economy.
Given the scope of the cyber threat, the FBI and other
intelligence, military, homeland security, and law enforcement agencies
across the Government view cyber security and cyber-attacks as 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.
As the subcommittee is well aware, the frequency and impact of
cyber-attacks on our Nation's private sector and government networks
have increased dramatically in the past decade and are expected to
continue to grow. Since fiscal year 2002, the FBI has seen an 80
percent increase in its number of computer intrusion investigations.
FBI agents, analysts, and computer scientists are using technical
capabilities and traditional investigative techniques--such as sources,
court-authorized electronic surveillance, physical surveillance, and
forensics--to fight cyber threats. 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), which serves as a coordination, integration, and
information sharing center for 19 U.S. agencies and several key
international allies for cyber threat investigations. Through CyWatch,
our 24-hour cyber command center, 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 have recently
co-located our cyber efforts into a new FBI facility.
The FBI is engaged in a myriad of efforts to combat cyber threats,
from efforts focused on threat identification and sharing inside and
outside of Government, to our internal emphasis on developing and
retaining new talent and changing the way we operate to evolve with the
cyber threat. The fiscal year 2016 budget request includes an
enhancement of $10.3 million to support these efforts.
In addition to key national security threats, the FBI and the
Nation faces significant criminal threats ranging 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 court-authorized electronic
surveillance, and run complex, long-term investigations and operations.
However, partnerships are critical, and we work closely with Federal,
State, local, and tribal, authorities in pursuing these cases.
One key focus for us is border corruption. The U.S. Government
oversees 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, arms, 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.
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's ability to work across jurisdictional boundaries 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, local, and tribal 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 partnerships with 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 multinational, 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, identity 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, tribal, and
international partners. The FBI 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 violent predators. Through our
Child Abduction Rapid Deployment teams, Innocence Lost National
Initiative, Innocent Images National Initiative, Office for 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 in fiscal year 2003, the FBI has
partnered with nearly 400 law enforcement agencies from 71 child
exploitation task forces throughout the country. This initiative has
been responsible for the location and recovery of more than 4,350
children. The investigations and subsequent 1,950 convictions have
resulted in lengthy sentences, including 15 life terms.
key cross-cutting capabilities and capacities
I would like to briefly highlight two key cross-cutting
capabilities and capacities that are critical to our efforts in each of
the threat and crime problems described.
Intelligence
The FBI is a national security and law enforcement organization
that collects, uses, and shares intelligence in everything we do. The
FBI's efforts to advance intelligence capabilities have focused on
streamlining and optimizing our intelligence components while
simultaneously positioning the Bureau to carry out its responsibilities
as the lead domestic intelligence agency. Since 9/11, the FBI has
transformed itself to become a threat-based, intelligence-informed
national security and law enforcement agency. Such a transformation is
a continuous journey and, while we have made substantial progress, we
recognize we still have a journey ahead of us.
This past year, I asked and received the subcommittee's approval to
restructure the FBI's Intelligence Program to reflect the progress we
have made. I would like to extend my appreciation for your support of
my request. I am confident that restructuring will allow us to take the
next step towards the seamless integration of intelligence and
operations. I also anticipate the restructuring will facilitate
smoother and more efficient exchange of intelligence with the
Intelligence Community and international partners.
The FBI cannot be content to just work what is directly in front of
us. We must also be able to look beyond the horizon and understand the
threats we face at home and abroad and how those threats may be
connected. Towards that end, intelligence is gathered, consistent with
our authorities, to help us understand and rank identified threats and
to determine where there are gaps in what we know about these threats.
We then try to fill those gaps and continue to learn as much as we can
about the threats we are addressing and those we may need to address.
We do this for national security and criminal threats, on both a
national and local field office level. We then compare the national and
local perspectives to develop a threat prioritization ranking for each
of the FBI's 56 field offices. By creating this ranking, we strive to
actively pursue our highest threats. This gives us a better assessment
of what the dangers are, what's being done about them, and what we
should spend time and resources on.
Operational and Information Technology
As criminal and terrorist threats become more diverse and
dangerous, the role of technology becomes increasingly important to our
efforts. We are using technology to improve the way we collect,
analyze, and share information. We have seen significant improvement in
capabilities and capacities over the past decade; but technology
remains a key concern for the future.
For example, we recently deployed new technology for the FBI's Next
Generation Identification System. This technology enables us to process
fingerprint transactions much faster and with more accuracy. This year,
the Biometrics Technology Center will come online. This shared facility
will enhance collaboration between the FBI's Biometrics Center of
Excellence and the Department of Defense's (DOD) Biometrics Fusion
Center. Together, these centers will advance centralized biometric
storage, analysis, and sharing with State and local law enforcement,
DOD, and others. In addition, we are also integrating isolated stand-
alone investigative data sets so that we can search multiple databases
more efficiently, and, in turn, pass along relevant information to our
partners.
The rapid pace of advances in mobile and other communication
technologies continue to present a significant challenge to conducting
court-ordered electronic surveillance of criminals and terrorists.
These court-ordered surveillances are often critical in cyber cases
where we are trying to identify those individuals responsible for
attacks on networks, denial of services, and attempts to compromise
protected information. However, there is a growing and dangerous gap
between law enforcement's legal authority to conduct electronic
surveillance, and its actual ability to conduct such surveillance.
Because of this gap, law enforcement is increasingly unable to gain
timely access to the information it needs to protect public safety and
bring these criminals to justice. We are grateful for this
subcommittee's support in funding the National Domestic Communications
Assistance Center. The center enables law enforcement to share tools,
train one another in modern intercept solutions, and reach out to the
communications industry with one voice. It is only by working
together--within the law enforcement and intelligence communities, and
with our private sector partners--that we will develop effective
strategies enabling long-term solution to address this growing problem.
The fiscal year 2016 budget request includes $9.7 million for the
initial installment of a multi-year information technology strategy to
enhance the FBI's ability to share information with partners in the
Intelligence Community using cloud computing and common desktop
environments.
conclusion
Being asked to respond to complex and ever-changing threats and
crime problems is not new to the FBI. Our success in meeting these
challenges is directly tied to the resources provided 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.
Chairman Shelby, Vice Chairwoman Mikulski, and members of the
subcommittee, I would like to close by thanking you for this
opportunity to discuss the FBI's budget request for fiscal year 2016
and the key threats and challenges that we are facing, both as a Nation
and as an organization. We are grateful for the leadership that you and
this subcommittee have provided to the FBI. We would not possess the
capabilities and capacities to deal with these threats and challenges
today without your support. Your willingness to invest in and support
our workforce and our physical and technical infrastructure allow the
men and women of the FBI to make a difference every day in communities
large and small throughout our Nation and in locations around the
world. We thank you for that support.
I look forward to answering any questions you may have.
Senator Shelby. Thank you.
Ms. Hylton.
UNITED STATES MARSHALS SERVICE
STATEMENT OF HON. STACIA A. HYLTON, DIRECTOR
Ms. Hylton. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning,
everyone.
I want to start by thanking for your recognition of Deputy
Josie Wells, who we lost this past Tuesday. He was, without a
doubt, one of our finest. He was a young man committed to our
fugitive investigation operations. He was a young man who
worked to make our community safer. His loss is really
unbearable to all of us, but, more importantly, as you can
imagine, to his family.
Deputy Wells came from a long line of law enforcement. His
father is a law enforcement retired officer from the State of
Mississippi, and his two brothers currently serve within local
communities as police officers.
We will stand with them and we will support them as we bid
farewell to Josie this weekend, as we recognize yet another
fallen U.S. Marshals Service hero.
Our total request for nearly $2.7 billion includes $1.2
billion for Salaries and Expenses, and $1.5 billion for
Detention, and $15 million for Construction in Federal
courthouses nationwide.
The agency's many accomplishments over the years, as we
celebrate our 225th anniversary this year, would not have been
possible without your support, from this subcommittee, in
particular. In recent years, you have acknowledged and provided
resources for us to safely guard the Nation's Federal prison
inmates and detention populations, and you recognized the
importance of those resources.
Over the past year, we had worked carefully to assess the
agency's spending and, where necessary, made improvements and
reduced costs.
The U.S. Marshals Service has also benefited from this
subcommittee's decision to restore our resources in 2014 on
Salaries and Expenses. This allowed us to fill 200 vacancies of
Deputy U.S. Marshals, and I thank you for that support.
I can assure you that we take our fiduciary
responsibilities very seriously. We have worked diligently
within the Department of Justice, Office of Management and
Budget, and, certainly with your staffs, so we could submit a
reasonable and modest budget that is mindful of our country's
financial situation.
In doing so, we have worked proactively to creatively
address our shortfalls using existing resources to ensure
officer safety.
Aside from retaining a small carryover from the detention
balance, the U.S. Marshals Service worked to ensure a
significant amount of those detention resources are made
available to the administration and Congress for other
purposes. It is my ongoing focus to ensure that we are as
efficient and effective as we can within the dollars that are
given to us.
Our priority is to take transformational steps into making
the Marshals Service a data-driven agency that uses data to
drive strategic and tactical business decisions. Ultimately,
this is helping us present a performance-based budget to
showcase how we are managing our resources appropriated from
Congress.
The 2016 budget that you have in front of you provides
necessary resources to maintain and enhance the critical USMS
functions that you have spoken about today: arresting the
violent fugitives, protecting our children, and reducing crime
in our communities.
Ensuring safeguards for protective operations for the
Federal Judiciary is still a paramount concern for the Marshals
Service, as we see more violence on our Federal courthouses and
our Federal Judiciary.
We saw it in Wheeling, West Virginia. We saw it most
recently on a judge's home in Florida who was shot in the
middle of the night, the judge just barely escaping injury to
himself and his family.
The violence is happening in the courthouses, the shooting
in Utah. You have seen them play across the media, and you can
see the violent criminals that are introduced into the Federal
court system nowadays pose a great risk to our judiciary.
The 2016 budget maintains these missions as well as
increases our enforcement efforts for law enforcement, as we
provide safety to our officers, as we try to work and ensure
that we can meet the requirements under the Adam Walsh Child
Protection and Safety Act.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
estimates over 769,000 sex offenders live in the United States,
of which I am proud to say that we apprehended close to 12,000
annually, brought them into compliance, because over 100,000 of
those 769,000 are not in compliance with the registry
requirements.
Officer safety will always remain as my top priority in
this agency, as we have lost too many. And every effort is made
to ensure that personnel are adequately trained and equipped.
Annually, our deputies along with our partners here at the
table, my colleagues, as Director Comey stated earlier, work
collectively together. We, the Marshals Service, apprehend and
clear warrants of more than 105,000 violent fugitives a year.
Deputy Marshals risk their lives everyday investigating,
apprehending, and pursuing those who flee from justice, that
are wanted.
Accordingly, therefore, we are requesting $1.5 million for
law enforcement safety training, so we may keep that effort.
The subcommittee has recognized the urgent need to contain
proliferation of gangs across our country. Criminal gang
activity has a severe impact across law enforcement because of
the rising prevalence and high level of violence. Gangs are no
longer isolated to motorcycle gangs and violent urban street
gangs. They now exist across the country, in urban, suburban,
and rural communities--socially and economically depressed
communities. Nearly 1 million members are criminally active in
the United States. This is something that we all want to
address.
Our 2016 budget request has an increase of $5.2 million for
a total of $15 million for Federal courthouses, as I spoke
earlier of the situations that we face, to ensure that we can
mitigate security risks to the public that attend those
courthouses and the judiciary.
Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Mikulski, and members of the
subcommittee, I do request your support to fully fund the 2016
budget request in order to support the men and women of the
United States Marshals Service, that you recognized earlier, to
carry out the protection and enforcement efforts of our
judicial process. We have proven ourselves as a valuable asset
to our communities, ensuring public safety and protecting our
children.
Thank you.
[The statement follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Stacia A. Hylton
Chairman Shelby, Ranking Member Mikulski, and members of the
subcommittee:
Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf
of the President's fiscal year 2016 budget request for the United
States Marshals Service (USMS or Agency). Our total request for nearly
$2.7 billion includes $1.2 billion for Salaries and Expenses; $1.5
billion for Detention; and $15 million for Construction.
This year the USMS is proud to celebrate its 225th anniversary. For
over two centuries, the USMS has succeeded in protecting America's
citizens, upholding the Nation's Constitution, and anticipating the
challenges that lie ahead. The Agency's many accomplishments over the
years would not have been possible without the support from this
subcommittee, so thank you. Likewise, the Agency's continued success
will depend on our ability to provide the appropriate resources to
support the judicial process. Incidents such as the shooting outside
the Wheeling, West Virginia Federal courthouse on October 9, 2013,
remind us that the USMS must always be vigilant in protecting members
of the Federal judiciary. Thomas Piccard was armed with an assault
rifle and a Glock 9mm handgun when he fired 23 rounds at the Federal
courthouse. Deputy Marshals, USMS court security officers (CSO) and
local police responded and returned fire. Piccard was later pronounced
dead at a local hospital. In the exchange, two of the CSOs suffered
non-life threatening wounds. No one inside the building was injured
during the incident.
In recent years, this subcommittee has also acknowledged the need
for additional resources to safely guard the Nation's Federal prison
inmate and detention populations. While detention falls under
``discretionary'' resources, you recognized that there is nothing
discretionary in a judicial order to detain an individual before trial.
Over the past year we have worked to carefully assess agency spending
and, where necessary, make improvements to reduce costs.
The USMS has also benefited from this subcommittee's decision to
restore resources to the Agency's Salaries and Expenses appropriation.
As a result, we were able to re-ignite our hiring process starting in
fiscal year 2014 and will add nearly 200 new Deputies by the end of
fiscal year 2015. This will allow us to keep pace with retirements and
attrition. Lifting the hiring freeze has also enabled us to hire
additional business professionals, including much needed administrative
officers, financial analysts, and contract specialists.
The USMS remains committed to its many diverse mission areas,
including work with Federal, State, and local law enforcement partners
to reduce violent crime in our neighborhoods. This includes arresting
gang members and sexual predators who perpetrate some of the most
egregious crimes against society. Thank you for acknowledging our work
alongside our Department of Justice (DOJ) colleagues at the Federal
Bureau of Investigation; Drug Enforcement Administration; Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Bureau of Prisons; and U.S.
Attorneys' Offices.
I can assure you that as a DOJ component, the USMS takes its
fiduciary responsibilities very seriously. We have worked diligently
with DOJ and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to present a
reasonable budget that is mindful of the country's financial situation.
We also work proactively and creatively to address shortfalls using
existing resources. For example, with the subcommittee's support, we
reprogrammed $52 million from the Detention account over the last two
fiscal years to avoid furloughing employees in several DOJ components,
including the USMS. Aside from a small carryover balance equivalent to
one week's worth of prisoner housing, the USMS has worked to ensure
that Detention resources were made available to the administration and
Congress for other purposes.
It is my ongoing focus and priority to take transformational steps
that are making the USMS a data-driven Agency that uses data to drive
strategic and tactical business decisions. Ultimately, this is helping
us present a performance-based budget to showcase how we are managing
the resources appropriated by this subcommittee.
fiscal year 2016 program increases
The fiscal year 2016 budget request provides the necessary
resources to maintain and enhance core USMS functions. The USMS
safeguards the Federal judicial process by: protecting Federal judges,
prosecutors, and court personnel; providing physical security in
courthouses; protecting witnesses; transporting and producing prisoners
for trial; executing court orders and arrest warrants; apprehending
fugitives; and managing and disposing seized property. The fiscal year
2016 request supports these missions by maintaining funding for core
activities, as well as increasing funding to enforce the Adam Walsh
Child Protection and Safety Act, establish annual Law Enforcement
Safety Training, and renovate courthouses to remediate security
deficiencies.
adam walsh child protection and safety act enforcement
The USMS requests $4.7 million for non-personnel costs associated
with training, operations, and licensing fees to enhance the Agency's
current level of sex offender enforcement. The National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children estimates that there are approximately
769,000 sex offenders living in the United States. Approximately
100,000 of those offenders are non-compliant with their requirement to
register. In fiscal year 2014, the USMS arrested 4,470 failure-to-
register/noncompliant sex offender fugitives.
One case in particular highlights the depravity associated with
this type of criminal element. In September 2013, the USMS arrested
Clyde Hall, Jr., a career sex offender who was on the USMS' list of
``15 Most Wanted'' fugitives. Wanted for violating conditions of
release and failure to register as a sex offender, Mr. Hall had been on
the run since March 2012 and was the first person added to the USMS
``15 Most Wanted'' list for violating the Adam Walsh Child Protection
and Safety Act. He had a violent and abusive criminal history dating
back to 1985, with prior convictions for assault and multiple sex
offenses. He admitted to sexually abusing two 10-year-old girls and
raping two adult women. Mr. Hall was also diagnosed as a sociopathic
career sex offender, prompting the State of New York to label him a
Tier III sex offender--New York's most dangerous sex offender
classification. By coordinating investigative efforts through the USMS
Sex Offender Investigations Branch and the National Sex Offender
Targeting Center, the USMS apprehended Mr. Hall on the street in
Portland, Maine without incident. His arrest is a prime example of USMS
efforts to ensure the safety of innocent children, and law-abiding
citizens.
law enforcement safety training
Officer safety training is one of the highest priorities for the
USMS and every effort is made to ensure that personnel are adequately
trained and equipped. In fiscal year 2014, Deputy Marshals, working
alongside Federal, State, and local partners apprehended or cleared
warrants on more than 105,000 Federal and State fugitives. Deputy
Marshals risk their lives every day investigating and apprehending the
most violent fugitives in the Nation and around the world. Accordingly,
we are requesting $1.5 million for Law Enforcement Safety Training.
Following the deaths of two Deputy Marshals and seven task force
officers in fiscal year 2011, the USMS established the Law Enforcement
Safety Training program to specifically address high-risk fugitive
apprehension. The Agency developed an intensive and comprehensive
curriculum in advanced tactics, operational planning, communications,
and trauma medicine. To date, the USMS has trained over 1,000 Deputy
Marshals across the country under this program.
While we have trained many, we need to train all. We are seeking to
hold a minimum of 12 regional courses a year, which would allow us to
train all 4,500 Deputy Marshals on staff. I cannot tell you how many
times Deputy Marshals have expressed their gratitude for the high
quality training that has been provided.
It is important to continue the momentum and provide safety
training to all Deputy Marshals. One case highlights the dangers faced
by law enforcement every day and reminds us that we must consistently
train our personnel to increase our tactical advantage. On September
12, 2014, a sniper opened fire at a Pennsylvania State Police barracks,
murdering Trooper Bryon Dickson II and critically injuring Trooper Alex
Douglass. The ensuing police manhunt for the suspect, Eric Frein,
included 400 Federal, State, and local law enforcement officers from
Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. This case had the potential for
extreme violence given that Frein was an accomplished survivalist,
outdoorsman, and marksman. Forty-eight days later, on October 30, 2014,
the USMS captured Mr. Frein in an open field without incident.
gang enforcement
This subcommittee has recognized the urgent need to contain the
proliferation of gangs. Criminal gang activity has a severe impact
across law enforcement because of its rising prevalence and high level
of violence. Gangs are no longer isolated to motorcycle groups and
violent urban street gangs. They now exist across the country in urban,
suburban, and rural communities, with nearly one million members who
are criminally active in the United States.
As the leader in apprehending the worst of the worst criminals, the
USMS arrests approximately 300 fugitives per day. Between August 2010
and September 2014, the USMS conducted Operation Triple Beam, a
nationwide gang enforcement initiative in 22 cities, which resulted in
more than 4,200 arrests, the seizure of more than $3 million in
narcotics, $1 million in U.S. currency, and over 900 illegal firearms.
Another example of USMS' efforts to combat gangs occurred last
October 2014, when the USMS Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force
arrested Christopher Green, a violent Crips street gang member in
Greenville, Mississippi. He had outstanding violent felony arrest
warrants for homicides in both the Greenville Police Department and the
Las Vegas Metro Police Department. Although Green was a member of the
Crips street gang in Pomona, California, he traveled around the country
as their hit man. Cultivating critical information from confidential
sources and using surveillance techniques, Deputy Marshals executed the
arrest warrants and captured Green outside his residence without
incident. The USMS will continue to vigorously pursue and arrest all
violent felony fugitives, including gang members who threaten our
communities.
courthouse renovation
The fiscal year 2016 budget requests an increase of $5.2 million
for a total of $15 million to renovate courthouses and court facilities
with the most severe security deficiencies. The USMS occupies space in
over 400 courthouse facilities. This space includes vehicle sally
ports, cellblocks, prisoner interview rooms, secure corridors, prisoner
elevators, and holding cells adjacent to the courtrooms. Construction
projects are prioritized to address immediate life and safety issues
first. The USMS supports the requested funding level and appreciates
the incremental approach to this funding need.
detention
The fiscal year 2016 budget requests a total of $1.5 billion to
support the Federal Prisoner Detention (FPD) Program. This request
includes base restoration of $1.1 billion. As part of the fiscal year
2015 appropriated budget, FPD's base was reduced by $1.1 billion and
the same amount was reprogrammed from the Asset Forfeiture Fund.
Additionally, as part of the fiscal year 2016 request, $69.5 million of
the carryover projected to be earned during fiscal year 2015 is
targeted for rescission.
The requested funding will support an average daily detention
population (ADP) of 56,823 given a projected average per diem rate of
$80.60. The projected population reflects an 8 percent decrease from
the peak average annual detention population of 61,721 attained during
fiscal year 2011. The reduction in the number of prisoners received by
the USMS during fiscal year 2014 was unprecedented after an increase
the previous 20 years. The decrease in the ADP is attributable to
several factors, including systemic efficiencies that have reduced the
amount of time prisoners are housed by the USMS. Reductions in
detention time are the result of continued fast-tracking of
prosecutions--primarily for immigration offenses along the southwest
border--and expedited transfers of sentenced prisoners to the Bureau of
Prisons.
At this time, the USMS expects that the number of prisoners
received into our custody will increase in fiscal year 2015 and fiscal
year 2016 resulting in a modest increase in the ADP. The USMS will
continue to keep the subcommittee apprised of any changes.
adjustments to base
The base adjustments reflect an increase for pay and benefits, the
relocation of USMS Headquarters, operations and maintenance for legacy
radio equipment, and Department of State charges for overseas staff. I
would like to thank the Senate Committee on Environment and Public
Works for its support in allowing us to move to a new Headquarters
facility just two blocks from our current location. The move will
reduce USMS' footprint by 41,000 square feet, or 10 percent, and save
$9 million in rent annually for a total of $145 million in savings over
the 15-year lease.
conclusion
Chairman Shelby, Ranking Member Mikulski, and members of the
subcommittee, on behalf of the men and women of the United States
Marshals Service, thank you for your ongoing support of the Agency's
programs. I am committed to ensuring that we are efficient stewards of
the resources you have entrusted to us. I look forward to working with
you to ensure we meet critical safety and security needs protecting the
judicial family and process, securing Federal courthouses, protecting
witnesses, transporting and producing prisoners, executing court
orders, apprehending fugitives, and managing seized property.
Senator Shelby. Ms. Leonhart.
DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION
STATEMENT OF HON. MICHELE M. LEONHART, ADMINISTRATOR
Ms. Leonhart. Good morning, Chairman Shelby, Ranking Member
Mikulski, and members of the subcommittee.
I want to start by thanking Ranking Member Mikulski for her
many years of leadership and dedicated service to our country.
You have been a trailblazer for women in the Senate, and I am
especially thankful for your support of the DEA museum
traveling exhibit that went to the Maryland Science Center in
Baltimore last year.
Over 350,000 people visited the exhibit during the 7-month
run, and they learned not just about law enforcement but also
the science behind drugs, addiction, and recovery.
DEA is in mourning this morning after hearing the news of
Deputy Josie Wells, and we offer all our assistance to Director
Hylton.
The support of this subcommittee has led to the arrest of
many violent drug traffickers. This is exemplified by the
recent arrests of Servando Gomez-Martinez, also known as ``La
Tuta,'' and Omar Trevino Morales. These arrests are another win
for Mexico in the fight against brutal criminal cartels like
the Knights Templar and Los Zetas, and these arrests, along
with last year's capture of Joaquin ``El Chapo'' Guzman, signal
major steps forward in our shared fight against drug
trafficking and violence.
Since the Department of Justice began coordinated efforts
targeting the most wanted drug traffickers, known as
Consolidated Priority Organization Targets (CPOTs), back in
2003, there have been 183 identified around the world.
Cumulatively, over three-quarters have been indicted in the
United States, over half have been arrested here or abroad, and
one-third have been extradited to the United States to face
justice.
In fiscal year 2014 alone, we saw several successes against
CPOTs, including seven who were extradited to the United
States, one surrendered to the United States authorities, and
six more who were arrested and are in custody outside of the
United States.
Historically, the image of organized crime in the United
States was of hierarchal organizations, exerting influence over
criminal activities at the local levels with cells of loosely
affiliated groups. That still remains true today. However,
these organizations now have direct connections to Mexican drug
trafficking organizations to distribute heroin,
methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, and other drugs throughout
the country.
This is the new face of organized crime. The violence
perpetrated by these groups harms communities across the United
States. And DEA is uniquely positioned to target and dismantle
the local distribution cells and the international drug
trafficking organizations with whom they conspire.
Of notable concern is the alarming level of heroin use and
abuse in this country and increases in heroin-related deaths.
After years of declining use, the availability and abuse of
heroin is now increasing, especially among younger Americans.
This is due in part to the increased production of heroin in
Mexico, even as Colombian production has declined.
In 2013, 8,257 people died of a heroin overdose, nearly
tripling since 2010.
A contributing factor to increasing demand for heroin is
prescription opioid abuse. Prescription drug abuse is a
nationwide epidemic. Overall, 43,982 people have died of a drug
overdose in the United States since 2003, more than half of
which involved prescription drugs.
These deaths represent not just a statistic, but they are
our family members, our friends, our neighbors, and our
colleagues.
If we look at the operational successes we are having
today, coupled with the decline in overall drug use, there is
reason for optimism. Since its high point in 1979, the overall
rate of illicit drug use in America has dropped by over 30
percent.
By taking harmful drugs off the street, dismantling major
drug organizations, and seizing their profits, we are making
our Nation a safer place to live and to do business, and the
support of this subcommittee is critical to our success.
So I look forward to working with you, and will be happy to
answer any of your questions. Thank you.
[The statement follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Michele M. Leonhart
Chairman Shelby, Ranking Member Mikulski, and members of the
subcommittee:
Good morning, and thank you for inviting me to testify on behalf of
the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) regarding the President's
fiscal year 2016 budget request. DEA is an organization of more than
9,000 employees dedicated to the vital mission of disrupting and
dismantling those drug trafficking organizations posing the greatest
threat to the United States. I would like to express our collective
appreciation for the support that this subcommittee has shown to us
over the years. Furthermore, I welcome the opportunity to continue our
partnership and to share with you DEA's recent accomplishments and our
future plans to help secure our Nation and protect our citizens.
DEA is the Federal law enforcement leader in combating complex and
sophisticated drug trafficking and transnational criminal organizations
worldwide. As an example, DEA investigations conducted in partnership
with Federal, State, local, and international counterparts have
contributed to the arrest of major international criminals. The recent
arrests of Servando Gomez-Martinez, a.k.a. ``La Tuta'' and Omar Trevino
Morales are another win for Mexico in the fight against brutal criminal
cartels. The arrests strike at the heart of the leadership structure of
the Knights Templar and the Zetas and serve as yet another warning that
no criminal is immune from arrest and prosecution. Their capture, along
with last year's capture of Joaquin ``El Chapo'' Guzman Loera, the
leader of the violent Sinaloa Cartel, signal major steps forward in our
shared fight against drug trafficking and violence.
Whether countering the threat posed by drug cartels in Mexico; drug
financiers and facilitators in Europe; transshipment and distribution
coordinators based in west Africa; insurgency groups operating in
southwest Asia; or domestic distribution cells operating in cities
across the United States; DEA works to build relationships with our law
enforcement partners to develop strategies, analyze intelligence, and
execute successful counternarcotics programs to bring violators to
justice and protect the American people.
We also appreciate Congress' efforts to protect the public from the
dangers of designer synthetic drugs. These drugs are one of the most
rapidly evolving challenges we face. In response to this growing
threat, DEA has coordinated a series of law enforcement actions
designed to disrupt the international production and domestic
distribution of synthetic designer drugs. This past May, the second
phase of Project Synergy, which involved more than 45 DEA offices,
resulted in the serving of nearly 200 search warrants, arrest of more
than 150 individuals, and seizure of hundreds of thousands of
individually packaged, ready-to-sell synthetic drugs by Federal, State,
and local law enforcement authorities, as well as hundreds of kilograms
of raw synthetic products to make thousands more, along with more than
$20 million in cash and assets. In addition to targeting retailers,
wholesalers, and manufacturers, many of these investigations continued
to uncover the massive flow of drug-related proceeds to countries in
the Middle East, including Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and others.
DEA targets the world's biggest, most powerful and ``Most Wanted''
drug traffickers, designated as Consolidated Priority Organization
Targets (CPOTs), as well as other Priority Target Organizations (PTOs).
These designations are given to drug trafficking organizations with an
identified hierarchy engaged in the highest levels of drug trafficking
and drug money laundering with significant international, national,
regional, or local impact. There have been 183 CPOTs identified since
the Department of Justice started tracking them in fiscal year 2003.
Cumulatively, 140 (77 percent) have been indicted in the United States,
107 (58 percent) have been arrested here and abroad, and 61 (33
percent) have been extradited to the United States to face justice.
fiscal year 2014 saw several successes against CPOTs--including seven
who were extradited to the United States; one who surrendered to United
States authorities; and six more who were arrested and are in custody
outside of the United States.
The most significant drug trafficking organizations today are the
dangerous and highly sophisticated Mexican Transnational Criminal
Organizations (TCOs) that perpetrate violence along the Southwest
Border. Mexican TCOs continue to be the principal suppliers of heroin,
methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana to the United States.
Domestically, distribution cells have become an increasing threat to
the safety and security of our communities by forging alliances with
Mexican TCOs.
Historically, the image of organized crime in the United States has
been hierarchical organizations exerting influence over criminal
activities at the local level with gangs of loosely affiliated groups
exerting influence over criminal activities in neighborhoods, cities,
or States. This remains true today; however, many of these
organizations now have direct connections to Mexican TCOs to distribute
heroin and other drugs throughout the country. In particular, the
majority of the methamphetamine in the United States is produced in
Mexico and much of it is distributed as a result of these affiliations.
It is a symbiotic criminal relationship--the Mexican TCOs have the
transportation infrastructure in place to deliver the drugs to domestic
distribution cells which have established and tested distribution
networks. This is the new face of organized crime.
The threat of these organizations is magnified by the high level of
violence associated with their attempts to control and expand drug
distribution operations. They often engage in armed home invasions of
rival drug storage locations to steal drugs or money with innocent and
hardworking citizens caught in the crossfire. The crime and violence
perpetrated by these groups harm communities across the United States.
DEA is uniquely positioned to target and dismantle the local
distribution cells and the international drug trafficking organizations
with whom they conspire.
In addition, the distribution cells and the Mexican and South
American traffickers who supply them are the main sources of heroin in
the United States today. Heroin use in this country has reached
alarming levels and many localities are reporting increases in heroin
related deaths. A contributing factor to increasing demand for heroin
is prescription opioid abuse. Prescription drug abuse is the Nation's
fastest-growing drug problem. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention reported that 43,982 people died of a drug overdose in
the United States in 2013, the most recent year for which information
is available. Nearly 52 percent of those drug overdose deaths (22,767)
involved prescription drugs. Of those deaths, 71 percent (16,235)
involved an opioid analgesic, also known as prescription painkillers.
The report also reflected significant increases in heroin related
deaths--8,257 people died of a heroin overdose in 2013, nearly tripling
since 2010. These deaths represent not just a statistic, but our family
members, friends, neighbors, and colleagues.
The annual economic cost of nonmedical use of prescription opioids
in the United States was estimated at more than $55 billion in 2007.
The number of drug overdose deaths, particularly from controlled
prescription drugs, has grown significantly in the past decade and in
2012 surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of injury
death in the United States. The Drug Enforcement Administration remains
committed to preventing, detecting, and deterring the diversion of
pharmaceutical controlled substances that supply drug addiction and
abuse.
DEA's Diversion Control Program is using all criminal and
regulatory tools possible to identify, target, disrupt, and dismantle
individuals and organizations responsible for the illicit manufacture
and distribution of pharmaceutical controlled substances in violation
of the CSA. The deployment of Tactical Diversion Squads (TDS) is DEA's
primary method of criminal law enforcement in the Diversion Control
Program. The recent expansion of the TDS program has resulted in 66
operational TDSs throughout the United States, covering 41 States,
Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. These TDSs incorporate the
enforcement, investigative, and regulatory skill sets of DEA Special
Agents, Diversion Investigators, other Federal law enforcement, and
State and local Task Force Officers. The expansion of the TDS groups
has enabled the Diversion Groups to concentrate on the regulatory
aspects of the Diversion Control Program.
fiscal year 2016 budget request
The fiscal year 2016 President's Budget request will provide DEA
with the resources needed to build upon our successes and to continue
to address these emerging threats. The budget requests $2.092 billion
for the DEA's Salaries and Expenses Account, an increase of 2.9 percent
over fiscal year 2015. In fiscal year 2016, DEA expects to face an
estimated $49.8 million in increased costs to maintain current
operations. In addition, the budget requests $371.5 million for the
Diversion Control Fee Account (DCFA), which is necessary to cover the
cost of operating DEA's Diversion Control Program. The amount requested
represents a $31.7 million increase over DEA's fiscal year 2015 funded
operations, primarily due to the restoration of fiscal year 2015
sequestration in fiscal year 2016. These resources will allow DEA to
continue targeting significant drug trafficking organizations,
consistent with the Department of Justice's Smart on Crime Initiative.
In addition, DEA is requesting enhancements in the areas of
International Drug Enforcement Priorities ($12.0M); De-confliction and
Information Sharing ($7.4M); and National Security ($4.5M). The
requested enhancements provide DEA with the tools necessary to lead and
assist our Federal, State, local and international partners in
targeting the most significant drug trafficking organizations.
Let me summarize the DEA efforts that will be supported with this
enhanced funding.
international drug enforcement
Transnational Criminal Organizations are a growing threat to U.S.
national security. Their operations fuel corruption, destabilize
governments, and undermine the rule of law, and are overwhelmingly
funded by profits from drug trafficking. Over the last 40 years, DEA
has developed effective programs for combating these organizations and
has seen significant results.
While we continue to target Mexican and South American TCOs in the
traditional drug trafficking corridors, we are increasingly seeing them
expand their footprint in Africa, which affects the U.S. both directly
and indirectly. Africa is a key storage and transshipment location for
South American cocaine destined for distribution in Europe and
elsewhere. These organizations are partnering with local criminal
groups for logistical support and using drug-related profits to further
their illegal activities in the U.S., Africa and Europe. DEA's
experience shows that in order to address the threat posed to the U.S.
by these TCOs, long-term success will depend upon the successful
implementation and continued development of programs that bolster the
law enforcement capacities and capabilities of our host nation
counterparts worldwide. The fiscal year 2016 President's budget
supports two of these critical international programs: Sensitive
Investigative Units and Bilateral Investigations Units.
Sensitive Investigative Units
Funds requested for International Drug Enforcement Priorities will
be used to support and expand a key element of DEA's international
efforts: the Sensitive Investigative Unit (SIU) program. DEA's SIU
program helps build effective and vetted host nation units capable of
conducting complex investigations targeting major drug trafficking
organizations. DEA currently mentors and supports 13 SIUs, which are
staffed by over 800 foreign counterparts. The success of this program
has unquestionably enhanced DEA's ability to fight drug trafficking on
a global scale. To maintain this operational momentum, $8.1 million is
needed to sustain and further develop the capacity and capabilities of
existing SIUs. This funding will support training, vetting, program
coordination, judicial wire intercept systems and other IT-related
requirements.
Bilateral Investigations Units
Bilateral Investigations Units (BIUs) are one of DEA's most
important tools for targeting, disrupting, and dismantling significant
TCOs. The BIUs use extraterritorial authorities to infiltrate, indict,
arrest, and convict previously ``untouchable'' TCO leaders involved in
drug trafficking. The fiscal year 2016 President's budget proposes
enhancing the operational funding for BIUs by $3.9 million and
expanding their capabilities by establishing a BIU Financial
Investigative Team (FIT). The BIU-FIT will focus on the investigating
the financial aspects of these organizations. The proposed increase
will allow DEA to continue to build on the success we have had in
targeting, disrupting, and dismantling TCOs as well as denying TCOs
revenue from illicit drug proceeds before they can be used to fund
other criminal activities.
de-confliction and information sharing
De-Confliction Systems
The President's fiscal year 2016 budget requests $1.5 million which
will allow DEA to better leverage our expertise in de-confliction and
information sharing to promote increased cooperation between our
Federal, State, and local law enforcement partners. Enhancements will
allow DEA to increase its capability to coordinate many of the
Department's violent crime and international organized crime
investigations. These systems are such an integral component of the
Department of Justice's (DOJ) de-confliction efforts that in May 2014,
the Deputy Attorney General specifically directed all DOJ law
enforcement components to use DEA's systems to de-conflict ongoing
investigations.
El Paso Intelligence Center
The El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) offers tactical,
operational, and strategic intelligence support to Federal, State,
local, tribal, and international law enforcement agencies and provides
de-confliction services, leveraging databases from both internal and
external stakeholders. EPIC has relationships with law enforcement
agencies in all 50 States and partner organizations in the
international law enforcement community. Included in the President's
budget request is an additional $5.9 million to increase the
capabilities of EPIC's information systems, including funds to upgrade
the existing IT system to a more robust system portal; enhance
analytical capabilities; and support updates to vital technology
equipment and compliance with security requirements.
national security
DEA ensures that national security information obtained during the
execution of our worldwide drug law enforcement mission is
expeditiously shared with both the national security and intelligence
communities. DEA's Office of National Security Intelligence (ONSI)
shares more than 5,000 reports a year that contain information on
topics of national security interest. The fiscal year 2016 President's
budget requests funding to support the Defensive Counterintelligence
Program (DCI-P), which serves as a central coordination point for all
DEA DCI-P matters, including personnel reliability; physical security;
safeguarding of both intelligence and law enforcement sensitive sources
and methods; and general security and counterintelligence threat
awareness and threat detection. In addition, the fiscal year 2016
President's budget requests resources for additional reports writers,
ensuring that DEA will continue to meet its statutory responsibility to
share national security-related information, and for other national
security activities.
conclusion
DEA's enforcement efforts have contributed significantly to the
overall strategy to reduce the availability of drugs in the United
States. According to an analysis by the Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration, illicit drug use rates are lower by
approximately one-third compared to 30 years ago. Since 2006, we have
seen important decreases in the number of past month users, aged 12 and
older of cocaine (from 1.0 percent to 0.6 percent, or roughly a million
fewer persons). Statistics like these demonstrate that through a
balanced drug control strategy, one that includes strong enforcement,
education, prevention, and treatment components, we can make
significant progress in protecting our Nation from drug abuse and its
consequences.
DEA's unique, single mission focus gives us the ability to focus
resources on disrupting and dismantling the world's ``Most Wanted''
drug traffickers that have the most significant impact on the U.S. drug
market. With your support and the backing of the American people we
will continue our efforts to address these challenges. I would be
pleased to answer any questions you may have.
Senator Shelby. Mr. Jones.
BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, FIREARMS AND EXPLOSIVES
STATEMENT OF HON. B. TODD JONES, DIRECTOR
Mr. Jones. Good morning, Chairman Shelby, Ranking Member
Mikulski, and members of the subcommittee.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today
with my colleagues. This is a great team that I am privileged
to work with within the Department of Justice. And I think,
together, we are moving forward to enhance public safety around
the country on behalf of the citizens that we serve.
I am also pleased to be here to discuss the President's
fiscal year 2016 budget request for ATF.
ATF's principal mission is to protect our communities from
violent criminals who illegally possess and use firearms, use
explosives for illicit purposes, and engage in deadly acts of
arson. We accomplish our mission through partnerships and
through the enforcement of the criminal law and regulations of
the firearms and explosives industry.
This makes us somewhat unique among U.S. law enforcement,
and we have a long history of maintaining working
relationships, not only with our Federal partners, but with our
State and local partners. And we put a premium on those
partnerships.
The public safety agencies, the industry groups, and the
community organizations that we work with are vital to us being
able to accomplish our mission. When serious violent crime
happens at communities across the country, ATF is there working
side by side with our partners.
In the past 3 years alone, ATF has been at the frontline
against crime, helping our partners investigate the Boston
Marathon bombing, the horrific mass shootings in Aurora,
Colorado, and Newtown, Connecticut, and the Washington Navy
Yard, as well as assisting in thousands of other investigations
that have simply not made the national news.
ATF's work with its partners is producing tangible results
in communities across the country. But our discussion today, I
hope, leads to some help for you all in sustaining the results
that we have accomplished in various places around the country.
For example, we recently completed an enhanced enforcement
operation and initiative in New Haven and Bridgeport,
Connecticut, and in Chicago, Illinois. And in both
circumstances, we have made an impact working with our State
and local colleagues on diminishing and lowering violent crime
in those communities.
We accomplished this not only through manpower and strong
partnerships, but by also leveraging our technology resources,
such as NIBIN, the National Integrated Ballistics Information
Network. This technology compares high-resolution images of
cartridge cases, and the Senator alluded to it earlier,
recovered from multiple crime scenes, and compares and
contrasts in our follow-the-gun strategy to identify the worst
of the worst offenders in communities.
This technology has been integrated with eTrace, and we
are, in certain communities around the country, test-driving
crime gun intelligence centers. That is showing very promising
results.
ATF's contributions to public safety extend beyond these
operational successes, though. As Director Comey mentioned,
TEDAC is in Huntsville. We also have our National Center for
Explosives Training and Research there, established through the
support of the chairman and members of this subcommittee, and
it's performing important work.
By the end of fiscal year 2016, the National Center For
Explosives Training And Research (NCETR) will significantly
increase its staffing by 30 percent and work on increasing fire
and arson investigations, in addition to explosives research.
Because we have gotten healthier as an organization over
the last several years, we will offer several courses that
haven't been offered, because training is usually the first
thing to go when you have tough budget times, unfortunately.
In addition, we will be bringing our U.S. Bomb Data Center
from ATF here in Washington, DC, and putting it in the NCETR
facility in an effort to make sure that we are not only fully
integrating our capacity, but collaborating at the highest
possible levels with the FBI's Terrorist Explosive Device
Analytical Center that is down there in NCETR.
Another important ATF asset, our Fire Research Lab in
Ammendale, Maryland, is currently involved in the research of
several high-profile fire incidents. I want to thank this
subcommittee for the support that our lab has. Surprisingly to
me, I have learned that across the country our arson research
capacity is something that is a great treasure to Federal law
enforcement. We have worked on several significant arson
investigations with State and local law enforcement trying to
figure out what happened.
We are performing tests recently on the West Texas
fertilizer plant that killed 15 first responders and injured
160. We are currently looking at the horrific fire that
happened several months ago in Annapolis that killed a
grandmother, a grandfather, and their grandchildren, trying to
determine some of the issues with Christmas trees.
This kind of research is taken care of very quietly, but
will be very helpful to public safety across-the-board.
To support this important work, and I look forward to
discussing it further, ATF's 2016 budget request totals $1.26
billion, including 5,100 permanent positions, nearly half of
which are special agents.
This request includes a $52 million increase in base
resources that really is focused, as Director Comey mentioned,
on our human capital. ATF has a very experienced special agent
workforce. Within the next 3 years, we will have nearly 35
percent of that workforce be either mandatory or eligible for
retirement. We need to do all we can over the next several
years, including in this budget cycle, to refresh and get new
agents out there before the senior agents leave.
I look forward to answering your questions.
And I do want to maybe set the table here as a preemptive.
The chairman mentioned in our regulatory effort, a proposal
that we requested comments on for the last 30 days. That
comment period will close.
It involved an exemption for a particular type of 5.56
round. We have nearly 90,000 comments. We will assess those
comments. Working with you, and with others, we will see how we
can really address what was at the genesis of that posting,
which was an effort to address nearly 30 exemption requests and
finding a framework for dealing with that.
With that said, I see the time is over, and I will be happy
to answer any questions that you have.
[The statement follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. B. Todd Jones
Chairman Shelby, Ranking Member Mikulski, and members of the
subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.
I am pleased to be here to discuss the President's fiscal year 2016
budget request for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives (ATF).
ATF's principal mission is to protect our communities from serious
and violent criminals who illegally possess and use firearms, use
explosives for criminal purposes, and engage in deadly acts of arson.
We accomplish our mission through both the enforcement of criminal law
and the regulation of the firearms and explosives industries. ATF has a
long history of delivering our expertise and capabilities to our
Federal, State, and local partners. We provide critical resources and
support to them in the fight against violent crime. We highly value our
partnerships and strong working relationships with law enforcement,
public safety agencies, industry groups, and community organizations.
When violent crime strikes our Nation, ATF is there working side-by-
side with our partners, supporting them with our specialized skills,
tools, and experience. In the past 3 years alone, ATF has been at the
frontline fighting against crime and helping our partners investigate
tragedies such as: the Boston Marathon Bombing; the horrific mass
shootings in Aurora, Colorado; Newtown, Connecticut; and the Washington
Navy Yard, as well as assisting in thousands of other less publicized
investigations.
Across the country, ATF and our partners pursue the most violent
criminals, particularly those who engage in organized gang violence or
illegally supply those gangs with firearms. Recently, ATF completed
enhanced enforcement initiatives in New Haven/Bridgeport, Connecticut
and Chicago, Illinois. In total, 350 defendants were accepted for
prosecution and ATF seized or purchased more than 350 crime guns during
these operations. In Chicago alone, the approximately 200 charged
defendants had almost 3,000 prior felony arrests. We accomplished this
with additional ATF manpower, our partners, and technology such as
ATF's National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN), which
compares high resolution images of cartridge cases recovered from
multiple crime scenes to link firearms to multiple shootings. I'm proud
of what we are able to achieve for the citizens of those communities.
For ATF to more effectively combat violent crime and better serve
our partners and our communities, we developed ``Frontline'', a
business model that prioritizes our resources to those areas and
programs that will have the greatest impact on fighting violent crime,
whether that is firearms trafficking, gang, arson/explosive or tobacco
investigations. We accomplish this, in part, by assessing each ATF
field division for efficiency and effectiveness and making any
necessary changes to improve mission performance.
We partner more closely and effectively than ever with State and
local law enforcement in fighting violent crime. In many instances
local law enforcement has experienced significant budget cuts, and the
violent crime enforcement expertise and training we provide is often
reported as a key component of their success. In fact, during the last
year we trained thousands of local law enforcement across ATF's
jurisdiction of firearms, explosives and arson. Some specific courses
included Advanced Firearms Trafficking Techniques, Advanced Explosives
Disposal Techniques, Basic Fire Origin and Cause Determination,
Accelerant Detection Canine Course, Arson for Prosecutors, and two
NIBIN-related courses. Programs such as eTrace (a paperless firearms
trace request submission system and interactive trace analysis module
that facilitates firearms tracing) and NIBIN provide tools extensively
used by State and local law enforcement to combat violent firearm
crimes. Using these programs, ATF traced more than 364,000 crime guns
last year.
ATF's Fire Research Lab in Ammendale, Maryland is in the midst of
several significant research projects on high profile arson/explosive
incidents with our State and local partners. In February 2015, lab
personnel performed testing related to the April 17, 2013, explosion
and fire at the West, Texas, fertilizer plant that killed 15 and
injured 160. ATF is working with the Texas State Fire Marshal's Office
to study various hypotheses in an effort to determine the origin and
cause of the fire and explosion. Further, based on ATF's expertise in
arson/explosive incidents, ATF supported the investigation of the fire
that claimed six lives 2 months ago in Annapolis, Maryland.
Investigators concluded an electrical failure ignited the skirt of the
family's Christmas tree. We will perform tests in early April to better
understand the fire dynamics related to Christmas tree fires. This
information can then be released to our State and local fire
investigator partners to help them prevent any further loss of life and
property through similar occurrences.
ATF's National Center for Explosives Training and Research (NCETR),
in Huntsville, Alabama--established through the support of the Chairman
and members of this subcommittee--is also performing important research
and development to fulfill our explosives enforcement and training
missions. This year, NCETR will increase their staffing by more than 20
percent. This will allow ATF to immediately increase fire and arson
investigation training. We will offer several training classes to
State, local and Federal investigators and prosecutors that have not
been offered in a number of years. NCETR is redeveloping these classes
and once complete we will enroll students in this state-of-the-art
training.
Additionally, the NCETR Explosives Research and Development
Division will hire engineers and support positions to provide much
needed research and development capabilities for ATF and our partners,
such as the National Ground Intelligence Center and the National
Counter Terrorism Center. Lastly, ATF is relocating the U.S. Bomb Data
Center (USBDC) from ATF Headquarters to the NCETR facility. These
expansions in ATF's capacity at NCTER will enhance and complement our
collaboration with our partners at the FBI, which also maintains a
facility near NCETR. We are gratified by the opportunity to
reinvigorate our explosives and arson investigation training in
coordination with our research and development mission at NCETR. We are
equally gratified by the opportunity to expand collaboration with the
FBI's Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center (TEDAC) on counter
terrorism matters, advisories, bulletins, and reports about testing and
research. Enhancing our ability to develop and report best practices to
the explosives and arson investigation communities are great steps
forward for NCETR.
fiscal year 2016 budget request
ATF's fiscal year 2016 budget request totals $1.26 billion in
direct budget authority, including 5,111 permanent positions, nearly
half of which are ATF Special Agents. This request includes a $52
million increase for base resources required to support ATF's workforce
and infrastructure at a critical juncture--between now and fiscal year
2019 nearly 1,000 of our current 2,500 ATF Special Agents will become
eligible for retirement. That represents more than one-third of our
special agents. ATF is taking significant steps in hiring to address
this attrition bubble, but we require the continued funding level
support requested in this budget to maintain this effort.
In addition, ATF's fiscal year 2016 budget includes one program
enhancement--$8.1 million to continue increasing capacity and reducing
backlogs at ATF's Martinsburg, West Virginia, facility. This increase
will allow ATF to add 10 Legal Instrument Examiners as well as
additional contract support to continue to reduce the backlog in
processing National Firearms Act (NFA) registrations. The additional
funding will also improve ATF's firearms tracing operations, a unique
and vital violent crime fighting asset that is heavily relied upon by
our State, local and Federal law enforcement partners.
In this era of tighter budgets, ATF is doing more than ever to
ensure that taxpayer resources are directed to areas that generate the
greatest public safety value and return on investment. We do this by
prioritizing our resources, partnering with our Federal, State and
local colleagues, and using existing technologies in new and innovative
ways to fight violent crime.
Let me give you some additional examples of how ATF has become more
strategic:
--The deployment of the Mobile Bomb/Arson Tracking System (BATS) will
enable over 10,000 Federal, State and local law enforcement and
public safety interagency users to report arson and explosives
incidents from the scene of the incident, reducing the average
reporting time from 35 days to one day.
--The National Firearms Act Branch performed many innovative staffing
enhancements, including the cross training of existing
personnel, with the net effect of a 58 percent reduction in the
Branch backlog.
--The National Tracing Center saved $50-$70 million on the digital
conversion of microfilm and microfiche.
--NIBIN will downsize its server population resulting in cost
reductions, improved performance capabilities, and improved
efficiencies in communication lines.
--ATF performed an agency-wide technology refresh, replacing all
personal computers and updating operating systems.
--ATF will reallocate any realized savings to enforcement and
industry support operations. If you or your staff would like
details on these cost savings that I have highlighted, we will
be glad to brief you on them in more detail.
Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, I want to conclude by
saying that ATF is proud of its contributions at the frontline fighting
against violent crime. We are recognized by Federal, State, and local
law enforcement agencies across the country for our expertise and take
great pride in our successes that reduce gun violence and remove
violent offenders from the streets. I am humbled by the exceptional
work done every day by ATF Special Agents, Investigators, and
professional support staff combating violent crime. Even in times of
adversity--which can come often when you are in our line of work--I am
proud to tell you that the dedicated men and women of ATF have
continued, day in and day out, working tirelessly to enhance the safety
of all Americans. They and their families have my deepest gratitude for
the sacrifices this often difficult work requires and I am honored to
be here today to represent ATF.
Senator Shelby. Thank you very much.
I will direct my first question to you, Mr. Jones.
On February 13, the ATF released a proposed framework that
would have eliminated the M855 ``green tip'' ammunition from
the sporting purposes exemption. This week, ATF abandoned this
proposal.
A lot of us are troubled at the ATF's process and intent
regarding this proposed ban. I have heard from numerous
constituents who use this ammunition for shooting sports and
hunting, and they are strongly opposed to the ban, as you know.
Additionally, it is concerning to a lot of us that the new
Federal Firearms Regulation Reference Guide published in
January inexplicably removed M855 ammunition from the exemption
list for sporting purposes.
Why did the ATF propose this M855 ban when such ammunition
has been allowed under the sporting purposes exemption for
many, many years?
THE EXEMPT FRAMEWORK FOR ARMOR PIERCING AMMUNITION
Mr. Jones. Senator, thank you for the question. I think
it's important for everyone to understand again that the
genesis of us putting that framework proposal up for public
comment was our good faith effort to try and construct a
framework to deal with nearly 30 exemptions that we have had in
the queue for many, many years at ATF.
We do have a responsibility to regulate. We can't stick our
head in the sand with respect to additional exemption requests.
The M855 exemption has been in place for nearly 30 years.
It was a classification that ATF made on that particular round.
I want to make sure everybody understands that this was
not, contrary to some in the blogosphere, an effort to
completely ban that certain type of cartridge. It is this one
particular ``green tip'' that is, in essence, military surplus
that, under the Law Enforcement Officers Protection Act
(LEOPA), does qualify as armor-piercing, but has had an
exemption for 30 years and been in the market and used for
sporting purposes for the last 30 years.
Our request for input on a framework was our effort to try
and get a transparent process where we could act on the nearly
30 other exemptions that were there, and not look at the
exemption that was out there on M855.
I think the reality of this is, we need to deal with the
pending exemptions. There aren't going to be any new exemptions
granted until we work our way out through this. The exemption
for M855 has been there for 30 years and will remain.
Senator Shelby. And you abandoned it this week, did you
not?
Mr. Jones. We are going to take the input in. We are not
going to move forward without analyzing the nearly 90,000
comments from all spectrums, with a sense of figuring out how
we do this rationally, in a common-sense way that, first and
foremost, for us, protects our law enforcement officers in
compliance with LEOPA.
TERRORIST EXPLOSIVE DEVICE ANALYTICAL CENTER
Senator Shelby. I will direct this question to the FBI
Director. You talked about earlier the Terrorist Explosive
Device Analytical Center we call TEDAC, and so forth, and how
important it is.
What is TEDAC's operational and construction status at this
point? And when will the facility be fully operational? Do you
know?
Mr. Comey. I think we are on track, Senator, to open
sometime late this spring or in summer. I went down there to
check on its progress, because I am keenly interested in it.
The building is up. It looks good to me, but there are other
things that still have to be done for it to be ready.
We had some delays because our contractor has struggled
with some of the unique technical requirements we need to deal
with explosives in that building. But my understanding is we
are on track for a no later than summer opening.
Senator Shelby. How is the ATF working cooperatively with
you, with the FBI, on this? Have they put their good officers
forward to work with you and cooperate with the FBI, regarding
TEDAC?
Mr. Comey. Yes, as they always do. As Director Jones said,
one of the hallmarks of ATF is they are a great partner in a
whole host of ways, and they are with TEDAC.
NATIONAL CENTER FOR EXPLOSIVES TRAINING AND RESEARCH
Senator Shelby. Director Jones, you referenced NCETR a few
minutes ago. Where are we exactly on that, as far as staffing
the program? We call it the National Center for Explosives
Training and Research. You mentioned this earlier in your
testimony.
Mr. Jones. I have had an opportunity on a number of the
occasions to go to NCETR. It is a wonderful facility for our
organization, and it's a wonderful asset.
I think when TEDAC is up and running, and with what we have
already done at NCETR, and what we plan to do at NCETR, we will
expand beyond the explosive training and research, focusing
primarily on homemade IEDs and some of the research there, is
expand into the fire and arson realm. We have a great lab in
Ammendale, but we are doing some work down at NCETR and that
necessitates us moving additional personnel there.
I think the main thing is that we are finally going to move
the U.S. Bomb Data Center personnel from Washington down there
to NCETR, as originally envisioned, and that is going to happen
this year.
Senator Shelby. One last question to the FBI director, how
is the FBI responding to the Army's separation from the
Hazardous Devices School? They had sent word, as I understand
it, where they have had a partnership there, and the Army has
indicated they no longer will provide personnel to the school.
But I think that is an important operation there.
Mr. Comey. I agree completely, Mr. Chairman.
We are working with them to see if there are folks who they
are no longer going to have there as part of their complement
that can come work for us, so we don't lose the expertise. Our
overall commitment is not to lose any capability there.
In fact, as you know, with the support of this
subcommittee, we are expanding that training facility, because
there is such a hunger for advanced bomb tech training.
Senator Shelby. Thank you.
Senator Mikulski.
Senator Mikulski. Mr. Chairman, thank you, and I also want
to compliment you on the fact that we are going to continue the
tradition of the subcommittee of a classified hearing after
this, because so much of what we want to do about
counterterrorism and organized crime are questions better said
in that. Thank you very much for being able to provide us with
that opportunity.
I have, essentially, two questions.
HEROIN
One, though, I want to raise is about heroin. And I have a
significant issue in Maryland, and it has been raised by our
local DEA people, as well as Governor Hogan. And we have heard
a place like Vermont has declared it the ``state of the State''
issue.
In fiscal year 2015, this subcommittee requested that the
Department of Justice (DOJ) convene a task force to come up
with a comprehensive Federal solution of law enforcement health
care treatment and prevention, not only law enforcement.
Director Comey, you told me that it had been handed to the
DEA. Is that right?
So could you tell me what DEA is doing? And are you the
task force that I asked for, because we have gotten very little
feedback about it?
Ms. Leonhart. Sure, I would be glad to address that.
The task force you called for was not tasked to DEA, but I
do know that the department has been looking at it and actually
has convened some meetings that we have attended to put
together----
Senator Mikulski. Is there a Department of Justice task
force, and I will ask the Attorney General, that you know of
that has the task force that we asked for?
Ms. Leonhart. I know that they have had meetings with
people outside the department and within the department, and
have gathered----
Senator Mikulski. Okay, so they didn't do it. And we will
come back to that.
Could you tell us, though, what you are doing, Ms.
Leonhart?
Ms. Leonhart. Sure. Maryland is a perfect example, when we
are talking about what it's going to take for our country to
actually stem the flow of the rising heroin problem.
As you know, in Maryland, heroin deaths nearly doubled.
And, in fact, when you look at all overdose deaths in Maryland
last year, the majority of them were actually heroin overdoses.
Over the past year, we put together a local task force. We
have one in Baltimore. We have a similar task force arrangement
here locally that we are working with our partners.
But in Baltimore, we became very concerned about why this
rise in heroin overdoses. We understand why there is more
heroin coming into our country, and that is because more and
more of it is coming--it's almost all Western hemisphere, but
more and more of it is coming from Mexico and is being
controlled by the same Mexican organizations and trafficking
groups that we see all across the country who have brought
cocaine, meth, marijuana to our communities.
So we started looking at it, and we started to be
concerned----
Senator Mikulski. Remember, I have 5 minutes, so could we
get----
Ms. Leonhart. Sure. We started to be concerned because
there was an epidemic of fentanyl-laced heroin that caused
overdoses, especially in Chicago and Detroit a few years back.
So we started working with the medical examiner offices,
coroners, working with county police departments. And we are
looking at those deaths, and we are finding that a number of
them are actually fentanyl-laced heroin overdoses.
So we have efforts going enforcement-wise, public service
announcements, warning local law enforcement----
Senator Mikulski. How many of these task forces do you
have, along with this great work you are doing in the Baltimore
community?
[The information follows:]
background
Heroin abuse and availability are increasing, particularly in the
Eastern United States. As reported in the National Survey on Drug Use
and Health (NSDUH), between 2008 and 2012, there was a 37 percent
increase in new heroin users. This demand is driven in part by
controlled prescription drug (CPD) abusers switching to heroin as it is
more available and less expensive. As a result, many cities and
counties across the United States, particularly in the Northeast and
Midwest, are reporting increased heroin overdose deaths. In addition, a
rapidly growing amount of heroin is being smuggled into the United
States on a daily basis.
dea task forces
DEA leads 192 task forces, which are made up of multiple Federal,
State, and local law enforcement agencies within a specific region.
They facilitate investigations by enhancing interagency coordination
and intelligence sharing, leveraging Federal resources, and combining
DEA expertise with local officers' investigative talents and knowledge
of their respective jurisdictions. Their mission is to identify,
disrupt, and dismantle the most serious domestic and international drug
trafficking and money laundering organizations responsible for the
Nation's drug supply. Most drug trafficking organizations are multi-
drug in nature; therefore, in general, DEA task forces do not target
specific drugs.
The Northeast United States, particularly New England, continues to
see a steady increase in heroin and opioid abuse and associated
overdoses. In April 2015, the Department of Justice's Organized Crime
Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) allocated additional funding to
be used to address the surge of heroin overdoses in the New England
Region. The funding will be provided to the DEA-led Boston OCDETF
Strike Force as part of Operation HEAT (Heroin Enforcement Action
Team). The task force will focus on heroin investigations and respond
to overdoses in eastern Massachusetts, gathering pertinent information
to develop a clearer understanding of major heroin traffickers in the
region. The DEA-led OCDETF Fusion Center will play a key role in
Operation HEAT by conducting target profiles on intelligence developed
by investigators. In addition, DEA's Special Operations Division
GangTECC will support Operation HEAT by providing case coordination,
telecommunication exploitation, and funding for the interception of
communication devices.
task force success stories
Maryland.--In February 2014, the Baltimore District Office (BDO)
created a Task Force to deal with the significant increase in the
fentanyl-laced heroin overdoses occurring in Maryland. Recently, the
Chief Medical Examiner and the Maryland Department of Health and Mental
Hygiene reported 141 fentanyl-related intoxication deaths within the
State between January and September 2014. For the preceding 7 years,
the State averaged just 22 fentanyl-related intoxication deaths in the
same 9-month period. Further, the BDO recently instituted Operation
Trojan Horse--an operational collaboration between DEA, the High
Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program, and various Maryland
State and local law enforcement partners, including seven of the most
afflicted areas of the State. The Task Force is designed to work as a
data collection clearinghouse that will solicit, process, and analyze
information from all fatal and non-fatal overdoses occurring in the
State of Maryland. The data will be shared with HIDTA and the
respective State and local law enforcement agencies to ensure proper
deconfliction, coordination, and cooperation.
Additionally, the BDO will engage with all participants to bolster
the development of educational and drug awareness programs, viable
tactics, and all applicable enforcement avenues to mitigate the further
spread of heroin/fentanyl and other abused opiates.
Pennsylvania.--In August 2013, the DEA Philadelphia Division
Intelligence Program was an integral part of the establishment of a
Pennsylvania statewide Overdose Rapid Response Task Force, in
conjunction with the Pennsylvania Office of Drug & Alcohol Program, the
Pennsylvania State Police, the Philadelphia/Camden HIDTA, and the
Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General. This information sharing
task force continues to function as a clearinghouse for drug overdose
data collection and information sharing with law enforcement, public
health, treatment, and policymakers throughout Pennsylvania.
The Philadelphia Division has prioritized heroin investigations
leading to bulk heroin seizures in Pennsylvania with an estimated value
of $6.2 million in 2014. Priority Target investigations conducted
within and outside the Philadelphia Division have resulted in these
seizures of Mexican drug trafficking organization (DTO)-sourced white
heroin.
Florida.--Since July 2013, the West Palm Beach District Office
(WPBDO) Task Force and the Delray Beach Police Department have
conducted an investigation into a heroin DTO operated by Gary Moore.
During the onset of the investigation, 5 heroin/fentanyl mixture
overdose deaths were reported out of 24 total heroin overdoses in the
area. Eight of these overdoses have been traced to the Moore DTO. Over
the last year and a half, DEA and law enforcement partners infiltrated
the Moore DTO using judicially authorized Federal Title III Intercepts.
On January 14, 2015, the WPBDO Task Force executed 7 search warrants
and 17 Federal arrest warrants, resulting in the seizure of
approximately 3 kilograms of heroin, 7 vehicles, 5 firearms,
approximately $40,000, and the arrest of 17 members of the Moore DTO.
interagency heroin task force
Additionally, the administration's interagency Heroin Task Force
held its first meeting in April 2015. This task force is co-chaired by
U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania David Hickton
and Office of National Drug Control Policy Deputy Director for State,
Local and Tribal Affairs Mary Lou Leary, and includes Federal agency
experts from law enforcement, medicine, public health, and education.
The task force will take an evidence-based approach to reducing the
public safety and public health consequences caused by heroin and
prescription opioids.
summary
Heroin is a growing problem in the United States and is being
driven by many factors, including an increase in the misuse and abuse
of prescription psychotherapeutic drugs, increases in heroin purity and
availability, the decreasing street cost of heroin, expanded Mexican
DTOs' involvement in the distribution of heroin, and the lack of public
awareness of the risks of heroin use. In response, DEA has increased
enforcement and prevention efforts and expanded its coordination with
government and private sector partners. DEA is well underway in its
efforts to fully understand the threat and ultimately reduce the abuse
and availability of heroin and opioids in illicit drug markets in the
United States.
Ms. Leonhart. Well, I know the Washington High Intensity
Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program is working----
Senator Mikulski. No, no, no. I am asking DEA, the
Baltimore efforts, I compliment you on. Okay?
I am frustrated that DOJ did not do the comprehensive
thing. Law enforcement is a tool. We have to look at
prevention, enforcement and interdiction, and then recovery,
okay?
Ms. Leonhart. Yes.
Senator Mikulski. So that is not going on.
You are doing a great effort. Do you have seven of these?
Do you have 17 of these efforts? How many do you have?
Ms. Leonhart. We have the main effort in Baltimore, but we
also have a couple of different task forces operating and
coordinating together here in Washington, DC, and then we have
communities throughout the country where we have replicated
what Baltimore did.
The results of what we have done, when we have been able to
get health folks together, law enforcement----
Senator Mikulski. Okay.
I am going to ask you. What are you doing on drugs,
Director Comey.
Mr. Comey. In every field office, we are engaged in
focusing on the complex trafficking organizations, almost all
the time in partnership with DEA. Our contribution to the
heroin epidemic has been to work with DEA to try and disrupt
the traffickers who are bringing it in.
Now we have not touched the other pieces you talked about.
Senator Mikulski. And does the Marshals Service have a
role?
Ms. Hylton. Our role is primarily dedicated to the regional
task forces and district task forces on the apprehension of the
fugitives involved. And so we work collectively with our
colleagues here, and the States and locals, in apprehending
drug fugitives.
Senator Mikulski. Mr. Jones.
Mr. Jones. Our role really is to look for the worst of
worst, those that are employing firearms to commit violent
crime that protect either their organization, or their
business. The guns are always the driver for us, but that
obviously leads us to some collaboration with DEA and FBI, and
State and locals across-the-board.
Senator Mikulski. Well, my time is up, but I think it says
we really need a different kind of coordination here.
First, I want to compliment everybody on what they are
doing. So it's not a criticism of you.
And the fact also, working with the State and local
governments, we had the methodology of task forces, but there
needs to be, I think, a more organized effort.
If we have a second round, I will follow up with other
questions. I appreciate what you are doing. I gained a great
deal of insight here. Thank you.
Senator Shelby. Senator Lankford.
Senator Lankford. Thank you.
I would like to follow up on what Senator Mikulski was just
talking about, because that is my same line of questions, as
well.
Does it exist currently that this subcommittee can have a
clear layout of the lanes of responsibility for dealing with
drug issues? Because in two areas that I can see clearly,
dealing with gangs and dealing with drugs, which obviously
there is a tremendous amount of overlap, all four of you have
lanes of responsibility in those areas.
Does it exist that there is a clear layout of who has what
lane?
Ms. Leonhart. I believe that there are very clear lines.
For instance, ATF and FBI have their violent crime task forces,
and our role at DEA is really to identify those trafficking
organizations, especially Mexican cartels and major Mexican
organizations that are supplying the gangs, and that is what is
fueling violence on our streets.
So we work together in a collaborative way, all knowing
what our lanes are. And I have been very proud to say, in the
12 years that I have been in Washington, we have not once run
into a problem that I had to go to the FBI Director and say we
were overlapping here. I have not had to go to the director of
the ATF. We work very well together, and we all know what our
lanes are.
Senator Lankford. So with that, I would like to have that
document just to be able to see, so we get some clarity of who
has what lane, if that is in there, if that is a task force or
whatever that may be. I would like to have that so that we can
get that clear differentiation.
[The information follows:]
bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives
The primary law enforcement mission of the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is to combat violent crimes
related to firearms, explosives and arson. These types of violent crime
investigations, especially those involving firearms, are frequently
intertwined with drug trafficking, particularly drug dealing by gangs
and other criminal organizations. Absent a nexus to firearms,
explosives or arson, however, ATF does not independently investigate
drug trafficking. ATF's Frontline business model mandates that criminal
investigations should be strategically focused on the most violent
crimes and criminals, and specifies that drug trafficking alone is an
insufficient basis to conduct an ATF investigation. ATF instead focuses
its resources on individuals and organizations agents who engage in
armed drug trafficking and engage in violent offenses as a tool of the
trade. ATF's core statutory jurisdiction is well suited to addressing
these armed traffickers, particularly title 18 section 924(c) of the
Gun Control Act, which prohibits the use of firearms and explosives in
furtherance of drug trafficking crimes.
The Frontline business model also mandates that ATF coordinate its
investigations with Federal, State and local law enforcement partners,
and that mandate is particularly applicable when drug trafficking is
involved in an investigation. ATF recognizes that the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) has primary jurisdiction and responsibility for
enforcement of Federal drug laws, and closely coordinates
investigations of drug trafficking organizations with DEA, on all
levels, national, regional and by field division. On a national,
strategic level, ATF also closely coordinates the investigation of drug
traffickers and organizations through the Department of Justice's
Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Program. The
OCDETF Program, which includes, among other participants, the Drug
Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, United States Marshals
Service, Department of Homeland Security and Internal Revenue Service,
is the Federal Government's primary vehicle for coordinating Federal,
State and local resources to efficiently combat drug trafficking
crimes. On both the national and the field division level, ATF also
works closely with the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA)
Program. Regional HIDTAs provide both resource coordination and
essential deconfliction services for drug trafficking and related
violent crime investigations. Finally, ATF works closely with U.S.
Attorneys and local prosecutors through existing coordinating councils
to ensure clear lanes of action and responsibility for local drug
investigations. Moreover, where such coordinating bodies do not already
exist, ATF's Frontline business model requires ATF Special Agents in
Charge to work with the U.S. Attorney and other partners to form
Violent Crime Reduction Partnerships (VCRP), to coordinate all efforts
to combat violent crime, including drug trafficking.
drug enforcement administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) mission is to enforce
the controlled substances laws and regulations of the United States and
bring to the criminal and civil justice system of the United States, or
any other competent jurisdiction, those organizations and principal
members of organizations involved in the growing, manufacture, or
distribution of controlled substances appearing in or destined for
illicit traffic in the United States; and to recommend and support non-
enforcement programs aimed at reducing the availability of illicit
controlled substances on the domestic and international markets.
DEA continues to prioritize its resources to disrupt and dismantle
the ``most wanted'' drug trafficking and money laundering organizations
primarily responsible for the Nation's illicit drug supply. This
includes the Consolidated Organizational Priority Targets (CPTOs)
identified by the Department of Justice (DOJ), plus other Priority
Target Organizations (PTOs) identified by DEA. DEA also places a high
priority on its efforts to prevent drug proceeds from ending up in the
hands of terrorist organizations.
To effectively accomplish its drug law enforcement mission, DEA
works cooperatively with various law enforcement agencies worldwide.
DEA participates in and contributes to the investigative efforts of
Federal, State, and local law enforcement through direct partnerships,
including task forces and information sharing initiatives. These
collaborative efforts improve the effective coordination of
investigative activity and deconfliction across agencies. DEA also
supplies intelligence and information that supports the disruption or
dismantlement of drug trafficking organizations and leads to numerous
drug seizures and arrests worldwide. DEA participates in a number of
Federal interagency efforts, including the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's Safe Streets and Safe Trails Task Forces, ATF's Violent
Crime Impact Teams and Project Safe Neighborhoods, the DOJ's Weed and
Seed Program, and Attorney General's Anti-Gang Coordination Committee.
The sharing of DEA intelligence and resources has led to many
successful operations and highly effective drug law enforcement.
Because of the international nature of drug trafficking, experience
has shown that strong partnerships with foreign counterparts are vital
in the drug law enforcement arena. Furthermore, DEA is not authorized
to operate unilaterally overseas, so cooperation with the U.S. State
Department, as well as foreign law enforcement agencies is essential to
the DEA mission. To build and nurture these relationships, DEA has 86
offices in 67 foreign countries and more than 700 onboard employees
stationed overseas. DEA's cooperative partnerships with foreign nations
help them to develop more self-sufficient, effective drug law
enforcement programs. As part of this effort, DEA conducts training for
host country police agencies at the DEA training facilities in
Quantico, Virginia and on-site in the host countries. DEA also works
with host nation counterparts to stand up and train vetted units of
foreign law enforcement officers with whom DEA works and shares
information. In addition, the United States has extradition
relationships with many nations and DEA makes use of these arrangements
whenever possible. The agency's worldwide partnerships have led to
multiple arrests and extraditions of the highest-level drug traffickers
and money launderers, narcoterrorists, and international arms dealers.
In addition to Federal and international partnerships, DEA also
recognizes the need for continued coordination of drug enforcement
efforts with State and local counterparts across the country. DEA has
221 domestic offices organized in 21 divisions throughout the United
States and works closely with State and local partners. Cooperation
provides advantages to all participating agencies and provides a
Federal presence in sparsely populated areas where DEA would not
otherwise be represented. Through the end of the fourth quarter fiscal
year 2014, DEA led 192 State and local task forces. Moreover, these
task forces consisted of an on-board strength of 2,235 DEA Special
Agents and 2,668 State and local task force officers, all of whom are
deputized with title 21 authority and dedicated full-time to
investigate major DTOs and address trafficking problems in their local
communities. Through the end of fiscal year 2014, DEA has trained
39,932 State and local law enforcement officers. In fiscal year 2013,
DEA trained 41,004 State and local officers (totals include Clandestine
Laboratory Certification Training). The number of State and local
officers trained fluctuates from year-to-year due to the number of
training sessions conducted in the field. DEA-led task forces act as
force multipliers by drawing on the expertise of State and local law
enforcement.
DEA also provides direct assistance to other law enforcement
agencies through its State and local law enforcement clandestine
laboratory training program. At the clandestine lab training facility,
DEA trains Federal, State, local and foreign law enforcement officials
on the latest techniques in clandestine laboratory detection,
enforcement, and safety. In fiscal year 2014, the Clandestine
Laboratory Training Unit conducted training for a total of 1,484 State
and local law enforcement officers. This includes State and local
Clandestine Laboratory Certification Training, Site Safety Training,
Tactical Training, as well as training conducted for the National Guard
and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) National Improvised
Explosive Familiarization Training.
federal bureau of investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) role in dealing with
the drug issue revolves around its investigative strategy to target
criminal organizations rather than specific underlying offenses.
Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) conduct various criminal
activities such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, violent crime
(to include gangs), money laundering, and public corruption. In order
to meet this threat, the FBI investigates TCOs holistically by
gathering intelligence on the criminal activities, structure, and
hierarchy of the organization, and subsequently using a cross-
programmatic investigation to target the TCO.
The FBI participates in various HIDTAs and OCDETF Strike Forces to
accomplish this mission. Additionally, the FBI has Hybrid Task Forces
(HTFs) which are designed to utilize the force multiplier of Federal,
local and State Task Force Officers (TFOs) in an effort to target TCOs
cross-programmatically.
united states marshals service
The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is the Federal
Government's primary agency for conducting fugitive investigations.
While the USMS is responsible for investigating and apprehending
individuals wanted for escaping from Federal prison, and for Federal
parole and probation violations, it has a long and distinguished
history of providing assistance and expertise to other Federal, State,
and local law enforcement agencies in support of fugitive
investigations. In 1988, the USMS signed a Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) delegating
apprehension authority to the USMS if DEA does not apprehend the
fugitive within 7 days of issuing an arrest warrant. Drug-related
offenses represent the highest percentages of USMS fugitive arrests.
From fiscal year 2012-2014, 30 percent of the fugitives arrested were
for drug warrants.
The Marshals Service uses its district and regional fugitive task
force network to combine the efforts of Federal, State and local law
enforcement agencies to locate and arrest the most dangerous fugitives.
These task forces are designed and managed to ensure the highest levels
of cooperation, coordination, and deconfliction among participating
agencies to organize investigations and protect officer safety not only
in high density regions and core cities but also in surrounding cities
and small rural areas that face difficulties dealing with violent
offenders' criminal activity.
In addition to the network of USMS-led fugitive task forces and its
targeted initiatives, the USMS has partnered with the Organized Crime
Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) for over 30 years. Since the
inception of OCDETF, the USMS has played an integral part in the war on
drugs and has been able to dramatically reduce the number of
outstanding OCDETF fugitives.
It is important to note that the USMS fugitive task forces locate
and apprehend Federal, State, and local fugitives both within and
outside the United States. Since 2003, the USMS has worked with other
U.S. Government agencies in its three foreign field offices (Mexico,
Dominican Republic, and Jamaica) and Colombia to apprehend high-profile
fugitives. Targeted fugitives range from major Transnational Criminal
Organizations (TCO) to Consolidated Priority Organization Target (CPOT)
cartel leaders, murderers, kidnappers, sex offenders and violent
criminals.
In addition to high-profile fugitive investigations, the USMS
counter-narcotics efforts are worked, coordinated, exploited and
deconflicted with the DEA's Special Operations Division inter-agency
efforts, foreign field offices and appropriate leads in conjunction
with the intelligence community. Though the USMS only has permanent
presence in three countries, the USMS has an extensive network of
foreign police contacts developed through outreach efforts and
international fugitive training programs. Designated by the Department
of Justice, the USMS is the Federal Government's primary agency for
apprehending fugitives and has statutory responsibility for all
international extraditions. The USMS routinely coordinates and conducts
more than 400 extraditions annually with 40 percent of the
international removals relating to narcotics.
Senator Lankford. But part of the issue for us, as well, as
we deal with the budget issues, we appreciate very much what
you do and the folks that are on the street and individuals
that literally lay down their life for our country and do that
every day, and their family members deal with the grief, and
our Nation grieves.
We want to have the maximum number of people that are
actually engaged on the street, both protecting each other and
protecting our Nation, as possible, and the least amount in
administrative work. So where there are areas of overlap, and
one entity is really near-related to another entity, we would
rather have one entity have more folks on the street and have
half the administrative costs, as much as possible.
So that would help us to be able to get that perspective.
Another one is, I know there is a lot of focus right now on
international terrorism, rightfully so by the way. But we can't
lose the focus on drug and gang violence that is happening in
the United States, because we lose more folks to drug and gang
violence every week in the United States than we do
international terrorism.
Now, we can't put one priority over another one. We just
can't lose that priority. And I would continue to reinforce
that again with the funds and with the focus that we have. That
is a continued major emphasis that we have to keep up that
obviously DEA is trying to lead the way on so much, but all
four of your entities are very, very involved in that as well.
Let me do a specific question to Mr. Jones here, as well.
The Attorney General Eric Holder and I had a conversation
several years ago, coming out of the backside of ``Fast and
Furious.'' It was a conversation about some of the procedures
and process in trying to align the FBI processes for how to do
undercover operations and the permissions and the access points
going all the way to DC with ATF, because there are two
different sets of processes.
That was about 3 years ago that we had that conversation
that was ongoing.
ATF INTEGRATION OF DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE POLICIES
Do you know where that is, in status right now, in trying
to align ATF processes with more of an FBI-like process for
investigations?
Mr. Jones. Senator, thank you for the question, and I think
we are in a very better place than we were 3 years ago. I had
three priorities when I came onboard.
One was to get the organization healthy, and that is not
just in resources. It is the infamous morale question.
Number two was to fully integrate ATF into the Department
of Justice policies. Coming from a U.S. attorney background,
having served on the Attorney General's Advisory Committee
(AGAC), being intimately familiar with Undercover Review
Committee, Confidential Informant (CI) Committee, all of the
processes that are there at the Department of Justice, we are
on target with integrating and making sure that we are in sync
with all of the DOJ law enforcement components on how we do
some of those fundamentals, in terms of processes for higher or
high-risk law enforcement operations.
Now, the challenge for all of us, and the thing that gets
attention oftentimes, is when the policy is not put into
practice completely and uniformly across the country. That is
sometimes a challenge, because putting it into practice
involves your people and communication and training.
Senator Lankford. But where do you think that is, in
implementation of the policy, though, first?
Mr. Jones. For us?
Senator Lankford. Yes.
Mr. Jones. For ATF?
Senator Lankford. Yes.
Mr. Jones. We are in sync with DOJ policy across-the-board,
and we will continue to refine all of our orders and policies
and practices on paper and in practice.
PRISONER DETENTION POPULATION
Senator Lankford. Okay, thank you. One final question as
well. There is a decrease in budget on the prisoner detention
budget line item on that, and the reason that was done was a
decline in population, which, by the way, is often good news on
that. But can you tell me the reason that you see there is a
decline in Federal prisoner population?
Ms. Hylton. You are accurate, Senator. The major
contributor is the decline in the population. It is also a lot
of efficiency and time in detention that has been reduced in
business practices. So those two combined.
Senator Lankford. For any certain population that there is
a decline in length of detention?
Ms. Hylton. The decline in population--it will stay strong
in immigration. It stays at a steady pace. There is a slight
decline in drugs and a slight decline in supervised release,
but those fluctuate primarily because of the length of time it
takes to prosecute the cases. So it's time in detention that
really impacts the dollar at times.
Immigration has a faster processing of those cases compared
to drugs. So it's really detention time that reduces it.
Senator Lankford. Okay, thank you.
I yield back.
Ms. Hylton. Thank you.
Senator Shelby. Senator Feinstein.
Senator Feinstein. Thanks very much, Mr. Chairman.
Director Comey, I want to thank you for the work your
people do in counterterrorism. I was there when Bob Mueller
announced the development of an intelligence branch in the FBI.
At that time, I had some concerns about it.
I have watched its evolution, and I just want to say that
whether it was Najibullah Zazi, which is well-known, or plots
that are not well-known, the FBI has been able to disrupt plots
in the United States. I think that is a very important and
significant thing. And I want very much to thank you for it.
I want to ask you, yes or no. One of my disappointments was
to learn that the 6-year report of the Senate Intelligence
Committee on the detention and interrogation program sat in a
locker and no one looked at it. Let me tell you why I am
disappointed.
The report, the 6,000 pages and the 38,000 footnotes, which
has been compiled, contains numerous examples of a learning
experience of cases, of interrogation, of where the Department
could learn perhaps some new things from past mistakes. The
fact that it hasn't been opened, at least that is what has been
reported to me, is really a great disservice. It is classified.
It is meant for the appropriate department. You are, certainly,
one of them.
I would like to ask if you'll open that report and
designate certain people to read it, and maybe even have a
discussion how things might be improved by suggestions in the
report.
Mr. Comey. I will do that, Senator. As you know, I have
read the executive summary. You asked me to do it during my
confirmation hearing. I kept that promise and read it.
There are a small number of people at the FBI who have
read, as I understand it, the entire thing. But what we have
not done, and I think it's a very good question, is have we
thought about whether there are lessons learned for us, because
it's a tendency for me to think we don't engage in
interrogation like that, so what is there to learn?
I don't think I have thought about----
Senator Feinstein. Well, you did. And Bob Mueller pulled
your people out, which is a great tribute to him.
Mr. Comey. So the answer is yes, I will think about it
better and I will figure out where we are in terms of looking
at the entire thing. I don't know enough about where the
document sits at this point in time, and you mentioned a lock
box. I don't know that well enough to comment on it at this
point.
HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Senator Feinstein. Thank you very much.
Let me talk to you about another problem. Human trafficking
is now the second largest criminal enterprise in the world. It
is behind only the drug trade. In this country too, children
12, 13, and 14 are being trafficked. They are being transported
across State lines to cities all over the United States.
In some areas like Los Angeles, even street gangs are
running these trafficking rings. So traffickers, now to
distance themselves, have come upon a method of using the
Internet. There are some 20 Internet sites where a purveyor, a
trafficker, for as little as a dollar can buy an ad. So the
Internet effectively becomes complicit.
Now these are children. These are underage girls, sometimes
underage boys. They are held against their will.
I have become very concerned about this and will be doing
more on it. But my question to you is, what can the FBI do to
really make this a major priority and crack down on it? It is
international, but it's also big-time national.
Mr. Comey. Well, I think your characterization of it is
correct, Senator. It is a huge feature of our work in all of
our field offices. We work in 70-some task forces to try and
address it. We work internationally in our 64 legal attache
offices (legats) to try and address it. So it's a big feature
in our life.
We are trying to make sure we send a message that there are
huge costs to doing this in the United States. We are focused
on the individuals. You allude to the challenge with Internet
sites; that is a challenge for us. Obviously, we have a
wonderful country with a First Amendment that protects people's
ability to create sites.
We are trying to focus on the individuals who may be
operating a site for purposes of trafficking and lock them up
for a long period of time, and we are doing that all over the
country.
Senator Feinstein. Have you had any success?
Mr. Comey. Oh, yes. We sure have.
Senator Feinstein. Could we learn more about that?
Mr. Comey. Sure.
Senator Feinstein. Okay. Not now, but I would appreciate
sitting down with you.
BACKGROUND CHECKS
According to the Government Accountability Office, the
famous GAO, for the last 10 years, February 2004 to December
2014, there were 2,233 cases in which a known or suspected
terrorist, individuals who were on the Federal terrorist watch
list at the time, attempted to buy a firearm or obtain an
explosives permit.
In 91 percent of the cases--this is not me, this is the
GAO--2,043 separate occasions, those known or suspected
terrorists were successful in passing a background check. What
can be done about this?
Mr. Comey. Well, Senator, what we do now is, if someone on
the watch list purchases or attempts to purchase a firearm, an
immediate alert is sent to the agents who are the source of the
suspicion about that individual, so they can incorporate that
information into their investigation.
It is a little bit challenging for us because ``known or
suspected'' means it hasn't been adjudicated in every case that
somebody is a terrorist. It is somebody we're investigating. So
we don't want to, obviously, blow our investigation.
Senator Feinstein. Well, let me say this, in 2007, the Bush
administration's Justice Department drafted legislation to
close what is a gap and prevent a known or suspected terrorist
from buying a gun or explosive in this country.
In 2009, Attorney General Holder expressed the Obama
administration's support for the legislation. And I introduced
similar legislation in the Senate last year.
The question comes for the law enforcement element of the
administration to really come forward and be supportive of
this, because the National Rifle Association even opposes this.
Now, this is terrorists.
You know, we can have people come into this country meaning
to do us harm, and they can go in and buy a weapon to carry it
out. That is simply unacceptable.
So I want to bring it to your attention. We have to come
together and prevent this from happening.
Your biggest concern is the lone wolf. The lone wolf can
come in unarmed. He can buy the explosives. He can buy the gun.
This must be stopped.
Mr. Comey. Thank you, Senator.
Senator Feinstein. No comment?
Mr. Comey. I don't know where the administration is on the
legislation, so I have nothing intelligent to say about that. I
am focused on the operational piece of it, to make sure that we
are alerted. I will have to find out where the administration
stands on the legislation.
Senator Feinstein. If you will, and I would also like to
know where you stand.
Mr. Comey. Oh, I am the FBI, I don't----
Senator Feinstein. You don't stand?
Mr. Comey. I don't stand. I am too tall to stand.
Senator Feinstein. Thank you.
Mr. Comey. Thank you.
Senator Feinstein. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Shelby. Senator Boozman.
Senator Boozman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you all
for being here. We appreciate all that you represent.
Director Jones, first of all, I would like for you to be
sure and send our condolences to Special Agent William
Sheldon's wife and two young children. I understand that he has
lost a battle with cancer, and we, certainly, are thinking of
him.
And Director Hylton, we want, also, to express our
condolences to Josie Wells, who was killed in the line of duty
on March 10th, again, to family and friends, and the U.S.
Marshals Service.
I think these things illustrate what you all are about, and
we really do appreciate you.
I really want to follow up on what Senator Mikulski was
talking about, and Senator Lankford in a different way, and the
tools that we have out there to try and fight the drug
epidemic, and along with that, the violent crime that comes
with that.
VIOLENCE REDUCTION NETWORK
Director Jones, as a response to violent crime in Little
Rock and West Memphis, Arkansas, I understand that both are
potentially candidates to be named a Violence Reduction
Network. Can you talk a little bit about that initiative, and
how that is helpful?
Mr. Jones. Thank you, Senator, for the question. The VRN,
the Violence Reduction Network, is an initiative that ``the old
becomes new,'' and it really is a collaborative effort with not
only Federal law enforcement across-the-board, but also with
State and locals, to address violent crime at a multitude of
levels and make it sustainable.
I know that Little Rock, in particular, has been discussed
as a VRN potential site. It also is a site where we have done
some work through our New Orleans field division to try and
address the unacceptable levels, at times, of violent crime.
But, the VRN really has a lot of potential. It is in its
genesis. There are 10 cities now. There has been a conference
here. We brought all the stakeholders, D.A.s, U.S. Attorneys,
State and local police departments, and all of the Federal
agencies represented here, to discuss, in a very focused way,
the nature of the violent crime problem, the perpetrators of
the violence in those communities, and sustainable strategies
to lower it, eradicate it, and sustain it.
HIGH INTENSITY DRUG TRAFFICKING AREAS
Senator Boozman. Very good.
And related, Ms. Leonhart, High Intensity Drug Trafficking
Areas (HIDTA), can you talk a little bit about that and how
that fits in?
Ms. Leonhart. Sure. The HIDTA program is run by the Office
of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), not DEA. But all of
the agencies at the table----
Senator Mikulski. Tell Senator Boozman what those initials
stand for. Not that he doesn't know, but we get lost in
initials that you know every day.
Senator Boozman. You are exactly right.
Senator Mikulski. And they sound like cans of alphabet soup
to us, or Scrabble games.
Ms. Leonhart. Sure. It is the High Intensity Drug
Trafficking Area program, and it is run by the Office of
National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). There are numerous
HIDTAs. They are big task forces, with different initiatives
that bring State, local, and Federal together.
In these HIDTA task forces we are able to concentrate on,
kind of in a regional concept, the threats, both drug and other
violent-type crime, that are wreaking havoc on those
communities.
Senator Boozman. So, I guess my question is, is there a way
to, and we could go down the line, we have all of these
programs going on. Is there a way to integrate the programs, so
that when you are doing your thing, Director Jones, and you are
doing your thing, Ms. Leonhart, and Director Hylton, FBI, do we
integrate those things when we go into a community?
Ms. Leonhart. Absolutely. The beauty of, say, a HIDTA task
force is that some of the groups are run by the FBI,
concentrating on the violent gangs that the FBI brings
expertise to the table on. Others are fugitive-related and run
by the Marshals Service to make sure that we are going after
the most significant, and most wanted violators in the area.
Then the ones that are concentrating on firearms are often run
by the ATF.
They are integrated and, actually, all the different
initiatives and task forces complement each other, and that is
why our four departments, and our State and local partners can
almost seamlessly work between these task forces to go after
the threat.
Senator Boozman. Thank you.
Ms. Hylton, very quickly, because I am out of time, if we
do make it such that we reduce the Federal prison population,
how is that going to affect you guys?
Ms. Hylton. Well, I think there are always criminals ready
to come into the system, unfortunately, on our streets. So as
the prison population decreases, our detention population is
all contingent on what is arrested and brought in.
As all of us fight for gangs and drugs to be reduced, I see
that population as continuing to come into detention, as we all
aggressively address those issues that Congress has explained.
So I think we will still see them incoming. You will see
the population go down in prisons, but you will see it come
back up in detention. Thank you.
Senator Boozman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Again, thank you all for being here, very much.
Senator Shelby. Senator Murphy.
Senator Murphy. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I wanted to follow up on some of the early questions
regarding the work that ATF is doing, following on the Law
Enforcement Officers Protection Act.
This was, just for the subcommittee's recollection, a piece
of legislation that was passed in 1986 by a 400-21 margin in
the House of Representatives, passed by unanimous consent in
the United States Senate. President Reagan said, upon signing
it, that there are ``certain forms of ammunition that have no
legitimate sporting, recreational or self-defense use and,
thus, should be prohibited.''
It has always been tricky work to try to stay true to the
act's intention of stopping criminals from killing law
enforcement officers with specifically dangerous types of
weapons, while also preserving the right of sportsmen and
hunters to enjoy their pastime.
But I just want to first thank the ATF, you mentioned in
your prepared testimony, for the amazing work that they did in
and around the Sandy Hook shooting, but also just to relay a
story.
I was in that firehouse mere hours after the shooting took
place, and I had a law enforcement officer who was standing
next to me remark that, in a way, he was glad that Adam Lanza
took his own life, because he feared for the life and the
safety of his officers should a shootout have occurred, given
the ammunition, given the power of the weapons that were found
on Mr. Lanza's possession. That speaks to why we passed this
act in the first place.
So I wanted to just ask a follow-up question as to why we
were considering this particular type of ammunition in the
first place. It is my understanding that what has happened here
over time, when we talk about these ``green tips,'' is that
they were initially exempt, in part because they were only used
in rifles. But they now are able to be used in handguns.
And we look at handguns in a different way, given that they
are much more likely to be used in an assault on an officer,
and, in fact, the underlying legislation specifically
references handguns as something that ATF should be looking at.
So I just think it would be helpful for us to understand
why you got to the point of proposing that we take a new look
at a type of ammunition that had been exempted, as you said,
for a period of time.
It is used in a different way today. That is the reason for
the relook, correct?
COMMENT PERIOD ON THE EXEMPT FRAMEWORK FOR ARMOR PIERCING AMMUNITION
Mr. Jones. Senator, I think it's important to remember that
this 30-day period for public comment on a framework involves
additional exemptions. The classification for that particular
round, which is military surplus, which is 5.56 mm, 62-grain,
steel core, following into the parameters of LEOPA as armor-
piercing, was given. And it's had an exemption for 30 years. It
has been on the market for that long. It has been available to
folks for 30 years or more.
I think the challenge for us, separate and apart from how
do we grant exemptions going forward, and given recent
experience, it's probably not going to happen any time soon, is
the evolution of firearms technology and some of the platforms,
assault-rifle-based platforms, that have evolved over those 30
years, and the capabilities of those, and concealability of
those. And, in fact, some of them that would qualify as pistol
platforms create some challenges for us.
Now, I do believe that this is going to take work across-
the-board, that this is not going to be something that ATF
alone is going to do through a regulatory process. LEOPA is
absolutely critical to officers' safety. I think everybody has
concerns, if you are paying attention to some of the challenges
there, the handgun phenomena, the crime gun phenomena, and the
pistol phenomena.
But as we see more and more of the firearms that could be
classified as pistols being able to use not just this M855
round, but any 5.56 mm round, it's a challenge for officer
safety, and for public safety.
Bottom line, you all have an opportunity maybe to have a
discussion that we would gladly help you with on LEOPA, because
it was passed in 1986 and a lot has happened in the last 30
years.
Senator Murphy. I appreciate it. My time has expired. I
appreciate the answer to the question.
I'd just point out the genesis of the law to just remind
folks, this was bipartisan at the outset. And as we perfect it,
and, as you mentioned, this rule contemplates exempting far
more types of ammunition than it involves prohibiting, that we
should remember the bipartisan spirit in which we began this
effort. Hopefully, we can regain that.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Shelby. Senator Capito.
Senator Capito. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Mikulski. Senator, could you withhold while I just
say one word to Senator Boozman?
Senator Capito. Sure.
Senator Mikulski. This goes to heroin. I didn't know when
you were leaving.
I think there is a real bipartisan interest on this
subcommittee around this issue. DOJ is supposed to give me--not
me, excuse me, that was the old days--give the subcommittee--a
report, an interim report, because we asked for a task force.
When we get that, we will have a staff briefing so we can
all be up-to-date and really have a concerted effort in it. I
just wanted to say that.
Senator Shelby. Senator Capito.
Senator Capito. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I want to thank the witnesses. I apologize for missing your
testimony. I was chairing my own subcommittee, and I wanted to
make sure I got here.
But I also want to thank you for your service to our
country. I appreciate it very much.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE INFORMATION SERVICES
Director Comey, we are extremely proud of the work being
done by the Criminal Justice Information Services at the FBI
facility in Clarksburg. Over the years, biometrics has been
exceedingly useful to the FBI and its partners in the law
enforcement and intelligence communities, not only to
authenticate an individual's identity to confirm that you are
who you say you are, but more importantly, to figure out who
someone is by either a fingerprint left on a murder weapon or a
bomb, for example, typically by scanning a database of records
for a match.
The FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division
(CJIS) division has been a leader in biometrics and
information-sharing for decades, and since the 1990s, the FBI
has been saving the American taxpayers hundreds of millions of
dollars by defraying the cost of running, automating, and
modernizing its fingerprint repository, formally known as
IAFIS.
But this budget seems to jeopardize those efforts. It
includes an offset of $120 million for this important function.
Director Comey, can you tell this subcommittee what the
impact would be and how this reduction could affect the FBI's
ability to invest in the latest biometric technology, including
facial recognition, iris scans, and DNA, just to name a few?
Mr. Comey. Thank you, Senator. During my opening statement,
I was bragging a little bit about my CJIS folks, because they
are a hidden gem in the FBI. I believe they are the frame upon
which hangs all of law enforcement.
The information we share, the identities we share, the DNA,
all of it goes through that great facility there. And I am very
excited we are going to open, very shortly, a biometrics
facility with DOD that is going to make this country even
safer.
I told them when I visited them, I said people don't know
how cool you are here in West Virginia, and that is part of a
testament to the quality of your work. You do it so well that
everybody takes it for granted.
So I'm very excited about CJIS. They know how much I love
and admire their work.
The answer is, I don't think that it will have an impact.
There is an offset in the budget that is about additional
moneys in the CJIS account that came from fee-for-service. The
statute, as I understand it, restricts my use of that fund in
certain ways.
I am looking for ways in which to use it consistent with
the law. But my understanding is this $125 million, the loss of
that will not affect next-generation identification, the DNA
database, any of the great work we are doing out there. It is
simply some extra dough that came in over time from fees being
paid, that we can use to invest in additional information
systems. But even if we are not able to, it's not going to
affect the rest of the work.
Senator Capito. Well, that is good, because I think the
modernization is something that is ongoing, changing forever.
And we are extremely pleased to have the CJIS folks and the FBI
in Clarksburg.
It has been a wonderful addition to our community, and we
know how great it is out there, too, so I appreciate that.
I would like to ask Director Jones a question, because you
also have a facility in West Virginia.
ATF'S MARTINSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA FACILITY
Mr. Jones. A wonderful facility.
Senator Capito. Yes. And there is an aspect of the budget,
which I am pleased about and would like to ask you, regarding
the investment of a proposed ATF tracing facility in
Martinsburg. I think this would be an amplification of what was
already existing there, but you are requesting an $8.1 million
increase for the facility for a mixture of personnel and
equipment software upgrades.
Can you discuss the work that is being done at the tracing
center there, and why this increase would be justified?
Mr. Jones. Well, like Director Comey, I love our facility
in West Virginia because it does such critical work to what we
do. We have our National Firearms Act (NFA) branch there that
processes the ever-increasing number of requests for NFA
licenses. That has primarily been driven by silencers. We got
almost a quarter of a million requests last year.
So that $8.1 million would do two things. One, it will
allow us to add, permanently, 10 more legal instrument
examiners that are crucial to processing the NFA, and we are
making progress on cutting down the time. And it will give us
money for contractors, because about half of our workforce in
Martinsburg is contractors that not only do NFA licensing, they
also do our crime gun-tracing.
And we have a Violent Crime Analysis branch, and our
Firearms Technology branch is out there.
So that is kind of the heart of our gun work at ATF. It is
out there in that Martinsburg facility.
Senator Capito. Okay, good. That is good news. I,
certainly, would be supportive of that.
Well, I think I am out of time, but if I could make a quick
comment, because I missed the discussion on heroin, and the
ranking member mentioned that.
I am assuming that is in reflection of the rise of heroin,
the rise in heroin overdoses, younger people being affected by
this. Even in a small State like West Virginia, this is having
some devastating effects. And I, certainly, would love to be a
part of some preventive measures, either at the supply or
demand side, to try to stop what we see happening and
destroying lives all across this country.
So I want to be supportive of those efforts. Thank you.
Senator Shelby. Senator Shaheen.
Senator Shaheen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you very much for your service and for being here
this morning.
HEROIN
I guess I want to start with Administrator Leonhart,
because I want to follow up on Senator Capito's comments,
Senator Mikulski's comments, so many of the other comments that
we have heard about the heroin epidemic around this country.
We are seeing it in New Hampshire and northern New England.
In New Hampshire in the last 10 years, we have seen people
admitted to State treatment programs increase 90 percent for
heroin use, 500 percent prescription drug use. So it truly is
an epidemic.
One police chief described it to me this way, he said, when
we have someone shooting up at 2 o'clock in the afternoon in
the parking lot of Target in Bedford, which is a very upscale
community, we know we have a problem.
So we have a problem. What I am interested in is not which
lanes people are in. I am interested in what coordination is
going on between agencies.
Specifically, I have done a series of roundtables, meeting
with law enforcement, treatment officials, and the medical
community in New Hampshire, because one of the things that we
have heard there is that the heroin abuse is the result of
prescription drug abuse, and that one place where there is a
breakdown in how we address this issue has to do with
prescribing, and the medical community needs to be very
involved in that discussion.
As far as I can tell at the national level, we are not
doing as much as we should be doing. So can I ask you, or
anyone on the panel, I suppose--Director Comey, you might have
some thoughts about this.
But what are you doing to coordinate the efforts that your
agency is engaging in? And how are you getting out information
about those activities to local communities, the availability
of grant moneys, what resources are available in local
communities?
PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE
Ms. Leonhart. I will start with that.
Yes, the Northeast especially, with the exploding
prescription drug problem, what follows is the heroin problem.
So what we have done and have done very well with our State and
local partners in the Northeast is we have tactical diversion
squads of diversion investigators, DEA agents, intel analysts,
and State and local officers. They become the teams that are
responsible for not only the prescription drug problem but also
the rise in heroin abuse in those communities.
Senator Shaheen. And excuse me for interrupting, but are
you working with the medical community, and with some of our
medical colleges around the whole prescribing challenge? One of
the issues is that doctors are not really given a lot of
guidance on how to prescribe because it is a variable issue,
depending on the disease, on the individual.
Ms. Leonhart. That is correct. It is the one drug problem
that isn't just about law enforcement.
So there are a number of efforts. We have been at the table
with medical professionals. We have gone out. We have had
seminars. We have worked with our U.S. attorneys to bring the
medical community, the law enforcement community, treatment and
prevention people together. A number of those efforts have
actually occurred in the Northeast.
But overprescribing is one of the major problems. In our
work with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS),
the lane for the doctor's education falls with them. However,
we have all partnered together and have offered training and we
have actually gone out to schools.
Senator Shaheen. So how is that reflected in your budget?
As you look at where your priorities are for addressing this
issue, how would you rate the enforcement side versus the
prevention and the outreach efforts that you are doing?
Ms. Leonhart. Thank you, Senator, for bringing that up,
because there is a piece of our budget that this subcommittee
could be very helpful with, and that is our DCFA part of the
budget that handles diversion control.
With that budget, it will allow us to continue to do
outreach. Part of that outreach is working with the medical
associations and getting the word out. We put a number of
things on our Web site. We give them training manuals, a number
of things.
The budget for 2016, if we were to get that money, it will
allow us to continue that outreach, as well as bring 50
additional diversion investigators and 50 additional special
agents into the program.
Enforcement is just one piece. We feel that the public
outreach is very important. And with our 66 diversion squads
around the country, it allows them additional resources to be
able to go out and reach the medical community, and is one of
our priorities.
Senator Shaheen. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Shelby. Senator Baldwin.
Senator Baldwin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Ranking
Member Mikulski.
And thank you to our panel of witnesses for your service
and commitment of the men and women you lead.
I want to follow right on this line of questioning with
Administrator Leonhart.
VETERANS ADMINISTRATION
Reports indicate that the DEA is investigating drug
diversion from a Veterans Affairs medical facility in Tomah,
Wisconsin. This facility is also the subject of a broader
Veterans Administration (VA) investigation into opioid and
benzodiazepine prescribing practices and management issues at
the medical facility.
Of course, the VA is itself a Federal agency, and the
possibility that illicit drug use and sale may be fueled in
part by the Federal Government is just extremely troubling.
I look forward to discussing your investigation into the
Tomah facility during the closed session. But I have two
related questions for this session.
Has the DEA identified VA medical facilities as a potential
source of illicit opioid drug distribution?
Ms. Leonhart. In this setting, I am not going to be able to
talk specifically about Tomah. But I will say, in general, that
we are concerned with any medical facility that is contributing
to diversion and contributing to prescription drug abuse.
We have the authorities. We have regulatory authorities and
administrative authorities that we have used, and we will use,
whether it is a VA facility or not.
So we share your concerns, especially when this is
regarding our treatment for our veterans.
DRUG ABUSE
Senator Baldwin. You noted in your testimony that
prescription drug abuse, and particularly prescription of
opioids, has become a national crisis. The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that more than 16,000
people died using prescription opioids. That is about 37
percent of all drug overdose deaths in the United States during
the calendar year 2013.
Experts see a direct connection between this and the
increase in heroin use and overdose deaths. We have heard some
of my colleagues cite local numbers and tragedies in this
regard. In Wisconsin, in Milwaukee County alone, we saw a 72
percent increase in heroin-related deaths from 2013 to 2014,
just 1 year.
So I know you have been asked this in many different ways,
but what is your overall strategy or overarching strategy that
we need to know about for cracking down on prescription drug
diversion and heroin abuse? And does your budget request
include sufficient funding to meaningfully reduce drug
diversion and heroin abuse?
Ms. Leonhart. Thank you, Senator. Yes, if you support the
budget request, it will allow us to continue at the DEA to
prioritize heroin and prescription drug abuse.
We can't separate the two. You are absolutely correct that
the prescription drug abuse has led to a heroin epidemic.
The funds that we are asking for in the 2016 budget allow
us to do a number of things. One is continue expansion of our
tactical diversion squads. Those are the squads that are going
to be able to go into communities, not just our big cities, but
we have actually started to move these out into smaller cities,
and pockets of the country that have had severe prescription
drug problems.
We are working those problems, and we are also able to,
both on our diversion side and our enforcement side, work on
those organizations that are taking advantage of the addiction
in these areas, moving drugs into those communities, and
working with our State and local partners, our other Federal
partners, and where to take off those distribution
organizations.
At the same time with our diversion control personnel, we
are using every tool we have in the toolbox, including
regulatory authority, and administrative authority. We have
pumped up the regulatory side to make sure that they are out
doing cyclical investigations. We are focusing on the entire
string, so from the manufacturers to the distributors,
pharmacies, doctors, you name it.
A piece we are also concentrating on is educating the
public. There are certain tools that doctors should be using,
pharmacists. It's important for them, the Prescription Drug
Monitoring Programs (PDMPs). We now have 49 States that have
either passed laws for PDMPs or have them in use. We understand
Missouri, the last State, has just passed or there is a bill
being looked at.
Using every tool to include disposal and getting the drugs
out of the medicine cabinet, has been very important in this
fight. So it's not just enforcement. It's not just the
outreach. It's hitting at each and every level to be able to
take care of the prescription drug problem. We have seen over
the last year to year and a half, it began to level off. But
that heroin problem continues to rise.
Then our international folks play a huge role here, because
the majority of heroin that is hitting your streets is coming
from Mexico and is being trafficked by those same organizations
that are bringing coke, meth, marijuana, you name it, to your
communities.
These are the same organizations. They are polydrug
organizations. And we have partnered with our counterparts in
Mexico, who now, over the last year, have really taken a look
at the heroin problem. They see the role that they play, and we
have actually done some very good work together with them to
focus on the problem.
Senator Shelby. Thank you.
Senator Coons.
Senator Coons. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'd just like to follow on some of the questions you have
been fielding, Administrator, and say how grateful I am for
your focus.
Highly potent, inexpensive, widely available heroin is now
killing many people in my hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, and
across my State. We have 15 deaths per month from overdoses. It
is touching all backgrounds, all income levels, all
communities.
We are eager to work in partnership with you and all of
Federal law enforcement in finding more effective models for
diversion, for treatment, for interdiction, and for the
prosecution of the related crimes. It is something that is a
significant challenge for our community, as it is from
Baltimore to Miami to Wisconsin, all over our country. We
really are seeing a significant shift from the prescription
drug epidemic into heroin.
VIOLENCE REDUCTION NETWORK
Let me turn, if I might, to a program that has been
mentioned before by Senator Boozman, the Violence Reduction
Network. The five cities that are participating in the first
round are Oakland, Chicago, Detroit, Camden, and Wilmington,
Delaware.
I am grateful for the opportunity to talk with you about
it, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which is under
the Financial Services Subcommittee and their HIDTA program is
also newly engaged in the work Wilmington, Delaware.
Despite our very small size, relative to Detroit or
Chicago, Wilmington has one of the highest rates of violent
crime and murder in the last few years. And a newly energized
and engaged mayor, police chief, State-wide elected officials,
and community leaders are tackling this challenge effectively.
But I would love to hear from each of you, and I will
invite you to start, Director Jones, if you might, what you are
hearing about progress in Wilmington, what you think are the
resource challenges that might remain, and if you have any
input for me on what is going to be critical to turning the
corner.
The reports I am hearing so far about the Federal role is
very positive, and so my simple input is to say thank you for
the resources being delivered, the advice, the mentorship, and
the guidance to my hometown. But if there are other things that
I need to hear or things we can do to strengthen this network,
I would really appreciate hearing it.
Director.
Mr. Jones. Well, one of the exciting things about the VRN,
the Violence Reduction Network, is it will give us an
opportunity to enhance the collaborative effort. I think in
Wilmington, Delaware, and I have been up there, I have met with
our resident agent. We are having some enhancements in terms of
permanent personnel, which is a big part of our request in this
budget, to get us healthy in terms of our special agent cadre.
We are starting to see results when we have groups like the
one in Wilmington that have been working for a long time in
single digits, and we enhance it with task force officers, who
in the past were barely holding it together, and we actually
get new ATF agents up there.
Our focus in Wilmington is really twofold. One is
partnering with the police department to make sure that when
there are shooting incidents, that we are on them very fast and
following leads to identify the trigger-pullers.
The other aspect where we have had some success, not only
in Wilmington, but up and down the Eastern seaboard, are with
the traffickers and the Iron Pipeline up I-95, where there are
guns that are available in some, quote, unquote, ``source
States'' that travel up--and Wilmington is along the pipeline--
to do what we can to disrupt the firearm trafficking networks.
We have had some success recently in Wilmington with people
who are essentially unlicensed dealers, for lack of a better
term. So that effort, focusing on crime guns, draining the
crime gun pool, helping the local police department identify
trigger-pullers through leveraging technology like NIBIN, and
training folks so it's sustainable, really is the short-term
focus of our efforts.
Senator Coons. Thank you, better ballistics training, use
of gun stats, better use of data analysis, regional
partnerships, I hear that all of those have been making a
difference, and I am grateful for your personal engagement.
I have relatively little time left, if any of the three of
you would like to contribute to it, I would really appreciate
it.
Mr. Comey. Senators, I hope you know, in our Wilmington
office, we have a 22-member Violent Gang Safe Streets Task
Force that is part of the Violence Reduction Network effort.
As Director Jones said, we are trying to focus on the
trigger-pullers who are part of these neighborhood-based gangs,
might not be big, fancy national gangs, but thugs who are a set
or crew in a particular neighborhood. We are trying to be
strategic, work with the intelligence that the locals are
generating, focus on those, and rip them out of the community,
with the hope that the good people will fill in the space and
make that community safer.
So I have 22 folks focused on it. It is too early for me to
be able to tell you what success we have had, but it's
something we will watch closely.
Senator Coons. And the CDC has recently completed a fairly
thorough review of the dataset from a public health
perspective, as well as from a criminal justice perspective, of
who is the universe of folks who are actually committing the
violent crimes, where are they coming from, what is their
background, what interactions do they have with education, with
health care, and with law enforcement.
It has been fascinating dataset that the Governor and his
cabinet and I sat down and went through the other day.
Do I have time Mr. Chairman, if the director wants to offer
one more answer?
Director.
Ms. Hylton. Thank you very much. I would like to, as it
relates to the VRN, the Violence Reduction Network, we have an
operation ongoing now that is borne out of that effort.
We are particularly focused on the larger cities or tri-
city areas, and we are operating out of Camden, Philadelphia,
and Wilmington, trying to assist you with that.
I am pleased to report, after 1 week of this operation, we
have over 684 violent criminals arrested, particularly, 89 of
them are gang members, 134 of them are sex offenders. There has
been 48 of them that are related to homicides.
So we work with the States and locals to bring those
warrants in, and then, of course, we are able to share fugitive
information across other investigative agencies.
So I think the earlier questions of how we interface with
each other, that is the work that we push out back and forth to
each other.
Twenty-seven firearms were seized, 1.86 kilograms of
narcotics were seized, and over $47,000 currency. That is all a
part of dismantling some of these organized criminals,
opportunists, that are seeking to push drugs out.
So I think that collective work is really starting to prove
beneficial in the violent reduction across the cities.
We are focused, as Director Comey says, all of us, on
attacking the corridors that run. So it's not only just the
major cities. Camden can put out 400 officers, but at the end
of the day, all it does is push it out to Wilmington.
The Marshals Service is particularly focused on those
smaller law enforcement agencies to get in there and bolster
them on removing the fugitives, at least, so they can put their
efforts greater into the investigation piece to dismantle.
Thank you.
Senator Coons. Well, we are grateful for your partnership
and support.
Senator Shelby. Thank you, Senator Coons.
I have a couple of questions that I want to submit for the
record. One deals with Adam Walsh Act funding and the other is
the DEA international drug enforcement priorities. I would
submit them for the record, and ask you to hopefully get them
back to us within 30 days.
Senator Shelby. Senator Mikulski.
Senator Mikulski. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I know we are now moved to the classified hearing. I, too,
have questions for the record.
I just want to say again to the men and women who work at
these wonderful agencies, we want to thank them not only for
the service they do, but we want to thank them that there are
people in the United States of America who want to do this
work, who really want to do this work. And we owe them a debt
of gratitude, and, therefore, my comments about lifting
domestic budget caps was not political grandstanding, that if
we are going to lift the caps in defense to defend America,
there is a lot of defense right here in our country for our
communities.
The second thing is, the issues of the Appropriations
Committee, related to hiring and then sustaining the people we
hire.
And my point last point is technology. I am really proud of
the labs and other technology uses we make in our agencies. I
think really about 9/11, in that the Maryland State troopers
stopped one of the terrorists. But at that time, the databases
were so skimpy, you knew more about a deadbeat dad than
somebody who was planning this horrific attack on the United
States. That has changed.
And when we looked at the sniper, the Beltway snipers, when
this whole community came to a standstill, when somebody who
worked at the FBI in the supportive service was killed coming
of Home Depot, this community, I mean we are all victims of
crime. This whole area stopped.
We didn't know, was this terrorism? We didn't know if these
were multiple killers. But thanks to this lab, and the way we
could work with the FBI, we were able to have local law
enforcement in charge, and we were able to catch the people of
these terrible acts.
So what you do, and I could through each and every one, is
just amazing. We really need to support you, and I look forward
to doing it.
Senator Shelby. Senator Shaheen, you have another question?
Senator Shaheen. Actually, I have a comment that I would
like to make to follow up on something that Administrator
Leonhart said, because I was just in a hearing in the Armed
Services Committee with the general who is the head of Southern
Command.
One of the things she was talking about was the their work
to interdict drugs coming into Central America and Mexico, and
the impact that additional sequestration cuts are going to have
on their ability to continue with that interdiction and support
those countries in Central America that are trying to, and
Mexico, that are trying to address this effort.
I just think it's important for us to recognize that that
is going to have a huge impact on the efforts, if those cuts go
forward, the impact on the national security side, because of
the drugs coming in. But that will then have an impact on the
work that you are trying to do, that all of you are trying to
do, if we can't address and roll back those cuts from
sequestration.
So I thought it was important, Mr. Chairman, to point out
that this has huge domestic potential impact.
Thank you.
Senator Shelby. Thank you.
I thank the witnesses, but we will now temporarily recess
and reconvene in closed session, as soon as we can get back
over to the Capitol.
ADDITIONAL COMMITTEE QUESTIONS
[The following questions were not asked at the hearing, but
were submitted to the Department for response subsequent to the
hearing:]
Questions Submitted to Hon. James B. Comey
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
Questions Submitted by Senator Barbara A. Mikulski
stopping human trafficking and pedophiles
Question. What is the FBI doing to stop human and sex trafficking
in the United States? What additional resources are needed by the FBI
to put traffickers out of business?
Answer. The FBI takes a victim-centered approach in conducting its
human trafficking investigations. All efforts are taken to ensure
victims are identified and provided necessary services. Through
approximately 70 FBI-led Child Exploitation Task Forces (CETF), the FBI
collaborates with nearly 400 State, local, and Federal law enforcement
partners to identify and prosecute those individuals, enterprises, and
businesses that exploit children, including those who facilitate the
domestic sex trafficking of children. As of April 2015, the joint
efforts of these groups have resulted in approximately 4,550 child
recoveries and the conviction in State and Federal courts of nearly
2,000 child sex traffickers.
The FBI also takes part in over 120 Human Trafficking Task Forces
and Working Groups to rescue adult victims of trafficking in persons.
In these task forces and working groups, the FBI partners with other
Federal, tribal, State and local law enforcement agencies, and their
respective victim services components. These efforts often require
working with various non-governmental organizations to ensure the
rescued individuals are provided with whatever is necessary to restore
their human dignity, irrespective of their willingness to cooperate in
prosecution efforts.
Recognizing the complexity of many human trafficking
investigations, the FBI--in coordination with its Federal, tribal,
State and local partners--routinely uses myriad investigative
techniques to dismantle human trafficking organizations. Intelligence
collection is a large aspect of human trafficking investigations.
Intelligence Analysts assess human trafficking data enabling analysis
of current and past trafficking data.
Question. What assistance does the FBI provide to the victims of
sex trafficking after an event like Operation Cross Country? What is
being done to ensure these women and children are treated like victims,
not criminals, by law enforcement?
Answer. In Federal cases where a victim has been identified, crisis
support is provided and medical treatment is offered. Once a victim is
recovered, an FBI Victim Specialist (VS) is introduced and provides
food, hygiene items, and clothing for the victim, in an effort to
preserve the victim's dignity and offer comfort during interactions
with law enforcement.
FBI Victim Specialists (VS) possess specialized knowledge and
skills on helping both adults and minors victims of sex trafficking.
From providing on-scene crisis intervention to assisting families or
guardians in considering specialized treatment options, a VS assesses
the needs of the individual and works with local, State and Federal
agencies to provide resources and opportunities to the victim. For
example, if a minor is placed in residential treatment, the VS stays in
contact with providers and guardians to keep communication open with
the victim and to work within the team to coordinate any future
investigative needs that does not jeopardize the victim's mental
health. The VS also works with the U.S. Attorney's Office to facilitate
support throughout the court process.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Mark Kirk
combating terrorist groups
Question. What is the FBI doing to ensure we have Arabic speaking
FBI staff located at high-threat locations, like Chicago?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Recently, social media accounts claiming to be associated
with the terror group ISIS posted threats against targeted
locations in Chicago, including the Old Republic Building at
307 N. Michigan Avenue.
Answer. The FBI's Foreign Language Program works closely with the
FBI's operational divisions to prioritize workload across divisions and
intelligence domains as a reflection of those priorities. With a
centralized management structure and a decentralized Arabic linguist
workforce, the FBI directs Arabic language processing efforts across
the Nation, focusing on operations in priority order as identified by
the FBI's operational divisions, irrespective of geography. In
addition, the FBI works to identify Field Offices, including Chicago,
where there is an ongoing requirement for special agents with Arabic
language skills. The FBI considers these unique language needs as a
factor when assigning special agents to these offices. As a matter of
policy, all counterterrorism materials must be reviewed regardless of
tier, and the highest priority materials must be reviewed within
specified timeframes, depending on the availability of linguists
proficient in the languages required.
Question. Is the FBI working to recruit additional Arabic speakers?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Recently, social media accounts claiming to be associated
with the terror group ISIS posted threats against targeted
locations in Chicago, including the Old Republic Building at
307 N. Michigan Avenue.
Answer. In an effort to address the Arabic language needs of the
FBI, the Bureau's Foreign Language Program pursues a number of
initiatives to recruit from ethnic Arabic and heritage speaker
communities. The FBI continues to provide training for special agents
in Arabic and has recently renewed an incentive program for foreign
language use to develop in-house capacity.
The FBI has been and continues to be successful in hiring new
linguists in most languages, including Arabic. The FBI devised and
implemented a workforce planning model with recruitment efforts
targeted toward languages where there is a shortfall, particularly in
those languages and dialects needed for higher priority investigations.
The FBI also harnesses the flexibility of a mixed labor force of
linguists consisting of full-time Government employees and contract
linguists. Challenges to hiring Arabic linguists with specialized
dialects or skills include competition between multiple Government
agencies and private companies for the limited pool of such qualified
linguist applicants.
Question. How is the FBI currently monitoring social media to
ensure high-profile target cities like Chicago are safe?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Recently, social media accounts claiming to be associated
with the terror group ISIS posted threats against targeted
locations in Chicago, including the Old Republic Building at
307 N. Michigan Avenue.
Answer. The FBI uses many avenues to ensure the safety of
communities nationwide; however, the FBI is bound by guidelines issued
by the Attorney General that establish a consistent policy on when an
investigation may be initiated. Through these guidelines, the FBI
obtains authorization to collect information. The facts are analyzed
and then used to prevent criminal or terrorist activity and, whenever
possible, to aid in the arrest and prosecution of persons or groups who
have violated the law.
national gang intelligence center (ngic)
Question. When will the NGIC produce another reliable assessment
with data on gangs of national significance?
Lead-in information from original document.--
The National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) has received
bipartisan and bicameral Congressional support despite being
recommended for closure in the President's budget. The NGIC is
not only a tool for law enforcement, but also the Gang Threat
Assessments the NGIC produces help Congress identify threats
and build coalitions around fighting gangs of national
significance. The NGIC has not released an assessment since
2013, and has not released reliable gang member location data
since 2010.
Answer. The NGIC produces the National Gang Report bi-annually. The
most recent National Gang Report was published in 2013. The NGIC is now
conducting analysis on survey data and other sources to produce the
2015 National Gang Report. The anticipated release date is Fall/Winter
2015.
Question. Going forward, how will the FBI utilize the NGIC in its
overall strategy to fight gangs of national significance?
Lead-in information from original document.--
The National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) has received
bipartisan and bicameral congressional support despite being
recommended for closure in the President's budget. The NGIC is
not only a tool for law enforcement, but also the Gang Threat
Assessments the NGIC produces help Congress identify threats
and build coalitions around fighting gangs of national
significance. The NGIC has not released an assessment since
2013, and has not released reliable gang member location data
since 2010.
Answer. The FBI utilizes the NGIC as an integrated intelligence
resource for identifying the growth, migration and criminal networks of
gangs that pose a significant threat to communities throughout the
United States. The NGIC supports participating agencies' gang
investigations by providing remote and on-site analytical support to
drive investigations. The FBI also utilizes the NGIC to conduct gang-
related training to Field Office personnel and local law enforcement.
NGIC is a multi-agency gang ``fusion center'' and assists local,
State and Federal agencies in coordinating and analyzing gang
intelligence and serves as a focal point in obtaining gang-related
intelligence information. NGIC plays a critical role in supporting the
164 Safe Streets Violent Gang Task Forces across the country. NGIC
analysts assist in providing both strategic and tactical intelligence
products on gang activity throughout the Nation. NGIC plays a critical
coordination role in obtaining and disseminating Bureau of Prison and
Correctional Intelligence through its Correctional Intelligence Task
Force.
online sex trafficking
Question. During what span of years and how many times has the FBI
raided and closed sex trafficking Web sites?
Lead-in information from original document.--
During June 2014, in the Northern District of California the
FBI raided and closed the sex trafficking Web site,
MyRedBook.com (MyRedBook), and arrested its operators, Eric
``Red'' Omuro and Annemarie Lanoce. During November-December
2014, Omuro pleaded guilty to using the MyRedBook Web site with
the intent to facilitate prostitution and Lanoce pleaded to
assisting Omuro with the operation of the MyRedBook.com Web
site. Continuing to combat sex trafficking and other Web sites
used for sex trafficking, similar to MyRedBook.com, must be a
top priority.
Answer. The FBI continuously assesses various online platforms/Web
sites for their involvement with child sex trafficking and works with
Federal prosecutors to bring cases against those who violate relevant
Federal statutes. In 2014, the FBI seized myredbook.com and
sfredbook.com. The seizure of these sites was the culmination of
several years of investigative work and complex legal analysis. Eric
Omuro, the owner of the sites pleaded guilty to using a facility of
interstate commerce with the intent to facilitate prostitution. On May
21, 2015, Omuro was sentenced to 13 months in prison. As part of his
plea agreement, Omuro agreed to forfeit more than $1.28 million in cash
and property as well as the sfRedBook.com and myRedBook.com domain
names. According to an affidavit submitted in connection with the
sentencing hearing, the FBI identified more than 50 juveniles who were
also advertised on myRedBook for the purpose of prostitution.
Furthermore, despite being contacted by NCMEC in 2010, myRedBook never
registered to participate in the center's CyberTipline, which receives
leads and tips regarding suspected crimes of sexual exploitation
committed against children, and never communicated with NCMEC.
Question. How does the FBI use Backpage.com as a tool to
investigate sex trafficking?
Lead-in information from original document.--
During June 2014, in the Northern District of California the
FBI raided and closed the sex trafficking Web site,
MyRedBook.com (MyRedBook), and arrested its operators, Eric
``Red'' Omuro and Annemarie Lanoce. During November-December
2014, Omuro pleaded guilty to using the MyRedBook Web site with
the intent to facilitate prostitution and Lanoce pleaded to
assisting Omuro with the operation of the MyRedBook.com Web
site. Continuing to combat sex trafficking and other Web sites
used for sex trafficking, similar to MyRedBook.com, must be a
top priority.
Answer. The FBI reviews open source data for information that might
be of evidentiary value to existing cases and/or justify the initiation
of new cases.
Question. Has the FBI subpoenaed Backpage.com regarding sex
trafficking?
Lead-in information from original document.--
During June 2014, in the Northern District of California the
FBI raided and closed the sex trafficking Web site,
MyRedBook.com (MyRedBook), and arrested its operators, Eric
``Red'' Omuro and Annemarie Lanoce. During November-December
2014, Omuro pleaded guilty to using the MyRedBook Web site with
the intent to facilitate prostitution and Lanoce pleaded to
assisting Omuro with the operation of the MyRedBook.com Web
site. Continuing to combat sex trafficking and other Web sites
used for sex trafficking, similar to MyRedBook.com, must be a
top priority.
Answer. Yes. In investigations relating to Federal child sexual
exploitation offenses, the FBI has the authority to issue and serve
administrative subpoenas to seek information specified in 18 U.S.C.
Section 2703(c)(2); that is: the name; address; local and long distance
telephone connection records, or records of session times and
durations; length of service (including start date) and types of
service utilized; telephone or instrument number or other subscriber
number or identity, including any temporarily assigned network address;
and means and source of payment for such service (including any credit
card or bank account number), of a subscriber to or customer of such
service. The FBI has used this valuable investigative tool to obtain
such information from Backpage.
Question. Please describe the FBI's assessment of Backpage's level
of cooperation that Backpage provides to the FBI.
Lead-in information from original document.--
During June 2014, in the Northern District of California the
FBI raided and closed the sex trafficking Web site,
MyRedBook.com (MyRedBook), and arrested its operators, Eric
``Red'' Omuro and Annemarie Lanoce. During November-December
2014, Omuro pleaded guilty to using the MyRedBook Web site with
the intent to facilitate prostitution and Lanoce pleaded to
assisting Omuro with the operation of the MyRedBook.com Web
site. Continuing to combat sex trafficking and other Web sites
used for sex trafficking, similar to MyRedBook.com, must be a
top priority.
Answer. Backpage.com has been served with legal process in various
investigations of individuals involved with ads on that Web site, and
they have responded to these legal orders.
Question. How many FBI agents has the FBI assigned to combat sex
trafficking?
Lead-in information from original document.--
During June 2014, in the Northern District of California the
FBI raided and closed the sex trafficking Web site,
MyRedBook.com (MyRedBook), and arrested its operators, Eric
``Red'' Omuro and Annemarie Lanoce. During November-December
2014, Omuro pleaded guilty to using the MyRedBook Web site with
the intent to facilitate prostitution and Lanoce pleaded to
assisting Omuro with the operation of the MyRedBook.com Web
site. Continuing to combat sex trafficking and other Web sites
used for sex trafficking, similar to MyRedBook.com, must be a
top priority.
Answer. In fiscal year 2015, the FBI has approximately 90 agents
dedicated to the investigation of human trafficking offenses, including
approximately 10 agents dedicated to investigating child sex tourism
offenses.
Question. In the FBI's analysis, is the FBI better able to combat
sex trafficking with Backpage operating in its current form or with the
FBI raising and closing Backpage?
Lead-in information from original document.--
During June 2014, in the Northern District of California the
FBI raided and closed the sex trafficking Web site,
MyRedBook.com (MyRedBook), and arrested its operators, Eric
``Red'' Omuro and Annemarie Lanoce. During November-December
2014, Omuro pleaded guilty to using the MyRedBook Web site with
the intent to facilitate prostitution and Lanoce pleaded to
assisting Omuro with the operation of the MyRedBook.com Web
site. Continuing to combat sex trafficking and other Web sites
used for sex trafficking, similar to MyRedBook.com, must be a
top priority.
Answer. The question assumes that there is currently sufficient
evidence of criminal conduct to support a search and seizure of
Backpage. The FBI cannot comment on this assumption. In general, the
FBI does not confirm or deny the existence of any pending investigation
nor does it comment on hypotheticals.
Question. Over the last 3 years, how many sex trafficking victims
has the FBI been involved with rescuing per year?
Lead-in information from original document.--
During June 2014, in the Northern District of California the
FBI raided and closed the sex trafficking Web site,
MyRedBook.com (MyRedBook), and arrested its operators, Eric
``Red'' Omuro and Annemarie Lanoce. During November-December
2014, Omuro pleaded guilty to using the MyRedBook Web site with
the intent to facilitate prostitution and Lanoce pleaded to
assisting Omuro with the operation of the MyRedBook.com Web
site. Continuing to combat sex trafficking and other Web sites
used for sex trafficking, similar to MyRedBook.com, must be a
top priority.
Answer. Due to the nature of adult sex trafficking cases, the fine
line which can often be blurred between trafficking and prostitution
for the worker, and the difficulty in bringing these cases to
prosecution, generating an accurate number of adult victims rescued
during any given year would not be representative of the FBI's work to
combat this threat. However, between fiscal year 2012 and fiscal year
2014 the FBI has opened over 1,000 human trafficking cases, in which
approximately 70 percent of these opened cases have a sex trafficking
nexus (250 cases in 2012, 248 cases in 2013, 308 cases in 2014 and 239
in 2015 as of August 13, 2015). Additionally, from fiscal year 2012
through fiscal year 2014, the FBI averaged more than 750 child rescues
per year (approximately 600 in fiscal year 2012, approximately 850 in
fiscal year 2013, and approximately 900 in fiscal year 2014).
Question. What are the top five Federal districts with the greatest
number of sex trafficking investigations?
Lead-in information from original document.--
During June 2014, in the Northern District of California the
FBI raided and closed the sex trafficking Web site,
MyRedBook.com (MyRedBook), and arrested its operators, Eric
``Red'' Omuro and Annemarie Lanoce. During November-December
2014, Omuro pleaded guilty to using the MyRedBook Web site with
the intent to facilitate prostitution and Lanoce pleaded to
assisting Omuro with the operation of the MyRedBook.com Web
site. Continuing to combat sex trafficking and other Web sites
used for sex trafficking, similar to MyRedBook.com, must be a
top priority.
Answer. Human trafficking efforts are encompassed in several
different units at the FBI. The Civil Rights Unit is responsible for
human and sex trafficking of adults, whereas the Innocence Lost
National Initiative (within the Violent Crimes Against Children
program) is responsible for trafficking of minors. The FBI tracks case
statistics based on FBI Field Office jurisdictions, rather than Federal
districts, and therefore cannot provide the top five Federal districts.
However, in total, from fiscal year 2004 through fiscal year 2014, the
FBI initiated more than 1,600 investigations and more than 650
individuals were convicted of human trafficking violations.
Question. In the Northern District of Illinois during 2009-2014,
the FBI has conducted how many sex trafficking investigations?
Lead-in information from original document.--
During June 2014, in the Northern District of California the
FBI raided and closed the sex trafficking Web site,
MyRedBook.com (MyRedBook), and arrested its operators, Eric
``Red'' Omuro and Annemarie Lanoce. During November-December
2014, Omuro pleaded guilty to using the MyRedBook Web site with
the intent to facilitate prostitution and Lanoce pleaded to
assisting Omuro with the operation of the MyRedBook.com Web
site. Continuing to combat sex trafficking and other Web sites
used for sex trafficking, similar to MyRedBook.com, must be a
top priority.
Answer. The FBI does not track cases by judicial district. However,
between fiscal year 2009 and fiscal year 2014 the FBI Chicago field
division has conducted 199 sex trafficking investigations. This
encompasses both child and adult victims.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator John Boozman
isis cyber hacking
Question. How is the FBI handling our Nation's cyber security
breaches, especially the cyber hacking led by ISIS?
Answer. Based on the results of the FBI's investigations and
collaboration with our U.S. Government and international partners, the
FBI assesses, as of April 2015, the Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant (ISIL) has a low capability to conduct offensive cyber
operations with the potential to affect U.S. networks and damage
critical U.S. infrastructure. An ``Islamic State Hacking Division''
claimed to have hacked ``U.S. military databases'' and released the
names and addresses of 100 U.S. military members on various social
media and file sharing sites on 20 March 2015. However, actual
compromise of U.S. networks has not been confirmed; the material
appears to have originated from open sources.
Over the past 6 months, the FBI has observed an increase in pro-
ISIL extremist hackers carrying out nuisance attacks against vulnerable
public websites and social media accounts, disrupting those sites for
short periods of time and/or using the access to those accounts to post
pro-ISIL imagery and propaganda. These hackers, while espousing views
in support of ISIL, are not believed to have connections with, or
receive any direction from, ISIL leadership.
fbi whistleblowers gao report
Question. According to GAO, compared with other Federal agencies,
FBI whistleblowers have less protection against retaliation by
management, the GAO and current procedures could discourage
whistleblowing.'' Is the FBI moving forward and reforming this policy?
Answer. The FBI has two policies related to whistleblower
protections. Among other things, our policy entitled ``FBI
Whistleblower Policy'' (policy directive 0272D) identifies the types of
protected disclosures (reports of mismanagement, gross waste of funds,
abuse of authority, substantial and specific danger to public health or
safety, and violation of any law, rule, or regulation), the authorities
to whom protected disclosures are made, and the responsibility of FBI
managers to ensure that whistleblowers are not subject to reprisal.
A more recent policy provides additional protections. The purpose
of the 2014 policy entitled ``Non-Retaliation for Reporting Compliance
Risks'' (policy directive 0727D) ``is to provide an effective process
for all Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) personnel to express
concerns or report potential violations regarding the FBI's legal and
regulatory compliance, without retaliation, and to encourage the
reporting of any such concerns.'' This policy emphasizes that ``[t]he
FBI is committed to creating and sustaining a culture of compliance
that promotes open communication, including open and candid discussion
of concerns about compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and
Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI policies'' (Section 8.1.1) and
makes clear that ``FBI personnel are strictly prohibited from
retaliating against anyone for reporting a compliance concern''
(Section 8.1.2). Protected compliance concerns may be reported to: the
FBI Office of Integrity and Compliance (OIC), the OIC Helpline (which
accepts anonymous calls), division compliance officers, the Division
Compliance Council, or any supervisor in the reporting employee's chain
of command. This policy explicitly provides that it ``does not add to,
or subtract from, the whistleblower protections provided to FBI
personnel under 5 U.S.C. Sec. 2303, the DOJ regulations set forth in 28
CFR Part 27, Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) 120, or Policy
Directive (PD) 0272D, FBI Whistleblower Policy.'' (Section 8.5.1.)
The FBI believes that whistleblowers play an important role in
discovering and preventing waste, fraud, and abuse in the Government.
The FBI is working with the Department to improve the process for
adjudicating claims of retaliation. These changes will ensure that the
Department has a fair and efficient process for adjudicating these
claims, and include expanding the list of persons to whom a protected
disclosure may be made.
human trafficking legislation
Question. As you may know, the Senate is currently considering
human trafficking legislation. I don't think many people realize the
scope of this issue in our own country. Can you discuss FBI initiatives
to combat human trafficking? What can Congress do to help?
Answer. In 2003, the FBI, in conjunction with the Department of
Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), launched the
Innocence Lost National Initiative (ILNI). Through approximately 70
FBI-led Child Exploitation Task Forces (CETF), the FBI collaborates
with nearly 400 local, State, and Federal law enforcement partners to
identify and prosecute those individuals, enterprises, and businesses
that exploit children, including those who facilitate the domestic sex
trafficking of children. As of April 2015, the joint efforts of these
groups have resulted in approximately 4,550 child recoveries and the
conviction in State and Federal courts of nearly 2,000 child sex
traffickers. In support of the ILNI, the FBI is currently engaged in a
significant project to improve its technical capabilities in
identifying online indicators of child sex trafficking. This tool will
more effectively compare open source data with existing law enforcement
and non-governmental organizations (NGO) databases.
The FBI participates in over 120 Human Trafficking Task Forces and
Working Groups to address sex and labor trafficking of adults in the
United States and abroad, where appropriate, such as a link to
victimization of individuals in the United States. These task forces
and working groups partner with Federal, tribal, State and local law
enforcement entities, as well as NGOs to assist investigations,
prosecutions and with providing victim services. Each FBI Field Office
has personnel assigned to investigate human trafficking cases.
Additionally, Field Office and headquarters personnel regularly conduct
training on human trafficking awareness and investigation. Audiences of
such training include Federal, tribal, State and local law enforcement
officers, government personnel, NGOs, victim service providers,
community leaders, immigration aid workers, medical personnel,
hospitality industry workers, faith-based organizations and students at
the high school and collegiate level.
The FBI is currently engaged in numerous national initiatives
designed to address sex trafficking in the U.S. associated with massage
parlors, and trafficking from abroad, particularly via Transnational
Organized Crime organizations. Additionally, in partnership with the
Departments of State and Homeland Security, the FBI is part of an
initiative to train personnel in various embassies and diplomatic posts
around the world in an effort to address potential human trafficking
before potential victims travel to the U.S. This initiative will also
enhance cooperation between U.S. law enforcement personnel abroad and
their host-nation law enforcement and NGO partners.
The FBI will continue to update Congress on the status of ongoing
programs and looks forward to working together to address Human
Trafficking issues.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Patrick J. Leahy
fbi surveillance technology
Question. Under the FBI's current policies relating to the use of
cell-site simulators, how many times has the FBI employed such a device
without prior court approval, and what were the reasons for doing so?
What is the policy regarding retention of data?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Recent media reports have raised questions about Federal law
enforcement's use of sophisticated surveillance technology,
like cell-site simulators and license plate reading cameras, to
track suspects historically and in real-time. Although I
appreciate the potential value of this technology to law
enforcement, I am concerned about the potential impact on the
privacy rights of innocent Americans.
Answer. On September 3, 2015, the Department of Justice announced a
new policy for its use of cell-site simulators that will enhance
transparency and accountability, improve training and supervision,
establish a higher and more consistent legal standard and increase
privacy protections in relation to law enforcement's use of this
critical technology.
The policy, which applies Department-wide, will provide Department
components with standard guidance for the use of cell-site simulators
in the Department's domestic criminal investigations and will establish
new management controls for the use of the technology. Cell-site
simulator technology has been instrumental in aiding law enforcement in
a broad array of investigations, including kidnappings, fugitive
investigations and complicated narcotics cases. This new policy ensures
the Department's protocols for this technology are consistent, well-
managed and respectful of individuals' privacy and civil liberties.
To enhance privacy protections, the new policy establishes a set of
required practices with respect to the treatment of information
collected through the use of cell-site simulators. This includes data
handling requirements and an agency-level implementation of an auditing
program to ensure that data is deleted consistent with this policy. For
example, when the equipment is used to locate a known cellular device,
all data must be deleted as soon as that device is located, and no less
than once daily. Additionally, the policy makes clear that cell-site
simulators may not be used to collect the contents of any communication
in the course of criminal investigations. This means data contained on
the phone itself, such as emails, texts, contact lists and images, may
not be collected using this technology.
While the Department has, in the past, obtained appropriate legal
authorizations to use cell-site simulators, law enforcement agents must
now obtain a search warrant supported by probable cause before using a
cell-site simulator. There are limited exceptions in the policy for
exigent circumstances or exceptional circumstances where the law does
not require a search warrant and circumstances make obtaining a search
warrant impracticable. Department components will be required to track
and report the number of times the technology is deployed under these
exceptions. To ensure that the use of the technology is well managed
and consistent across the Department, the policy requires appropriate
supervision and approval.
Question. Since 2001, how many cell-site simulators has the FBI
purchased or obtained from another Government agency? What has been the
cost, per year, for the acquisition, maintenance and deployment of the
FBI's cell-site simulators?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Recent media reports have raised questions about Federal law
enforcement's use of sophisticated surveillance technology,
like cell-site simulators and license plate reading cameras, to
track suspects historically and in real-time. Although I
appreciate the potential value of this technology to law
enforcement, I am concerned about the potential impact on the
privacy rights of innocent Americans.
Answer. On September 3, 2015, the Department of Justice announced a
new policy for its use of cell-site simulators that will enhance
transparency and accountability, improve training and supervision,
establish a higher and more consistent legal standard and increase
privacy protections in relation to law enforcement's use of this
critical technology.
The policy, which applies Department-wide, will provide Department
components with standard guidance for the use of cell-site simulators
in the Department's domestic criminal investigations and will establish
new management controls for the use of the technology. Cell-site
simulator technology has been instrumental in aiding law enforcement in
a broad array of investigations, including kidnappings, fugitive
investigations and complicated narcotics cases. This new policy ensures
the Department's protocols for this technology are consistent, well-
managed and respectful of individuals' privacy and civil liberties.
To enhance privacy protections, the new policy establishes a set of
required practices with respect to the treatment of information
collected through the use of cell-site simulators. This includes data
handling requirements and an agency-level implementation of an auditing
program to ensure that data is deleted consistent with this policy. For
example, when the equipment is used to locate a known cellular device,
all data must be deleted as soon as that device is located, and no less
than once daily. Additionally, the policy makes clear that cell-site
simulators may not be used to collect the contents of any communication
in the course of criminal investigations. This means data contained on
the phone itself, such as emails, texts, contact lists and images, may
not be collected using this technology.
While the Department has, in the past, obtained appropriate legal
authorizations to use cell-site simulators, law enforcement agents must
now obtain a search warrant supported by probable cause before using a
cell-site simulator. There are limited exceptions in the policy for
exigent circumstances or exceptional circumstances where the law does
not require a search warrant and circumstances make obtaining a search
warrant impracticable. Department components will be required to track
and report the number of times the technology is deployed under these
exceptions. To ensure that the use of the technology is well managed
and consistent across the Department, the policy requires appropriate
supervision and approval.
Question. Does the FBI maintain its own license plate reader
database? If so, how long has the database been operational and what
are the policies and procedures in place that govern the collection and
use of the data? How many cameras are in the network? What other law
enforcement agencies, if any, have access to this database?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Recent media reports have raised questions about Federal law
enforcement's use of sophisticated surveillance technology,
like cell-site simulators and license plate reading cameras, to
track suspects historically and in real-time. Although I
appreciate the potential value of this technology to law
enforcement, I am concerned about the potential impact on the
privacy rights of innocent Americans.
Answer. The FBI uses its license plate readers (LPR) as an
investigative technique. FBI LPR systems may only be deployed in
support of predicated investigations, and there must be a reasonable
belief that LPR will aid that investigation. Deployment must be
approved by the investigating Field Office's Chief Division Counsel and
a Supervisory Special Agent.
By default, records are retained for 90 days. Records deemed as
pertinent to the investigation may be retained for up to 25 years, or
as needed by the investigation. All other records are permanently
discarded after the 90 day retention period has expired.
Currently, the FBI has approximately 140 LPR cameras throughout the
U.S. which are deployed as required to support specific investigations.
No external agency currently has access to the FBI's LPR database.
privacy impact assessment
Question. Has the FBI conducted a PIA of its domestic drone use?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Under the E-Government Act of 2002 and Justice Department
guidelines, the FBI is required to conduct and release a
Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) prior to deploying new
technologies that collect, maintain, or disseminate personal
information. While an interim DOJ OIG report in 2013 indicated
that the FBI has been deploying drones to support its mission
since 2006, the FBI has either not developed, or failed to
release a PIA. By comparison, the Department of Homeland
Security has publicly released two PIA's of its drone
operations.
Answer. No, the FBI continues to work with the DOJ Office of
Privacy and Civil Liberties to evaluate the privacy implications of its
investigative techniques to determine when or if a PIA is required.
Question. If so, please provide copies of all PIA's and if not,
please explain why a PIA has not been conducted.
Lead-in information from original document.--
Under the E-Government Act of 2002 and Justice Department
guidelines, the FBI is required to conduct and release a
Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) prior to deploying new
technologies that collect, maintain, or disseminate personal
information. While an interim DOJ OIG report in 2013 indicated
that the FBI has been deploying drones to support its mission
since 2006, the FBI has either not developed, or failed to
release a PIA. By comparison, the Department of Homeland
Security has publicly released two PIA's of its drone
operations.
Answer. The FBI is fully committed to transparency while protecting
information whose release could compromise law enforcement efforts or
national security, as indicated in President Obama's Memorandum.
Currently, UAS are used in a way such that they provide the same
information that was available through the use of manned aircraft. Were
this to change, a legal review would be conducted first, in order to
ensure compliance with relevant statutes, regulations, the President's
memorandum, and FBI policies. The FBI continues to work with the DOJ
UAS working group, which includes the DOJ Office of Privacy and Civil
Liberties, to identify UAS issues and develop all appropriate
guidelines. A PIA exists for the Sentinel system, which is the only
system which retains UAS information, as does a System of Records
Notice (SORN) for the Central Records System. Both of these are
publicly available and speak to the FBI's treatment and storage of its
investigative records. The FBI continually evaluates the privacy
implications of its investigative techniques.
Question. Will you commit to making any past and all future PIA's
publicly available?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Under the E-Government Act of 2002 and Justice Department
guidelines, the FBI is required to conduct and release a
Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) prior to deploying new
technologies that collect, maintain, or disseminate personal
information. While an interim DOJ OIG report in 2013 indicated
that the FBI has been deploying drones to support its mission
since 2006, the FBI has either not developed, or failed to
release a PIA. By comparison, the Department of Homeland
Security has publicly released two PIA's of its drone
operations.
Answer. The FBI is committed to making PIAs available as required
by law. Any PIAs released by the FBI will be available on both the
FBI's and DOJ's public Web site.
senate judiciary questions for the record from 2014
Question. Please provide answers to those questions as soon as
possible.
Lead-in information from original document.--
On May 21, 2014, you appeared before the Senate Judiciary
Committee to testify for the first time as Director of the FBI.
I submitted several questions for the record, stemming from
testimony by former Director Mueller on the FBI's use of
drones, inquiring about measures the FBI was taking to protect
Americans' privacy rights. To date, I have yet to receive a
response to those questions.
Answer. The FBI's responses to the May 21, 2014 Questions for the
Record were provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee by DOJ on July
2, 2015.
memorandum on unmanned aircraft systems
Question. As the FBI works to implement these measures, please
provide clarification on the Bureau's interpretation of this
memorandum.
Lead-in information from original document.--
On February 15, 2015, President Obama signed a Memorandum on
Unmanned Aircraft Systems, establishing principles to oversee
the Government's use of domestic drones. The guidelines include
important transparency measures and rules to ensure that
privacy protections keep pace with new technologies. However,
the transparency provision contains an exception for law
enforcement and the privacy protections section fails to define
what constitutes new drone technology.
Answer. The FBI is fully committed to transparency while protecting
information whose release could compromise law enforcement efforts or
national security, as indicated in President Obama's Memorandum and the
Department of Justice's Policy Guidance. Currently, UAS are used in a
way such that they provide the same information that was available
through the use of manned aircraft. Were this to change, a legal review
would be conducted first, in order to ensure compliance with relevant
statutes, regulations, the President's memorandum, and FBI policies.
As with any investigative technique, the use of UAS must balance
the intrusiveness of the technique against investigative needs.
Additionally, the use of UAS must be approved by an Assistant Special
Agent in Charge or someone with equivalent (or greater) seniority, and
the FBI's Senior Component Official for Privacy must conduct an annual
review of the FBI's use of UAS.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Tammy Baldwin
president's task force on 21st century policing
Question. Please describe how the FBI will incorporate the
recommendations of the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing
into its existing training programs for State and local law
enforcements, in particular those recommendations related to improving
community relations, developing appropriate use of force standards,
encouraging the adoption of ``least harm'' preferences and the use of
less than lethal technology, and addressing racial and other profiling
and bias in policing.
Lead-in information from original document.--
The interim report of the President's Task Force on 21st
Century Policing provides numerous recommendations to Federal
law enforcement and other agencies, including the FBI, to help
change law enforcement culture, increase community
collaboration and engagement, develop new technology, support
training, and promote officer safety and wellness. As trusted
partners to State and local law enforcement, FBI and the
Justice Department have a unique opportunity to leverage their
expertise and resources to help drive change in law enforcement
at all levels and throughout country.
Answer. The FBI will continue to work with DOJ and the
administration to implement the recommendations of the President's Task
Force on 21st Century Policing report. The FBI will focus on
partnership engagement and the reports key topics: building law
enforcement trust and legitimacy, potential policy changes, technology
and social media enhancements, community policing and crime reduction
practices, training and educational opportunities, and officer wellness
and safety. To date the FBI National Academy Advisory Board has met on
multiple occasions to discuss the final report as well as how the
National Academy Training program can incorporate recommendations into
its curriculum. The FBI continues to coordinate efforts with the
International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the National
Sheriffs' Association, and other law enforcement associations to build
additional support for increased participation among local, State, and
tribal partners. Also, the FBI understands the importance of uniformed
crime reporting and will continue to work to increase implementation of
the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Overall the FBI
will continue to engage its partners in the law enforcement community
on these issues and will continue to strive to lead by example.
Question. Please describe how the FBI and the Department of Justice
will continue to engage members of law enforcement, community leaders
and others in implementing the recommendations of the President's Task
Force and identifying additional areas for potential improvements in
police practices.
Lead-in information from original document.--
The interim report of the President's Task Force on 21st
Century Policing provides numerous recommendations to Federal
law enforcement and other agencies, including the FBI, to help
change law enforcement culture, increase community
collaboration and engagement, develop new technology, support
training, and promote officer safety and wellness. As trusted
partners to State and local law enforcement, FBI and the
Justice Department have a unique opportunity to leverage their
expertise and resources to help drive change in law enforcement
at all levels and throughout country.
Answer. The FBI will continue to work with DOJ and the
administration to implement the recommendations of the President's Task
Force on 21st Century Policing report. The FBI will focus on
partnership engagement and the reports key topics: building law
enforcement trust and legitimacy, potential policy changes, technology
and social media enhancements, community policing and crime reduction
practices, training and educational opportunities, and officer wellness
and safety. To date the FBI National Academy Advisory Board has met on
multiple occasions to discuss the final report as well as how the
National Academy Training program can incorporate some of the
recommendations into its curriculum. The FBI continues to coordinate
efforts with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP),
the National Sheriffs' Association, and other law enforcement
associations to build additional support for increased participation
among local, State, and tribal partners. Also, the FBI understands the
importance of uniformed crime reporting and will continue to work to
increase implementation of the National Incident-Based Reporting System
(NIBRS). Overall the FBI will continue to engage its partners in the
law enforcement community on these issues and will continue to strive
to lead by example.
Question. Please describe how the FBI or other Department of
Justice components will use current grant programs to incentivize the
adoption of the Task Force's recommendations by State and local law
enforcement agency grantees, and what additional funding, either for
existing grants or new programs, would support the implementation of
the recommendations.
Lead-in information from original document.--
The interim report of the President's Task Force on 21st
Century Policing provides numerous recommendations to Federal
law enforcement and other agencies, including the FBI, to help
change law enforcement culture, increase community
collaboration and engagement, develop new technology, support
training, and promote officer safety and wellness. As trusted
partners to State and local law enforcement, FBI and the
Justice Department have a unique opportunity to leverage their
expertise and resources to help drive change in law enforcement
at all levels and throughout country.
Answer. The FBI will continue to work with DOJ and the
administration to implement the recommendations of the President's Task
Force on 21st Century Policing report. The FBI will focus on
partnership engagement and the reports key topics: building law
enforcement trust and legitimacy, potential policy changes, technology
and social media enhancements, community policing and crime reduction
practices, training and educational opportunities, and officer wellness
and safety. To date the FBI National Academy Advisory Board has met on
multiple occasions to discuss the final report as well as how the
National Academy Training program can incorporate some of the
recommendations into its curriculum. The FBI continues to coordinate
efforts with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP),
the National Sheriffs' Association, and other law enforcement
associations to build additional support for increased participation
among local, State, and tribal partners. Also, the FBI understands the
importance of uniformed crime reporting and will continue to work to
increase implementation of the National Incident-Based Reporting System
(NIBRS). The FBI is working with DOJ on a funding strategy for States
to implement NIBRS. Overall the FBI will continue to engage its
partners in the law enforcement community on these issues and will
continue to strive to lead by example.
______
Questions Submitted to Hon. Stacia A. Hylton
UNITED STATES MARSHALS SERVICE
Questions Submitted by Senator Richard C. Shelby
adam walsh act funding
Question. How successful has the Marshals Service been in recent
years in apprehending fugitive sex offenders?
Lead-in information from original document.--
The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act tasks the
Marshals Service with apprehending fugitive sex offenders--
convicted criminals who have committed heinous acts and are
required to maintain updated registration records about
themselves. The 2016 budget requests $61 million for the
Marshals Service Sex Offender investigators, which includes
additional funds for training, operations, software licensing,
and computer database fees to help agents do their jobs more
effectively.
Answer. In fiscal year 2014, USMS arrested 11,206 fugitive sex
offenders, which resulted in the clearance of 13,345 warrants. As of
the second quarter of fiscal year 2015, USMS has arrested 3,836
fugitive sex offenders and cleared 5,448 outstanding warrants.
In addition, the USMS Sex Offender Investigations Branch has
obtained 4,130 warrants for Federal prosecution of AWA-related
offenses, and has cleared 3,362 (81 percent) of those warrants by USMS
arrest since fiscal year 2006.
Question. How would this increased funding in 2016 help to catch
more fugitive sex offenders?
Lead-in information from original document.--
The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act tasks the
Marshals Service with apprehending fugitive sex offenders--
convicted criminals who have committed heinous acts and are
required to maintain updated registration records about
themselves. The 2016 budget requests $61 million for the
Marshals Service Sex Offender investigators, which includes
additional funds for training, operations, software licensing,
and computer database fees to help agents do their jobs more
effectively.
Answer. The program increase of $4.7 million for fiscal year 2016
will provide:
--Operational support for costs associated with investigative
coordination among the USMS and participating State and local
law enforcement agencies.
--Funding for basic and advanced sex offender investigative
coordinators training and other courses necessary to provide
continuing education to the USMS Sex Offender Investigators.
--Funding for technology development required by investigators to
fulfill the AWA mission.
The additional funding would help increase fugitive sex offender
arrests and result in more Federal cases presented to the U.S.
Attorneys' Offices for prosecution of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2250. As part of
the USMS AWA mission, the USMS works with its State, local, tribal, and
territorial counterparts to carry out operations to identify non-
compliant sex offenders.
In addition, increased funding would allow the USMS to expand its
outreach to more tribal territories and further assist them in
strengthening their compliance efforts on tribal lands.
Without this increase, static operational funds will limit
increased collaboration with partners and restrict travel for
interviews and evidence, which may impact successful prosecutions.
Question. How does the Marshals Service staff coordinate with State
and local law enforcement agencies to achieve better results in the
apprehension of these fugitives?
Lead-in information from original document.--
The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act tasks the
Marshals Service with apprehending fugitive sex offenders--
convicted criminals who have committed heinous acts and are
required to maintain updated registration records about
themselves. The 2016 budget requests $61 million for the
Marshals Service Sex Offender investigators, which includes
additional funds for training, operations, software licensing,
and computer database fees to help agents do their jobs more
effectively.
Answer. The AWA mandates that the USMS assist State, local, tribal,
and territorial agencies in locating and apprehending sex offenders who
violate their sex offender registration requirements. To accomplish
this mission, the USMS has more than 100 deputies who are assigned to
investigate non-compliant sex offenders on a full-time basis. These
deputies are in regular contact with their State, local, tribal, and
territorial counterparts who administer their respective sex offender
registries.
In fiscal year 2015, the USMS, in a coordinated effort with its
National Sex Offender Targeting Center (NSOTC), will be conducting two
separate three-day training sessions devoted solely to State and local
sex offender investigators. This training will help familiarize
personnel with the USMS AWA mission and encourage them to utilize the
resources of the USMS in their sex offender compliance mission.
Additionally, the USMS and NSOTC plan to coordinate at least two
separate tribal working groups, which will bring together USMS, State,
local, and tribal officials to discuss differences in sex offender
compliance efforts and ways to better coordinate them. The NSOTC is
also working with the Department of Defense (DOD), to share its
institutional knowledge to properly implement the Sex Offender
Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). The NSOTC has initially
selected seven major installations to facilitate the transition and
implementation of the SORNA. To date, the USMS has helped conduct two
military outreach sessions at Ft. Hood, Texas, and Joint Base McChord,
Washington.
In fiscal year 2014, the USMS assisted in 355 compliance and
enforcement operations, including 26 operations on tribal lands. To
date, in fiscal year 2015, the USMS has assisted in 155 compliance and
enforcement operations, including five on tribal lands. Since the
inception of the AWA in 2006, the USMS has assisted with the execution
of 1,775 compliance and enforcement operations resulting in compliance
checks of more than 253,000 sex offenders. These operations are
conducted not only to locate and apprehend non-compliant sex offenders,
but are also designed to assist the State, local, and tribal agencies
maintain a more accurate and current sex offender registry. To
accomplish this, the USMS has partnered with more than 31,000 law
enforcement officers from over 8,100 State, local, tribal, and
territorial agencies.
______
Question Submitted by Senator Barbara A. Mikulski
stopping human trafficking and pedophiles
Question. How many Deputy U.S. Marshals are currently dedicated to
full-time Adam Walsh Act enforcement? What additional resources or
authorities are needed to track and arrest the over 100,000 non-
compliant sex offenders in the United States?
Answer. In fiscal year 2015, the USMS has 150 fully dedicated
personnel working on Adam Walsh Act enforcement activities, including
132 Deputy U.S. Marshals covering each judicial district in the United
States. The support staff involved in everyday operations of the AWA
mission is equally as vital. Analysts and administrative employees
assist those investigators in the field and provide critical support in
order to achieve this enforcement mission. The USMS believes that the
current staffing level provides adequate coverage to go after the
``worst of the worst'' offenders. Subsequent budget requests will re-
examine staffing levels based on workload, change in business
practices, recent statutes and mandates, and audit findings, to ensure
that resources are necessary to track and arrest an estimated 100,000
non-compliant sex offenders of the approximately 819,218 sex offenders
living in the United States.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Mark Kirk
counter gang units
Question. How are the Marshals prepared and planning to continue
this program and what resources are required to maintain these units
dedicated to gang enforcement?
Lead-in information from original document.--
I commend the Marshals Service for having a Counter Gang Unit
up and running in the Great Lakes Regional Task Force that
serves Chicago. In fiscal year 2015, Congress appropriated $7.5
million to the Marshals Service to form Counter Gang Units in
each of the seven regional task forces to combat gangs;
however, your fiscal year 2016 budget request does not
specifically set aside funds for counter gang units.
Answer. The USMS has taken proactive measures to continue running
its Gang Enforcement Program. These measures have been built upon the
initial $7.5 million from USMS base resources in fiscal year 2014. In
the 2015 Senate Appropriations Committee Report (H.R. 113-181), the
subcommittee directed that with the amount provided in the budget
request, the USMS shall dedicate no less than $5 million to operate
anti-gang investigative units within the RFTFs, including supporting
the supervisory, operational, equipment, and training needs of these
units, in order to target gangs of national significance.
Currently, each of the seven USMS Counter Gang Units (CGUs) is
operating on a daily basis to identify, target, disrupt or dismantle
violent street gangs. The CGUs were established within the existing
infrastructure of each of the USMS Regional Fugitive Task Forces
(RFTFs). These highly unique and specialized units operate efficiently
and effectively with long standing partnerships with Federal, State,
and local law enforcement agencies. Expenses, such as overtime, vehicle
and equipment purchases, and training, incurred by the USMS's State and
local partners are primarily funded by the Asset Forfeiture Program's
Joint Law Enforcement Operations (JLEO).
Question. Can you elaborate upon the successes of your counter gang
program over the last fiscal year?
Lead-in information from original document.--
I commend the Marshals Service for having a Counter Gang Unit
up and running in the Great Lakes Regional Task Force that
serves Chicago. In fiscal year 2015, Congress appropriated $7.5
million to the Marshals Service to form Counter Gang Units in
each of the seven regional task forces to combat gangs;
however, your fiscal year 2016 budget request does not
specifically set aside funds for counter gang units.
Answer. Since establishing the seven CGUs in fiscal year 2014,
these units have been responsible for the arrest of more than 1,500
gang members, as well as the seizure of more than $830,000 in U. S.
currency, 16 kilograms of illegal narcotics, and more than 170 illegal
firearms. Additionally, the Technical Operations Group (TOG) assigned
to the CGUs has been responsible for more than 400 additional arrests
of violent offenders.
The success of the CGUs is built on the ability to target the most
violent and dangerous offenders and by continuing to disrupt and
dismantle the prevalent gangs that are causing the conflicts within
local communities. By going after and weeding out the most pernicious
gang members, the USMS and its law enforcement partners are able to
make a positive difference in the affected communities. The CGUs,
combined with resources from a variety of law enforcement agencies,
operate as a cohesive powerhouse of intellect, knowledge, and
investigative expertise.
Question. Going forward how can this subcommittee further assist
the Marshals Service in the apprehension of not just gang members, but
human traffickers, cyber criminals, and other fugitives?
Lead-in information from original document.--
I commend the Marshals Service for having a Counter Gang Unit
up and running in the Great Lakes Regional Task Force that
serves Chicago. In fiscal year 2015, Congress appropriated $7.5
million to the Marshals Service to form Counter Gang Units in
each of the seven regional task forces to combat gangs;
however, your fiscal year 2016 budget request does not
specifically set aside funds for counter gang units.
Answer. The USMS appreciates the subcommittee's continued support
to its enforcement missions. The USMS will continue its Counter Gang
Unit operations within the Regional Fugitive Task Forces in fiscal year
2016. The subcommittee can further assist the Marshals Service
apprehend human traffickers, cyber criminals, and other fugitives by
supporting the President's budget request.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator John Boozman
assets forfeiture fund vs federal prisoner detention funds to sustain
costs
Question. Will the U.S. Marshals be able to sustain their costs by
continuing to use the Asset Forfeiture Funds as opposed to the Federal
Prisoner Detention (FPD) funds?
Answer. In fiscal year 2014, the Assets Forfeiture Fund received a
one-time deposit of $1.2 billion related to a civil forfeiture action
against Toyota Motor Corporation, resulting in excess unobligated
balances in the account. In fiscal year 2015, those excess balances
will be depleted because they are being used for Federal Prisoner
Detention related expenses, pursuant to The Consolidated and Further
Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015. The Assets Forfeiture Program does
not currently project any excess unobligated balances in fiscal year
2016. Although excess forfeiture funds are not available in fiscal year
2016, the USMS would be able to sustain its projected detention costs
for fiscal year 2016 if the USMS is provided FPD funding at the
President's Budget level of $1.4 billion.
u.s. marshals service special operations group
Question. Can you discuss your Special Operations Group and their
support to domestic and international missions?
Answer. The U.S. Marshals Service Special Operations Group (SOG) is
a flexible, modernized unit with a diverse skill set that conducts
specialty operations in any environment both within and outside the
United States. The SOG comprises competitively selected Deputy U.S.
Marshals that receive specialized training used to enhance the tactical
capabilities of the Marshals Service both domestically and
internationally. The SOG is often requested by other law enforcement
agencies and the Marshals Service to bring its distinctive skills to
support special missions. Modern law enforcement must have the
capability to defend against dangerous criminals that often have
considerable weaponry, tactical advantage and intent to use these
weapons against law enforcement and the public. The SOG has the
capacity to strengthen and reinforce standard law enforcement against
these dangerous criminals. The SOG is different from a standard Special
Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit. A SWAT unit operates in a singular
environment with a limited scope of authority in support of local law
enforcement whereas the SOG is a national support unit capable of
responding anywhere in the United States and abroad in support of
enforcement operations as well as humanitarian relief and national
crises.
Notable Domestic Operations:
--Capture of Eric Frein.--The SOG personnel were involved in the
manhunt and capture of Eric Frein in Pennsylvania. Frein is
accused of assassinating Pennsylvania State Trooper Jamie
Dickson and wounding another Trooper before his capture.
--Ferguson, Missouri.--The SOG deployed to support Ferguson, MO
during the civil unrest. The mission was to protect the Federal
courthouse and DOJ attorneys who met with Ferguson city
officials and the Michael Brown family when the verdict was
delivered.
--Boston Marathon Bomber.--The SOG has sole responsibility for the
transport and custody of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. SOG is currently
providing a quick reaction force and overall security to the
ongoing trial in the Federal District of Massachusetts.
--Libyan Terrorist Abu Khatallah.--The SOG is providing security and
trial transportation for this high risk prisoner who is accused
of murdering U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three
American security officers in Benghazi, Libya in 2012.
--Gang Enforcement.--Conducted multiple rotations to assist in the
national gang enforcement operation known as VR-7 (violence
reduction--7 cities) at multiple locations throughout the
United States.
--Heroin.--In the Federal District of Arizona, the SOG members
executed search and arrest warrants against high value Mexican
Cartel members involved in smuggling weapons, cocaine, heroin,
and methamphetamines.
Notable International Operations:
--Iraq.--From 2003 to 2009, the SOG was responsible for establishing
judicial security throughout Iraq. During this timeframe, this
unit coordinated all security for the prosecution of Saddam
Hussein. The SOG deputies protected international attorneys,
Iraqi trial judges, and U.S. Department of Justice personnel
assigned to assist in the trial.
--Afghanistan.--From 2007 until 2014, the SOG was tasked with
creating and sustaining the judicial security unit of the
Afghan National Police. This unit started with 6 officers and
by the end of SOG's withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014, the
unit was fully staffed with 1,063 fully equipped personnel
trained in current methods and procedures for judicial
security.
--The SOG was called on to provide additional protection for the U.S.
Drug Czar during his trips to Afghanistan.
--The SOG supported the Office of National Drug Control Policy
(ONDCP) with tactical personnel while the Director of ONDCP
traveled to the opium poppy fields in the Helmand Province.
--Kenya.--The SOG conducted a high risk extradition from Nairobi,
Kenya to the United States which required a level of
sophisticated medical knowledge that is a part of the unit's
training.
--Mexico.--The SOG assisted USMS Investigative Operations Division,
International Investigations Branch with the Merida Training
program in Mexico. This unit provided instruction to the
Mexican Federal Police Advanced Special Response Teams (SRT).
Classes included driving, dignitary protection, tactical
shooting, building entry and tactical trauma medicine.
--Colombia.--In fiscal year 2014, the SOG began its assistance to the
USMS Training Division with Operation Plan Colombia. The SOG
provided instructors and subject matter experts to assist with
the dignitary and witness protection training.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Patrick J. Leahy
usms surveillance technology
Question. Under the USMS's current policies relating to the use of
cell-site simulators, how many times has the USMS employed such a
device without prior court approval, and what were the reasons for
doing so? What is the policy regarding retention of data?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Recent media reports have raised questions about Federal law
enforcement's use of sophisticated surveillance technology,
like cell-site simulators and license plate reading cameras, to
track suspects historically and in real-time. Although I
appreciate the potential value of this technology to law
enforcement, I am concerned about the potential impact on the
privacy rights of innocent Americans.
Answer. The Department is committed to using all law enforcement
resources in a manner that is consistent with the requirements and
protections of the Constitution and other legal authorities, and with
appropriate respect for privacy and civil liberties. We are likewise
committed to ensuring that the Department's practices are lawful and
respect the important privacy interests of the American people.
The Department's law enforcement components have provided multiple
briefings to Congressional Oversight Committee staff. These briefings
were held to provide the requested information about certain sensitive
law enforcement tools and techniques while avoiding making public the
use of any specific, sensitive equipment and techniques that may be
deployed in furtherance of law enforcement missions. To do so would
allow kidnappers, fugitives, drug smugglers, and certain suspects to
determine our capabilities and limitations in this area. Although we
cannot discuss here the specific equipment and techniques that we may
use, we can assure you that to the extent the Department's law
enforcement components deploy certain technologies in investigations,
we are committed to using them consistent with the Constitution and
Federal law. Finally, the Department is in the process of examining its
policies to ensure that they reflect our continuing commitment to
conducting its vital missions while according appropriate respect for
privacy and civil liberties.
Question. Since 2001, how many cell-site simulators has the USMS
purchased or obtained from another Government agency? What has been the
cost, per year, for the acquisition, maintenance and deployment of the
USMS's cell-site simulators?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Recent media reports have raised questions about Federal law
enforcement's use of sophisticated surveillance technology,
like cell-site simulators and license plate reading cameras, to
track suspects historically and in real-time. Although I
appreciate the potential value of this technology to law
enforcement, I am concerned about the potential impact on the
privacy rights of innocent Americans.
Answer. The Department is committed to using all law enforcement
resources in a manner that is consistent with the requirements and
protections of the Constitution and other legal authorities, and with
appropriate respect for privacy and civil liberties. We are likewise
committed to ensuring that the Department's practices are lawful and
respect the important privacy interests of the American people.
The Department's law enforcement components have provided multiple
briefings to Congressional Oversight Committee staff. These briefings
were held to provide the requested information about certain sensitive
law enforcement tools and techniques while avoiding making public the
use of any specific, sensitive equipment and techniques that may be
deployed in furtherance of law enforcement missions. To do so would
allow kidnappers, fugitives, drug smugglers, and certain suspects to
determine our capabilities and limitations in this area. Although we
cannot discuss here the specific equipment and techniques that we may
use, we can assure you that to the extent the Department's law
enforcement components deploy certain technologies in investigations,
we are committed to using them consistent with the Constitution and
Federal law. Finally, the Department is in the process of examining its
policies to ensure that they reflect our continuing commitment to
conducting its vital missions while according appropriate respect for
privacy and civil liberties.
Question. Does the USMS maintain its own license plate reader
database? If so, how long has the database been operational and what
are the policies and procedures in place that govern the collection and
use of the data? How many cameras are in the network? What other law
enforcement agencies, if any, have access to this database?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Recent media reports have raised questions about Federal law
enforcement's use of sophisticated surveillance technology,
like cell-site simulators and license plate reading cameras, to
track suspects historically and in real-time. Although I
appreciate the potential value of this technology to law
enforcement, I am concerned about the potential impact on the
privacy rights of innocent Americans.
Answer. The USMS deploys the License Plate Reader (LPR) system in
support of its fugitive and Adam Walsh Act investigations. The LPR
assists in locating vehicle tags associated with fugitives or in
locating sex offenders who are in violation of the registry status in
order to affect an arrest. This system is only operational on one
computer in one vehicle that is operationally used in West Virginia by
the USMS.
The LPR, when operating, enables the uploading of photographic
image of the license plate. This data is stored on a laptop hard drive
and is not accessible on the laptop after 30 days from the date the tag
is identified. The license plate photograph is uploaded through a
secure server to a database managed by the West Virginia State Police
(WVSP) which may be queried by specifically authorized law enforcement
personnel.
LPR data query in the WVSP system is available to law enforcement
agencies for criminal investigation purposes only. Member agency users
in the WVSP LPR system also have access to query LPR data in accordance
with WVSP policy governing the statewide LPR system. The USMS is
dedicated to ensuring the data is managed in such a way as to meet
public safety needs while protecting individuals' privacy interests.
______
Questions Submitted to Hon. Michele M. Leonhart
DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION
Questions Submitted by Senator Richard C. Shelby
international drug enforcement priorities
Question. How would this new capacity target the financial
infrastructure of drug trafficking organizations abroad?
Lead-in information from original document.--
The Drug Enforcement Administration has agents in 86
countries with resident offices located in 67 countries. DEA's
2016 budget includes a $12 million increase to enhance
financial investigations within the Special Operations Division
and the Sensitive Investigative Units.
Answer. DEA's Bilateral Investigations Unit (BIU) is organized into
four Regional Groups and a Financial Investigative Team to focus on the
financial aspects of the BIU investigations. The BIUs use investigative
tools and techniques to disrupt key financial command and control
nodes. These tools include reverse money laundering operations;
Attorney General Exempted Operations (AGEOs); undercover shelf
accounts; moving and monitoring Trafficker Directed Funds; and asset
identification/seizure. The BIU is staffed and supported by existing
SOD personnel and resources. These extra-territorial enforcement groups
play a vital role to investigate, indict, capture, and convict the most
significant foreign-based narco-terrorists, drug traffickers,
terrorists and transnational criminals that threaten U.S. National
Security interests and impact the world's drug supply.
The BIU's four Regional Groups are organized geographically as
follows: OSNA (Africa); OSNB (Asia); OSNC (Latin America/Central
America/Caribbean); OSNE (Europe). Each Group is comprised of senior
Special Agents and Analysts who deploy to foreign locations and conduct
highly sensitive proactive criminal investigations. These DEA BIU
Groups have produced impressive case results, including the arrests of
arms trafficker Viktor Bout and arms trafficker and terrorist Monzer Al
Kassar.
Attacking the financial infrastructure of these criminals and their
organizations is key to enhancing the BIUs' effectiveness. While the
BIUs' efforts to enlist various financial investigative techniques as a
means to disrupt key financial command and control nodes have been
successful, these efforts have been ad hoc. To increase the BIU's
effectiveness, DEA is seeking to establish a Financial Investigative
Team (OSNF) comprised of 5 Special Agents, 2 Intelligence Analysts, 1
Program Analyst, and administrative support personnel, to complement
the investigations of the BIU Regional Groups. The Financial
Investigative Team investigations would be proactive and would enhance
current investigations of BIU Regional Groups. The intent is that the
Special Agents in the new Financial Investigative Team will support the
financial angle of the investigations conducted by the Regional Groups
with financial expertise. The Team will focus primarily on the
financial networks of investigative targets of a particular regional
Regional Group.
Question. How would additional funding for Sensitive Investigative
Units be used to build upon the current framework of almost 900
participating local law enforcement officers in 13 countries?
Lead-in information from original document.--
The Drug Enforcement Administration has agents in 86
countries with resident offices located in 67 countries. DEA's
2016 budget includes a $12 million increase to enhance
financial investigations within the Special Operations Division
and the Sensitive Investigative Units.
Answer. The Sensitive Investigative Unit (SIU) Program is a
comprehensive international drug enforcement initiative involving 13
countries and over 40 SIU enforcement groups staffed by over 900 host
nation local law enforcement officers. SIU participants are able to
remain in the program for up to 5 years.
Since the program's inception in four countries in 1996, the SIU
has had the same baseline budget of approximately $20 million per year.
DEA's program has become the model for other U.S. law enforcement
agencies and ally countries (U.K., France, Germany) operating overseas
and has led to expansion into additional countries.
Additional funding will be used to maintain the current framework
and capabilities of the 13 Sensitive Investigative Units (SIUs) and
participating local law enforcement officers. Specifically, this
funding will support the following SIU requirements:
--Recurring maintenance costs: projected inflationary increases will
impact rental payments, building maintenance requirements, and
furniture purchases for SIU facilities and safe houses. These
facilities are critical for ongoing operations in SIU overseas
locations. Additional funding will cover these escalating
overhead costs and provide the necessary operational resources
for local law enforcement officers assigned to all 13 SIUs.
--Training: SIU Basic and Advanced training courses are required for
all SIU local law enforcement officers. Currently, the average
wait time for an SIU Basic Training course is 18-24 months.
Additional funding would alleviate a significant backlog of SIU
members waiting to complete the required operational and
technical training, which would result in the wait time being
reduced to approximately 12 months.
--Vetting and program reviews: all SIU members are required to
undergo periodic re-vetting; therefore, additional resources
will allow for polygraph testing of these members every 2
years. Additional funding will also support cyclical program
reviews necessary to evaluate and monitor SIU facilities,
financial management processes, personnel records, physical
security, vetting processes, and other administrative
procedures.
--Foreign judicial wire intercept maintenance/upgrades: the SIU
Program utilizes foreign judicial wire intercept systems to
investigate high-level international criminal and drug
trafficking organizations. Additional funding would support
essential hardware refreshes for the judicial wire intercept
systems located in Colombia, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic,
and Panama. Additional funding will also support the
enhancement of the judicial wire intercept system in Honduras
and the establishment of a new system in Nigeria.
--SIU Net database upgrade: SIU Net is an automated database/
repository used to collect SIU member biographical information,
training requirements, significant investigative
accomplishments, equipment, and vetting results (polygraph,
drug testing, and human rights checks). Additional funding
would be used for upgrading the inventory tracking element of
the SIU database.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Mark Kirk
dea organized crime gang unit within the special operations division
Question. How does the DEA ensure that resources are directed at
this unit?
Lead-in information from original document.--
I appreciate the DEA's mission to enforce our Nation's drug
laws and fighting gangs of national significance who deal in
illegal narcotics is key to that mission. It is my
understanding that the Organized Crime: Gangs section within
the Special Operations Division (SOD) is the only unit within
SOD to concentrate on domestic enforcement.
Answer. SOD as a whole supports domestic field enforcement by
providing vital information for investigative and enforcement
activities directed against major national and transnational
trafficking organizations, not just its gang section. SOD's mission is
to establish seamless law enforcement strategies and operations aimed
at dismantling national and international trafficking organizations by
attacking their command and control communications. SOD is able to
facilitate coordination and communication among DEA divisions and
participating agencies with overlapping investigations and ensure
tactical and strategic intelligence is shared between DEA and SOD's
participating agencies.
Prior to the merger with SOD in fiscal year 2010, the National Gang
Targeting, Enforcement, & Coordination Center (GangTECC) had no
dedicated operating budget with which to provide any type of support to
investigations. Since coming under the operational direction of SOD,
GangTECC has been able to provide increased support to these violent
urban organized crime investigations based on SOD's overall funding for
operations.
Prior to the merger, GangTECC supported only 100 cases in the three
preceding fiscal years combined. Since then, under the operational
direction of SOD, it has successfully coordinated several high impact
gang operations. In fiscal year 2011, GangTECC supported 102 cases that
resulted in 853 gang arrests. Furthermore, in fiscal year 2012, with a
broad objective to increase gang arrests by 2 percent over the fiscal
year 2011 baseline, GangTECC supported 154 cases that accounted for 891
gang arrests, which represented a 4.4 percent increase in arrests. In
fiscal year 2013 with the objective increased to 5 percent, GangTECC
supported 187 gang-related investigations that have resulted in 937
arrests; respectively 121 and 105 percent increases over fiscal year
2012 actuals. In fiscal year 2014, GangTECC supported 207 gang-related
cases that have yielded 803 arrests.
GangTECC/Operational Section: Gangs (OSG) is working closely with
the field offices, including State and local law enforcement, in order
to identify the complete structure of gang networks. The goal of this
strategy is to be able to fully identify the complete picture of the
organization and their affiliates--cartel leadership, plaza bosses, the
U.S. gatekeeper or ``chokepoint'' through which the cartels funnel the
drugs to the the street-level urban crime distribution networks which
directly impact local neighborhoods. Specifically, SOD/OSG is focusing
its efforts on the most violent of these urban organized crime networks
for maximum local impact to the communities; however, as these
investigations are multi-pronged and span multiple jurisdictions and
countries, OSG conducts these investigations in coordination with
multiple sections at SOD and all the domestic field divisions, as well
as several foreign offices.
controlled substances act
Question. Why has the DEA and the Department of Justice not
complied with provisions in the Controlled Substances Act,
specifically, ``The recommendations of the Secretary to the Attorney
General shall be binding on the Attorney General as to such scientific
and medical matters, and if the Secretary recommends that a drug or
other substance not be controlled, the Attorney General shall not
control the drug or other substance'' (21 U.S.C.A. ss 811 (West))?
Lead-in information from original document.--
In January 2011, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
approved and recommended for decontrol, the imaging agent
DaTscan to be used in the medical community to differentiate
between essential tremor and Parkinson's disease. DaTscan
inherited its Schedule II controlled status because it contains
trace amounts of lofupane, a cocaine derivative. The DEA has
refused to decontrol DaTscan despite the FDA's recommendation.
Answer. In November, 2010, the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) sent to DEA a scheduling recommendation accompanied by a
scientific and medical evaluation. HHS recommended that Food and Drug
Administration-approved products containing [\123\I]ioflupane
(currently, only DaTscan) be removed from schedule II of the Controlled
Substances Act (CSA). The facts in support of the HHS recommendation
and evaluation required DEA and HHS to collaborate before DEA could
move forward with the recommendation. In the interim, DEA published an
interim final rule to provide an exemption from registration to persons
administering the drug product DaTscan if they are authorized under
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission or Agreement State medical use
licenses or permits. 79 FR 70085. This rule was intended to alleviate
the regulatory burdens on those administering the drug product DaTscan,
which means that patients have a greater chance of receiving important
diagnostic testing.
After consultations with the HHS regarding its recommendation and
evaluation, DEA published on June 3, 2015, a notice of proposed
rulemaking in the Federal Register, which proposes to remove
[\123\I]ioflupane from schedule II of the CSA. The public comment
period for this notice ended on July 6, 2015. In keeping with our
commitment to making diagnostic agents available to as many patients as
possible, DEA will diligently work towards responding to the comments
received in response to the notice and in finalizing the scheduling
action.
controlled substances act--datscan
Question. When does the DEA expect to comply with the law and
decontrol DaTscan?
Lead-in information from original document.--
In January 2011, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
approved and recommended for decontrol, the imaging agent
DaTscan to be used in the medical community to differentiate
between essential tremor and Parkinson's disease. DaTscan
inherited its Schedule II controlled status because it contains
trace amounts of lofupane, a cocaine derivative. The DEA has
refused to decontrol DaTscan despite the FDA's recommendation.
Answer. In November, 2010, the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) sent to DEA a scheduling recommendation accompanied by a
scientific and medical evaluation. HHS recommended that Food and Drug
Administration-approved products containing [\123\I]ioflupane
(currently, only DaTscan) be removed from schedule II of the Controlled
Substances Act (CSA). The facts in support of the HHS recommendation
and evaluation required DEA and HHS to collaborate before DEA could
move forward with the recommendation. In the interim, DEA published an
interim final rule to provide an exemption from registration to persons
administering the drug product DaTscan if they are authorized under
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission or Agreement State medical use
licenses or permits. 79 FR 70085. This rule was intended to alleviate
the regulatory burdens on those administering the drug product DaTscan,
which means that patients have a greater chance of receiving important
diagnostic testing.
After consultations with the HHS regarding its recommendation and
evaluation, DEA published on June 3, 2015, a notice of proposed
rulemaking in the Federal Register, which proposes to remove
[\123\I]ioflupane from schedule II of the CSA. The public comment
period for this notice ended on July 6, 2015. In keeping with our
commitment to making diagnostic agents available to as many patients as
possible, DEA will diligently work towards responding to the comments
received in response to the notice and in finalizing the scheduling
action.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator John Boozman
prescription and synthetic drug abuse
Question. How is DEA combatting the prescription drug epidemic as
well as the domestic distribution of synthetic designer drugs? What
trends do you see rising on this front and how are you preparing to
deal with them?
Answer. According to the 2014 National Drug Threat Assessment
(NDTA), the threat from prescription drug abuse is persistent, and
deaths involving prescription drug abuse outnumber those involving
heroin and cocaine combined. The economic cost of nonmedical use of
prescription opioids alone in the United States totals more than $53
billion annually. Trafficking organizations, street gangs, and other
criminal groups, seeing the enormous profit potential, have become
increasingly involved in transporting and distributing prescription
drugs. The number of drug overdose deaths, particularly from
prescription drugs, has grown exponentially in the past decade and has
surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of injury death in
the United States. Rogue pain management clinics (commonly referred to
as pill mills) also contribute to the extensive availability of illicit
pharmaceuticals in the United States. To combat pill mills and stem the
flow of illicit substances, many States are establishing new pill mill
legislation.
The Office of National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP) Prescription
Drug Abuse Prevention Plan expands upon the current administration's
National Drug Control Strategy and includes action in four major areas
to reduce prescription drug abuse: education, monitoring, proper
medication disposal, and enforcement. DEA plays an important role in
all four of these areas.
Education
The Department of Justice (DOJ) focuses on education as a crucial
first step in preventing prescription drug abuse. Through its Demand
Reduction Program, DEA delivers educational content via its Web sites
www.GetSmartAboutDrugs.com and www.JustThinkTwice.com. These Web sites
serve as resources to parents, caregivers, educators, professionals,
and teens. DEA also focuses on reducing the demand for illicit drugs,
including the abuse of prescription drugs, through its Red Ribbon Week
programming, partnerships with other Federal, State, local and non-
profit organizations, and numerous publications made available to the
general public.
DEA also provides education and guidance to industry professionals
such as pharmacists, distributors, and manufacturers by delivering
information to registrants, professional associations, and industry
organizations on current diversion and abuse trends of pharmaceutical
drugs and listed chemicals. DEA also provides information and guidance
concerning new and existing programs, policies, legislation, and
regulations. DEA's Diversion Control Program establishes and maintains
liaison and working relationships with other Federal agencies, State
and local governments, regulated industries, industry organizations,
professionals, professional associations, and regulatory boards that
interface with DEA regarding diversion matters. In fiscal year 2014,
DEA conducted more than 75 public education and outreach events
regarding prescription drug abuse. Because of the importance of these
activities in addressing prescription drug abuse, DOJ has included an
Education and Outreach component to DEA's performance measures.
The following reflect the kinds of outreach initiatives undertaken
by DEA's Diversion Control Program:
DEA, along with State regulatory and law enforcement officials, and
in conjunction with the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy,
hosts Pharmacy Diversion Awareness Conferences (PDACs) throughout the
country. Each PDAC is held on Saturday or Sunday for the convenience of
the pharmacy community. The conferences are developed and designed to
address the growing problem of diversion of pharmaceutical controlled
substances at the retail level. Topics addressed include pharmacy
robberies and thefts, forged prescriptions, doctor shoppers, and
illegitimate prescriptions from rogue practitioners, with the objective
of educating pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and pharmacy loss
prevention personnel on methods to prevent and respond to potential
diversion activity.
During fiscal year 2013, DEA hosted 18 PDACs in eight States.
Further, DEA hosted 16 PDACs in eight States during fiscal year 2014.
Since DEA began hosting PDACs in 2011, more than 7,648 pharmacy
professionals have attended these educational conferences. At this
time, there are 16 proposed PDACs in eight States for fiscal year 2015.
The Manufacturers/Importers/Exporters Conference held on June 18-
19, 2013, provided a forum to present Federal laws and regulations that
affect the pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing, importing, and
exporting industry and to discuss practices to prevent and detect
diversion. In addition, topics such as quotas, year-end reporting,
Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System (ARCOS) reporting,
import/export permits and import/export declarations were discussed.
Approximately 370 people attended, representing more than 200
registrants. There is a Manufacturers/Importers/Exporters Conference
tentatively scheduled for September 2015.
DEA has also held two Distributor Conferences, most recently on
April 15-16, 2015, and previously on October 22, 2013. These
conferences provided an overview of Federal laws and regulations that
affect pharmaceutical and chemical distributors, such as recordkeeping,
ARCOS, and suspicious order monitoring.
The National Conference on Pharmaceutical and Chemical Diversion,
held September 30 through October 1, 2014, facilitated the exchange of
information between DEA and their State and local counterparts who
focus on combating the diversion of pharmaceutical controlled
substances and regulated chemicals. Over 70 people attended, including
individuals from State and local agencies who are responsible for
regulatory drug or chemical control as well as operational personnel
whose investigations target the diversion of licitly manufactured
controlled substances and regulated chemicals.
To better assist DEA registrants with their understanding of the
Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and implementing regulations, manuals
are drafted and made available to the public. The manuals are not
considered legal documents. Readers are instructed to refer to the most
current copy of the CSA, the Narcotic Addict Treatment Act of 1974, the
Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000, the Code of Federal Regulations
(C.F.R.), and Federal Register Notices to obtain complete and accurate
information. The Chemical Handler's Manual, Pharmacist's Manual, and
Practitioner's Manual are available via DEA's Web site.
Monitoring
One of the best ways to combat the rising tide of prescription drug
abuse is through the implementation and use of Prescription Drug
Monitoring Programs (PDMPs). PDMPs are typically State-run electronic
database systems used by practitioners, pharmacists, medical and
pharmacy boards, and law enforcement. These programs are established
through State legislation and are tailored to the specific needs of a
particular State. PDMPs help prevent and detect the diversion and abuse
of pharmaceutical controlled substances, particularly at the retail
level where no other automated information collection system exists.
However, in many States with operational PDMPs, participation by
prescribers and dispensers is voluntary, with utilization rates well
below 50 percent.\1\ The Brandeis University Center of Excellence
developed a PDMP Management Tool, which recommends calculating the
number of in-State prescribers with PDMP accounts as a percentage of
the number of in-State prescribers who issued controlled substance
prescriptions during the prior year. Based on this calculation, for
example, in Florida just 18 percent of the in-State prescribers who
issued more than one controlled substance prescription have registered
to use the database (11,408 in-State prescribers signed up for PDMP
accounts, out of the 62,238 in-State prescribers who issued controlled
substance prescriptions during the prior year).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The Brandeis University PDMP Center of Excellence, retrieved
12/18/14 http://www.pdmpexcellence.org/content/mandating-medical-
provider-participation-pdmps.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
While PDMPs are valuable tools for prescribers, pharmacists, and
law enforcement agencies to identify, detect, and prevent prescription
drug abuse and diversion, PDMPs do have some limits in their use for
detecting diversion at the retail level. For example, the use of PDMPs
is limited across State lines because interconnectivity remains a
challenge; at the same time, as many drug traffickers and other drug
seekers willingly travel hundreds of miles to gain easy access to
unscrupulous prescribers and dispensers.
Proper Medication Disposal
Prior to the passage of the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal
Act of 2010, enacted in October 2010 (Public Law 111-273) (Disposal
Act), the CSA provided no legal means for ultimate users to transfer
possession of controlled substance medications to other individuals for
disposal. The Disposal Act amends the CSA to authorize ultimate users
and Long Term Care Facilities (LTCFs) to deliver controlled substances
to another authorized person for the purpose of disposal in accordance
with regulations promulgated by DEA.
On September 9, 2014, DEA published in the Federal Register the
final rule on the Disposal of Controlled Substances. The final rule
became effective on October 9, 2014, and it implements the Disposal Act
by establishing requirements that allow authorized registrants to
develop secure, ongoing, and responsible methods for ultimate users and
LTCFs to dispose of pharmaceutical controlled substances. The final
rule expands the options available to collect controlled substances
from ultimate users for the purpose of disposal, including (1) take-
back events; (2) mail-back programs; and (3) collection receptacle
locations. These regulations contain specific provisions that:
Recognize the continuing authority of law enforcement agencies to
voluntarily conduct take-back events, administer mail-back programs,
and maintain collection receptacles; Allow authorized manufacturers,
distributors, reverse distributors, narcotic treatment programs,
hospitals/clinics with an on-site pharmacy, and retail pharmacies to
voluntarily administer mail-back programs and maintain collection
receptacles; and Allow authorized retail pharmacies and hospitals/
clinics with an on-site pharmacy to voluntarily maintain collection
receptacles at LTCFs.
In addition, DEA conducted nine Prescription Drug Take-Back Days
from September 2010 to September 2014. Each take-back day provided the
public with thousands of sites nationwide to turn in their unwanted or
expired prescription drugs safely and securely. On September 26, 2014,
the most recent National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, 617,150
pounds (309 tons) of prescription medications were collected from
members of the public. As a result of all nine National Prescription
Drug Take-Back Days, DEA, in conjunction with its State, local, and
tribal law enforcement partners, removed a total of just under 4.9
million pounds (2,411 tons) of medications from circulation. Although
law enforcement continues to have discretion with respect to take-back
events, DEA intends to conduct another nationwide take-back event
during September 2015 to provide additional options for the safe and
responsible disposal of unused medications. The new final rule on the
Disposal of Controlled Substances provides the public with expanded
options to safely and responsibly dispose of their unused and unwanted,
lawfully-possessed pharmaceutical controlled substances through
collection receptacles and mail-back packages. This rule allows for
ongoing medication disposal, thereby ridding the home of unused or
unwanted drugs that pose a poisoning hazard or can be diverted.
Enforcement
DEA's Diversion Control Program is using all criminal and
regulatory tools possible to identify, target, disrupt, and dismantle
individuals and organizations responsible for the illicit manufacture
and distribution of pharmaceutical controlled substances in violation
of the CSA. The deployment of Tactical Diversion Squads (TDS) is DEA's
primary method of criminal law enforcement in the Diversion Control
Program. The recent expansion of the TDS program has resulted in 66
operational TDSs throughout the United States, covering 41 States,
Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. These TDSs incorporate the
enforcement, investigative, and regulatory skill sets of DEA Special
Agents, Diversion Investigators, other Federal law enforcement, and
State and local Task Force Officers. In fiscal years 2013 and 2014, the
TDS Groups collectively seized $60.7 million and $51.4 million in
assets, respectively.
The expansion of the TDSs has enabled the Diversion Groups to
concentrate on the regulatory aspects of the Diversion Control Program.
DEA has increased the frequency of compliance inspections of specific
registrant categories such as manufacturers, distributors, importers,
exporters, narcotic treatment programs, DATA-waived practitioners,
researchers, and chemical handlers. In fiscal year 2014, DEA entered
into several civil settlement agreements with registrants totaling over
$13.5 million. The various regulatory investigations involved
distributors, pharmacies, and practitioners who were found to be in
violation of the CSA and its implementing regulations.
Synthetic Drugs
DEA continues to issue permanent and temporary scheduling orders to
place emerging synthetic drugs that pose a threat under Schedule I
control. DEA has also dedicated significant resources to support
prosecution at the Federal level for the manufacturing and trafficking
of synthetic drugs and controlled substance analogs, by providing
scientific and legal support to U.S. Attorneys throughout the United
States.
The two most common categories of these synthetic drugs are
synthetic cannabinoids and synthetic cathinones.
Synthetic cannabinoids (sometimes sold under brand names such as K2
or Spice) continue to be drugs of considerable concern. These
depressant/hallucinogenic drugs are primarily sourced from China.
Synthetic cannabinoid substances are typically packaged in the U.S.,
and marketed over the Internet, or supplied to retail distributors
before being sold to the public at retail stores (e.g., ``head shops,''
convenience stores, gas stations, and liquor stores). Laws governing
the legality of the substances vary widely between States and the
chemical components are frequently altered, making it difficult for DEA
to schedule the substances.
Synthetic cathinone substances fall under the phenethylamine class
of stimulant/hallucinogenic drugs, and are marketed as ``bath salts''
or ``glass cleaner,'' among other street names. These substances are
often labeled ``not intended for human consumption'' as a false means
to defend against the Government's utilization of the Federal
Controlled Substance Analogue Enforcement Act.
The DEA Office of Diversion Control continuously evaluates non-
controlled synthetic designer drugs for scheduling. Since 2009, more
than 300 new synthetic compounds from 8 classes of drugs have been
encountered in the United States.
Internationally, DEA engages the countries where synthetic designer
drugs are being produced at a bilateral level through DEA's Country
Attaches. The DEA is also an active and leading participant in the
United Nations' Office on Drugs and Crime, International Narcotics
Control Board (INCB). The INCB recently created the Project
International Operations on New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) Task
Force which targets New Psychoactive Substances. At the first
operational meeting, members from 16 different countries participated,
including China, which provided over 2,000 investigative leads to the
participants of this meeting as well as 40 other countries where
synthetic designer drugs were sent.
DEA is actively engaged through the Department of State in the
annual meeting at the United Nations' Commission on Narcotic Drugs. At
the 2014 meeting, the U.S. Government sponsored a resolution titled
``Enhancing international cooperation in the identification and
reporting of new psychoactive substances and incidents involving such
substances.'' This resolution will assist U.N. member states to address
the issue of synthetic designer drugs.
meth labs
Question. I understand that meth labs play a significant role in
crime in Arkansas and there has been a substantial increase in the
number of them in the United States. What are the trends you are seeing
in domestic meth lab cases and how is that affecting your budget
requirements?
Answer. Overall, most of the methamphetamine available in the
United States is clandestinely produced in Mexico and smuggled across
the Southwest Border, where methamphetamine seizures continue to
increase. The Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act succeeded in reducing
``super labs'' (those that produced 10 pounds or more). Currently, most
methamphetamine labs found in the U.S. are small ``one pot'' labs that
produce less than 2 ounces. However, it has been difficult to easily
identify and stop those individuals who purchase the legal limit of
pseudoephedrine combination products and sell it to domestic
clandestine ``one pot'' meth manufacturers, a practice known as
``smurfing.''
Arkansas has passed laws, the most recent in 2012, controlling the
sales of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine within the State. In order to
purchase these precursors in the State, an Arkansas license or Military
identification is required. This requirement is expected to ensure that
border State ``smurfers'' and methamphetamine manufacturers will be
unable to travel to Arkansas to purchase precursors. Additionally, it
eliminates some problems from the use of false identification for
pseudoephedrine purchases. This law also requires pharmacists to
exercise professional judgment in dispensing pseudoephedrine and
establishes a searchable database of purchase records.
Another trend involves Mexico-based methamphetamine trafficking
organizations smuggling liquid methamphetamine into the United States.
The term ``liquid methamphetamine'' refers to finished methamphetamine
that has been dissolved in a liquid solvent or methamphetamine-in-
suspension. The smuggling methods include concealing the solution in
vehicle batteries, gasoline tanks, windshield wiper reservoirs, liquor
bottles, laundry and antifreeze containers, and flavored water bottles.
Once inside the U.S., the liquid is transferred to ``processing
personnel'' who initiate the recrystallization process by mixing it
with a solvent such as acetone and exposing the liquid methamphetamine
to air for a prescribed period of time. Approximately four pounds of
crystalized methamphetamine can be obtained from one gallon of liquid
methamphetamine. The laboratories are often located in single-family
residences and used solely for the recovery process. Due to the
flammability of the fumes emitted by the solvent, the recovery
personnel cover outlets and light switches with tape to avoid sparks
that could ignite the fumes and cause an explosion. The conversion
process can take approximately 2 days for completion. These conversion
labs are more difficult to identify than typical methamphetamine labs
because the same characteristic odors are not emitted. Conversion labs
use acetone, a common solvent easily available for purchase at most
home improvement stores.
The annual operating cost for meth lab cleanup has been reduced by
51 percent since fiscal year 2010 due to the fact that 18 States have
begun using the Authorized Central Storage Container (ACSC) program.
Through the ACSC program, State and local authorities remove the
hazardous waste from the clan lab sites and transport it to an ACSC
location. The waste is then safely stored in the containers until it
can be removed by an authorized DEA vendor for ultimate destruction. In
fiscal year 2014, DEA reduced the annualized cost of the nationwide
hazardous waste cleanup program by $2.0 million through continued
expansion of the Container Program.
asset forfeiture fund funding to dea and state and locals
Question. How important is the Asset Forfeiture Fund to DEA as well
as to State and local law enforcement?
Answer. The Assets Forfeiture Fund (AFF) is a vital resource to
DEA, both as a law enforcement tool and a funding resource. As a law
enforcement tool, the AFF enhances public safety and allows DEA and our
State and local counterparts to disrupt and dismantle criminal
enterprises by removing the proceeds of crime. Without the removal of
these assets, criminal enterprises would continue to grow and flourish,
even if the perpetrators are convicted and imprisoned.
From a resource perspective, the AFF provides DEA with funding
authority to maintain its Asset Forfeiture Program, and to enhance
DEA's most vital investigative competencies. DEA's wire intercept
(Title III) and State and Local Task Force (S&L TF) Overtime programs
are examples that are largely or wholly funded by the AFF. Any
reductions to the DEA AFF budget will diminish funding for mission
critical programs and operations and will reduce DEA's ability to
weaken criminal organizations.
Drug trafficking organizations skillfully use advanced
communications technology to plan, coordinate, and execute criminal
activities. Wire intercepts have proven to be one of law enforcement's
best tools to disrupt and dismantle criminal entities and pursue the
forfeiture of assets. Wire intercepts are also a valuable tool in
criminal and civil court proceedings. Wire intercepts often provide the
quality of evidence that is necessary for presentation in court
proceedings. Further, once a defendant learns that DEA used wire
intercepts in an investigation, the defendant usually agrees to a plea
deal. The financial operations of a criminal organization are
increasingly used in affidavits as part of the probable cause for
initiating a wire intercept. As a result, the wire intercept plays an
integral role in the process of targeting the financial infrastructure
of sophisticated, highly organized drug trafficking groups.
The State and Local Task Force Overtime program is also vital to
DEA's overall law enforcement efforts and is paid for by the AFF. S&L
Task Force Officers (TFOs) constitute approximately 30 percent of the
DEA workforce and are essential to the mission of the agency. DEA task
forces were responsible for 21 percent of all DEA cases in fiscal year
2014, 33 percent of all arrests, and 21 percent of all disruptions and
dismantlements. At times, these cases provide leads to many of our
biggest national and international Priority Target Organization (PTO)
and Consolidated Priority Organization Targets (CPOT) linked
investigations, many of which focus on crippling the Mexican drug
cartels. Additionally, these cases can develop into major Southwest
Border and the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF)
cases that are the Department's highest priorities. Further, losing the
contribution of these TFOs would equate to an estimated $162.5 million
less in revenue denied and $102.5 million less in contributions to the
AFF.
DEA's El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) Financial Intelligence
Group includes a Bulk Currency Team that supports active investigations
to locate assets (bulk drug currency, other illicit currency, vehicles,
real property, etc.) owned or controlled by traffickers and other
criminal elements for possible seizure and forfeiture. Without the
support and funding of the AFF, EPIC would need to reduce support for
these investigations, many of which involve State and local law
enforcement working with DEA.
Without the AFF, DEA would need to significantly reduce its support
of programs such as Title III and State and Local Overtime. These
programs directly impact DEA's ability to disrupt and dismantle major
drug trafficking supply organizations and their networks. The AFF also
allows DEA to strengthen partnerships with DEA's domestic law
enforcement counterparts to maximize the impact of its operations.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Patrick J. Leahy
dea surveillance technology
Question. Under the DEA's current policies relating to the use of
cell-site simulators, how many times has the DEA employed such a device
without prior court approval, and what were the reasons for doing so?
What is the policy regarding retention of data?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Recent media reports have raised questions about Federal law
enforcement's use of sophisticated surveillance technology,
like cell-site simulators and license plate reading cameras, to
track suspects historically and in real-time. Although I
appreciate the potential value of this technology to law
enforcement, I am concerned about the potential impact on the
privacy rights of innocent Americans.
Answer. The Department is committed to using all law enforcement
resources in a manner that is consistent with the requirements and
protections of the Constitution and other legal authorities, and with
appropriate respect for privacy and civil liberties. We are likewise
committed to ensuring that the Department's practices are lawful and
respect the important privacy interests of the American people.
The Department's law enforcement components have provided multiple
briefings to Congressional Oversight Committee staff, and would be
willing to provide additional briefings as requested. The briefings
from earlier were held to provide the requested information about
certain sensitive law enforcement tools and techniques while avoiding
making public the use of any specific, sensitive equipment and
techniques that may be deployed in furtherance of law enforcement
missions. Doing so could expose our capabilities and limitations in
this area to criminal targets. Although we cannot discuss here the
specific equipment and techniques that we may use, we can assure you
that to the extent the Department's law enforcement components deploy
certain technologies in investigations, we are committed to using them
consistent the Constitution and with Federal law. Finally, the
Department is in the process of examining its policies to ensure that
they reflect our continuing commitment to conducting its vital missions
while according appropriate respect for privacy and civil liberties.
Question. Since 2001, how many cell-site simulators has the DEA
purchased or obtained from another government agency? What has been the
cost, per year, for the acquisition, maintenance and deployment of the
DEA's cell-site simulators?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Recent media reports have raised questions about Federal law
enforcement's use of sophisticated surveillance technology,
like cell-site simulators and license plate reading cameras, to
track suspects historically and in real-time. Although I
appreciate the potential value of this technology to law
enforcement, I am concerned about the potential impact on the
privacy rights of innocent Americans.
Answer. The Department is committed to using all law enforcement
resources in a manner that is consistent with the requirements and
protections of the Constitution and other legal authorities, and with
appropriate respect for privacy and civil liberties. We are likewise
committed to ensuring that the Department's practices are lawful and
respect the important privacy interests of the American people.
The Department's law enforcement components have provided multiple
briefings to Congressional Oversight Committee staff, and would be
willing to provide additional briefings as requested. The briefings
from earlier were held to provide the requested information about
certain sensitive law enforcement tools and techniques while avoiding
making public the use of any specific, sensitive equipment and
techniques that may be deployed in furtherance of law enforcement
missions. Doing so could expose our capabilities and limitations in
this area to criminal targets. Although we cannot discuss here the
specific equipment and techniques that we may use, we can assure you
that to the extent the Department's law enforcement components deploy
certain technologies in investigations, we are committed to using them
consistent the Constitution and with Federal law. Finally, the
Department is in the process of examining its policies to ensure that
they reflect our continuing commitment to conducting its vital missions
while according appropriate respect for privacy and civil liberties.
Question. Does the DEA maintain its own license plate reader
database? If so, how long has the database been operational and what
are the policies and procedures in place that govern the collection and
use of the data? How many cameras are in the network? What other law
enforcement agencies, if any, have access to this database?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Recent media reports have raised questions about Federal law
enforcement's use of sophisticated surveillance technology,
like cell-site simulators and license plate reading cameras, to
track suspects historically and in real-time. Although I
appreciate the potential value of this technology to law
enforcement, I am concerned about the potential impact on the
privacy rights of innocent Americans.
Answer. DEA's National License Plate Reader Program (NLPRP) is a
law enforcement system designed to enhance the ability of law
enforcement agencies to interdict drug traffickers, money launderers,
and other criminal activities in high drug and money trafficking
corridors and on other public roadways throughout the United States.
The NLPRP was first deployed by DEA in 2008 as an additional tool to
help counter drug and money laundering threats prevalent on the
Southwest border. It is designed to support the investigation and
prosecution of drug trafficking organizations who covertly transport
controlled substances and cash over land routes. NLPRP information can
only be accessed in conjunction with authorized law enforcement
investigative activity. LPRs have been used to successfully capture
fugitives, seize proceeds of crime, and intercept and seize large
shipments of illegal narcotics such as marijuana and cocaine.
As discussed in a February 13, 2015, briefing with Senate Judiciary
Committee staff, the information collected with a LPR is limited to
photographic imagery obtained in a non-invasive, public manner along
public roadways. The images capture only information that individuals
present to the public. It is important to note that the system does not
track people, personally identifiable information, or vehicles. The
NLPRP is designed to contain transactional data only, which consists of
the license plate number, State, location, date, time, and direction of
travel. The information collected is intentionally stored in a manner
to prevent it from being used for data mining or pattern analysis. The
data remains available in the system for 90 days, after which time it
is automatically purged from the system.
As noted above, NLPRP information can only be accessed in
conjunction with an authorized law enforcement investigative activity.
Requests to access NLPRP collected information can only be made by
vetted Federal, State, or local law enforcement personnel. Vetted
personnel require supervisory approval prior to being given access to
the system, and those making an inquiry must provide a law enforcement
nexus to support their inquiry.
Approved law enforcement personnel with access to the NLPRP also
have the ability to put a tactical alert on a license plate related to
a vehicle suspected to be involved with criminal activity. Tactical
alerts permit users to enter a license plate and receive notification
within 30 seconds of that plate recording a transaction on LPRs within
the system. This near real-time capability provides an opportunity for
a tactical law enforcement response to specific investigative or
operational situations. The alert notification also promotes data
sharing within the law enforcement community and serves as a de-
confliction tool. As with other NLPRP queries, a law enforcement nexus
must be provided prior to the tactical alert being placed on a license
plate. Over the last year, approximately 5,400 tactical alerts have
been placed in the NLPRP.
As discussed with your staff, the NLPRP has a variety of technical
security measures in place such as firewalls, trusted network
architecture, Security Technical Implementation Guidelines, and
safeguards against cyber-attacks. Furthermore, the NLPRP has a variety
of procedural and policy measures in place for users, including:
account inactivity expiration at 90 days; failed access attempt count
lockout; legal policy acceptance; required use of case numbers and/or
reason for query; user activity logging and auditing; and controlled
access offered only to vetted law enforcement. Finally, the NLPRP's
design provides data protection measures to minimize the risk that any
abuse or misuse of the system takes place, to include no support for
searches other than on specific law enforcement targets, no support for
data mining or pattern matching, and mandatory information collection
such as reasons for queries and/or case numbers.
______
Questions Submitted to Hon. B. Todd Jones
BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, FIREARMS AND EXPLOSIVES
Questions Submitted by Senator Richard C. Shelby
fertilizer distribution facility fire and explosion investigation
Question. As we approach the 2-year anniversary of this tragic
event, please estimate when the investigation will be complete and when
findings and recommendations may be released.
Lead-in information from original document.--
ATF testified about the on-going investigation into the fire
and explosion that occurred at a fertilizer distribution
facility in West, Texas, on April 17, 2013.
Answer. The investigation of the West, Texas fertilizer facility
fire and explosion remains ongoing. ATF is working closely with the
Texas State Fire Marshal, the agency with primary jurisdiction over the
incident, to identify the cause and origin of the fire and explosion,
and to make overall findings and recommendations. ATF's role includes
providing technical analysis and expertise through the ATF Fire
Research Laboratory (FRL) in Ammendale, Maryland, and jointly reviewing
documentary evidence with the Fire Marshal's office in Texas. ATF, the
Texas State Fire Marshal and other participants are working diligently
to complete the investigation as soon as practicable. Due, however, to
the complexity of the required technical analysis and the volume of
records under review, it is highly unlikely that final findings and
recommendations will be completed before the end of fiscal year 2015.
Question. If ATF does not anticipate completing the investigation
and releasing the findings this fiscal year, please provide the reasons
for the delay.
Lead-in information from original document.--
ATF testified about the on-going investigation into the fire
and explosion that occurred at a fertilizer distribution
facility in West, Texas, on April 17, 2013.
Answer. As noted, the complexities of the investigation are the
primary variable impacting the timeline for its completion. In light of
the massive devastation of the facility that resulted from the
explosion, recreation of scene characteristics for testing has been
time consuming. At the end of February, ATF completed large-scale tests
that involved recreating the walls and ceilings in a possible area of
origin for the fire. These large-scale tests enhanced the understanding
of expert analysts regarding the potential for flame spread from this
area to other areas in the building. The flame spread and heat release
rates measured from these tests are being used as input for computer
models that predict the spread of smoke and heat from the fires into
the rest of the structure. Testing is also being conducted to measure
the flammability properties of the materials in the fires. These
materials tests are used as input to the computer models. The testing
and modeling that has been completed to date has provided the
information necessary to conduct a final phase of testing aimed at
identification of the causation of the original fire. This final phase
of testing will involve computer modeling and multiple experiments in a
full scale re-creation of the seed room (the area of origin).
Construction for these full scale tests started at the end of February.
Our final analysis will combine the results of the fire tests with
computer modeling to develop a comprehensive understanding of the fire
event. The results of this testing and modeling will be crucial to
obtaining accurate and complete findings and recommendations. ATF
anticipates completing this final phase of testing by August 2015. Once
the final testing takes place, the data will be analyzed over the next
several months. With respect to investigation other than the testing
and analysis at the FRL, ATF and the Texas State Fire Marshal are
currently reviewing thousands of pages of documents that have become
available as the result of ongoing civil court cases related to the
fire. These documents include reports generated by private sector fire
science experts and depositions of West Fertilizer employees and other
witnesses, the information gleaned from these documents may also
provide information essential to reaching complete and thorough final
findings and recommendations.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Mark Kirk
national integrated ballistic information network
Question. How does ATF plan to disrupt violent crime using NIBIN
into areas of the country that have minimal resources but high levels
of gang members and gun crime?
Lead-in information from original document.--
This subcommittee has highlighted and prioritized the
expansion and use of the National Integrated Ballistics
Information Network (NIBIN) in order to enhance the ATF's
ability to collect, report, and share ballistics intelligence
with Federal, State, and local law enforcement partners to
disrupt violent criminal activity. Last year, I toured the
impressive Crime Gun Center in Chicago that utilizes NIBIN
technology.
Answer. As part of its implementation of regionalized Crime Gun
Intelligence Centers (CGIC), ATF has integrated NIBIN into a
comprehensive strategy to combat violent crime. CGICs synthesize all
available intelligence related to crime guns in the serviced area
(e.g., NIBIN, crime gun trace data, suspect information, cooperating
source information, and acoustic location data), thus allowing ATF and
its partners to target deployment of resources in the community where
they are most needed and effective in combatting firearm violence.
In instances where access to NIBIN is not readily available in
individual communities, ATF provides access to NIBIN through its three
ATF laboratories. Mechanisms to provide regional NIBIN access include
providing funding or other resources for transportation of evidence to
the laboratory for entry and analysis. These efforts are aimed at
providing broad, cost-effective access to communities currently without
NIBIN equipment while ATF pursues options for funding direct access for
additional communities.
Question. Can the ATF highlight the success of NIBIN in getting
shooters out of our neighborhoods?
Lead-in information from original document.--
This subcommittee has highlighted and prioritized the
expansion and use of the National Integrated Ballistics
Information Network (NIBIN) in order to enhance the ATF's
ability to collect, report, and share ballistics intelligence
with Federal, State, and local law enforcement partners to
disrupt violent criminal activity. Last year, I toured the
impressive Crime Gun Center in Chicago that utilizes NIBIN
technology.
Answer. Many cases highlight how NIBIN has been utilized to
identify shooters who terrorize communities. In Denver, Colorado, for
example, shell casings matched through NIBIN have helped lead to at
least 35 arrests in more than 50 shootings in the last 2 years. Federal
firearms offenses have been filed against 13 of these individuals, and
five others have had their parole revoked.
One of the Denver investigations demonstrates how NIBIN assists law
enforcement in linking and solving seemingly unrelated shootings. In
that case, police were investigating three separate shootings. The
first shooting occurred when a woman encountered a burglar attempting
to break into her home and threatened to call police. The perpetrator
then fired a shot through the woman's dining room window. A short time
later, during another home invasion, a perpetrator fired another shot
while breaking into the home. Officers collected the spent shell
casings from both scenes and entered them in NIBIN. Two days later,
during the investigation of a street fight in which several shots were
fired in the altercation, investigating officers recovered six expended
shell casings. The NIBIN analysis of the shell casings recovered in all
three of the shootings revealed that the same gun had been used in each
crime. This information allowed investigators to identify and arrest a
suspect who is now pending trial.
A second recent example involved the shooting investigation of two
Police Officers in Ferguson, Missouri. NIBIN played a crucial role in
the investigation by linking the firearm used in the shooting with the
suspect. This individual has now been charged with the attempted murder
of two police officers. These examples illustrate the value of NIBIN in
identifying, apprehending and prosecuting criminals involved in
firearms violence in communities across our Nation.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator John Boozman
violence reduction network
Question. As a response to the violent crime in Little Rock and
West Memphis, Arkansas, and I understand that both are potentially to
be named a VRN (Violence Reduction Network) site. Would you support
that initiative? Would there be enough agents in Arkansas to support
this initiative and maintain the daily operational mission?
Answer. The Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs,
Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) makes final determinations as to
sites included in the Violence Reduction Network (VRN). The new sites
will be announced on September 29, 2015 at the VRN Summit in Detroit,
Michigan. ATF closely coordinates with BJA and other VRN partners in
evaluation of potential sites, which includes an assessment of
available resources from participating agencies. ATF believes the VRN
is a valuable asset to combat and reduce violent crime and is
supportive of expanding VRN sites. With respect to the potential
expansion of the VRN to Little Rock and West Memphis, ATF defers to
BJA's overall assessment. ATF notes that expansion of VRN locations
does not necessarily entail redeployment of agent resources, as the VRN
focuses on identifying creative solutions that support local law
enforcement efforts to reduce violent crime without straining existing
Federal capacity. That said, ATF agent resources within the Little Rock
Field Office that also supports the West Memphis area are currently
operating at full capacity.
national integrated ballistic information network
Question. What are the benefits of NIBIN (National Integrated
Ballistic Information Network)? Is NIBIN effective in Arkansas and how?
Is NIBIN owned by ATF and where do you see the future of this
technology going?
Answer. What are the benefits of NIBIN?--NIBIN is a system of
computer hardware and software coupled with a database which is
employed to acquire, transmit, store, compare, and retrieve digitized
images of firearms evidence (shell casings and projectiles). It is the
only interstate, automated ballistic imaging network in the United
States, and is available through more than 150 sites around the country
to most major population centers. ATF's NIBIN program integrates the
technological capabilities of the system with other investigative tools
to expand its use beyond forensic comparison and matching. NIBIN is a
key component of ATF's Crime Gun Intelligence Centers, which integrate
NIBIN, crime gun tracing and other investigative tools to identify,
target, and prosecute shooters and their sources of crime guns. NIBIN
allows participating partners to conduct local, regional and national
searches of recovered firearms evidence to quickly establish links
between violent crimes --including links that would have never been
identified without this technology.
A NIBIN hit report provides law enforcement with immediate tactical
leads and longer term strategic intelligence to assess gun crime
patterns. Tactical leads include matching ``hits'' to link separate
incidents to the same crime gun, often allowing investigators to
quickly identify suspects and undertake immediate enforcement action--
preventing additional firearm violence by ``trigger-pullers.''
Longer term strategic analysis of NIBIN data allows an
understanding of patterns underlying firearm violence such as gun
sharing within and among criminal groups and sources of illegally
trafficked firearms.
Is NIBIN effective in Arkansas and how?--In 2013, ATF provided a
number of resources (both in personnel and training) to the Arkansas
State Crime Lab and Little Rock Police Department. ATF's objective was
to ensure that both the crime lab and police department could fully
take advantage of NIBIN and Firearms trace data to better serve the
citizens of Arkansas.
Specifically, ATF sent
--One specialist from the Atlanta Laboratory Center to train the
Little Rock P.D. as well as several other local police
departments and Arkansas Crime Lab personnel on the new ATF-
funded, state-of-the-art Brasstrax unit.
--One specialist to perform the evidence entries at the Little Rock
Police Department in order to alleviate a massive backlog of
evidence.
--Several Special Agents to conduct test firing of crime guns at the
Little Rock P.D. evidence vault.
--Several special agents from the Firearms Trafficking Branch to
Little Rock P.D. to facilitate comprehensive crime gun tracing
of all firearms recovered by the Little Rock P.D.
Is NIBIN owned by ATF and where do you see the future of this
technology going?--ATF is the sole owner of the NIBIN digital image
database.
ATF is continuously seeking new and innovative ways to both capture
crime gun intelligence and better analyze this data to the benefit of
law enforcement--including a means for portable acquisitions via
smaller and lighter Brasstrax hardware, and an algorithm that further
narrows down the correlation times on crime gun comparison.
atf fire investigations
Question. I understand ATF worked the tragic Annapolis fire scene
earlier this year. Can you discuss ATF's role in fire investigations,
and how can our local fire investigators in Arkansas utilize your
expertise?
Answer. ATF Certified Fire Investigators (CFI) are highly trained
special agents who provide technical support, analysis, and assistance
to ATF and its State and local partners in fire origin and cause
determination, forensic fire scene reconstruction, and arson
investigation. CFI's complete a 2-year training program that includes
fire origin and cause determination, fire dynamics, fire modeling,
building construction, electricity and fire causation, health and
safety, scene reconstruction and evidence collection. The program
relies on rigorous training, education, and experience to qualify
agents to testify as expert witnesses in the field of fire origin and
cause. ATF CFI's are the only Federal law enforcement officers within
the Department of Justice who are qualified to render opinion testimony
as to fire origin and cause.
CFIs investigate fires with a Federal nexus, and as seen in
Annapolis, Maryland, assist State and local partners in the
investigation of large scale incidents. ATF routinely deploys CFIs and
veteran special agents, certified explosives specialists, forensic
mapping specialists, accelerant and explosives detection canine teams,
explosives enforcement officers, fire protection engineers, electrical
engineers, and forensic chemists to assist state and local departments
with large scale fire scenes that exceed the scope of what the local
authorities can manage with their available resources.
Through its CFI program, ATF has a long-standing, very close
working relationship with fire departments across Arkansas. ATF
currently has one special agent/CFI stationed in Little Rock. This CFI
is fully engaged with numerous fire departments and law enforcement
agencies across the State. In addition, ATF is in the process of
providing the Arkansas State Police with an ATF-trained Accelerant
Detection K-9 team to support the State's fire investigative resources.
ATF also routinely deploys, as needed, CFIs from contiguous States into
Arkansas to support investigations and provide training.
ATF has deployed additional resources into Arkansas to support
large scale incidents and fires on numerous occasions over the past
several years. Notable investigations include:
--2013.--During a rash of incendiary fires, ATF formed an Arson Task
Force with Little Rock Fire Investigators to investigate a
serial arsonist. The suspect was arrested by ATF and plead
guilty to violations of Title 18, U.S.C. 844, and received a 10
year Federal sentence.
--2013.--ATF's National Response Team (NRT) assisted in the
investigation of the First Baptist Church in Highland Park. The
fire was ruled undetermined.
--2010.--An ATF CFI assisted the Bella Vista Fire Department in the
investigation of a fire that claimed the lives of all five
members of a family. The cause of the fire was determined to be
accidental.
--2008.--An ATF CFI assisted the Bentonville Fire Department in the
investigation of a fire that claimed the lives of five children
ranging in age from 5-13 years old. The fire was ruled
undetermined.
local participation in the etrace program
Question. How do you promote local participation in the eTrace
program?
Answer. ATF's primary method of promoting the use of eTrace occurs
on a local level in each ATF Field Division, particularly during the
course of joint investigations ATF understands that the best way to
educate law enforcement agencies about the benefits of eTrace and
firearms tracing is to have those agencies see successful results from
use of the system in their own investigations. Promoting universal
tracing through eTrace is also a cornerstone of ATF's Frontline
business model. Use of eTrace is an essential component of the enhanced
enforcement operations (also known as ``surges'') that ATF conducts
annually under Frontline. As part of each enhanced enforcement
operation, ATF ensures that participating local law enforcement
agencies have entered an eTrace system Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU), and have been adequately trained in the use of eTrace.
Additionally, the National Tracing Center (NTC) dispatches a team to
each enhanced operation site to conduct refresher training and to
assist law enforcement agencies in the entry of any backlog of untraced
recovered crime guns into the eTrace system; entry of all recovered
crime guns provides ATF and local partners with a baseline to help
define the local crime gun problem, including the identification of
illegal sources of firearms and the identity of illegal traffickers.
ATF also promotes eTrace through technological enhancements to the
system, For example, in fiscal year 2014, ATF added a collective data
sharing capability to the eTrace system; this improvement allows
agencies within the same State to share trace data. Throughout fiscal
year 2014, ATF deployed NTC personnel to conduct briefings and training
about this new eTrace capability. The enhanced capability yielded
immediate benefits; in fiscal year 2014 the NTC received the highest
number of trace requests ever, 364,441, an increase of more than 22,000
requests from fiscal year 2013.
federal firearms licensees (ffl) inspection protocol
Question. There is this implied philosophy among ATF Investigators
where they have this ``gotcha'' attitude toward FFL inspections. Is
this agency protocol?
Answer. ATF investigators, managers and executives strive to
promote compliance rather than adverse findings during inspections, and
often work with industry members when possible to encourage dialogue
and seek reasonable remedies where appropriate. ATF industry operations
investigators (IOIs) conduct inspections of FFLs to ensure compliance
with the law and regulations and to educate licensees on the specific
requirements of those laws and regulations. If violations are
discovered during the course of an FFL inspection, the tools that ATF
has available to guide the FFL into correction of such violations and
to ensure future compliance include issuing a report of violations,
sending a warning letter, and holding a warning conference with the
industry member. Despite these actions, on rare occasions ATF
encounters a licensee who fails to comply with the laws and regulations
and demonstrates a lack of commitment to improving his or her business
practices. In such cases where willfulness is demonstrated, ATF's
obligation to protect public safety may require revocation of the FFL.
IOIs are trained to provide fair and consistent treatment to
industry members. Performance ratings, awards, or other incentives are
not based on numbers of violations cited or inspections recommended for
administrative action. In fiscal year 2014, ATF conducted 10,429
firearms compliance inspections. Of these inspections:
--48 percent resulted in no violations cited.
--Less than 1 percent were revoked.
--Less than 1 percent surrendered their license in lieu of
revocation.
--13 percent were issued a Report of Violations.
--13 percent received a warning letter.
--6 percent resulted in a warning conference.
--19 percent were found to be out-of-business, etc.
atf modernization
Question. What does your modernization philosophy entail? What
techniques or technology are you exploring?
Answer. What does your modernization philosophy entail?--ATF's
modernization philosophy entails implementing a Business Process
Management System (BPMS), which involves replacing ATF's aging case
management system and streamlining other information systems. BPMS
technology will better support ATF's mission by implementing paperless
workflows, increasing accountability, and providing more timely and
complete performance feedback to ATF Leadership, thus allowing ATF to
better to gauge the results of its regulatory and criminal enforcement
efforts.
What techniques or technology are you exploring?--ATF is exploring
a variety of BPMS tools, which are commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)
software products. BMPS tools will provide ATF with the ability to more
quickly adapt to new laws, regulations, and DOJ/ATF policies, while
creating efficiencies in workflow, mission objectives and performance
accountability.
martinsburg facility and the national firearms act backlog
Question. I see that you are requesting $8 million to expand the
Martinsburg Facility. How will this be utilized and will it reduce the
National Firearms Act backlog?
Answer. $8.1 M will expand capacity for the Martinsburg Facility
through investment in the following additional resources:
--The hiring of an additional ten (10) Legal Instrument Examiners
(FTEs). These examiners will support the analysis and
processing of applications for registration of weapons as
required by the National Firearms Act (NFA).--Total investment:
$635,000.
--NFA Processing support (FTE overtime and an additional 20-30
contract research assistants).--Total investment: $2.5 million.
--Equipment, IT Support and contract staff.--Total investment: $5
million.
--Specific includes:
--$2.0 million.--Digital Imaging scanner, software and hardware
(primarily storage) to improve ATFs capacity to digitally
image and store Out-of-Business Records (OBR). This
includes conversion and storage of electronic OBR in
accordance with policy and law.
--$750,000.--eTrace. Ongoing maintenance and development
enhancements to sustain and improve the systems
performance.
--$2.25 million.--Current Imaging software (Captiva) upgrades for
two high speed scanners. ATF receives an average of 1.2
million OBR per month. ATF currently uses two high speed
scanners to digitally image those records. The Captiva
upgrades will replace out of date software used by the
scanners that has not been supported for over 6 years.
In fiscal year 2014 the National Firearms Act Branch (NFA) received
over 221,000 new applications, reaching a peak of 81,000 pending
applications in February 2014. In addition, the NFA processed about
236,000 applications in total utilizing current staffing and
significant overtime. In fiscal year 2015, it is anticipated that NFA
will receive over 276,000 new applications, and that existing staffing
and similar overtime allocations will permit the processing of
approximately 292,000 applications. In fiscal year 2016, it is
estimated that the NFA Branch will receive approximately 346,000
applications. Therefore, additional staffing is needed to ensure that
ATF does not further delay processing times. The ten positions
requested in the fiscal year 2016 budget, comprised of eight Legal
Instrument Examiners, one supervisory Legal Instrument Examiner, and
one Assistant Branch Chief, will enable ATF to establish a fourth
examiner processing section within the NFA. The additional Legal
Instrument Examiners are projected to be able to process an estimated
96,000 applications in a 1 year period, following the initial 9-12
month training period. ATF estimates that the current 6 month time
period for processing Tax Paid Applications (ATF Forms 1 and 4) can be
reduced to 90 days after new personnel are fully actualized.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Patrick J. Leahy
atf surveillance technology
Question. Under the BATFE's current policies relating to the use of
cell-site simulators, how many times has the BATFE employed such a
device without prior court approval, and what were the reasons for
doing so? What is the policy regarding retention of data?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Recent media reports have raised questions about Federal law
enforcement's use of sophisticated surveillance technology,
like cell-site simulators and license plate reading cameras, to
track suspects historically and in real-time. Although I
appreciate the potential value of this technology to law
enforcement, I am concerned about the potential impact on the
privacy rights of innocent Americans.
Answer. The Department is committed to using all law enforcement
resources in a manner that is consistent with the requirements and
protections of the Constitution and other legal authorities, and with
appropriate respect for privacy and civil liberties. We are likewise
committed to ensuring that the Department's practices are lawful and
respect the important privacy interests of the American people.
The Department's law enforcement components have provided multiple
briefings to Congressional Oversight Committee staff. These briefings
were held to provide the requested information about certain sensitive
law enforcement tools and techniques while avoiding making public the
use of any specific, sensitive equipment and techniques that may be
deployed in furtherance of law enforcement missions. To do so would
allow kidnappers, fugitives, drug smugglers, and certain suspects to
determine our capabilities and limitations in this area. Although we
cannot discuss here the specific equipment and techniques that we may
use, we can assure you that to the extent the Department's law
enforcement components deploy certain technologies in investigations,
we are committed to using them consistent with the Constitution and
Federal law. Finally, the Department is in the process of examining its
policies to ensure that they reflect our continuing commitment to
conducting its vital missions while according appropriate respect for
privacy and civil liberties.
Question. Since 2001, how many cell-site simulators has the BATFE
purchased or obtained from another government agency? What has been the
cost, per year, for the acquisition, maintenance and deployment of the
BATFE's cell-site simulators?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Recent media reports have raised questions about Federal law
enforcement's use of sophisticated surveillance technology,
like cell-site simulators and license plate reading cameras, to
track suspects historically and in real-time. Although I
appreciate the potential value of this technology to law
enforcement, I am concerned about the potential impact on the
privacy rights of innocent Americans.
Answer. The Department is committed to using all law enforcement
resources in a manner that is consistent with the requirements and
protections of the Constitution and other legal authorities, and with
appropriate respect for privacy and civil liberties. We are likewise
committed to ensuring that the Department's practices are lawful and
respect the important privacy interests of the American people.
The Department's law enforcement components have provided multiple
briefings to Congressional Oversight Committee staff. These briefings
were held to provide the requested information about certain sensitive
law enforcement tools and techniques while avoiding making public the
use of any specific, sensitive equipment and techniques that may be
deployed in furtherance of law enforcement missions. To do so would
allow kidnappers, fugitives, drug smugglers, and certain suspects to
determine our capabilities and limitations in this area. Although we
cannot discuss here the specific equipment and techniques that we may
use, we can assure you that to the extent the Department's law
enforcement components deploy certain technologies in investigations,
we are committed to using them consistent with the Constitution and
Federal law. Finally, the Department is in the process of examining its
policies to ensure that they reflect our continuing commitment to
conducting its vital missions while according appropriate respect for
privacy and civil liberties.
Question. Does the BATFE maintain its own license plate reader
database? If so, how long has the database been operational and what
are the policies and procedures in place that govern the collection and
use of the data? How many cameras are in the network? What other law
enforcement agencies, if any, have access to this database?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Recent media reports have raised questions about Federal law
enforcement's use of sophisticated surveillance technology,
like cell-site simulators and license plate reading cameras, to
track suspects historically and in real-time. Although I
appreciate the potential value of this technology to law
enforcement, I am concerned about the potential impact on the
privacy rights of innocent Americans.
Answer. Although ATF has equipment capable of capturing license
plate images, ATF does not have any database that contains license
plate reader (LPR) data. In addition, ATF does not forward license
plate images obtained with this equipment to any other government
databases. ATF's equipment consists of the following:
--Approximately 30 hi-definition LPR systems. These systems capture
LPR images but do not transmit any data.
--6 older LPR systems. These were initially purchased to support
church fire investigations. These systems capture LPR images
but do not transmit any data.
atf drones
Question. Since that report, has the ATF employed drones in support
of its mission?
Lead-in information from original document.--
In 2013, the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector
General released an interim report on DOJ's use of domestic
drones. The report noted that although the FBI was the only DOJ
component to have operated drones at the time, ATF reported
that it planned to deploy drones in future operations.
Answer. Yes. ATF's National Response Team (NRT) purchased five
small, commercially available Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) to help
document fire and explosion crime scenes (not for conducting law
enforcement surveillance). The NRT used one of these units to conduct
one brief UAS flight in July 2014 to document the aftermath of a
Louisiana apartment fire that resulted in the deaths of three
residents. ATF has temporarily grounded these UAS platforms pending
further ATF policy guidance on deployment requirements. The Department
of Justice has recently issued policy guidance for the use of UASs. ATF
is in the process of incorporating this DOJ guidance into its policy on
the use of its' UAS. In addition to the single use of the NRT UAS, ATF
has received UAS support from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection
(CBP) on four occasions for purposes of conducting surveillance and
planning search warrants.
Question. If not, please provide an update on ATF's plans on using
drones in the future and if so, please provide a fulsome description of
the instances in which ATF has deployed drones and what measures are
being taken to ensure that Americans' privacy rights are being
protected.
Lead-in information from original document.--
In 2013, the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector
General released an interim report on DOJ's use of domestic
drones. The report noted that although the FBI was the only DOJ
component to have operated drones at the time, ATF reported
that it planned to deploy drones in future operations.
Answer. ATF has no immediate plans to purchase UAS systems. ATF has
received the Presidential Memorandum: Promoting Economic
Competitiveness and Innovation While Safeguarding Privacy, Civil
Rights, and Civil Liberties in the Domestic Use of Unmanned Aircraft
Systems, dated February 15, 2015 (Presidential Memorandum). ATF
continues to work with the Department's Office of Privacy and Civil
Liberties, through the DOJ UAS working group, to ensure appropriate use
of UAS. Future ATF Directives on the use or deployment of UAS in
support of ATF missions will be in compliance with the Presidential
Memorandum and all DOJ guidelines, including the recently released DOJ
policy. Additionally, to track any potential, future use of UAS's and
in compliance with this policy, the ATF case management system has been
updated with mandatory entry fields to capture deployment,
authorization, and operating agencies.
______
Questions Submitted to the Department of Justice--Joint Law Enforcement
Task Forces
Questions Submitted by Senator Barbara A. Mikulski
federal task force operations
Question. How does the Department of Justice ensure that the
thousands of State and local officers on your task forces have received
proper training in areas like use of force or avoiding racial bias?
Answer. On December 8, 2014, DOJ issued new guidance for Federal
Law Enforcement Agencies Regarding the Use of Race, Ethnicity, Gender,
National Origin, Religion, Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity. It
builds upon and expands the framework of the 2003 Guidance, and it
reaffirms the Federal Government's deep commitment to ensuring that its
law enforcement agencies conduct their activities in an unbiased
manner. The guidance applies to Federal, State, and local law
enforcement officers in all enforcement areas. It further defines the
circumstances in which Federal law enforcement officers may take into
account a person's race and ethnicity, including gender, national
origin, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity. The guidance
promotes training and accountability to ensure that its contents are
understood and implemented appropriately.
In addition, steps taken to provide proper training by each law
enforcement component are detailed below:
FBI:
Pursuant to executed Memoranda of Understanding, within the Safe
Streets Program (Violent Crime, Violent Gang and Safe Trails Task
Forces) and the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), each task force
participant is subject to their respective agency's policy on use of
force. Each Task Force Officer (TFO) must maintain his or her own
firearm and non-lethal weapon qualification standards in order to
continue to serve on the task force. TFOs are further instructed on
Federal policies and guidelines associated with prohibitions on racial
profiling and attend mandatory FBI training events. Additionally, the
FBI Field Offices host quarterly deadly force policy training sessions
for agents.
Under the FBI's Less Lethal Devices Policy (0517PG), dated November
2012, a TFO may also carry a less lethal device issued by his or her
home agency only if that agency has provided the FBI with written
confirmation that:
--The agency will ensure that while the individual is participating
in FBI-led task force operations, the TFO will not carry lethal
devices and will carry only less lethal devices that have been
issued to the individual and that the individual has been
trained in accordance with the agency's policies and
procedures.
--The agency's policies and procedures for less lethal devices are
consistent with the DOJ policy statement on the use these
devices.
--FBI Supervisory Special Agents (SSA) also have the discretion to
prohibit TFOs from carrying particular less lethal devices on
any FBI-led operation if they believe that the use of such a
device may pose hazards or risks to the operation's
participants due to environmental, tactical, or other relevant
factors.
In 2013, FBI hosted a mandatory training for all JTTF personnel
(FBI and TFOs) on the DOJ Less-Than-Lethal Devices Policy.
ATF:
ATF highly values its TFOs and strives to provide them with the
training necessary to maximize officer and public safety:
--TFO Orientation: ATF provides orientation training for new TFOs in
their assigned field division. An ATF supervisor covers 22 ATF
policies and provides a reference guide to these policies.
These policies specifically include ATF's Use of Force policy,
ATF Order 3020.2A. The TFO and supervisor complete an
Orientation Checklist, including a written certification by the
TFO that it discussed these policies with ATF.
--New Employee Training: ATF provides training on policies and
procedures, applicable Federal laws, criminal procedure, and
investigative techniques. One block of this training ATF and
DOJ Use of Force policies. Another block includes a review of
Federal case law regarding race and ethnicity in criminal
enforcement operations.
--Firearms Training: ATF requires each TFO to complete a quarterly
firearms training and tactical operations training, both of
which include specific review and discussion of ATF's Use of
Force policy.
--Operational Plans and Briefs: TFOs participating in ATF enforcement
operations are also required to review operational plans and/or
attend pre-operational briefs, both of which include a review
of Use of Force policies.
Finally, pursuant to the December 2014 DOJ guidance, ATF developed
a mandatory training module for all agents and TFOs, and began training
in May 2015. ATF will periodically update the training and regularly
present it to agents and TFOs nationwide.
DEA:
DEA does not tolerate racial profiling or the use of excessive
force, nor does it target individuals or groups based on race,
ethnicity, gender, national origin, religion, cultural differences,
linguistic capability, sexual orientation, or gender identity. As a
part of its policy and practice, DEA safeguards against racial
profiling by ensuring thorough training and oversight, and when
appropriate effective discipline.
Prior to assigning a State or local officer to a task force, State
and local law departments (Chief of Police, Internal Affairs, Personnel
Office, and immediate supervisor), the Division Special Agent in Charge
(SAC), and DEA Headquarters (HQ) must approve the assignment. DEA may
reject any nominee based on the officer's training, attitude, past
performance, or other factors bearing on suitability. Officers should
have at least 2 years of police experience.
Traditionally, DEA field offices conduct the TFO Certification
Training program on an ``as-needed'' basis within the offices'
geographic jurisdiction. The Divisional Training Coordinators (DTC) are
responsible for providing and coordinating training to newly selected
Task Force members. Each new TFO receives 39 hours in official training
and each division can offer additional training to their staff
pertinent to their mission.
When DEA deputizes State and local law enforcement officer as a
TFO, he or she is granted certain Federal law enforcement powers and
becomes subject to the same Federal laws and standards addressing
employee suitability as a normal DEA Special Agent. DEA requires all
deputized TFOs to follow all DEA policies and procedures, which are
explained during the official training.
USMS:
USMS requires State and local officers on fugitive task forces to
meet certain criteria to join the task force. The requirements include
basic law enforcement training and use of force policy training.
Additionally, within the Memorandum of Understanding process for an
agency to place an officer on a USMS task force, the sponsoring agency
must provide USMS with a copy of its use of force policy to ensure that
it does not conflict with DOJ use of force policy. The officer must
also acknowledge understanding of the Department's use of force policy
during the Special Deputation process.
Question. Do police departments have to submit any kind of training
certification to the FBI, DEA, ATF or Marshals Service before their
officers can join Federal task forces?
Answer.--
FBI:
FBI Task Force Officers assigned to the Safe Streets Initiative
obtain Title 18 deputization through the USMS. TFOs must qualify with a
firearm before being deputized. In addition to Title 18 deputization,
all violent gang and Safe Trails TFOs obtain Title 21 deputization. All
TFOs, including Safe streets and JTTF, are vetted with their respective
agencies to ensure compliance with their internal policies and to
ensure there are no outstanding or excessive internal affair matters.
TFO must have Top Secret security clearance and all TFOs must maintain
their firearm and non-lethal weapon qualifications.
ATF:
TFOs must complete basic law enforcement training and firearm
qualifications. Officers, whose service lapsed for at least 5 years,
are required to take a refresher law enforcement training course. These
certifications are required to deputize all ATF TFOs. The specific
training certification questions on this form are:
--Question #15: ``I have successfully completed the following basic
law enforcement training program or military equivalent.'' This
question requires that applicants list the academy they
attended, course name, location and completion date.
--Question #16 (if necessary): ``I had a 5-year break in law
enforcement and have completed a law enforcement refresher
course within a year of signing this application.'' This
question also requires that the applicant list the agency that
has provided refresher training, course name, location, and
completion date.
--Question #19: ``I have qualified with my primary authorized
firearm.'' This question requires the applicant to describe the
firearm and qualification date.
DEA:
DEA does not require proof of certification for new TFO's. Instead,
DEA requests that the parent agency provide a Letter of Good Standing
from an official at the rank of Lieutenant or above. The letter
certifies TFO compliance with DEA's drug use policy and that he or she
has no pending internal affairs investigations. DEA also conducts
criminal history checks using Narcotics and Dangerous Drug Information
System (NADDIS), National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System
(NLETS), and National Crime Information Center (NCIC).
DEA TFOs can only remain as a full time TFO for four consecutive
years; however, at the SAC's discretion, he/she can extend the
agreement for another 4 years. This is done by request from the SAC via
a DEA memorandum along with a current background check using NADDIS,
NLETS and NCIC. If a TFO returns to his parent agency prior to the 4
years for whatever reason, he or she will be cancelled as a full-time
TFO via a SAC's memorandum to DEA HQ. In addition, if a TFO changes
agencies while currently assigned to a DEA Task Force, the division
will be required to submit a new package, i.e. SAC's memo, Letter of
Good Standing from the new agency or department, current background
checks, and a Task Force Agreement between DEA and the new agency or
department.
USMS:
USMS does not require that State and local officers submit training
certifications to the USMS; however, officers must receive Special
Deputization from the USMS prior to joining a task force. There are
several requirements detailed in the USMS policy for a State or local
officer to receive Special Deputation from the USMS. These requirements
include that the candidate meet the following requirements:
--Be a full time, sworn law enforcement officer and complete a basic
law enforcement training course.
--Have at least 1 year of law enforcement experience with arrest
authority (USMS Enforcement Standard Operating Procedures
suggest a minimum of 5 years of experience).
--Qualify on their parent agency or USMS course of fire.
--Certify that they have reviewed and agreed to comply with the use
of force policy of their employing agency or the Department of
Justice.
The senior management official with the agency sponsoring the
prospective TFO must complete and submit the USMS paperwork requesting
acceptance to the task force and Special Deputation for the officer. In
that paperwork, the official also certifies that the officer meets all
of the training and experience requirements and that the officer is not
under any type of investigation for misconduct.
Question. What types of training do your agents and deputy marshals
receive before hitting the streets? What kinds of procedures do you
have in place to ensure misconduct does not happen?
Answer.--
FBI:
The FBI's New Agent Training Program (NATP) provides 20 weeks of
training for New Agent Trainees (NAT). Misconduct is not tolerated at
the FBI Academy and is addressed by monitoring and measuring trainees
against suitability standards: conscientiousness, cooperativeness,
emotional maturity, initiative, integrity, and judgment. A NAT can be
dismissed if they do not meet one or more of the suitability standards.
When NATs enter training, they read and sign the rules, regulations,
and requirements at the FBI Academy for New Agent Trainees, which
outlines these standards and requirements for graduation. FBI prepares
documentation when NATs violate standards; thereafter, the trainee is
noticed, and the documentation is forwarded to executive management to
conduct a New Agent Review Board (NARB) to determine an appropriate
action: remediation or dismissal. NATs remain in a probationary status
during the first 18 months of their FBI employment, during which they
are subject to dismissal for suitability standards. This process is
designed to employ only those who are most suitable for a law
enforcement career with the FBI.
FBI NATs receive over 80 hours of legal training to ensure that
their actions do not infringe upon the rights of individuals,
particularly the first and fourth amendments to the Constitution. They
are trained to protect an individual's civil liberties in accordance
with the Attorney General Guidelines (AGG), the Domestic Investigations
and Operations Guide (DIOG), and the Privacy Act. They are trained to
understand the fourth amendment requirement of ``reasonableness'' as it
relates to a search. They learn about the FBI's history related to some
specific investigations that infringed upon constitutionally protected
rights, and they are trained to balance the need for effective law
enforcement and intelligence gathering against the rights secured by
the First Amendment. NATs are trained to use the ``least intrusive''
investigative techniques with corresponding approval documentation
appropriate to an investigation. They also receive 8 hours of training
in the proper level of force to use in accordance with FBI's Deadly
Force Policy.
Diversity, ethics, and leadership training are also emphasized in
the NATP. NATs are trained in Decision Making, Core Values, and
Leadership while focusing on a Civil Rights Case Study. Trainees
explore key concepts bearing upon the development of personal and
professional judgment, ethical decisionmaking, and leadership in the
context of the Civil Rights Movement, the example of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr., and the complex nature of the FBI's response to the non-
violent political action of the era. Trips to the Martin Luther King
memorial and the Holocaust Museum emphasize the practical application
of ethical and moral conduct, in particular, character and courage.
NATs receive rigorous training in physical fitness, tactics,
firearms proficiency, and defensive tactics to ensure that they can
properly handle encounters with the public. They receive 25 hours of
training, for example, in how to perform compliant handcuffing and
search techniques. They receive 16 hours of training in how to perform
the necessary defensive tactics, skills, and techniques to resolve a
confrontation (e.g., proper restraint techniques). With over 180 hours
of practical application exercises, oftentimes interacting with role-
players depicting realistic situations they might encounter, graduates
of the NATP are well equipped to interact with the public in a safe and
lawful manner.
Additionally, a review of the FBI's `deadly force' policy is a
required part of the operational briefing before any FBI search or
arrest is executed.
ATF:
All newly-hired ATF Special Agents must complete a rigorous 6-month
curriculum and a formal on-the-job training program. ATF conducts basic
training at the ATF National Academy at Federal Law Enforcement
Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia. It consists of the FLETC
Criminal Investigator Training Program followed by the ATF-specific
Special Agent Basic Training program. Agents receive training in the
full spectrum of the ATF mission, including firearms, explosives,
arson, and alcohol/tobacco diversion. In addition, ATF trains on
investigative procedures, legal requirements, operational processes,
tactics, and investigative systems.
The curriculum also includes modules related to conduct and
accountability. The topics cover Ethics, Standards of Performance and
Code of Conduct, and Integrity. The training addresses the use of
alcohol, off-duty conduct, use of controlled substances, and
notoriously disgraceful conduct.
DEA:
DEA requires that all Basic Agent Trainees (BATs) successfully
complete a 950 hour in-residence program. DEA provides additional
training at the new agent's assignment using the 800-hour Field
Training Assessment program (FTA). The BAT program includes instruction
in the following topics: Standards of Conduct, Ethics, and Legal topics
pertinent to a DEA Agent. Additionally, each BAT receives instruction
in the functions and purpose of the Office of Professional Review and
Office of the Inspector General.
USMS:
Before candidates become Deputy United States Marshals (DUSM) and
conduct fugitive investigations, they must complete basic training at
FLETC in Brunswick, Georgia. Basic training for the USMS consists of
the following:
--FLETC's Criminal Investigator Training Program, a 12-week basic law
enforcement criminal investigation course.
--The Basic DUSM Training Program, a 4-week course focusing on USMS-
specific duties, such as fugitive investigations and officer
safety.
--Deputies are also qualified and certified on the use of pistols,
shotguns, rifles, and less-lethal devices during basic
training.
Once basic training has been successfully completed, deputies
report to their assigned districts and undertake the duties and
responsibilities of a DUSM, which includes conducting fugitive
investigations.
The USMS also requires advanced continuing education and training.
The DUSMs are required to attend the Advanced Deputy U.S. Marshal
(ADUSM) Training Program within 7 years of completing the basic
training and again within 7 years of completing the first ADUSM course.
The ADUSM training is used as a refresher course to reinforce what the
deputy has learned in basic training, as well as a venue to teach
advanced skills and train deputies in new policies and procedures.
The USMS has made a concentrated effort to send as many operational
personnel as possible to High Risk Fugitive Apprehension training. This
course provides advanced standardized, tactical-based training, with
the goal of enhancing arrest procedures and mitigating risk.
Regarding misconduct, the integrity of the USMS is dependent upon
the conduct of its individual employees. Each day the employees of the
USMS demonstrate the highest standards of integrity, character, public
trust, and professional responsibility. The USMS seeks to maintain
these standards and improve all aspects of professional responsibility
among its employees.
The USMS policy contains a Code of Professional Responsibility,
which sets forth 38 standards to govern employees' on and off duty
conduct. The USMS employees are required to read the Code of
Professional Responsibility each year and acknowledge their
understanding all 38 standards. The USMS also uses in-service and
online training to keep employees up-to-date on expected operating
procedures and responsibilities. Finally, the USMS makes available all
policies and standard operating procedures to all employees to clearly
convey expectations regarding conduct and behavior. Within the USMS,
policies define the discipline management procedures and penalties for
employee misconduct.
SUBCOMMITTEE RECESS
The subcommittee is in recess.
[Whereupon, at 11:45 a.m., Thursday, March 12, the
subcommittee was recessed, to reconvene in closed session.]
COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR
FISCAL YEAR 2016
----------
THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met at 2:38 p.m., in room SD-192, Dirksen
Senate Office Building, Hon. Richard C. Shelby (chairman)
presiding.
Present: Senators Shelby, Cochran, Capito, and Mikulski.
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
STATEMENT OF HON. CHARLES F. BOLDEN, JR., ADMINISTRATOR
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR RICHARD C. SHELBY
Senator Shelby. The meeting will come to order. We have
just had a Senate vote. I believe we will be joined by Senator
Mikulski and some others in a few minutes. General, your time
is valuable, and I thought I would get started.
Again, welcome to the subcommittee. This subcommittee has
been very supportive, General Bolden, of NASA and its work to
maintain a healthy funding level for NASA while preserving a
balanced and I believe a productive space program.
NASA's work is exciting, as you well know, inspiring, and
educational. From the photos of galaxies captured by the Hubble
Space Telescope to the future of humans traveling to Mars, NASA
has captured the imagination of school children and citizens
across the globe, and inspired generations of scientists and
engineers.
This country has limited resources, however, which requires
us to prioritize our spending. NASA spending is not an
exception. The NASA budget proposes a total funding level of
$18.5 billion, an increase of $519 million above the 2015
level. Such a significant increase should represent balanced
funding for NASA's priorities. Perhaps not enough.
Instead, there is a sizeable growth in programs like
Commercial Crew and Space Technology, while other programs,
such as science missions and Exploration Systems Development
have significant reductions. The cuts to Exploration are
especially concerning to the subcommittee. The successful test
of the Orion capsule last December showcased NASA's innovative
plans for the future.
This budget could have been an opportunity, I believe, for
NASA to boldly support human exploration after years of budget
requests, in which I believe it was short changed.
Instead, NASA's budget cuts funding to Orion and the Space
Launch System, or SLS, limit our reach in human exploration. A
20 percent cut to SLS during its critical phase of development
risks important investments that have been made in communities
across the country. It also risks the success of the program.
The budget makes it impossible, a lot of people believe,
for NASA to make efficient and cost effective decisions for the
long-term development of a launch system that is being built to
achieve the Nation's human exploration goals.
While NASA is good at creating charts and talking about
moving human exploration beyond our current capabilities, NASA
has yet again failed to propose a budget that can accomplish
what the agency claims is one of its top priorities.
General Bolden, a lot of us are troubled by the overall
priorities included in this budget, requiring key development
programs to operate with insufficient funding is irresponsible.
While the proposed funding level of $18.5 billion is a good
start, there is much work to do and it must be done to develop
a balanced budget that achieves NASA's core missions and its
future goals.
I look forward to working with you to address some of these
concerns. At this point, I want to recognize Senator Mikulski,
the vice chair of the full committee.
STATEMENT OF SENATOR BARBARA A. MIKULSKI
Senator Mikulski. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Administrator Bolden, we welcome you. I apologize for being
late. We actually had a tremendous victory in the Senate, the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act passed 21-0 out of the
committee. We were kind of doing a victory lap.
Today, I know we are here to examine the NASA budget
request of $18.5 billion. It is $0.5 billion more than what was
enacted in fiscal year 2015.
As I look at this budget request, I have very deep
concerns. I am concerned that we could be having a threat to
the balanced space program that we have all worked together on
an bipartisan basis on and said yes to human space flight. We
need a reliable transportation system both for our astronauts
to go where they have not had a chance to go before and can do
important servicing missions.
I am concerned, of course, about what is about to happen to
the Goddard Space Flight Center, which I do not think gets a
fair shake in this particular appropriations. The Goddard
request for science missions is $3.0 billion, it is $324
million below fiscal year 2015.
The Goddard is currently operating 35 on orbit missions. It
also is absolutely key to the Hubble Space Telescope and the
James Webb Telescope and others. I want to know why Goddard was
cut $300 million.
Of course, we are deeply concerned about other efforts, one
of which is the whole issue of satellite servicing. Satellite
servicing is absolutely important to our national interest. It
was cut by $65 million. It was $130 million in fiscal year
2015.
The whole idea of satellite servicing as we know, is that
our country and our private sector have satellites. We do not
want them to just die in space and be space junk. They can be
re-serviced. There is technology and workforce at Goddard that
knows how to do it. Somehow or another, we do not seem to want
to invest in it or if we do, we short change it.
Of course, there is the Wallops Flight Facility. We put
money into the Federal budget in terms of fixing Wallops after
the terrible storm. We know there was $20 million, Mr.
Chairman, you worked with us on, and I know in a recent
conversation with Senators Warner and Kaine, they do not feel
that Wallops is on track, and if they do not feel Wallops is on
track, neither do I.
I have some questions about all this. I really need to hear
these answers, because I feel, do we have a balanced space
program or not.
Mr. Chairman, I know we want to move on. I am through with
my remarks.
Senator Shelby. Thank you. Senator Cochran, do you want to
be recognized?
STATEMENT OF SENATOR THAD COCHRAN
Senator Cochran. Mr. Chairman, just to join you and Senator
Mikulski in welcoming our witness. We appreciate very much your
assistance in helping us identify the priorities of NASA and
related activities. We are pleased about the development of the
Space Launch System.
As you know, the Stennis Space Center located in my State
is very important, not just for the work that it does in the
scientific area, in research, but also rocket testing and the
infrastructure at Stennis is a very important asset for the
entire system and our Nation's goals in space.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Shelby. Thank you. General Bolden, again, welcome
to the subcommittee. Your full statement will be made part of
the record, as you know. Proceed.
SUMMARY STATEMENT OF HON. CHARLES F. BOLDEN, JR.
Mr. Bolden. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. At the
outset, Chairman Shelby, with your permission, I would like
your indulgence to say a few words of thanks for Ranking Member
Mikulski.
Senator Mikulski, it is safe to say that all of us at NASA
and across the space community were saddened at your recent
announcement that this will be your last Congress. You have
been a champion for America's space program.
This week and next week, we celebrate the 25th anniversary
of the Hubble's mission, and there is no question that we would
not have reached this milestone were it not for your unwavering
support.
Of course, there is still 2 years of work ahead of us in
the Congress, and we look forward to continuing to work with
you, Chairman Shelby, and the other members of this
subcommittee.
Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, 5 years ago
yesterday, President Obama came to the Kennedy Space Center and
laid out what I believe is a bold transformative agenda for
NASA. He challenges us to embark on a journey to Mars.
He spoke of extending the life of the International Space
Station (ISS), and increasing earth based observation. He
called for investments in new advanced technologies that will
not only take Americans farther into space than ever before,
but also will provide spin off benefits and create high paying
jobs here at home.
Five years later, we have made landmark progress toward
those goals. SpaceX's successful launch this week is a shining
example.
The budget you consider today furthers the goals that we
share of extending our reach into space while strengthening
American leadership here at home. It is an $18.5 billion
investment that represents a leap into a future of greater
discovery, job creation, and economic growth, as well as a
healthier planet.
Thanks to the hard work of our NASA team and partners all
across America, we have made a lot of progress on our journey
to Mars. In fact, we have now progressed farther on this path
to sending humans to Mars than at any point in the history of
NASA, and this budget will keep us marching forward.
The support of this subcommittee and the Congress are
essential to this journey. The International Space Station is
the critical first step in this work. It is our springboard to
the rest of the solar system, and we are committed to extending
space station operations to at least 2024.
Thanks to the grit, determination, and American ingenuity,
we have returned ISS cargo resupply missions to the United
States, insourcing these jobs and creating a new private market
in low-Earth orbit.
Under a plan outlined by the administration earlier in its
term, we have also awarded two American companies, SpaceX and
Boeing, fixed price contracts to safely and cost effectively
transport our astronauts to the space station from U.S. soil.
This will end our sole reliance on Russia. It is critical
that we receive the funding requested in the 2016 budget so
that we can meet our 2017 target date and stop writing checks
to the Russian Space Agency.
Our newest, most powerful rocket ever developed, the Space
Launch System or SLS, has moved from formulation to
development, something no other exploration class vehicle has
achieved since the agency built the Space Shuttle.
The Orion spacecraft performed flawlessly on its first trip
to space this past December. The SLS and Exploration Ground
Systems are on track for launch capability readiness by
November of 2018, and the teams are hard at work on completing
technical and design reviews for Orion.
Our budget also funds a robust science program with dozens
of operating missions, studying our solar system and the
universe. New Horizons is preparing for its arrival at Pluto in
July, and Dawn has entered into orbit around the dwarf planet
Ceres.
Before we send humans to Mars, robots are paving the way.
We are at work on a Mars rover for 2020, and have begun
planning a mission to explore Jupiter's fascinating moon,
Europa.
NASA is a leader in earth science and our constantly
expanding view of our planet from space is helping us better
understand and prepare for these changes. NASA has 21 research
missions studying earth, and in the last year alone, we
launched an unprecedented five more.
We also are at work on humanity's first voyage to our home
star, a mission that will repeatedly pass through the Sun's
outer atmosphere. NASA's Hubble, Chandra, and Kepler Space
Telescopes explore the universe beyond our solar system.
Hubble's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, is taking
shape right now out in Maryland, and a new mission is in
development to extend Kepler's pioneering work in finding
planets.
Technology drives science, exploration, and our journey to
Mars. With the President's request, NASA will continue to
maintain a steady pipeline of technology, to ensure that we
continue to lead the world in space exploration and scientific
discovery.
NASA is also with you when you fly, and we are committed to
transforming aviation by dramatically reducing its
environmental impact, maintaining safety in more crowded skies,
and paving the way toward revolutionary aircraft shapes and
propulsion systems.
Mr. Chairman, America's space program is not just alive, it
is thriving. The strong support we receive from this
subcommittee is making that happen. I particularly appreciate
the generous fiscal year 2015 appropriations that you
generated.
The President said at the Kennedy Space Center, and I quote
``For pennies on the dollar, the space program has improved our
lives, advanced our society, strengthened our economy, and
inspired generations of Americans.''
NASA looks forward to working with the Congress to continue
making this vision a reality.
I would now be pleased to respond to your questions.
[The statement and the President's budget request summary
follow:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Charles F. Bolden, Jr.
Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, I am pleased to have
this opportunity to discuss NASA's fiscal year 2016 budget request. The
President is proposing a fiscal year 2016 budget of $18.5 billion for
NASA, building on the significant investments the administration has
made in America's space program over the past 6 years, enabled through
the strong and consistent support by this subcommittee and the
Congress. This request will allow NASA to continue to lead the world in
space through a balanced program of exploration, science, technology,
and aeronautics research. NASA is an outstanding investment for our
Nation not only because we uncover new knowledge, but because we raise
the bar of human achievement, inspiring the next generation of
scientists, engineers and astronauts.
The fiscal year 2016 request includes $4,505.9 million for
Exploration with $2,862.9 million for Exploration Systems Development,
$1,243.8 million for Commercial Space Flight, and $399.2 million for
Exploration Research and Development. This funding, with critical
investment from each of NASA's mission directorates, supports NASA's
plans to, as the President said in his State of the Union speech,
continue our journey to Mars and push ``out into the solar system not
just to visit, but to stay[.]'' NASA has made tremendous progress on
this journey, and we will continue to progress, with building momentum,
through the years to come.
As part of our strategic, stepping stone approach to deep-space
explorations, NASA is facilitating the development of a U.S. commercial
crew transportation capability with the goal of launching NASA
astronauts from American soil in the next couple of years. This
initiative to facilitate the success of U.S. industry to provide crew
transportation to low Earth orbit will end our sole reliance on Russia
and ensure that we have safe, reliable and cost-effective access to the
ISS and low-Earth orbit. The Commercial Products Contracts allowed
potential providers to better understand and align with NASA human
spaceflight requirements and gave NASA early insight into vehicle
designs and approaches. NASA has now entered the development and
certification phase with the award of two FAR-based, fixed-price
Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts to
American companies to transport our Astronauts to and from the ISS.
SpaceX and Boeing have laid out milestones with the goal of certified
commercial crew capability in 2017. The contractors are committed and
at work. Our approach has emphasized competition and redundancy to
ensure that NASA's human safety and certification requirements are met,
we achieve the best value for the American taxpayer, and we end our
sole reliance on Russia for transportation services. Now, we need the
funding necessary to execute this plan to completion. With continued
support from the Congress, crews will again launch to the ISS from
American soil by the end of 2017.
Technology drives science, exploration and economic opportunity.
NASA will continue to maintain a steady pipeline of technology to
ensure that we continue to lead the world in space capabilities. NASA's
fiscal year 2016 request includes $724.8 million for Space Technology,
to conduct rapid development and infusion of transformative space
technologies that enable NASA's missions and advance our country's
dynamic aerospace industry. Over the next 2 years, NASA will execute
several in-space demonstrations including: a deep space atomic clock
for advanced navigation, green propellant, and four small spacecraft
demonstrating pioneering new technologies. This summer, NASA plans to
again test our Low Density Supersonic Decelerator off the coast of
Hawaii to continue proving in flight the new technologies critical for
landing larger payloads on the surface of the Red Planet. Informed by
the results of fiscal year 2014 testing of solar array and thruster
designs, NASA continues development of a high-powered solar electric
propulsion capability to enable future exploration missions and meet
needs of U.S. aerospace industry. This capability will be demonstrated
on the Asteroid Redirect Mission. We will continue to progress toward a
2019 demonstration of space-to-ground laser communications, a
capability that both American industry and NASA mission teams are eager
to explore and harness. But the most exciting piece of our technology
investments is the broad portfolio of research grants and other early
stage investments, where the new technologies that will change the way
we operate in space have a chance to move from ideas to components, to
demonstrations of new systems and capabilities. These early stage
investments are building stronger links between NASA and academia, and
providing unique opportunities for the NASA workforce to innovate.
In December, NASA completed the first orbital test flight of the
Orion crew vehicle, including a successful high speed reentry through
the atmosphere. The Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) mission of Orion
was nearly flawless. For the first time in a generation, a deep-space
U.S. exploration vehicle has splashed down in the Pacific, and what we
are learning from this test gives us increasing confidence in the
systems we are designing.
Just as we have recently tested Orion by sending it on a shorter
version of its future missions, we are continuously testing and
experimenting on the International Space Station (ISS) in preparation
for long-term missions in deep space. The administration has committed
to extending operation of the International Space Station to at least
2024. The fiscal year 2016 request includes $4,003.7 million for Space
Operations, including $3,105.6 million for ISS. Two commercial
providers are now under contract to supply cargo to this critical
asset, making the extension possible and giving us increasing
confidence in our long-term strategy. On March 27, astronaut Scott
Kelly began a 1 year mission aboard the ISS to learn more about how to
live and work in space for the long term. We will compare his vital
signs to those of his twin brother, Mark, here on Earth in a first-ever
experiment using identical twins to learn more about the effects of
living in space. This is just one example of the vital knowledge and
technology that our outpost in space will provide over the coming
decade. The Space Station is the cornerstone of our exploration
strategy, a nearby outpost in space where humanity is taking its early
steps on its journey into the solar system.
For the next step on the journey, NASA is developing the required
deep-space exploration infrastructure while we plan for the earliest
missions. NASA has established Agency Baseline Commitments for the
Space Launch System (SLS) and Exploration Ground Systems (EGS), each of
which supports a launch capability readiness date for Exploration
Mission 1 (EM-1) of November 2018. EM-1 is the first mission for SLS
and Orion. NASA remains on schedule for this EM-1 launch readiness date
for SLS and EGS. Baseline cost and schedule for Orion are now being
developed. NASA's budget request provides the funding needed to keep
SLS, Orion, and EGS on track. NASA will determine the integrated launch
date for the EM-1 mission after all critical design reviews are
complete, later this year. SLS and Orion are critical to human
spaceflight beyond low-Earth orbit as part of an evolvable,
sustainable, and affordable exploration program.
The journey to Mars runs through cis-lunar space. NASA's initial
deep-space mission, EM-1, will launch to a ``Distant Retrograde Orbit''
around the Moon. NASA will use this region of space to test and
demonstrate flight and mission operations and staging of human-rated
vehicles farther from Earth than ever before. Crewed Orion missions
launched on the SLS in the 2020s will establish our capability to
operate safely and productively in deep space. In this `proving ground'
of cis-lunar space, we will prepare for future deep space missions that
will lead us to Mars. In late 2020, NASA plans to launch an advanced
solar electric propulsion (SEP) based robotic spacecraft to approach an
asteroid and remove a multi-ton boulder. After removing the boulder,
the SEP spacecraft will redirect the asteroid in a demonstration of
slow push deflection, a technique relevant to potential future
planetary defense missions, and take the asteroid boulder to a stable
Distant Retrograde Orbit around the moon. In 2025, launched by SLS,
Orion will carry a two person crew on a 24-25 day mission to rendezvous
and dock with the robotic SEP spacecraft in cis-lunar space. NASA will
maneuver the integrated Orion and robotic vehicle stack in lunar orbit
for about 5 days. The crew can then conduct Extra Vehicular Activities
(EVA) to examine the asteroid boulder and collect samples before
returning to Earth. NASA's plan leverages development efforts from
existing programs across NASA mission directorates, and provides a
critical opportunity to exercise our emerging deep space exploration
capabilities.
As NASA strives to achieve the goal of sending humans to Mars, it
is important to remember we are already there. For 40 years,
increasingly advanced robotic explorers have studied the Red Planet.
This has dramatically increased our scientific knowledge and helped
pave the way for astronauts to travel there. Our latest Mars
spacecraft, MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN), arrived
last September to study the upper atmosphere and joined a fleet of
orbiters and rovers on the surface. Next year, we will send the InSight
(Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat
Transport) lander to study the planet's deep interior. In 2020, a new
rover, building on the incredible success of Curiosity, will help us
prepare for the arrival of humans at Mars. The Mars 2020 rover will
address the highest priority Mars science objectives recommended by the
Planetary Decadal Survey and will carry exploration technology
investigations focused on capabilities such as in-situ resource
utilization that will help in our planning for future human missions.
Mars is a key destination, but only one point on humanity's journey
of discovery. Ours is a journey of understanding reaching through our
Earth system, across our solar system, and beyond, deep into the
universe. The fiscal year 2016 budget request includes $5,288.6 million
for Science to continue that mission, with $1,947.3 million for Earth
Science, $1,361.2 million for Planetary Science, $709.1 million for
Astrophysics, $620.0 million for the James Webb Space Telescope, and
$651.0 million for Heliophysics.
NASA's Planetary Science program continues to expand our knowledge
of the solar system, with spacecraft in place from the innermost planet
to the very edge of our Sun's influence. After 9 years and 3 billion
miles of travel, the New Horizons spacecraft awakened and began to
prepare for its arrival in the Pluto system in July. Right now, Dawn
has entered into orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres. Juno is speeding
toward Jupiter where it will not only send back unprecedented data from
a first ever polar orbit of our giant neighbor, but will also
demonstrate how solar power can work at great distances from the Sun.
With the fiscal year 2016 request, NASA will continue development of a
robotic asteroid rendezvous and sample return mission, dubbed OSIRIS-
REx, planned for launch in 2016. OSIRIS-REx will approach the near-
Earth Asteroid Bennu, map the asteroid, and collect a sample for return
to Earth in 2023. Looking further to the future, NASA is planning a
mission to explore Jupiter's fascinating moon Europa, selecting
instruments this spring and moving toward the next phase of our work.
The most important planet we study is the one on which we live--
Earth. Today, 21 NASA-developed research missions orbit Earth and
provide a quantitative understanding of our complex planet, its origins
and its future. In the last year, we have launched an unprecedented
five Earth science missions, starting with the Global Precipitation
Measurement Core Observatory (GPM) that already has observed Hurricane
Arthur's brush of the East Coast last July. The Soil Moisture Active
Passive (SMAP) mission, launched in January, will give us for the first
time ever, a picture of soil moisture on a global scale, allowing
scientists to monitor droughts and predict flooding caused by severe
rainfall or snowmelt. New research missions in formulation include
PACE, the Pre-Aerosol, Clouds and ocean Ecosystem continuity mission,
that observes ocean color, aerosols, and clouds; NISAR, the NASA-ISRO
Synthetic Aperture Radar mission, being developed in partnership with
the Indian Space Research Organization to measure complex processes
such as ecosystem disturbances and ice-sheet collapse; and CLARREO, the
Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory Pathfinder that
will begin pre-formulation this fiscal year.
The Landsat series of satellites is a cornerstone of our Earth
observing capability. The world relies on Landsat data to detect and
measure land cover/land use change, the health of ecosystems, and water
availability. The President's fiscal year 2016 request recognizes
Landsat's critical importance and sets out a multi-decadal plan for an
Earth-observing architecture that ensures data continuity and
reliability. The Sustainable Land Imaging program partnership with the
Department of the Interior's U.S. Geological Survey will include flight
of a thermal-infrared free flyer and an upgraded Landsat-9 mission,
while infusing new technological developments for future missions and
ensuring consistency with the existing 42-year Landsat data record.
Twenty-five years ago this April NASA deployed the Hubble Space
Telescope. Hubble is still doing amazing science, and the last textbook
that will have to be revised because of its discoveries has not yet
been written. In just slightly over 3 years, NASA plans to launch the
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Hubble's successor, and continue to
reveal the unknown with the largest observatory ever put into space.
This amazing telescope is taking shape right now in suburban Maryland,
where this year the mirrors will be installed on the telescope
backplane. The ``heart'' of the telescope that holds its instruments
successfully completed a nearly 4-month test in a cryogenic thermal
vacuum chamber. NASA's Astrophysics program operating missions include
the Hubble, Chandra, Spitzer, and Kepler telescopes, the Stratospheric
Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) airborne observatory, and
other missions that together comprise an unrivaled resource for the
study of our universe. With the fiscal year 2016 request, NASA will
continue development of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
(TESS). TESS will extend the pioneering work of the Kepler Space
Telescope, which showed us that virtually every star in the sky has a
planetary system. TESS launches in 2018 and will discover rocky
exoplanets orbiting the nearest and brightest stars in the sky in time
for Webb to conduct follow-up observations. NASA will also continue
pre-formulation of the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST),
the top priority for large-scale missions of the most recent National
Academy of Science Decadal Survey in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Just as the most important planet that we study is the Earth, the
most important star that we study is our own. NASA's Heliophysics
Program is monitoring the Sun, near-Earth space, and the space
environment throughout our solar system, with 29 spacecraft making up
18 missions. These missions work toward one goal: to better understand
the Sun and its interactions with the Earth and solar system, including
space weather. The fiscal year 2016 request supports development of
NASA's Solar Probe Plus (SPP) mission, planned for launch in 2018. SPP
will be humanity's first voyage to our home star and will repeatedly
pass through the Sun's hot outer atmosphere. NASA will also begin
science operations of the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission to
investigate how magnetic fields around Earth connect and disconnect,
explosively releasing tremendous amounts of energy in a process called
magnetic reconnection.
NASA's Aeronautics research is making air travel cleaner, safer,
and more efficient. Every U.S. aircraft and U.S. air traffic control
tower has NASA-developed-technology on board. NASA's fiscal year 2016
budget request includes $571.4 million for Aeronautics to fulfill the
Agency's strategic research agenda, addressing the most critical
challenges facing the aviation sector. NASA is improving safety and
reducing development costs of new aviation technologies, developing
integrated air traffic management tools to expand airspace capacity
with more fuel-efficient flight planning and diminish delays, and
researching next generation aircraft configurations, efficient engines,
and low carbon propulsion systems such as hybrid electric technology
systems. NASA is enabling the future of unmanned and autonomous flight
by providing technical data and analysis to directly inform FAA
rulemaking related to Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), funding
technology development to address emerging needs for UAS integration,
and initiating fundamental research in autonomous systems for aviation.
Also in fiscal year 2016, NASA is initiating a series of flight
demonstrations focused on environmental performance, and expanding our
portfolio of rapid-turnover feasibility demonstrations to infuse new
ideas into our research program. NASA's aeronautics research continues
to play a vital leadership role to air travel and commerce by enabling
game-changing technologies and innovation that allow the U.S. aviation
industry to continue to grow and maintain its global leadership role.
NASA is truly with you when you fly.
NASA's spacecraft are voyaging beyond the solar system, we are
developing a mission to pass right through the Sun's atmosphere, and
our spacecraft are exploring the planets in between. The venerable
Hubble Space Telescope is looking back into deep time, Kepler is
demonstrating the prevalence of planets around other stars, and the
James Webb Space Telescope is on the way. An early version of Orion
splashed down in the Pacific, Astronaut Mark Kelly is preparing for a 1
year mission in space, and the Space Launch System is on track for a
November 2018 launch capability. NASA is embracing its mission as never
before. NASA looks forward to working with the subcommittee and the
Congress to make this vision a reality.
Mr. Chairman, I would be pleased to respond to your questions and
those of other members of the subcommittee.
______
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM TEST LAUNCH
Senator Shelby. Thank you, General Bolden. The Government
Accountability Office (GAO) found that NASA's cost estimates
for the SLS and Orion projects do not extend beyond the first
flight for the combined system, and the 2016 budget before us
bears this out.
GAO states that NASA's budget estimates do not include
production costs for the second test flight scheduled for 2021,
the development costs for upper stage development for SLS, or
production operations and sustainment costs for Orion beyond
the first test flight. GAO further states that NASA has
continued to request funding that does not meet requirements.
In the case of SLS, I cannot agree more with GAO's
assessment of NASA's inadequate funding proposal. My question,
General, is this: considering NASA will have to conduct
multiple test flights for SLS, which require additional
development and production, why does the 2016 budget only
account for the first test launch of SLS?
Mr. Bolden. Mr. Chairman, the 2016 request supports what we
project in the budget horizon as required over the next 5 years
to get us to a sustained program, of deep space exploration
using SLS and Orion.
You mentioned or I think you mentioned charts and graphs,
and we are not about charts and graphs. We are talking about
hardware. The barrel for the engine section of SLS was welded
together at Michoud Assembly Facility, and other hydrogen and
oxygen tanks are being done. We launched Orion in December. We
hot fire tested the RS-25 engines down in Mississippi at
Stennis, as Senator Cochran has said. We fired the next
milestone test on the five segment solid rocket booster.
I would say our budget as we have run it out has us on the
path that we think is necessary to get humans back to deep
space and then onto Mars.
UPPER STAGE ENGINE
Senator Shelby. In the detailed portion of the 2016 budget
for SLS, NASA only proposes development funds, as I understand
it, through 2018 for an upper stage engine with no funding
beyond that date. There is a known need to develop a human-
rated upper stage engine for the second test flight. The upper
stage, it is my understanding, is on the critical path to the
second test flight of SLS in 2021, yet it is my understanding
there is no mention beyond preliminary planning for an upper
stage required for a mission that is expected to launch say 6
years hence.
The question is this: why are no funds identified for the
anticipated development for an upper stage when that
development must be worked on in earnest during 2016?
Mr. Bolden. Mr. Chairman, in prioritizing the work that we
need to do over this next budget horizon, we recognize that an
exploration upper stage is something that will be necessary.
You are absolutely correct in that if we had unlimited
funds, we would begin development of the exploration upper
stage today. We are given a budget that is no longer flat, I
will say, people used to say flat was the new ``up,'' but the
new up is starting to look like you are going to let us work
inflation in, so it is no longer flat. I think the budget that
we submitted presents a balanced portfolio of missions for the
agency that show us on a time line to get to Mars in the 2030s.
NASA'S RELATIONSHIP WITH RUSSIA
Senator Shelby. I am on my last area that I will get into
momentarily, the International Space Station. When we discussed
the budget here last year, I asked about our relationship with
the Russians in regard to the space station and what would
happen if they were to end the partnership.
At that time, you said, and I quote ``Should we or the
Russians choose to pull out, the International Space Station as
we know it no longer exists.'' Those were your words, General.
The Russians have indicated that their intent is to
separate their portion of the station in 2024. We know that is
down the road. That essentially gives the facility an
expiration date.
My question is this: has Russia formally notified you that
this is their intent, to separate their portion of the space
station in 2024?
Mr. Bolden. Quite the contrary, Mr. Chairman. In my
meetings with my counterpart, Mr. Komarov, in Baikonur on the
periphery of Scott Kelly's launch about 3 weeks ago, he made
what I would not call a startling announcement, but he made a
very encouraging announcement that contrary to what we heard,
the rhetoric from the Russians, that they were committed to the
International Space Station through 2024, and they did not
intend to pull pieces off and start their own space station.
Senator Shelby. Did he indicate that would be a hard
commitment or a soft one?
Mr. Bolden. Mr. Chairman, it is no harder a commitment than
ours. I think if everyone will remember, when the President
allowed me to propose that we go to 2024, we said at least
2024.
The only hard date we know about the space station today is
2028 because that is as far as the engineering analyses of all
the partners say that 2028 is about as long as we can keep the
space station flying, but we do not want to keep the current
space station flying forever.
We want to get NASA and other agencies out of low-Earth
orbit and onto exploration. The vision that we see----
Senator Shelby. The space station was never constructed to
be there in perpetuity, was it?
Mr. Bolden. Mr. Chairman, that is absolutely correct. We
have never built anything intended to be there in perpetuity. I
am smiling at Senator Mikulski. We did not build the Hubble
Space Telescope to be there as long as it has been, but thanks
to her shepherding the program. we are getting ready to
celebrate 25 incredible years.
JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE (JWST)
Senator Shelby. We are also moving to another stage, past
the Hubble, because of what we found in the use of having the
Hubble.
Mr. Bolden. Again, I think you are helping me to emphasize
the critical importance of your ranking member.
Senator Shelby. She did a great job.
Mr. Bolden. She chewed me out and I appreciated it when I
became the NASA Administrator. It was not really chewing me
out.
Senator Shelby. Appreciated years later.
Mr. Bolden. She told me she wanted me to straighten out the
James Webb Space Telescope, and we relooked at the program. I
came in, and I went to the President. I came to Senator
Mikulski and said we are not going to make it, and we need to
redo this program, and we are now on schedule on cost to launch
the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018, and that is primarily
because of the work and the encouragement of Senator Mikulski.
INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS
Senator Shelby. Thank you. What is the level of commitment
from some of our other international partners to operate the
space station beyond 2020?
Mr. Bolden. Now that we have the Russians on record saying
they are with us through at least 2024, other partners are
beginning to feel better. That is what they were waiting for,
to see the two primary partners get on board with each other. I
expect that over the coming year or two, just as it was to get
everybody to go to 2020, I think in the next couple of years,
you will see that all the partners will agree that 2024 is the
horizon for the International Space Station now.
Senator Shelby. Is it even possible to operate as you know
it the space station without the Russian segments should we
choose to operate the station on our own?
Mr. Bolden. Yes, sir.
Senator Shelby. Okay. Senator Mikulski.
GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER BUDGET
Senator Mikulski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Administrator
Bolden, first of all, thank you for your kind words about me
and what I have done and the Hubble Telescope.
I think also it is a tribute to really bipartisanship, and
I know really very early in my Senate career, I became the
chairman of the Subcommittee on VA/HUD, of which NASA was part
of. My colleague at the time and vice chairman was Senator Jake
Garn. I cannot say enough about the appreciation I had for
Senators Garn and John Glenn. Bill Nelson was not here. It
showed how the astronaut senators and I with Goddard Space
Flight Center really worked on the whole idea of a balanced
space program.
What we did initially to fix Hubble was because we worked
on a bipartisan basis, and the efforts of Senator Garn and with
Senator Garn, we had the credibility, although I had the gavel,
they had the credibility, and then NASA had the know-how.
That is really kind of the spirit of the way it is, and I
wanted to just acknowledge the role that others have played. We
have kept that going with Senator Shelby.
Now, as we also look, and you commented on the New
Horizons, yes, the press is reporting as is JPL, that we are
really now pretty close to that Pluto thing, and by all
accounts and reports, technological reports, we are absolutely
on target for its arrival at Pluto on target.
I want to be sure that our best days are not behind us, and
we are committed to a balanced space program. The human space
flight, a reliable transportation system for our astronauts to
go where they have not, and also to do the kind of servicing
that will be necessary, along with space science.
Of course, you know I am going to ask you about Goddard.
When I saw the President's budget, in which Goddard was funded
at $324 million below fiscal year 2015, when they have 32 on
orbit missions, when they make sure that Hubble is targeted and
maximizing its use in its current age and stage, and then
managing the satellite construction for two of the major
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
projects, along with the James Webb, they have a full plate,
and yet you cut them $300 million.
Can you tell me, number one, why, and what are the
consequences of that? I am very apprehensive that they are
doing all this great work and they have been cut roughly 10
percent.
Mr. Bolden. Senator, our projection for this year, for this
fiscal year, at the end of the year, because we do not
formalize some projects until we are well into the fiscal year,
but as a result of that, our estimate is that the Goddard Space
Flight Center will end up with about $2.6 billion, their
portion of the NASA budget.
The projection for fiscal year 2016 is given the work they
are about to do, that they are embarking on, an example would
be if you told me today in this hearing to go ahead and
authorize the beginning on the tiers for continuous land
imaging, Goddard would start tomorrow morning. That is not in
their portfolio right now.
We anticipate that Goddard will again in fiscal year 2016,
when all is said and done, end up managing $2.6 billion of
projects. It is actually a preliminary look at what we have
based on the programs we have directed----
Senator Mikulski. Are you saying you are going to give them
more work during the year and then as the year goes on, you are
giving them more money?
Mr. Bolden. They get more work as the year goes by.
Subsequently, they get more money. They get responsibility for
more money.
Senator Mikulski. In other words, if they get more
responsibility, does the resource follow the responsibility?
Mr. Bolden. Yes, ma'am; it does. Yes, ma'am. I was going to
get cute, but I will not.
Senator Mikulski. No, do not.
Mr. Bolden. I am not.
Senator Mikulski. In terms of time, we have a lot of ground
to cover, but space to cover.
Mr. Bolden. Yes, ma'am.
SATELLITE SERVICING
Senator Mikulski. Which then takes us to an area called
``satellite servicing.'' To my colleagues who are also
interested in national security, I know we are worried about
our satellites, number one, not for the purposes of this
hearing, it would be inappropriate, but we worry about the
Chinese and what they are doing in terms of any satellite
technology, so that is one dimension not for this hearing, and
of course, across committees.
Also, we have satellites that our Government has,
particularly science satellites, and our private and even non-
profit sector have. Goddard has been developing a technology
and workforce to satellite servicing, so they do not end up
space junk. That was funded at $130 million in fiscal year
2015, and they have been cut by 50 percent to $65 million.
Could you tell me the rationale for that, or do you not
want to do satellite servicing?
Mr. Bolden. Senator, we sincerely--I think we are all on
the same sheet of music. No one is more dedicated, for example,
to SLS and exploration than I. I share your enthusiasm there.
I share the enthusiasm for making sure that this Nation is
second to none when it comes to being able to maintain and
secure our satellites. With that in mind, I would request that
you allow me to come and have a conversation with you, and I
can bring staff members or some of your staff, so we can talk
about satellite servicing and the challenges that we face
there.
It is my belief that with industry, companies like
MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA), like Alliant
Techsystems Inc. (ATK), who already have hardware in hand that
does some of the functions we know we are going to need, and
working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) collaboratively----
Senator Mikulski. You come and talk to me.
Mr. Bolden. Yes, ma'am. I would really appreciate that. To
be quite honest, I want to be in sync with the subcommittee,
and I will admit, I am the one person in this room who is
probably not in sync with you all, because for 4 years I have
pleaded with people to tell me who the customer is going to be,
and the potential customers keep telling me they would much
rather have me be their customer.
I want to make sure that we are not at odds with American
industry. I need to talk to you, if that would be good. I think
we can get in sync.
Senator Mikulski. My time is up. I have another question
about Wallops. I say to my chairman of this subcommittee and
the chairman of the full committee, satellites are on my mind,
and they are really a big budget, not only in the NASA
committee.
Whether it is NOAA or the Department of Defense (DOD), I am
worried that we do not know how to build them and maintain them
and service them. We often run into satellite boondoggles.
Mr. Bolden. Yes, ma'am.
Senator Mikulski. That is one thing. The second thing is
then when they are up there, what do we do with them when they
are no longer functional and can they be rescued. And third,
the national security protection of key satellites from those
nation states or others that would have a predatory intent.
I have satellites on my mind. I would like it in the
budget.
Mr. Bolden. Yes, ma'am.
Senator Mikulski. Mr. Chairman, I have used up a lot of
time.
Senator Shelby. It is okay. Senator Cochran.
SPACE EXPLORATION PROGRAM
Senator Cochran. Mr. Chairman, thank you. Welcome again to
our hearing. We appreciate the cooperation that we have
received over time in helping to share our views with the
Administration officials who have come before our subcommittee
requesting funding for the programs and activities. It is a
pleasure to work with you on all these challenges.
As NASA continues to work on development of the space
launch system, are you satisfied that the Administration and
the Congress are constructively working together to help reach
our goals of our space exploration program?
Mr. Bolden. Senator Cochran, because I am a part of the
Administration, I will say I am not satisfied that I have
sufficiently worked with this subcommittee, and I pledge I will
do better.
It is like I mentioned to Senator Mikulski, I have pledged
that I will be here much more than I have been, communicating
with members of the subcommittee. I am pleading for the Senate
to confirm Dr. Dava Newman as my deputy because I need the
help. I think that will free me up to be able to spend more
time with members of the subcommittee.
As I said in my opening statement, together, the
Administration and this Congress have done an incredible job
over the last 5 years. I want the members of the subcommittee
to take credit for what you have done, to be quite honest. It
is like trying to get the Administration to take credit. It
seems like we are in the middle, and we are really happy about
what has been done. We are not fooling ourselves that we have
done everything. We think we are the best in the world at what
we do, but that is not good enough.
I know that is a jumbled answer to your question, but I do
not want you to think I am satisfied. I am not. I will do
better.
ENGINE TESTING INFRASTRUCTURE
Senator Cochran. Specifically--thank you for that. The
budget request provides information for us that is very
helpful. We want to be sure we are doing the right thing, too.
I want to know what your reaction is to whether we are
providing adequate resources for the engine testing
infrastructure to support the development of the Space Launch
System, that would be a credit to our country.
Mr. Bolden. Senator, this subcommittee and the Congress
have provided everything that we have asked for. I do not have
any complaints about that. I would point out when you talked
specifically about Stennis, the fact that we have had testing
done by SpaceX, Aerojet Rocketdyne, DOD is now talking to us
about doing testing at Stennis, Blue Origin is now doing
testing at Stennis.
That in itself says we are being successful at capitalizing
on the ability of American industry to augment what NASA does,
so that we can utilize the funds that this subcommittee gives
us to get on with the business of going into deep space.
Getting to Mars is our main objective right now. In order
to do that, we need other things. We need the International
Space Station to be viable and sustainable. We are comfortable
we are okay there. We keep taking little bits of money away
from the station to do other things in space operations that
make me nervous sometimes.
We have to have the money we requested for commercial crew
because that will finish off NASA getting out of low-Earth
orbit access, and we will have successfully turned that over to
American industry, and that puts us one step farther to being
Earth independent. Not there, but one step farther.
We then need to move out into what we call the ``proving
ground,'' going back to space, to orbit around the Moon for
about a 10-year period of time to develop the technologies that
we need to move onto Mars.
We have a lot of work to do, but this subcommittee, I
cannot complain. I thank you for the funding you have given us.
Senator Cochran. We appreciate that. We want to continue to
do what is necessary to ensure a robust engine testing
infrastructure as Stennis, and if we think they have earned the
right to continue to contribute up to date military
intelligence capabilities that would be a credit to our
country, and we are looking to develop and test even new rocket
engines in the future.
What is your reaction to that? Is there a future?
Mr. Bolden. Senator Mikulski said she wanted to make sure
that our best days were not behind us. Our best days are in
front of us, I can promise you that. I am not smiling and
sounding optimistic because I am trying to look good or
something. I am excited about the future.
When I travel around to college campuses or high schools
around the country or around the world, young people are really
excited about what we are doing. They see this is their future.
It is not ours. We are passing through. There is no doubt in my
mind, Senator, all of you, that our best days are ahead of us.
Senator Cochran. It looks like we have a new city there,
Stennis.
Mr. Bolden. It is the Federal city.
Senator Cochran. As well as the testing facility.
Mr. Bolden. Yes, sir.
Senator Cochran. We appreciate the fact that it has grown
to become a Federal city due to the multiple Federal tenants
that are there and seemed to be happy with what is going on,
access to people, a beautiful view along the Mississippi Gulf
Coast to boot.
Mr. Bolden. Yes, sir.
Senator Cochran. Thank you very much.
Mr. Bolden. Yes, sir.
Senator Shelby. Senator Capito.
INDEPENDENT VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION (IV&V) FACILITY
Senator Capito. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to the
Administrator. General Bolden, we are really proud of the work
that NASA does in West Virginia with the IV&V Program in
Fairmont. The employees there are making a great contribution
to our State, and I think to your agency, and to our country.
It seems to me the service they provide is critical to complete
your agency's objectives, both for the manned and unmanned
missions. Can you share some thoughts about IV&V and what you
think the future is for that part of NASA?
Mr. Bolden. The facility in West Virginia, but IV&V in
general, in the broadest sense, because a lot of its work is
not just done there, but done other places around the country.
The work that is done for NASA is incredible. Again, the
measure of your success or the measure of respect people show
for you is to have outside organizations come to you and ask
for assistance. We finished off the work we were doing for
Homeland Security, for folks in New York City, so there have
been other outside organizations that have asked for help that
IV&V has been able to provide for them. They provide a very
necessary capability to this agency.
Senator Capito. Thank you. They also in their program, as
you probably know, are inspiring students and educators in West
Virginia, have over 100 educator workshops that they
participated in, and have had a good impact.
One of the areas that I am interested in and because I am
the co-chair of the recently formed Diversifying Technology
Caucus, you know, we all have a caucus in a different name, I
am a science major myself, and there is a great concern, and I
share this concern, and you spoke about young people, a lot of
the STEM education is not as diversified, both by females and
minorities, what does NASA look like? You have a lot of science
majors over there. I know you do not have this at the tip of
your fingers. I am just curious.
Mr. Bolden. Unfortunately, I have it at the tip of my
finger because I am not happy.
Senator Capito. Okay; good.
Mr. Bolden. We at NASA feel we should be the model for
every other agency in the Federal Government, and as I said
before, we have been the best place to work in Government for
the past 3 years based on the Employee Viewpoint Survey, but we
are worried. I am worried about the inability to maintain, to
retain women and minorities in senior levels of leadership in
the STEM fields.
The Deputy Associate Administrator, my chief scientist,
Center Director Ellen Ochoa, Astronaut Cady Coleman, I have
people all over trying to figure out what we are not doing
right. We are probably better than most other Federal agencies,
but that is not satisfactory.
Senator Capito. If you have the figures, since you
mentioned it----
Mr. Bolden. Let me get it to you, so I do not guess.
[The information follows:]
Diversity of NASA Scientists and Engineers
As of April 2015
Explanation of terms and acronyms:
AAPI = Asian American and Pacific Islander. The percentage of Native
Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders in the science and engineering
civilian labor force is so small that meaningful comparisons with
NASA's workforce could not be made if they were reported in a separate
category (i.e., everything rounds to zero); they are therefore combined
with Asian Americans for the purpose of comparing NASA with the RCLF.
AIAN = American Indian/Alaska Native
AST = Aerospace Technologist. AST is a special designation approved by
OPM for the types of scientists and engineers hired by NASA. It is
NASA's main mission critical occupational category.
RCLF = Relevant Civilian Labor Force (the portion of the 2010 civilian
labor force that most closely matches the science and engineering
workforces at NASA. There is one RCLF calculated for NASA Engineers and
one calculated for Physical Scientists because the demographic
diversity for these occupational categories is quite different. The
RCLF is the benchmark used to compare NASA's diversity with that of the
available technical labor pool. Note: for senior level positions, a
different benchmark is used, namely the total NASA AST workforce. The
logic is that, for example, if 8 percent of NASA's AST workforce is
African American, then approximately 8 percent of NASA's senior AST
positions should be African Americans. This is an internal benchmark,
as opposed to the RCLF, which is an external benchmark.
RNO = Race/National Origin
SES = Senior Executive Service
SL = Senior Level
ST = Senior Technologist
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
DIVERSIFYING TECHNOLOGY
Mr. Bolden. I can tell you the mix of women in the STEM
field marries what it is in society, and that is why I say that
is unacceptable.
Senator Capito. It is unacceptable.
Mr. Bolden. We have 51 percent women in the population and
we are in the low teens of percentage of women in STEM. That
does not say 51 percent of the STEM workforce ought to be
women, but it ought to be better than 13 or whatever it is.
Senator Capito. I would suggest, and I think the IV&V
Program has done this by doing educator outreach--for some
reason, it is probably the same thing Senator Mikulski and I
have, we get the question all the time, why are there not more
women in the Senate, why are there not more women in public
service.
It is one of these things that the numbers have to feed on
one another and one another, and it is a slow progress. I think
by starting early, K through elementary, K through three, you
really do have to start there, because when you see what is
coming at our young people in terms of how they can get a lot
of knowledge from their phones and everything else, their minds
are forming, I think, earlier on what direction they want to
go.
I would love to partner with NASA in this endeavor on
diversifying technology. I think it is a natural spot. Since we
have a good presence in Fairmont, that might be a good jumping
off place for some kind of pilot programs to be able to inspire
our young women and more minorities to join this exciting field
that can be very, very lucrative at the same time and very
stable.
Mr. Bolden. Yes, ma'am.
Senator Capito. I thank you for your service. Thank you.
Senator Shelby. Senator Mikulski.
JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE
Senator Mikulski. Mr. Chairman, just one question and one
comment. The James Webb Space Telescope, you are exactly right,
Administrator, that we were deeply troubled about the Webb,
that there were cost overruns, could we meet both the
technological targets as well as the fiscal targets.
Could you tell the subcommittee the status of the James
Webb and have you also addressed the GAO questions about
schedule reserves and the cryocooler to make sure it--as you
know, there is the GAO report, some press reports, and flashing
yellow lights.
Could you tell us are you on target, and have you addressed
these concerns raised by these outside oversights?
Mr. Bolden. Senator, I would venture to say we are on
target, and we are on target for one primary reason, and that
is after I promised you, the responsibility for the James Webb
Space Telescope came into the Office of the Administrator.
First, we had Chris Scolese as the Associate Administrator, and
now Robert Lightfoot, and in their respective roles, they were
representing me in James Webb almost every day.
Chris Scolese is now at the Goddard Space Flight Center
that has primary responsibility for it. Chris is in it every
single day. I now have a monthly tag up with Wes Bush, the CEO
of Northrop Grumman, because we both agree on the critical
importance of the James Webb Space Telescope, not just to this
Nation but to the world, but also it is critical for both him
and me to demonstrate we know what the heck we are doing.
If we cannot deliver it on time and on budget or under
budget, then it says there is something wrong. We are concerned
about the technological challenge of the cryocooler, but we
think that is getting back on track.
We still have about a 10 month cushion in the schedule, but
I caution people----
Senator Mikulski. What does a cryocooler do?
Mr. Bolden. It is actually what enables the telescope to go
down to almost absolute zero. It takes it to really cold. It is
going to operate a million miles away from Earth, and it is an
infrared imaging telescope. The reason why it is so phenomenal
and that it is going to dwarf the capability of Hubble is
because although it only operates in the infrared range,
keeping it as cold as we do, it is going to be able to look
into the atmosphere of distant planets around the billions of
distant stars, some that are not even in our own Galaxy. That
is what is going to make it really, really good.
It would still be phenomenal without it, but that is not
what we----
Senator Mikulski. Presuming this actually happens, do you
believe the completion and successful launch and operation of
the James Webb will secure America's preeminence in astronomy
for the next 30 or 40 years?
Mr. Bolden. Senator, there is no question. Now that we are
on the Hubble anniversary, I tell people about our crew before
we launched on the deploy mission, we knew, we absolutely knew
that Hubble was going to do something great. We had no clue. If
anybody had asked us if it was going to have taken its place in
the pantheon of great scientific instruments, we did not know
that. We are very confident that James Webb will further
revolutionize the fields of planetary science, astrophysics. We
will know more about this universe as a result of James Webb
after 2018 than anybody ever imagined.
Senator Mikulski. I am glad I went into orbit.
Mr. Bolden. You and me both.
Senator Mikulski. Thank you very much.
Senator Shelby. Thank you, Senator Mikulski. I think
Senator Mikulski knew it. She knew what the potential was or
she would not have pushed so long and so hard and successfully,
and we should all be grateful. She must be akin to her cousin,
Copernicus, in looking ahead in some way.
COMMERCIAL CREW MILESTONE SCHEDULE DELAYS
General, I have a couple more questions. NASA entered into,
in my understanding, two milestone based contracts worth up to
$6.8 billion in September of this last year to finish the
development and testing of crewed vehicles.
Aside from five milestones that NASA required, the
contractors were able to add milestones and time lines of their
own, with payment only given when a milestone is achieved. NASA
has already publicly stated that a significant number of the
milestones are being altered. In other words, they have not met
them, some with delays of 6 months or more.
A lot of us are concerned by the potentially large number
of changes and delays so soon in the program. My question is
this: the subcommittee has seen the first quarter report on the
Commercial Crew Program. Who asked for the changes to the
milestones, and how will altering the milestone schedules delay
the expected date for taking our astronauts to the space
station?
Mr. Bolden. Mr. Chairman, I will get you specific answers
for the record.
[The information follows:]
Commercial Crew Program Milestone Schedule Delays
As reported to the Committee, both Commercial Crew Transportation
Capability (CCtCap) companies updated their schedules to reflect
additional design maturation and to allow sufficient time to complete
system development and certification. NASA anticipated a number of
these types of changes during this timeframe because the original
contract milestones were established when the companies submitted their
CCtCap proposals, over a year ago. Such changes are not indicative of
poor company performance, but are viewed by NASA to be the normal
evolution of refining subcontract schedules and finalizing development
plans after contract award. Accordingly, the companies requested the
milestone date changes, and NASA has reviewed and approved them. We
will continue to work with the companies to adhere to the new overall
schedule. We will identify any possible changes quickly making minor
milestones adjustments only as required. This will protect overall
schedule while maintaining a safe configuration for our crews.
As reported in the first Quarterly Report, the Certification Review
milestone date (i.e., the expected date for NASA certification of the
companies systems to transport NASA personnel to the ISS) for Boeing
was changed from August 2017 to October 2017; the SpaceX Certification
Review milestone date was changed from April 2017 to October 2017. The
Commercial Crew Program is a large, complex development effort whereby
the partners are expected to conform to a set of requirements in a
fixed price contract.
Mr. Bolden. I will tell you how it works. Frequently, we
ask for the slip in the milestone because we do not have the
money to pay it. That is why it is critically important. We now
have two contracts, so we are contractually obligated to Boeing
and SpaceX to pay them up to $6.8 billion. We have guaranteed
them two missions each minimum, and up to six.
Senator Shelby. You want to meet those obligations.
Mr. Bolden. I want to meet those obligations, and the only
way for me to meet them----
Senator Shelby. Will they meet their obligations?
Mr. Bolden. They will meet their obligations. Mr. Chairman,
I do not have any doubt. I have the utmost confidence in both
Boeing and SpaceX that they will meet their obligations if we
meet ours to pay the bill.
Our obligation is to provide oversight and insight, and
make sure that we know what they have to do to provide us a
safe vehicle. I have to have the money to pay them.
Senator Shelby. Will you get this information for the
subcommittee to evaluate?
Mr. Bolden. I will.
RUSSIAN SEAT SOLICITATION
Senator Shelby. My last question has to do with the Russian
seat solicitation. The Commercial Crew Program is intending to
replace our reliance on the Russians for transport to and from
the space station as early as 2017.
NASA has put a solicitation out, is my understanding, to
purchase six more seats on Russian vehicles at a time when
seats on the commercial crew vehicles should be available. I
said ``should.''
Mr. Bolden. Yes, sir.
Senator Shelby. It appears NASA is already purchasing its
own insurance policy in case the crew providers are not ready.
I do not know that. The current cost of a seat from the
Russians, I understand, is about $76 million, and it will
likely be even more for those additional seats.
The question I have for you, General, and for the record,
too, what has NASA seen so far in the continued development of
our own crewed vehicles to justify paying Russia hundreds of
millions of dollars for seats that should already be covered by
the U.S. providers if the U.S. companies meet their milestones?
I do not know the situation. Could you explain?
Mr. Bolden. Yes. The primary we have seen is the lack of
commitment on the part of the Congress to fund the program at
the amount requested by the President, and the President's
request was to meet the contractual price that we negotiated
with Boeing and SpaceX. That is not an estimate.
Senator Shelby. The bottom line is you need more money; is
that right?
Mr. Bolden. We always need what we ask for in the budget. I
would be more than happy to take more. We really need $1.2
billion in 2016 because this is a critical time for us to make
the 2017 launch date. We need $1.2 billion so they can complete
the milestones that we have both agreed to.
Senator Shelby. If they can complete them, we would not
need to spend that money with Russia; right?
Mr. Bolden. When we have an American capability, then we do
not spend any more money with the Russians. We do not pay them
for seats any more. We definitely will not pay them for seats
any more once we have an American capability.
COMMERCIAL CREW TRANSPORTATION CAPABILITY (CCTCAP) CONTRACTS
Senator Shelby. Let me share this with you. It is my
understanding that in the Commercial Crew Program, NASA
initially decided to spread, General, the limited funding
resources across five companies. It took NASA 5 years and $1.9
billion to finally pick two companies.
Mr. Bolden. Yes, sir.
Senator Shelby. That will share $6.8 billion to develop a
commercial crew capability. However, NASA continues to blame
Congress for lack of resources, when it was NASA that chose to
spend nearly $2 billion on a competition.
While I agree as we all do that competition is important,
prudent decisions in constrained fiscal environments such as
this, are very important.
My question here is this: in your view, has the decision to
fund multiple companies during the initial competition delayed
the delivery of a viable commercial crew capability? You spent
a good deal of money doing that.
Mr. Bolden. Senator, it is my belief that spending that
money did not delay it at all. In fact, it gave us assurance
that the two systems that we finally selected would in fact be
the absolute best. We are still investing money in some of the
companies that were in competition initially because they are
still getting milestone payments under the original Space Act
Agreements that we had, because they are bringing us benefits
that we do not have to develop ourselves or the two contractors
do not.
If you look at Blue Origin, for example, as a result of the
work that they have been doing with engines, we may have a new
launch system by an American company with American engines.
That remains to be seen.
Some of the development that they did in the area of
engines was as a result of collaborating with NASA, some of the
test of components, as Senator Cochran mentioned, was done at
Stennis. They do not test the full engine but they are where
they are today, perhaps 2 years away from being able to develop
a heavy lift engine of American origin, and that is because of
the work that we supplemented.
Senator Shelby. We appreciate that. We will continue to
look at that. It is incumbent upon this subcommittee, as
Senator Mikulski has said many times, that we are accountable
to the American people and to our colleagues, and you are
accountable to us. We are going to have to ask the right and
tough questions.
Mr. Bolden. Yes, sir.
ADDITIONAL COMMITTEE QUESTIONS
Senator Shelby. Thank you very much, General. This will
conclude our hearing. We may have some follow-up questions for
the record.
Mr. Bolden. Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, I will get you the
information.
[The following questions were not asked at the hearing, but
were submitted to the Department for response subsequent to the
hearing:]
Questions Submitted to Hon. Charles F. Bolden, Jr.
Questions Submitted by Senator Christopher A. Coons
spaceport launch pad 0
Question. What is the status of funding to complete repairs to
launch Pad 0-A (Spaceport) in order to return to flight the Antares
Rocket from the Wallops Flight Facility?
Answer. NASA is strongly committed to maintaining a small/medium
class launch vehicle capability at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility
(WFF) in support of cargo resupply for the International Space Station
(ISS), and is pleased at the progress of repair activities at pad 0A.
NASA intends to ensure the needs of the ISS are met through the
Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract between NASA and Orbital
Sciences Corporation (now Orbital ATK). In fiscal year 2015, consistent
with NASA's communications with the House and Senate Committees on
Appropriations, NASA has provided a total of $5.0 million for
commercial launch site services at WFF. Orbital ATK has made clear they
intend to recover the capability to launch resupply missions again from
Wallops, and has allocated funding in this regard. The Mid-Atlantic
Regional Spaceport (MARS) has allocated funding from their annual
maintenance budget for site cleanup and environmental remediation
activities, site and engineering damage assessments, disassembly of
damaged pad infrastructure, and repair of pad systems. NASA is
continuing to work with all the parties--MARS, Orbital ATK, and the
Commonwealth of Virginia--to ensure a small/medium class launch
capability is restored to Wallops under the terms of the existing
contracts and agreements. In sum, MARS continues to make good progress
towards Pad 0A repair and return to service. All required demolition
work has been completed, and all concrete structures have been repaired
or replaced. In addition, all damaged fueling and pressure system
piping have been identified, and fabrication and installation of new
items is proceeding well. MARS, Orbital ATK, and NASA WFF are currently
(end of July) in the replacement, cleaning and testing stage of the pad
recovery. Environment monitoring is continuing to ensure there is no
lasting impact to the launch pad area. Funding allocated to date
supports the schedule for Pad 0A turnover to Orbital-ATK as planned.
national space access needs
Question. What is NASA's plan to upgrade the range capabilities at
Wallops Flight Facility, NASA's only launch range and one of the few
active commercial spaceports to meet emerging national space access
needs?
Answer. NASA missions use a number of launch sites, including the
Agency's facilities at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Wallops
Flight Facility in Virginia.
--The Wallops Range Control Center expansion and upgrades are
continuing, and the remote range support systems in Bermuda are
being upgraded and hardened. Bermuda support is required for
Orbital-ATK Antares Commercial Resupply Services (CRS)
launches. The work being done in Bermuda includes:
--Instrumentation formerly in mobile command and telemetry trailers
will be housed in a concrete building originally built by
NASA;
--Radomes will be installed to protect sensitive antennas,
previously subject to extreme corrosion; and
--Upgrades and hardening will significantly reduce annual funding
requirements for personnel and maintenance associated with
Bermuda activities.
SUBCOMMITTEE RECESS
Senator Shelby. Thank you very much. The subcommittee is
adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 3:30 p.m., Thursday, April 16, the
subcommittee was recessed, to reconvene subject to the call of
the Chair.]
COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR
FISCAL YEAR 2016
----------
THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met at 10:32 a.m., in room SD-192, Dirksen
Senate Office Building, Hon. Richard C. Shelby (Chairman)
presiding.
Present: Senators Shelby, Alexander, Murkowski, Collins,
Kirk, Boozman, Capito, Mikulski, Leahy, Feinstein, Coons,
Baldwin, and Murphy.
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Office of the Attorney General
STATEMENT OF HON. LORETTA E. LYNCH, ATTORNEY GENERAL
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR RICHARD C. SHELBY
Senator Shelby. The subcommittee will come to order.
Welcome to today's Commerce, Justice, and Science Subcommittee
hearing examining the Department of Justice's fiscal year 2016
budget request.
First, let me welcome Attorney General Loretta Lynch to her
first hearing before this subcommittee as she assumes the
important responsibility of serving as our Nation's chief law
enforcement officer. Welcome. As you begin your term as
Attorney General, I believe that it is critical for you to
return the Office of Attorney General to its constitutional
purpose, which is to enforce the laws of the land, not the
decrees and whims of the President.
The President has a White House counsel and plenty of
attorneys arguing for his points of view on immigration,
privacy, environmental regulations and more. The Attorney
General, I believe, is the servant of the laws and citizens of
the United States, not the President. I want to encourage you,
Madam Attorney General, to consider this perspective carefully
as you begin your service in a job that is critical to our
democracy and to the rule of law.
I am deeply troubled by your support of the President's
unilateral Executive actions, which provide amnesty to millions
of illegal immigrants. Fortunately, the sweeping policy change
undertaken without input from Congress has been stayed by the
courts while a detailed review is conducted through the lens of
the law and the Constitution. I hope that while this litigation
is pending, progress will be made on key responsibilities that
are within the Department's jurisdiction, such as the Executive
Office for Immigration Review. The President's 2016 budget
seeks a funding level of $482 million for this office, which is
$135 million above the current 2015 funding level. That is a
big increase.
Significant improvements and reforms I believe are needed
in our immigration court system in order to address the
approximately 440,000 pending cases, some of which involve
unaccompanied children. This backlog equates to a waiting
period of several years before a case is heard. I believe, and
I would hope you would agree, that this is unacceptable. While
the needs are great for immigration courts, I have serious
reservations about such a large funding increase when
inefficiencies in management concerns have yet to be addressed
within this office.
In your new role as the Attorney General of the United
States, I am interested in hearing your suggestions and
recommendations for prioritizing spending for the Department's
most important and pressing missions involving national
security, law enforcement, and criminal justice. The
President's 2016 budget request for the Department of Justice
totals $29 billion, which is $2 billion above the 2015 enacted
level. And while funding for the Department of Justice is one
of the Federal Government's highest priorities, we simply
cannot afford such an increase in spending while operating
under our current budget constraints, which puts a lid on all
of us. I am concerned that even in the midst of the current
fiscal climate, the President has proposed new grant programs
and initiatives that would further stretch the Department's
spending.
When it comes to law enforcement, your arrival at the
Department at a critical time of needed leadership is welcomed.
Since our hearing early this spring with the Department's law
enforcement chiefs, we have seen the departures of the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Director and
the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator. I hope
that you will pay particular attention, Madam Attorney General,
to these law enforcement agencies to ensure that they
faithfully execute their duties during this time of change.
As an example, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms,
and Explosives has a rule pending that would impose burdensome
and, most people believe, unnecessary regulations regarding
firearms that are lost or stolen in transit. However, the ATF's
own statistics indicate that this number is insignificant and
should not be a cause for concern. It certainly does not
warrant, I believe, such encumbering regulations.
Oversight and accountability remain a top priority for this
subcommittee. I have consistently expressed my displeasure to
your predecessor regarding the Department's resistance to
cooperating with the Department of Justice's Inspector General.
I continue to hear from the Inspector General that this
office--his office is having difficulties in obtaining the
documents needed to do their job. I urge you to work with the
Inspector General to make sure that he and his staff can
successfully complete their reviews and audits of the
Department of Justice.
I have outlined that the Department faces many challenges
that will require fiscal support. The path for making
meaningful progress runs through this subcommittee. I know
that. As you begin your tenure, Madam Attorney General, I want
to express the subcommittee's hope that we will have a
productive and constructive working relationship. Thank you,
Madam.
Senator Mikulski.
STATEMENT OF SENATOR BARBARA A. MIKULSKI
Senator Mikulski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to
welcome the Attorney General. We are so glad that you were
finally, finally, finally confirmed, and we could get beyond
the petty politics that were the obstruction to that
confirmation.
Before I go into my statement, though, I want to remind the
subcommittee that yesterday was Senator Shelby's birthday, so
could we join in a round of applause and wish him good health
and blessings?
Senator Shelby. Thank you.
Senator Mikulski. Let us hope that is not the high point of
the hearing.
Madam Attorney General, you have had an eventful first 2
weeks in office. I know this is your very first congressional
hearing since you have been confirmed, and we are looking
forward to your testimony in terms of the Justice Department's
needs for its 2016 budget. We are eager to hear from you about
the many ongoing efforts at the many Justice Department
agencies.
We want to, first of all, thank you, Madam Attorney
General, for your work in coming to Baltimore and you were keen
to coming into Baltimore. It was tremendously helpful to the
mayor, to our police department, and, most of all, to the
citizens to have the presence of the Justice Department. I
personally want to thank you on behalf of the entire Maryland
delegation for the professionalism of your team and, of course,
yourself. I want to particularly acknowledge the Deputy
Attorney General, Ms. Gupta, Mr. Ron Davis, the Director of the
COPS Program, Mr. Grande Lum and your outstanding community
relations team that came in and provided very crucial technical
assistance during troubling times.
We were in Baltimore on Tuesday together as you listened to
faith-based community leaders. You met with local officials,
and even reached out to the Freddie Gray family. I will not be
asking you any questions about the Freddie Gray investigation
because we know it is an ongoing investigation.
You have gotten a request from the mayor about asking the
Department of Justice to open a pattern and practice
investigation into our police department. Later on this
afternoon you will be getting a letter from the Maryland
delegation supporting that request. That will go forward.
But I want to say this. In many cities throughout the
country, and including my own town of Baltimore, and in
communities primarily that have significant populations of
color, there has been now a tattered, worn, and even broken
trust between the community and the police department. We have
got to restore that trust. We need the police department. We
want to express our condolences to the people in the police
department of Queens about the death of Officer Brian Moore,
who was gunned down so brutally. But we also do need criminal
justice reform, and we need it with an urgency of now.
I intend to ask questions about what you need in the way of
resources to do the job that needs to be done, and also what
reforms that are needed that are specific and are targeted. We
are also joined today by an outstanding appropriator, but also
the chair of the--I mean, the ranking member--of the
authorizing committee on the Judiciary Committee, who has a
long history in this. We are here to show that the American
people have a Government on their side and to have a
constitutional focus to what we do.
We have put money in the Federal checkbook--$2.3 billion--
for grant programs, targeted resources for police, local
government, and communities. They range from more cops on the
beat, to dealing with the rape kit backlog, to child abuse.
Mayors have told us they need help getting more cops on the
beat. We had $180 million in doing that. We also wanted to help
them be able to have the equipment that they needed, and there
is $376 million in grant programs.
Now we have to look at what does that mean. Some are crying
out for body cameras. Is this just yet one more gimmick, or is
it a crucial tool? Communities and non-profits want to help our
young people, and this is why we will look for your thoughts
either today or in the ongoing discussion on our juvenile
justice programs, prevention, of intervention, who are helping
with everything from delinquency prevention to the ongoing
mentoring that we need.
As you know, many of our civil rights groups and community
leaders have called out for criminal justice reform. We are
looking forward to your advice to that, and we know that the
Judiciary Committee will also be doing it. But I am going to
have questions related to money and also training, that in
other words, if you get the money, should you get training. I
look forward to asking questions on whether if you get COPS
money, Byrne grant money, and others, should there be required
training on how to deal with racial and ethnic bias? What about
the use of force? Should there be national standards that every
department meets? What about body cameras? There are privacy
concerns, there are storage concerns, many concerns. What
should we do about it?
And last but not at all least, I do hope again for both
this conversation and ongoing the examination of the so-called
broken window policy. When the broken window policy was
initiated by or talked about by an imminent sociologist, John
Q. Wilson. I supported that policy, and I supported it as
somebody who started her career as a social worker, that if you
fix the broken window, that if you intervene with youth when
they were doing minor offenses, we could intervene in a way
that prevented them from growing up doing major offenses.
But while we were looking at the so-called minor criminals,
we were going to fix the broken windows. We were going to deal
with vacant houses. We were going to deal with the truancy
problem. We were going to do this. But now what seems to happen
is the policy has deteriorated to where we have stopped fixing
the broken window and we have escalated the frisking. No more
fixing, but lots of frisking, and that is what our folks feel.
Last year, 120,000 police stops occurred in Baltimore. We are a
population of 610,000. That is a lot. I do not know what the
appropriateness of that is, but I think we need to look at it.
So today I sit here as the ranking member of the
subcommittee that will fund your Department, and I assume my
national responsibility. But I am also here for the 85,000
kids, all of whom that day of the disturbance went home
peacefully. What can we do to help them? The 610,000 law
abiding people in Baltimore who obeyed the law and helped to do
that. So we look forward to working with you on what are the
tools to restore confidence between our police and our
community, but also put our arms around our young people and
see what we can do to help them. And maybe when we fix a broken
window, we have to fix the broken political process, and we
have to get the job done.
Thank you, and I look forward to your testimony.
Senator Shelby. Madam Attorney General, welcome to the
subcommittee. Your written testimony will be made part of the
record in its entirety. You proceed as you wish.
SUMMARY STATEMENT OF HON. LORETTA E. LYNCH
Attorney General Lynch. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman, and remind me to come around on your birthday another
time. It is quite a celebration.
Well, good morning, Chairman Shelby, Vice Chairman
Mikulski, and the other distinguished members of the
subcommittee. It is indeed an honor to appear in front of you
for the first time as the Attorney General. I look forward to
working collaboratively with all of you today and in the days
ahead as we seek to protect and to serve the American people
together.
But I want to take a moment to extend a special thank you
to Senator Mikulski for your leadership in the United States
Senate over the last three decades, for your support of the
Department of Justice and its employees, and for the
extraordinary example of public service you have provided to
all Americans, and especially to women. And I am honored to
have the opportunity to work with you during your final 2 years
in office.
Senators, as we approach National Police Week, which begins
next week, it is fitting that we take a moment to consider the
contributions and the needs of law enforcement----
Senator Shelby. Madam Attorney General, would you mind
pulling your mic just a little closer?
Attorney General Lynch. Thank you, sir. Actually, sir, it
seems to be fixed. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senators, as I noted, National Police Week will begin next
week, and at this particular time in history it is important
that we take a moment to consider the contributions and the
needs of our law enforcement officers across the country. Law
enforcement is a difficult profession, but a noble one. And
over the course of my career as a Federal prosecutor and as
U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, I have been
privileged to work closely with truly outstanding public safety
officials, and I have seen up close the dangers that they face
every day.
As mentioned by Senator Mikulski, earlier this week Officer
Brian Moore, a 25-year-old New York City police officer, died
after being shot while trying to question a man in Queens. And
just 2 days ago, Sergeant Greg Moore of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
was tragically gunned down, also while interacting with a
suspicious individual. The tragic loss of these brave
individuals serves as a devastating reminder that our Nation's
public safety officials put their lives on the line every day
to protect people they have often never met. Their exemplary
work is the foundation of the trust that must exist between law
enforcement officers and the communities that we all serve. And
that is why when there are allegations of wrongdoing made
against individual officers and police departments, the
Department of Justice has a responsibility to examine the
evidence and, if necessary, to help them implement change.
While I was in Baltimore on Tuesday, I met with the mayor,
law enforcement officials, and community, faith, and youth
leaders. I spoke with an officer who was injured amidst the
violence, and I heard a number of ideas regarding ways in which
the Justice Department can continue assisting Baltimore as they
work to recover from recent unrest. Although the city has made
significant strides in their collaborative reform efforts with
the Community-Oriented Policing Services Office, I have not
ruled out the possibility that more may need to be done. And I
assure you, Senators, that I am listening to all voices.
We are currently in the process of considering the request
from city officials and community and police leaders for an
investigation into whether the Baltimore City Police Department
engaged in a pattern or practice of civil rights violations.
And I intend to have a decision in the coming days.
Now, the situation in Baltimore involves a core
responsibility of the Department of Justice, not only to combat
illegal conduct when it occurs, but to help prevent the
circumstances that give rise to it in the first place. Going
forward, your support of the Department and of our funding in
the fiscal year 2016 President's budget will enable us to build
on our successes and make further progress in the mission with
which we are entrusted.
I am pleased to say that this budget request is in line
with my highest priorities as Attorney General: safeguarding
our national security, defending the most vulnerable among us,
and strengthening relationships of trust and collaboration
between law enforcement officers and the communities that we
service. Now, of course, our most important objective must
continue to be protecting the American people from terrorism
and other threats to our national security.
As you know, under my predecessor, Attorney General Eric
Holder, the Department of Justice engaged in essential efforts
to counter violent extremism and domestic radicalization, to
strengthen counterterrorism measures, to promote information
sharing and collaboration with the intelligence community, and
to provide training and technical assistance to our foreign
partners. We must advance this progress on all fronts. We must
prepare to meet new and emerging threats and vigorously defend
American citizens at home and abroad.
The President's budget will strengthen our national
security efforts by investing a total of $4.6 billion in the
Department's cutting edge counterterrorism and national
security programs. This total includes $775 million, an
increase of $27 million, for addressing cyber crimes and
enhancing the security of information networks. In an age in
which criminals have the ability to threaten our national
security and our economic wellbeing from far beyond our
borders, it is critical that we expand our focus and strengthen
our defenses to protect all Americans from exploitation and
abuse.
I firmly believe that cybersecurity must be among the top
priorities for the Department of Justice. This important
funding will allow us to build on the outstanding work of the
Department in identifying new threats, thwarting attempted
intrusions, and bringing the perpetrators of wrongdoing,
wherever they may hide, to justice.
As the Department works to safeguard American security, we
are equally committed to upholding American values, including
the protection of our most vulnerable populations. The fiscal
year 2016 budget would provide $103 million in new civil rights
investments to address hate crimes, sexual violence, and human
trafficking, an area that warrants our renewed focus and
redoubled effort. It would allocate $124 million to improve the
efficiency of our immigration court system by supporting
additional immigration judge teams and Board of Immigration
Appeals attorneys, by expanding the successful Legal
Orientation Program, and by allowing for additional legal
representation for unaccompanied children.
And it would deliver $247 million in program increases for
the Smart on Crime Initiative, which was designed to address
America's overreliance on incarceration while reducing
recidivism, and deploying law enforcement resources more
effectively. By all available evidence, this program has been a
major success as well as an area of bipartisan cooperation and
agreement. The requested funds in this year's budget will allow
us to extend this critical work and to amplify our shared
commitment to a fair, efficient, and effective criminal justice
system.
The Department has made it clear, and I firmly support,
that this innovative approach does not in any way lessen our
resolve to combat violent crime, drug trafficking, and other
violations of Federal law. We remain determined to vigorously
investigate and prosecute criminal activity. The President's
budget supports our goals in that regard by appropriating an
additional $43 million for us to investigate and hold
accountable those who break Federal laws and harm innocent
citizens, from illegal firearms and drug traffickers, to
perpetrators of healthcare scams and financial fraud.
In all our efforts, we intend to work closely not only with
this distinguished body, but also with our law enforcement
partners on the front lines across the country. And that is why
the President's budget allocates an additional $154 million to
support our State, local, and tribal partners in their own
efforts to counter violent extremism, to hire and retain
officers, to serve the victims of crime, to research best
practices, improve indigent defense, and expand reentry
programs. This appropriation includes nearly $95.5 million for
the Community-Oriented Policing Services Hiring Program, $35
million for tribal law enforcement, and $20 million for the
Collaborative Reform Initiative, a recently developed program
that facilitates collaborations between the COPS Office and law
enforcement agencies seeking assistance on a wide variety of
criminal justice issues, from use of force practices and the
deployment of crisis intervention teams, to building trust with
the members of their communities.
As we have seen even in recent days, programs that
establish trust and improve collaboration are essential to
carrying out our law enforcement duties effectively and to the
overall safety of the American people. In the days ahead, I
hope and I fully intend to bolster our efforts in that area. I
am eager to work with this subcommittee and with Congress to
build on the many achievements of the Department of Justice and
to secure the timely passage of the President's budget, which
provides $28.7 billion in discretionary resources for the
Department, including $26.3 billion for vital Federal programs
and $2.4 billion for State, local, and tribal assistance
programs.
As a former United States attorney who saw firsthand, who
lived through the unsustainability of sequester, I can tell you
that this level of support is necessary to ensure that we can
continue to protect the American people and effectively serve
the priorities of the United States of America.
Mr. Chairman, ranking member of the subcommittee, I thank
you once again for the opportunity to meet with you here today
and to discuss the work of the Department, and I am happy to
answer questions that you may have. Thank you for your time.
[The statement follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Loretta E. Lynch
Good morning, Chairman Shelby, Vice Chairwoman Mikulski, and other
distinguished members of the subcommittee. It is an honor for me to
appear before you today for the first time as Attorney General of the
United States. I want to thank you for the trust you have placed in me
through your confirmation of my nomination. Throughout my tenure as
Attorney General, I will strive to uphold that trust to protect and
defend our Constitution, to safeguard our people, and to stand as the
leader and public servant that they deserve. I look forward to working
with this subcommittee, the United States Senate, and the entire United
States Congress to protect and serve the American people. Vice
Chairwoman Mikulski, I am particularly honored to work with you in your
last 2 years as a Senator. I would like to thank you personally for
your leadership, example, and support to the Department of Justice and
the Nation.
In my new role as Attorney General, I am here to highlight the
President's fiscal year 2016 budget request for the U.S. Department of
Justice (the Department or DOJ). While this budget pre-dates my arrival
as Attorney General, I am pleased to say that it is in line with my
highest priorities for the agency: the safety of our citizens and our
national security; protection of the most vulnerable among us; and
strengthened relationships between America's brave law enforcement
officers and the communities they are entrusted to serve.
Continuing our focus on the Smart on Crime initiative is critical
to achieving these priorities because, while the aggressive enforcement
of Federal criminal statutes remains necessary, we cannot prosecute and
incarcerate our way to a safer Nation. We must reduce our prison
populations by better preventing and deterring crime, improving
charging and sentencing, and enhancing rehabilitation and reentry
programs that reduce recidivism. We must also invest in improving
relationships between communities and the criminal justice system in
order to restore faith in our systems.
As we convene this morning, I know we're all still mindful of the
situation in Baltimore. I assure you that in the days ahead, the
Justice Department will continue to work to ensure justice, restore
calm, and resolve unrest.
This budget will further these important goals and allow the
dedicated employees of the Department to continue the great work they
do every day to reduce crime, reform our criminal justice system, and
ensure our safety and security.
Thankfully, as a result of bipartisan efforts, DOJ has been able to
implement a process to backfill critical vacant positions resulting
from the Department-wide hiring freeze between 2011 and 2014. DOJ
brought on approximately 2,500 staff in fiscal year 2014 and we hope to
bring on 1,500 more in fiscal year 2015. The fiscal year 2016 budget
provides funding to both sustain these employees and provide for an
additional 1,600 positions.
The fiscal year 2016 budget requests $28.7 billion in discretionary
resources for the Department, including $26.3 billion for Federal
programs and $2.4 billion for State, local, and tribal assistance
programs. This represents a 4.8 percent increase over the comparable
fiscal year 2015 enacted funding level. The key funding priorities
include:
--Defending U.S. citizens from national security threats.--The budget
invests an additional $107 million to develop the Department's
capacity in critical national security areas including:
countering violent extremism and domestic radicalization to
violence; counterterrorism; cybersecurity; information sharing
and collaboration with the Intelligence Community; and training
and technical assistance for our foreign partners.
--Upholding civil and constitutional rights.--The budget includes
$103 million in new investments to better address human
trafficking, hate crimes, and sexual violence in our primary
and secondary schools as well as higher education. The
additional funds would expand civil and criminal enforcement
efforts to ensure the rights of our Nation's most vulnerable
populations.
--Investing in improvements to our criminal justice system.--The
budget invests $247 million in the Smart on Crime initiative to
better deter crime and protect the public. The initiative
focuses resources on the most important law enforcement
priorities, reduces disparate impacts of the criminal justice
system on vulnerable communities, and considers alternatives to
incarceration for low-level, non-violent offenses in order to
reduce taxpayer expense and prevent recidivism.
--Maintaining safe and secure Federal prisons.--In addition to $146
million for the Bureau of Prison (BOP) included in the Smart on
Crime initiative above, the budget invests an additional $71
million to increase staffing at high security prisons to
improve officer and inmate safety; increase medical beds for
severely ill inmates; and undertake essential rehabilitation,
modernization, and renovation of aging BOP facilities.
--Improving the efficiency of the immigration court system.--The
budget invests $126 million to support additional Immigration
Judge Teams and Board of Immigration Appeals attorneys, to
expand the successful Legal Orientation Program, to allow for
greater representation of unaccompanied children, to modernize
information and data sharing systems to improve the efficiency
of processing case materials, and to keep pace with workload
demands associated with civil cases.
--Improving responses to violent crime, illicit drugs, and healthcare
fraud.--Simply maintaining existing capacity is not sufficient.
The budget requests $43 million in additional investments to
investigate and punish those who break Federal laws and harm
innocent citizens. This includes preventing the illegal use and
trafficking of firearms, addressing the increase in heroin and
other emerging drug trends, thwarting international drug
trafficking organizations, addressing international piracy of
intellectual property, and combating healthcare fraud and
wildlife trafficking.
--Enhancing State, local, and tribal law enforcement programs.--The
budget requests $154 million in net discretionary program
increases to support the ability of our State, local, and
tribal partners to counter violent extremism, hire officers,
better serve victims of crimes, conduct research to build
evidence on best practices, improve indigent defense, and
expand re-entry programs.
--Addressing gaps in critical Department infrastructure.--The budget
invests $27 million in the renovation and repair of prisoner
holding spaces in Federal courthouses, Department-wide
information technology improvements, and oversight of
Department policies and procedures.
protecting the american people from terrorism and other national
security threats
Defending U.S. citizens from both internal and external threats
remains the Department's highest priority. The Department made
significant achievements in this area in fiscal year 2014. The
Department's counterterrorism investigations disrupted 214 terrorist
threats and the FBI investigated approximately 14,000 national security
cases. The FBI, DEA, ATF, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Secret
Service, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service successfully
coordinated on many efforts, including the arrest of multiple vendors
involved in online forums, such as Silk Road 2.0, which were
trafficking counterfeit currency, narcotics, firearms, explosives, and
illicit documents.
The fiscal year 2016 budget will enable the Department to continue
meeting the challenging and ever-changing threats to our national
security by providing a total of $4.6 billion in resources, including
$107 million in program increases for four critical national security
issues: (1) countering violent extremism and domestic radicalization to
violence; (2) cybersecurity; (3) information sharing and collaboration
with the Intelligence Community; and (4) training and technical
assistance for our foreign partners.
To counter violent extremism and domestic radicalization to
violence, the fiscal year 2016 request provides $15 million to allow
the Department to foster community-led efforts through funding from the
Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and the Community Oriented Policing
Services (COPS) to State, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies
and community organizations nationwide. At the National Security
Division (NSD), $1 million in additional resources would support its
investigative and prosecutorial efforts focused on homegrown violent
extremists intent on attacking the United States.
The fiscal year 2016 budget request also includes $775 million in
total for cyber-related activities that address cybercrimes and defend
the security of critical information networks. This request includes
increases of $27 million for key program enhancements to the FBI, NSD,
U.S. Attorneys, and the Criminal Division. The FBI will continue
improving its cyber collection and analysis, while extending its
centralized cyber capabilities to the field through its Next Generation
Cyber initiative. NSD will bring on additional attorneys to help with
prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution, and vulnerability
management, as well as policy development and program oversight related
to cyber threats to national security. To prosecute increased
cybercrimes across the country, the U.S. Attorneys require additional
attorneys that specialize in cybercrimes, as well as increased training
on digital evidence. Enhancements to the Criminal Division would
increase the Division's capacity in six key areas: training for
attorneys on cybercrime and digital evidence; enhancing digital
forensic capacity; providing technical and legal expertise; improving
information sharing efforts with the private sector; building and
strengthening relationships with foreign law enforcement partners, and
developing cyber policy. Finally, in order to protect the Department
from increased cyber threats and intrusions, the fiscal year 2016
budget invests in additional cybersecurity tools and IT infrastructure
maintenance and improvements.
Information sharing and collaboration with the Intelligence
Community is critical for the success of the Department's efforts to
ensure our national security. A program increase of $3.2 million for
NSD will enhance its court-authorized intelligence collection efforts
and increase its oversight of information used during national security
investigations and prosecutions. Increases for the FBI and DEA will
allow both agencies to improve their information technology systems.
Because crime increasingly transcends national borders, the United
States must improve its coordination with foreign partners. The Mutual
Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) is the mechanism that enables the
provision of evidence and extradition of persons across borders.
Improvements are still needed to reduce the backlog in MLAT requests
from our foreign partners and improve MLAT response time. As of January
2015, the Office of International Affairs (OIA) in the Criminal
Division had a backlog of over 11,500 pending cases. The Department is
working to fully replace its existing, antiquated IT system with an
anticipated completion date of mid-2016. The Department has also begun
to gather better data from its existing case management tool, such as
timelines for the processing of requests, which will generate useful
metrics to evaluate the execution of MLAT requests. OIA has made
significant progress in filling attorney vacancies that accumulated
during the Department's hiring freeze. However, without the $32 million
investment for personnel and technological resources requested in the
fiscal year 2016 budget, OIA will not be able to accomplish its plans
for centralization or process improvement.
Finally, the fiscal year 2016 budget also invests additional
resources for the International Criminal Investigative Training
Assistance Program (ICITAP) and the Office of Overseas Prosecutorial
Development Assistance and Training (OPDAT). Both agencies further U.S.
national security interests by helping stop terrorism and crime before
it can reach our shores. ICITAP and OPDAT costs have been generally
funded by the State Department, however, as the issues to be addressed
grow, so has the need for steady base resources within the Department's
budget.
protecting civil rights
The Department must protect not only American citizens but also
American values. Accomplishing the Department's mission to uphold the
civil and constitutional rights of all Americans, particularly the most
vulnerable, requires resources to investigate, litigate, and conduct
outreach and technical assistance. As such, the Department is
requesting program increases totaling $103 million across several
components. For the Civil Rights Division (CRT), the fiscal year 2016
request includes total enhancements of $16 million to expand efforts
associated with human trafficking, voting rights, and enforcement of
Title IX and other laws that address discrimination against students on
the basis of sex. The request for CRT also includes additional
resources to protect servicemembers and individuals in institutions,
and to expand efforts to ensure that all communities have effective and
democratically accountable policing. An enhancement of $7 million would
allow for new Assistant U.S. Attorneys to focus exclusively on civil
rights law enforcement and work in tandem with CRT on the more
complicated and time consuming cases, such as sex and labor trafficking
cases.
The Community Relations Service (CRS) has been engaged in forging
constructive partnerships to prevent and relieve tensions between law
enforcement and communities around the country, including Ferguson, New
York City, and most recently Baltimore. The fiscal year 2016 request
includes an increase in funding for CRS to help prevent hate crimes and
engage local communities and law enforcement departments in dispute
resolution activities. Funding will also support the goals of the
President's My Brother's Keeper Initiative, which seeks to address
persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color to
ensure that all young people in this country can reach their full
potential. The Department requests $78 million in grant program
increases to: improve the public's access to counsel and legal
assistance in State, local, and tribal courts and juvenile justice
systems; implement the recommendations of the White House Task Force to
Protect Students from Sexual Assault; and assist law enforcement
agencies on criminal justice issues, including use of force practices
and the deployment of crisis intervention teams.
becoming smarter on crime
In early 2013, the Justice Department launched a comprehensive
review of the criminal justice system in order to identify reforms that
would ensure Federal laws are enforced fairly and, in an era of reduced
budgets, efficiently. As part of this review, the Department studied
all phases of the criminal justice system, including charging,
sentencing, incarceration, and reentry, to identify the practices that
are successful at deterring crime and protecting the public. The Smart
on Crime initiative was created to focus Federal resources and place
the harshest sentences on the most violent offenders rather than
prioritizing the sheer number of prosecutions. Considering alternatives
to incarceration for low-level, non-violent offenses strengthens our
justice system and places a lower financial burden on the budget so
that funds can be spent on essential public safety priorities. The
Smart on Crime initiative will also help contain incarceration costs
over the long term by facilitating inmates' successful transition back
into society.
Of the $247 million requested in program increases for the Smart on
Crime initiative in fiscal year 2016, $146 million is dedicated to re-
entry and recidivism reducing programs at the Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
More specifically, the funding would expand sex offender management
programs, mental health staff, cognitive behavioral treatment,
vocational programs, as well as medically assisted treatment programs
for individuals in the justice system dependent on opioids. The request
also includes funding for a new, broader reentry program that reaches
out to offenders' children and families to strengthen familial bonds,
which are critical for helping inmates transitioning back home. At U.S.
Attorneys' Offices, $25 million would support dedicated prevention and
reentry coordinators in all 94 districts. OJP will add new resources to
its Residential Substance Abuse Treatment program and Second Chance Act
Program so that State, local, and tribal governments can address the
critical needs of the sub-population of offenders who most need the
services and drive most jurisdictions' recidivism rates. Enhancements
to OJP's Smart Policing and Smart Prosecution programs encourage the
development of data-driven strategies by local law enforcement and
prosecutors to address specific crime problems more effectively and
economically in their jurisdictions.
maintaining safe and secure prison and detention facilities
To increase safety for officers and inmates, the fiscal year 2016
budget requests $71 million in program enhancements. For BOP's 17 high
security institutions, $32 million would ensure that there are two
correctional officers on duty in each housing unit at all times. The
Department is requesting $5 million to convert Federal Correctional
Institution Fort Worth to a Medical Referral Center that will house and
treat severely ill inmates currently housed in community hospitals.
Finally, the request increases funding for BOP to undertake essential
rehabilitation, modernization, and renovation of BOP institutions, one
third of which are 50 years old or older. This maintenance and repair
will preserve our capital investments and ensure sufficient security
within these aging institutions.
enforcing immigration laws
The Department plays an integral role in the immigration system by
ensuring the fair, expeditious, and uniform application of the Nation's
immigration laws. The Department's Executive Office for Immigration
Review (EOIR) oversees the immigration court and Board of Immigrant
Appeals. In recent years, EOIR has sought to keep pace with the rising
number of immigration cases, in order to maintain the efficiency and
effectiveness of its immigration enforcement, adjudication, and
detention programs.
To process the increasing workload and improve the efficiency of
the immigration court system, the Department requests an increase of
$124 million to support an additional 55 Immigration Judge (IJ) Teams
and 28 Board of Immigration Appeals attorneys and provide for other
improvements to the immigration system. This enhancement will help IJ
Teams and attorneys adjudicate rising immigration caseloads resulting
from the increase in Southwest Border crossings. Also included in this
program increase is $50 million to expand legal representation for
unaccompanied children and $10 million to improve efficiencies in
immigration court proceedings by expanding the Legal Orientation
Program.
The Department's Civil Division, Office of Immigration Litigation
(OIL), also plays a crucial role in upholding the immigration
enforcement actions of DHS and EOIR. OIL defends the Government in
district court cases and challenges to removal orders filed in circuit
courts. The Department requests an increase of $1 million to address
the growth in class-action immigration cases.
improving responses to violent crime, illicit drugs, and health care
fraud
The Department's mission and responsibility is to investigate and
punish those who break Federal laws and harm innocent citizens.
Continued investments are needed to strengthen the Department's ability
to uphold those commitments and obligations. Simply maintaining
existing law enforcement capacity is not sufficient. For fiscal year
2016, the Department requests $43 million in additional investments to
address violent crime, illicit drugs, and healthcare fraud.
Investments to combat violent crime include resources for the
United States Marshals Service (USMS) to investigate violations of the
Adam Walsh Act and assists State, local, tribal, and territorial
jurisdictions in locating and apprehending an estimated 100,000 non-
compliant sex offenders. Funding is also requested to expand officer
safety training for USMS operational officers and task force officers.
The budget supports a strong response to the increase in heroin
abuse and other emerging drug trends. This includes additional
resources for DEA's information sharing efforts to thwart international
drug trafficking organizations as they seek to exploit financial
markets, intellectual property, the energy sector, as well as other
legitimate sectors and markets. The request also includes resources to
pay for State and local clandestine laboratory cleanup program.
For the Department's litigating divisions, the budget requests
additional resources to enforce laws that address international piracy
of intellectual property), healthcare and financial fraud, as well as
fraud against the military. Each year, industry loses hundreds of
billions of dollars due to counterfeiting and global trade of
illegitimate goods. In recent years, the Criminal Division has returned
billions of dollars to the Federal Government from its efforts to
combat fraud. The Civil Division not only recovers billions of dollars
for taxpayers; it also saves billions by defending the U.S. against
lawsuits. In fiscal year 2014 alone, the Civil Division defended
against suits in which approximately $100 billion was at issue. To
continue successfully safeguarding taxpayer dollars and protecting the
healthy, safety and economic security of the American people, the Civil
Division needs additional staff to handle the increasing number of
cases they receive. Finally, $2 million would support the multi-
national efforts of the Environment and Natural Resources Division to
combat wildlife trafficking and related transnational organized crime
activities.
investing in state, local and tribal assistance programs that work
Crime and the ability to respond effectively to it continue to be
major challenges for many communities across the country. The fiscal
year 2016 budget maintains the Department's commitments to State,
local, and tribal partners without reducing the Department's Federal
operational role. The fiscal year 2016 discretionary a request for
State, local, and tribal law enforcement assistance is $2.4 billion
with a net discretionary increase of $154 million. This includes a
program increase of $15 million to implement the administration's
Countering Violent Extremism Initiative that will address domestic
terror incidents and the emergence of groups attempting to recruit
Americans to take part in ongoing conflicts in foreign countries. The
budget also targets $97 million for the President's new Community
Policing Initiative to build and sustain trust between law enforcement
and the people they serve. Both the COPS and OJP budgets include
enhancements to support these two initiatives.
The fiscal year 2016 request for OJP supports a net increase of $30
million in grant funding for indigent defense, Second Chance Prisoner
Reentry, Justice Reinvestment, and juvenile justice programs. The
budget includes the mandatory grants of $1 billion for the Crime
Victims Fund and $100 million for the Public Safety Officer's Death
Benefits.
The fiscal year 2016 request for COPS provides an increase of $95.5
million, including $69.5 million for the COPS Hiring Program, with $5
million targeted towards improving diversity in law enforcement, and
$35 million for Tribal Law Enforcement. The request includes $20
million as a separate line-item for the Collaborative Reform Initiative
which enables the COPS Office to partner with law enforcement agencies
that may need assistance on a wide variety of criminal justice issues
that range from use-of-force practices and the deployment of crisis
intervention teams, to building trust with the communities served.
Again, it is efforts like these that may help to prevent situations
like those in Ferguson and Baltimore.
The fiscal year 2016 request for the Office on Violence Against
Women (OVW) includes a total of $50 million in enhancements. Protecting
students from sexual assault is a top priority for this administration,
and the budget reflects this by including a $14 million increase to the
Campus Violence Program to better meet the need on college campuses.
Other increases include $5 million for a new Tribal Jurisdiction
program, $21 million for a new program to improve law enforcement and
prosecutorial response to sexual assault, and $10 million for
enhancements to the Legal Assistance to Victims Program.
addressing gaps in critical department infrastructure
In order to maintain an effective and efficient organization, the
Department must invest in its physical and non-physical infrastructure.
The infrastructure resources requested for fiscal year 2016 are focused
in three categories: information technology (IT) improvements; facility
construction and maintenance; and oversight functions.
The resources requested for facility construction and maintenance
total $5 million to renovate and repair USMS prisoner holding cells in
Federal courthouses. This funding will significantly reduce the repair
backlog so the USMS can better provide for the safety and security of
judges, court personnel, and others in Federal court facilities.
For IT improvements, $15 million is requested for the Department to
continue its data center consolidation efforts, provide the public
greater access to the Department's data, and increase automated
litigation services. With every passing year, a healthy IT
infrastructure becomes more critical to ensuring that DOJ operations
remain effective. Consolidation of data centers is one of the ways the
Department is saving and avoiding costs while increasing data security.
Finally, $10 million is requested to enhance oversight functions
such as increased funding for contract oversight by the Inspector
General and increased staff for Department leadership to strengthen
policy analysis and compliance efforts.
conclusion
Chairman Shelby, Vice Chairwoman Mikulski, and members of the
subcommittee, it is my pleasure to highlight recent DOJ successes as
well as the resources identified for fiscal year 2016 to maintain and
build upon such successes. The Department clearly understands the need
for fiscal restraint and has achieved as many cost savings as possible
without jeopardizing its mission. The increases requested in the
President's budget are those necessary to address the most pressing
criminal justice needs of our country. As my father always reminded me,
we all gain the most when we act in service to others. It will be my
honor to work together with each of you in service to the American
people and in the spirit of mutual respect and Constitutional balance.
I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
IMMIGRATION
Senator Shelby. Thank you, Madam Attorney General. In
November of 2014, the President expanded immigration amnesty
through Executive order in furtherance of his 2012 Executive
order to people over the age of 30 and to new arrivals. It also
allows about 4 million additional illegal immigrants, who have
been in the country for 5 years and who are parents of U.S.
citizens and legal residents, to apply every 3 years for
deportation deferrals. In January this year, you testified
during your confirmation hearing that you believe that the
President's Executive actions are legal and constitutional,
even though the President stated on record many times that he
did not believe he had the constitutional power to grant
amnesty without authority from the Congress.
Why do you believe that the President's Executive actions
granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants are legal
and constitutional?
Attorney General Lynch. Mr. Chairman, you certainly are
focused on one of the most challenging issues facing our
country today, how to deal with the immigration issue. As I
indicated during my January testimony, as a career prosecutor
and former U.S. attorney, I particularly focused on the
prioritization of the removal of the most dangerous illegal
immigrants from our country. With respect to that issue, I
found that to be an imminently reasonable exercise of
administrative and prosecutorial discretion.
With respect to the actions involving the issuance of
deferrals to new members who would apply for that, I believe
that matter is a subject that is under consideration by the
courts. As you have noted, those actions have been enjoined. As
I stated during those proceedings, I am committed to abiding by
the injunction and certainly working with the Department of
Homeland Security to ensure that the injunction is supported
while it is pending.
Senator Shelby. As you assume, and you have, the position
of Attorney General, how will you, Madam Attorney General,
enforce current immigration laws given your belief that the
recent Executive actions trump existing laws? In other words,
do all the Executive actions and presumptions there trump the
laws of Congress? How do you rationalize that?
Attorney General Lynch. Senator, I believe that our
existing laws are a vital resource in dealing with the problem
of both illegal immigration and as well as criminal activity
that results from illegal immigration. In particular, the
Department's own Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR)
is charged with adjudicating various types of immigration
violations. As you have noted, EOIR has suffered from a backlog
of cases and inefficiencies that have delayed actions separate
and apart from the President's new policies that has delayed
actions for far too long. Within the new budget request, the
Department would seek to hire additional immigration judges, 55
in total, to reduce this backlog.
But also, Senator, recognizing that we simply cannot wait
for additional money, we are taking steps already to try and
make the Executive Office of Immigration Review more efficient.
Previous to my testimony, the judges have already worked to
triage, so to speak, the types of cases that need to be
adjudicated quickly. Judges have been reassigned and redeployed
to handle the backlog of cases because we recognize that that
is unsustainable. Separate and apart, of course, from the
Executive Office of Immigration Review, as I am sure the
subcommittee is aware, approximately 30 percent of Federal
criminal cases that are brought by our U.S. attorneys across
the country relate to immigration offenses.
So, Senator, separate and apart from the legal result or
the court result of the November policies, the Department of
Justice is moving forward both to prosecute criminal activity
resulting from illegal immigration and to support the work of
its Executive Office of Immigration Review, which we believe is
vital.
FINANCIAL FRAUD
Senator Shelby. I want to shift into another area of
financial fraud. In one of your previous jobs, you were
directly involved in several high profile financial fraud
settlements during your tenure as the U.S. attorney for the
Eastern District of New York. However, it is my understanding
that not one of those settlements also involved a criminal
prosecution. Why did you and the Department--I know you were
not the Attorney General then; you were the U.S. attorney--not
pursue criminal charges, and how could you enter into billion
settlements sometimes with firms guilty of fraud, and yet never
see fit to prosecute not one person for mortgage or financial
fraud? And will that change now since you are the Attorney
General? In other words, are people buying justice by
settlement?
Attorney General Lynch. Senator, with respect to the work
with which I was proud to conduct as U.S. attorney regarding
the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Initiative, my
office was involved in two of the major settlements of that as
well as other outstanding U.S. attorney's offices across the
country. Throughout those investigations, the message from the
leadership at the time, from all the U.S. attorneys working on
that, and from myself to my team, the direction was that no
entity is above the law, no individual is above the law, no one
is too big or too powerful to jail or to fail.
But what the Department of Justice does in every case,
Senator, is follow the evidence. We ascertain the best way of
achieving legal compliance when there have been violations and
providing redress to victims. We look carefully in every case,
not just the residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS)
cases, but every case involving a financial institution where
American citizens have lost hard-earned money to determine the
best way to bring those wrongdoers to justice. And where the
evidence leads us to find that we can prove beyond a reasonable
doubt that there has been a criminal violation, we go in that
direction.
And I would point you to the number of criminal fraud
prosecutions brought by my office on behalf of the victims of
Ponzi schemes, mortgage fraud schemes, and real estate schemes
over the years involving hard-working Americans who were
defrauded of their life savings. Where we find evidence that
points toward civil liability, we pursue that. But I can assure
you, Senator, that both in my prior position and going forward,
I take very seriously the obligation to protect the American
citizens from fraud of all types, and it is one of my highest
priorities as Attorney General.
Senator Shelby. But the standard threshold for a civil case
is not as high as a criminal case, and neither should it be. Is
that correct?
Attorney General Lynch. That is correct. There is a
different burden of proof on the Government, and where we have
evidence that meets the criminal burden of proof, we do
proceed. And there are several people who are sitting in
Federal prison contemplating the results of their actions now
who can provide proof of that.
Senator Shelby. Okay. Senator Mikulski.
Senator Mikulski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Madam Attorney
General, there are many programs you have functioning at the
local level, certainly in Baltimore. We have a top notch U.S.
attorney's office, an outstanding Baltimore FBI field office,
joint task forces working with local government going against
everything--dealing with everything from human trafficking--
such a violent, despicable thing--to Medicare fraud, which we
know, for example, in Florida, is already to $3 billion
defrauding our Government of money that should be in the trust
fund helping sick people. So we thank you for what you are
doing.
GRANT PROGRAMS
The issue, though, is also focusing on criminal justice
reform because of our grant program, particularly in COPS,
Byrne, others, that go directly to local law enforcement. Do
you think that there should be mandatory training in the areas
of ethnic and racial bias as well as also on the use of force,
and that there should be a national standard? In other words,
in order to get the money, you have to take the training so
that behavior will not tatter or wear out or even break the
trust that the community must feel.
Attorney General Lynch. Senator, I think as we administer
our grant programs to our local law enforcement partners, all
of those issues are on the table and are under consideration.
Currently, I will say that our view is that the grant program
is a very important tool in bringing offices into compliance
with not only Federal standards, but also community standards.
So we would not use that as a barrier to the grant program, but
rather as an incentive to work with us and gain training on use
of force policies.
We have grants that are specifically targeted towards that.
Through the COPS Office, whether there is a collaborative
reform effort or not, we provide specific training on best
practices involving use of force. Not only do we provide the
training, we also attempt to link local law enforcement with
other local law enforcement offices that themselves have either
received training for the COPS----
Senator Mikulski. But, Madam Attorney General, I mean, we
will get lost in collaborative reform and all this, and I do
not mean lost. First of all, we do know that Baltimore City
through its both mayor, and police commissioner, and the
concurrence of other elected officials have initiated a
collaborative reform effort in Baltimore. That is a voluntary
effort where police departments reach out to you, meaning the
Attorney General, and his or her offices to evaluate the
Department on how to better improve police community relations.
That is under way, but that is voluntary.
Attorney General Lynch. Yes.
Senator Mikulski. That is voluntary. Then, of course, there
is the pattern and practice investigation. We know we have
asked for that. You will make your determination later on
whether you will initiate it.
But what about where they have not asked for collaborative
reform, but they have asked for money? There is a lot of let us
gets the money, you know, and we supported more cops on the
beat. We supported the Byrne grants so that our law enforcement
would have the tools that they needed, whether it is other
technology or whatever. But, again, they took the money, but we
see that there are other issues that community-based leaders,
faith and grassroots and others, are saying the relationship is
worn. And my question is if you get the money, should there be
training, whether it is latent bias, deliberate bias, and also
the use of force?
Attorney General Lynch. Yes, Senator, and I certainly
agree----
Senator Mikulski. So do you think that apart from whether
they have a collaborative reform effort underway or not?
Attorney General Lynch. Yes, Senator. Separate and apart
from whether there is a collaborative reform effort, in a pure
grant situation we do seek to provide training. My only point
was, and I actually do not want to disagree with you on that
because it is such an important point. My only point was we do
not use that as a barrier to obtaining the grant, but rather as
an incentive to work with us and obtain training from a variety
of different sources. Some of that training will come as a
result of the grants. Some of the training comes as a result of
us connecting police departments with others.
Senator Mikulski. I understand that, but the community
feels they get a lot of money from the Feds, and we do not have
the necessary things. So I would like to have ongoing
conversation with you about it.
Attorney General Lynch. Yes, and those issues are under
consideration because, as you indicate, they are very, very
important and essential to the----
Senator Mikulski. What other tools do you feel that you
have on criminal justice reform to help restore this trust that
exists that we need to restore on our communities?
Attorney General Lynch. Well, Senator, we have touched a
little bit on the collaborative reform process, but, again, as
we have seen, without community trust in that, it may not be as
effective as we would wish. Certainly we then have other tools
to consider.
Within our programs we do provide training on use of force.
We do provide training on building community trust. We also, as
you mentioned earlier in your statement, through our Community
Relations Service worked directly with the community to attempt
to empower them to engage with their local leaders, with the
police department, and to hold them accountable as well,
because we do think that community accountability is an
important part of that relationship.
Senator Mikulski. Well, we have more to ask. If there is a
second round, I want to focus then on juvenile justice.
Attorney General Lynch. Yes.
Senator Mikulski. Thank you very much.
Senator Shelby. Senator Kirk.
Senator Kirk. Madam Attorney General, I want to raise
questions about Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations
(RICO) prosecutions. I understand that countrywide we have
about 1,517 under the RICO statutes. Assuming that Illinois is
about 5 percent of the United States, that would mean we would
have had over 60 RICO prosecutions in our area. Right now it is
about zero. I want to encourage you very strongly to work with
Zach Fardon, our U.S. attorney there, to make sure that the
RICO prosecutions that we have underway, that we can prosecute
gangs of national significance that then Chairwoman Mikulski
backed me on to take on the issue of crime gangs, which are
taking over some of our cities. I think RICO is the particular
statute that we should go with.
Attorney General Lynch. Senator, I could not agree with you
more on the efficacy of the RICO statute in targeting----
Senator Kirk. Let me just follow up on one other thing.
Attorney General Lynch. Certainly.
GANG VIOLENCE
Senator Kirk. This subcommittee has added $18,500,000 to
the U.S. Marshals to combat these gangs. My understanding is
the new task force of Chicago has arrested about 344 people in
relation to this effort. Is that your understanding?
Attorney General Lynch. Sir, I do not have that exact
number. I would have to get back to you, but I know that it is
very active in the Chicago area.
[The information follows:]
As of July, there have been 695 arrests made in Chicago in relation
to this effort.
Senator Kirk. Thank you.
Attorney General Lynch. Senator, just to follow up on your
previous point, I could not agree with you more on the efficacy
of the RICO statute as a tool to target violent crime,
particularly gang violence. The importance of taking out the
leadership of a gang, both from a law enforcement perspective
and from a community perspective, cannot be overstated. I thank
you for the discussions that you and I had during my courtesy
visits with you, and, in fact, I have had discussions with the
U.S. attorney in Chicago as well as with the head of our
Criminal Division here in Washington about finding ways to
bolster those efforts, and both have assured me that they are
also committed to using this important tool.
Senator Kirk. I want to make sure we get the word down to
Leslie Caldwell and Doug Crow and make sure they follow up.
Attorney General Lynch. Yes, sir. I have spoken with them,
and they are committed to this as well.
Senator Kirk. Thank you.
Attorney General Lynch. Thank you, sir.
Senator Kirk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Shelby. Senator Leahy.
Senator Leahy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Madam Attorney
General, it is nice to see you again.
Attorney General Lynch. Thank you, sir.
Senator Leahy. Thank you for being here. And I agree with
what Senator Mikulski said about your presence in Baltimore,
and that sort of thing is not only important for the community,
which you would understand far better than I, but it is
important to the country. And I understand that as you did in
your hearing before the Judiciary Committee, you were asked a
number of questions on immigration, and questions on something
that since I have been here every President has done, Executive
actions on immigration. I think probably the most extensive
were by President Reagan. But I would also point out if--an
Executive action is usually done, it is when Congress does not
act.
Now, we spent hundreds of hours putting together an
immigration bill in the U.S. Senate. It passed a couple of
years ago. Two-thirds of senators voted for it, Republicans and
Democrats alike. Huge bipartisan effort. Even though by all
analyses the immigration bill would have passed the House of
Representatives, the Republican leadership in the House refused
to take it up.
So I have a little trouble hearing criticisms of the
President finally acting when the Congress would not. If the
Congress does not like what the President has done on
immigration, pass an immigration bill. We did it in the Senate.
Again, Republicans and Democrats came together. However, the
Republican leadership refused to bring it up in the House. Had
they, we would not even be having this question. So I would
just say that if we do not like it, then the Congress must pass
a bill.
I also think we ought to reform our Federal sentencing
laws. The Bureau of Prisons is consuming nearly a third of the
Department's budget, and we talked about what we should be
doing on law enforcement and other priorities. A third of your
budget is going into the Bureau of Prisons. Excessive mandatory
minimum sentences are wasting money that could be spent
otherwise.
One of the proposals under consideration by the Senate
Judiciary Committee, the Modern Sentencing Act, would reduce
mandatory minimums for non-violent drug offenses. In your law
career as a Federal prosecutor, you prosecuted many drug cases.
I prosecuted many drug cases. Do you think we can reduce those
mandatory minimums, and still keep our communities--excuse me--
and still keep our communities safe?
SENTENCING REFORM
Attorney General Lynch. Senator, I think we absolutely can
have sentencing reform that enables us to reduce the mandatory
minimums and keeps our communities safe. It is important to
note that the recent efforts at sentencing reform that seek to
reduce mandatory minimums do not eliminate them. They still
recognize the need to provide serious punishment for the most
serious offenders. In fact, what we have seen with the Smart on
Crime initiative is that while overall drug cases may have gone
down, the longer sentences have actually gone up. We are now
focusing on those larger offenders, the large-scale traffickers
who are flooding our communities with poison as opposed to the
lower level offenders, who did need to be punished, but at a
different scale. So I think sentencing reform is an excellent
way to make sure that these efforts continue.
Senator Leahy. I think also we sometimes think we can do a
one-size-fits-all. California did that with three strikes you
are out, and it darn near bankrupted the State. I worry about
what is happening when we are taking money from law enforcement
to lock up people. Some people should be in prison. I am all
for that. Others we are wasting time and money, and that money
could be used in other areas of the criminal justice system.
HEROIN
I am also worried about the increase in heroin use and
overdose. It has become a health crisis. Even in my home State
of Vermont we have not been spared. Between 2000 and 2012,
treatment for opioid addiction in Vermont rose by more than 770
percent. Just last week, the Vermont State Police issued a
warning about the dangers of heroin laced with the drug
fentanyl, after it was linked to a number of multiple overdose
deaths in our State.
Interdiction alone is never going to solve the issues, but
the law enforcement agencies, particularly in small and rural
States or small rural areas, which every State has, need some
help. I pushed last year to create a new grant program to
support an anti-heroin task force. I understand the grant
program is getting under way. Last year, the Justice Department
was instructed to create a multi-agency task force to address
the rising number of heroin uses. Can you tell me how that is
going and what you might be able to do to help with----
Attorney General Lynch. Yes, Senator.
Senator Leahy [continuing]. This public health crisis?
Attorney General Lynch. Yes, Senator. It certainly is the
intersection of law enforcement and a public health issue. Our
budget does request additional funds to deal with this uptick
in heroin abuse and other emerging drug areas.
As you noted, there is a Senate-mandated heroin task force.
They held their first meeting just last week. The Deputy
Attorney General is actively involved in that, and it deals not
only with law enforcement, but the public health issues of
that. It is also led and supplemented by several of our U.S.
attorneys who over the past several years have themselves
worked with public health officials and local communities to
deal with this as a public health crisis. So we are bringing
all voices to the table in an attempt to get the policies that
have been effective at a local level promulgated nationwide and
make them available to other communities as well.
As I mentioned, the President's budget does call for
increases that would support our law enforcement efforts in
heroin as well as opioid addiction in general because, of
course, we still have the prescription drug crisis that is tied
to this as well.
Senator Leahy. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and
Senator Mikulski.
Senator Shelby. Thank you. Senator Collins.
FISA SECTION 215
Senator Collins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Attorney General
Lynch, just this morning the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals held
that Section 215 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
does not authorize Government to engage in the bulk collection
of phone numbers under the metadata program. One of the
President's independent review groups which looked at this law,
Mike Morrell, the former deputy director of the CIA, as well as
the former director of the FBI, Robert Mueller, have said that
had this program been in place prior to the terrorist attacks
on our country on 9/11/01, it likely would have prevented those
attacks. So we have a very serious question here of balancing
security with privacy rights and the clarity of the law, which
is set to expire. That provision expires June 1.
Since January of last year, this section of the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) has been conducted
pursuant to new procedures that were instituted by the
President. Now, the AG provides a semi-annual report on privacy
violations associated with the law. The new procedure provides
that except in emergencies, the FISA Court is now required to
approve ahead of time any queries of phone records database
because of the changes made by the President.
Two questions. One, are you aware of any significant
privacy violations that have occurred since the President
instituted these reforms? And second, has the Justice
Department made a decision yet on appealing this decision by
the 2nd Circuit? I realize it just came down.
Attorney General Lynch. Yes. Thank you, Senator. Section
215 has been a vital tool in our national security arsenal, but
the Department has, as you note, been operating under the new
directives by the President with a view towards modifying the
program to keep its efficacy, but preserve privacy interests. I
am not aware at this time of any violations that have come to
light. I will certainly seek a briefing on that, and should I
learn of any, I will advise the subcommittee of that if my
knowledge changes on that. But as of now, I have not been
informed of any violations under the new policy.
With respect to the decision from the 2nd Circuit, my home
circuit actually, we are reviewing that decision this morning.
But given the time issues involving the expiration of it, we
are and have been working with this body and others to look for
ways to reauthorize Section 215 in a way that does preserve its
efficacy and protect privacy.
ELDER FRAUD
Senator Collins. Thank you. I want to turn to an issue that
you and I discussed when we met at my office, and that is the
tremendous increase in the number of scams that are targeting
our Nation's seniors. They range from the Jamaican lottery
scam, the grandparents scam, and most recently the IRS imposter
scam. What we have learned is that these scammers typically
operate offshore, and they rely upon advanced communication and
payment technologies. And the losses suffered by individual
victims are devastating and they aggregate in the billions, yet
the Federal Government has been extraordinarily lax in its
approach to actually going after these criminals. And only the
Federal Government can realistically tackle the international
crime networks behind many of these scams.
I also want to bring to your attention that under your
predecessor, and I want to make it very clear it was before
your time, that the Department refused to send to the
subcommittee a witness to testify on the Department's efforts.
That was appalling to both the ranking member, Senator Claire
McCaskill, and to me. What can the Department do to be more
aggressive in prosecuting these scams which aggregate in the
billions of dollars, and will you pledge that from now on the
Department will cooperate with our investigations?
Attorney General Lynch. Well, Senator, with respect to the
very, very important role that this subcommittee plays in
gathering information about the Department's priorities, I will
always strive to cooperate and provide either a witness or
information, whatever is best, for the subcommittee to receive
so that we can help you learn not only about our priorities and
issues, but also to do the important work of this subcommittee.
I am not aware of the circumstances that were around that
previous request, but certainly I will always commit to
providing this subcommittee with the assistance that it needs
either before the subcommittee or at the staff level.
With respect to the very important matter that you raise--
many of them are overseas based fraud schemes. The other
troubling factor to me is that many of them target our elderly
population, and that is a particularly vulnerable population to
telemarketing schemes be they based locally or be they based
overseas. So that is very troubling to me, and the protection
of our vulnerable population is one of our priorities.
I am not aware right now of the cases that we may have in
our pipeline. I certainly will ask for a review of this
important issue. Our budget does, of course, ask for funding to
continue the fight against fraud, and I know that all of the
agencies that are involved in this, you mentioned, for example,
the IRS scam calls, are very concerned about that.
As someone who actually received one of those calls myself,
I can tell you that if one is not aware of the fraudulent
nature of them, they can be very disturbing. And it is easy to
see how our seniors in particular, but other people, can get
pulled into that.
Senator Collins. Thank you.
Senator Shelby. Senator Baldwin.
Senator Baldwin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Vice
Chairwoman Mikulski, for holding this hearing, and welcome,
Madam Attorney General. It is so great to see you again this
time in your now official capacity leading the Department of
Justice.
VA INVESTIGATION
I was pleased to hear a few minutes ago your giving voice
to the seriousness with which you take issues of over
prescription, addiction, and abuse, and diversion of opioid
drugs. And I want to call your attention to a situation in my
State of Wisconsin at the Tomah VA medical facility where there
are a number of investigations ongoing, all relating to these
very pressing issues.
I called on your predecessor, Attorney General Holder, to
investigate potential criminal activity at this facility. My
request and communication to your predecessor was based on
multiple sources, including published investigative journalism
reports, numerous whistleblowers and citizens who have
contacted my office conveying information that in my mind
raises serious questions about potential criminal activity.
Currently the VA is conducting an investigation as is the VA
Inspector General, and the DEA is engaged in an investigation
of allegations of drug diversions at the facility.
But I remain convinced that there are additional elements
that warrant further criminal investigation. And my letter to
your predecessor outlined some of those, including an alarming
number of 9-1-1 calls made from the facility over the past
several years--over 2,000--reports of 24 unexplained deaths,
allegations of illegal access to confidential patient
information and law enforcement records, et cetera.
Now, I understand you cannot get into any details of
ongoing criminal investigations, so as a consequence I would
simply ask if you will evaluate these allegations and
coordinate with the existing three Federal investigations to
determine if there are additional criminal investigations that
are warranted and appropriate in this particular case?
Attorney General Lynch. Well, Senator, I thank you for
raising this important issue because I think that the safety
and security of those who use our Veterans Administration's
hospitals is foremost a priority, not just for my tenure as
Attorney General, but for our country. As someone whose family
has used those hospitals, I am well aware of how vital a
resource they are to the families and to those who are ill. And
certainly, I am aware of the situation. I have not yet had a
briefing on the matter, but I will commit to you that I will
request a briefing on this matter and make sure that all
efforts to coordinate are being undertaken.
Senator Baldwin. I thank you for that. And one additional
matter, again, given the urgency with which we respond to the
opioid abuse problems that we have throughout our Nation, I
want to make you aware of some impediments in the DEA
investigation into drug diversion at the Tomah VA. The DEA and
the VA have differing interpretations of the scope of a VA
specific patient privacy law, which may be limiting the ability
of VA personnel to fully participate in interviews if they are
told that they cannot reveal particular information about
patients. It certainly would be an incredible obstacle to a
thorough investigation if not fully resolved.
And so, if you have previously been briefed, I would ask
you what is the status of the Department's effort to resolve
the confusion? If you need authorization language from the
Congress to resolve this issue, I would appreciate it if you
would provide that to me and my staff.
Attorney General Lynch. Thank you, Senator. As I indicated,
I have not yet been briefed on this matter, although I am aware
of the DEA's investigation into the situation, and of course
fully support it. And we will also look into whether or not
there are impediments to DEA being able to view this as a
criminal matter.
Senator Baldwin. Thank you.
Attorney General Lynch. Thank you.
Senator Shelby. Senator Alexander.
Senator Alexander. Madam Attorney General, welcome. I was
in New York City for my law school reunion at New York
University (NYU) this past weekend, and many of my classmates
knew you and were very complimentary of you.
Attorney General Lynch. Thank you, sir.
Senator Alexander. I want to begin by thanking you and the
Department for something. It is my understanding that sometime
today the Drug Enforcement Administration will approve the
State of Tennessee's application to import certified industrial
hemp seeds for research purposes. That may seem like a small
matter, but it was important to our State agricultural
department, and there was a practical issue. The seeds had to
be planted in May, so I thank you for moving that along.
PRESCRIPTION DRUG WHOLESALER REQUIREMENTS
Second, on the Drug Enforcement Administration, I would
like to call something to your attention that has been called
to my attention. I do not have a solution for it, but I think
it deserves really the attention of the Attorney General and
the management, and it has to do with prescription drug abuse
and the relationship between the Drug Enforcement
Administration and the wholesalers or pharmacies who distribute
controlled substances.
Now, here is what seems to be the problem. DEA requires
wholesalers to track and report on ``suspicious orders.'' These
would be orders from local drug stores I guess. And it
restricts how those orders can be filled if they are flagged as
suspicious. Well, there is no guidance or clarity about what is
a ``suspicious order,'' and as we both know in the law,
whenever the law gets too vague, sometimes there are risks and
problems associated with that.
One risk, of course, if a wholesaler refuses to send a
controlled substance to a drug store, then someone with a
broken arm goes to the drug store, and that person is out of
luck. The other risk is that there develops an adversarial
relationship between the Drug Enforcement Administration and
the wholesalers over this issue.
So my request is simply this. Would you please take a look
at the words ``suspicious orders'' and the relationship between
the DEA and wholesalers and pharmacies, and see if there needs
to be additional guidance so that we do not have an adversarial
relationship between people who really should be in a
partnership to make sure controlled substances are not sent to
the wrong people at the corner drugstore?
Attorney General Lynch. Certainly, Senator, I can commit to
that. I also echo your concern that in a desire to protect
people, we may be, in fact, inhibiting the ability of people
who have legitimate needs for pain medications to obtain them,
which is not our intention. And it certainly is something that
I will undertake to review.
METH LAB CLEAN UP
Senator Alexander. Thank you very much. And my final
question also is just to put a spotlight on something. Our
State, Tennessee, is third in the Nation in meth lab seizures.
It is a big problem, especially in rural areas and because the
demand for enforcement exceeds the funding. Our State developed
what they call a central storage container program. They found
a way to clean up meth labs for $500 per lab instead of $2,500
per lab. Now, that is progress if you can do something for 20
percent of what you used to do it for.
So we were pleased to see the budget of $4 million more for
the meth lab cleanup program this year, but disappointed that
the Department decided not to include funding for the
competitive grant program for State anti-meth task forces.
Given that the meth epidemic is one of the most urgent drug
problems that we face, especially in rural areas, what was the
thinking, especially as it affects rural communities with less
resources, in not expanding or continuing the competitive grant
program for States?
Attorney General Lynch. Thank you, Senator. My
understanding of that competitive program, the COPS Anti-
Methamphetamine Program, is that the funding that exists is 2-
year funding, and so there was not a need to request funding
for this year because the program as enacted last year would
cover this fiscal year. It is, believe me, not a desire to end
or in any way diminish the program.
And it is also my understanding that the solicitation for
this fiscal year will be released very soon, later this month
in May. So I regret the appearance that the Department may have
pulled back or withdrawn from that, but it is my understanding
that because we have 2-year funding for that, that we will then
have to come back in the next fiscal year to request additional
funding.
Senator Alexander. Well, that would be very encouraging.
Thank you for that explanation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Shelby. Senator Murphy.
FCI DANBURY
Senator Murphy. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Welcome,
Attorney General Lynch. Congratulations on your confirmation. I
had a few broader questions to ask, but I wanted to begin with
a rather specific one to the Northeast region and to
Connecticut. We have historically had a women's correctional
facility in Danbury, Connecticut, and in July of 2013, the
Federal Bureau of Prisons announced it was going to close that
facility, which would essentially be the only--was the only
facility for women in the Northeast. We had a number of really
positive discussions with the Department of Justice and with
the Bureau of Prisons, and they reversed that decision,
understanding that it would be incredibly detrimental to women
who are incarcerated in the Northeast if they had to be
transported hundreds, if not thousands, of miles to other
facilities.
The solution was to build a new facility, a low security
facility for women in Danbury. And the initial schedule was for
that facility to be completed by this month actually. And in
the interim, all these women are being spread amongst jails in
the Northeast, jails that really are not equipped to be able to
handle the things that these women need, especially drug
counseling in the long run.
So I just wanted to ask you if you had an update on
progress of the construction of that facility and whether we
can expect that construction will be completed as soon as
practicably possible so that we can transition these women who
are now in places like Brooklyn and Philadelphia back to a more
long-term suitable facility.
Attorney General Lynch. Certainly, Senator, and I share
your concern over that important issue. When I began my career
as a young assistant U.S. attorney (AUSA) in the early 1990s,
Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Danbury was not yet a
total women's facility, and most women who were prosecuted in
the Federal system ultimately ended up being housed in West
Virginia. And the facility actually was fine, but for women
from the Northeast it presented a significant negative impact
on their ability to stay connected with their families. It
harmed their relationships with their children. Those
collateral consequences are the types of things that we seek to
avoid. And so, having FCI Danbury in the Northeast has
certainly been a positive law enforcement step for all of who
work in that area.
My understanding is that the environmental impact studies
were completed quite recently, and that there are additional
matters. In fact, I believe that there are pricing materials
being resolved this month, and I am told by my team that
construction should begin this summer. I do not have an
anticipated completion date for you, and I regret to say that I
am hesitant to offer one having seen several government
construction projects in my day. But I am told that
construction should begin this summer on the new facility, and
I share your concern and view that it is an important law
enforcement resource for the Northeast.
Senator Murphy. Thank you for your personal attention to
this. I look forward to talking with you about it as we move
towards the construction schedule. Again, this is really a
development of a really positive series of conversations. Not
easy to reverse course on something like this, and I really
thank the Bureau of Prisons for considering the impact of
shuttling women prisoners to the far reaches of the Northeast.
NATIONAL BACKGROUND CHECK SYSTEM
Just one other query. I represent Newtown, Connecticut,
Sandy Hook. It is a community that is still grieving dealing
with the ripples of trauma that still exist there. I understand
the realities of this place that we are not likely to get a
bill expanding background checks, though 90 percent of
Americans support the notion that everyone should have to prove
they are not a criminal before they buy a gun. But as Senator
Shelby noted in his opening comments, the ATF position is open,
a very important position, for the enforcement of existing
laws.
And the existing national background check system can be
made much better to make sure that all of the data is being
uploaded into it, making sure that that information is
distributed. A hundred thousand individuals every year are
prohibited from buying guns because of the background check
system. It works.
And so, I just I would ask for your commitment to work with
us to make sure that the ATF has the resources that they need
in order to carry out existing laws, and your commitment, as
your predecessor did, to work with us on making sure that our
national background check system has the resources it needs to
continue to do the good work that it has for decades.
Attorney General Lynch. Certainly, Senator. I am committed
to that important goal of supporting and strengthening the ATF,
as well as making sure that their processes and the existing
systems are as efficient as possible because that is how we
protect our citizens.
Senator Murphy. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Senator Shelby. Thank you. Senator Murkowski.
TRIBAL LAW ENFORCEMENT
Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Madam Attorney
General, welcome and thank you. I want to point out the aspects
of your budget that focus on tribal law enforcement. This is an
issue, of course, that is very important in my State. We had an
opportunity to discuss it in your pre-confirmation meeting that
we had, and I know that you have recently had a conversation
with Julie Kitka, who is the president of the Alaska Federation
of Natives.
The public safety challenges that face Alaska Native
villages run the gamut, everything from the absence of full-
time law enforcement officers in some villages, inadequate
resources devoted towards community-based prevention, and
restorative justice efforts. We have a tribal court system that
is struggling because it is just really in an embryonic stage.
We have human trafficking of our native women. The heroin
issues that you have heard discussed here today are not just
limited to the cities. They are out in our villages.
I know that you have got a lot on your plate. It is clear
from the discussions here this morning. But I would like your
commitment that you will work with me, you will work with the
Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) to really be involved to a
personal extent and degree with some of these challenges that
we are facing as they relate to rural justice in our native
areas--in our rural areas. I have been asked by AFN, and I am
actually going to be speaking to their board by video or by
teleconference this afternoon, for an opportunity to sit with
you and some of the native leadership to discuss some of these
issues that are just so very troubling to us right now.
So I would like your commitment that we can have that
meeting and perhaps very quickly your observations based on
your conversations with not only me, but Ms. Kitka, about some
of the substantive issues that we have with rural justice in
Alaska.
Attorney General Lynch. Senator, I would look forward to
such a meeting, and I would welcome it.
Senator Murkowski. Thank you.
Attorney General Lynch. I think that the commitment that
the Department of Justice and our Nation have made to Indian
Country over the last several years has shown great promise,
but it is one that must be sustained, maintained, and improved
upon. We have several requests in the budget that go directly
to the issues of tribal justice, the Office of Violence Against
Women, for example.
And because it such an important issue to me, I am just
going to outline them briefly because we are asking for an
increase of $100 million, but part of that money would go for
tribal grant set asides. Twenty million would go for the Crime
Victims Fund Tribal Assistance Program. Five million would go
for the Office of Violence Against Women Domestic Violence
Jurisdiction Program.
As I know you are well aware, we recently had great success
in enabling tribal courts to deal with offenders who commit
violence against women and children on native lands when the
offenders are non-Natives. That had been a bar for some time.
It has been tremendously helpful to have given that
jurisdiction to the tribal courts.
We also are asking for money to address environmental
problems in Indian Country as well as to maintain current
positions. I firmly believe that this commitment must be not
only maintained, but expanded upon else we really do risk
sliding backwards, Senator, with all the issues faced by tribal
lands, particularly, as you and I discussed with Alaska, having
such a large land mass and dealing with the law enforcement
challenges there. We have to set in place systems that will
work, but that will also be maintained.
HEROIN
Senator Murkowski. Well, I agree with you. We have got a
lot of work to do, and I look forward to those conversations
with you and your team. On the heroin issue, you have heard it
repeated several times here today, but I will reiterate that in
our very remote rural areas, areas that are islands, areas that
are not accessible by road, we are seeing the impact of heroin,
whether it is in Dillingham, whether it is in Kodiak. And
actually we have got meth issues in the community of Kodiak,
and law enforcement is focusing on that, so they are not able
to focus on some of the smaller villages that are out there.
So you mentioned the heroin task force that is in place. I
would ask that you not forget the smaller communities where we
see--we see an addiction and a devastation truly just taking
our communities, just wiping them out. And it is a frightening
thought that the resources may be there and available for the
cities, but that our smaller communities where losing a few
young people can be so significant to just health, morale, and
safety. So I would ask that you work with us on that.
And, Mr. Chairman, I do have other questions that I would
like submitted for the record, most specifically with the
codification of the Brady obligation in statute. We have talked
about that, but I would like further follow up on that.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Attorney General Lynch. Thank you, Senator.
Senator Shelby. Senator Coons.
Senator Coons. Thank you Chairman Shelby, and thank you,
Attorney General Lynch, for your service and for your testimony
before us today. I want to congratulate you as you being your
important service in the interest of our Nation.
Last year, Congress demonstrated its commitment to the
Victims of Child Abuse Act by unanimously reauthorizing the
programs in both chambers. Children's advocacy centers funded
under this law conduct forensic interviews in a way that is
both effective in serving law enforcement needs and respectful
of the delicate needs of child victims of abuse.
CHILDREN'S ADVOCACY CENTERS
I was frankly very disappointed to see the President's
fiscal year 2016 budget request once again only asked for half
of the amount needed to fund these crucial programs. We are
talking a modest amount, $11 million out of the $20 million
authorization. What has your experience been with children's
advocacy centers in your law enforcement role, and do you
expect to be an advocate for them within the Department in 2016
and beyond?
Attorney General Lynch. Well, Senator, my experience has
been based primarily with my experience as a U.S. attorney in
the Eastern District of New York, and we have found children's
advocacy centers to be extremely powerful partners. And for us
it has been in dealing with children who may be related to the
victims of human trafficking. That has been a huge problem that
we have seen in the New York area. And so, I know that there
are other issues that are in other parts of the country, and I
look forward to learning more about those. It is definitely a
program that I feel is extremely important.
The overall budget includes our request for Juvenile
Justice Programs, and it is our hope that the panoply of
programs that we offer will, in fact, help provide a valuable
safety net for those children in need.
Senator Coons. Thank you. I look forward to working with
you on these valuable programs that I think are under
resourced, but there are many challenges in our budget
environment.
VIOLENCE REDUCTION NETWORK
Let me next reference the Violence Reduction Network, which
is an effective program for cities like my hometown of
Wilmington to address violent crime and connect local law
enforcement with cutting-edge law enforcement resources, mostly
Federal resources. I want to thank the very hard-working team
in the Office of Justice Programs (OJP's) Bureau of Justice
Assistance and the Wilmington team that is led by John Skinner.
I hope you commit to ensuring the Violence Reduction
Network (VRN) Program is maintained and supported with
necessary resources so that it can continue to serve as a
valuable connection between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and
a number of communities that have seen dramatic increases in
violent crime. Is that something you are inclined to support?
Attorney General Lynch. Senator, I support it
wholeheartedly. Certainly Wilmington has been one of the
flagship cities in this, not a distinction that you sought, but
one which came upon you, I understand. But Wilmington has been
an excellent model frankly for the level of cooperation between
the Wilmington Police Department and the FBI, and the State and
local and other Federal law enforcement agencies as well.
My understanding is we actually have identified five
additional cities for the next fiscal year to be involved in
this program. Again, not a distinction that they would seek,
but one which we think is an area in which we think we can
provide assistance. Beyond just the VRN, of course, we do have
other resources for violent crime for our cities that may not
have such extreme, and we are fully committed to those programs
as well.
Senator Coons. Thank you. I look forward to continuing to
work on Federal, State, and local law enforcement partnerships
that can reduce violent crime.
COLLABORATIVE REFORM INITIATIVE
Let us turn to the Collaborative Reform Initiative. As we
all know, we have strained relationships between law
enforcement and communities in cities across the Nation, most
recently and tragically Baltimore, but this has occurred in
many other places. I am particularly interested in the
Collaborative Reform Initiative efforts that are underway in
Baltimore, and would be interested in hearing more about what
is on the table for the project, and how it is going to be
sustained, and whether recent events in Baltimore have affected
the CRI timeline.
Attorney General Lynch. Well, with respect to the situation
in Baltimore, the Collaborative Reform Initiative was begun
last fall actually at the request of the Baltimore Police
Department. And our COPS Office went into Baltimore and has
been very, very active in working with both the police and the
community to work on ways to improve the Baltimore Police
Department. As we have discussed in this chamber earlier today
and throughout my most recent visit to Baltimore, recent events
have certainly made us cognizant of concerns that both city,
the police, and the community have about the efficacy of a
collaborative reform process. And we are listening to all those
voices, and we are certainly considering the best as we move
forward to help the Baltimore Police Department.
It is important to note, I think, that collaborative reform
has been a very successful tool throughout the country. We not
only provide technical assistance and training to police
departments around the country, but we connect them with other
police departments who have themselves either been through the
process or who themselves have very positive law enforcement
practices. So we try and make it a peer-to-peer relationship in
terms of work and training as well. It is a tool, very, very
important tool. And as you will note, our budget does request
an increase of about $20 million to support these important
reforms.
Senator Coons. Thank you, Madam Attorney General. I will
submit a question for the record about forensic hair analysis.
I was very concerned to see reports that FBI forensic experts
may have overstated the strength of evidence, and I look
forward to hearing what DOJ will be doing to provide meaningful
relief to those convicted on the strength of misstated or
inaccurate testimony.
Attorney General Lynch. Thank you, sir. That is, in fact,
an ongoing process, and we are very committed to working on
that issue.
Senator Coons. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Shelby. Senator Boozman.
Senator Boozman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I apologize for
running back and forth to you and our Attorney General.
There are two things that are really important to Arkansas,
the sense of combatting violent crime and the other things that
we are dealing with, but also reauthorizing the child nutrition
programs. And so, we have a subcommittee going on in that
regard, too, which both of those things go together, you know.
If you have hungry kids, then, again, it all--it all flows
together.
In the Smart Crime Initiative, I know that you have talked
a lot about that and how important it is, and that in your
request you state the initiative will spend $247 million to
focus resources on reducing disparate impacts of the criminal
justice system on vulnerable communities. Certainly that is
important to Arkansas. But my understanding that I am hearing
from attorneys general throughout the country that the reality
is that there seems to be a directive coming down that
terrorism and cybercrime, it is kind of the number one--
terrorism and cybercrime are the number one things that they
are to devote their resources to. Can you talk a little bit
about that? I know that is so important, and yet, you know, we
have so many communities now that are experiencing violent
crime and that it is increasing.
Attorney General Lynch. Senator, thank you for the
opportunity to address that issue. Obviously national security
and cybercrime are important areas, as I have noted. They
represent not only ongoing threats to public safety and to
American citizens, but new and emerging threats. And so, our
budget does ask for funding for that.
VIOLENT CRIME
With respect to violent crime, however, I will reiterate
the Department's commitment and my own commitment to that issue
has not wavered. One of the things I think that is very
important as a former U.S. attorney myself has been to
recognize that every prosecutor knows best the crime problems
of their area. What we try and do in the Department as I look
at policies and interact with not just people here in
Washington, but also in the field, is to make sure that we
maintain the flexibility that allows U.S. attorneys working in
conjunction with their State and local counterparts to identify
the crime problems in their area and focus their resources on
them. For example, my former office, the Eastern District of
New York, has both a strong national security practice and a
large violent crime program. Every office is not going to be
similarly situated, so it is my goal to give my prosecutors the
flexibility that they need to deploy their resources to best
address the crime problems at hand.
With respect to violent crime, the Department's anti-
violent strategies for several years have been focused on three
main issues. Law enforcement, effective, vigorous, strong, is
the core of that and the first part of that. But we are also
attempting to look at prevention as well as reentry programs,
and it has been very gratifying to see members of this body
also address those issues at the statutory level as well.
As you mentioned, with respect to the food services
program, not a DOJ program, but one that certainly impacts the
crime rate of an area because it impacts the poverty rate of an
area, and the health of the children, and the opportunities
that they have, so it is interdisciplinary. It is holistic, and
I can assure you that there is not an over emphasis on one type
of priority over others. If a U.S. attorney feels that the
largest problem in their area is one of violent crime, we have
a number of ways in which we deal with that. We will
concentrate resources for them. We will provide assistance from
other offices and main Justice for them. I myself have in the
past detailed attorneys from my office to others to help out on
cases, capital cases and the like. And so, you will find a
very, very strong commitment to violent crime prevention and
enforcement within the Department.
HEROIN
Senator Boozman. Thank you. Another huge issue going on
throughout the country, not only in Arkansas, is opiates and
heroin, and there are reports of doubling, tripling, things in
that nature. Can you talk a little bit about addressing that
problem? And then the other thing that I think is so important
are the drug courts, and I think, for the first time, you have
actually something in your budget for that.
Attorney General Lynch. Yes.
Senator Boozman. Are you an advocate or lukewarm or
whatever? I really feel like that is--if there is a solution,
that that is one of the key components to it.
Attorney General Lynch. One of the key components certainly
in the reduction of over incarceration as well as crime
prevention have been drug courts. At the Federal level, not
only are we focused on drug courts, we are focused on expanding
our network of veterans drug courts because what we have seen
also is that our veterans are returning with a number of
problems for which the criminal justice system may not be the
best method to treat them, for lack of a better phrase. And so,
we are trying to expand opportunities to provide treatment as
well as crime prevention for our veterans, as well as other
low-level drug offenders.
They have been tremendously successful. My former district,
the Eastern District of New York, has a very strong pre-trial
diversion program as well as a pre-trial opportunity program.
We try and pair those with reentry programs also, so I think
that that is a very, very important tool.
I would add, however, that it really has been the States
who have been showing us by example how effective drug courts
can be in reducing crime, reducing recidivism. And the real
goal is to make productive members of society out of those
individuals whom we otherwise might have incarcerated for way
too long.
Senator Boozman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Shelby. Thank you. Senator Mikulski.
PRISON POPULATION
Senator Mikulski. Mr. Chairman, I know the House is late. I
just have a few comments for ongoing efforts. First of all, I
want to associate myself with the remarks of Senator Leahy, the
gentleman from Vermont, about the need for reviewing sentencing
reform. But the prison population, you know, your
appropriations request for prisons is $7 billion. It is a
significant amount of money because it constitutes almost one-
third of your appropriations.
I would hope because there is bipartisan effort in this
area in terms of looking at what we need to do to safely reduce
the prison population. We have an excellent facility in
Maryland in Cumberland, but our concerns would be the public--
safety for the public. Second and parallel, safety for the
correction officers because you have got significant challenges
in the prisons with overcrowding, and I worry about their
safety.
And then third, what are the issues where prisoners who are
either really old or really sick? In other words, how can we
begin to do an evaluation of who is in prison and should they
be in prison? And, Madam Attorney General, I would hope as you
begin your term here that you look also at those of a
significant age or significantly ill where they would pose no
threat to the general public. So let us have an ongoing
conversation about it, and we look forward to your
recommendations.
HEROIN
Heroin. It has come up just about from all of us, both side
of the aisle. My Governor, a Republican Governor, a 90 percent
congressional--Democratic congressional delegation. We are Team
Maryland and wanting to deal with this, so we ask that your
task force, which I initiated when I was chair with the support
of Senator Shelby, is that it not only be internal to the
Justice Department, but it be across the board involving the
Department of Education, the Department of Human Services, the
Department of Homeland Security. Is that the nature of the task
force, or is it internal to the Justice Department?
Attorney General Lynch. Senator, the task force had its
first meeting last week, and I have not been fully briefed on
that, but I will confirm the level of participation to you.
Even if it is, however, focused on the Department of Justice,
that does not preclude us from, as you noted, reaching across
the street to those agencies and pulling them into the debate.
Senator Mikulski. We think this is a big issue. It is a big
issue in our State. The third point that I want to make is
juvenile justice. There are several grant programs here in the
area of juvenile justice. I would hope in the days ahead we
could work with your Department on what you feel would have, as
we work with our mayor and our community-based groups, what
would be the effective juvenile justice programs that we could
either bring additional resources in or appeal for or apply for
these grants.
I know speaking for the delegation and speaking for the
leadership of our city, not only government, but our private
sector as well as our community-based, faith-based leaders, we
see this as a situation in which there could be an opportunity
to really do something very significant in terms of our young
people so that for those that are on track, we help them stay
there. For those who need to get back on track, help them get
there. And for those who really constitute significant risk to
our community, we also do the right intervention. So we look
forward to ongoing conversation. You are always welcome back in
our hometown, but we also appreciate the availability, and the
accessibility, and the professionalism of your staff.
Attorney General Lynch. Thank you, ma'am.
Senator Shelby. Thank you. Senator Collins.
DRUG COURTS
Senator Collins. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I want
to associate myself with the remarks of the Senator from
Arkansas about the value of drug courts and the special
veterans courts. I have seen firsthand in Maine the difference
that these courts can make in helping people straighten out
their lives, avoid imprisonment, and really change the
direction of their lives. I know that does not happen in every
case, but I have got to believe that these are cost effective.
And that is why I am disappointed that the administration's
budget cuts $5 million from the drug courts program compared to
last year when it was funded at about $41 million, and also
cuts a million dollars from the veteran treatment courts. I
hope our subcommittee will take a look at that, but I wonder if
the Department has done any sort of cost benefit analysis
because this is a case where I think we are being penny wise
and pound foolish.
Attorney General Lynch. Ma'am, I am not aware of any cost
benefit analysis to that, but I will see. I will ask if that
was done, and so I do not know the basis for that particular
allocation of funding there, but I certainly share your
commitment to the efficacy of drug courts and the veterans
treatment courts. And like you, I have seen them literally
change lives.
Senator Collins. Well, I have seen it firsthand because I
actually several years ago hired someone who had gone through
the drug court program successfully. I will admit that I was
somewhat apprehensive, but she turned out to be a wonderful
employee, and I wanted to give her a chance. And but for drug
court, her life would have gone in a very different direction.
I have also spoken at a graduation ceremony for a drug
court in Portland, and it was really inspiring to see largely
younger people being reunited with their significant others or
spouses and children, and know that they really were committed
to turning their lives around. I have also heard of the cases
that were not successful, but that is the beauty of the drug
court. And I just think this is something that deserves our
support.
Attorney General Lynch. I agree. Thank you, ma'am.
REGIONAL INFORMATION SHARING SYSTEM
Senator Collins. Let me just end with one other very
successful program in my State that also unfortunately is cut
quite severely in the administration's budget. And I realize
you have not been on the job very long and were not involved in
formulating this budget, so I am not certain whether you are
familiar with this program. But it is called the Regional
Information Sharing System (RISS). And I hear repeatedly from
police officers, detectives, sheriffs, law enforcement at all
levels in Maine, State, local, county, about how essential the
RISS Program is in their efforts to fight violent crime, drug
activity, human trafficking, and a host of other criminal
enterprises.
I want to give you a specific example. A detective in
Franklin County, a rural part of our State, told me recently
about a fascinating case involving counterfeit silver dollars
from China. He used the RISS databases to discover that the
suspect was committing this crime throughout the State of
Maine. He was also able to determine whether the same crime was
occurring in other States. What was at first just a one
incident case became a statewide investigation with the help of
the RISS network and tools, which are especially vital in a
rural State like Maine.
And that is why I am disappointed that the President's
budget has slashed funding for this program. It is such an
important tool for rural law enforcement to use. So I hope
looking forward that you will take a look at programs that
encourage that kind of collaboration at all levels of
government, and allow a local sheriff who has arrested someone,
to find out that this person has been committing crimes not
only throughout his or her State, but in other States as well,
and thus build a stronger case.
Attorney General Lynch. Yes, ma'am. I share your view that
that system is particularly efficacious. My understanding of
that is that the request in the budget this year mirrors the
request last year, which was increased by $5 million, so that
it was not viewed as cutting that program, but maintaining it
because we do feel it is so important.
Senator Collins. Well, it is my understanding that we
plussed up the program in the Appropriations Committee because
it was so successful, has bipartisan support, but then the
administration in its budget request went back to the previous
level. I may be mistaken about that, and I would certainly
welcome any additional information.
Attorney General Lynch. We will provide you additional
information on that issue.
[The information follows:]
The fiscal year 2016 President's budget request includes $25
million for the Regional Information Sharing System (RISS), which
matches the fiscal year 2015 request.
Senator Collins. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Shelby. Thank you, Senator Collins. Attorney
General Lynch, thank you for appearing here today and being
patient with all of us and our questions. We look forward to
working with you to make sure that the Justice Department is
properly funded.
ADDITIONAL COMMITTEE QUESTIONS
If there are no further questions here this afternoon,
Senators may submit additional questions for the subcommittee's
official hearing record. And we request that the Department of
Justice's responses to those questions come back within 30
days, Madam Attorney General.
[The following questions were not asked at the hearing, but
were submitted to the Department for response subsequent to the
hearing:]
Questions Submitted to Hon. Loretta E. Lynch
Questions Submitted by Senator Barbara A. Mikulski
stopping human trafficking and pedophiles
Question. What efforts is the Justice Department taking to stop
human and sex trafficking in the U.S.? What additional resources are
needed by Justice agencies to put traffickers out of business?
Answer. The Department aggressively prosecutes human trafficking
cases. The Department has worked with its community and law enforcement
partners to increase reporting and identification and to provide
services to stabilize and support victims, in order to both facilitate
victims' recovery and prosecute the offenders. Some cases are
prosecuted federally while others are referred to State or local
authorities for prosecution. In others, the case might result in the
defendant being convicted of a criminal offense other than trafficking.
The Department also collaborates closely with our interagency partners
on innovative anti-trafficking initiatives, including the Anti-
Trafficking Coordination Team (ACTeam) Initiative and the U.S.-Mexico
Bilateral Human Trafficking Enforcement Initiative. In addition, the
FBI leads or participates in 51 Human Trafficking Task Forces and 65
Human Trafficking Working Groups across the country.
The Department also continues to respond to dynamic threats
involving the commercial sexual exploitation of children, such as gang-
related child sex trafficking and the use of Web sites to facilitate
prostitution. The FBI's Violent Crimes Against Children Section (VCACS)
leads 71 Child Exploitation Task Forces across the country and partners
with 400 local, State, and Federal agencies in targeting those who
victimize children through commercial sex trafficking. The Department,
through the FBI, Civil Rights Division, Criminal Division, Office of
Justice Programs, and other components, has also provided training on
all forms of human trafficking to investigators, prosecutors, judges,
Federal employees, non-government organizations, and others throughout
the United States and in dozens of countries abroad.
In sum, the Department's trafficking programs continue to grow in
scope, complexity, and impact. The $2.8 million enhancement in the
fiscal year 2016 budget request for the Civil Rights Division would
allow the Department to further build on this momentum.
Question. What kind of connections are agencies like the FBI seeing
with gangs and human trafficking and sex trafficking?
Answer. Gang involvement in human trafficking and commercial sex
operations is another area in which the FBI can work to disrupt and
dismantle criminal organizations that use the exploitation of adults
and juveniles for profit. Historically, gangs had limited involvement
in human trafficking, but that level of involvement has increased due
to the potential for profit from these crimes and the perception of a
lower risk of detection and punishment.
The FBI works with other Federal, State, local, and tribal law
enforcement agencies and victim-based advocacy groups to target human
trafficking activity, including gangs that perpetrate the activity, and
to rescue the victims of these crimes. The National Gang Intelligence
Center and multiple law enforcement agency reports indicate that some
gangs derive their income through human trafficking of adults and
juveniles. Some gangs recruit, as well as exploit, affiliated female
gang members for sex trafficking. Prostitution and human trafficking
provide a significant source of income for a growing number of gangs.
Street gangs and Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs have expanded their criminal
scope into commercial sex. Gangs involved in prostitution and human
trafficking employ control techniques, including: the use of drugs,
violence, sexual assault, rape, branding or tattooing, and manipulation
of victims to commit other crimes in furtherance of the gang. Similar
to traditional pimp-and-prostitute relationships, gang members provide
security, transport victims to dates, and schedule appointments.
combatting heroin
Question. In the fiscal year 2015 omnibus, we requested that the
Department of Justice convene a task force to come up with a
comprehensive Federal solution covering law enforcement, healthcare and
treatment, and prevention efforts. I was disappointed to hear that the
task force had not even convened at our law enforcement hearing in
March. What can you tell us about the status of the task force? Who is
participating?
Answer. DOJ continues to increase support for drug abuse education,
prevention, and treatment through partnerships with doctors, educators,
community leaders, and police officials. As directed by Congress, the
Department has joined with the Office of National Drug Control Policy
to convene an interagency Heroin Task Force to confront this challenge.
This Task Force is co-chaired by the U.S. Attorney for the Western
District of Pennsylvania and the Office of National Drug Control Policy
Deputy Director for State, Local and Tribal Affairs. The Department,
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and more than 28 Federal
agencies and their components are actively participating on the Task
Force. As noted in more detail below, other participants include
medical community, enforcement, public health, and education experts.
The Task Force is taking an evidence-based approach to reducing the
public health and safety consequences caused by heroin and prescription
opioids. We expect the Task Force to submit its comprehensive Strategic
Plan to the President and Congress by the end of 2015.
The Task Force has convened three times as of July 28, 2015. Deputy
Attorney General Sally Yates and the Director of the Office of National
Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), Michael Botticelli, opened the first
meeting. DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg and Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden opened the second
meeting. Four committees have been established to develop solutions to
the heroin crisis. The committees include Prevention and Education, Law
Enforcement, Treatment and Recovery, and Coordinated Community
Response. The committees have met on multiple occasions to receive
evidence, evaluate the problem, and begin developing recommendations.
Participating agencies include: the Bureau of Justice Assistance,
Bureau of Justice Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration,
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Criminal Division,
Community Oriented Policing Services, Drug Enforcement Administration,
Department of Homeland Security, Department of Energy, Federal Bureau
of Investigation, Food and Drug Administration, Federal Bureau of
Prisons, Health Resources and Services Administration, Office of HIV/
AIDS and Infectious Disease, Homeland Security Investigations, Justice
Management Division, National Institute of Justice, National Institute
of Drug Abuse, National Security Council, Office of the Deputy Attorney
General, Office of National AIDS Policy, Office of National Drug
Control Policy, Office of Urban Affairs, Justice and Opportunity,
Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, Public Housing Support
Services, and the United States Attorney's Office.
Question. Will the subcommittee receive a complete and
comprehensive final report by December 2015?
Answer. The Task Force expects to complete and submit its full
report to the subcommittee by the end of 2015.
Question. This subcommittee added funding of $7 million in the COPS
Office for State and local enforcement combatting heroin in communities
across the United States. Why was this program eliminated in the
Justice Department's fiscal year 2016 budget request?
Answer. The Department of Justice and the administration have other
resources available through the Drug Enforcement Administration and
Office of National Drug Control Policy and, based on other budgetary
needs, did not request funding for the heroin program in fiscal year
2016. Additionally, the fiscal year 2015 funding provided will support
the task forces for 2 years.
body cameras
Question. Fiscal year 2016 budget request includes $30 million for
body cameras. The fiscal year 2015 budget had $20 million for body
cameras as a Byrne-JAG program. How many cameras are expected to be
purchased with each of these of amounts?
Answer. The Bureau of Justice Assistance plans to deploy over
11,000 cameras in fiscal year 2015 and over 15,000 cameras in fiscal
year 2016. This funding also creates a national service provider to
offer training and technical support to all agencies, thereby ensuring
federally and non-federally funded programs have the greatest chance at
success.
Question. What is the Department's cost estimate to put a body
camera on every police officer? What costs come with data storage?
Answer. The Bureau of Justice Assistance has worked to create a
per-camera, 2-year program cost of approximately $3,000. This funding
metric is used in the Body-Worn Camera Pilot Implementation Program
where the award maximum is $1,500 per camera to be deployed and is to
be matched with State and local funds. A 100-camera program maximum
award is $150,000 for a total 2-year program cost of $300,000.
Storage costs vary based on tangential considerations such as in-
house versus cloud, security requirements, bandwidth needs, retention
guidelines, scalability and redundancy. Current market trends for
hosted solutions range from $20 to $100 per month, per camera. Similar
scalable cost could be associated to in-house managed storage solutions
though the quality of tangential considerations will also vary.
Ongoing annual costs, primarily storage, are estimated at $150
million per year, an estimate that could be reduced with rapid
development of storage technologies and economies of scale.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that there are 477,000
sworn officers in America and that 65 percent of officers (310,000)
perform a patrol function. This can vary between police agencies and
sheriff's offices where the role of corrections is more prevalent.
Given these considerations, if every patrol officer needed to be issued
a new body camera, OJP estimates the total Federal cost to be $465
million, to be matched by State and local jurisdictions for a total 2
year program cost of $930 million. This is inclusive of policy
development, training, implementation and estimated storage costs.
Ongoing annual costs (year 3 and out) are estimated at $150 million per
year, an estimate that could be reduced with rapid development of
storage technologies and economies of scale.
Question. What are the privacy implications of body cameras? What
is the Justice Department doing to study and publish best practices on
body camera usage?
Answer. The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) fiscal year 2015
body-worn camera solicitation requires agencies to perform an extensive
review of all identified aspects of the body-worn camera program,
including privacy considerations. BJA is also funding a national
training and technical assistance provider to support all law
enforcement agencies in policy development and implementation. This
national provider will work with Department components to further
develop policy, best practices, and research.
BJA has also developed the Web-based National Body-Worn Camera
Toolkit, which represents a broad collection of the topics pertinent to
developing and implementing body-worn camera programs, including
privacy issues. As a clearinghouse of reference material, policies,
lessons learned and other resources, this website received over 30,000
visits in its first month alone. Examples of the resources that are
already available through the toolkit are the Office of Community
Oriented Policing Services 2014 Implementation Guide, the National
Institute of Justice (NIJ)-funded Primer on Body-Worn Cameras for Law
Enforcement and the Office of Justice Programs Diagnostic Center review
of research on body-worn cameras. The Toolkit site also offers
multimedia testimony from active practitioners to provide valuable
insights into the efforts required to establish successful body-worn
camera programs.
NIJ is providing funding for two research projects currently being
conducted to examine the impact of body-worn cameras on policing.
--Researchers in the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department are
currently examining the use of body-worn cameras by
approximately 400 police officers in Las Vegas, Nevada. Outcome
measures will include officer compliance with department
policies, changes in police-citizen behaviors, and decisions by
officers to use force in police-citizen encounters.
--Researchers are also evaluating body-worn cameras in the Los
Angeles Police Department to examine their impact on privacy
issues, police legitimacy and changes in police services, and
reductions in crime.
In fiscal year 2015, BJA transferred $1 million to BJS so it could
begin collecting data and generating statistics on this issue for a two
part multi-year project. Of those funds, $500,000 was used to fund a
2015 survey. The first body-worn camera survey will be conducted this
summer and fall (2015), in which BJS will survey local law enforcement
agencies about their use of body worn cameras. The survey will address
the following topics:
--When an agency obtained body-worn cameras;
--An estimate of the number of body-worn cameras in use;
--The level of deployment of body-worn cameras;
--Reasons for acquiring body-worn cameras (for those agencies that
have them);
--Reasons for not acquiring them (for those agencies that did not
acquire them);
--Collaboration with other entities in relation to body-worn cameras;
and
--Formal body-worn cameras policies related to:
--General operations (when to turn them on/off, recording
effectively, informing citizens);
--Transfer, storage, disposal of body-worn cameras video;
--Frequency of upload and off-loading video;
--Responding to external requests for video footage;
--Retention and disposal of body-worn cameras video; and
--Restrictions on internal/external access to body-worn cameras
video.
BJS expects to have results from this survey by the end of 2015/
early 2016.
The remaining $500,000 will support a second survey to be conducted
in 2017. By repeating the survey 2 years later, BJS will be able to
assess change in use and policies.
Body-worn cameras are intended to produce benefits to law
enforcement and the residents of the places they serve. Among the
potential benefits to law enforcement are improvements in evidence that
can be used to clear crimes and the lessening of conflict that could
result in officer or citizen injury or death. To study whether there is
a relationship between the adoption of body-worn cameras and clearance
rates or assaults (on officers or by officers), BJS will link its Law
Enforcement, Management & Administrative Statistics data with the FBI's
Uniform Crime Reports data on clearances by arrests, and the FBI's Law
Enforcement Officers Killed or Assaulted and data from its body-worn
cameras surveys to study the relationship between body-worn cameras and
these outcomes. As additional data on body-worn cameras become
available in future years, BJS would replicate this analysis with new
data.
crime data reporting
Question. How many States report National Incident-Based Reporting
System (NIBRS) data to the FBI?
Answer. The FBI has certified 33 State Uniform Crime Reporting
(UCR) Programs as NIBRS-certified. These 33 States are divided into two
groups:
--In the first group of 16 States, labeled ``complete reporting
States,'' all the State's law enforcement agencies that have an
associated population report NIBRS data to the State's NIBRS-
certified UCR program. Actual reporting rates by these agencies
vary over time.
--In the second group of 17 States, the State UCR program is
certified to report data to NIBRS, but not all of the State's
local law enforcement agencies submit incident-based data.
The remaining 17 States and the District of Columbia do not have a
NIBRS-certified component to their State-level UCR program. Fifteen of
the 17 States report only to the FBI's Summary Reporting System (SRS),
and two of the 17 have no State-level UCR program at all (Indiana and
Mississippi). https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/nibrs/2013/
resources/nibrs-participation-by-state.
While currently more than 6,500 local law enforcement agencies
participate in NIBRS, these agencies cover about 31 percent of the
resident population in the United States.
Question. What is the average annual IT operation and maintenance
cost for States to submit Uniform Crime Report (UCR) data to the FBI?
What is the estimated cost for a State to also submit NIBRS data to the
FBI?
Answer. BJS is not aware of any estimates for the costs for States
to submit UCR data. The costs vary by State based on their collection
and reporting levels as well as their population size. Each State also
pays for the costs in different ways.
While there are costs to the States, the majority of the costs
associated with collecting, coding, analyzing, and submitting NIBRS
data to UCR State programs fall to the local law enforcement agencies
that collect and submit their crime data to the State.
It is not necessary for each State to submit NIBRS data in order
for BJS to generate nationally representative incident-based data. BJS
and the FBI created the NCS-X program to recruit the scientifically
determined sample of 400 additional law enforcement agencies into NIBRS
which, combined with the currently participating NIBRS agencies' data,
will produce nationally representative crime estimates. Currently more
than 6,500 law enforcement agencies submit NIBRS data to the FBI, which
is approximately 40 percent of the Nation's law enforcement agencies.
When completed, nationally representative NIBRS data will increase our
Nation's ability to monitor, respond to, and prevent crime by allowing
NIBRS to produce timely, detailed, and accurate national measures of
crime incidents.
The costs for the States are small by comparison to the costs to
the local law enforcement agencies. Below is a chart outlining the
total estimated costs of $112 million for the NCS-X program:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Project Component Total Cost Deliverable/Outcome
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
State UCR Program Support............... $11.4 million.............. Establishing new NIBRS-certified
reporting components in 17 States;
expanding capacity for receiving and
processing NIBRS data in 16 States.
Costs for States may range from less
than $100,000 to over $1 million
depending on their needs.
Training support for local agencies..... $11.0 million.............. Funding to support agency-specific
training on data entry, coding, and
quality assurance--cost per agency often
dependent on volume of incidents
handled, type of RMS data structure,
point of entry for data, and agency-
specific review processes.
Training on NIBRS....................... $4.0 million............... Funding to support the development of
NIBRS training, for use by both local
agencies and State UCR programs--this
training would build on training already
conducted by the FBI CJIS UCR staff, and
would include a Web-based component.
Support to the 400 local law enforcement $85.6 million.............. Conversion of the sample of 400 agencies
agencies in the NCS-X sample. to NIBRS reporting; generation of
nationally representative estimates of
crime based on the attributes of the
offenses It is possible that some funds
may be allocated for crime analysis
training needs as well as for Web tool
updates (e.g. with socio-economic data,
NIBRS, and other data). Costs for law
enforcement may also range from less
than $100,000 to over $1 million
depending on their needs.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These costs were estimated based on information gathered from State
UCR programs, from the 400 sampled agencies via a survey about
reporting capacity conducted in 2014, and feedback from service
providers who implement and support record management systems for local
law enforcement agencies and State UCR programs.
The amount of hardware or software needed to support a local agency
in reporting incident-based data in the NIBRS format varies by agency
and across States, depending on the incident-based data structure
required by the State (if any), the volume of incidents handled by the
local agency, the type of record management systems and other databases
used by the agency, the point of entry for the data, and other agency-
specific factors.
Question. What is the Justice Department doing to get more State
and local law enforcement to report on data like officer related
shootings?
Answer. The Department of Justice's only current source of such
data is the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR), which:
--captures only voluntary reports by law enforcement of the deaths
they deem to be ``justifiable homicides.''
--does not capture arrest-related deaths attributed to suicide,
intoxication, accidents, or natural causes, or homicides that
were not deemed ``justifiable.''
--does not capture additional details about the incident, such as
actions taken by both the decedent and law enforcement during
the event that caused the death.
--reports data only annually with a 2-year lag.
--is prone to significant error because many agencies do not
volunteer to participate.
The FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program recently received
approval from the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Advisory
Policy Board (APB) to expand their current voluntary data collection to
include fatal and nonfatal officer-involved shootings. The current
collection of justifiable force by law enforcement is limited to
homicide, so this would represent an opportunity to provide a more
complete picture for the Nation. At present, the UCR Program is working
with representatives from the law enforcement community--including
major organizations such as the International Chiefs of Police,
National Sheriffs' Association, Major City Chiefs Association, Major
County Sheriffs' Association, and the Police Executive Research Forum--
to refine the definition and content of this collection.
The work with law enforcement representatives continues to focus on
opportunities to improve the amount of information available for
officer-involved shootings, as well as increase participation in the
existing data collection of justifiable homicide. This information is
vital to both law enforcement in order to inform policies and training
on use of force, and to the communities that they serve in order to
increase transparency and demonstrate the principle of procedural
justice.
BJS is undertaking methodological research to improve the
collection of data under its Arrest Related Deaths (ARD) Program,
through which it aims to capture data on all deaths in the process of
arrest and respond to the Deaths in Custody Reporting Act (Public Law
113-242) request for such data.
BJS collected data on deaths in the process of arrest under its ARD
program beginning in 2003 but temporarily suspended data collection in
2014 because BJS did not have the necessary resources to ensure the
accuracy and reliability of the data.\1\ At that time, BJS evaluated
the extent to which ARD and the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Report
obtained data on all justifiable homicides and homicides by law
enforcement officers. In March 2015, BJS reported that both the ARD and
the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Report were undercounting arrest-
related deaths by half of the expected number. The BJS reports can be
found at: http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ardpatr.pdf and http://
www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ardpdqp.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ BJS was using approximately $250,000 per year to operate the
program during that time.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
BJS has been testing new methodologies to improve the collection of
ARD data and will have results by early 2016. The methodologies involve
a combination of ``open source'' (such as Web searches, news accounts,
etc.) for cases of deaths to be investigated further and direct survey
of law enforcement agencies, medical examiners offices, and other
State-level offices that investigate officer related shootings, to
obtain data to confirm the facts surrounding a death. The methodology
also provides a basis for auditing the completeness of the records
submitted to BJS by law enforcement. BJS has started collecting data,
will evaluate the quality (coverage and accuracy) of the data it
collects, and use the results of this methodological research to
implement improvements to its ARD Program.
These new methodologies will be used to implement an ongoing,
continuous data collection that identifies and validates eligible cases
of arrest-related deaths and minimizes the number of such deaths that
are not reported to the program.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Susan M. Collins
guantanamo bay detainees
Question. If Gitmo were closed, what is the administration's plan
for dealing with detainees who fit in this category?
Lead-in information from original document.--
The administration has said that there are 37 detainees held
at Guantanamo Bay who are in preventive detention because they
are too dangerous to release, but who will not be tried in a
military tribunal or an Article III court. The President's plan
to close Guantanamo Bay is unlikely to succeed without a plan
to deal with these detainees.
Answer. The closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility
remains a top administration priority and a national security
imperative. The facility's continued operation undermines our standing
in the world, damages our relationship with key allies and partners,
and emboldens violent extremists while at the same time draining
hundreds of millions of dollars each year that could be better spent on
other national security priorities. Accordingly, the administration is
currently finalizing a draft plan to close the Guantanamo Bay facility,
which will include addressing detainees who remain too dangerous to
transfer or release but who will not be tried. Those detainees will
remain eligible for review by the Periodic Review Board, which brings
together representatives from the Department of Defense, Department of
Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Department of State, Office
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Office of the Director of National
Intelligence to examine whether, given current intelligence and other
information, continued detention remains necessary to protect against a
continuing significant threat to the security of the United States.
transfer of foreign detainees
Question. If the administration's plan is to transfer foreign
detainees in preventive detention to the United States, does the
administration believe it has sufficient legal authority to
indefinitely detain foreign nationals in the United States under the
law of war without jeopardizing the lawfulness of their detention?
Answer. Current statutory bars exist on the expenditure of funds
for purposes of detaining Guantanamo detainees in the United States. In
Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, however, the Supreme Court held that the
Authorization for the Use of Military Force of 2001 authorizes the
indefinite detention of enemy combatants in the United States, while
active hostilities under the AUMF continue. As periodically reported to
Congress consistently with the War Powers Resolution, the United States
is engaged in active hostilities under the AUMF in various countries.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Mark Kirk
cell phones in prison
Question. In 2013, 2,916 contraband cell phones were recovered in
Bureau of Prisons facilities, including 1,083 recoveries from secured
facilities. What is the Department of Justice's (DOJ) strategy to
achieve a total communications blackout in Federal prisons to stop
incarcerated gang members from communicating with outside criminal
organizations? What resources are necessary to achieve such a blackout,
and what legal hurdles, if any, should Congress consider in addressing
this issue?
Answer. The financial resources necessary for DOJ to achieve such a
total communications blackout are significant. As of May 2015, BOP
conducted a cost estimate for implementing a cellphone detection
solution at a ``representative BOP facility.'' While no two sites are
exactly the same, there are three general location classifications for
testing: an institution in a rural location, an institution in a light
urban area, and finally, an institution in a metropolitan location.
Each context has its own unique set of challenges and concerns. By
grouping sites in this manner, and using Managed Access Systems (MAS)
as the technology solution, BOP can provide a gross estimate of the
required pre-deployment efforts to modify the facility infrastructure,
deploy system electronics, and sustain the capability with a focus on
efficacy, affordability, and maintainability. The current estimated
cost to implement a viable cell phone detection technology in these
three contexts ranges from $795,000 for a rural site to $3,080,000 for
a metropolitan site.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rural Sites Surveys and Deployments..... $795,000-$1,795,000/Site
Light Urban Sites Surveys and $1,050,000-$2,050,000/Site
Deployments.
Metropolitan Sites Surveys and $2,080,000-$3,080,000/Site
Deployments.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The BOP emphasizes that any MAS solution should augment existing
sound correctional procedures and physical security technologies
already in operational daily use. There are 121 individual correctional
institutions in the Bureau of Prisons; a rough order of magnitude
estimate to deploy an enterprise-wide communications cellular device
blackout using a managed access solution would be at least $118 million
to $239 million or potentially more. It is important to note that it is
premature to provide a definitive estimate for the required funding
because an RFQ has not been completed and the technology continues to
evolve and improve.
The legal hurdles Congress should consider in addressing this issue
would be ensuring that legislative barriers to the implementation of
such technology do not exist. (For example, laws relating to cellphone
monitoring and interception should exclude prison environments.)
new technology to disrupt gang networks
Question. Computer programs like Palantir have been successful in
mapping terrorist networks in Afghanistan and human trafficking rings
in the United States. How do you plan to direct the Department to
incorporate new technology into its investigations to map, track and
disrupt criminal gang networks in the United States?
Answer. The Department of Justice utilizes a wide array of
technologies and techniques to disrupt criminal and gang networks
across the Nation, some of which cannot be disclosed in an open
setting. One technology that the FBI's Criminal Investigative
Division's Violent Crime and Gang Section (VCGS) and the Criminal
Intelligence Section (CIS) actively utilize are geospatial platforms to
map and plot the density of gang members, their affiliations and track
violent crime statistics.
Geospatial maps are further utilized to assist in interpreting
cellular data and geospatially plotting the movements of perpetrators
and victims of crime. New technologies are also being explored to
assist our task forces in exploiting all avenues of criminal behavior,
including social media, which is utilized by gangs for recruitment and
communication purposes.
Specific advances in technology have been made to enhance
surveillance activities by rapidly acquiring GPS and pertinent
telephonic information, pen register data, and directly feeding this
data to operational field surveillance agents to track and disrupt gang
activity. The FBI will continue to explore all avenues, including the
acquisition of new technologies, to assist efforts to combat the gang
threat.
combatting gangs
Question. Numerous neighborhoods in Chicago, including the Kenwood
and Pullman areas, have been economically stifled by the presence of
gangs like the Gangster Disciples. How will you lead the DOJ effort to
remove gangs of national significance from these communities?
Answer. The Department is committed to rooting out criminal
organizations, including gangs like the Gangster Disciples, from
communities that have suffered at their hands, whether through
violence, intimidation, addiction, or economic depression. United
States Attorneys' Offices around the country work with the Criminal
Division's Organized Crime & Gang Section (OCGS) prosecutors who bring
specialized knowledge about both the targeted criminal enterprises and
a toolbox of laws, tactics, and strategies to dismantle the most
nefarious gangs in the United States. These prosecutors have brought
sweeping RICO indictments and successful prosecutions against gangs
across the country, including MS-13, Latin Kings, Imperial Gangsters,
Aryan Brotherhood and others.
The U.S. Attorney's Office (USAO) for the Northern District of
Illinois is similarly experienced and committed to using all available
tools and strategies to eradicate gang violence. The USAO recently
created a Violent Crimes section, comprised of prosecutors dedicated to
the sole mission of combatting violent crime in the District. The USAO
is working closely with State and local prosecutors and law enforcement
agencies, including the Cook County State's Attorney and Chicago Police
Department, to ensure a coordinated approach to target gang violence,
including through its Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force
strike force. Recently, the USAO charged the patriarch of a Gangster
Disciples faction and 34 other defendants who allegedly sold heroin and
crack cocaine on Chicago's west side. The USAO has also brought a
racketeering conspiracy prosecution that alleges murders, attempted
murders, solicitation to commit murder, robberies and the operation of
a drug trafficking organization against nine members of the Hobos
Street Gang, a tight-knit, violent crew who banded together from
factions of the Gangster Disciples and Black Disciples street gangs.
Moreover, the USAO has obtained strong sentences against high ranking
gang leaders in Chicago including: in April 2015, against a high-
ranking Black Disciples leader sentenced to 15 years in prison; in
September 2014, against a high-ranking Traveling Vice Lords leader
sentenced to 35 years in prison; and in 2012, against the highest-
ranking leader nationwide of the Latin Kings sentenced to 60 years in
prison, the statutory maximum, after being convicted at trial under
RICO and other charges. The Department will continue its efforts to
stem violence in Chicago and elsewhere through such vigorous
prosecutions using all the tools at our disposal.
The Violence Reduction Network (VRN) has been working with the City
of Chicago extensively since the VRN was launched in September 2014 by
former Attorney General Eric Holder. The VRN is a partnership across
the Department of Justice that seeks to leverage programmatic and
Federal law enforcement training and technical assistance resources to
support cities with sustained high rates of violence.
Although the City of Chicago has not requested assistance with gang
intervention or prevention, we are available to assist. The VRN can
support advanced gang training for the Chicago Police Department. We
can work with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Gang
Intelligence Center (NGIC) to provide gang training on investigative
and prosecution strategies to include creation of a regional gang
threat assessment that would describe the gangs that are active in
Chicago, their behaviors, size, organization structure, etc. FBI is a
critical partner in VRN efforts to enhance public safety in our sites.
monitoring social media for threats
Question. Recently, social media accounts claiming to be associated
with the terror group ISIS posted threats against targeted locations in
Chicago, including the Old Republic Building on North Michigan Avenue.
Will you direct the Federal Bureau of Investigation to hire more
Arabic-speaking investigators to effectively monitor social media for
threats against U.S. cities?
Answer. In an effort to address the Arabic language needs of the
FBI, the Bureau's Foreign Language Program pursues a number of
initiatives to recruit from ethnic Arabic and heritage speaker
communities. The FBI continues to provide training for special agents
in Arabic, and has recently renewed an incentive program for foreign
language use to develop in-house capacity.
Additional information is classified. The Department will work with
the subcommittee to ensure that a response is provided in an
appropriate manner.
shutting down human trafficking web sites
Question. Online classified Web sites like backpage.com continue to
facilitate prostitution and human trafficking. How will the Department
of Justice shut down these Web sites and prosecute individuals that
aide and abet sex traffickers?
Answer. The Department shares Congress' grave concerns about the
role of Web sites in the commercial sexual exploitation of minors. The
Department has vigorously pursued sex traffickers, including those who
use the Internet to illegally exploit minors, and thoroughly
investigates Web sites that may be aiding and abetting child sex
trafficking.
As a general matter, any prosecution of an online classified Web
site operator specifically for advertising child sex trafficking would
require the Government to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the Web
site operators actually knew that a particular advertisement that they
accepted offered sex with a child. Sufficient evidence of a crime
against children is not indicated, however, where an advertisement on
its face is for a legal service offered by someone who appears to be an
adult.
Where evidence of criminality exists, the Department will
aggressively investigate and prosecute using all appropriate statutes.
The recent prosecution of the owner and operator of myRedBook.com and
sfRedBook.com exemplifies the Department's determination in this
regard. In June 2014, the FBI seized the Web sites. Eric Omuro, the
owner of the sites, and one of his employees were arrested. Both
pleaded guilty to using a facility of interstate commerce with the
intent to facilitate prostitution. On May 21, 2015, Omuro was sentenced
to 13 months in prison. As part of his plea agreement, Omuro agreed to
forfeit more than $1.28 million in cash and property as well as the
sfRedBook.com and myRedBook.com domain names.
While the myRedbook.com Web site purported to provide legal
services such as ``Escort, Massage, and Strip Club Reviews,'' the
evidence showed that it was used to host advertisements for
prostitutes, complete with explicit photos, menus of sexual services,
hourly and nightly rates, and customer reviews of sex workers'
services. Evidence demonstrated that the Web site defined acronyms for
sex acts in graphic detail in a ``Terms and Acronyms'' section and
provided a section to review and rate prostitution services, offering
special access to the reviews for a fee. If a customer purchased a
membership with myRedbook, they received benefits such as early and
enhanced access to sex worker reviews, enhanced sex worker review
search options, and access to additional VIP forums, among other
things. According to an affidavit submitted in connection with the
sentencing hearing, the FBI identified more than 50 juveniles who were
also advertised on myRedBook for the purpose of prostitution.
Furthermore, despite being contacted by the National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in 2010, myRedBook never registered to
participate in the center's CyberTipline, which receives leads and tips
regarding suspected crimes of sexual exploitation committed against
children, and never communicated with NCMEC.
The prosecution of the operators of myRedbook.com and the
shuttering of the Web site demonstrate that the Department will pursue
viable prosecutions using existing legal tools, when the elements of
the statutes have been met and can be proven in court beyond a
reasonable doubt.
using innovative technology to combat human trafficking
Question. How is the DOJ incorporating the use of new innovative
technologies in its strategy to combat human trafficking? How will the
Department partner with local law enforcement to deploy these types of
technologies and ensure their use?
Lead-in information from original document.--
It is critical that local law enforcement agencies be
equipped with the latest innovative technologies to combat
trafficking and rescue victims. The Web-based software called
Memex, which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA) and recently used in New York City, is
one such example.
Answer. Through the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)-funded Human
Trafficking Advanced Investigators training, human trafficking
investigators are exposed to a variety of technological tools and
resources that can be used in their efforts to combat human
trafficking. Human Trafficking Law Enforcement Task Force grantees are
permitted to purchase investigative tools and technology with grant
funds and use grant funds to attend trainings on the use of such
investigative tools. BJA will ensure that the new Human Trafficking Law
Enforcement Training and Technical Assistance provider (being funded
with fiscal year 2015 funds) promotes the use of Web-based software for
human trafficking investigative purposes in the technical assistance
provided to task forces.
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
funds the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Program.
The 61 ICAC task forces focus on all forms of technology-facilitated
crimes against children, including child sex trafficking. Through its
regularly scheduled meetings with the ICAC task forces (generally three
times a year), OJJDP demonstrates promising investigative tools that
each task force can deploy within their own jurisdictions. For example,
last fall OJJDP brought in Emily Kennedy (Carnegie Mellon University)
to provide a demonstration on her tool ``Traffic Jam'' (funded in part
by DARPA) which mines the deep Web and helps law enforcement identify
offenders and rescue victims. OJJDP will continue to ensure that its
ICAC task forces are exposed to promising tools and resources that can
assist them in their efforts to protect children from online
exploitation.
The FBI leads 71 Child Exploitation Task Forces and is associated
with over 100 human trafficking task forces and working groups. These
task forces and working groups, and vetted technologies, are available
to address various forms of human trafficking. In an effort to support
law enforcement entities throughout the country, the FBI is currently
engaged in a process to enhance the Innocence Lost Database (ILD) to
automate the analysis of various governmental, non-governmental, and
open source data sets in an effort to identify enterprises responsible
for the commercial sex trafficking of children. Additionally, the ILD
project will incorporate biometric capabilities to more efficiently and
effectively identify and recover child victims. In regards to the Memex
Project, DARPA has sponsored this initiative in an effort to develop
capabilities which identify online indicators of human trafficking.
Understanding that technical needs vary from agency to agency, DARPA
has designed the Memex Project so that agencies can utilize the
independent technical solutions developed by the Memex Project team.
The FBI collaborates with the Memex Project team to share best
practices associated with this sophisticated technical development.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator John Boozman
citizen safety
Question. Please explain how you plan to provide our citizens with
adequate security when the Department is seemingly focused on
implementing our President's unconstitutional immigration directive?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Your prepared remarks state that your top two priorities are
``the safety of our citizens and our national security.'' In
looking at the overall budget request, it's obvious that the
Department's priority is immigration, with a 40 percent
increase from fiscal year 2015. In comparison, your lowest
request for fiscal year 2016, is a 1 percent increase for law
enforcement components such as investigating violent crime,
trafficking of firearms, international drug trafficking
organizations, piracy of intellectual property, and healthcare
fraud.
Answer. While the fiscal year 2016 president's budget does include
a 38.8 percent increase for the Executive Office for Immigration Review
(EOIR), this is predominantly to address the current caseload pending
before the immigration courts, which ended fiscal year 2015 with just
over 456,500 pending cases. These requested additional resources for
EOIR are not tied to the President's immigration executive action from
November 2014. The additional funding requested for EOIR in fiscal year
2016 is critical to moving the current caseload through the immigration
courts in a timely and efficient manner.
Furthermore, the Department's 2016 request for immigration-related
activities is 8.6 percent below the fiscal year 2015 enacted level due
to significant decreases to the Bureau of Prisons and the Office of
Justice Programs. The President's 2016 budget proposes only slight to
moderate increases for immigration activities for Civil Division,
Criminal Division, U.S. Marshals Service and Federal Prisoner
Detention, and no increase for the U.S. Attorneys for immigration
activities.
The Department of Justice's fiscal year 2016 budget request does
continue to prioritize resources for national security and cyber
security, with increases of $106.8 million to develop the Department's
capacity in a number of critical areas including: countering violent
extremism and domestic radicalization; counterterrorism; cybersecurity,
both domestic and abroad; information sharing and collaboration with
the Intelligence Community; and training and technical assistance for
our foreign partners. In addition, enhancements of $23 million will
support the Drug Enforcement Administration's efforts to combat illicit
drugs like heroin and other emerging drug trends. Additional violent
crime initiatives that tackle gang violence, crimes against children,
and promote gun safety also see increases over fiscal year 2015 enacted
levels.
violence reduction network sites
Question. Is this a program you plan to continue to offer and
support? If so, what will you do within the U.S. Attorney's Office to
compliment the work of the local and Federal agencies there?
Lead-in information from original document.--
As a response to the violent crime in Little Rock and West
Memphis, Arkansas, I understand that both are being considered
as VRN (Violence Reduction Network) sites, however, I do not
see any funding going to the VRN program.
Answer. Launched in 2014, the Violence Reduction Network (VRN)
Initiative synthesizes existing resources from across Department of
Justice (DOJ) law enforcement agencies (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives (ATF); Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA);
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); United States Marshals Service
(USMS)); and grant program offices (Office of Justice Programs (OJP),
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), and Office on
Violence Against Women (OVW)), with subject-matter expertise from the
criminal justice, local government, advocacy, and academic communities;
lessons learned from evidence-based violence reduction initiatives; and
key data from organizations representing other disciplines, increasing
the capacity of local communities to implement data-driven solutions to
increase public safety. In addition, the United States Attorneys'
Offices are critical partners in the VRN.
The organization and structure of the VRN sites are designed to
convene Federal, State, and local law enforcement and key stakeholders
in the selected sites around the issue of violence reduction and
includes the following:
--United States Attorneys' Offices and local law enforcement
leadership serve as the local points of contact and coordinate
activities and services for the VRN sites.
--A Strategic Site Liaison (SSL) works with each site to coordinate
project services and support enhancement of the site's violence
reduction efforts (paid with OJP's training and technical
assistance funds).
--A DOJ Program Office Champion from OJP, COPS, or OVW serves as the
point of contact for the site to effectively navigate access to
DOJ programmatic resources.
--A DOJ Law Enforcement Champion from ATF, DEA, FBI, or USMS serves
as the point of contact for the site to effectively navigate
access to DOJ law enforcement resources.
--A VRN Analyst, provided by BJA's training and technical assistance
(TTA) provider, supports the site's violence reduction efforts
(paid with OJP's training and technical assistance funds).
--DOJ law enforcement agencies (ATF, DEA, FBI, USMS) support local
violence reduction efforts through their field offices.
Camden, New Jersey, Chicago, Illinois, Detroit, Michigan, Oakland/
Richmond, California, and Wilmington, Delaware were the first cities
selected to participate in the VRN. In fiscal year 2015, five
additional cities were selected to join the VRN, including Little Rock
and West Memphis. OJP is working closely with the U.S. Attorneys to
discuss the VRN and how it can leverage Federal resources to support
Little Rock and West Memphis's efforts to address violent crime.
Although the VRN does not provide direct funding to participating
sites, the resources and expertise dedicated to selected communities
through this partnership opportunity are substantial. Within the past 6
months, and with the 10 current VRN sites, VRN has successfully
delivered on (or is currently coordinating) over 118 resource and
training and technical assistance requests; reaching 722 individuals
representing over 5,585 training hours.
The VRN complements DOJ's Smart on Crime Initiative. The VRN
leverages lessons learned and the vast array of existing resources
across DOJ law enforcement and grant-making agencies to deliver
strategic, intensive, training and technical assistance in an ``all-
hands'' approach to reduce violence in select cities. Sites identified
as candidates for the VRN are cities that have experienced precipitous
increases in violent crime and have violent crime rates that exceed the
national average. They also represent jurisdictions in different
geographic regions with distinctive characteristics, such as multiple
Federal initiatives or a unique law enforcement structure. DOJ makes a
2-year commitment to cities selected to join the VRN.
Over the next 2 years, the goal of VRN is to deliver the following
to the VRN sites:
--Resources, training, and technical assistance targeted to the
sites' most urgent needs.
--A comprehensive and collective understanding of drivers of violent
crime within a jurisdiction.
--An in-depth review of technical, legal, and policy-based obstacles
to improve information sharing.
--Performance metrics and a sustainability plan to measure success
and ensure continued progress through improved operational
strategies, training, and policy enhancement.
--A committed focus at the Federal, State, and local levels on the
identification of violent offenders and an all-hands approach
towards holding them accountable through evidence-based
practices and constitutionally based policing.
--A national community of practice around violence reduction.
--A training and technical assistance delivery model for violence
reduction to cities across the Nation.
drug addiction
Question. What are your enforcement and treatment strategies, such
as drug diversion programs, for the growing epidemic of heroin abuse,
and do you plan to accomplish these through the 1 percent funding
increase you have requested?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Not only in Arkansas, but throughout the Nation, we are
seeing a very dangerous addiction become a growing epidemic.
This country is now dealing with individuals, from all walks of
life and economic groups, who are turning to heroin and other
opiates to feed their addiction that was often initiated from
an addiction to prescription medicine. Many statistics I have
seen discuss the doubling or tripling of heroin users over the
past couple years.
Answer. We share the Committee's concerns about the serious threat
to our communities posed by prescription drug abuse, addiction, and
diversion. The fiscal year 2016 President's budget includes over $8.2
billion for the Department's drug enforcement, prosecution, diversion
and treatment efforts, a 5 percent increase over the fiscal year 2015
enacted level. The budget supports a strong response to the uptick in
heroin abuse and other emerging drug trends, including additional
resources for the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) deconfliction
and information sharing to attack the full range of drug trafficking
threats. The Department's request also provides increases to thwart
international drug trafficking organizations, and supports drug abuse
education, prevention, and treatment.
The rise of heroin use and abuse of prescription opioids in the
United States are some of the biggest challenges to public health and
safety that we are currently facing. With DEA as the lead, and
implemented in part through/in conjunction with the Organized Crime
Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) National Heroin Initiative, DOJ
is working to dismantle the heroin supply chain and prevent the
diversion of controlled substances. The uptick in heroin use and
overdose coincides with the rise of prescription drug abuse.
Law enforcement plays a significant role in combatting the Nation's
heroin problem. Heroin availability in the United States has steadily
increased over the last few years as Mexican Drug Trafficking
Organizations (DTO) have increased their production and trafficking of
heroin to the United States. The Southwest Border (SWB) remains a
particular concern as it is the most trafficked region in the United
States. Based on the 2014 National Drug Threat Assessment, seizures at
the SWB are up 160 percent from 2009 to 2013. DEA estimates that South
America and Mexico accounted for approximately 96 percent of the heroin
in the United States in 2012. DEA also estimates that Mexico's share
has been steadily increasing from under 5 percent in 2003 to about 45
percent in 2012.
DEA has opened more than 7,300 Domestic and Foreign investigations
related to heroin since 2009. The number of heroin cases opened in
fiscal year 2014 accounted for over 13 percent of all cases over that
same timeframe. Heroin cases have increased 141 percent from fiscal
year 2007 to fiscal year 2014, and 30 percent from fiscal year 2013 to
fiscal year 2014. Heroin arrests accounted for more than 16 percent of
all DEA arrests in fiscal year 2014, ranking third behind cocaine and
methamphetamine. Heroin arrests have increased 96 percent from fiscal
year 2007, and increased 15 percent from fiscal year 2013 to fiscal
year 2014. fiscal year 2014 was the first year heroin arrests surpassed
marijuana arrests.
OCDETF data, which includes many DEA investigations but also
investigations led by other Federal law enforcement agencies such as
ATF and FBI, also shows an increasing trend of investigations involving
heroin, which has recently been on the rise quarterly, and a similar
trend in indictments with heroin charges annually. OCDETF
investigations involving heroin increased by approximately 20 percent
from the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2013 to the third quarter of
fiscal year 2015, rising from 1,211 to 1,440. At the end of fiscal year
2010, 10 percent of OCDETF indictments contained heroin charges, as
compared with 15 percent at the end of fiscal year 2015. Currently,
16--or 40 percent--of the Consolidated Priority Organization Targets,
the highest level targets in interagency drug enforcement, are involved
in heroin trafficking. To combat this serious nationwide threat, OCDETF
has adjusted its resources to target these investigations in an attempt
to reduce the supply.
In addition to supporting the large volume of traditional OCDETF
cases focusing on disrupting and dismantling high-level criminal
networks responsible for distribution of heroin in the United States,
in fiscal year 2015 OCDETF developed a new national initiative designed
to combat the rise in heroin overdoses and deaths in a new way. The
OCDETF National Heroin Initiative has two major components: (1)
national coordination of, and information sharing in, heroin
investigations and prosecutions; and (2) a funding mechanism to support
local and regional ``outside-the-box'' initiatives designed to fill in
existing gaps in the development of significant heroin cases.
OCDETF is uniquely situated through its coalition of U.S.
Attorneys, Federal agencies, and State and local task force partners to
actively engage in the fight against the heroin and opioid epidemics
through promoting the goals of collaboration, communication, and
interdependent, real-time reporting of cooperation and progress in its
ranks. Toward that end, OCDETF worked with the United States Attorney
community to designate and fund a full-time Assistant United States
Attorney with current expertise in heroin investigations and
prosecutions to act as OCDETF's National Heroin Coordinator, detailed
to the OCDETF Executive Office since May 17, 2015. Since the
appointment of the National Heroin Coordinator, nationwide coordination
efforts include:
--Sixteen strategic initiatives have been approved for districts and
regions under acute attack from the heroin and opioid
epidemics, including Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, St. Louis,
Northern Illinois, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.
The OCDETF National Heroin Coordinator works with the funded
districts and regions to ensure real-time information sharing,
efficient and effective use of resources, and collaboration
amongst nontraditional partners, such as State medical
examiners, coroners and State health departments.
--Each of the 93 U.S. Attorneys and the regional offices of OCDETF's
Federal components have designated points of contact for all
heroin and opioid issues.
--OCDETF's National Heroin Coordinator has met with top officials in
the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Office of National
Intelligence/Information Sharing Environments, Executive Staff
of the DEA, the DEA Research Laboratory, and the OCDETF Fusion
Center to discuss potential joint efforts against the heroin
and opioid threats to the Nation.
--Collaboration is ongoing with Federal Bureau of Investigation
regarding emerging heroin threats.
--The OCDETF Heroin Coordinator has attended or will attend Heroin/
Opioid Summits in Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and other
States as invited, as well as impacted areas where best
practices are being employed in the heroin fight, such as
Minneapolis and Boston, so those practices can be memorialized
and disseminated for use by law enforcement and prosecutors in
the fight against heroin and opioid use and abuse.
--The Coordinator has engaged in extensive briefings with the leaders
of New Jersey's cutting edge Drug Monitoring Initiative (DMI)
to explore replication of the DMI program in a national level.
--OCDETF will host a national conference in November of 2015 for all
U.S. Attorney and Federal agency heroin/opioid points of
contact. The conference, entitled ``No Boundaries--United in
the Fight'' will bring stakeholders together for education,
sharing of successes and challenges, and exploration of
enhanced, proactive best practices in the fight against the
heroin and opioid epidemics. Additionally, OCDETF and DEA are
working closely to support similar efforts going forward.
As a direct result, local and regional efforts are enhanced by the
influx of new ideas and approaches to the common challenges.
To enhance the work already being performed in the field and by the
OCDETF National Heroin Coordinator, OCDETF has also dedicated a limited
amount of operational funds to support the OCDETF National Heroin
Initiative. This funding does not replace or supplement OCDETF's
existing base funding that already supports OCDETF-level multi-agency,
multi-jurisdictional cases targeting prescription drug abuse or heroin.
Rather, OCDETF's National Heroin Initiative provides small amounts of
operational ``seed money'' to help law enforcement agencies and
prosecutors work collaboratively to fill existing gaps in intelligence,
enforcement activities, and prosecutions that currently hinder the
development of single-instance heroin overdose investigations into
multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional cases against the criminal
organizations with the most impact on our communities. This funding is
intended to assist the agencies and prosecution offices with
extraordinary expenses that cannot otherwise be funded within currently
available resources.
Internationally, DEA's Sensitive Investigative Unit (SIU) program
partners with host nations to combat illegal drug trafficking at the
source. SIUs comprise groups of host nation investigators that are
polygraphed, trained, equipped, and guided by DEA. DEA manages 13 SIUs
including programs in Mexico and Colombia, countries with strong links
to the U.S. heroin trade.
DEA's Diversion Control Program (DCP) prevents, detects, and
investigates the diversion of pharmaceutical controlled substances and
listed chemicals from legitimate channels using criminal, civil, and
regulatory tools to identify, target, disrupt, and dismantle
individuals and organizations responsible for the diversion and illegal
distribution of pharmaceutical controlled substances. The DEA believes
the increased heroin use is driven by many factors, including an
increase in the misuse and abuse of prescription psychotherapeutic
drugs, specifically opioids. Part of the DCP's mission is to identify
and minimize the diversion of pharmaceutical controlled substance, such
as opioids, and Tactical Diversion Squads (TDSs) are one method DEA
employs to combat this. DEA's TDSs incorporate the enforcement,
investigative, and regulatory skills sets of DEA Special Agents,
Diversion Investigators, other Federal law enforcement, and State and
local Task Force Officers. As such, the TDSs are DEA's primary method
of criminal law enforcement in the DCP. The expansion to 66 operational
TDS's in the U.S. has enabled DEA's Diversion Groups to concentrate on
the regulatory aspects of the Diversion Control Program. Further, in
order to target the most likely offenders of diversion, the DCP has
increased the frequency of scheduled investigations registrants in
selected business activities.
The Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMP)
monitor prescription drug sales and also play an important role in
identifying doctor shopping and diversion, particularly at the retail
level where no other automated information collection system exists.
How PDMPs are organized and operated varies among States. Each State
determines which agency houses the PDMP; which controlled substances
must be reported; which types of dispensers are required to submit data
(e.g., pharmacies); how often data are collected; who may access
information in the PDMP database (e.g., prescribers, dispensers, or law
enforcement); the circumstances under which the information may (or
must) be accessed; and what enforcement mechanisms are in place for
noncompliance.
DOJ supports more than 2,900 specialty courts that connect over
142,000 people convicted of drug-related offenses with the services
they need to avoid future drug use and rejoin their communities. These
courts include adult drug courts, veterans' treatment courts, DWI
courts and others. DOJ provides financial support, training, and
technical assistance to many of these courts annually. DOJ is also
urging first responders to carry naloxone, a drug which restores
breathing during a heroin or opioid overdose. The Department has
created an online tool kit to assist these efforts.
DOJ continues to increase support for drug abuse education,
prevention, and treatment through partnerships with doctors, educators,
community leaders, and police officials. As directed by Congress, the
Department has joined with the Office of National Drug Control Policy
to convene an interagency Heroin Task Force to confront this challenge.
This Task Force is co-chaired by the U.S. Attorney for the Western
District of Pennsylvania and the Office of National Drug Control Policy
Deputy Director for State, Local and Tribal Affairs. The Department,
DEA, and more than 28 Federal agencies and their components are
actively participating on the Task Force. Other participants include
medical community, enforcement, public health, and education experts.
The Task Force is taking an evidence-based approach to reducing the
public health and safety consequences caused by heroin and prescription
opioids. We expect the Task Force to submit its comprehensive Strategic
Plan to the President and Congress by the end of 2015.
The fiscal year 2016 President's budget would allow DEA to maintain
and enhance valuable drug enforcement tools. The request includes
funding to expand DEA's case management and deconfliction systems and
enhance the IT infrastructure at the El Paso Intelligence Center
(EPIC). EPIC's primary mission is to support the law enforcement
community through improved information sharing. EPIC funding will
provide Federal, State, local, tribal, and international law
enforcement agencies with faster responses and improved access to
investigative tools. At the request of State and local partners, DEA
has instituted a Community of Interest site on the EPIC Web portal
specifically for the exchange of information related to heroin. The
fiscal year 2016 President's budget supports the creation of a new
financial investigation unit as part of DEA's Bilateral Investigation
Units at the Special Operations Division to enhance DEA's efforts in
targeting the financial networks of foreign-based drug traffickers. In
addition, the fiscal year 2016 President's budget requests funding to
sustain and further develop the capacity and capabilities of existing
SIUs. This funding will support training, vetting, program
coordination, judicial wire intercept systems and other IT-related
requirements. The fiscal year 2016 budget also includes increases for
grants to help State and local governments develop residential
substance abuse treatment programs and maintain community-based
aftercare services for offenders.
cyber security
Question. How does the department plan to utilize the requested
$106.8 million increase to handle our Nation's cyber security breaches,
especially the cyber hacking led by ISIS?
Answer. The response to this question entails classified
information. The Department will work with the subcommittee to answer
this question in an appropriate manner.
assets forfeiture fund
Question. Can you please explain whether you believe the Civil
Asset Forfeiture program needs to be reformed, and if so, how? Can you
also put Civil Asset Forfeiture into perspective for me, by telling me
how many seizures are legitimate and how many are not? How many
individuals have made claims for their property in comparison to how
many have not, and would that help to indicate how many people are
actual ``victims'' of this program?
Lead-in information from original document.--
I would like to talk about Civil Asset Forfeiture for a
minute. I hear that civil asset forfeiture is a slush fund for
law enforcement and that innocent individuals are being robbed
of their property and money. I also hear that the funds augment
law enforcement agencies discretionary budgets to further
target criminal activity. I would like to see some hard figures
on this issue so we may better determine how to move forward.
Answer. Asset forfeiture is a critical legal tool that serves a
number of compelling law enforcement purposes. The Department is
committed to ensuring that asset forfeiture laws are used appropriately
and effectively to deprive criminals of the proceeds of their crimes,
break the financial backbone of organized crime syndicates and drug
cartels, and to recover stolen property that may be used to compensate
victims and deter crime.
Civil forfeiture is often the only mechanism by which the
Government can take criminally tainted assets out of circulation
because criminals often go to great lengths to insulate themselves from
the proceeds and instrumentalities of their criminal acts--including by
giving those assets for safekeeping to individuals who knowingly accept
and retain the criminally tainted property, even though they did not
engage in the criminal activity themselves. Civil asset forfeiture is
the only avenue to recover proceeds of crime if the criminal is dead, a
fugitive, or where stolen artifacts are recovered but no defendant can
be identified.
Not only does asset forfeiture deprive criminals of their illicit
proceeds, it also enables the Government to compensate victims of
crime. In fact, since 2000, the Department has returned over $4 billion
in assets to the victims of crime through asset forfeiture, of which
$1.87 billion was recovered civilly. In addition, the Department
expects to distribute approximately $4 billion in civilly forfeited
assets associated with the Madoff fraud scheme. At that point, victim
compensation from forfeited funds will far exceed the nearly $5.4
billion of forfeited funds that have been reinvested in law enforcement
to fight crime as part of the Equitable Sharing program.
Federal law authorizes the Department to share federally forfeited
property with participating State and local law enforcement agencies
through a program known as Equitable Sharing. The Equitable Sharing
Program was created by Congress, in part to strengthen law enforcement
by fostering cooperation among Federal, State and local law enforcement
agencies. Once a forfeiture is successfully completed, the Federal
Government disposes of the assets and then pays expenses and provides
for any applicable victim compensation in a case. Only after these
expenses and victim payments are deducted, if there are any remaining
proceeds, are funds available for equitable sharing with State and
local law enforcement agencies that participated in the underlying law
enforcement action that led to the seizure or forfeiture of the asset.
The Department has many procedures in place and a host of prohibitions
on how equitable sharing funds may be used to ensure that they
supplement but do not supplant the funds allocated to law enforcement
agencies by State and local governments.
That said, the Department takes seriously the concerns raised about
civil asset forfeiture and has responded with significant, carefully-
considered reforms including the prohibition on adoptions (which occur
when a State or local law enforcement agency seizes property pursuant
to State law and requests that a Federal agency take the seized asset
and forfeit it under Federal law) and restrictions on the seizure of
structured funds. We are continuing a comprehensive review of the
entire asset forfeiture program in order to improve and strengthen it,
while preserving the rule of law and the rights of property owners.
Question. Can you also put Civil Asset Forfeiture into perspective
for me, by telling me how many seizures are legitimate and how many are
not?
Answer. Assets can only be seized by the Government either pursuant
to the seizure warrant issued by a judge, or pursuant to an exception
to the warrant requirement. In either instance, however, the law
requires that there be probable cause linking the asset directly to
criminal activity. The probable cause requirement is a core tenet of
our legal system and is the very same standard of proof required to
place an individual under arrest. The forfeiture process does not allow
for the seizure of property in the absence of probable cause.
Question. How many individuals have made claims for their property
in comparison to how many have not, and would that help to indicate how
many people are actual ``victims'' of this program? I would like to see
some hard figures on this issue so we may better determine how to move
forward.
Answer. Civil asset forfeiture is used to recover the ill-gotten
proceeds of crime and, in many instances, returning the forfeited funds
to victims of crime who have suffered financial losses at the hands of
criminals. In the forfeiture process, it is essential that we protect
the due process rights of innocent individuals. Recognizing this,
Congress put safeguards in place to protect innocent property owners
when it passed the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act (CAFRA). These
protections are essential to preserve the integrity of the Asset
Forfeiture Program and to ensure that individual due process rights are
preserved and protected. Even where the Government has borne its burden
of proving that property is linked directly to crime, CAFRA allows a
property owner to defeat a forfeiture if they can show they are an
innocent owner. In such cases, the Government must return the seized
assets to the innocent owner, who may also be entitled to attorney's
fees.
In the past decade, 1,952 claims have been filed in connection with
48,927 (approximately four percent) assets seized for administrative or
civil forfeiture. Of those 1,952 claims, 878 of those assets
(approximately 45 percent) have been returned either to the owner or
another claimant with a property interest in the asset, such as a
lienholder.
ammunition ban
Question. As the new Attorney General, will you revive this
ammunition ban, or attempt to implement any other ammunition ban?
Lead-in information from original document.--
On February 13, 2015, the ATF released a framework on how
they proposed to apply the ``Sporting purposes'' test to exempt
ammunition that they state, qualifies as armor piercing.
Although through this proposed framework, ATF would have
reversed an exemption that was granted 29 years ago for target
shooting ammunition that is popular for use in modern sporting
rifles. After public outrage and multiple letters from
Congress, ATF withdrew the framework.
Answer. Congress enacted the prohibition on armor piercing
ammunition in the Law Enforcement Officer's Protection Act of 1986
(LEOPA). LEOPA provides that all ammunition containing certain
specified metals that may be fired from a handgun is defined to be
``armor piercing'' and prohibits the manufacture and sale of all such
ammunition. The statute further provides, however, that the Attorney
General may exempt particular rounds of ammunition that otherwise meet
the statutory definition of ``armor piercing'' upon a determination
that the round at issue is ``primarily intended for sporting
purposes.'' The authority to make exemption determinations has been
delegated to ATF.
ATF drafted the proposed framework in response to a large influx of
new ``sporting purpose'' exemption requests and was designed to provide
industry and the public with clear, objective guidance on the criteria
ATF would apply to those requests. In crafting the criteria for the
proposed framework, ATF's foremost obligation was to ensure that those
criteria were consistent with the primary objective of LEOPA--the
protection of law enforcement from the threat posed by ammunition used
in handguns.
In light of the significant number of comments received, ATF has
decided to cease with finalizing the proposed framework. ATF is
currently reviewing the comments to inform future steps, if any, and
additional process--including public notice and comment--will be
afforded prior to any further action. At this time, ATF has no plans to
further consider reversing the standing exemption for 5.56 x 45mm
rounds of ammunition in M855 and SS1109 cartridges. The process of
reviewing and considering the large number of comments received will
take time, and I look forward to working with Congress and all
interested parties should any further action be proposed.
immigration court program
Question. Your budget request includes a 40 percent increase for
improvements to the immigration court system. Could you explain the
justification for such a significant increase? Also, could you please
share how many immigrant applications are in the current backlog and
which cases would be prioritized for adjudication if this amount were
authorized?
Answer. The Executive Office for Immigration Review's (EOIR) fiscal
year 2016 budget request is a 38.8 percent increase over fiscal year
2015 enacted levels and includes $124.3 million in program increases.
These program increases include additional funds for the following:
additional immigration judge teams; immigration court support; legal
representation for unaccompanied children; expansion of the legal
orientation program; and information technology modernization. These
program enhancements will provide EOIR funding to increase staffing to
more rapidly address the large volume of pending cases and will
increase the efficiency of the courts through increased representation
and updated electronic and communication efforts. Specific information
about each of EOIR's requested program increases follows.
--Immigration Judge Teams/Immigration Court Support.--The fiscal year
2016 budget request includes $60 million to add 55 Immigration
Judge Teams, and $1.3 million to add 15 attorneys to support
the agency's mission by supporting the immigration judge corps
and providing legal assistance with immigration matters before
the courts. These two program increases are necessary to
provide sufficient resources to adjudicate the cases before the
immigration courts. Cases received at EOIR are inextricably
tied to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) enforcement
efforts. As DHS places more individuals into proceedings before
EOIR, the number of adjudicators must increase in order to
address new cases as well as the pending caseload. These
increased funds will provide EOIR the resources to hire
additional immigration judges and provide those immigration
judges with the necessary staff support and work space to
adjudicate cases.
--Legal Representation for Unaccompanied Children.--The fiscal year
2016 budget request includes $50 million in 2-year funding for
the legal representation of unaccompanied children. When
unaccompanied children have legal representation from the
beginning of their immigration court proceedings, we expect
that immigration courts will be able to reduce the number of
continuances granted for the purpose of obtaining counsel,
preparing any applications for relief, and gathering evidence.
In addition, counsel can facilitate court proceedings,
resulting in faster hearings and earlier identification of
relevant legal issues. All of these factors will assist in
reducing EOIR's case backlog while providing efficient
adjudicatory proceedings.
--Legal Orientation Program (LOP).--The fiscal year 2016 budget
request includes $10 million for the expansion of the LOP. This
requested increase will expand the successful LOP and continue
to improve efficiencies in immigration court proceedings for
detained aliens by increasing their awareness of their rights
and the overall immigration proceeding process. Independent
research and evaluation reports have shown that LOP
participants complete their immigration court cases in
detention an average of 12 days faster than detainees who do
not participate in an LOP. The requested additional funding
will respond to elevated demand at existing DHS sites and
enable LOP to add additional sites.
--Information Technology Modernization.--The fiscal year 2016 budget
request includes $3 million for information technology
modernization to provide an update to EOIR's electronic
systems, improving the efficiency of processing case materials
and other data communication efforts. This program increase
will go towards the planning and development of updates to
improve EOIR's electronic systems. The improvement of EOIR's
court and case management systems will enhance EOIR's ability
to meet core mission functions by increasing efficiencies and
allowing more staff time to focus on EOIR's adjudications and
other responsibilities. An update of EOIR's electronic systems
will also allow for better communications with DHS law
enforcement entities currently using EOIR case information.
Regarding the pending caseload, as of September 30, 2015, EOIR had
456,500 proceedings pending before the immigration courts. Per the June
2014 Presidential directive to process priority cases as fairly and as
quickly as possible, EOIR realigned its adjudicative priorities, and
refocused EOIR's immigration court resources. In July 2014, EOIR added
new priorities to its pre-existing priority for detained cases. EOIR's
priority cases now include those individuals whom DHS has identified as
recent border crossers who are unaccompanied children, adults with
children in detention, adults with children released through
Alternatives to Detention (ATD), and other individuals in detention.
legal orientation program
Question. Is the department intending to use the LOP authorized
funds to provide work authorization to those afforded deferred action
by the President's executive order?
Lead-in information from original document.--
I understand the Legal Orientation Program operates utilizing
nonprofit legal service agencies to provide information to
immigrant detainees to assist in their removal process. Please
describe how this program has been successful and explain why
you are requesting an additional $116 million to support this
program.
Answer. The fiscal year 2016 budget request includes an additional
$10 million, not $116 million, to expand the successful Legal
Orientation Program (LOP). EOIR has carried out the LOP since 2003 and,
by fiscal year 2014, the LOP was able to serve roughly one-third of all
detained aliens in immigration court proceedings. Through the LOP,
representatives from nonprofit organizations provide comprehensive
explanations about immigration court procedures along with other basic
legal information to large groups of detained individuals.
This requested increase of $10 million will expand the LOP and
continue to improve efficiencies in immigration court proceedings for
detained aliens by increasing their awareness of their rights and the
overall immigration proceeding process. Research and evaluation reports
show that LOP participants complete their immigration court cases on
average 12 days faster and spend on average 6 fewer days in ICE
detention than detainees who do not participate in an LOP. The LOP is
currently in 30 locations, 28 of which are ICE detention facilities.
LOP funds have not and will not be used to provide work
authorization to those afforded deferred action by the President's
executive order. The LOP does not provide legal representation, and the
DOJ has no intention of changing this policy in the future. The LOP
assists individuals representing themselves pro se by helping them
understand the various legal options available to them and, where
available, referring individuals to pro bono counsel, not funded under
the LOP. The LOP provides information on legal options that may be
available to detainees, it does not provide any direct assistance in
carrying out those options. Thus, while an LOP provider may explain
what deferred action is, and may explain what is required to gain work
authorization, the individual would need to seek those actions on their
own or through the use of counsel that is separate and distinct from
the LOP contract.
convicted felons possessing firearms
Question. Is that the case? Who sets the thresholds? Can you tell
me what the threshold is for a convicted felon in possession of a
firearm in Arkansas?
Lead-in information from original document.--
In my research, I have learned that prosecuting convicted
felons in possession of a firearm is a major factor in
combatting violent crime, by taking these armed criminals off
the street, often before they commit more acts of violent
crime. I also understand that the U.S. Attorney's Office across
the country has established certain thresholds that have to be
met prior to accepting these cases.
Answer. All United States Attorneys' Offices (USAOs), including
those for the Eastern and Western Districts of Arkansas, carefully
review the acceptance of potential firearms cases in light of the
guidelines set forth in the Principles of Federal Prosecution. These
principles require USAOs to consider whether a substantial Federal
interest would be served by prosecution and whether a potential
defendant is subject to effective prosecution in another jurisdiction.
The USAOs evaluate the facts and circumstances on a case by case basis.
In Arkansas, neither United States Attorney's Office has a threshold
for acceptance of felon in possession cases. All felons found in
possession of firearms are potentially subject to Federal prosecution.
Practically speaking, this usually involves a discussion among Federal,
State, and local prosecutors and law enforcement about the most
appropriate venue for prosecution.
When considering these principles, USAOs assess, among other
things, Federal law enforcement priorities; the nature and seriousness
of the offense; the potential defendant's culpability; the strength of
the evidence that would be admissible in court; a potential defendant's
criminal history; the probable sentence or other consequences if the
person is convicted federally as opposed to locally; the strength of
the other jurisdiction's interest in prosecution; the other
jurisdiction's ability and willingness to prosecute effectively; and
the effectiveness of potential non-criminal sanctions.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Dianne Feinstein
border tunnels
Question. What changes would you recommend that Congress make in
order to strengthen this legislation and more effectively address this
issue?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Since 2001, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has discovered
at least 170 tunnels along the Southwest Border originating in
Mexico and ending on the U.S. side of the Border, predominantly
in California and Arizona. In the last 2 months, U.S. Customs
and Border Protection discovered three tunnels leading from
Mexico to Calexio and San Diego. I authored two bills that were
signed into law in 2006 and 2012 to provide law enforcement and
prosecutors with additional tools to investigate illegal tunnel
activity and prosecute those responsible, including landowners
who allow others to construct illegal tunnels on their land.
However, it is my understanding that U.S. Attorneys are not
bringing charges against individuals under the tunnel statute
because they are having difficulty proving that the property
owner knew about the tunnel. In fact, since 2011, the San Diego
Tunnel Task Force has only successfully arrested and indicted
two individuals using this legislation.
Answer. We appreciate your efforts to help combat crimes committed
through the use of border tunnels. We have many available statutory
tools depending upon the nature of crime related to a border tunnel.
Often, the Controlled Substances Act is the best mechanism as it
provides stiff penalties for drug crimes, which can include the use of
border tunnels. In addition, some defendants have prior drug
trafficking convictions and/or are career offenders, making their
sentence exposure more significant when they are charged with crimes
other than 18 U.S.C. Sec. 555. To the extent the Department identifies
additional statutory tools needed to address border tunnels, we would
welcome the opportunity to work with you and your staff.
Question. How can we better ensure that property owners or renters
on the U.S. side of the border who allow others to construct illegal
tunnels on their property are brought to justice?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Since 2001, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has discovered
at least 170 tunnels along the Southwest Border originating in
Mexico and ending on the U.S. side of the Border, predominantly
in California and Arizona. In the last 2 months, U.S. Customs
and Border Protection discovered three tunnels leading from
Mexico to Calexio and San Diego. I authored two bills that were
signed into law in 2006 and 2012 to provide law enforcement and
prosecutors with additional tools to investigate illegal tunnel
activity and prosecute those responsible, including landowners
who allow others to construct illegal tunnels on their land.
However, it is my understanding that U.S. Attorneys are not
bringing charges against individuals under the tunnel statute
because they are having difficulty proving that the property
owner knew about the tunnel. In fact, since 2011, the San Diego
Tunnel Task Force has only successfully arrested and indicted
two individuals using this legislation.
Answer. If we have evidence that property owners or renters on the
U.S. side of the border ``knowingly'' or ``recklessly'' allow others to
construct illegal tunnels on their property, then we can charge them
under section (b) of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 555. However, absent some
corroboration from a cooperator, an admission by the defendant, or
actually finding the owner or renter at the tunnel, prosecutors often
face evidentiary issues in criminal cases against the landowners or
renters.
There are no civil penalties for land owners who ``negligently'' or
``acting in reckless disregard'' allow the rental of their commercial
warehouses or family residences to be used for construction of tunnels.
Many commercial warehouses in San Diego and Imperial County have
absentee owners who use local management companies to rent their
warehouses. Establishing civil penalties within this statute would
place the landowners on notice and liable--in a civil setting--to make
sure that they are renting to legitimate companies and individuals.
community policing
Question. With the funding you have requested, how do you intend to
encourage local law enforcement to engage in community policing and to
model best practices for these communities?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Over the past several months, we have seen protests over the
deaths of unarmed men, many of them African-American. Some of
these protests have turned violent. It is apparent that, in
some communities, relationships between community members and
law enforcement are not strong enough, leading to suspicion and
mistrust by both police and residents.When protests do occur,
we often see a line of heavily armed officers on one side, and
protesters on the other. I believe that the Department of
Justice must use its bully pulpit and the Federal grant funding
it provides to local jurisdictions to reinvigorate community
policing nationwide.
Answer. The Department leverages multiple programs and approaches
to strengthen community policing and the vital trust among law
enforcement officers and the communities they serve. When these bonds
are strong, our crime prevention efforts are more successful; incidents
are more likely to be reported and addressed; and police are more
likely to have the support they need to do their jobs safely and
effectively. The fiscal year 2016 budget includes funding to initiate
initiatives specifically cited in the President's 21st Century Policing
Report, like data collection and statistical analysis of crime
incidents, and training and technical assistance for law enforcement
and public defenders. In addition, resources are provided for the
administration's Community Policing Initiative for programs aimed at
promoting restorative and procedural justice, reducing implicit bias,
and supporting racial reconciliation and outreach efforts.
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS)
The mission of the COPS Office has always been to advance public
safety through community policing. With the funding appropriated to the
COPS Office in fiscal year 2015, the COPS Office funded several field-
initiated projects based on key topics and recommendations outlined in
the final report of the President's Task Force on 21st Century
Policing, which will continue throughout fiscal year 2016.
The Task Force on 21st Century Policing was created to strengthen
community policing and trust among law enforcement officers and the
communities they serve--especially in light of recent events around the
country that have underscored the need for and importance of lasting
collaborative relationships between local police and the public. It was
established by the President on December 18, 2014 and included law
enforcement representatives, community leaders, young adults and
notable scholars--who examined, among other issues, how to strengthen
public trust and foster strong relationships between local law
enforcement and the communities that they protect, while also promoting
effective crime reduction.
Through the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing Field-
Initiated Projects, the COPS Office invited applicants to offer
innovative ideas to advance a set of the recommendations of their
choosing. Projects include demonstration sites, promising practices
assessments, guidebook development, and training and technical
assistance.
Through the COPS MicroGrant Initiative for Law Enforcement, the
COPS Office funded nine law enforcement agencies to develop
demonstration sites or pilot projects that may focus on implementing
specific recommendations in the report (e.g., enhancing partnership
development, improving problem-solving activities, or supporting
organizational changes).
The COPS Office will support convenings on topics that advance the
implementation of the Task Force's recommendations through its
Community Policing Emerging Issues Forums. Each convening will result
in a publication that provides background information on best practices
and the state of knowledge on that topic, as well as considerations,
recommendations, and guidance to the field as we build consensus for a
path forward.
The COPS Collaborative Reform Initiative for Technical Assistance
(CRI-TA) is designed to improve trust between law enforcement agencies
and the communities they serve by providing a means for organizational
transformation through an analysis of policies, practices, training,
tactics and accountability methods around specific issues, all of which
are strongly linked to the foundational pillars of and recommendations
within the Task Force Report. CRI-TA will be expanded to require
procedural justice and implicit bias training for all selected sites
and, in fiscal year 2015, an additional five sites were selected to
participate in the Collaborative Reform process based on selection
criteria consistent with the principles within the Task Force report.
The experiences that those agencies go through in transforming their
policies, procedures, training, accountability mechanisms and community
trust building will serve as a model for the rest of the profession,
and will be disseminated through a series of reports that will offer a
roadmap for change for agencies interested in replicating those
organizational change efforts.
The COPS Hiring Program (CHP) provides funding for the hiring and
rehiring of entry-level policing capacity and crime prevention efforts.
In fiscal year 2015, the COPS Office gave additional consideration to
applicant agencies that selected the category of ``Building Trust,''
and those agencies were encouraged to refer to the Task Force report
for suggested actions to incorporate into their proposed community
policing strategies. In fiscal year 2015, 83 agencies that selected
``Trust Problems'' received funding for 365 officers. CHP is the COPS
Office's largest grant program, and provides funding directly to State,
local and tribal law enforcement agencies to hire and rehire career law
enforcement officers in an effort to increase their community policing
capacity and crime prevention efforts.
With support from the COPS Office, law enforcement focused
organizations will develop national-level, industry-wide projects for
several of the pillars outlined in the Task Force report. Supported
activities will include the creation of positive and meaningful
engagement opportunities between law enforcement and youth,
identification of best practices for engaging the community in the
mutual responsibility of public safety, exploration of the
circumstances and causality behind documented line-of-duty injuries,
and promotion of officer safety and wellbeing.
Office of Justice Programs (OJP)
Community Policing--Smart Policing Initiative.--Community
engagement is a central principle of the Smart Policing Initiative
(SPI), administered by the Office of Justice Program's Bureau of
Justice Assistance (BJA). SPI supports law enforcement agencies and
represents a strategic approach that brings more science into police
operations by leveraging innovative applications of analysis,
technology, evidence-based, data-driven practices, and improving
performance and effectiveness while containing costs--an important
element in today's fiscal environment. BJA currently has several
projects underway that are testing innovative approaches to building
such partnerships and trust between police and the communities they
serve.
Community Policing--Project Safe Neighborhoods.--Most of the
Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) strategies submitted contain some form
of community policing as part of their overall gun and gang violence
reduction efforts. PSN is designed to create safer neighborhoods
through a sustained reduction in crime associated with gang and gun
violence. The program's effectiveness is based on the cooperation of
local, State, and Federal agencies engaged in a unified approach led by
the U.S. Attorney (USA) in each district. The USA is responsible for
establishing a collaborative PSN task force of Federal, State, and
local law enforcement and other community members to implement gang and
gun crime enforcement, intervention, and prevention initiatives within
the district. Through the PSN task force, the USA will implement the
five design features of PSN--partnerships, strategic planning,
training, outreach, and accountability--to address specific gun crime
and gang violence, in the most violent neighborhoods. These five
elements are essential for PSN to be successful.
One of the strengths of PSN is the flexibility that allows PSN task
forces to adapt the key components of PSN to the local context. The
difference in levels and the nature of gun crime across the 50 States
and across the Nation's cities are enormous and require local
adaptation. The most common strategies employed by PSN task forces were
increased Federal prosecution; joint Federal-local prosecution case
screening; directed police patrol; community policing; chronic violent
offender programs; street level firearms enforcement teams; offender
notification meetings; re-entry programs; and firearms supply side
interventions.
Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation Program.--The Byrne Criminal
Justice Innovation Program (BCJI) is designed to help local and tribal
communities develop place-based, community-oriented strategies with
coordinated Federal support to change neighborhoods of distress into
neighborhoods of opportunity. This has consistently been done by sites
focusing on public safety as their primary issue, and using innovative
criminal justice strategies to address the varying public safety needs
of each community. Because BCJI requires cross sector partnerships and
is based on the fundamentals of collaboration within a community,
community policing is not only encouraged but also built into the
concept and execution of this program. The best way to articulate this
is through a few examples of sites to date that have been implementing
community policing strategies that have had a direct impact on the
relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
--Alameda County, California (Fiscal Year 2014 Planning &
Implementation).--The Sheriff's Office in Alameda County excels
at community-oriented strategies to foster trust in law
enforcement and crime prevention. Deputies use theater and
other non-traditional approaches to engage residents in
discussion about sensitive police-community issues, while the
Deputy Sheriff's Activities League (DSAL) provides
opportunities for thousands of kids and their families to build
community and get to know law enforcement officers in non-
threatening settings. More than 1,300 kids and 100 parent
volunteers currently participate in the DSAL's Youth Soccer
program, for example.
--Providence, Rhode Island (Fiscal Year 2013 Planning &
Implementation).--Even as it weathers a significant reduction
in force due to budget constraints, the Providence Police
Department remains committed to community policing, and has
invested heavily in building partnerships with local community
development and service organizations which participate in
BCJI. In Providence, the community organized the Annual
Olneyville Shines Clean-up Day in May 2015, which brought out
120 volunteers including officers. The community also organizes
the Olneyville Fall Festival and, for the first time last year,
National Night Out, which might become an August tradition.
--The collective efforts have spawned a robust Crime Watch group
led by residents in the BCJI target area, and a variety of
annual events that bring officers and residents together.
Chief Clements also invites community partners to
participate in Compstat and command staff meetings to
maintain transparency and foster cross-sector problem-
solving.
--Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Fiscal Year 2012 Planning &
Implementation).--The Milwaukee BCJI effort benefits from
explicit programming to foster community-police dialogue and
problem-solving, such as the ``STOP'' (Students Talking It Over
with Police) curriculum, which brings police officers together
with juveniles in high crime neighborhoods in structured
dialogue that yields greater mutual understanding, builds
relationships, and seeks to prevent conflict between youth and
police on the streets. This program earned the top honor at the
International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in
fall of 2014.
All the BCJI sites are able to engage one another in peer-to-peer
dialogue, which helps to develop their practices and strategies, and
enables them to learn from one another in a meaningful way. Each site
has developed community policing efforts in a different way, with some
innovative approaches to building the relationships between law
enforcement and the community. These practices and efforts are shared
through our technical assistance provider's Web site and can be used as
models for non-BCJI sites throughout the country.
Procedural Justice--Building Community Trust Program.--The
Procedural Justice--Building Community Trust Program focuses on
enhancing procedural justice, reducing bias, and supporting racial
reconciliation in the criminal and juvenile justice systems and
furthers the Department's mission to ensure public safety and the fair
and impartial administration of justice for all Americans. This
program, which will be administered by the Office of Juvenile Justice
and Delinquency Prevention, will provide grants and technical
assistance to State, local, and tribal courts and juvenile and criminal
justice agencies to support innovative efforts to improve perceptions
of fairness in the juvenile and criminal justice systems and build
community trust in these institutions.
Civil Rights Division
The Civil Rights Division will continue to investigate and, when
necessary, prosecute law enforcement officers who engage in excessive
force or intentionally violate individual's rights. The Division's
civil enforcement work is designed to address systemic problems in
police departments by securing agreements with law enforcement agencies
that provide for meaningful reform, including community policing
requirements. As part of the investigative process, the Division
engages with and solicits feedback from the community and works
cooperatively with COPS and OJP in facilitating relationship-building
between the community and law enforcement. The Division is continually
examining its enforcement work to ensure that it is encouraging
departments to use the best practices, such as proper use of body-worn
cameras and data collection and reporting. To protect individual rights
and ensure communities' trust in law enforcement, the Division will
continue to commit substantial resources to these important cases.
Community Relations Service
Police-community relations surrounding excessive use of force, and
the possibility of racial violence, particularly in minority
communities, consumes more than half of the Community Relations
Services' work. To meet the demand for tailored services regarding the
policing of minority communities, CRS requested 10 positions and $1.2
million for three program increases in the fiscal year 2016 President's
budget. The request funds local capacity building to reduce tensions
through online resources, allowing CRS to direct its limited resources
towards the most vulnerable, highest priority populations ($240,000 for
the CRS Training Academy request); provides conciliation services in
support of the President's My Brother's Keeper Initiative and the
proposal for the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and
Justice ($775,000 and 10 positions as part of the Collaborative
Community Strengthening Initiative); and funds in-depth consultation
and guidance to local law enforcement agencies who are party to
potentially violent, public safety degrading conflicts with minority
communities ($200,000 for the Law Enforcement Organizational Change
Initiative).
lost and stolen guns rider
Question. Do you share my view that ATF should no longer be
prohibited from requiring gun dealers to conduct regular inventories of
their firearms?
Lead-in information from original document.--
On May 2, 2015, a New York Police Department officer, Brian
Moore, was shot and killed by an assailant who used a gun
stolen 4 years ago from a pawnshop in Georgia. That pawnshop
had guns stolen on at least one other occasion, according to
press reports. The tragic shooting of Officer Moore highlights
a serious problem in our laws. Since 2004, a policy ``rider''
included annually in appropriations bills has prohibited ATF
from requiring that gun dealers conduct an inventory analysis
to determine if any guns are lost, stolen, or missing. As a
result of this prohibition, guns can be stolen from stores or
given to criminals by unscrupulous dealers without ATF's
knowledge.
Answer. Some Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) do not conduct
annual inventory inspections and record reconciliation and, as such,
are often unable to account for some of the firearms that, according to
their records, are in their custody. Missing firearms for which no
record of disposition exists is the most often cited violation during
the FFL inspection process. ATF encourages FFLs to conduct annual
inventories of their firearms, but cannot require them to do so, and
cannot explore possible rulemaking relevant to inventories to enhance
timely reporting of lost/stolen firearms. If Congress removed the
appropriations restriction, and ATF intended to propose a regulation on
this issue, it would do so through the Administrative Procedures Act
(APA), which would include opportunity for public comment. ATF believes
that public discourse on this issue, through the APA process, is a
worthwhile exercise and could help it develop a regulation that would
minimize the burden on industry while maximizing its ability to
investigate firearms trafficking and streamline the inspection process.
daniel chong detention by dea
Question. The DEA's administrator, Michele Leonhart, is stepping
down, effective May 15th. As DEA transitions to new leadership, how
will you ensure that the agency does not let an incident like this one
happen ever again?
Lead-in information from original document.--
College student Daniel Chong was held in a detention cell at
the DEA's San Diego office without food or water for 5 days
with his hands handcuffed behind his back. He nearly died. When
he was found, he was suffering from dehydration and kidney
failure.
Answer. What happened to Daniel Chong is unacceptable. Following
the incident, DEA leadership took immediate steps to implement
protocols and procedures regarding the monitoring of holding cells and
detainees. Furthermore, DEA instituted the recommendations made by the
Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in its investigation report
before the OIG report was even finalized. DEA took action within 60
days of the incident to ensure that nothing like this ever happens
again.
Additionally, as a result of the OIG review, the head of the
Department of Justice's (DOJ) Office of Professional Responsibility is
examining DEA's processes and procedures for investigating allegations
of misconduct as well as its processes for determining and
administering disciplinary action when appropriate. Following
completion of this review, DOJ will work with DEA to enhance its
policies and procedures to ensure that all allegations are thoroughly
investigated and that any substantial findings of misconduct are
properly addressed.
Question. Will you ensure that DEA responds to congressional
inquiries, particularly following such tragedies, in a timely manner?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Last summer, I sent Administrator Leonhart two letters,
expressing my outrage at Mr. Chong's treatment and requesting
answers as to how DEA intended to remedy what an Inspector
General's report called ``systemic deficiencies'' that led to
Mr. Chong's detention. I have not received any response to my
two letters.
Answer. It is important that the Department respond to
congressional inquiries in a timely manner. I understand that DEA
responded to your letters on June 9, 2015.
Question. Are you confident that DEA has sufficient funding to
remedy the deficiencies identified by the Inspector General?
Lead-in information from original document.--
Last summer, I sent Administrator Leonhart two letters,
expressing my outrage at Mr. Chong's treatment and requesting
answers as to how DEA intended to remedy what an Inspector
General's report called ``systemic deficiencies'' that led to
Mr. Chong's detention. I have not received any response to my
two letters.
Answer. Yes. As previously stated, all of the OIG recommendations
were in place before the OIG finalized its report. DEA took action
within 60 days of the incident to ensure that nothing like this ever
happens again. DEA responded to your letters on June 9, 2015.
restitution for trafficking victims
Question. What training do prosecutors receive on mandatory
criminal restitution for trafficking victims?
Lead-in information from original document.--
In a letter dated April 20, 2015, Assistant Attorney General
Peter Kadzik responded to a letter Senator Portman and I had
written to then-Attorney General Eric Holder, urging him to
seek restitution for all victims of human trafficking. The
Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (codified at 18
U.S.C. ss 1593) provides that the Federal courts ``shall order
restitution for any offense'' committed under Federal laws that
prohibit human trafficking. That law requires the court to
order the greater of the calculation of wages owed under the
Fair Labor Standards Act or the value of the victim's services
to the trafficker. As discussed in the letter Senator Portman
and I sent to Attorney General Holder, a recent report by The
Human Trafficking Pro Bono Legal Center found that Federal
prosecutors did not request restitution in 37 percent of
qualifying human trafficking cases that were brought between
2009 and 2012, despite the requirement in Federal law that
restitution is mandatory in these cases. Mr. Kadzik stated
that, in some instances, there may be ``insufficient evidence''
to support a claim for restitution, noting that restitution
requires ``proof that specific harms were caused as a result of
an offense'' and ``evidence establishing the amount of losses
incurred or projected to be incurred. ``It is clear that many
trafficking victims are essentially sold and exploited for
profit, and many have significant healthcare needs resulting
from their trafficking. One paper produced by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services stated that a ``number
of studies have identified the serious and often complex mental
health needs of victims of human trafficking.'' As an example,
in one Federal case in which restitution was ordered (United
States v. Shelby, Memorandum Opinion, 09-213 (D. D.C. June 13,
2011)), the Guardian Ad Litem appointed to represent the four
minor victims in that case concluded that each victim suffered
from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder specifically relating to
the victim's experience with the defendant. The statute
provides for how losses should be calculated. In addition, to
address physical and mental healthcare needs, victims incur
costs, either now or in the future, and traffickers must pay
for those costs.
Answer. Securing restitution for victims is an essential part of
the Department's victim-centered approach to trafficking investigations
and prosecutions. The Department provides in-person training and
written guidance for United States Attorneys' Offices throughout the
country on seeking restitution for victims of trafficking. Restitution
is a component of almost all Project Safe Childhood trainings at the
National Advocacy Center, and restitution training is presented at
national conferences such as the Internet Crimes Against Children Task
Force national training for law enforcement and prosecutors. In 2014,
for the first time, the Human Trafficking Prosecution course for
Federal prosecutors at the National Advocacy Center included a
specialized, stand-alone segment on restitution.
The Department has also already issued guidance to the field
regarding the new restitution provisions in the Justice for Victims of
Trafficking Act, and the Department is currently planning additional
trainings for prosecutors on the new enforcement and restitution
provisions in the law. The Department's human trafficking prosecutors
are also increasingly collaborating with their counterparts in the
Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section to more effectively
anticipate and address complex issues arising in restitution and
forfeiture proceedings.
Question. Are prosecutors instructed that they must seek
restitution?
Lead-in information from original document.--
In a letter dated April 20, 2015, Assistant Attorney General
Peter Kadzik responded to a letter Senator Portman and I had
written to then-Attorney General Eric Holder, urging him to
seek restitution for all victims of human trafficking. The
Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (codified at 18
U.S.C. ss 1593) provides that the Federal courts ``shall order
restitution for any offense'' committed under Federal laws that
prohibit human trafficking. That law requires the court to
order the greater of the calculation of wages owed under the
Fair Labor Standards Act or the value of the victim's services
to the trafficker. As discussed in the letter Senator Portman
and I sent to Attorney General Holder, a recent report by The
Human Trafficking Pro Bono Legal Center found that Federal
prosecutors did not request restitution in 37 percent of
qualifying human trafficking cases that were brought between
2009 and 2012, despite the requirement in Federal law that
restitution is mandatory in these cases. Mr. Kadzik stated
that, in some instances, there may be ``insufficient evidence''
to support a claim for restitution, noting that restitution
requires ``proof that specific harms were caused as a result of
an offense'' and ``evidence establishing the amount of losses
incurred or projected to be incurred. ``It is clear that many
trafficking victims are essentially sold and exploited for
profit, and many have significant healthcare needs resulting
from their trafficking. One paper produced by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services stated that a ``number
of studies have identified the serious and often complex mental
health needs of victims of human trafficking.'' As an example,
in one Federal case in which restitution was ordered (United
States v. Shelby, Memorandum Opinion, 09-213 (D. D.C. June 13,
2011)), the Guardian Ad Litem appointed to represent the four
minor victims in that case concluded that each victim suffered
from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder specifically relating to
the victim's experience with the defendant. The statute
provides for how losses should be calculated. In addition, to
address physical and mental healthcare needs, victims incur
costs, either now or in the future, and traffickers must pay
for those costs.
Answer. Prosecutors are instructed to seek restitution in every
case where there is an identifiable victim that suffered a compensable
loss, as defined by applicable statutes, as a result of the offense of
conviction and where there is available, admissible evidence to support
such a request. Securing restitution for victims is an essential part
of the Department's victim-centered approach to trafficking
investigations and prosecutions.
As indicated in the April 20, 2015 letter from Assistant Attorney
General Peter J. Kadzik, there are a number of factors which may impact
whether restitution may be ordered. For instance, if victims indicate
that they do not wish to obtain restitution from defendants or
participate in sentencing or restitution proceedings, the Department
respects their decisions. Further, the Department can only proceed
where there is sufficient evidence to support a loss calculation for
restitution purposes, including evidence establishing actual losses as
statutorily defined. If necessary evidence is unavailable, there may be
no factual basis to support a restitution order.
Question. Has the U.S. Attorneys' Manual been updated to include
instructions for seeking restitution under 18 U.S.C. ss 1593?
Lead-in information from original document.--
In a letter dated April 20, 2015, Assistant Attorney General
Peter Kadzik responded to a letter Senator Portman and I had
written to then-Attorney General Eric Holder, urging him to
seek restitution for all victims of human trafficking. The
Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (codified at 18
U.S.C. ss 1593) provides that the Federal courts ``shall order
restitution for any offense'' committed under Federal laws that
prohibit human trafficking. That law requires the court to
order the greater of the calculation of wages owed under the
Fair Labor Standards Act or the value of the victim's services
to the trafficker. As discussed in the letter Senator Portman
and I sent to Attorney General Holder, a recent report by The
Human Trafficking Pro Bono Legal Center found that Federal
prosecutors did not request restitution in 37 percent of
qualifying human trafficking cases that were brought between
2009 and 2012, despite the requirement in Federal law that
restitution is mandatory in these cases. Mr. Kadzik stated
that, in some instances, there may be ``insufficient evidence''
to support a claim for restitution, noting that restitution
requires ``proof that specific harms were caused as a result of
an offense'' and ``evidence establishing the amount of losses
incurred or projected to be incurred. ''It is clear that many
trafficking victims are essentially sold and exploited for
profit, and many have significant healthcare needs resulting
from their trafficking. One paper produced by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services stated that a ``number
of studies have identified the serious and often complex mental
health needs of victims of human trafficking.'' As an example,
in one Federal case in which restitution was ordered (United
States v. Shelby, Memorandum Opinion, 09-213 (D. D.C. June 13,
2011)), the Guardian Ad Litem appointed to represent the four
minor victims in that case concluded that each victim suffered
from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder specifically relating to
the victim's experience with the defendant. The statute
provides for how losses should be calculated. In addition, to
address physical and mental healthcare needs, victims incur
costs, either now or in the future, and traffickers must pay
for those costs.
Answer. The United States Attorneys' Manual (USAM) directs U.S.
Attorneys to seek restitution where appropriate. For example, section
9-16.320 discusses restitution--particularly mandatory restitution--in
the context of plea agreements. Section 9-75.500 of the USAM and
section 1977 of the Criminal Resource Manual discuss mandatory
restitution in the context of sexual exploitation offenses, directing
Assistant U.S. Attorneys (AUSAs) that issuance of a restitution order
is mandatory. Section 9-27 of the USAM contains the Principles of
Federal Prosecution, and directs AUSAs to consider whether restitution
has been paid when considering the serious nature of the offense. The
USAM does not, and cannot, specifically address restitution for each
individual statute in which restitution can be obtained. Nevertheless,
the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys is in the process of drafting
guidance addressing Sec. 1593's mandatory restitution provision.
Question. If a victim wishes to obtain restitution from a
defendant, what specific problems does the Department face in proving
the victim's amount of losses?
Lead-in information from original document.--
In a letter dated April 20, 2015, Assistant Attorney General
Peter Kadzik responded to a letter Senator Portman and I had
written to then-Attorney General Eric Holder, urging him to
seek restitution for all victims of human trafficking. The
Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (codified at 18
U.S.C. ss 1593) provides that the Federal courts ``shall order
restitution for any offense'' committed under Federal laws that
prohibit human trafficking. That law requires the court to
order the greater of the calculation of wages owed under the
Fair Labor Standards Act or the value of the victim's services
to the trafficker. As discussed in the letter Senator Portman
and I sent to Attorney General Holder, a recent report by The
Human Trafficking Pro Bono Legal Center found that Federal
prosecutors did not request restitution in 37 percent of
qualifying human trafficking cases that were brought between
2009 and 2012, despite the requirement in Federal law that
restitution is mandatory in these cases. Mr. Kadzik stated
that, in some instances, there may be ``insufficient evidence''
to support a claim for restitution, noting that restitution
requires ``proof that specific harms were caused as a result of
an offense'' and ``evidence establishing the amount of losses
incurred or projected to be incurred. ``It is clear that many
trafficking victims are essentially sold and exploited for
profit, and many have significant healthcare needs resulting
from their trafficking. One paper produced by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services stated that a ``number
of studies have identified the serious and often complex mental
health needs of victims of human trafficking.'' As an example,
in one Federal case in which restitution was ordered (United
States v. Shelby, Memorandum Opinion, 09-213 (D. D.C. June 13,
2011)), the Guardian Ad Litem appointed to represent the four
minor victims in that case concluded that each victim suffered
from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder specifically relating to
the victim's experience with the defendant. The statute
provides for how losses should be calculated. In addition, to
address physical and mental healthcare needs, victims incur
costs, either now or in the future, and traffickers must pay
for those costs.
Answer. In addition to ``the full amount of the victim's losses,''
the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) restitution provisions
require the court to order the greater of the wages under the Fair
Labor Standards Act or the value of the victim's services to the
trafficker. This requires proof of prevailing wages and hours worked,
or alternatively of proceeds generated by a victim for the trafficker's
benefit. Other restitution provisions allow recompense for out-of-
pocket expenses, such as healthcare costs, if there is adequate
documentation. In many instances, there are few if any written records,
and victims' recollections can be imprecise due to isolation, trauma
responses, the long duration of the offense, and other factors. In
addition, a victim may not have been employed (or his or her employment
may not have been affected by the offense conduct), and the victim may
not have been able to receive medical, therapeutic or rehabilitative
services (or may not provide any records reflecting any such services).
Other difficulties include victim unavailability and losses
attributable to prior trauma.
Question. How do Federal prosecutors have difficulty finding
``evidence establishing the amount of losses incurred or projected to
be incurred'' by trafficking victims?
Lead-in information from original document.--
In a letter dated April 20, 2015, Assistant Attorney General
Peter Kadzik responded to a letter Senator Portman and I had
written to then-Attorney General Eric Holder, urging him to
seek restitution for all victims of human trafficking. The
Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (codified at 18
U.S.C. ss 1593) provides that the Federal courts ``shall order
restitution for any offense'' committed under Federal laws that
prohibit human trafficking. That law requires the court to
order the greater of the calculation of wages owed under the
Fair Labor Standards Act or the value of the victim's services
to the trafficker. As discussed in the letter Senator Portman
and I sent to Attorney General Holder, a recent report by The
Human Trafficking Pro Bono Legal Center found that Federal
prosecutors did not request restitution in 37 percent of
qualifying human trafficking cases that were brought between
2009 and 2012, despite the requirement in Federal law that
restitution is mandatory in these cases. Mr. Kadzik stated
that, in some instances, there may be ``insufficient evidence''
to support a claim for restitution, noting that restitution
requires ``proof that specific harms were caused as a result of
an offense'' and ``evidence establishing the amount of losses
incurred or projected to be incurred. ``It is clear that many
trafficking victims are essentially sold and exploited for
profit, and many have significant healthcare needs resulting
from their trafficking. One paper produced by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services stated that a ``number
of studies have identified the serious and often complex mental
health needs of victims of human trafficking.'' As an example,
in one Federal case in which restitution was ordered (United
States v. Shelby, Memorandum Opinion, 09-213 (D. D.C. June 13,
2011)), the Guardian Ad Litem appointed to represent the four
minor victims in that case concluded that each victim suffered
from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder specifically relating to
the victim's experience with the defendant. The statute
provides for how losses should be calculated. In addition, to
address physical and mental healthcare needs, victims incur
costs, either now or in the future, and traffickers must pay
for those costs.
Answer. Victims may not remain involved post-trial, and may become
unavailable, which may adversely affect the Government's ability to
estimate the victim's actual losses with reasonable certainty, and may
adversely affect a judge's consideration of a restitution request that
is made. In addition, while restitution is sometimes sought for medical
or psychiatric care, defense counsel and courts may question whether
the loss can be proven to be causally related to the offense, as
opposed to prior or subsequent traumas that are common in the lives of
many trafficking victims.
Under the TVPA, a victim of labor or sex trafficking is entitled
to, among recompense for other losses, ``the greater of the gross
income or value to the defendant of the victim's services or labor or
the value of the victim's labor as guaranteed under the minimum wage
and overtime guarantees of the Fair Labor Standards Act.'' However,
where the underlying nature of the work is illegal, such as
prostitution, victims are unable to benefit from a prevailing wage
standard. To remedy this issue, the Department has argued that victims
should be compensated based on a theory of unjust enrichment, granting
an award in the amount that the defendant(s) profited from exploiting
the victim, whether for labor or for illegal commercial sex acts. Under
this method, the Department has argued that a victim is entitled to
recover the ill-gotten gains the trafficker derived, but not all courts
have accepted this legal theory.
Question. Would the Department recommend any legislative changes to
Section 1593 to improve its usefulness for trafficking victims?
Lead-in information from original document.--
In a letter dated April 20, 2015, Assistant Attorney General
Peter Kadzik responded to a letter Senator Portman and I had
written to then-Attorney General Eric Holder, urging him to
seek restitution for all victims of human trafficking. The
Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (codified at 18
U.S.C. ss 1593) provides that the Federal courts ``shall order
restitution for any offense'' committed under Federal laws that
prohibit human trafficking. That law requires the court to
order the greater of the calculation of wages owed under the
Fair Labor Standards Act or the value of the victim's services
to the trafficker. As discussed in the letter Senator Portman
and I sent to Attorney General Holder, a recent report by The
Human Trafficking Pro Bono Legal Center found that Federal
prosecutors did not request restitution in 37 percent of
qualifying human trafficking cases that were brought between
2009 and 2012, despite the requirement in Federal law that
restitution is mandatory in these cases. Mr. Kadzik stated
that, in some instances, there may be ``insufficient evidence''
to support a claim for restitution, noting that restitution
requires ``proof that specific harms were caused as a result of
an offense'' and ``evidence establishing the amount of losses
incurred or projected to be incurred. ``It is clear that many
trafficking victims are essentially sold and exploited for
profit, and many have significant healthcare needs resulting
from their trafficking. One paper produced by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services stated that a ``number
of studies have identified the serious and often complex mental
health needs of victims of human trafficking.'' As an example,
in one Federal case in which restitution was ordered (United
States v. Shelby, Memorandum Opinion, 09-213 (D. D.C. June 13,
2011)), the Guardian Ad Litem appointed to represent the four
minor victims in that case concluded that each victim suffered
from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder specifically relating to
the victim's experience with the defendant. The statute
provides for how losses should be calculated. In addition, to
address physical and mental healthcare needs, victims incur
costs, either now or in the future, and traffickers must pay
for those costs.
Answer. The Department is examining this section to see what
legislative changes may help improve 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1593's efficacy in
helping trafficking victims.
Question. What steps is the Department taking to ensure that, when
restitution is ordered, any assets the defendant forfeited may be used
to pay restitution?
Lead-in information from original document.--
In a letter dated April 20, 2015, Assistant Attorney General
Peter Kadzik responded to a letter Senator Portman and I had
written to then-Attorney General Eric Holder, urging him to
seek restitution for all victims of human trafficking. The
Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (codified at 18
U.S.C. ss 1593) provides that the Federal courts ``shall order
restitution for any offense'' committed under Federal laws that
prohibit human trafficking. That law requires the court to
order the greater of the calculation of wages owed under the
Fair Labor Standards Act or the value of the victim's services
to the trafficker. As discussed in the letter Senator Portman
and I sent to Attorney General Holder, a recent report by The
Human Trafficking Pro Bono Legal Center found that Federal
prosecutors did not request restitution in 37 percent of
qualifying human trafficking cases that were brought between
2009 and 2012, despite the requirement in Federal law that
restitution is mandatory in these cases. Mr. Kadzik stated
that, in some instances, there may be ``insufficient evidence''
to support a claim for restitution, noting that restitution
requires ``proof that specific harms were caused as a result of
an offense'' and ``evidence establishing the amount of losses
incurred or projected to be incurred. ``It is clear that many
trafficking victims are essentially sold and exploited for
profit, and many have significant healthcare needs resulting
from their trafficking. One paper produced by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services stated that a ``number
of studies have identified the serious and often complex mental
health needs of victims of human trafficking.'' As an example,
in one Federal case in which restitution was ordered (United
States v. Shelby, Memorandum Opinion, 09-213 (D. D.C. June 13,
2011)), the Guardian Ad Litem appointed to represent the four
minor victims in that case concluded that each victim suffered
from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder specifically relating to
the victim's experience with the defendant. The statute
provides for how losses should be calculated. In addition, to
address physical and mental healthcare needs, victims incur
costs, either now or in the future, and traffickers must pay
for those costs.
Answer. Returning assets to victims of crime is a priority in the
Department of Justice's Asset Forfeiture Program. The Department has
returned more than $4 billion in civilly and criminally forfeited funds
to crime victims since 2002, with $723 million paid to over 150,000
victims in the last 3 years alone. The Department's human trafficking
prosecutors are also increasingly collaborating with their counterparts
in the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section to more
effectively anticipate and address complex issues arising in
restitution and forfeiture proceedings. The Department also looks
forward to employing the new tools provided in the Justice for Victims
of Trafficking Act to ensure that forfeited assets of traffickers are/
will be used for restitution.
______
Questions Submitted by Senator Christopher A. Coons
fbi testimony
Question. What is the DOJ doing to complete its analysis of cases
in which the FBI provided hair analysis testimony, including in those
cases where local jurisdictions have not been working cooperatively?
Answer. In 2012, the FBI initiated a comprehensive review of
microscopic hair comparison analysis or testimony provided in more than
20,000 cases prior to December 31, 1999, when mitochondrial DNA testing
became routine at the FBI Lab. The FBI has completed the review of 98
percent of these cases. The review determines whether the FBI
Laboratory analysis revealed a positive association between hair
evidence and a known sample. To accomplish this process, which includes
identifying cases, locating transcripts, and reviewing and evaluating
transcripts and reports, the FBI has used the services of 5 FBI
employees full-time, more than 18 FBI employees part-time, and 3
contractors full-time. The Department has been working in cooperation
with the Innocence Project (IP) and National Association of Criminal
Defense Lawyers (NACDL) in this review.
The FBI reached out nationwide to U.S. Attorneys' Offices, State
and local District Attorney Offices and last known defense counsel to
obtain transcripts of FBI Hair Examiner trial testimony. The IP and
NACDL have also reached out to their contacts to obtain transcripts,
which they will provide DOJ and FBI. The FBI anticipates completing its
review of all received case transcripts by the end of 2015.
The FBI, IP, and NACDL are developing additional measures to secure
transcripts from jurisdictions that have not been responsive to the
requests including enlisting the assistance of the State and local
prosecutor associations or contracting for the preparation of
transcripts of previously un-transcribed testimony.
inaccurate forensic testimony
Question. What is the DOJ doing to provide meaningful relief to
those convicted on the strength of misstated and inaccurate forensic
testimony?
Answer. DOJ reviews requests for relief on a case-by-case basis
based on an individual review of all case information. In the event
that the prosecuting office determines that further testing is
appropriate or necessary, or the court orders such testing, the FBI is
available to provide mitochondrial DNA testing of the relevant hair
evidence or short tandem repeat (STR) testing of related biological
evidence if the testing of hair evidence is no longer possible, if (1)
the evidence to be tested is in the Government's possession or control,
and (2) the chain of custody for the evidence can be established. In
the cases with a positive association, the FBI determines whether the
hair examiner involved exceeded the scope of science when the evidence
was introduced at trial or to support a plea. In all convictions where
a positive FBI hair analysis was used, DOJ will notify the appropriate
prosecutor, the defendant, his/her attorney when possible, the
Innocence Project (IP), and the National Association of Criminal
Defense Lawyers (NACDL)--whether or not there was a prior error. For
example, the FBI reached out nationwide to U.S. Attorneys' Offices,
State and local District Attorney Offices and last known defense
counsel to obtain transcripts of FBI Hair Examiner trial testimony. The
IP and NACDL have also reached out to their contacts to obtain
transcripts, which they will provide to DOJ and FBI. The FBI
anticipates completing its review of all received case transcripts by
the end of 2015.
CONCLUSION OF HEARINGS
Senator Shelby. Now, the subcommittee stands in recess
subject to the call of the chair. The subcommittee is
adjourned.
Attorney General Lynch. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[Whereupon, at 12:12 p.m., Thursday, May 7, the hearings
were concluded, and the subcommittee was recessed, to reconvene
subject to the call of the Chair.]
COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR
FISCAL YEAR 2016
----------
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,
Washington, DC.
NONDEPARTMENTAL WITNESSES
[Clerk's Note.--The subcommittee was unable to hold
hearings on nondepartmental witnesses. The statements and
letters of those submitting written testimony are as follows:]
Prepared Statement of the American Geophysical Union
The American Geophysical Union (AGU), a non-profit, non-partisan
scientific society, appreciates the opportunity to submit testimony
regarding the fiscal year 2016 budget request for the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Science Foundation
(NSF). The AGU, on behalf of its over 60,000 Earth and space scientist
members, respectfully requests that the 114th Congress appropriate:
--$18.91 billion overall for NASA, $5.51 billion for the Science
Mission Directorate;
--$5.98 billion overall for NOAA; and
--$7.72 billion overall for NSF.
national aeronautics & space administration
AGU requests that Congress appropriate $18.91 billion for NASA in
fiscal year 2016. Additionally, AGU requests that Congress appropriate
$5.51 billion for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. These increases
represent a 5 percent increase over the fiscal year 2015 appropriated
levels.
Despite increases in appropriation, NASA's budget has fallen in
real dollars by 10.5 percent since fiscal year 1995. Unless this
pattern is reversed, NASA will cede its leadership in the Earth and
space science missions and exploration that the U.S. has historically
pioneered. A request of 5 percent allows NASA to grow above the rate of
inflation.
Within NASA's Science Mission Directorate, AGU requests that
Congress set appropriations for the Earth, Planetary, and Heliophysics
Divisions that are equitable and in harmony with their respective
Decadal studies produced by the National Research Council.
Earth Science and Planetary Science Divisions
Missions within NASA's Earth Science Division aid in flood
prediction, earthquake response, and severe storm tracking. Greater
knowledge and prediction skills are urgent when we consider the effort,
time and costs of protecting infrastructure along coasts, rebuilding
fish populations in our seas, developing new water resources for
manufacturing and agriculture, and restoring communities in the wake of
hazards. These observations, and many others like them, are integral
and require the vantage point of outer space.
NASA's Planetary Science Division advances our understanding of the
solar system and inspires future generations of scientists. However,
with no outer planet missions currently in early-stage development and
barring any major funding increase, the U.S. will soon relinquish its
presence beyond Mars.
Both areas of science, Earth and planetary, are complementary. The
study of the Earth system--Earth's interacting physical, chemical, and
biological processes--informs our understanding of other worlds in the
solar system, and our exploration of these bodies advance our knowledge
of Earth's evolution.
Heliophysics Science Division
Studying the sun and its interactions with Earth is crucial to
increasing our knowledge of the dynamic solar processes that impact all
life on our planet. This includes advance detection and warning of
space weather events, such as solar storms, that have the potential to
cause serious damage to our satellites, energy grid infrastructure, and
the electronics we depend everyday. The request would ensure continued
growth in NASA's work researching these and other interactions between
the Sun and the Earth.
national oceanic & atmospheric administration
AGU requests that Congress appropriate $5.98 billion for NOAA in
fiscal year 2016. This would be a 9.8 percent increase over the fiscal
year 2015 appropriated level for NOAA.
In our 21st century economy, it is vital that NOAA provide the data
and insights on our environment that keep Americans safe and
prosperous. NOAA's atmospheric and oceanic programs combine cutting-
edge research and world-class operational facilities to ensure that the
U.S. is a resilient, weather-ready, and sustainable nation. Many
sectors of our economy rely on the Agency's satellite programs to
provide high quality, uninterrupted data for weather forecasts and on
its oceanic program for insights on our environment and the
sustainability of our coastal economies.
national science foundation
AGU requests that Congress appropriate $7.72 billion for NSF in
fiscal year 2016. This would be a 5.2 percent increase over the fiscal
year 2015 appropriated level for NSF.
The Foundation is critical to America's ability to compete globally
in technological and scientific innovation. Faced with ever-increasing
international competition, maintaining U.S. scientific leadership
requires continued robust investments in basic research and STEM
education. NSF is the only Federal agency that supports research and
education across all fields of science, engineering, and mathematics
and at all educational levels. Research and education programs
supported by NSF help increase and develop the knowledge base needed
for pushing the frontiers of science, mathematics, and engineering
disciplines, contribute to the development of the future science and
technology workforce, underpin new fields of inquiry, and promote
interdisciplinary research and education. All of these facilitate
technological innovation.
Even under tight budget constraints, it is important for NSF to
have steady budget levels that demonstrate real growth. Under constant
2014 dollars, NSF has lost 5.8 percent of its budget from fiscal year
2010 to fiscal year 2014. This stagnant pace of funding is creating an
innovation deficit in the U.S.--a widening gap between the actual level
of Federal Government funding for research and higher education and
what the investment needs to be if the U.S. is to remain the world's
innovation leader.
Geosciences Directorate
The Geoscience Directorate awards research in the Earth,
atmospheric, ocean, and polar sciences. Much of the geosciences
research budget leads to a better understanding of critical national
needs, such as water and mineral resources, energy resources,
environmental issues, climate change, and mitigation of natural
hazards. AGU asks the subcommittee to strongly support these programs.
GEO supports infrastructure, operation, and maintenance costs for
cutting edge facilities that are essential for fundamental and applied
research. Geoscience-based research tools and academic expertise helped
to track and contain the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, saving
billions of dollars for Gulf industries and untold costs to the
environment. Among the major infrastructure that NSF supports, the U.S.
Arctic and Antarctic Facilities and Logistics, Academic Research Fleet,
EarthScope Operations, Incorporated Research Institutions for
Seismology (IRIS), the Ocean Drilling Program, the Ocean Observatories
Initiative, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research are all
key to our Nation's innovation and economic well-being. AGU strongly
supports robust and steady funding for this infrastructure as well as
operation and maintenance of these major facilities.
Earth Science Education
The geosciences workforce is aging and being quickly depleted.
Congress can grow this workforce, stimulate economic growth in the
energy, natural resources and environmental sectors, and improve
natural resource literacy by supporting the full integration of Earth
science information into mainstream science education at the K-12 and
higher education levels. AGU strongly supports the new NSF INCLUDES
program (Inclusion Across the Nation of Communities of Learners that
have been Underrepresented for Diversity in Engineering and Science),
the Integrated NSF Support Promoting Interdisciplinary Research and
Education program (INSPIRE), the Graduate Research Fellowships (GRF),
and the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU), and the Faculty
Early Career Development Program (CAREER). These programs are effective
in building a science and engineering workforce for the 21st century
that supports academia, industry, national defense, and Federal and
local governments.
______
Prepared Statement of the American Geosciences Institute
Thank you for this opportunity to provide the American Geosciences
Institute's perspective on fiscal year 2016 appropriations for
geoscience programs within the subcommittee's jurisdiction.
The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) supports critical Earth
Science research conducted by the National Science Foundation (NSF),
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Cutting-edge research on
the Earth, energy, and the environment has fueled economic growth,
mitigated losses, and improved our quality of life. Our Nation needs
skilled and innovative geoscientists to help explore, assess, and
develop Earth's resources in a strategic, sustainable, and
environmentally sound manner and to help understand, evaluate, and
reduce our risks to hazards. AGI recognizes our Nation's financial
challenges and also the necessity for steady growth and investment in
science and technology for the future.
AGI respectfully requests $1.372 billion for the Geoscience
Directorate at NSF and $1.947 billion for NASA Earth Science programs.
AGI supports the President's request for $5.982 billion for NOAA and
$1.12 billion for NIST.
AGI is a nonprofit federation of about 50 geoscientific and
professional societies representing more than 250,000 geologists,
geophysicists, and other Earth scientists. Founded in 1948, AGI
provides information services to geoscientists, serves as a voice for
shared interests in our profession, plays a major role in strengthening
geoscience education, and strives to increase public awareness of the
vital role the geosciences play in society's use of resources,
resilience to hazards, and the health of the environment.
national science foundation
AGI supports the President's request for $7.724 billion for NSF.--
These important investments in the future of our Nation are the seed
capital necessary to support the progress of science and engineering
which underpins modern society and produces revolutionary--and some as
yet unforeseen--breakthroughs. Basic research such as this provides
knowledge that is used to improve people's quality of life, creates a
dynamic and innovative economy, and strengthens the security of the
country.
NSF not only provides core funding and essential infrastructure for
basic research, but also supports the education and training of the
next generation of the workforce. AGI believes that investment in NSF
programs, where research is funded based on competitive, scientific
merit and peer review, will pay important dividends in maintaining U.S.
dominance in science and technology long into the future.
NSF Geosciences Directorate.--AGI is disappointed that the
President's request for a 4.7 percent increase for the Geoscience
Directorate (GEO) falls short of his NSF-wide request for a 5.2 percent
increase, especially when GEO funding had already been cut in fiscal
year 2015. AGI respectfully asks the subcommittee to provide the
Geosciences Directorate with $1,372 million for fiscal year 2016 to
keep the Directorate on par with the proposed NSF-wide increase of 5.2
percent.
The Geosciences Directorate (GEO) is the principal source of
Federal support for academic Earth scientists and their students who
seek to understand the Earth and the processes that sustain and
transform life on this planet. The Geosciences Directorate provides
about 61 percent of Federal funding for basic geoscience research at
academic institutions. According to NSF data, the Directorate
distributes about 1,600 new awards annually and expects about 15,900
people to participate in GEO activities in fiscal year 2016, while also
supporting indispensible research infrastructure and instruments.
The GEO Directorate plays a significant role in NSF's cross-
foundational initiatives, such as the Innovations at the Nexus of Food,
Energy, and Water Systems (INFEWS) and Prediction of and Resilience
against Extreme Events (PREEVENTS) activities. These exciting projects
integrate information from a range of disciplines to address pressing,
socially-relevant issues. The geosciences play a large role in INFEWS,
providing raw data and information on fossil, nuclear, and renewable
energies; the quantity, quality, and distribution of water supplies;
and the characteristics, health, and stability of soils and the
critical zone where Earth, biological, and human systems intersect.
Additionally, geohazards such as earthquakes and landslides are a
significant component of PREEVENTS. This NSF-wide initiative has the
potential to improve predictability and risk assessments associated
with geohazards, which help build resilience to natural and manmade
disasters. These investments in pre-disaster research and mitigation
will provide an excellent return on investment, both in monetary and
social terms. AGI supports funding of $14.78 million for INFEWS and
$23.50 million for PREEVENTS in the Geoscience Directorate and
particularly stress the importance of the Earth Science Division to
this work.
NSF's Division of Polar Programs (PLR) funds basic research in the
Arctic and Antarctic and manages all U.S. activities in Antarctica as a
single, integrated program. The polar regions are the focus of intense
scientific and political interest as new navigation routes are opening
access to resources and presenting security challenges. NSF-funded
research and infrastructure are helping the United States understand
environmental conditions in extreme environments, develop polar
technology, and construct data-driven strategic and security policies.
AGI suggests a minimum of $450 million for the Division of Polar
Programs.
NSF funds facilities that enable researchers to access locations,
data, and technologies that serve the overall research community. AGI
strongly supports robust and steady funding for infrastructure and the
operation and maintenance of major facilities, including the Academic
Research Fleet, Geodetic and Seismological Facilities for the
Advancement of Geosciences and EarthScope (GAGE and SAGE), Ocean
Drilling Activities, the Ocean Observatories Initiative, and the
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).
Directorate for Education and Human Resources.--Support for
geoscience education within NSF not only helps us meet the demand for a
competitive, skilled workforce, but also supports an informed citizenry
prepared to make well-informed decisions about the management of our
planet and its resources. Outreach and education are important at all
levels from K-12 through graduate and should include formal and
informal outlets to facilitate lifelong learning. AGI strongly supports
funding for geoscience education at all levels and particularly
supports programs to diversify the geoscience student population and
workforce. The INCLUDES (Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of
Learners that have been Underrepresented for Diversity in Engineering
and Science) initiative should focus funds and attention on this
important workforce issue. AGI urges Congress to fund programs in NSF's
Directorate for Education and Human Resources, including NSF
Scholarships in STEM, Graduate Research Fellowships, Climate Change
Education, Research Experiences for Undergraduates, and Advancing
Informal STEM Education.
national oceanic and atmospheric administration
Geoscientists rely on NOAA for much of the data and long-term
monitoring that enable research and rapid response for events such as
hurricanes, drought, marine oil spills, and a range of coastal
phenomena. The National Weather Service (NWS), Oceanic and Atmospheric
Research (OAS), National Ocean Service (NOS), and the National
Environment Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS) programs
provide the data necessary for understanding and mitigating these
events, as well as sustaining our natural resources. AGI supports the
President's request for $5.982 billion for NOAA and hopes that the
subcommittee will continue to support these crucial initiatives.
national institute of standards and technology
Earth scientists and geotechnical engineers versed in the
geosciences conduct basic research at NIST that is used by the public
and private sectors to build resilient communities and stimulate
economic growth. The research conducted and the information gained is
essential for understanding natural hazards, identifying the
infrastructure needed to build strong communities, and stimulating
economic growth. AGI strongly supports the President's request for
$1.12 billion for NIST.
NIST is the lead agency for the National Earthquake Hazard
Reduction Program (NEHRP), an interagency program responsible for the
efficient coordination of research and resources to understand and
mitigate earthquakes, but has received only a small portion of
authorized and essential funding in the past. AGI supports the
reauthorization and funding of the National Earthquake Hazards
Reduction Program (NEHRP) in this Congress.
national aeronautics and space administration
NASA's current fleet of Earth-observing satellites provides the
data necessary to understand our dynamic planet. These satellites such
as the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite and the Landsat series
provide information critical to research and life-sustaining functions
like weather forecasting, emergency service response and planning, and
tracking ash plumes or oil spills that disrupt the economy and the
environment. Geoscientists use Landsat data to monitor, predict, and
help land managers to address drought, wildfires, changes in
vegetation, and other changes to the Earth's surface. We strongly
support the President's request for $1.947 billion for NASA Earth
Science and the NASA/USGS Sustainability Land Imaging Architecture
Study Team, which is examining options for continuing Landsat-
compatible observations into the future.
Thank you for the opportunity to present this testimony to the
subcommittee.
______
Prepared Statement of the Association of Public and Land-Grant
Universities' Board on Oceans, Atmosphere, and Climate
On behalf of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities'
(APLU) Board on Oceans, Atmosphere, and Climate (BOAC), we thank you
for the opportunity to provide recommendations for the proposed fiscal
year 2016 budgets for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), the National Aeronautic and Space Administration
(NASA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). BOAC represents
hundreds of scientists and administrators at APLU's 238 member
universities and systems. We support a budget of $80 million for NOAA's
National Sea Grant College Program, $5.49 billion for NASA's Science
Directorate and $7.7 billion for NSF. We also support a full
restoration of all of NOAA, NASA, and NSF's STEM Programs.
According to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), between 1980
and 2013, there were 178 weather/climate disasters that each exceeded
$1 billion in damages. Combined, they exceed $1 trillion in losses. The
Federal Government spent nearly $140 billion on disasters in 2012
alone. Further, the U.S. economy often takes a hit from disasters as
well. The drought of 2012 likely cost the U.S. economy over $30
billion. Additionally, the role of the Federal Government in covering
many of these losses has grown tremendously over the last few decades.
Erwann Michel-Kerwann, chairman of the OECD's Board on Financial
Management of Catastrophes, noted that in 1989, Federal relief covered
only 23 percent of total damage whereas Federal relief covered 69
percent of Hurricane Ike in 2008 and 75 percent of Hurricane Sandy in
2012.
To decrease future Federal expenditures and to make the Nation more
prepared for natural disasters, Federal agencies are working with
communities across the Nation to enhance their resilience. Community
resilience is a measure of the ability of a community to prepare for,
respond to, and fully bounce back from a variety of crises. Through
research, Federal science agencies can play a valuable role in helping
communities strengthen their resilience.
national oceanic and atmospheric administration
Within the administration's fiscal year 2016 budget proposal, there
is a proposal to increase the Regional Coastal Resilience Grants
program by $45 million to ``(1) increase the resilience of coastal
communities and ecosystems by assisting with planning for and
addressing extreme weather events, coastal inundation, climate hazards,
changing ocean conditions, and competing uses; and (2) to support
regional approaches that leverage existing resources and efforts and
promote collaboration across jurisdictions and sectors.'' This proposal
nearly mirrors the National Sea Grant College Program's goals to (1)
develop vibrant and resilient coastal economies; (2) aid communities in
using comprehensive planning to make informed strategic decisions; (3)
improve coastal water resources to sustain human health and ecosystem
services; and (4) to help resilient coastal communities adapt to the
impacts of hazards and coastal changes.
Thus, while we applaud and support the administration's attention
to coastal resilience, we suggest that the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) capitalize on the capacity that
exists in the Sea Grant Program to add value to this initiative. Sea
Grant would strengthen the research and education component of this
resiliency effort. Furthermore, as required by law, each dollar Sea
Grant receives in Federal funding must be matched at the State level.
Finally, Sea Grant is local; it provides NOAA with boots on the ground
throughout the country's coastal areas. Sea Grant personnel hear
directly from community members about their needs and work directly
with communities to provide technical assistance. We provide below two
examples of the type of work Sea Grant has done related to community
resiliency.
Sea Grant has a proven track record with regard to coastal
community resilience work. For example, the Mississippi-Alabama Sea
Grant Consortium developed the Coastal Community Resilience Index
(CCRI), a community self-assessment tool, in response to community
requests for baseline data they could use to assess how they are
progressing toward their goals to become more resilient. Using this
tool, communities can identify vulnerabilities and prepare for future
natural disasters. So far, 47 communities across the Gulf of Mexico,
working along with 74 facilitators, have utilized the tool to determine
their base resilience. A small grants program then provides individual
communities financial resources needed to address action items
identified by the CCRI.
Sea Grant Programs also target the individual homeowners in coastal
communities. For instance, the University of Hawai'i Sea Grant produced
a community specific Homeowner's Handbook to Prepare for Natural
Hazards. Using non-technical language, the book offers homeowners step-
by-step instructions for hazard preparation along with education on the
hazard risk in their area. This book has proven so popular it has gone
through 8 print runs and has now been adapted to Alabama, Delaware,
Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, and Texas.
Based on the examples given, we encourage the subcommittee to fund
Sea Grant at $80 million, allowing the Program to then be heavily
utilized in NOAA's resiliency efforts.
Underlying all of the programs above are the skilled scientists,
educators, and community engagement specialists in academia, non-
profits, industry and State, local, and Federal Government that
actually perform the work. The continuity and durability of that
workforce relies on strong educational programs that recruit, mentor,
and develop the necessary human capacity. The administration's budget
calls for the elimination of several important STEM programs at NOAA
that contribute to the development of a workforce with the skills and
expertise needed in our 21st century economy.
NOAA's Fisheries Sea Grant Fellowship encourages students to pursue
careers in population and ecosystem dynamics or marine resource
economics, areas vital to NOAA's management of the Nation's fisheries.
The NOAA Teach at Sea Program permits K-12 teachers the opportunity to
experience hands-on, real world research on NOAA's fisheries,
oceanographic, or hydrographic survey cruises. This allows those
teachers to enrich their curricula and enhance their approaches to
teaching science. Finally, it is not enough in today's complex world to
know only the technical aspects of one's science discipline, but also
to hone professional skills needed to become tomorrow's leaders. The
John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship provides exactly that type of
training.
BOAC strongly encourages the subcommittee to restore funding for
all the NOAA STEM programs.
national science foundation
BOAC supports the administration's request of $7.7 billion for the
National Science Foundation (NSF). NSF provides 61 percent of
geoscience basic research funding, including support for critical
infrastructure such as the National Center for Atmospheric Research--
Wyoming Supercomputing Center, the Academic Research Fleet, and the
Ocean Observatories. Additionally, NSF is the home of traditionally
strong STEM education programs.
BOAC supports the budget request for NSF's geosciences directorate.
NSF's investments in the geosciences address important national
challenges, spur new economic sectors, and lead to the development and
implementation of advanced technologies that save lives, protect
property, and support our economy. BOAC also supports the NSF's
creation of the focused research effort called Prevention of and
Resilience against Extreme Events (PREEVENTS), the purpose of which is
to enhance national resilience to natural hazards. Like the Hazards
SEES (Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability) before
it, PREEVENTS will improve quantitative models and qualitative research
that should aid societal preparedness and resilience. In particular,
PREEVENTS will promote disciplinary and multidisciplinary projects for
significant near- or medium-term advances.
BOAC is also pleased to see NSF expand research into Innovations at
the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems (INFEWS). In its ``Science
Education and Outreach Roadmap for Natural Resources,'' APLU's BOAC and
its Board on Natural Resources identified six major grand challenges
facing the Nation's natural resources, three of which are agriculture,
energy, and water. There are many examples of where these three come
into play with one another. The drought in California affects not only
California's enormous agricultural system but also the State's
production of hydroelectricity. Many of the Nation's important
waterways face problems with eutrophication from nutrient runoff from
intensive agricultural production.
national aeronautics and space administration
Like NOAA & NSF, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) is critical to community resilience, both for developing an
understanding of the earth and how it functions as well as collection
of the data scientists use to help aid decision-makers.
In 2007, the National Academies issued the report, ``Earth and
Science Applications from Space: National Imperatives for the Next
Decade and Beyond.'' The report found that between 2000 and 2009
funding for Earth Sciences (ES) had fallen substantially. Past
investments in NASA's science mission have funded university research
that has resulted in the development of new instruments and
technologies and in valuable advances in weather forecasting, climate
projections and understanding of Earth ecosystems.
NASA is instrumental in deploying satellites used by NOAA.
Furthermore, without the tools developed at NASA, oceanic, atmospheric,
hydrologic and Earth-system scientists and the Nation would have only a
fragmentary picture of the interconnected functioning of the planet's
oceans, atmosphere and land. NASA plays a role in technology transfer
from NOAA by testing new sensors. NASA is currently developing a sensor
that will for the first time give scientists and resource planners a
global picture of the world's terrestrial water supplies. Currently
many lakes and rivers are not monitored and there is no centralized
location for water resource information. The NASA data archive is an
irreplaceable collection of environmental information that researchers
depend upon. NASA also flies the WB-57 high altitude research aircraft,
which performs valuable atmospheric research missions including remote
sensing for coastal resiliency and the study of hurricane formation and
intensity change. Furthermore, through its support for young scientists
and graduate students, the NASA science mission supports innovation in
the education and future workforce pipeline.
Finally, we support funding NASA to develop and implement a
scatterometer mission with fast community access to those data,
capability to distinguish between wind and rain and a higher orbit for
coverage of Alaskan waters. The scatterometer has been a critical
component of hurricane prediction.
BOAC thanks you for the opportunity to provide our views to the
subcommittee. We look forward to working with you through the fiscal
year 2016 appropriations process.
about aplu and the board on natural resources
APLU's membership consists of 238 State universities, land-grant
universities, State-university systems and related organizations. APLU
institutions enroll more than 4.8 million undergraduate students and
1.3 million graduate students, award 1.2 million degrees, and conduct
$41 billion annually in university-based research annually. The Board's
mission is to provide Federal relations for issues involving
university-based programs in marine, atmospheric, and climatological
sciences. BOAC representatives are chosen by their president's office
to serve. They include some of the Nation's leading research and
educational expertise in atmospheric, marine, and climate disciplines.
______
Prepared Statement of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
introduction
Chairman Shelby, Ranking Member Mikulski, and members of the
subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to submit written testimony
for the record. My name is Anthony (Bud) Rock, and I serve as the
President and Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Science-
Technology Centers (ASTC). My testimony today addresses the importance
of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education,
and will focus specifically on the fiscal year 2016 budgets for four
specific programs at three Federal agencies over which your
subcommittee has jurisdiction, including: (1) the Competitive Program
for Science Museums, Planetariums, and NASA Visitor Centers Plus Other
Opportunities (CP4SMP+) at the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA),which would not be funded under the President's
fiscal year 2016 request; the Bay-Watershed Education and Training (B-
WET) Regional Programs and Competitive Education Grants (CEG)/
Environmental Literacy Grants (ELG) programs at the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which would not be funded under
the President's fiscal year 2016 request; and the Advancing Informal
STEM Learning (AISL) program at the National Science Foundation (NSF),
which would receive $60 million under the President's fiscal year 2016
request.
our request
On behalf of ASTC and the nearly 400 science centers and museums we
represent here in the United States, I urge the subcommittee to
continue its strong support for critical STEM education programs within
NASA, NOAA, and NSF as the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related
Agencies appropriations bill for fiscal year 2016 moves forward.
Specifically, I urge you to:
--Provide $10 million for the Competitive Program for Science
Museums, Planetariums, and NASA Visitor Centers Plus Other
Opportunities at the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration.
--Provide $12 million for the Bay-Watershed Education and Training
Regional Programs and $8 million for the Competitive Education
Grants/Environmental Literacy Grants programs at the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
--Provide $60 million for the Advancing Informal STEM Learning
program at the National Science Foundation.
--Continue to thoroughly examine any proposals that would seek to
consolidate and/or reorganize Federal STEM education programs
in an effort to ensure that stakeholder input has been sought
and that proven, successful programs are maintained.
Before providing more detail about ASTC and the science center and
museum field, I want to first offer a brief snapshot of these Federal
programs and why they are so vital to communities across the country.
national aeronautics and space administration
NASA's Competitive Program for Science Museums, Planetariums, and
NASA Visitor Centers Plus Other Opportunities provides support for
education or research engagement projects, exhibits, and/or
partnerships with K-12 schools to support inquiry- or experiential-
based activities led by informal education institutions--like science
centers and museums--that feature NASA missions, science, engineering,
explorations, or technologies.
With fiscal year 2014 funding, NASA awarded funding to 12 projects,
including three NASA Visitor Centers. Three Maryland-based
institutions--the Maryland Science Center, the Prince George's County
Public Schools' Howard B. Owens Science Center, and the Goddard Space
Flight Center--collaborated on a proposal and are receiving support to
make educators, students, families, and the public more aware and
better informed of NASA heliophysics science and NASA missions studying
the Sun. Program participants will come to a better understanding of
the Sun, space weather, and the Sun's far-reaching influence on our
planet and the rest of the solar system.
Though Congress--and this subcommittee--have been very supportive
of this program since its inception in fiscal year 2008, the agency has
not indicated if any fiscal year 2015 funds will be available for new
grants. Furthermore, the President did not include funding for the
program in his fiscal year 2016 budget request. I encourage the
subcommittee to continue its strong support for the CP4SMP+ by
providing $10 million for fiscal year 2016.
national oceanic and atmospheric administration
NOAA's Bay-Watershed Education and Training Regional Programs are
environmental education offerings that promote locally relevant,
experiential learning in the K-12 environment. The program, which
currently serves seven areas of the country (California, the Chesapeake
Bay, the Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico, Hawai'i, New England, and the
Pacific Northwest), promotes environmental literacy in society by
supporting individuals to understand, protect, and restore watersheds
and related ecosystems. With fiscal year 2015 funding for 86 new and
continuing awards, B-WET grants will reach an estimated 69,000 students
and 2,600 teachers.
NOAA's Competitive Education Grants/Environmental Literacy Grants
program, which the agency touts as ``the longest-standing and most
comprehensive national grants program focused on environmental
literacy,'' helps improve and increase the understanding and use of
earth systems science while advancing STEM education. Since its
beginnings in 2005, NOAA has made 111 awards to over 150 institutions
across the country--all of which help advance its mission. The agency
estimates that each year, an average of 60 million people visit an
institution--like a science center or museum--that has a NOAA-funded
exhibit or program.
Despite this measurable impact, the President's fiscal year 2016
budget request once again proposes the termination of both the B-WET
and the CEG/ELG programs, which received $7.2 million and $4 million,
respectively, for fiscal year 2015. For fiscal year 2016, I urge the
subcommittee to remain supportive of the programs by providing $12
million in funding for B-WET and $8 million in funding for CEG/ELG.
national science foundation
Fiscal year 2016 funding for the Advancing Informal STEM Learning
program, offered by the Directorate for Education and Human Resources
and the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal
Settings, will provide resources to support design, adaptation,
implementation, and research on innovative modes of learning in the
informal environment, with important emphases on citizen science,
making, and cyberlearning. Just last year, new awards were made to the
University of Alaska-Fairbanks (in partnership with the Oregon Museum
of Science and Industry), the University of Maryland Center for
Environmental Sciences, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the
University of New Hampshire, to name just a few.
The President's fiscal year 2016 budget request includes $60
million--$5 million more than the fiscal year 2015 appropriated level--
for AISL. I encourage the subcommittee to support the President's
request.
stem education consolidation and reorganization
With regard to the Federal STEM education consolidation plan first
released by the administration for fiscal year 2014 and amended in each
of the last two budget requests, I recognize the importance of creating
efficiencies within the Federal Government whenever possible.
Nevertheless, I continue to have serious concerns about a proposal that
would eliminate effective programs that support informal STEM learning.
Integral Federal investments, including the aforementioned NASA and
NOAA offerings, are once again slated for elimination in fiscal year
2016. I sincerely appreciate the subcommittee's thoughtful
consideration of the harmful effect of the proposed terminations, and
ask you to remain steadfast in your support of these programs.
about astc and science centers
The Association of Science-Technology Centers is a global
organization providing collective voice, professional support, and
programming opportunities for science centers, museums, and related
institutions, whose innovative approaches to science learning inspire
people of all ages about the wonders and the meaning of science in
their lives. Science centers are sites for informal learning, and are
places to discover, explore, and test ideas about science, technology,
engineering, mathematics, health, and the environment. They feature
interactive exhibits, hands-on science experiences for children,
professional development opportunities for teachers, and educational
programs for adults. In science centers, visitors become adventurous
explorers who together discover answers to the myriad questions of how
the world works--and why. As members of this subcommittee know, it is
imperative that we spark an interest in STEM fields at an early age--a
key role for community-based science centers and museums, who often
undertake this effort with the aforementioned modest--but important--
support from NASA, NOAA, and NSF, in addition to other Federal
agencies.
ASTC works with science centers and museums to address critical
societal issues, locally and globally, where understanding of and
engagement with science are essential. As liaisons between the science
community and the public, science centers are ideally positioned to
heighten awareness of critical issues like agriculture, energy, the
environment, infectious diseases, and space; increase understanding
of--and exposure to--important and exciting new technologies; and
promote meaningful exchange and debate between scientists and local
communities.
ASTC now counts 636 members, including 489 operating or developing
science centers and museums in 45 countries. Collectively, our
institutions garner 95 million visits worldwide each year. Here in the
United States alone, our guests--and your constituents--pass through
science center doors more than 73 million times to participate in
intriguing educational science activities and explorations of
scientific phenomena.
Science centers come in all shapes and sizes, from larger
institutions in big metropolitan areas to smaller centers in somewhat
less populated ones. ASTC represents institutions as diverse as the
Adventure Science Center in Nashville; the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson
Center; the Connecticut Science Center; the Echo Lake Aquarium and
Science Center in Burlington, Vermont; the Maine Discovery Museum in
Bangor; the McWane Science Center in Birmingham; the Museum of
Discovery in Little Rock; and the Providence Children's Museum.
Our centers reach a wide audience, a significant portion of which
are school groups. Here in the United States, 94 percent of our members
offer school field trips, and we estimate that more than 13 million
children attend science centers and museums as part of those groups
each year. Field trips, however, are truly just the beginning of what
science centers and museums contribute to our country's educational
infrastructure, as: 92 percent offer classes and demonstrations; 90
percent offer school outreach programs; 76 percent offer workshops or
institutes for teachers; 74 percent offer programs for home-schoolers;
67 percent offer programs that target adult audiences; 65 percent offer
curriculum materials; 50 percent offer after-school programs; 34
percent offer youth employment programs; and 22 percent offer citizen
science projects.
conclusion
With this in mind, and while I am fully aware of the significant
budget challenges that face this subcommittee, Congress, and the
Nation, I hope you will continue to recognize the important educational
offerings science centers and museums make available to students,
families, and teachers, along with the essential Federal support they
receive from NASA, NOAA, and NSF.
Again, I respectfully request and urge you to:
--Provide $10 million for the Competitive Program for Science
Museums, Planetariums, and NASA Visitor Centers Plus Other
Opportunities at the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration.
--Provide $12 million for the Bay-Watershed Education and Training
Regional Programs and $8 million for the Competitive Education
Grants/Environmental Literacy Grants program at the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
--Provide $60 million for the Advancing Informal STEM Learning
program at the National Science Foundation.
--Continue to closely examine any proposals that would seek to
consolidate and/or reorganize Federal STEM education programs
in an effort to ensure that stakeholder input has been sought
and that proven, successful programs are maintained.
Thank you once again for your strong support for America's science
centers and museums--and for the opportunity to present these views. My
staff and I would be happy to respond to any questions or provide
additional information as needed by the subcommittee.
______
Prepared Statement of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums
national oceanic and atmospheric administration
Thank you Chairman Shelby and Ranking Member Mikulski for allowing
me to submit testimony on behalf of the Nation's 214 AZA-accredited
zoos and aquariums. Specifically, I want to express my support for the
inclusion of $4 million for the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue
Assistance Grant Program, $8,000,000 for the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Environmental Literacy Grants Program
(including $2,500,000 for the NOAA Ocean Education Grants Program), and
$12,000,000 for the Bay, Watershed, Education and Training Program in
the fiscal year 2016 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
appropriations bill. Additionally, I urge you to reject any proposal
that eliminate valuable ocean education programs as part of a plan to
restructure Federal Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM)
programs.
Founded in 1924, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) is a
nonprofit 501c(3) organization dedicated to the advancement of zoos and
aquariums in the areas of conservation, education, science, and
recreation. AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums annually see more than
180 million visitors, collectively generate more than $17 billion in
annual economic activity, and support more than 165,000 jobs across the
country. Over the last 5 years, AZA-accredited institutions supported
more than 4,000 field conservation and research projects with
$160,000,000 annually in more than 100 countries. In the last 10 years,
accredited zoos and aquariums formally trained more than 400,000
teachers, supporting science curricula with effective teaching
materials and hands-on opportunities. School field trips annually
connect more than 12,000,000 students with the natural world.
During the past 20 years AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums have
rescued and rehabilitated more than 1,800 marine animals including
stranded dolphins, whales, sea lions, seals, sea otters, sea turtles,
and manatees. More than 1,750 (97 percent) of these animals have been
successfully released back into their natural habitat. While the
Nations' accredited zoos and aquariums support wildlife rehabilitation
through their ongoing animal rescue programs, these institutions are
sometimes involved in addressing natural and manmade disasters such as
the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill. For example, following the
oil spill, accredited zoos and aquariums around the country offered
assistance by pledging the services of 200 animal care professionals
and donating supplies, vehicles, and other resources to assist in the
wildlife rescue efforts.
The John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program
provides grants or cooperative agreements to eligible stranding network
participants for the recovery and treatment (i.e., rehabilitation) of
stranded marine mammals; data collection from living or dead stranded
marine mammals; and, facility upgrades, operation costs, and staffing
needs directly related to the recovery and treatment of stranded marine
mammals and collection of data from living or dead stranded marine
mammals. Eligible applicants are currently active, authorized
participants, including AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums, or
researchers in the National Marine Mammal Stranding Network.
Without the Prescott grant program, NOAA would have to rely on
private organizations as it coordinates the response to marine mammals
in distress; determines disease, injury and potential cause(s) of
death; and supports emergency response for marine mammals during oil
spills, outbreaks of diseases, and unusual mortality events. Network
partners may not have the funds or the ability to respond to some
stranding events, leaving animals at risk for prolonged exposure and
likely death. Without funding for this program the critical ability to
monitor marine mammal health trends, collect scientific data, and
perform analysis would also be diminished. Information about the causes
of marine mammal strandings is useful to the public because marine
mammals can serve as an indicator of ocean health, giving insight into
larger environmental issues that also have implications for human
health and welfare.
At the same time that AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums are working
with Federal partners to conserve ocean wildlife, they also are
providing essential learning opportunities, particularly about science,
for schoolchildren in formal and informal settings. Increasing access
to formal and informal science education opportunities has never been
more important. Studies have shown that American schoolchildren are
lagging behind their international peers in certain subjects including
science and math.
The NOAA Ocean Education Grants Program and Bay, Watershed,
Education and Training Program bring students closer to science by
providing them with the opportunity to learn firsthand about our
world's marine resources. Through these grant programs, aquariums work
closely with Federal, State, and local partners on projects with long-
lasting benefits not only for the students but their communities as
well. For example, previous projects funded by NOAA Ocean Education
Grants at AZA aquariums have focused on establishing a regional network
of summer camp programs grounded in ocean science, enhancing teen
conservation leadership programs, and conserving and managing coastal
and marine resources to meet our Nation's economic, social and
environmental needs. As schools face increased budgetary pressures,
these types of education programs at aquariums will become even more
important in ensuring that American schoolchildren receive the
necessary foundation in science education that they will need to be
competitive in the 21st century global economy.
AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums are essential partners at the
Federal, State, and local levels to improve education for
schoolchildren and ensure that current and future generations will be
good stewards of the world's oceans. Therefore, I urge you to include
$4 million for the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance
Grant Program, $8,000,000 for the NOAA Environmental Literacy Grants
Program (including $2,500,000 for the NOAA Ocean Education Grants
Program), and $12,000,000 for the Bay, Watershed, Education and
Training Program in the fiscal year 2016 Commerce, Justice, Science,
and Related Agencies appropriations bill.
Thank you.
______
Prepared Statement of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership
On behalf of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, I appreciate the
opportunity to discuss the fiscal year 2016 Federal science budget for
the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA). Ocean Leadership represents 89 of the
Nation's leading oceanographic research and education institutions with
the mission to shape the future of ocean sciences. We respectfully
request the subcommittee provide no less than $7.72 billion for the
NSF; $1.95 billion for Earth Sciences at NASA; and $6 billion for NOAA.
These funds will help maintain U.S. global leadership in ocean science
and technology, which is critical to American agriculture, energy
development, a changing Arctic, ocean exploration and a healthy U.S.
scientific workforce.
ocean forecasts are critical to american agriculture
The ocean drives global water and weather systems through the
absorption, retention and transportation of vast amounts of the Earth's
heat, water and carbon dioxide. Thanks to the longstanding bipartisan
support of this subcommittee, our Nation has been well positioned to
lead the world in innovation while also effectively and efficiently
incorporating environmental data into marketplace. For example, the
support of this committee enabled NOAA to better service the buoys
comprising the TAO Array (Tropical Atmosphere Ocean project in the
equatorial Pacific), which had degraded significantly and is critical
for seasonal weather predictions.
One of the most important influences on weather variation is
derived from El Nino Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, which is a coupled
atmosphere-ocean oscillation that impacts atmosphere and ocean
circulation patterns across the equatorial Pacific. A rise in sea
surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific and an eastward
shift in the convection in the western Pacific typically characterizes
an El Nino event, which causes major seasonal temperature and
precipitation changes around the world, including changes in rainfall
over much of America's most productive croplands. Consequently,
commodity strategists incorporate predictions of El Nino events into
commodity prices months and in some cases up to a year in advance. Last
year, experts predicted that there would up to an 80 percent chance of
an El Nino occurring, which led to increased prices for commodities
such as coffee and cocoa. Yet, while sea surface waters rose in the
equatorial Pacific, the trade winds never materialized and El Nino
didn't arrive as predicted. Consequently, the drought-stricken west
didn't experience the higher rainfalls expected during El Nino events.
Such information is vital not only for the agriculture industry but
also the insurance industry, the energy sector, and national security
as civil unrest can occur overseas when crops fail, fresh water is in
short supply, or floods displace populations.
ENSO isn't the only ocean-atmosphere factor in predicting weather.
There are other natural variations, including the North Atlantic/Arctic
Oscillation, which is related to the Polar Vortex and mainly influences
the temperature and precipitation in the eastern half of the United
States. The Pacific Decadal Oscillation interacts with ENSO to
influence weather in the western United States. However, today's
predictive models have not matured enough to forecast these
oscillations nearly as well as we have been predicting ENSO. With the
unrealized El Nino prediction of 2014, clearly we still have a ways to
go in improving models on seasonal timescales, which is essential for
agriculture and energy preparation as well as preparing for drought and
flooding. While the TAO array has been very helpful for ENSO
predictions, so much of the global ocean is not yet measured,
especially the surface meteorology and air-sea fluxes. Satellite
observations are essential as they give us a global view and are
advancing with new salinity sensors and improved altimetry. Yet, we are
faced with potential data gaps in our polar orbiting satellites that
provide critical data for weather forecasts. To truly become a weather
ready nation, we need sustained ocean observations, both from space as
well as in situ, particularly at depth.
marine robotics and ocean vehicles essential to u.s. technology
leadership
Investment in basic technology research for the geosciences has
spurred the growth of marine robotics, which like the transition from
sail to steam power, is ushering in a new chapter in ocean observation
and monitoring. Autonomous underwater robotic systems open the door for
routine and persistent access to the deep ocean, allowing the expansion
of commercial activities that include offshore oil and gas exploration,
undersea mining, aquaculture, and installation of marine wind and wave
energy facilities and submarine communication cables. Thus far marine
robotic systems have been tied to ships, but newer systems are able to
operate independently, providing broader and more long-term access for
baseline environmental assessments and observing and for equipment
monitoring and maintenance, reducing shipping and permitting costs and
greatly improving hazards response management. At one time, U.S.
oceanographic institutions were among the few organizations in the
world that could build and operate deep ROVs. Now these vehicles are
used by the entire oceanographic community for a variety of uses
including offshore energy production. Hydroid Inc., Teledyne Webb
Research, and Bluefin Robotics are three highly successful job-creating
companies that spun off from academic research laboratories (Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution and MIT). Together, these three companies
dominate worldwide production of autonomous underwater vehicles, with
deployed systems projected to grow by 42 percent over the next 4 years
(Douglas-Westwood study).
Researchers at Oregon State University are outfitting undersea
gliders with acoustic sensors to identify biological ``hot spots'' in
the coastal ocean. These new smart gliders will be able to identify
different kinds of marine animals using their unique acoustical
signatures, which will ultimately benefit the fishing industry and
resource managers. The geosciences directorate at NSF needs to be a
priority if it is going to continue to support the basic research
required to develop the next generation vehicles and sensors in what is
becoming a globally competitive marketplace.
maintaining u.s. global posture in the arctic
The United States is an Arctic nation, where significant economic,
social and national security interests intersect. The Arctic harbors
tremendous natural resources, thriving and productive ecosystems, and
is increasingly becoming an international focus for expanded navigation
and commerce. Yet, in many places, the seafloor is virtually uncharted
and the water column is essentially unknown. We are already observing a
rise in commercial activity in the Arctic in terms of shipping, fishing
and oil and gas exploration, which could eventually lead to boundary
disputes among nations or accidents that require search and rescue or
oil spill response. Put simply, the United States is not yet prepared
to respond to an accident or serious incident in the Arctic. And it's
not just the cargo ships that are traversing the Arctic, as there are
also marine species that are making their way between the Pacific and
Atlantic for the first time in millennia, which may have negative
ecological implications as invasive species. Because of its high
latitude, effects of a rapidly changing climate are amplified. Climate
projections for the Arctic region depend on knowing the state and
circulation of the Arctic Ocean, yet ocean-ice interactions are poorly
understood. Furthermore, the Arctic basin is insufficiently mapped and
instrumented for real-time observations, and there is a need for
improved integration of observations into models to produce reliable
projections.
As ice cover decreases in this part of the world, ocean warming
will accelerate because ice reflects 90 percent of solar radiation and
the oceans absorb 90 percent. The result will be an increase in sea
level, release of methane gasses that could further contribute to
climate change, and an increase in extreme weather events in lower
latitudes. But with great change comes great opportunity. As the United
States assumes chairmanship of the Arctic Council, our Nation stands at
a pivotal moment with the opportunity to proactively manage, protect
and use this unique ecosystem proactively. Consequently, Ocean
Leadership recently convened a forum to discuss the state of current
knowledge, and how we can achieve the capacity to more accurately
predict these changes. It is critical for operators in the Arctic and
for U.S. diplomatic leadership that our science agencies, including
NSF, NOAA and NASA, have the resources to develop and deploy the
technologies we need to observe, monitor and understand this pivotal
region.
ocean exploration is america's next frontier
The ocean is the predominant physical feature on our planet,
covering 71 percent of the Earth's surface, containing 97 percent of
the planet's water and 99 percent of the Earth's habitat. Despite the
fact that most life on Earth lives in the ocean, 95 percent of the
ocean remains unexplored. The estimated 91 percent of the sea-life that
remains undiscovered may prove vital to human health and well-being
through the development of pharmaceuticals and medicinals. For
instance, biologist Stanley Watson from Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution conducted fundamental research on bacteria's role in the
marine food web in the 1970's. This work resulted in a patent for the
detection of bacteria in seawater, using an extract from the blood of
horseshoe crabs, which spun off into a company that was the first
licensed by the FDA to detect the presence of different kinds of human
disease causing bacteria. Today, more than a half a million crabs are
captured each year to ``donate'' about 30 percent of their blood
(valued at $60,000 per gallon) for a global industry valued at $50
million a year that ensures the sterility of vaccines, IV fluids,
surgical instruments, artificial implants, and countless other drugs
and medical devices. It is important for NOAA to have a robust ocean
exploration endeavor and for NSF and NASA to continue funding basic
research in this area that may form the building block for the next
generation of cures for human ailments.
educating the next generation of geoscientists
The geosciences support from NSF, in addition to the STEM education
programs at the mission agencies, is essential for training the next
generation of geoscientists. The Workforce Research team at the
American Geosciences Institute calculated that there will be a shortage
of 135,000 geoscientists in the U.S. workforce over the next decade. We
can ill afford to have a shortage of these workers that are vital for
the energy and weather forecasting industries as well as natural
resource managers, land use planners and first responders. Diversity
continues to be a challenge for the scientific community as we need to
develop a workforce whose composition better resembles the broader
population. We greatly appreciate the support this subcommittee has
given to STEM education programs at NSF, NOAA and NASA, and encourage
this support to extend into the geoscience directorate at NSF, which
aids the development of thousands of early career geoscientists.
As you draft your spending bill, I hope that you will note that the
bulk of the intellectual capacity regarding the ocean environment
resides within the academic research community. Peer-reviewed
extramural research is the most efficient and effective vehicle for
providing our policy makers and our commercial partners with the
expertise, information and data necessary to address the emerging
challenges facing our Nation. We also hope that you will continue to
permit science priorities and decisions to be made by the scientific
community, which has enabled America's innovation economy to thrive for
decades. Given the austere fiscal environment, we are prepared to work
with the Foundation to help ensure that there is robust core research
at a time when new facilities are coming online.
In summary, the funding we have recommended is essential for
American agriculture and energy security, U.S. technology leadership,
our global posture in the Arctic, ocean observing and exploration, and
the next generation of American scientific talent.
Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, I greatly appreciate
the opportunity to share our recommendations, and I encourage you to
continue your long-standing bipartisan support for science funding in
the fiscal year 2016 budget and into the future.
Below is a list of the institutions that are represented by the
Consortium for Ocean Leadership.
Alabama
Dauphin Island Sea Lab
Alaska
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Alaska Ocean Observing System
North Pacific Research Board
California
Bodega Marine Lab
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Moss Landing Marine Laboratory
Naval Postgraduate School
Stanford University
University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Cruz
University of California, San Diego (Scripps)
University of Southern California
Aquarium of the Pacific
Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute
Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies
Esri
L-3 MariPro, Inc.
Liquid Robotics, Inc.
Teledyne RD Instruments
Colorado
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)
Connecticut
University of Connecticut
Delaware
University of Delaware
Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System
(MARACOOS)
Florida
Florida State University
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at FAU
Mote Marine Laboratory
University of Florida
University of Miami
University of South Florida
Earth2Ocean, Inc.
Florida Institute of Oceanography
Nova Southeastern University
Georgia
Skidaway Institute of Oceanography of the University of Georgia
Savannah State University
Hawaii
University of Hawaii
Illinois
John G. Shedd Aquarium
Louisiana
Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON)
Louisiana State University
Maine
Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
University of Maine
The IOOS Association (formerly NFRA)
Maryland
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
Johns Hopkins University
Marine Technology Society
National Aquarium
Massachusetts
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of Massachusetts
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Michigan
University of Michigan
Mississippi
University of Mississippi
University of Southern Mississippi
Nebraska
University of Nebraska, Lincoln
New Hampshire
University of New Hampshire
New Jersey
Rutgers University
New York
Columbia University (LDEO)
Stony Brook University
North Carolina
Duke University Marine Laboratory
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina, Wilmington
East Carolina University
North Carolina State University
Oregon
Oregon State University
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania State University
Rhode Island
University of Rhode Island
South Carolina
Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences
South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium
Texas
Harte Research Institute
Texas A&M University
University of Texas, Austin
Fugro
Sonardyne, Inc.
Virginia
College of William and Mary (VIMS)
Old Dominion University
CNA
Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES)
U.S. Arctic Research Commission
CARIS, USA
SAIC
Washington
University of Washington
Sea-Bird Scientific
Washington, DC
National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA)
Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA)
Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, School of Freshwater Sciences
Australia
Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) at the University of
Tasmania
Bermuda
Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS)
Canada
Dalhousie University
University of Victoria
______
Prepared Statement of the Fish Locally Collaborative
national oceanic and atmospheric administration
national marine fisheries service
Members and supporters of the Fish Locally Collaborative appreciate
the opportunity to submit comments on the proposed fiscal year 2016
budget for the National Marine Fisheries Service. The Fish Locally
Collaborative (FLC) is a network of fishing communities, including
fishers, processors, marketers, families, scientists, and seafood
consumers, with over 400 individuals representing 60 organizations and
networks, and over 400,000 fishing families spanning the globe. The FLC
does not speak as a unified voice on all matters, but rather seeks to
collaborate, research, and learn from each other in developing new
solutions and policy directives in sustainable fisheries.
flc values and perspectives
The FLC is committed to restoration of marine ecosystems, fishing
communities, and a fair seafood value chain. The network values a
genuine democratic and bottom-up approach to fisheries management,
which is needed to achieve healthier ecosystems and ensure a diverse
fleet that maximizes value to fishing communities, local economies, and
the food system. Success will be achieved when appropriate management
tools are made available, fishermen's local knowledge is accounted for
in the decision-making process, and the scale of fishing matches the
scales of the ecosystems.
The fishing industry includes ports, fleets, processors, fish
workers, and people who eat seafood. Our Nation benefits from strong
coastal communities (both rural and urban) and measuring a fisherman's
impact needs to include the triple bottom line with an increased focus
on community (social) values and benefits. Large-scale corporate
interest and control over access to fisheries hurts marine ecosystems,
hurts local economies, hurts the seafood value chain, and divides
fishing communities.
The Magnuson Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act
establishes goals and describes national benefits in terms of fish
stocks, habitat protection, port economies, and seafood, but current
management has focused primarily on fishing and its impact on habitat,
to the relative exclusion of community benefits and healthy seafood.
While cutbacks in allowable catch driven by 10-year rebuilding
plans have received the greatest attention as the cause of economic
distress in the fishing fleets and ports, the current management system
has exacerbated these difficulties greatly, particularly for community-
based and family-owned boat fishermen, through such mechanisms as:
stock assessments unable to deliver reliable predictions and management
alternatives; failure to assess non-fishing impacts, such as climate
change, pollution, and ecosystem dynamics; collapsing prices due to
cheap foreign imports, high-volume extractive fisheries, and weak
domestic markets for local seafood; inflexibility in shifting effort of
the fleet to other species; regulations that fail to protect the
discrete, local fish populations that are so important to community-
based and family-owned boats; pressure from real estate development in
working waterfronts; and high fuel and other costs of fishing.
work of the flc
FLC members are active in researching and creating new models and
practices to address a range of needs and opportunities, including:
protection of fleet diversity, multi-species harvesting and community-
based management approaches; local food system development, such as
expanding markets for hospitals, schools, colleges; creating the
Community Supported Fishery (CSF) model and replicating it widely;
working waterfront protection; value-added product development and
waste recovery; ocean planning and decisionmaking. We also reach out to
and are informed by experts and practitioners in the farming sector and
other related fields of institutional, market, financial, and
technology innovation and reform.
comments on the proposed fiscal year 2016 nmfs budget
It is from this foundation of values, perspectives, and capacity
that FLC members and supporters offer specific comments on the proposed
fiscal year 2016 NMFS budget.
I. Habitat and Ecosystem-Based Management
A. The FLC offers support for the proposed $5.0 million increase in
funding for Ecosystem-based Solutions for Fisheries Management, in
particular the language in the Blue Book suggesting that ``this
integrated, cross-disciplinary, and cross-line office scientific
initiative will promote understanding of the importance of inshore and
offshore habitat to the productivity and recovery of fisheries and
protected species.''
The FLC supports this initiative because it can begin to address
non-fishing impacts more adequately, in particular the relationship of
healthy ocean habitat to healthy fish stocks. Current fisheries
management is obligated to manage healthy fish stocks and yet they are
not required to address non-fishing impacts such as climate change,
pollution, deforestation, mining, and oil and gas exploration, which
all have enormous effects on fish population. The narrow approach and
micro-focus on controlling fishing pressure in order to maintain
healthier fish populations places a disproportionate level of blame and
responsibility on fishing businesses and deflects responsibility from
large-scale polluters, in particular.
B. The FLC opposes $5.7 million in increased funding for
Consultation and Essential Fish Habitat Implementation Capacity, that
is intended ``to reduce delays and streamline permitting and review
timeframes''. FLC members are well aware that proposals are fast-
emerging for sand mining, oil and gas drilling, offshore aquaculture,
and other extractive industries, all of which would threaten to damage
fish stocks, marine mammals, habitat, and ocean health more generally.
Ocean planning efforts have only just begun in the regions, and it is
already clear that the research and knowledge base for properly
assessing permit applications is not available. ``Zoning'' and
privatized, long-term leasing of the ocean are also not yet justified
as consistent with adaptive, ecosystem-based management principles that
NOAA itself espouses.
The ocean is a dynamic and integrated ecosystem, just beginning to
experience the impacts of climate change and acidification. The
precautionary principle--that when there is scientific uncertainty, a
heavy burden of proof rests on the industry--should be the guiding
framework at this time. Consultation on permitting should be delayed
until a significantly stronger framework for adaptive, ecosystem and
community-based management is developed that protects and enhances the
public trust in the ocean is developed. We therefore recommend that
permitting activities be undertaken cautiously until additional studies
are completed and more stringent standards, including for habitat
protection, are formulated.
C. NMFS has also requested $2.0 million in additional funds to
support Domestic Seafood Production and Jobs through Aquaculture. FLC
members generally support expanded shellfish aquaculture, in particular
oyster reef restoration that provides multiple benefits in restoring
ocean health and providing jobs and food, but would oppose an
accelerated permitting of offshore finfish aquaculture, with its
history of pollution and relatively unsafe product. FLC members oppose
long-term leases that would be tantamount to privatization of the
ocean. Any funding made available to the Agency should be directed to
further research and pilot projects, including for the potential for
polytrophic, multi-species and clean initiatives that both supply
healthy seafood and restore habitat.
II. Catch Share Programs and Community Resilience
The NMFS budget proposal includes a $2.2 million increase in
funding for the National Catch Share Program, with a justification that
``the implementation of catch share programs can yield efficiencies
that lower fisheries management costs and increase the profitability of
fisheries over time.'' The NOAA budget also includes funding for a $50
million Regional Coastal Resilience grants program, to develop
community, ecosystem, and economic resilience.
FLC members and supporters strenuously object to these goals for
Catch Share management, in particular profit maximization, and
respectfully suggest that they are in direct conflict and contradiction
with NOAA's overarching mission to support and develop community
resilience.
On-the-ground experience and recent academic literature both
demonstrate that Catch Share programs are consolidating fisheries
access into fewer and larger-scale businesses to the exclusion of
owner-operator, younger generation, and independent fishermen and to
the detriment of crew. This consolidation creates a disproportionate
loss of fisheries access to rural communities, loss of capacity and
infrastructure in fishing ports, negative ecological impacts, and loss
of food access.
We therefore suggest that funding under the Catch Share program be
utilized, in partnership with fishing communities and stakeholders, to
research the full suite of economic, environmental and social costs
imposed on communities and consumers of seafood by the single-minded
focus on profit maximization and to explore and develop mechanisms for
modifying or ending Catch Shares where they have not worked as
predicted, and to develop criteria and standards for ``Fishing
Community'' and ``Regional Fishery Associations'', fishing community
sustainability plans, and fleet diversity protections.
III. Collaborative Research
For 2 years, the Senate Appropriations Report has encouraged NMFS
to ``expand the Agency's activities in chartering commercial fishing
vessels to serve as research and fishery survey vessels.'' While NMFS
and NOAA leadership have indicated their support for collaborative
research, little has been done to expand partnerships to date.
It has come to our attention that there are several impediments to
collaborative research that the subcommittee could address. NOAA has
directed in recent years that all collaborative research projects
involving the fishing industry and academic institutions be managed
through a competitive grants program and short-term awards. The FLC
recommends, based on conversations with both current and former NMFS
Science staff and outside researchers, that the subcommittee encourage
the development of cooperative agreements on a multi-year basis, as
other Federal agencies do. Only cooperative agreements will allow for a
genuine partnership to emerge and for all parties to co-draft research
plans that incorporate requirements and insights from all parties,
including NMFS.
FLC members strongly recommend that an emergency action be take to
coordinate a fisheries dependent and independent data collection effort
as input to more reliable stock assessments, in cases, such as cod in
the Northwest Atlantic, where data is sparse and current management
cutbacks on allowable quota are causing severe economic and social
distress in the fishing industry and port communities.
IV. Saltonstall-Kennedy Funding
FLC members support continued increases in funding for the
Saltonstall-Kennedy grants program for research and development in
harvesting, processing, and marketing. In particular, we encourage
projects to develop a strong local seafood system, community-based and
multi-species fisheries management innovations that diversify catch and
develop markets for under-utilized species, value-added and waste
recovery product development, shellfish and polytrophic aquaculture
pilot projects, boat designs that increase fuel-efficiency and promote
safety and use of sustainable technology, and programs to increase
access of independent-operator and young entrants.
These comments were based on two prior policy-related letters
signed by numerous Fish Locally Collaborative members and supporters
throughout the country. The first was a letter on Magnuson-Stevens
reauthorization submitted to Congressmen John Tierney and Peter DeFazio
on August 13, 2014; the second a public comment letter submitted to the
Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office re the GARFO Draft Strategic
Plan.
Links to these letters and signatories can be found at:
Congressmen Tierney and DeFazio:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwT-fcX3Ff5VTVVlTDBQYW1ZWE0/
view?usp=sharing.
GARFO letter:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwT-fcX3Ff5VYjBnN2laUXd5ZTA/
view?usp=sharing.
Signatories include fishermen, academics, seafood business owners,
seafood consumers, and advocates from both East and West Coast States
and organizational supporters include the American Sustainable Business
Council, Slow Food USA, Health Care Without Harm, and others.
[This statement was submitted by Valerie I. Nelson, Ph.D., Policy
Transformation Working Group Organizer-FLC.]
______
Prepared Statement of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative
Chairman Shelby, Ranking Member Mikulski, and other distinguished
Members of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related
Agencies, we thank you for the opportunity to submit written testimony
regarding the fiscal year 2016 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related
Agencies appropriations bill. The Joint Ocean Commission Initiative is
a collaborative, bipartisan effort to catalyze meaningful ocean policy
reform and action at the national, regional, and State levels.
Established in 2005, the Joint Initiative promotes, maintains, and
updates the important work of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and
the Pew Oceans Commission. Our 2013 report, Charting the Course:
Securing the Future of America's Oceans, contains recommendations to
improve the management of our ocean resources that are echoed here.
The Joint Initiative is highly appreciative of the progress your
subcommittee has made in providing incremental but substantive
additional resources to critical ocean and coastal accounts. We are
acutely aware of the challenges you face addressing the funding needs
of all the programs within the jurisdiction of your subcommittee. The
Joint Initiative believes a continued commitment to protecting base
funding and core programs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), National Science Foundation (NSF), and National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) that help manage, protect,
and better understand our Nation's oceans and coasts and the Arctic is
an investment in the future of our country that will provide
significant economic, social, ecological, and national security
benefits. Among the many ocean and coastal programs under your
jurisdiction, we urge that maintaining and increasing investment in the
following programs be prioritized in fiscal year 2016 appropriations.
coastal resilience
The Joint Initiative strongly supports increasing NOAA's overall
budget to $6 billion, and in doing so maintaining the recent trend
toward balancing NOAA's portfolio to emphasize ocean and coastal
priorities. For example NOAA's National Ocean Service (NOS) would be
increased in NOAA's fiscal year 2016 budget by nearly $60 million to
$574 million. Specifically, within NOS, we ask you to consider funding
the Regional Coastal Resilience Grant program consistent with NOAA's
fiscal year 2016 budget request at $50 million, a $45 million increase
from the fiscal year 2015 proposal. An important element of this
program is its ability to provide competitive funding to support multi-
State regional ocean partnerships that coordinate data sharing and
decisionmaking across jurisdictions, implement innovative solutions to
shared priorities, and effectively engage ocean and coastal
stakeholders.
These partnerships are increasingly critical as States and
communities confront challenges such as ocean acidification, sea level
rise, competing demands for ocean resources, burgeoning populations
along our coasts, and increasing threats from extreme weather events.
Resilient coastal communities are not only able to minimize loss and
negative impacts to life, property, and the coastal ecosystem, they are
also able to quickly return residents to productive activities and
restore essential services. This is imperative to facilitating full and
timely economic, social, and environmental recovery. Fully funding this
program will enable NOAA and its partners to address a suite of
challenges, including a more efficient application of limited resources
to ensure the health of our oceans and coasts.
ocean acidification
The Joint Initiative believes the inclusion of $30 million in the
NOAA budget for the Integrated Ocean Acidification program is essential
to help us begin to address the chemistry, variability, and impact of
acidification on the marine environment. Ocean acidification is a
global problem needing global solutions, and it is occurring along
every shoreline in the United States. While shellfish and coral reefs
receive most of the attention related to ocean acidification,
fisheries, aquaculture, and coastal ecosystems and economies around the
Nation will be greatly affected. Funding the Integrated Ocean
Acidification program at NOAA at increased levels will allow us to
measure and assess the emerging threat of ocean acidification, better
understand the complex dynamics causing and exacerbating it, work to
determine its impact, and develop mechanisms to address it.
arctic
The Joint Initiative recommends that Congress make a significant
investment through the fiscal year 2016 appropriations bill toward
implementation of the National Strategy for the Arctic Region. This
will support the United States chairmanship of the Arctic Council over
the next 2 years, and lay the groundwork for sound international
management of the region while protecting a sensitive and rapidly
changing ecosystem. Increased funding for Federal agencies operating in
the Arctic, such as NOAA and NSF, is essential to our international
leadership in the region and will enable cross-cutting efficiencies
with the Coast Guard, the Navy, and the Department of the Interior.
The Joint Initiative is convening an Arctic Ocean Leadership
Roundtable with U.S. Arctic leaders and key stakeholders from multiple
sectors to generate ideas for how local, State, and regional work can
inform and influence national policy with regard to Arctic ocean and
coastal issues. Many of the ideas generated in this forum can be
implemented with increased investment in the Arctic. Such investment
can also encourage better collaboration with State and local
governments, Alaskan Native leaders, and industry to improve the
ability of commercial entities to operate safely in the region and
ensure effective response and recovery in the event of a natural or
human-caused disaster. This includes improving coordination and data-
sharing on oil spill planning, preparedness, and response, vessel
tracking, and search-and-rescue, as well as investment in new
icebreakers, aircraft, and shore-based infrastructure. Additionally,
funding Arctic-related programs at NOAA enables a range of important
services essential to our understanding of the Arctic including ocean
observation services, weather and sea ice predictions, mapping and
charting, and sound management of marine resources.
sustained ocean observations
We are strongly supportive of enhanced capabilities for NOAA's
Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), the Integrated Ocean
Observing System, and similar programs at NSF. Specifically we ask you
to consider funding OAR at $500 million to support the continued and
enhanced operations of this vital program. This funding is central to
NOAA's ability to accurately forecast weather, enable communities to
plan for and respond to climate events such as flooding and drought,
and protect and manage the Nation's coastal and ocean resources.
Funding NOAA's Sustained Ocean Observations and Monitoring program
under this account at $42 million will provide information essential
for accurate forecasting of hurricanes, typhoons, flooding, heat waves,
and wildfires. For example, data and analyses of ocean and atmospheric
conditions are increasingly used for drought early warning systems,
enhanced tsunami warning systems, and storm surge monitoring. Ocean
observations are also imperative for calibrating and validating
satellite observations. Maintaining baseline ocean observations in
support of weather and regional predictions, fisheries management
ecosystem studies, tide and current monitoring, and sea level change is
essential. Sustained ocean observations will help maintain the
continuity of long-term data sets that are essential for ensuring that
communities are able to respond and adapt to a rapidly changing world,
both today and into the future.
sustainable fisheries
In 2006 Congress made the bold decision to end overfishing once and
for all by amending the Magnuson Stevens Fisheries Conservation and
Management Act to require annual catch limits and associated
accountability measures to be implemented for all federally managed
fisheries. Through the commitment and tireless efforts of our
fishermen, fishery management councils, scientists and managers, the
U.S. is poised to achieve this historic milestone in natural resource
management. With the investment in stock assessments, cooperative
research and innovation, and science-based management, the U.S. model
of fisheries management has become an international hallmark for
addressing the ecological and economic sustainability challenges facing
global fisheries. The Joint Initiative supports domestic and
international efforts to fully implement the recommendations in the
Presidential Task Force on Combating IUU Fishing and Seafood Fraud,
along with similar efforts for enhanced enforcement like the Trans-
Pacific Partnership. The end of chronic overfishing means healthier
ocean ecosystems and a brighter future for fishermen and coastal
communities. The Joint Initiative asks the subcommittee to consider
restoring funding for NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
at the requested level of $990 million, allowing it to continue
movement towards sustainable management of fish stocks within the U.S.
Exclusive Economic Zone.
ocean exploration
The Joint Initiative appreciates the subcommittee's long standing
support of ocean exploration at NOAA and requests that you provide $28
million for the Ocean Exploration program, consistent with funding in
fiscal year 2015, to increase the pace, scope, and efficiency of
exploration. This would be $9 million above the NOAA budget request for
fiscal year 2016. A bipartisan effort since inception, the Ocean
Exploration program was strongly endorsed by Congress when created in
2002. The program has greatly contributed to our knowledge of the
ocean, producing Arctic surveys which enabled the U.S. to argue for an
extension of our own Exclusive Economic Zone; baseline characterization
of the Deepwater Horizon site in the Gulf before and after the oil
spill; discovery of new gas hydrates stretching from Cape Cod to Cape
Hatteras, with implications for coastal hazards and ocean
acidification; and new fishery habitat maps off the Northeast.
science, research, and education
The Joint Initiative calls attention to the need for consistent and
dedicated funding for ocean science, research, and education. We ask
you to increase funding for ocean science infrastructure, research, and
grant programs at NOAA, NSF, and NASA that are working to improve our
understanding of critical physical and biological ocean processes.
These programs provide local, State, and national decision makers with
the information they need to make informed decisions. The Joint
Initiative also urges you to fund education programs at increased
levels. Ocean education efforts are critical for cultivating current
and future ocean stewards, especially given the growth in careers that
require ocean-related education and knowledge.
In particular, we encourage you to provide $7.7 billion for the
NSF, including $1.365 billion for the Geosciences Directorate and its
Division of Ocean Science. NSF's investment in the geosciences has
spurred innovations, addressed important national and global
challenges, spurred new economic sectors, and led to the development
and implementation of advanced technologies that save lives, protect
property, and support our economy. For example, investments supporting
basic research in mathematics, physical sciences, computer sciences,
and geosciences, have led to the development of sophisticated models,
satellites, radar, and instrumentation that has greatly improved
hurricane forecasting, now allowing for nearly a week of preparations
by cities, businesses, institutions, and undoubtedly saving lives.
We also urge $1.95 billion in funding for the NASA's Earth Science
Division, up from $1.77 billion in fiscal year 2015 to support
critically important ocean and coastal science and education. NASA
satellites can view Earth as a planet and enable the study of it as a
complex, dynamic system of diverse components: the oceans, atmosphere,
continents, ice sheets, and life. Through partnerships with agencies
that maintain forecasting and decision support systems, NASA improves
national capabilities to predict climate, weather, and natural hazards;
manage resources; and support the development of environmental policy.
concluding remarks
The Joint Initiative greatly appreciates your commitment to
stretching scarce resources to address the challenges of a maritime
nation. We will continue to track progress in advancing key ocean and
coastal programs and accounts in fiscal year 2016 and beyond.
Recommendations from ``Charting the Course'' and other reports from the
Joint Initiative identify specific areas of achievement and deficiency.
Implementation of the recommendations will secure the future of our
Nation's ocean ecosystems, and the critical resources they provide, and
ensure that they will be abundant and able to support America's ocean,
coastal, and Great Lakes economies and the jobs and communities on
which our Nation depends.
Thank you for considering our requests as the subcommittee begins
it fiscal year 2016 appropriations process. The Joint Initiative
appreciates your attention to this matter and stands ready to assist
you in advancing positive and lasting changes in the way we manage our
Nation's oceans and coasts.
Joint Initiative Co-Chairs and Leadership Council Members
The Honorable William Ruckelshaus The Honorable Norman Mineta
Frances Beinecke Don Boesch Lillian Borrone
The Honorable Norm Dicks
Quenton Dokken Vice Admiral Paul Gaffney Robert
Gagosian Sherri Goodman
Scott Gudes The Honorable Conrad Lautenbacher
Margaret Leinen
Christopher Lischewski The Honorable Jane Lubchenco
Julie Packard
The Honorable Leon Panetta John Pappalardo
The Honorable Pietro Parravano Diane Regas
Randy Repass Andrew Rosenberg The Honorable
Christine Todd Whitman
______
Prepared Statement of the National Association of Marine Laboratories
The National Association of Marine Laboratories (NAML) is pleased
to submit testimony to the subcommittee with a series of
recommendations that we believe would strengthen the Nation's research
and education enterprise. NAML is a nonprofit organization representing
the ocean, coastal and Great Lakes interests of member laboratories
that employ thousands of scientists, engineers and professionals
nationwide. NAML labs conduct high quality research and education in
the natural and social sciences and translate that science to improve
decisionmaking on important issues facing our country. NAML's
priorities are drawn from and strongly support two important reports
from the National Academy of Sciences. They are: Sea Change: 2015-2025
Decadal Survey of Ocean Sciences (DSOS); and Enhancing the Value and
Sustainability of Field Stations and Marine Laboratories in the 21st
Century. Specific priorities germane to NAML labs are:
--Enhance science, education and public engagement at marine labs by
supporting the continued development of their unique assets and
qualities that allow them to prepare the next generation of
scientists, expand opportunities for active learning and
collaborative research, and explore a wide range of approaches
to engage the public. This includes strong sustained support
for competitive merit-based ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes
research provided by relevant Federal agencies to address the
research priorities identified in DSOS;
--Promote a network for discovery and innovation via Federal and non-
Federal support to build and maintain a modern infrastructure
for research, education, and networking including advanced
Internet connectivity and cyber infrastructure;
--Pursue financial sustainability by developing business plans that
foster the unique value of marine labs, creating mechanisms to
establish reliable based funding, and diversifying approaches
to obtain supplemental support--such as a national partnership
program to co-locate Federal scientists and infrastructure at
NAML facilities; and
--Develop metrics for demonstrating the impact of marine labs in
research, education, and public engagement.
the role of marine laboratories in the nation's research and education
enterprise
``Field stations are national assets formed by the unique merger of
natural capital, intellectual capital, social fabric, and
infrastructure that leads to the important scientific endeavors
required if we are to understand our rapidly changing natural world''.
Enhancing the Value and Sustainability of Field Stations and Marine
Laboratories in the 21st Century.
Ocean, coastal and Great Lakes marine laboratories are vital,
place-based ``windows on the sea.'' They connect communities with
cutting edge science, while providing students and citizens with
meaningful learning experiences. The members of NAML work together to
improve the quality and relevance of ocean, coastal and Great Lakes
research, education and outreach. NAML seeks support for the following
activities:
--The conduct of basic and applied research of the highest quality,
making use of the unique capabilities of coastal laboratories
in conducting education, outreach and public service;
--Balanced support of research with infrastructure with particular
emphasis on cost-effective networking of capabilities;
--Encouragement of effective management and conservation of marine
and coastal habitats and resources using ecosystem-based
management approaches that restore ecosystem health;
--Observing systems that collect data needed to improve predictions
of natural and human caused disasters and support the
management of marine resources for the benefit of environmental
and human health needs; and
--Education and training.
oceans, coasts and great lakes are vital for economic growth and the
well-being of the nation
More than half of the United States population lives in coastal
counties that generate 58 percent ($8.3 trillion) of the Nation's gross
domestic product (GPD). In 2011, Americans, on average, ate 15 pounds
of fish and shellfish per person--4.7 billion pounds all together--
making the U.S. second in the world in total seafood consumption.
Offshore oil production in the U. S. Exclusive Economic Zone accounts
for 24 percent of the total U.S. crude oil production. If American
coastal watershed counties collectively comprised a single country,
that country would have a GDP higher than that of China. The United
States has jurisdiction over 3.4 million square miles of oceans--an
expanse greater than the land area of all 50 States combined. This is a
dynamic area that offers a mosaic of biologically diverse habitats that
provide a wealth of environmental resources and economic opportunities,
while at the same exposing human and biological communities to hazards
such as damaging tsunamis and hurricanes, industrial accidents and
outbreaks of water borne pathogens. The 2010 Gulf of Mexico Deepwater
Horizon oil spill and Sandy in 2012 are vivid reminders that the depth
of our understanding of our oceans and coastal areas, and our ability
to protect them, is far from complete. Developing sufficient
capabilities to sustain ocean-based economies and protect our coasts
and coastal communities from natural and man-made hazards requires a
sustained, balanced investment in research, infrastructure, education,
and training.
The Great Lakes region boasts a massive geographic footprint, and
is a major driver of the North American economy. With economic output
of $4.7 trillion in 2011, the region accounts for 28 percent of
combined Canadian and U.S. economic activity. By comparison, the
region's output ranks ahead of Germany, France, Brazil and the U.K.,
and it would rank as the fourth largest economy in the world if it were
a country, behind only the U.S., China and Japan. The Great Lakes are
responsible for nearly 1 million manufacturing jobs; 217,000 jobs in
tourism and recreation; over 100,000 in shipping; over 110,000 in
agriculture, fishing and food production and about 10,000 related to
mining. Understanding the complexity of the Great Lakes is vital for
the future health and well being of this region of the country.
investing in research
NAML believes America is driven by innovation--advances in ideas,
products and processes that transform existing economies, create new
industries and jobs, and contribute to our Nation's ecological and
economic health and security. It is essential that the Nation reaffirms
and revitalizes the unique partnership that has existed between the
Federal Government, the States, business and the Nation's research and
education enterprise. Investing in the Nation's research enterprise has
contributed significantly to our long-term prosperity and technological
pre-eminence through research spanning a landscape of disciplines, from
physics to geology, chemistry to biology, engineering to social
sciences, and observing to modeling. NAML believes that research and
education programs at the major Federal science agencies with ocean and
coastal responsibilities should be viewed as priority investments in
the future health and well being of the Nation. Much attention has been
focused justifiably on the need for our Nation to continue its support
of premier basic research programs. It is also important to maintain
strong support for mission-oriented ocean, coastal and Great Lakes
research that includes long term observing programs. Research programs
that enhance agency missions and support the extramural community in
competitive, merit-based research provide highly cost-effective returns
on investment and distribute economic and societal benefits over a
broad array of communities. Further, NAML believes that developing
exchange programs between Federal agencies and marine laboratories will
further strengthen the communication and capacity of both for the
benefit of the ocean science and management enterprise.
Programs that support the extramural community via competitive,
merit-based research provide highly cost-effective returns on
investment, leverage additional resources to meet science and
management priorities, and distribute economic and societal benefits
over a broad array of communities. While the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has acknowledged his assertion on
many occasions, its extramural support for its partners has continued
to decline relative to the agency's bottom line. From background
information developed for the NOAA Science Advisory Board's R&D
Portfolio Review Task Force support by the Office of Oceanic and
Atmospheric Research (OAR) for extramural R&D has declined by $60
million since 2005--from $171.6 million to $107.1 million while the
percentage of OAR's research activities to support extramural programs
has dropped from just over 50 percent down to 34 percent of the total.
In the National Ocean Service (NOS), support for extramural R&D has
declined from a level of $21.6 million in 2005 to $13.7 million in 2011
while intramural support has grown from a level of $53 million in 2005
to a level of $58 million in 2011. Moreover NOAA has repeatedly
proposed the termination of numerous extramural programs--such as the
John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Grants program--and the consolidation of
research programs--such as Ocean Exploration and Research--which has
led to the dramatic reduction in extramural research and education
support.
Beyond cutting back on its extramural support, NOAA now seeks
permission to ``receive and expend funds made available by, any . . .
private organization, or individual (proposed Section 108 of the
General Provisions in the NOAA Section of the Appendix to the Fiscal
Year 2016 Budget, page 218).'' This would enable NOAA to compete
against non-Federal and private entities for private sector support.
Thus not only is NOAA cutting back its own support, it intends to
further exacerbate the situation by competing against its partners for
the limited available non-Federal resources needed to fill the gaps
created by NOAA's decision to scale back its extramural support. NAML
urges the subcommittee to restore to the maximum extent possible NOAA
support for its extramural research, education, and other related
programs while also limiting NOAA's ability to compete with the private
sector for non-Federal resources needed for research, education, and
conservation programs.
investing in research infrastructure
NAML believes that a comprehensive range of ocean and coastal
research infrastructure is essential to meet growing demands for
scientific information and to ensure that we restore and maintain
ecosystem health to support safe, efficient, and environmentally
sustainable use of our ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources. Most
marine laboratories operate independently of one another. Greater
networking with other marine laboratories, field stations, and other
research centers would leverage resources to facilitate discovery and
spark innovation. Networking would also allow institutions to share
best practices, protocols, and platforms for data archiving and
retrieval. Such networking has the potential to open new arenas of
scientific inquiry, education, and outreach. It can capture social and
intellectual capital to tackle major questions and seize opportunities
as no single marine laboratory can, and it enhances creativity and
innovation by attracting a wide range of scientists and promoting
multidisciplinary collaboration. The most successful and sustainable
networks start small and are self-defining; they encourage reciprocity
among network members. Networking can facilitate the development and
diffusion of knowledge and technology in a way that encourages
innovations. It is also important to appreciate that marine
laboratories vary in scope, size, infrastructure requirements, and
purpose; each contributes to the global portfolio in distinct ways.
Internet connectivity and cyberinfrastructure are two neglected and
underdeveloped elements of infrastructure. One common element, however,
in need of attention is Internet connectivity and cyberinfrastructure,
which would facilitate data sharing and analysis. Installation of new
cyberinfrastructure requires data-management and data-sharing plans and
conformity of data with widely used metadata standards. Such
infrastructure also requires a long-term funding commitment for repair,
upgrades, and technical support.
investing in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem)
education
NAML's education mission is two-fold. First, it is to enhance ocean
STEM education to ensure that all citizens recognize the reciprocal
effects of the oceans, coasts and Great Lakes on their own lives and
the impacts citizens have on these environments. Second, it is to
provide formal research and training opportunities at K-12, college,
and post-graduate levels to ensure a scientifically savvy, technically
qualified, and ethnically diverse workforce capable of solving problems
and answering questions related to the protection, restoration and
management of coastal and ocean ecosystems, climate variability, and
societal needs. An informed and engaged public is essential for the
Nation to address complex ocean- and coastal-related issues, balance
the use and conservation of marine resources, and maximize future
benefits from the ocean. Public understanding of human impacts on the
marine environment should be balanced with recognition of the benefits
to be derived from well-managed ocean resources. Ocean-related
education is by its nature interdisciplinary, involving many of the
natural sciences and the human connection to natural resources. It can
increase overall science literacy and enhance the Nation's health,
standing, safety and security. NAML laboratories seek to expand the
engagement of individuals from groups that have been historically
under-represented in ocean research, education and outreach. This is
particularly important in fulfilling the goal of achieving a
diversified STEM pipeline to meet future science and ocean workforce
needs.
NAML remains concerned with the administration's STEM Education
Consolidation proposal for fiscal year 2016. A total of 20 STEM
education programs at eight key R&D mission agencies (including the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Science
Foundation, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration) will be
impacted by this proposal. It is important for mission agencies to help
support the next generation of scientific and technical talent--much of
which will be needed by these agencies in future years. We urge the
subcommittee to reject these consolidation proposals and support the
continuation of these programs within their current agencies.
NAML appreciates the opportunity to present these views to the
subcommittee as it begins work on the development of the fiscal year
2016 appropriations bill.
Thank you.
______
Prepared Statement of the National Congress of American Indians
On behalf of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), this
testimony addresses important programs in the Department of Justice and
Department of Commerce. NCAI is the oldest and largest American Indian
organization in the United States. Tribal leaders created NCAI in 1944
as a response to termination and assimilation policies that threatened
the existence of American Indian and Alaska Native tribes. Since then,
NCAI has fought to preserve the treaty rights and sovereign status of
tribal governments, while also ensuring that Native people may fully
participate in the political system. As the most representative
organization of American Indian and Alaska Native tribes, NCAI serves
the broad interests of tribal governments across the Nation. As
Congress considers the fiscal year 2015 budget and beyond, leaders of
tribal nations call on decision-makers to ensure that the promises made
to Indian Country are honored in the Federal budget.
introduction
Annual funding decisions by Congress are an expression of our
Nation's moral priorities. Numerous treaties, statutes, and court
decisions have created a fundamental contract between tribal nations
and the United States: tribes ceded millions of acres of land that made
the United States what it is today, and in return tribes have the right
of continued self-government and the right to exist as distinct peoples
on their own lands. And for its part, the United States has assumed a
trust responsibility to protect these rights and to fulfill its solemn
commitments to Indian tribes and their members.
Part of this trust responsibility includes basic governmental
services in Indian Country, funding for which is appropriated in the
discretionary portion of the Federal budget. Tribal governments exist
to protect and preserve their unique cultures, identities, and natural
environments for posterity. As governments, tribes must deliver a wide
range of critical services, such as education, workforce development,
and first-responder and public safety services, to their citizens. The
Federal budget for tribal governmental services reflects the extent to
which the United States honors its promises to Indian people.
department of commerce
Provide $35 million for the Minority Business Development Agency
(MBDA).--Created by Executive Order in 1971, the MBDA was established
to support minority business development centers and received funding
of almost $63 million to carry out this mission. Since then, MBDA's
funding has shrunk by over 50 percent to an estimated $30.5 million for
fiscal year 2013 and $29.3 million for fiscal year 2014. After MBDA
revamped its cooperative assistance grants to Minority Business Centers
(MBCs), the Native American Business Enterprise Centers (NABECs) were
eliminated and their services were consolidated with the MBCs. About
$13 million of MBDA's budget is disbursed to the MBCs to provide
business consulting; advice on business financing; and some procurement
technical assistance to minority businesses, entrepreneurs, and tribal
enterprises.
With the service gap created by the elimination of NABECs, the need
for an increased level of funding for MBDA is even greater. MBDA must
sustain and expand support for these centers, which provide important
assistance to businesses that help them grow and develop, thereby
creating a stronger private sector and healthier national economy. The
MBDA also supports minority contractors' teaming efforts to pursue
Federal contracts, directs efforts to track minority business data,
collaborates with the Office of Native American Affairs, and is
increasing its focus on global trade.
Fund the Office of Native American Affairs (ONAA) at a minimum of
$1.25 million as part of the Commerce Department Management Budget.--In
the late 1990s, the Secretary of Commerce established ONAA within the
Secretary's office that was codified by the enactment of the Native
American Business Development, Trade Promotion and Tourism Act of 2000
(Public Law 106-464) (the 2000 Act). Since then, funding for the Office
has been partial and very limited. In order to carry out its mission,
ONAA must receive adequate support to implement Indian policy
initiatives and expand Native American business development initiatives
both domestically and internationally. Funding made available through
Commerce's Departmental Management budget would help ONAA's efforts,
particularly given the reduced focus of MBDA on specific Native
American business assistance.
conclusion
Thank you for your consideration of this testimony. For more
information, please contact Virginia Davis, Senior Policy Advisor, at
[email protected], NCAI Budget and Policy Analyst, at [email protected] or
Brian Howard, Legislative Associate, at [email protected].
______
Prepared Statement of the National Estuarine Research Reserve
Association
Chairman and members of the subcommittee, my name is William Reay
and I am the Director of the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research
Reserve in Virginia, administered by the Virginia Institute of Marine
Science, College of William and Mary. I submit this testimony in my
capacity as President of the National Estuarine Research Reserve
Association (NERRA). NERRA is a not-for-profit scientific and
educational organization dedicated to the protection, understanding,
and science-based management of our Nation's estuaries and coasts.
NERRA appreciates the support this subcommittee has given to the
research reserves over the years. As a result, the research reserves
have been able to assist coastal communities and States in becoming
more resilient to the ever increasing and complex challenges they face
on a daily basis and into the foreseeable future.
For fiscal year 2016, NERRA strongly recommends the following
reserve system programs and funding levels within the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA):
NERRS Operations $23.9 million
NERRS Procurement, Acquisition, and Construction $1.7 million
(PAC)
The National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) program
bring the strength of both NOAA and partner science and stewardship to
important coastal regions across the Nation. NERRS encompasses 28
protected reserves located in estuaries that are home to our most
productive habitats and populated communities--that support science-
based coastal resource management, research, and education to meet
national priorities as mandated by Congress in the Coastal Zone
Management Act (CZMA) of 1972. The States have been entrusted to
operate and manage NOAA's program in 22 States and Puerto Rico, where
over 1.3 million acres of land and water are protected in perpetuity.
What distinguishes the research reserves is the community and State
implementation of programs and local management of these places that
form this Federal-State partnership program.
The administration's fiscal year 2016 request for the NERRS is a
total of $21.3 million. This amount will result in a reduction of
funding to each State, and will diminish the current capabilities of
the program's core operations. Specifically, the administration's
request will decrease funding amounts going to each State; reduce water
quality monitoring capabilities that coastal dependent communities,
businesses and industries rely on; adversely impact the collection of
data relating to hazards and sea level rise provided to decision-
makers; and, reduce the education and information exchange provided to
communities and schools related to coastal resiliency. After reviewing
the detailed NOAA budget request sent to the Congress, it is clear that
States are inadequately supported to implement this national program
and are compromised in their ability to fulfill the vision of Congress
in its creation of the NERRS program.
NERRA is deeply concerned with the administration's funding levels
that we believe are inconsistent with key tenants of NOAA's own
strategic plan--specifically, enhancing community and economic
resiliency and strengthening science in support of coastal resource
management. The administration's fiscal year 2016 requested funding
level will diminish the NERRS's capacity to deliver important research,
monitoring data, and education and training to its State, local, and
regional partners.
The NERRS program has grown as States identify the coastal needs
that must be addressed, and the addition of new reserves has provided
more science, training, and education resources that can be applied
nationally. At issue is the cost associated with operating 28 reserves
nationally has increased given the relatively recent addition of two
reserves (Texas and Wisconsin) and a third (Hawaii) in fiscal year
2016, the infrastructure it relies on has aged, and because there is a
rapidly increasing need to help local communities address coastal
hazards. Without funding, four critical core program areas are at risk.
essential coastal resiliency nerrs programs impacted by inadequate
funding
1. Reserve Operations.--First, the administration budget request
flat-funds the program at the fiscal year 2015 level of $21.3 million.
Flat-funding in the face of the program adding a 29th reserve in fiscal
year 2016 will in effect result in reduced budgets for each of the
current reserves. The addition of a new research reserve strengthens
the national program by leveraging science, education, and partnerships
that will benefit the Nation. Equally troubling is the absence of any
mention of the expected expansions in NOAA's fiscal year 2016 budget
submission. Along with the new Hawaii reserve, there is one more
known--Connecticut--in process for future years.
2. Coastal intelligence--monitoring and data networks.--The second
program area at risk is maintaining existing System-wide monitoring and
data networks that provide immediate and long-term information to
understand harmful algal blooms, assess water quality, identify habitat
impacts from changing sea levels, aid in weather forecasting, and
improve response to storm surge. Hundreds of entities use the NERRS
water quality and weather data, including State water quality control
programs; county health departments; shellfish growers and fishing
industry professionals; the National Weather Service; and, insurance
companies.
3. Sentinel sites provide early detection of change.--The third
program area at risk is helping communities by providing data for early
detection of habitat change that helps respond to coastal hazards by
integrating monitoring, analysis and modeling to assess current habitat
vulnerability, forecast future conditions and aid in the development of
adaptive management strategies. Right now reserves are working to
understand changes in tidal marshes, mangroves and sea grass beds.
These habitats provide a wide range of highly valued ecosystem serves
such as nursery habitat for commercial and recreational important fish,
erosion and flood control, and water quality improvements.
4. Educating today's and tomorrow's decision-makers.--The forth
program area at risk is providing relevant and timely science and
support tools to decision-makers and to the next generation of
scientists, resource managers, business people, and civic leaders.
Reserves have prioritized the Teachers on the Estuary professional
development opportunity for all 28 reserves that prepare the Next
Generation workforce in key disciplines of science, technology,
engineering and math (STEM education)--estimated to reach more than
12,000 students annually through this program alone in addition to the
83,000 reached by all education programs conducted by the reserves.
Additionally reserves support their communities by providing technical
training to local officials and support staff and residents about
critical resource management issues such as impending hazards, storm
water control, shoreline management, and habitat restoration: in 2014
more than 12,000 decision makers participated in reserve training
programs.
making coasts more resilient, supporting coastal economies, and having
direct positive impacts on communities and throughout the states
Research reserves assist our coastal communities, commercial
businesses and industries through enhanced coastal resiliency in a
changing environment. As severe weather events become more common,
Federal, State, and local officials are recognizing that estuaries have
the capacity to provide green resilience infrastructure. Through the
reserves, NOAA can tailor science and management practices to enable
local planners to use estuarine habitat as a tool for resilience and
adaptation. The increase to the NERRS operation funds by $2.6 million
above the administration's request is essential to supporting coastal
economies and impacting States and their communities.
--The research reserves' operations that include existing high-
quality jobs and student internship opportunities, as well as
service delivery in 28 communities will be improved through
modest additional appropriations by enhanced monitoring
technology responsive to changing environments and increased
educational efficiency by providing best-practices professional
development with decision-maker training and education programs
such as Teachers on the Estuary.
--Each research reserve will leverage additional State, local, and
private funding to their individual States, and will provide
vital local trainings for decision makers, researchers,
students and teachers that generates a more resilient coast
through improved access to stakeholder driven research,
engaging place-based education and information needs.
--With adequate funding, essential water quality data collected by
the research reserves will be made available to entities such
as local commercial businesses, industries and government
entities who rely upon it via updated monitoring equipment and
real-time telemetry technology.
Investments in the NERRS are dollar-smart because funding for the
program is matched by the States and leveraged significantly, resulting
in an average of more than five other local and State partners
contributing to the work at each reserve. In addition, the program
significantly benefits from volunteers that are engaged in habitat
restoration, citizen science and education which offset operation costs
at reserves by donating thousands of hours. Annually, volunteers
contribute more than 100,000 hours to the NERRS with an estimated value
of over $2.2 million. Funding of $23.9 million for the NERRS would be a
minimal level to provide each reserve with the necessary funding to
insure that cuts to the States as well as to existing core programs and
services do not occur.
nerrs procurement, acquisition, and construction and the bay-watershed
education and training
The NERRS Procurement, Acquisition, and Construction (PAC) funding
is designated for land conservation, through acquisition of priority
lands, and essential facilities construction and upgrades. This
competitive funding program is matched by State funds and has resulted
in not only the preservation of critical coastal lands as described
above, but also in the increase of construction jobs. For example NERRS
creates more than 60 jobs for each $1 million of Federal construction
(PAC) money spent. In addition, NERRS leveraged investments of more
than $115 million to purchase over 30,000 acres of coastal property
over the last 12 years.
Second, within the budget request for NOAA, the administration is
again proposing the elimination of funding for the Bay-Watershed
Education and Training (B-WET) regional programs--a reduction of $7.2
million in funding. The rationale provided for program reductions is
misleading in stating that NOAA education experiences will continue to
be provided by programs including the NERRS. Where States are eligible
for B-WET funding, reserves are able to increase their educational
capacity by as much as 50 percent, as documented in the Chesapeake Bay
NERR (VA) for example. The B-WET regional program funding is money that
is spent in addition to the annual NERRS money invested in the
education programs. The NERRS educate more than 83,000 children
annually. NERRA strongly opposes the cut of B-WET regional programs and
any of the other NOAA STEM educational programs.
conclusion
NERRA greatly appreciates the past support the subcommittee has
provided. This support is critical to sustain and increase the economic
viability of coastal and estuary-based industries.
With NERRA's fiscal year 2016 request of $23.9 million for the
NERRS Operations and $1.7 million for NERRS PAC, the program will be
able to maintain delivery of credible scientific research and
translation of that research so as to contribute to the resiliency of
the natural and built communities and that yields a high rate of return
to the 28 reserves around the country. We urge the subcommittee to
support this request, and to restore funding for the B-WET regional
programs.
Thank you for the opportunity to present these remarks. On behalf
of NERRA, I would be happy to answer questions or provide additional
information to the subcommittee.
______
Prepared Statement of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation
The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation (NMSF) works with Congress
and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to
connect fellow citizens to the underwater places that define the
American ocean--the National Marine Sanctuary System. We remain
concerned that NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS) has
not received sufficient appropriations for several budget cycles.
Recognizing the economic growth and job creation benefits provided by
sanctuaries, NMSF respectfully requests the subcommittee remedy this
situation by appropriating:
--$55 million to the Sanctuaries and Marine Protected Areas Base,
within NOAA's Operations, Research, and Facilities account; and
--$5.5 million to the National Marine Sanctuary Program--
Construction/Acquisition Base, within NOAA's Procurement,
Acquisition, and Construction account.
Joining NMSF in this request is a national network of community-
based, non-profit organizations that support sites within the sanctuary
system. On behalf of their members, the Cordell Marine Sanctuary
Foundation (California), Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association
(California), Friends of Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary
(Michigan), Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary Foundation (Georgia),
Hawai`i National Marine Sanctuary Foundation (Hawaii), California
Marine Sanctuary Foundation (California), and Sanctuary Friends
Foundation of the Florida Keys (Florida) support funding the National
Marine Sanctuary System at these levels (Appendix I).
And with the opening of the sanctuary nomination process,
communities nationwide are voicing their support for increased funding
for the National Marine Sanctuary System.
Despite a decade's worth of bipartisan support in both houses of
Congress that sanctuaries warrant additional funds and the groundswell
of public support, the President's fiscal year 2016 budget request
continues a disturbing trend of underfunding the sanctuary program.
While we recognize the challenges of providing increased funding in the
current budget climate, we believe that it fails to address critical
sanctuary contributions to job creation and economic growth.
the national marine sanctuary system and noaa's office of national
marine sanctuaries
Encompassing over 170,000 square miles of marine and Great Lakes
waters, the National Marine Sanctuary System includes 13 national
marine sanctuaries and Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.
Sanctuaries protect vibrant ocean ecosystems, conserve essential
habitat for endangered and commercially important marine species, and
safeguard historical and cultural resources.
national marine sanctuaries are unique and successful ocean
conservation tools
Generations of Americans have grown up, worked jobs, and supported
their families on the waters of our national marine sanctuaries. Among
all the statutes enacted by Congress to govern ocean resources, the
National Marine Sanctuaries Act stands alone in terms of the
comprehensiveness, community participation, transparency and balanced
approach provided for all stakeholders. An independent legal analysis
concluded that ``the National Marine Sanctuaries Act is the best
existing mechanism available for preserving ocean ecosystems,'' due to
sanctuaries' commitment to public participation, community engagement,
and use of a place- and ecosystem-based approach.\1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Perkins Coie LLP. (2013). ``Area-Based Management of Marine
Resources: A Comparative Analysis of the National Marine Sanctuaries
Act and Other Federal and State Legal Authorities.'' Available: http://
www.nmsfocean.org/files/ABMReport.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unlike other ocean resource laws, the National Marine Sanctuaries
Act protects nationally significant places and their natural,
historical, and cultural riches. Experience shows that this approach is
vital to maintaining the healthy seascapes that underpin our productive
economies, supporting thousands of businesses while maintaining public
access for recreation, science, exploration, and education.
national marine sanctuaries are economic engines for coastal
communities
Sanctuaries foster economic growth, support jobs and businesses,
generate billions of dollars in local revenue, preserve underwater and
maritime treasures, and provide valuable public access for ocean
recreation, research, exploration, and education. According to the
National Ocean Economics Program, 70 percent of ocean and coastal
employment in the tourism and recreation sector depend on visitor
opportunities requiring clean beaches, clean water, and abundant fish
and wildlife promoted by national marine sanctuaries.
Because of strong ties to the local communities, businesses, and
organizations, sanctuaries are able to heavily leverage private funds
and contributions for taxpayer benefits, ensuring that the benefits of
funding national marine sanctuaries far outweigh the Federal outlays
that support them:
--Over 64,000 jobs and $4.5 billion in GDP contributed annually from
the marine tourism and recreation sector in the two counties
adjacent to Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ National Ocean Economics Program. (2011) ``Ocean Economy
Data.'' Available: http://www.oceaneconomics.org.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--Over $126 million in whale watching revenue and 600 jobs at 31
businesses resulting from less than $2 million invested in the
Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary off of
Massachusetts.\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ O'Connor, Simon et al (2009). Whale Watching Worldwide: tourism
numbers, expenditures and expanding economic benefits, a special report
from the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Prepared by Economists
at Large. Available: http://www.ifaw.org/Publications/
Program_Publications/Whales/asset_upload_file841_55365.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--2,100 jobs and a $291 million budget from marine science and
education at the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, more
than 100 times the $3 million investment by taxpayers.\4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ Monterey Bay Crescent Ocean Research Consortium. (2012) ``Major
Marine Sciences Facilities in the Monterey Bay Crescent-2012.''
Available: http://web.me.com/paduan/mbcorc/Membership_Info_files/
MontereyBayLabs2012-2.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--Over half (58 percent) of visitors to Alpena, Michigan came to
visit Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, which is the
region's most popular attraction, boasting nearly 100,000
visitors per year.\5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ Source: Molnar, Lawrence. 2013. ``Economic Impact Analysis for
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Thunder Bay
National Marine Sanctuary, Final Report.'' Ann Arbor, Michigan:
Institute for Research on Labor, Employment, and the Economy,
University of Michigan (July). Available: http://irlee.umich.edu/
Publications/Docs/ThunderBayNMS_
FinalReport.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
national marine sanctuaries start and stay in local communities
Public participation is a hallmark of the sanctuary program. From
the sanctuary nomination process to day-to-day management decisions,
sanctuaries start and stay in local communities--underscoring ONMS's
commitment to community leadership and engagement. Communities have a
controlling influence on sanctuary priorities to ensure unique, local
circumstances are addressed. Sanctuary rules and regulations are
developed on a site-by-site basis, and, from the outset, sanctuaries
are designed to accommodate multiple uses of the ocean.
Sanctuaries are created by and for the people: citizens and
communities around the Nation recognize the benefits of sanctuaries and
express strong interest in establishing sanctuaries in their own
waters.
--Over 440 community representatives serve on Sanctuary Advisory
Councils with members from the fishing, tourism, and maritime
commerce industries; tribes, State and local government; and
scientists, educators, and conservationists to provide advice
to sanctuary superintendents on sanctuary operations.
--Over 140,000 hours are contributed by local sanctuary volunteers
each year in areas of research, monitoring, enforcement,
education and outreach, and management advisory.
national marine sanctuaries and education
Through education and outreach programs, sanctuaries function as
living classrooms that provide students with the knowledge and tools to
act as responsible ocean stewards. Science, technology, engineering and
mathematics (STEM) education programs are a key part of national marine
sanctuaries mission. Eliminating important education infrastructure,
such as NOAA Office of Education's Bay Watershed Education and Training
(B-WET) and NOAA's Teacher at Sea program, hinders the ability to
deliver meaningful watershed education initiatives in sanctuaries.
We strongly encourage you to oppose any efforts to move or
terminate the Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship Program (NFSP). The direct
connections between students and researchers in sanctuaries are
critical for the effectiveness of the NFSP. While we support the
administration's efforts to recognize efficiencies across STEM
education initiatives, NFSP should remain administered by ONMS, as
consistent with the National Marine Sanctuaries Act.
national marine sanctuaries' programmatic outlook under reduced fiscal
year 2016 funding levels
Funding decreases and level-funding have resulted in layoffs and
cutbacks to mission critical sanctuary programs. A lack of funds may
result in cuts to public access and recreation opportunities, reduced
operations at visitor centers, cancellation of partnerships, a lack of
contingency funding needed in case of emergencies like oil spills, and
additional inoperable vessels. Of particular concern are proposals to
reduce funding for necessary and ongoing renovation and construction
projects.
The potential impact of reducing sanctuary appropriations goes far
beyond the individual sanctuaries themselves: limiting visitor center
hours, eliminating research programs, and diminishing enforcement
capacities prevents ONMS from fulfilling its statutory mandates, while
also reducing the economic activity and job creation from which healthy
communities benefit. Funding sanctuaries below NMSF's recommended
levels could force the program to:
Reduce public access and recreation opportunities for all
Americans: Funding cuts risk the Florida Keys National Marine
Sanctuary's 767 mooring buoys, which provide public access and
recreational opportunities within the sanctuary while protecting coral
reefs and shipwrecks from anchor damage.
Cut visitor center hours: Sanctuary visitor centers act as a public
face of NOAA to over 350,000 visitors per year, including Monterey Bay
National Marine Sanctuary Exploration Center (California), Mokupapapa
Discovery Center (Hawaii), Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center
(Michigan), and Florida Keys EcoDiscovery Center (Florida).
Cancel education and outreach programs that leverage private funds:
Reduced funding jeopardizes education and outreach activities on the
water, at sanctuaries and visitor centers, and in classrooms.
noaa needs sufficient funds to fulfill its responsibilities to the
american people
We strongly support the Friends of NOAA Coalition request to fund
the agency at no less than $6 billion in fiscal year 2016. From weather
forecasts to fisheries management, NOAA provides decision makers with
critical data, products, and services that promote and enhance the
Nation's economy, security, environment, and quality of life.
Insufficient funding will only serve to diminish the economic activity
and job creation that is successfully revitalizing communities across
America.
Jason Patlis,
President and CEO.
APPENDIX I
March 18, 2015.
Hon. Richard C. Shelby Hon. Barbara Mikulski
Chairman, Senate Appropriations Vice Chairwoman, Senate
Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Appropriations Subcommittee
Science, and Related Agencies on Commerce, Justice,
SH-125 Hart Senate Office Building Science, and Related
Washington, D.C. 20510 Agencies
SD-142 Dirksen Senate Office
Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Chairman Shelby and Ranking Member Mikulski: As Congress
begins negotiations on the fiscal year 2016 Commerce, Justice, Science,
and Related Agencies appropriations bill, we respectfully request that
you prioritize programmatic requests for:
--Sanctuaries and Marine Protected Areas Base, within the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Operations,
Research, and Facilities (ORF) account, at a level of $55
million; and
--Marine Sanctuaries Construction Base, within NOAA's Procurement,
Acquisition, and Construction (PAC) account at a level of $5.5
million.
Sanctuaries embody our Nation's commitment to conserve the best of
our ocean, coasts, and Great Lakes. Through their comprehensive, highly
participatory approach designed to accommodate multiple uses of our
ocean, national marine sanctuaries foster economic growth, support jobs
and businesses, generate billions of dollars in local revenues,
preserve underwater and maritime treasures, and provide valuable public
access for ocean recreation, research, exploration, and education.
The American people have seen the benefits national marine
sanctuaries provide for local communities and our Nation and they are
voicing their support for sanctuaries. Communities nationwide are
coming together to discuss how to protect the ocean, coasts, and Great
Lakes by working with the existing sanctuaries and by nominating new
sites through the sanctuary nomination process.
Sanctuaries are a proven and successful conservation tool and the
return on our investment in sanctuaries is simply too valuable to
ignore. Because of the strong ties to the local communities,
businesses, and organizations, sanctuaries have been able to heavily
leverage private funds and contributions for taxpayer benefits.
However, diminishing budgets will force ONMS to reduce economic
opportunities, close visitor's centers, cancel collaborative
partnerships with museums and universities, terminate education and
research initiatives, and diminish enforcement capacities. In
particular, the sanctuary visitor centers, facilities, and vessels
supported by PAC funds anchor local tourism and recreation economies
and enable ONMS to complete core research, education, and law
enforcement missions that simply cannot be accomplished from land
alone.
We strongly urge you to remedy this situation by supporting an
overall appropriation of no less than $60.5 million for sanctuaries in
fiscal year 2016. Your support for national marine sanctuaries will
send a powerful and necessary message about the economic growth and job
creation benefits of healthy ocean and coastal resources, while
simultaneously underscoring the continuing ecological and aesthetic
value of America's underwater treasures.
Thank you for your consideration of this request. We wish you all
the best for the 114th Congress.
Sincerely,
Jason Patlis, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation;
Tom Lambert, Cordell Marine Sanctuary
Foundation; Chris Kelley, Farallones Marine
Sanctuary Association; Charles N. Wiesen,
Friends of Thunder Bay National Marine
Sanctuary; Chris Hines, Gray's Reef
National Marine Sanctuary Foundation;
Lynette Poncin, Hawai`i National Marine
Sanctuary Foundation; Dennis J. Long,
Monterey Bay and Channel Islands Sanctuary
Foundation; George Neugent, Sanctuary
Friends Foundation of the Florida Keys
______
Prepared Statement of the National Weather Service Employees
Organization
The employees of the National Weather Service once again urge the
subcommittee to reject the administration's proposals to eliminate
funding for the Information Technology Officers (ITOs) at our Nation's
122 Weather Forecast Offices, and to reduce funding for the development
of the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System, ``AWIPS 2.''
As this subcommittee noted when rejecting an earlier proposal to
eliminate the ITOs, the ``IT staff have proven to be valuable parts of
the local weather forecast teams.'' Senate Report No. 112-158, at 31.
But once again, the NOAA budget justification fails to explain how 24
regionally based ITOs can, at a distance, handle the same workload
performed by 122 employees who work at the site of the problem. No
workload analysis has ever been conducted. This year's budget
justification contains the same preposterous claim that the regional
team approach will ``meet or exceed current service levels'' without
any factual basis or prototyping. The proposal once again claims that
``the current service delivery model has redundancies,'' but fails to
identify a single one.
The subcommittee has rejected such unsupported assurances in the
past and has directed the agency to present any proposal to consolidate
IT support only as part of a comprehensive plan for future NWS
operations. In considering the fiscal year 2014 request, this
subcommittee directed NOAA to provide a report that ``addresses
potential consolidation of NWS IT staff in the context of an overall
workforce staffing plan.'' Senate Report No. 113-78, at 38. In
rejecting NOAA's request to eliminate the ITOs last year, this
subcommittee wrote:
This repeated request continues to ignore the subcommittee's
direction to provide perspective on how this proposal fits
within NWS's broader workforce and modernization plans. The
subcommittee also notes that NOAA has not provided the report
requested in fiscal year 2014 outlining a multi-phase plan for
consolidating NWS's information technology operations that
would streamline system configuration . . . while resulting in
no degradation of service.
Senate Report No. 113-181, at 43. Astonishingly, NOAA has once
again requested authority to eliminate the ITOs without providing the
report or analysis that this subcommittee said was a prerequisite to
its approval. As this year's NWS budget justification explains (at 39),
the NWS has still not yet developed its IT consolidation plan and will
not be ``developing a strategic staffing plan which will fully show the
future of the NWS workforce'' until 2016. Between September 2010 and
February 2015, the NWS reduced its non-supervisory workforce by 10
percent, from 3877 to 3469, in an unplanned, random manner as vacancies
arose. The subcommittee should not approve additional haphazard
reductions in field staff.
NWSEO has just obtained a copy of a ``Statement of Need'' authored
by an ad hoc committee of Meteorologists-in-Charge (``MICs'') of
numerous NWS Forecast Offices in 2013 and submitted to NWS management,
explaining why the ITOs are essential to the operations of their
offices and need to be retained. According the MICs, who are the senior
supervisor at each forecast office, the ``READI Teams'' cannot
adequately replace the ITOs:
The READI team proposal is an admirable effort to reduce
agency overhead costs and looks promising on the surface, but
it also includes a large number of assumptions that have
already been proven faulty or ineffective during weather
situations affecting multiple sites. Having to rely on
emergency backup and remote support in lieu of local site
support is a recipe for disaster and one not worth the cost
savings.
* * *
From our perspective, one cannot remove such a vital
individual from a unit and replace him with a remote staff
member (or members) tasked with serving multiple offices that
has no collaborative ties, relationship, or rapport with the
people, office or customers, and expect the kind of benefits
the ITO program has produced to date.
* * *
Moving from a system of local ITO experts to a regional cadre
of ITO teams, no matter how skilled and prepared, will
undoubtedly result in slower response time and longer periods
of system down-time and lengthy site and system recovery.
The MICs also noted that the ITOs are responsible for far more than
keeping existing systems operational. ``[T]he ITO is a critical
developer who is directly connected with the forecasters, end users,
and core constituents. Due to this connection the position has been
able to create successful applications with a positive and lasting
impact on our agency.'' Below are four examples of software
applications recently developed by ITOs that were customized to local
weather conditions and customer needs.
1. Last winter Diana Norgaard, the ITO at the Sterling Forecast
Office (which services Northern Virginia, Maryland, DC and part of West
Virginia) developed software applications that translated winter
weather forecasts and models into graphic ``probabilistic'' forecasts
of the chances of varying snow accumulation totals for approximately
100 locations within the office's service area. She developed a Web
page for display of these experimental forecast products, which can be
found at www.weather/gov/lwx/winter. These new forecast products were
so well received that Ms. Norgaard assisted in replicating them for the
Philadelphia, New York and Boston Forecast Office Web sites this
winter.
2. After the January 2014 snowstorm that paralyzed the Atlanta
highway network, the Georgia Department of Transportation installed
road sensors around the metro Atlanta area and North Georgia. Steve
Listemaa, the ITO at the Atlanta Forecast Office, worked with the
vendor to ingest this data for display into the office's AWIPS system,
which he then configured to produce road temperature forecasts. The
graph below shows the observed road temperature data to the left of the
vertical gray line, and forecast road temperature data to the right.
The display was originally written by the ITO at the Tulsa Forecast
Office, and Mr. Listemaa took that code and modified it for his
office's needs.
3. In Vermont, ice jams create a flood threat in late winter as
river ice starts to break up; Montpelier was flooded as a result of
such an ice jam in 1993. Chuck McGill, the ITO at the forecast office
in Burlington, Vermont, wrote a series of software scripts that created
a database for the office's hydrologist to use to log the locations of
ice jams in their service area, and to quickly generate a Public
Information Statement with this information.
4. The NWS's Service Assessment of its response to the May 2013
Moore, Oklahoma tornado noted that a local application developed by the
ITO at the Norman Forecast Office was critical to FEMA's efforts:
WFO Norman produced GIS [graphical information systems]
products showing a preliminary estimate of the likely tornado
track, which the office made available while the tornado was in
progress in Moore, Oklahoma. Meteorologist in Charge (MIC),
serving as the radar interpreter, worked with the Information
Technology Officer (ITO) to use a prototype local application
on AWIPS II, the AWIPS's next-generation software, to generate
the GIS files on AWIPS. The GIS files were emailed to the EMs
in affected regions and to the Southern Region Regional
Operations Center (SR ROC) and posted on social media. WFO
Norman used all available radar data and other information to
draw potential damage paths. The local application allowed the
meteorologists to select points, scan-by-scan, to identify
where a tornado was located. This process includes forecaster
interpretation in the analysis loop and is different and
separate from the rotation tracks products available from the
National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL). The Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) Director noted these products are
``extremely valuable'' when integrated into FEMA's GIS
applications. These preliminary tracks allowed FEMA to identify
the impacted areas and determine resources that might be needed
for the recovery as much as 3-4 hours before resources were
requested . . .
These GIS products saved FEMA 3-4 hours of response time and
helped FEMA staff determine the need for additional urban
search and rescue teams before local EMs formally requested
this assistance.
Service Assessment: May 2013 Oklahoma Tornadoes and Flash Flooding, pp.
8-9 (NWS, January 2014).
Regional IT teams cannot maintain from a distance the unique
software applications and models previously designed by each office's
ITOs and with which they are unfamiliar; and termination of the ITOs
will eliminate the ability to design and build software applications
and forecasting models customized to each office's unique climate and
user needs.
In its fiscal year 2016 budget justification, the NWS promises that
it will reduce ITO staffing through attrition, but that is not possible
if funding for the ITOs is abruptly terminated at the beginning of the
upcoming fiscal year. The NWS incorrectly claims that many of the ITOs
can qualify for other NWS positions, such as a meteorologist. Although
about one-half of the ITOs were meteorologists before being selected as
ITOs, it is unlikely that they would qualify to return to the
meteorologist jobs series because the educational qualification
standards for meteorologists changed in 1998. Only those current
meteorologists who were hired before that date and who have been
continuously employed in the meteorologist job series are grandfathered
under the prior qualification standards. (See NOAA Human Resources
Guidance Bulletin #FY14-004 (October 23, 2014).
NWSEO also opposes NOAA's proposal to reduce $1.5 million in
funding for development and implementation of the next generation of
the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System. As noted in the
agency's Budget Justification, at 73, the ``NWS will be limited in
providing future tools and capabilities which meteorologists/
hydrologists use in situational awareness for warning/forecast
preparation'' as a result of this reduction, and ``[t]he development of
robust, efficient service backup capabilities to support local needs as
well as COOP activities will also be deferred.''
The most troubling impact of this reduction will be the deferral of
an updated AWIPS ``Weather Event Simulator'' or ``WES.'' WES is a
training simulator that allows forecasters to replay severe weather
events from archived data as case studies as if they were occurring in
real-time. Funding for training at the National Weather Service has
already fallen to just one-half of 1 percent of the agency's budget.
______
Prepared Statement of The Nature Conservancy
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the fiscal year 2016
appropriations for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA). The Nature Conservancy is a non-profit conservation
organization working around the world to protect ecologically important
lands and waters for both people and nature. As the Nation enters the
fiscal year 2016 budget cycle and another year of fiscal challenges,
The Nature Conservancy recognizes the need for fiscal restraint and
reiterates our concern that natural resource stewardship programs
should not bear a disproportionate share of cuts in this budget. We
believe the budget levels The Nature Conservancy supports represent a
prudent investment in our country's future. It is an investment that
not only helps NOAA achieve its most critical missions by catalyzing
local and regional action, but also reduces risk and saves money based
on tangible economic and societal benefits that natural resources
provide.
national marine fisheries service
Fisheries and Ecosystem Science Programs and Services.--The Nature
Conservancy supports the President's request of $146.317 million.
There is a high correlation between the good information about the
status of a fish stock and the effectiveness of management. Systems for
collecting fishery data tend to be paper-based, slow, expensive and
prone to errors and gaps. On-board video monitoring has been piloted
but has yet to be implemented in any U.S. fisheries and the
administration's proposed $5.596 million increase for Electronic
Monitoring and Reporting will help move these efforts beyond pilots to
implementation through funding purchase and maintenance of hardware and
software and processing of collected data. Priority should be given to
those fisheries across the country that have already piloted these
efforts. Also key is improving our understanding of the ecological and
economic connections between fisheries and nearshore habitats. The
administration's proposed $5 million increase for Ecosystem-based
Solutions for Fisheries Management will improve our understanding of
the value of ecosystem services and develop the models and tools to
incorporate this information into habitat restoration plans and
fisheries management actions.
Fisheries Management Programs and Services.--The Nature Conservancy
supports the President's request of $128.367 million.
NOAA Fisheries has made important strides in addressing these
challenges and strengthening fisheries management; however, much more
needs to be done. To recover fish stocks so that they provide food and
jobs to struggling fishermen now and in the future, we need to reduce
destructive fishing practices, restore coastal habitats that produce
fish, and support the efforts of fishermen and fishing communities and
do so in a collaborative way. The Conservancy supports the President's
request of $128.367 million and highlights two important program
increases. The proposed increase of $1.45 million within this line will
be used to develop and implement clear procedures and guidance for the
use of electronic monitoring. This will include review of pilot project
information, regional implementation plans, and coordination with
stakeholders. Catch shares give participating fishermen a stake in the
benefits of a well-managed fishery and align the incentives for
resource stewardship with the natural incentive for fishermen to
increase their earnings with a sustainable business model. Transition
to these systems is difficult and the modest $2.216 million proposed
increase will help NOAA get the design and implementation of these new
catch share programs right by engaging fishing communities.
Habitat Management and Restoration.--The Nature Conservancy supports
the President's request of $57.885 million.
Coastal wetlands and nearshore waters produce the fish and
shellfish that feed America. The health of these places is essential to
the economic and social well-being of those who live, work, and
recreate in coastal communities. Additionally the restoration and
protection of coastal resources help to provide flood control and
prevent erosion to protect our communities from storm surges. Through
the Community-based Restoration Program and the Habitat Blueprint
initiative, The Nature Conservancy works closely with NOAA to restore
the health of degraded habitats in places and ways that benefit not
just local marine life, but communities and coastal economies as well.
Project funds are awarded on a competitive basis and typically leverage
the resources and capacity of multiple partners. This work enhances our
understanding of the connections between fisheries productivity and
habitat, measures the effectiveness of conservation and restoration
activities, and applies those lessons to improve future efforts. The
administration has also requested an important $3.5 million increase to
enhance NOAA's capacity to for consultations on and implementation of
Essential Fish Habitat. The Regional Fishery Management Councils
address fishing impacts on these areas, and NOAA must have sufficient
capacity to provide technical assistance to the Councils and to work
with Federal agencies to avoid, minimize, and mitigate the impacts of
their actions on these important fishery habitats.
Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund.--The Nature Conservancy supports
maintaining the fiscal year 2015 level of funding of $65 million, $7
million above the President's requested amount.
The Pacific Coast Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF) is the most critical
Federal program addressing major threats to Pacific salmon so that
these fish can continue to sustain culture, economies, recreation, and
ecosystem health. PCSRF funding is tailored for each State,
competitively awarded based on merit, and has funded hundreds of
successful, on-the-ground salmon conservation efforts. PCSRF invests in
cooperative efforts to conserve species under NOAA's jurisdiction, and
projects are matched at a 3:1 ratio (Federal/non-Federal). Notably, the
PCSRF has catalyzed thousands of partnerships among Federal, State,
local, and tribal governments, and conservation, business, and
community organizations. The Nature Conservancy urges sustaining the
fiscal year 2015 enacted level of $65 million.
Fisheries Data Collections, Surveys and Assessments.--The Nature
Conservancy supports the President's request of $163.251 million.
Limited or poor quality information on the status of fishery stocks
undermines the effectiveness of fishery management and can erode
political support for conservation measures. Accurate and timely stock
assessments are essential for the sound management of fisheries and the
sustainability of fishing resources. The $2.815 million proposed
increase to Expand Annual Stock Assessments will help the agency
prioritize assessments, determine what level of assessments are needed
and, where to appropriately incorporate ecosystem linkages--such as
climate, habitat, multispecies, socioeconomic factors.
Marine Mammals, Sea Turtles, and Other Species.--The Nature Conservancy
supports the President's request of $145.71 million.
Through this budget line, NOAA awards competitive grants to States
and tribes to support conservation actions that contribute to recovery,
or have direct conservation benefits for, listed species, recently de-
listed species, and candidate species that reside within that State.
NOAA's proposed $17 million increase for Species Recovery Grants,
including $3.2 million for the 20 newly-listed coral species, will
allow the agency to expand partnerships to address the growing number
of listed species and allow for larger, ecosystem-level scale recovery
efforts The Nature Conservancy works with State agency partners to
restore endangered species and monitor the results of these efforts.
These grants are essential for having a direct benefit to ``on the
water'' restoration efforts. Additional listed species and emerging
challenges to recovery has increased the number and complexity of
NOAA's consultation and permitting requirements under the Endangered
Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act. The proposed $13.23
million to Increase Consultation Capacity will aid NOAA's ability to
complete these requirements in a timely manner.
ESA Salmon.--The Nature Conservancy supports the President's request of
$68.501 million.
Recovery of listed Atlantic and Pacific salmon provide distinct
challenges. NOAA's cooperative efforts with States, tribes, and other
partners such as The Nature Conservancy help to improve our
understanding of and ability to protect listed salmon and the habitats
that sustain them. The $1.301 million proposed increase to base funding
will support the design and implementation of fish passage projects
critical to the recovery of Atlantic salmon.
national ocean service
Coastal Management Grants.--The Nature Conservancy supports the
President's request of $116.146 million.
Our Nation's coastal areas are vital to our economy and our way of
life. The narrow area along our coasts is home to approximately 163
million people and coastal economies contribute over 45 percent of our
gross domestic product. This concentration of activity exposes
communities and businesses to risk from coastal storms, changing ocean
and economic conditions, and user conflicts. The $45 million proposed
increase in competitively awarded Regional Coastal Resilience Grants
will provide the resources and tools to build coastal resilience to
avoid costly Federal disaster assistance and sustain healthy fisheries,
maintain robust tourism opportunities, provide for increased shipping
demands, and other coastal industries. The Nature Conservancy has
worked with NOAA through the Digital Coast partnership to develop
decision support tools and techniques that help communities understand
and reduce risk and build resilience. Sharing data across Federal,
State, and tribal agencies, industry, and with non-governmental
organizations has increased our collective ability to understand and
incorporate into decisionmaking complex coastal economic, social, and
ecological needs. Through the restoration of coastal habitats and use
of natural infrastructure, we can improve communities' ability to
minimize storm damage and improve fisheries productivity, water
quality, and recreational opportunities.
Coral Reef Program.--The Nature Conservancy supports no less than the
President's request of $26.1 million.
The decline of coral reefs has significant social, economic, and
ecological impacts on people and communities in the United States and
around the world. The Conservancy works with NOAA's Coral Reef
Conservation Program under a competitively awarded, multi-year
cooperative agreement to address the top threats to coral reef
ecosystems: climate change, overfishing, and land-based sources of
pollution. Together we develop place-based strategies, measure the
effectiveness of management efforts, and build capacity among reef
managers globally.
Coastal Zone Management and Services.--The Nature Conservancy supports
the President's request of $54.144 million.
NOAA's data, research, and monitoring of coastal and marine systems
provide data and decision-support tools that inform the safe operations
of industry, prioritize habitats for restoration, and advance science-
based management decisions. The administration has requested a $5
million increase for Ecosystem-based Solutions for Coastal Resilience.
Improving our ability to incorporate natural infrastructure into
coastal protection efforts before and after storms can help communities
achieve multiple benefits such as improving fisheries productivity and
coastal water quality. The proposed $4.78 million increase for Capacity
to Respond to Extreme Events will improve modeling and observations and
increased technical assistance to coastal communities to help reduce
their risk to coastal storms and extreme weather, ultimately saving
Federal disaster response and recovery expenditures. This will be
further leverage by the proposed $2 million increase for the
AmeriCorps' Resilience Corps Pilot Program Training and Technical
Assistance. Decision support tools and increasing capacity within
communities are cost-effective mechanisms to enable the implementation
of resilience strategies.
National Estuarine Research Reserve System.--The Nature Conservancy
supports no less than the President's request of $21.3 million.
The National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) partners
with States and territories to ensure long-term education, stewardship,
and research on estuarine habitats. Atlantic, Gulf, Pacific, Caribbean
and Great Lakes reserves advance knowledge and stewardship of estuaries
and serve as a scientific foundation for coastal management decisions.
Sanctuaries and Marine Protected Areas.--The Nature Conservancy
supports no less than the President's request of $48.3 million.
National marine sanctuaries support economic growth and hundreds of
coastal businesses in sanctuary communities, preserve vibrant
underwater and maritime treasures for Americans to enjoy, and provide
critical public access for ocean recreation, research, and education.
Investment in these sites does more than simply protect discrete areas
of the ocean; it places a down payment for the many Americans whose
livelihoods are dependent on a healthy ocean and coasts.
Thank you for this opportunity to share The Nature Conservancy's
priorities. We would be pleased to provide the subcommittee with
additional information on any of the Conservancy's activities.
______
Prepared Statement of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, my name is Lorraine
Loomis and I am the Chairwoman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries
Commission (NWIFC). The NWIFC is comprised of the 20 tribes that are
party to the United States v. Washington \1\ (U.S. v. Washington). We
are providing testimony for the record in support of funding for the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/National Marine
Fisheries Service (NMFS) for the fiscal year 2016 appropriations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ United States v. Washington, Boldt Decision (1974) reaffirmed
Western Washington Tribes' treaty fishing rights.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
summary of fiscal year 2016 appropriations requests
--$110.0 million for the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (NOAA/
NMFS).
--$13.8 million for the Pacific Salmon Treaty, including the
additional $3.0 million for the 2008 Chinook Salmon Agreement
(NOAA/NMFS).
--$18.9 million for the Mitchell Act Hatchery Program (NOAA/NMFS).
We are generally pleased with the President's fiscal year 2016
budget request but much more needs to be done. It promotes a strong
stewardship in sustaining our vital natural resources. The natural
resources that we depend on are vital to our tribal communities,
economies and jobs. The land and the many natural resources we depend
on are a necessity for our communities to thrive.
The western Washington treaty tribes brought to the Federal
Government our Treaty Rights at Risk (TRAR) initiative almost 4 years
ago. The continued loss and degradation of the salmon habitat continues
to hamper our salmon recovery efforts, which threatens our tribal
treaty rights. The Federal Government has the obligation and authority
to ensure both the recovery of salmon and the protection of tribal
treaty rights. These constitutionally protected treaties, the Federal
trust responsibility and extensive case law, including the U.S. v.
Washington decision, all support the role of tribes as natural resource
managers, both on and off reservation. While our TRAR has garnered a
lot of discussion, it has been slow to create any change in the manner
in which Federal agencies operate. It has not been enough to change the
trajectory of salmon recovery in our region from a negative to a
positive direction.
Salmon has always been the foundation of tribal cultures,
traditions and economies in western Washington. Wild salmon and their
habitat continue to decline despite massive reductions in harvest and a
significant investment in salmon recovery and habitat restoration.
However, fulfilling these Federal obligations is not an option and
these investments must continue as we work to recover the salmon
populations.
In Washington State, we have developed a successful co-management
partnership between the Federal, State and tribal governments. Tribes
seize every opportunity to coordinate with other governments and non-
governmental entities to avoid duplication, maximize positive impacts,
and emphasize the application of ecosystem-based management. This
collaboration has helped us to deal with many problems, and as
sovereign nations, we will continue to participate in resource recovery
and habitat restoration with the State of Washington and the Federal
Government because we understand the great value of such cooperation.
Hatchery production also continues to be a critical component in
fulfilling these treaty-reserved rights and play a vital role in the
management of our fisheries. In addition to our habitat concerns, the
hatchery systems in the State of Washington are under attack by third
party litigation due to the lack of approved Hatchery and Genetic
Management Plans (HGMPs) under the ESA. This was realized last fall
with legal action that prevented the release of one million hatchery
steelhead in western Washington. The problem will continue until the
National Marine Fisheries Service has completed its ESA determinations.
Resources and immediate action is needed to address the current backlog
of HGMPs so that Indian and non-Indian fishermen and our communities
are not further impacted by loss of their fisheries.
To address these many concerns adequate funding is necessary for
hatchery production and salmon habitat restoration. The programs we
support provide the necessary salmon production and assists tribes in
the implementation of salmon recovery plans that moves us in the
direction of achieving the recovery goals, which is a direct request in
our TRAR initiative. As Congress considers the fiscal year 2016 budget,
we ask you to consider our requests that are further described below.
justification of requests
Provide $110.0 million for NOAA Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund
We respectfully request $110.0 million, an increase of $52.0
million over the President's request. The fiscal year 2015
appropriations provided a total of $65.0 million. These funds have
decreased from the peak of $110.0 million in fiscal year 2002. We
continue to support the original congressional intent of these funds
that would enable the Federal Government to fulfill its obligations to
salmon recovery and the treaty fishing rights of the tribes.
The PCSRF is a multi-State, multi-tribe program established by
Congress in fiscal year 2000 with a primary goal to help recover wild
salmon throughout the Pacific coast region. The PCSRF supports projects
that restore, conserve and protect Pacific salmon and steelhead and
their habitats. PCSRF is making a significant contribution to the
recovery of wild salmon throughout the region by financially supporting
and leveraging local and regional efforts. Salmon restoration projects
not only benefits fish populations and their habitat but provides much
needed jobs for the local communities.
The tribes' overall goal in the PCSRF program is to restore wild
salmon populations while the key objective is to protect and restore
important habitat in Puget Sound and along the Washington coast. This
is essential for western Washington tribes to exercise their treaty-
reserved fishing rights consistent with U.S. v. Washington and Hoh v.
Baldrige \2\ and also promotes the recovery of ESA listed species and
other salmon populations. The tribes have used these funds to support
the scientific salmon recovery approach that makes this program so
unique and important.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ Hoh v. Baldrige--A Federal court ruling that required fisheries
management on a river-by-river basis.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is for these reasons that the tribes strongly support the PCSRF.
We will continue to seek an equitable allocation to the NWIFC and
member tribes through the NOAA Fisheries funding process. These funds
support policy and technical capacities within tribal resources
management to plan, implement, and monitor recovery activities. In
addition to watershed restoration and salmon recovery work they also
help fund fish hatchery reform efforts to allow for the exercise of
tribal treaty fishing rights.
Provide $13.8 million for NOAA Pacific Salmon Treaty, including the
additional $3.0 million associated with the 2008 Chinook Salmon
Agreement
We support the Pacific Salmon Commission (PSC)/U.S. Section's
request of $13.8 million, an increase of $2.5 million over the
President's request. The fiscal year 2015 appropriations provided a
total of $11.3 million. We also support as part of their request $1.5
million for the Puget Sound Critical Stock Augmentation Program and
$1.5 million for the Coded Wire Tag (CWT) Program as required by the
2008 PST Chinook Annex Agreement.
The Puget Sound Critical Stock funding covers the operation and
maintenance costs for the hatchery augmentation programs established
for Dungeness, Stillaguamish, and Nooksack Chinook. These hatchery
efforts were initiated in connection with the 2008 Chinook Agreement of
the US/Canada Pacific Salmon Treaty (PST) as the conservation needs of
these populations could not be met by harvest restriction actions
alone. The CWT funding allows for continued maintenance and efficiency
improvements of the coast-wide CWT program. This is essential for the
sustainability and management of our fisheries resources. Currently
there is not enough funding allocated to carry out the requirements of
the PST, which causes the PSC to not be able to perform all of its
responsibilities required in the treaty and its Chinook and coho
annexes. As co-managers of the fishery resources in western Washington,
tribal participation in implementing the PST is critical to achieve the
goals of the treaty to protect, share and restore salmon resources.
The PST was implemented in 1985 through the cooperative efforts of
tribal, State, U.S. and Canadian Governments, and sport and commercial
fishing interests. The PSC was created by the United States and Canada
to implement the treaty, which was most recently updated in 2008. The
PSC establishes fishery regimes, develops management recommendations,
assesses each country's performance and compliance with the treaty, and
is the forum for all entities to work towards reaching an agreement on
mutual fisheries issues. As co-managers of the fishery resources in
western Washington, tribal participation in implementing the PST is
critical to achieve the goals of the treaty to protect, share and
restore salmon resources.
Adult salmon returning to most western Washington streams migrate
through U.S. and Canadian waters and are harvested by fisherman from
both countries. For years, there were no restrictions on the
interception of returning salmon by fishermen of neighboring countries.
The 2008 update of the treaty gave additional protection to weak runs
of Chinook salmon returning to Puget Sound rivers. The update also
provided compensation to Alaskan fishermen for lost fishing
opportunities, while also funding habitat restoration in the Puget
Sound region.
Provide $18.9 million for NOAA Mitchell Act Hatchery Program
We respectfully request $18.9 million for the Mitchell Act Hatchery
Program, an increase of $3.0 million over the President's request. The
fiscal year 2015 appropriations provided a total of $18.9 million.
Funding is provided for the operation of 17 fish hatcheries that
release between 50 and 60 million juvenile salmon and steelhead in
Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. This program has historically provided
fish production for tribal treaty fisheries in the Columbia River, and
for ocean and in-river recreational and commercial fisheries.
It is especially important to us in that they provide significant
fish production for harvest opportunities for tribal treaty fisheries
along the Washington coast. Providing adequate funding to maintain the
current production levels from the Mitchell Act hatcheries on the
Columbia River is important as this production not only supports
coastal salmon fisheries but dampens the impact of Canadian fisheries
under the terms of the PST Chinook Annex on Puget Sound and coastal
stocks.
Overall production from these hatcheries has been reduced from more
than 100 million to fewer than 60 million fish. This hatchery
production is intended to mitigate for the lost production caused by
the hydropower dam system on the Columbia River. Substantial changes
have been made, and will continue to be required of the Mitchell Act
Program, due to the application of the ESA throughout the Columbia
Basin. Adequate funding will also allow these facilities to be
retrofitted to meet current ESA standards as identified through the
hatchery reform process.
conclusion
The treaties and the treaty-reserved right to harvest are the
supreme law of the land under the U.S. Constitution. Some of the treaty
tribes have had to give up even their most basic ceremonial and
subsistence fisheries, which is unacceptable. It is critically
important for Congress and the Federal Government to do even more to
coordinate their efforts with State and tribal governments. We need
your continued support in upholding the treaty obligations and
fulfilling the trust responsibility of those treaties in order for
tribes to be successful.
We respectfully urge you to continue to support our efforts to
protect and restore our great natural heritage that in turn will
provide for thriving economies. Thank you.
______
Prepared Statement of Ocean Conservancy
Thank you for this opportunity to provide Ocean Conservancy's
recommendations for fiscal year 2016 funding for NOAA. Ocean
Conservancy has worked for over 40 years to address ocean threats
through sound, practical policies that protect our ocean and improve
our lives. We support funding for NOAA at or above the President's
request of $6 billion, and we support balanced investments across
NOAA's atmospheric and oceanic missions. We recommend the following
funding levels for specific programs.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fiscal year 2016
Account, Program or Activity Fiscal year 2015 President's budget Fiscal year 2016 Ocean
enacted request Conservancy request
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OPERATIONS RESEARCH AND FACILITIES
National Ocean Service:
Navigation, Observations, and $189.206 million....... $195.5 million......... $195.5 million
Positioning.
Coastal Science, Assessment,
Response, and Restoration:
Marine Debris.................... -- -- $8 million
Arctic Spill Preparedness........ -- $1.3 million increase.. $1.3 million increase
National Marine Fisheries Service:
Marine Mammals, Sea Turtles, and $115.219 million....... $145.71 million........ $147.61 million
Other Species.
Fisheries and Ecosystem Science $132.189 million....... $146.317 million....... $146.317 million
Programs and Services.
Electronic Monitoring and -- $5.596 million increase $5.596 million increase
Reporting.
Distributed Biological Obs. -- $879,000 increase...... $879,000 increase
(Arctic).
Fisheries Data Collections, Surveys $158.271 million....... $163.251 million....... $163.251 million
and Assessments.
Fisheries Management Programs and $120.458 million....... $128.367 million....... $128.367 million
Services.
Management and Reg. Support for -- $1.45 million increase. $1.45 million increase
Electronic Technologies.
Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric
Research:
Integrated Ocean Acidification..... $8.5 million........... $30.005 million........ $30.005 million
Regional Climate Data and $38 million............ $52.437 million........ $52.437 million
Information.
NOAA Arctic Research Program..... -- $2.190 million increase $2.190 million increase
Program Support:
Marine Operations and Maintenance.. $175 million........... $178.838 million....... $178.838 million
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
preparing for a changing arctic
We support the three funding increases requested by NOAA in fiscal
year 2016 that make investments we need now to be prepared for economic
and ecological challenges of a changing Arctic. We also support
continued funding for oceanographic charting of Arctic waters. Ocean
Conservancy supported NOAA's requested increases last fiscal year as
well, but the funding was not appropriated. Considering the U.S.
chairmanship of the Arctic Council beginning this calendar year, it is
even more important now that these investments be made to demonstrate
U.S. leadership in the Arctic.
--Navigation, Observations and Position: $195.5 million
The Coast Guard's recently announced continuation and expansion
of its Port Access Route Study in the Chukchi Sea, Bering Strait, and
Bering Sea points to the importance of up-to-date Arctic charts. In
addition, NOAA's Arctic Vision and Strategy notes that confidence in
the nautical charts of the Arctic region is ``extremely low.'' NOAA has
made progress in recent years with new or updated charts for Kotzebue
Harbor, Bering Strait North, and DeLong Mountain Terminal, but Arctic
waters are vast and it will take steady and consistent effort to
complete the work of modernizing Arctic nautical charts.
--Arctic Spill Preparedness: $1.3 million increase
Currently, there is no demonstrated technology, technique or
infrastructure to respond effectively to an oil spill in icy Arctic
waters. Funding to support improved models, increased capacity and
coordination, and research is urgently needed. Along with a
precautionary approach, these efforts can guide decisions about whether
development activities should occur in the Arctic and, if so, when,
where, and how they occur.
--Distributed Biological Observatory (Arctic): $879,000 increase
The Arctic marine ecosystem provides irreplaceable benefits, but
our understanding of this ecosystem is hampered by a lack of reliable
baseline data, critical science gaps, and limited documentation and
application/use of traditional knowledge. Funding will provide much-
needed support for collection of baseline data and analysis of
ecosystem functions in Arctic marine waters so we better understand
Arctic fisheries and other valuable ecosystem services. Without this
better understanding our ability to make informed decisions is
compromised.
--NOAA Arctic Research Program: $2.19 million increase
Temperatures in the Arctic are warming at twice the rate of the
global average and seasonal sea ice is diminishing rapidly. Funding to
expand and improve NOAA's Arctic Observing Network is critical to track
and understand these profound changes and provide products that inform
industries and decision-makers and support our ability to adapt.
marine debris: $8 million
Marine debris has become one of the most pervasive pollution
problems facing the world's oceans, coasts and waterways. Research has
demonstrated that persistent debris has serious effects on the marine
environment, wildlife and the economy. Marine debris causes wildlife
entanglement, ghost fishing, destruction of habitat, navigational
hazards, vessel damage and pollutes coastal areas. There is also
increasing concern over the threat of microplastics to the marine food
web and potentially humans. NOAA's Marine Debris program supports
existing monitoring and research efforts to better understand
accumulation rates of debris and debris source and sink dynamics. The
program catalyzes scientific research efforts to quantify the direct
and indirect economic impacts caused by marine debris on coastal
communities and economies that rely on them. NOAA is instrumental in
the removal of hundreds of tons of marine debris from our coasts and
waters every year, restoring the productivity of coastal and marine
ecosystems. And increasingly, NOAA's program is emphasizing research on
microplastics in the ocean and their toxicological impacts on marine
organisms. NOAA's Marine Debris program was originally authorized at a
level of $10 million. We support funding for this program at $8
million.
marine mammals
We do not support NOAA's proposed cut of $1.9 million dollars from
the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program.
This cut would harm marine mammal stranding networks, which are the
first responders for sick or dying marine mammals. Marine mammals face
significant threats in the Gulf of Mexico, from oil and gas exposure
with the Galveston Bay Spill providing the latest example, to the
ongoing unusual mortality event (UME) occurring in the northern Gulf.
Since February 2010, over 1300 marine mammals have died in the Northern
Gulf of Mexico which is both three times more animals impacted and
three times longer in duration than any other UME in the Gulf. Programs
in Texas and Florida in particular would be harmed by this cut because
they are not currently benefitting from BP Natural Resource Damage
Assessment dollars that are temporarily filling funding gaps in
northern Gulf rescue centers, but not elsewhere.
fisheries science and management
We support funding for programs that implement the Magnuson-Stevens
Fishery Conservation and Management Act. As we review the Act for
reauthorization, it is important to note that the Act is working--NOAA
has made great strides towards ending overfishing and continued
investments in these programs are needed.
--Electronic Monitoring and Reporting: $5.596 million increase in
Fisheries and Ecosystem Science Programs and Services; $1.45
million increase in Fisheries Management Programs and Services
We support increasing funding for electronic monitoring and
reporting requested by NOAA. This funding has been requested for
nationwide efforts, but in the Gulf of Mexico alone, where managers
need electronic monitoring to keep track of catch and prevent overruns
in the red snapper fishery, there is significant need for additional
funding. Based on the findings of the November 2014 ``Technical
Subcommittee Report to the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico Fishery
Management Councils: Recommendations for Electronic Logbook Reporting''
NOAA's requested increases are only a portion of what is needed to
support effective electronic monitoring. The Gulf of Mexico region
alone will require more than $5 million annually to support electronic
monitoring.
--Expand Annual Stock Assessments: $2.815 million increase in
Fisheries Data Collections, Surveys and Assessments
This funding provides critically needed resources for fisheries
managers to assess priority fish stocks, implement the requirement for
annual catch limits (ACLs), and ensure the successful recovery of
overfished populations. These activities give fishery managers greater
confidence that their ACLs will avoid overfishing while providing
optimal fishing opportunities. Because the information provided by
stock assessments is so vital for sustainable management of U.S.
fisheries, increased funding for stock assessments should remain among
the highest priorities in fiscal year 2016.
--Marine Recreational Information Program
We also support full funding for Fisheries Data Collections,
Surveys and Assessments because this funding supports the Marine
Recreational Information Program. Despite their often sizeable economic
and biological impacts, much less data are collected from recreational
saltwater fisheries than commercial fisheries due to the sheer number
of participants and limited sampling of anglers' catches. The low level
of data collection and lack of timely reporting of data in these
fisheries is a large source of uncertainty and has become a flashpoint
for controversy in regions where catch restrictions have been adopted
to rebuild overfished stocks, particularly in the Southeast. By all
accounts, improved sampling and timelier reporting of catch data are
needed for successful management of marine recreational fisheries.
--Marine Operations and Maintenance: $178.838 million
Marine Operations and Maintenance should be funded at or above
the President's request level of $178.838 million. Days at sea funded
by this line are functionally tied to fishery stock assessments, and
the two programs must be viewed together.
integrated ocean acidification
In recent years, scientists have raised the alarm about ocean
acidification--a process whereby ocean waters' absorption of carbon
dioxide emissions alters marine acidity. These changes can have far-
reaching consequences for marine life, including economically important
species like shellfish. For example, the shellfish industry in the
Pacific Northwest has been devastated in recent years as increasingly
acidic water impacted oyster hatcheries, nearly wiping out several
years-worth of oyster ``seed.''
Given the magnitude of the potential impacts of ocean acidification
we believe this area warrants the increased research investment
proposed in the President's fiscal year 2016 request of $30.005
million. We greatly appreciate last year's appropriation of $8.5
million for fiscal year 2015, and believe the increase in funding is
critical to allow NOAA to not only keep existing programs running, and
continue assessing acidification effects on commercial and recreational
marine species, but also improve and expand existing regional shared
ocean acidification experimental facilities, and develop synthesis and
visualization products responsive to stakeholder needs. By increasing
the programmatic funding for Integrated Ocean Acidification, NOAA will
be able to take these concrete actions to more effectively tackle the
economic and local implications of ocean acidification and prepare for
future strategies that will protect our Nation's key ocean and coastal
economies.
______
Prepared Statement of the Population Association of America/Association
of Population Centers
Thank you, Chairman Shelby, Ranking Member Mikulski, and other
distinguished members of the subcommittee, for this opportunity to
express support for the Census Bureau, the National Science Foundation
(NSF), and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). These agencies are
important to the Population Association of America (PAA) and
Association of Population Centers (APC), because they provide direct
and indirect support to population scientists and the field of
population, or demographic, research overall. In fiscal year 2016, we
urge the subcommittee to adopt the following funding recommendations:
Census Bureau, $1.5 billion, consistent with the administration's
request; National Science Foundation (NSF), $7.7 billion, consistent
with the administration's request; and, Bureau of Economic Analysis,
$110 million, consistent with the administration's request.
The PAA and APC are two affiliated organizations that together
represent over 3,000 social and behavioral scientists and almost 40
population research centers nationwide that conduct research on the
implications of population change. Our members, which include
demographers, economists, sociologists, and statisticians, conduct
scientific research, analyze changing demographic and socio-economic
trends, develop policy recommendations, and train undergraduate and
graduate students. Their research expertise covers a wide range of
issues, including adolescent health and development, aging, health
disparities, immigration and migration, marriage and divorce,
education, social networks, housing, retirement, and labor. Population
scientists compete for funding from the NSF and rely on data produced
by the Nation's statistical agencies, including the Census Bureau and
BEA, to conduct research and research training activities.
the census bureau
The Census Bureau is the premier source of data regarding U.S.
demographic, socio-economic, and housing characteristics. While PAA/APC
members have diverse research expertise, they share a common need for
access to accurate, timely data about the Nation's changing socio-
economic and demographic characteristics that only the U.S. Census
Bureau can provide through its conduct of the decennial census,
American Community Survey (ACS), and a variety of other surveys and
programs.
We recognize that the fiscal year 2016 request is $413 million more
than the agency's fiscal year 2015 funding level. However, as you know,
the Census Bureau's budget is cyclical, and fiscal year 2016 is a
pivotal year in the 2020 Census planning cycle. This fall, after
completing several years of in-depth research and testing, the Census
Bureau will announce the design framework for the 2020 Census. The
design decision is already a year behind schedule, due to past budget
shortfalls, and the agency must pivot immediately to the systems and
operations development phase of the census, as it prepares to execute
that design. In fiscal year 2016, the agency plans to:
--conduct a Field Operations Test to evaluate new 2020 Census
management framework for nonresponse follow-up operations;
--perform the 2016 Early Operations Test of new, targeted address
canvassing methods;
--evaluate the use of administrative records to remove inaccurate
addresses and to enumerate households that do not self-respond;
--initiate the 2020 Census Communications campaign;
--hire hundreds of new employees to manage and implement design and
development activities and to conduct field tests; and
--implement a national content test for the ACS to reduce the
survey's response burden, improve the usefulness of data
products, and streamline field operations.
These ambitious plans, if supported, would not only enhance the
conduct and outcome of the 2020 Census, but could also make it more
cost effective, saving an estimated $5 billion over the lifecycle cost
of the census. Conversely, without sufficient resources to pursue these
innovations, the bureau is likely to rely on traditional and far more
costly census methods-- an outcome that would jeopardize the accuracy
of the 2020 Census and most certainly preclude the agency from abiding
by Congress' directive to keep the cost of the next census at the 2010
level.
With respect to the ACS, the PAA and APC urge the subcommittee to
oppose any attempts that may occur during consideration of the fiscal
year 2016 Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations bill to change the
mandatory response status of the ACS. In 2003, the Census Bureau
conducted a test on a voluntary ACS. They found that survey costs
increased by approximately $60 million ($90 in real dollars) and
response rates decreased by an estimated 20 percent. Canada's recent
experience of moving from a mandatory to voluntary long form is a
cautionary example. The overall response rate dropped from 94 percent
to under 69 percent, increasing costs by $22 million as Statistics
Canada increased the sample size to make up for lower response. Despite
these efforts, Statistics Canada could not produce reliable socio-
economic estimates for 25 percent of all ``places'' in the Nation--
mostly small communities and rural areas. Experts have described the
data on income as not usable for business and policy purposes. The U.S.
should heed Canada's example and maintain the integrity of the
mandatory ACS.
national science foundation (nsf)
The mission of NSF is to promote the progress of science; to
advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; and to secure the
national defense. Understanding the implications of complex population
dynamics is vital to the agency's mission. The Directorate of Social,
Behavioral and Economic (SBE) Sciences is the primary source of support
for the population sciences within the NSF. The Directorate funds
critical large-scale longitudinal surveys, such as the Panel Study of
Income Dynamics, that inform pressing policy decisions and enable
policy makers to make effective decisions. Other projects, such as the
Social Observatory Coordinating Network, integrate social science and
health research, linking community and national data to improve
population health.
NSF is the funding source for over 20 percent of all federally
supported basic research conducted by America's colleges and
universities, including basic behavioral and social research. SBE funds
more than half of the university-based social and behavioral sciences
research in the Nation.
PAA and APC, as members of the Coalition for National Science
Funding, request that the subcommittee provide the NSF with the
administration's request, $7.7 billion. This budget will enable the NSF
SBE Directorate to continue its support of social science surveys and a
robust portfolio of population research projects. The NSF also
continues to focus on interdisciplinary research initiatives,
recognizing that social and behavioral factors are intrinsic to many
critical areas of research--for example the recent Understanding the
Brain initiative. Funding at this level will enable NSF to maintain
funding for the most promising grant applications that promote
transformational and multidisciplinary research. Steady and sustainable
real growth will enhance the Nation's capability to make new
discoveries, leading to new innovations.
bureau of economic analysis (bea)
While a relatively small agency, the BEA is enormously important to
understanding our multi-trillion dollar economy. A diverse range of
data users rely on BEA data: Federal, State and local government
officials use BEA data to inform economic and fiscal policy; businesses
use BEA data to guide investment decisions; and scientists use BEA data
to understand and interpret trends in labor, employment, and national
and international economies. Despite its importance, since fiscal year
2010, the BEA budget has not kept pace with inflation. The PAA and APC
join other national organizations to urge the subcommittee to provide
BEA with $110 million in fiscal year 2016. This funding is necessary to
both restore the agency's purchasing power and to launch new
initiatives to improve energy accounting and economic statistics and to
expand data used to inform trade negotiations and support trade
promotion efforts.
Thank you for considering our requests and for supporting Federal
programs that benefit the population sciences.
______
Prepared Statement of Restore America's Estuaries
Restore America's Estuaries is a nonpartisan, nonprofit
organization that has been working since 1995 to restore our Nation's
greatest estuaries. Our mission is to restore and protect bays and
estuaries as essential resources for our Nation. Restore America's
Estuaries is an alliance of community-based coastal conservation
organizations across the Nation that protect and restore coastal and
estuarine habitat. Our member organizations include: American Littoral
Society, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Coalition to Restore Coastal
Louisiana, Save the Sound--a program of the Connecticut Fund for the
Environment, Conservation Law Foundation, Galveston Bay Foundation,
North Carolina Coastal Federation, EarthCorps, Save The Bay--San
Francisco, Save the Bay--Narragansett Bay, and Tampa Bay Watch.
Collectively, we have over 250,000 members nationwide.
As you craft your fiscal year 2016 Commerce, Justice, Science and
Related Agencies appropriations bill, Restore America's Estuaries
encourages you to provide the funding levels below within the
Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) for core programs which greatly support coastal community
economies:
--$47 million for Habitat Conservation and Restoration ($62.235
million under proposed new structure)
(CJS: NOAA: ORF: NMFS: Habitat Conservation and Restoration)
--$50 million for Regional Resilience Grants
(CJS: NOAA: PAC: NOS: CELCP Acquisition)
--$23.9 million for National Estuarine Research Reserve System
(CJS: NOAA: ORF: NOS: Ocean and Coastal Management and Services:
National Estuarine Research Reserve System)
--$1.7 million for National Estuarine Research Reserve Construction
(CJS: NOAA: PAC: NOS: NERRS Construction)
These investments strengthen and revitalize America's communities
by buffering against storms, supporting commercial fisheries,
preventing erosion, protecting vital infrastructure, eliminating public
safety hazards, and providing new recreational opportunities.
noaa habitat conservation and restoration
NOAA's Office of Habitat Conservation (OHC) protects, restores, and
promotes stewardship of coastal and marine habitat to support our
Nation's fisheries and improve the resiliency of coastal communities
through financial support and a range of restoration expertise and
services. Within funds provided, we ask that the subcommittee provide
no less than $26 million for Community-based Restoration, Resiliency
Grants, and Estuary Restoration Program.
Funding for the Office of Habitat Conservation through the Habitat
Conservation and Restoration PPA supports both the Community-based
Restoration Program, Estuary Restoration Program and staff capacity to
efficiently execute and facilitate habitat restoration nationwide.
Activities range from planning and implementation activities for
Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) and Restoration Trustee
responsibilities for all active cases (e.g. Deepwater Horizon oil
spill) to expert restoration services across NOAA programs including
the Coastal Wetlands Planning Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA),
the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), and the National Fish
Habitat Action Plan and the National Fish Habitat Partnership (NFHP).
Focusing NOAA's restoration capacity within the OHC Restoration Center
allows NOAA to efficiently execute and facilitate habitat restoration
nationwide.
We urge the subcommittee to leverage the existing staff capacity
and restoration expertise within the Restoration Center and support
efforts to elevate NOAA's Community-based Restoration Program. This
program supports locally driven and voluntary coastal restoration
projects with national, regional, and local organizations through
competitively awarded public-private partnerships. This non-regulatory
tool is unique within NOAA because of its ability to provide seed
funding for community-driven and innovative restoration. CBRP
complements traditional fishery management and leverages non-Federal
resources 3-5 times the Federal investment. Projects result in
healthier habitats, which strengthen our commercial and recreational
fisheries.
Restore America's Estuaries appreciates the subcommittee's past
support for the Community-based Restoration Program and the inclusion
of report language directing NOAA to ensure restoration funds achieve
multiple benefits, including but not limited to fisheries.
The Estuary Restoration Program was transferred from the National
Ocean Service to the National Marine Fisheries Service under the
Habitat Conservation and Restoration PPA without additional funding in
the fiscal year 2014 omnibus appropriations. The Estuary Restoration
Act established a comprehensive interagency organization, the Estuary
Habitat Restoration Council, which is comprised of five key Federal
restoration agencies and leads a coordinated approach to enhance
estuary habitat restoration. Under the Act, NOAA is responsible for
maintaining the National Estuaries Restoration Inventory (NERI). Modest
funding is necessary for maintaining/updating NERI and to ensure cross-
agency collaboration continues. Restore America's Estuaries urges your
continued support of the Estuary Restoration Council and NOAA's Estuary
Restoration Program.
We strongly urge the subcommittee to provide no less than $47
million for Habitat Conservation and Restoration, which maintains the
fiscal year 2015 enacted level. Within funds provided, no less than $26
million should be for the Community-based Restoration Program,
Resiliency Grants, and Estuary Restoration Program. To adopt the
administration's proposed changes to the Habitat Conservation and
Restoration PPA and maintain level external restoration funding, the
subcommittee must provide no less than $62.235 million if the proposed
new structure is adopted. Restore America's Estuaries strongly supports
the inclusion of the following:
Report Language: Within funds provided, NOAA shall maximize
external funding for public-private partnerships. NOAA shall
issue a revised call for partnership proposals that prioritize
direct community involvement and stewardship of local projects
that support a range of benefits to coastal watershed
communities. The subcommittee encourages NOAA to prioritize
projects with diversity of support, but not to require the
support of a coastal State's governor due to the burden this
places on smaller organizations.
NOAA, REGIONAL COASTAL RESILIENCE GRANTS
(CJS: NOAA: ORF: NOS: Regional Coastal Resilience Grants)
Restore America's Estuaries commends the administration's request
for $50 million for the Regional Coastal Resilience Grant Program to
more fully address a suite of resilience challenges facing all U.S.
coastal regions--including community, ecosystem, and economic
resilience--within a single, competitive grants program. Restore
America's Estuaries encourages the subcommittee to look at the
Community-based Restoration Program and the NOAA Restoration Center as
models for scaling ecosystem restoration efforts that increase
resilience. NOAA estimates 2,000 acres of habitat restored per $5
million invested in ecosystem resilience grants.
Previous proposals have included language suggesting that project
sponsors secure the support of the coastal State's Governor. We
encourage the subcommittee to reconsider the requirement of securing
support of the State's Governor due to the difficulty and burden this
places on smaller organizations like local nonprofits. Specifically we
are concerned this could disadvantage some community-driven projects if
they do not have access to the State's Governor, especially in medium
to large States.
Restore America's Estuaries urges Congress to fund the Regional
Coastal Resilience Grant Program at $50 million. We urge the
subcommittee to ensure that NOS coordinates closely with the
Restoration Center to increase efficiency and leverage capacity to help
meet shared goals.
NOAA, NATIONAL ESTUARINE RESEARCH RESERVE SYSTEM
(CJS: NOAA: ORF: NOS: Ocean and Coastal Management and Services:
National Estuarine Research Reserve System)/(CJS: NOAA: PAC:
NOS: NERRS Construction)
The National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) is comprised
of 28 protected reserves that support long-term research, education,
training, and monitoring. Through an effective partnership between NOAA
and coastal States, NERRS plays a critical role in sustaining resilient
coasts and coastal communities.
The States have been entrusted to operate and manage NOAA's program
in 22 States and Puerto Rico, where over 1.3 million acres of land and
water are protected in perpetuity.
Restore America's Estuaries respectfully requests $23.9 million for
NERRS operations in fiscal year 2016. At this funding level, the 28
existing reserves will maintain level funding and support will be
provided for the addition of the 29th reserve in Hawaii. The
designation of a Hawaii NERR will fill an unrepresented bio-geographic
region in the NERR system.
NERRS assists our coastal communities, industries and resource
managers to enhance coastal resiliency in a changing environment. As
severe weather events become more common, Federal, State, and local
officials are recognizing that estuaries have the capacity to provide
green resilience infrastructure. Through NERRS, NOAA can tailor science
and management practices to enable local planners to use estuarine
habitat as a tool for resilience and adaptation.
Through scientific research and science-based management of more
than 1.3 million acres of protected land, NERRS provides numerous
benefits to communities that result in improved water quality,
increased upland flood and erosion control, and improved habitat
quality that support local fisheries and provide storm protection to
coastal communities.
conclusion
Restore America's Estuaries greatly appreciates the support this
subcommittee has provided in the past for these important programs.
These programs help to accomplish on-the-ground restoration work which
results in major benefits:
--Jobs.--Coastal habitat restoration projects create between 17-33
jobs per $1 million invested. That's more than twice as many
jobs as the oil and gas sector and road construction industries
combined.
--More fish.--Traditional fisheries management tools alone are
inadequate. Fish need healthy and abundant habitat for
sustainable commercial and recreational fisheries.
--Resiliency.--Restoring coastal wetlands can help knock down storm
waves and reduce devastating storm surges before they reach the
people and property along the shore.
--Leverage.--Community-based restoration projects leverage 3-5 times
the Federal investment through private matching funds,
amplifying the Federal investment and impact.
Thank you for taking our requests into consideration as you move
forward in the fiscal year 2016 appropriations process. We stand ready
to work with you and your staff to ensure the health of our Nation's
estuaries and coasts.
______
Prepared Statement of the Sea Grant Association
On behalf of the 33 Sea Grant programs in every coastal and Great
Lake State, plus Puerto Rico and Guam, the Sea Grant Association (SGA)
expresses its gratitude to the subcommittee for strong and consistent
support it has provided year in and year out for the National Sea Grant
College Program (Sea Grant). As the subcommittee works to develop an
fiscal year 2016 appropriations bill the SGA urges the subcommittee to
take full advantage of the Sea Grant program's strengths in research,
extension, outreach, and education--particularly in the area of coastal
community resiliency--by fully funding the program at a level of $80
million and rejecting the administration's proposal to terminate STEM
education in the Sea Grant program.
Sea Grant is NOAA's Federal-State partnership program that supports
science-based, environmentally sustainable practices to ensure our
coastal communities remain engines of economic growth in a rapidly
changing world. For example, over the next century, sea level rise in
the Los Angeles region is expected to match global projections with an
increase of 0.1-0.6 meters from 2000 to 2050. California Sea Grant
developed and released the first study of what this will mean to one of
America's largest cities and spurred creation of a regional planning
process to protect the city from the consequences.
Meanwhile Sea Grant researchers in Hawaii are providing improved
projections of how ocean acidification is likely to impact Hawaiian
coral reefs and examining the potential for corals to adapt or
acclimatize to future conditions. Hawaiian coral reefs are valued at
over $33 billion annually to the American public, and every year Hawaii
derives an estimated $364 million directly from coral reefs in addition
to other benefits, such as shoreline protection.
Georgia Sea Grant is working with the Georgia Department of Natural
Resources to develop a detailed climate adaptation plan for the barrier
island community of Tybee Island, Georgia. The plan, based on specific
adaptation scenarios, visualizes impacts from storm surges and coastal
flooding. The City of Tybee Island has formally agreed to consider
adopting the recommendations developed by this project through
appropriate local ordinances, infrastructural improvements, and other
municipal actions.
Additionally, when Hurricane Sandy hit, large sections of Jersey
City, a hospital and City Hall had to be evacuated because of flooding.
New Jersey Sea Grant experts put satellite data and imagery to work and
engaged with city planners to design a resiliency plan that adapts the
area's coastlines to mitigate and prevent similar disasters in future
storms.
These are a just a few of the many examples of Sea Grant's work
across the Nation to help Americans who live, work and recreate on our
shores to be safe, prosperous and resilient in the face a multitude of
challenges.
For the United States to be more responsive to the economic
development potential of its coastal resources, improve coastal
resilience, and balance the environmental challenges its coastal
communities face, the Sea Grant Association is requesting Federal
funding of $80 million in fiscal year 2016 for the research, education,
and extension activities that make up the National Sea Grant College
Program. This recommended funding level includes $10 million for an
enhanced Sea Grant resiliency initiative that is consistent with NOAA's
strategic priorities. The level of funding for the Sea Grant program is
consistent with guidance provided in a prior report from the
Subcommittee on Appropriations regarding strengthening the program and
with pending authorization legislation.
What is the importance of the Nation's coastal communities?
Nearly 130 million residents or 40 percent of the population of the
United States live in counties immediately on our coastlines. Those
coastal counties support 51 million jobs, and over 45 percent of the
gross domestic product ($7 trillion dollars) of our Nation. Yet these
same counties are highly vulnerable to challenges associated with
natural and man-made disasters, changes in the natural resource base
and ecosystem, and economic hard times, as we recently have seen with
the devastating impacts of Hurricane Sandy in the northeast, the
impacts of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, depletion of
fisheries stocks around the Nation, and growing strain on coastal
infrastructure from sea level change. The resilience of our coastal
communities, their economies and quality of life of their residents
depends on how well prepared they are for these events. This includes
how residents are able to prepare as well as where and how critical
infrastructure and buildings are constructed in the coastal zone.
Resilient communities have prepared residents, businesses and
infrastructure that reduce the impacts of a myriad of risks to their
lives and property and allow life to return to normal much more quickly
than in communities that are not as prepared. They also have living
coastal resources such as mangroves, oyster reefs, healthy barrier
dunes and salt marshes that buffer waves and protect the shoreline from
erosion during storms. Only through knowledge, understanding and
preparation will coastal communities be able to prepare for and respond
to the hazards that are uniquely concentrated in these coastal
counties.
How has the National Sea Grant College Program contributed to the
economic health of the Nation's coastal communities in the
past?
In 2014, the Sea Grant program delivered the following benefits to
the Nation as a result of its activities:
--$450 million in economic development;
--6,500 businesses created or retained;
--17,500 jobs created or retained;
--290,000 volunteer hours for outreach;
--760 undergraduate students supported;
--980 graduate students supported;
--53,000 stakeholders modify practices based on information and
technical assistance provided by Sea Grant;
--220 communities implement new sustainable practices; and
--21,700 acres of ecosystems restored.
What will the additional $10 million Sea Grant Community Resilience
initiative accomplish?
Sea Grant has developed signature programs that have helped coastal
communities across the Nation understand their risks, and respond to
unexpected changes that affect their livelihoods. Sea Grant has
developed locally relevant solutions that will increase community
resilience. In some areas of the country, Sea Grant has implemented
community resilience programs at a regional level, such as in the Gulf
of Mexico, the Northeast and the Great Lakes.
In other areas, programs have been developed at the State level,
that have great potential to be rolled out nation-wide, yet this has
not been fully realized due to a lack of resources. With the resources
requested Sea Grant can:
--Invest in research and unlock data and information to better
understand the projected impacts of severe weather and other
ecosystem changes and how we can better prepare our communities
and infrastructure;
--Help communities plan and prepare for the impacts of severe weather
and encourage locally relevant measures that reduce future
risks;
--Work with communities that have experienced unexpected events that
have impacted their economy with programs such as job
retraining or helping to develop new commercial infrastructure;
and
--Support science and engineering research that produces breakthrough
technologies that increase the resilience of infrastructure to
coastal hazards.
What is Sea Grant's role in STEM Education?
Sea Grant program provides an important mechanism that delivers
high quality, stimulating STEM education to students using the oceans
and coasts or the Great Lakes, as the vehicle for conveying important
scientific and natural resource concepts. The support that Sea Grant
provides is an important catalyst and helps create important
educational partnerships in coastal communities. STEM education is
mandated in the legislation Congress passed when it created Sea Grant
and that mandate has been reaffirmed through subsequent funding
legislation.
SGA recognizes that the Nation is facing very tight fiscal
constraints and suggests that where we have discretion, Federal funding
ought to go to those programs that deliver economic, environmental, and
education benefits to our citizens. The Sea Grant education programs do
just that in a very cost effective manner. For that reason and because
of the importance of the National Sea Grant College Program STEM
education, and the role that it plays in the long term health of our
State, we urge the subcommittee to continue to strongly oppose the
elimination of Sea Grant STEM activities in the fiscal year 2016
Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations bill.
How does the Sea Grant program make a difference?
Approximately 95 percent of the Federal funding provided to Sea
Grant leaves Washington and goes to the State programs where it is used
to conduct research, carry out extension and outreach activities, and
deliver valuable services to the Nation. Moreover, Federal funding
through the Sea Grant program has a significant leveraging impact with
every two Federal dollars invested attracting at least an additional
dollar in non-Federal resources in mandatory matching funding. The
National Sea Grant College Program is one of the very few nationally
competitive grant programs that can demonstrate this kind of real
impact at the local, State, and national levels.
Since its creation in 1966, the National Sea Grant College Program
has been at the forefront of addressing economic opportunities and
environmental issues facing coastal communities through its research
and outreach efforts. Sea Grant is user-driven and university-based,
and it is fully and actively engaged with regional, State, and local
organizations. Sea Grant helps America use its coastal resources wisely
in order to sustain the health and productivity of coastal communities.
With the $80 million in Federal funding, Sea Grant will leverage an
additional $40 million to $80 million in State and local support,
continue to increase the economic development and resiliency of our
coastal communities, contribute to STEM education in our communities,
and help sustain the health and productivity of the ecosystems on which
they depend. The Sea Grant Association is grateful to the subcommittee
for the opportunity to provide this information.
______
Prepared Statement of Syracuse University, Department of Chemistry
I am writing to you to with the strongest possible support for the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) center for
Neutron Research (NCNR). The NCNR serves a key role in the education of
chemistry, physics, materials science and engineering graduate students
in a field that is crucial to materials science and engineering. This
increasingly includes biomedical areas. There is a chronic shortage of
expertise in the area of neutron science in the United States due to
very long term lack of major funding dating back to at least the
1970's. The recent successful completion of the Spallation Neutron
Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) goes a long way to
providing a neutron facility that restores the United States to the
first place in facility capability , superseding the ISIS facility in
the U.K. A visit to SNS and a tour of the facility floor would
immediately show that it is highly populated by persons from Europe.
Europe has long held the premier position in this field and will regain
this again with completion of the European Spallation Source (ESS)
which is under construction in southwestern Sweden (http://
europeanspallationsource.se/ess-and-skanska-sign-contract-first-phase-
construction).
The NCNR has a wide variety of instrument types (http://
www.ncnr.nist.gov/instruments/) providing leadership in novel
instrument design and a very broad range of applications. The location
of the NCNR in a major metropolitan area with ease of access from a
large population center makes it an obvious choice for educational
projects. I have had personal experience with this educational aspect
of neutron research over a 15 year period. Over this period I was
involved in dozens of trips with students, including graduate and
undergraduate students from Syracuse University and others involved in
summer undergraduate research. Many of these students now work in the
neutron field. One of the undergraduates from SUNY Oswego switched his
major to nuclear engineering and is now employed in that field. The
broad range of instruments at NCNR provides an educational experience
that is unique in terms of its broadening of a student's background
beyond the text books into many fields.
Neutrons provide a view of materials at the atomic level that is
not possible with electromagnetic radiation. This due to several
factors including the ability of neutrons to penetrate optically opaque
materials, the strong variation of neutron scattering with nuclear
isotope (H is different from D) and the fact that neutrons with thermal
energy, and thus by definition with energy corresponding to molecular
excitations, have wavelengths that are comparable to molecular sizes.
This makes neutrons broadly applicable throughout engineering,
manufacturing and medicine as well as basic materials science. Closure
of NCNR at NIST could very well result in European dominance of this
field in the very near future due to lack of a trained work force and
thus threaten our economic independence.
Sincerely,
Bruce S. Hudson,
Professor, Chemistry, Syracuse University.
______
Prepared Statement of the United States Section of the Pacific Salmon
Commission
Mr. Chairman, and honorable members of the subcommittee, I am W.
Ron Allen, the tribal commissioner and chair for the U.S. Section of
the Pacific Salmon Commission (PSC). I am also tribal chairman/CEO of
the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe located on the northern Olympic Peninsula
of Washington State in Sequim. The U.S .Section prepares an annual
budget for implementation of the Pacific Salmon Treaty.
Department of Commerce funding in support of implementing the
Pacific Salmon Treaty is part of the Salmon Management Activities
account in the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) budget. Funding
in the Department of Commerce budget are intended for the programs to
fulfill national commitments created by the treaty was $11,181,426 in
the 2014 budget. The U.S. Section estimates that a budget of
$14,100,000 for fiscal year 2016 is needed to fully implement national
commitments created by the treaty.
The implementation of the treaty is funded through the Departments
of Commerce, Interior and State. The Department of Commerce principally
funds programs conducted by the States of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and
Alaska and the National Marine Fisheries Service. The costs of the
programs conducted by the States to fulfill national commitments
created by the treaty are substantially greater than the funding
provided in the NMFS budget in past years. Consequently the States have
supplemented the Federal treaty appropriations from other sources
including State general funds.
The Pacific Salmon Treaty line Item of the National Marine
Fisheries Service budget funded at $4,683,065 for fiscal year 2014
provides base support for the States of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and
Idaho and the National Marine Fisheries Service to conduct the salmon
stock assessment and fishery management programs required to implement
the treaty's conservation and allocation provisions for coho, sockeye,
Chinook, chum, and pink salmon fisheries. Effective, science-based
implementation of negotiated salmon fishing arrangements and abundance-
based management approaches for Chinook, southern coho, Northern
Boundary and Transboundary River salmon fisheries includes efforts such
as increased annual tagging and tag recovery operations, harvest
monitoring, genetic stock identification and other emerging stock
identification techniques. The U.S. Section identified a need of
$8,864,303 for fiscal year 2016 to fully carry out these activities.
The Chinook Salmon Agreement line item in Salmon Management
Activities funded at $1,601,697 in fiscal year 2014 represents a
reduction of $235,000 for previous levels. This funding supports
research and stock assessment necessary to acquire and analyze the
technical information needed to fully implement the abundance-based
Chinook salmon management program provided for by the treaty. The
States of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, and the 24 treaty
tribes conduct projects selected in a rigorous competitive process.
The International Fisheries Commissions line, under Regional
Councils and Fisheries Commissions in the NMFS budget funded at
$358,879 and provides the U.S. contribution to bilateral cooperative
salmon enhancement on the transboundary river systems which rise in
Canada and flow to the sea through Southeast Alaska. This project was
established in 1988 to meet U.S. obligations specified in the treaty
and had been previously funded at $400,000 annually.
The 2008 Agreement line supports programs for coded wire tag
improvements and Puget Sound critical chinook stocks necessary to reach
the agreement on revised fishery provisions between the U.S. and
Canada. The level of funding needed for 2008 Agreement programs was
$3,000,000 and the amount appropriated for fiscal year 2014 was
$2,828,646. The U.S. Commissioners view continued funding of these
programs in the fiscal year 2016 Federal budget as necessary to address
Chinook salmon conservation needs and to meet existing treaty
commitments.
The core treaty implementation projects included in the Pacific
Salmon Treaty line, and the U.S. Chinook Agreement line under Salmon
Management Activities as well as the International Fisheries Commission
line under Regional Councils and Fisheries Commissions consist of a
wide range of stock assessment, fishery monitoring, and technical
support activities for all five species of Pacific salmon in the
fisheries and rivers between Cape Suckling in Alaska to Cape Falcon in
Oregon. The States of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and the
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) conduct a wide range of
programs for salmon stock abundance assessment, escapement enumeration,
stock distribution, and fishery catch and effort information. The
information is used to establish fishing seasons, harvest levels, and
accountability to the provisions of treaty fishing regimes.
Like many other programs, funding to implement the Pacific Salmon
Treaty decreased in recent years. Prior to that, the base annual treaty
implementation funding remained essentially flat since the inception of
the treaty in 1985. In order to continue to fulfill the Federal
commitments created by the treaty, as costs and complexity increased
over time, the States had to augment Federal funding with other Federal
and State resources. However, alternative sources of funding have seen
reductions or in some cases have been eliminated.
In addition to the recent budget reductions due to sequestration,
NOAA changed the way administrative fees applied to the funding to
implement the Pacific Salmon Treaty. Last year NOAA decided to apply an
administrative fee to the treaty funding, after years of not charging
administrative fees to this account. Administrative fees are applied at
Commerce headquarters, National Marine Fisheries headquarters and at
the regional levels. The result is less funding available for the
activities to implement the treaty. While the U.S. Section understands
the need for offices in the Department of Commerce to have appropriate
funding for administrative activities, the change in the way
administrative fees are applied compromises the efforts to successfully
implement the treaty.
The provisions of five annex chapters to the treaty expire on
December 31, 2018. These chapters contain the specifics for
implementing the treaty for each species in each geographic area. The
renegotiation for revised annex chapters is underway. In order to
ensure that the renegotiations are successfully completed, the programs
in the National Marine Fisheries Service contained within the Salmon
Management Activities account must be adequately funded. The
consequences of not successfully completing the renegotiations will be
increased to the health of the fish populations and the fisheries that
depend on them.
This concludes the statement of the U.S. Section of the Pacific
Salmon Commission submitted for consideration by your committee. We
wish to thank the subcommittee for the support given us to us in the
past. Please let us know if we can supply additional information or
respond to any questions the subcommittee members may have.
Thank you.
______
Prepared Statement of the University Corporation for Atmospheric
Research
On behalf of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
(UCAR), I am pleased to submit this testimony to the Senate
Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related
Agencies. UCAR is a consortium of over 100 research institutions,
including 77 doctoral degree granting universities, which manages and
operates the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) on behalf
of the National Science Foundation (NSF).
I urge the subcommittee to provide the maximum amount of support
possible for the vital research and education programs administered by
the NSF, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in fiscal
year 2016. These essential research agencies fund atmospheric and
fundamental science in hundreds of universities across the country,
benefitting from the knowledge, expertise and innovation of our
academic institutions. UCAR is proud to collaborate with and enhance
the capabilities of this unparalleled American resource and it is our
honor to be able to draw attention to the excellent atmospheric
research that is done on campuses across the United States.
UCAR has worked tirelessly to elevate the understanding of, and
support for, the atmospheric sciences nationwide. The atmospheric
science departments at our 105 member institutions are drivers of
innovation and the fundamental scientific research that has pushed our
understanding of weather, climate, space weather, atmosphere, and their
interplay, into exciting and groundbreaking new areas. These advances
have improved our ability to predict and understand some of the most
dangerous phenomena that occur on our planet every day. Protection of
life and property are the central drivers of this scientific innovation
and discovery. However, more broadly, these innovations play a
significant role in protecting our national security, our homeland, our
businesses, our infrastructure and most importantly, our families and
communities. As demand for information, prediction, and mitigation
increase nationally and across the globe, it is the collaborative and
exhaustive research being conducted in our universities and research
laboratories that will answer this call and make our families,
communities, businesses, and infrastructure better equipped and
prepared to meet the challenges and dangers of living inside Earth's
dynamic atmosphere.
The challenges we face as we attempt to better understand our
planet could not be faced without the strong support of the U.S.
Congress, in particular this subcommittee, and the critical research
agencies you fund each year. The economic impact of any single
investigator's research is often difficult to quantify, however we know
that investments in research and development (R&D) taken as a whole
have an extremely high rate of return on investment. Economists
studying the link between science funding and economic growth have
found that innovation through R&D is the primary driver of growth over
the long run. Nobel Prize winning MIT economist Robert Solow famously
found that over half of increases in economic productivity can be
attributed to new innovations and technologies. Another similar study
that attempted to quantify the impact of R&D on economic growth found
that increases in the level of research intensity in the United States
and four other developed countries may have accounted for close to 50
percent of U.S. economic growth between 1950 and 1993.
The return on investments in the atmospheric sciences exemplifies
how Federal R&D drives economic growth. The commercial weather industry
leverages U.S. investments in weather observation, atmospheric
research, and computer modeling to produce tailored products for a wide
variety of clients, including the general public. There are now more
than 350 commercial weather companies in the United States, generating
nearly $3 billion in annual revenues. The growth rate of this industry
is estimated to be about 10 percent per year. The vast majority of
these innovations and technological advances are products of our
academic institutions. Researchers, graduate students, and
investigators at our universities are an astounding and innovative
resource that, in light of the linkage between innovation and our
economy, should be seen for what they are--our most valuable national
asset. Across the country there is groundbreaking atmospheric science
being done that will power our economy, save lives, protect our
citizens, and impact every single American in a profound way.
Innovations don't occur in a vacuum and the U.S. Congress has long
recognized and supported the symbiotic and intertwined relationship
between the academic, public, and private sectors with respect to
research that drives advancement. Progress made in the atmospheric
sciences is a reflection of this beneficial relationship and our
Federal investments. UCAR actively facilitates and initiates
partnerships between these sectors. For example, the development of new
weather satellite technology in the COSMIC program. COSMIC is
collaboration between UCAR, NASA, NSF, the U.S. Air Force (USAF), and
the Government of Taiwan. COSMIC's micro satellites harness existing
GPS satellite assets to provide atmospheric readings at a fraction of
the cost of the much larger weather satellite programs, while providing
greater resolution for our weather prediction models. This data can
mitigate any potential weather data gap and will feed the current and
future forecast models while greatly improving our ability to predict
severe weather and track hurricanes. The research underpinning these
advancements was done at Utah State University.
Multipurpose Phase Array Radar (MPAR) is the future of ground based
aviation radar and has very promising weather radar applications. MPAR
will advance our real-time radar imagery and forecast ability well
beyond the current Doppler radar platforms that we rely on every day.
MPAR is being developed and tested for this application at NOAA's
National Weather Radar Testbed (NWRT) based at the University of
Oklahoma. This collaborative effort also involves the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) Lincoln Lab, the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA), and NOAA. Additional collaborations between the
Georgia Institute of Technology and FAA will help to rapidly advance
these applications, allowing for improved sever weather forecasting,
including advances in tornado prediction and warning systems, which
will save lives immediately.
Researchers at Rice University using a computer code, known as the
Rice Convection Model, successfully simulated an important class of
aurora called ``growth phase arcs,'' which occur when solar wind
interacts with the Earth's magnetosphere. Understanding the dynamics of
Sun-Earth interactions are important aspects for improving our ability
to comprehend and predict effects of space weather on Earth. These
aurora events have enormous potential economic and national security
impacts as they have the potential to destroy electrical grids,
satellites, and the complex electrical and communications systems that
we rely on in nearly every aspect of our lives.
It has been shown that weather variability can cost the United
States as much as 3 percent of our annual GDP, and risks lives both in
the United States and globally. At Texas A&M, atmospheric scientists
are expanding our understanding of how past climate regimes influenced
weather. This knowledge will allow decision makers and emergency
managers to be better prepared for and therefore potentially mitigate
some of the risk and costs of extreme events. Another atmospheric
scientist at Texas A&M, is using computer models to study how
hurricanes behave in different climate conditions. This work will
improve predictions about hurricane season strength and storm numbers.
A Texas A&M professor and his research group are also working with
scientists at the Naval Research Lab (NRL) to improve weather
forecasting models by developing techniques that make better use of
atmospheric observations, ultimately improving the forecasts our
citizens, businesses, and military personnel rely on every day.
Researchers associated with the National Drought Mitigation Center
(NDMC), located at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, are leading a
4-year NASA-funded project to develop the Quick Drought Response Index,
or ``QuickDRI.'' QuickDRI compliments the currently operational
``VegDRI,'' which detects drought's effects on vegetation at time
intervals of a month or less. The two programs will be used by the
agriculture industry and farmers as tools to detect fast-onset or
``flash'' drought. This collaboration includes input and support from
the University of Maryland, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the High Plains Regional Climate Center
(HPRCC), and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. These models will
cover the entire mainland U.S. and be a valuable tool in future drought
prediction and mitigation.
The NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC) provides advanced
computing services to scientists studying a broad range of disciplines,
including weather, climate, oceanography, air pollution, space weather,
computational science, energy production, and carbon sequestration. The
supercomputer is a national resource located in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Using this tool, University of Wyoming (UW) researchers are working on
a NSF funded project in collaboration with Brigham Young University,
Utah University, and Utah State University that is producing a
comprehensive model of the upper Colorado River Basin. This model will
be 100 times higher resolution than is currently available and it will
play a vital role in policy and management decisions regarding the
basin's water--water that supports over 30 million people in North
America.
The NWSC is also used by UW researchers in a Department of Energy
(DOE) funded project that is creating a computational platform to
simulate (including effects of complex terrain) an entire windfarm
installation of 100 turbines or more. This model will to improve wind
farm siting decisions and wind turbine designs. With NASA support, UW
is also developing algorithms, which incorporate geographic and weather
profiles, to more efficiently design wind turbines and arrays. These
technologies will maximize design efficiency and allow private power
companies and their consumers to reap the cost savings from cheaper
energy production.
Scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San
Diego, NOAA, DOE, NASA, the California Department of Water Resources
and other agencies are studying the phenomena of ``atmospheric
rivers.'' These ``rivers'' of clouds flow through the sky and can
contain water vapor in excess of 10 times the flow of the lower
Mississippi River. Researchers are trying to better understand the role
atmospheric rivers play in drought ending precipitation events and how
the composition of aerosols, which can be natural or man-made,
influence the amount of rain and snow that these clouds release. This
research will lead to improved forecasting that can help water managers
in California and other drought afflicted States plan for precipitation
events that can cause damaging floods and potentially refill
reservoirs.
The University of Alabama, Huntsville (UAH) and the NASA Marshall
Space Flight Center (MSFC) have entered into a partnership to form the
Global Hydrology and Climate Center (GHCC). The GHCC ``Lightning Team''
has been investigating the causes and effects of lightning as well as
analyzing a wide variety of atmospheric measurements related to
thunderstorms. The primary objective of this research group is to
determine the relationship between the electrical characteristics of
storms and precipitation, convection, and severe weather. In order to
achieve this objective, the GHCC Lightning Team has designed,
constructed and deployed numerous types of ground based, airborne, and
space based sensors used to detect lightning and characterize the
electrical behavior of thunderstorms. Understanding of the science that
occurs in thunderstorms and lightning storms will improve our ability
to predict, prepare for, and perhaps prevent the causes of lightning
strikes; potentially saving lives and protecting property.
Members of the subcommittee I offer these examples not only to
highlight the extraordinary work done by UCAR's member institutions but
also to illustrate the fundamental role that this subcommittee plays in
providing the resources that enable our most valuable national asset,
our university researchers, to answer our most pressing and important
questions. As Edward Teller, American physicist and member of the
Manhattan Project said, ``The science of today is the technology of
tomorrow.'' With this in mind, I again urge you on behalf of our member
universities, scientists, students, and all those that rely on the
products and ideas born from the investments that this subcommittee
makes in our scientific communities, to continue to recognize the value
and return on investment that scientific R&D has provided, and will
continue to provide, this great country.
LIST OF WITNESSES, COMMUNICATIONS, AND PREPARED STATEMENTS
----------
Page
American:
Geophysical Union, Prepared Statement of the................. 253
Geosciences Institute, Prepared Statement of the............. 255
Association of:
Public and Land-Grant Universities' Board on Oceans,
Atmosphere, and Climate, Prepared Statement of the......... 257
Science-Technology Centers, Prepared Statement of the........ 259
Zoos and Aquariums, Prepared Statement of the................ 262
Baldwin, Senator Tammy, U.S. Senator From Wisconsin, Questions
Submitted by..................................................59, 128
Bolden, Hon. Charles F., Jr., Administrator, National Aeronautics
and Space Administration:
Prepared Statement of........................................ 163
Questions Submitted to....................................... 185
Statement of................................................. 159
Summary Statement of......................................... 161
Boozman, Senator John, U.S. Senator From Arkansas, Questions
Submitted by..............................45, 124, 133, 139, 148, 231
Capito, Senator Shelley Moore, U.S. Senator From West Virginia,
Questions Submitted by......................................... 46
Cochran, Senator Thad, U.S. Senator From Mississippi, Statement
of............................................................. 161
Collins, Senator Susan M., U.S. Senator From Maine, Questions
Submitted by..................................................42, 227
Comey, Hon. James B., Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation:
Prepared Statement of........................................ 70
Questions Submitted to....................................... 119
Statement of................................................. 65
Summary Statement of......................................... 68
Consortium for Ocean Leadership, Prepared Statement of the....... 264
Coons, Senator Christopher A., U.S. Senator From Delaware,
Questions Submitted by.......................................185, 250
Department of Justice--Joint Law Enforcement Task Forces,
Questions Submitted to......................................... 153
Feinstein, Senator Dianne, U.S. Senator From California,
Questions Submitted by........................................54, 240
Fish Locally Collaborative, Prepared Statement of the............ 268
Hylton, Hon. Stacia A., Director, United States Marshals Service:
Prepared Statement of........................................ 79
Questions Submitted to....................................... 130
Statement of................................................. 77
Joint:
Law Enforcement Task Forces, Department of Justice, Questions
Submitted to............................................... 153
Ocean Commission Initiative, Prepared Statement of the....... 270
Jones, Hon. B. Todd, Director, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives:
Prepared Statement of........................................ 91
Questions Submitted to....................................... 146
Statement of................................................. 89
Kirk, Senator Mark, U.S. Senator From Illinois, Questions
Submitted by..................................119, 132, 137, 147, 228
Lankford, Senator James, U.S. Senator From Oklahoma, Questions
Submitted by................................................... 49
Leahy, Senator Patrick J., U.S. Senator From Vermont:
Questions Submitted by...........................125, 134, 144, 151
Senate Judiciary Questions for the Record From 2014.......... 128
Leonhart, Hon. Michele M., Administrator, Drug Enforcement
Administration:
Prepared Statement of........................................ 84
Questions Submitted to....................................... 136
Statement of................................................. 83
Lynch, Hon. Loretta E., Attorney General, Department of Justice:
Prepared Statement of........................................ 194
Questions Submitted to....................................... 221
Statement of................................................. 187
Summary Statement of......................................... 191
Mikulski, Senator Barbara A., U.S. Senator From Maryland:
Questions Submitted by...........................119, 131, 153, 221
Statements of.......................................3, 67, 160, 189
Murkowski, Senator Lisa, U.S. Senator From Alaska, Questions
Submitted by................................................... 35
National:
Association of Marine Laboratories, Prepared Statement of the 273
Congress of American Indians, Prepared Statement of the...... 277
Estuarine Research Reserve Association, Prepared Statement of
the........................................................ 278
Marine Sanctuary Foundation, Prepared Statement of the....... 280
Weather Service Employees Organization, Prepared Statement of
the........................................................ 284
Nature Conservancy, Prepared Statement of the.................... 286
Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, Prepared Statement of the. 289
Ocean Conservancy, Prepared Statement of......................... 292
Population Association of America/Association of Population
Centers, Prepared Statement of the............................. 294
Pritzker, Hon. Penny, Secretary, Department of Commerce:
Prepared Statement of........................................ 6
Questions Submitted to....................................... 34
Statement of................................................. 1
Summary Statement of......................................... 4
Restore America's Estuaries, Prepared Statement of............... 296
Sea Grant Association, Prepared Statement of the................. 299
Senate Judiciary Questions for the Record from 2014.............. 128
Shelby, Senator Richard C., U.S. Senator From Alabama:
Opening Statements of...............................1, 65, 159, 187
Questions Submitted by............................34, 130, 136, 146
Syracuse University, Department of Chemistry, Prepared Statement
of............................................................. 301
United States Section of the Pacific Salmon Commission, Prepared
Statement of the............................................... 302
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Prepared
Statement of the............................................... 303
SUBJECT INDEX
----------
BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, FIREARMS AND EXPLOSIVES
Page
ATF:
Drones....................................................... 152
Fire Investigations.......................................... 149
Integration of Department of Justice Policies................ 102
Martinsburg, West Virginia Facility.......................... 111
Modernization................................................ 150
Surveillance Technology...................................... 151
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.............99, 146
Comment Period on the Exempt Framework for Armor Piercing
Ammunition..................................................... 108
Drug Enforcement Administration................................100, 136
Exempt Framework for Armor Piercing Ammunition................... 93
Federal:
Bureau of Investigation....................................101, 119
Firearms Licensees (FFL) Inspection Protocol................. 150
Task Force Operations........................................ 153
Steps Taken To Provide Proper Training:
ATF.................................................. 154
DEA.................................................. 154
FBI.................................................. 153
USMS................................................. 155
Training Certifications:
ATF.................................................. 155
DEA.................................................. 155
FBI.................................................. 155
USMS................................................. 155
Types of Training and Misconduct Procedures:
ATF.................................................. 157
DEA.................................................. 157
FBI.................................................. 156
USMS................................................. 157
Fertilizer Distribution Facility Fire and Explosion Investigation 146
Fiscal Year 2016 Budget Request.................................. 92
Heroin........................................................... 112
Local Participation in the eTrace Program........................ 149
Martinsburg Facility and the National Firearms Act Backlog....... 151
National:
Center for Explosives Training and Research.................. 94
Integrated Ballistic Information Network...................147, 148
The Exempt Framework for Armor Piercing Ammunition............... 93
United States Marshals Service.................................101, 130
Violence Reduction Network................................106, 115, 148
__________
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE--OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
Administrative Procedure Act..................................... 49
American Community Survey........................................ 54
Aquaculture and Milford, Connecticut Lab......................... 23
Arctic Policy.................................................... 35
ASR Analytics Report:
Key Findings................................................. 48
Social and Economic Impacts of $4 Billion in Recovery Act
Grants Awarded by NTIA..................................... 48
Broadband:
Access....................................................... 25
Opportunity Council.......................................... 47
Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP)..............46, 47, 48, 49
BroadbandUSA Initiative..................................46, 47, 48, 49
California Department of:
Boating and Waterways (CDBW)................................. 59
Water Resources (CDWR)....................................... 57
Cape Cod Bay Critical Habitat Area............................... 43
Census........................................................... 26
China'a Currency Manipulation and the State of Maine's Paper
Manufacturing Industry......................................... 43
Commerce:
Between the United States and Cuba........................... 19
Patent:
Protections.............................................. 62
Reform................................................... 62
Reorganization............................................... 63
Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee....................... 61
Currency Undervaluation Investigation Act........................ 43
Cybersecurity.................................................... 34
Delta Restoration and Planning Efforts Underway.................. 57
DOD-Led Manufacturing Institutes................................. 12
Electronic Monitoring............................................ 39
Export:
Assistance Program:
Small and Medium Size Businesses......................... 24
Control...................................................... 21
Import Bank Reauthorization Act of 2012: Every Reform
Completed--Section-by-Section Analysis.............49, 50, 51, 52
Fish Restoration Program (FRP)...................................56, 57
Fisheries........................................................ 27
Finance Program.............................................. 40
Fishing Revisited................................................ 22
Global Markets................................................... 53
Great South Channel Critical Habitat Area........................ 43
Herbert C. Hoover Building Renovation............................25, 32
High-Risk Contracts.............................................. 54
Hydrographic Charting & Ocean Survey Vessel...................... 38
Inspector General's Offices...................................... 45
Audit Report ``The Department's Awarding and Administering of
Time-and-Materials Contracts Needs Improvement''........... 54
International Trade:
Administration............................................... 53
Enforcement Center Program................................... 17
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers..............18, 31
Maine's Jobs in the Paper Manufacturing Industry................. 43
China's Currency Manipulation................................ 43
Manchester, Washington Lab--NOAA's Shellfish Research............ 23
Manufacturing.................................................... 30
Marine Mammal Deterrence Guidelines.............................. 40
Milford, Connecticut Lab--NOAA's Shellfish Research.............. 23
National:
Institutes of Standards...................................... 13
Marine Fisheries Service.........................55, 56, 57, 58, 59
Delta Restoration and Planning Efforts Underway.......... 57
Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC)............... 58
Network for Manufacturing Innovation.........................11, 23
Strategy for the Arctic Region............................... 36
Telecommunications and Information Administration (NT46, 47, 48, 49
Internet DNS Governance.................................. 49
State Broadband Initiative............................... 46
NOAA:
Aquaculture.................................................. 59
Breach of Information Systems................................ 44
Coastal Resilience in the Great Lakes........................ 60
Efforts Regarding Salmonid Populations....................... 54
Fleet Capitalization Plan.................................... 29
High Performance Computing................................... 60
Management of Fishing........................................ 20
Regional Coastal Resilience Grants........................... 60
Research Vessels............................................. 28
Satellites................................................... 12
Shellfish Research:
Manchester, Washington Lab............................... 23
Milford, Connecticut Lab................................. 23
Steps Taken Since the Issuance of the 2009 Biological Opinion
to Test and/or Implement Physical and Non-Physical Barriers
in the Delta............................................... 58
Steps to Improve Salmon Recovery Efforts:
Budget................................................... 56
Central Valley/State Water Project ESA Review and
Permitting............................................. 56
Drought.................................................. 55
ESA Administration for the Broader Suite of Actions
Across the Entire Central Valley/San Joaquin Geography. 56
Fisheries................................................ 55
Habitat.................................................. 55
Hatcheries............................................... 55
Monitoring and Technical Support......................... 56
Recovery Partner Collaboration........................... 56
Salmon Loss in Colusa Basin.............................. 55
Vessel....................................................... 35
North Atlantic Right Whales...................................... 43
Ocean Acidification.............................................. 40
Penobscot River Restoration Trust................................ 42
Polar Follow-on Satellite Program................................ 9
Predator Fish and Predator Removal............................... 57
President's New Proposed Trade Department........................ 53
Product Promotion Overseas....................................... 53
Ringed Seals..................................................... 37
Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC)....................... 58
Spurring Innovation, Growth and Competitiveness.................. 7
Fueling a Data-Driven Economy................................ 8
Gathering and Acting on Environmental Intelligence........... 8
Improving Federal Statistical Measures....................... 8
Spurring Innovation for American Businesses.................. 8
Streamlining Operations...................................... 9
Strengthening U.S. Manufacturing............................. 7
Supporting:
21st Century Economic Development........................ 7
Digital Economy.......................................... 8
Steller Sea Lions................................................ 41
Steps to Improve the Use and Management of High-Risk Contracts... 54
Strengthening U.S. Trade and Investment.......................... 6
The Census....................................................... 26
Unfair Subsidies................................................. 15
U.S. Trade Representative's Office............................... 44
Water Hyacinth Control Program (WHCP)............................ 59
West Coast Port Slowdown......................................... 45
West Virginia:
Broadband Strategic Plan (http://www.wvgs.wvnet.edu/bb/
reports.php)............................................... 46
Infrastructure Grant......................................... 47
World Trade Organization Trade Remedy Rules...................... 44
__________
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE--OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
Addressing Gaps in Critical Department Infrastructure............ 199
Ammunition Ban................................................... 237
Assets Forfeiture Fund........................................... 236
Becoming Smarter on Crime........................................ 197
Body Cameras..................................................... 223
Border Tunnels................................................... 240
Cell Phone Detection Technology in Federal Prisons............... 228
Light Urban Sites Surveys and Deployments.................... 228
Metropolitan Sites Surveys and Deployments................... 228
Rural Sites Surveys and Deployments.......................... 228
Children's Advocacy Centers...................................... 214
Citizen Safety................................................... 231
Collaborative Reform Initiative.................................. 215
Combatting:
Gangs........................................................ 228
Heroin....................................................... 222
Community Policing............................................... 241
Civil Rights Division........................................ 243
Community Relations Service.................................. 244
Office of:
Community Oriented Policing Services..................... 241
Justice Programs......................................... 242
Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation Program............ 243
Alameda County, California (Fiscal Year 2014
Planning & Implementation)..................... 243
Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Fiscal Year 2012 Planning &
Implementation)................................ 243
Providence, Rhode Island (Fiscal Year 2013
Planning & Implementation)..................... 243
Community Policing:
Project Safe Neighborhoods....................... 242
Smart Policing Initiative........................ 242
Procedural Justice--Building Community Trust Program. 243
Convicted Felons Possessing Firearms............................. 239
Crime Data Reporting............................................. 224
Current Estimated Costs to Implement a Viable Cell Phone
Detection Technology in Federal Prisons........................ 228
Light Urban Sites Surveys and Deployments.................... 228
Metropolitan Sites Surveys and Deployments................... 228
Rural Sites Surveys and Deployments.......................... 228
Cyber Security................................................... 236
Daniel Chong Detention by DEA.................................... 244
Drug:
Addiction.................................................... 233
Courts....................................................... 219
Elder Fraud...................................................... 207
Enforcing Immigration Laws....................................... 198
FBI Testimony.................................................... 250
FCI Danbury...................................................... 211
Financial Fraud.................................................. 201
FISA Section 215................................................. 206
Gang Violence.................................................... 204
Grant Programs................................................... 202
Guantanamo Bay Detainees......................................... 227
Heroin...............................................206, 214, 217, 219
Immigration...................................................... 199
Court Program................................................ 238
Immigration Judge Teams/Immigration Court Support........ 238
Information Technology Modernization..................... 238
Legal Orientation Program................................ 238
Legal Representation for Unaccompanied Children.......... 238
Improving Responses to Violent Crime, Illicit Drugs, and Health
Care Fraud..................................................... 198
Inaccurate Forensic Testimony.................................... 250
Investing in State, Local and Tribal Assistance Programs that
Work........................................................... 198
Legal Orientation Program........................................ 239
Lost and Stolen Guns Rider....................................... 244
Maintaining Safe and Secure Prison and Detention Facilities...... 197
Meth Lab Clean Up................................................ 210
Monitoring Social Media for Threats.............................. 229
National Background Check System................................. 212
NCS-X Program:
Chart Outlining the Total Estimated Costs of $112 Million.... 225
State UCR Program Support................................ 225
Support to the 400 Local Law Enforcement Agencies in the
NCS-X Sample........................................... 226
Training:
NIBRS................................................ 225
Support for Local Agencies........................... 225
New Technology to Disrupt Gang Networks.......................... 228
Prescription Drug Wholesaler Requirements........................ 210
Prison Population................................................ 218
Protecting:
American People from Terrorism and other National Security
Threats.................................................... 195
Civil Rights................................................. 196
Regional Information Sharing System.............................. 220
Restitution for Trafficking Victims.............................. 245
Sentencing Reform................................................ 205
Shutting Down Human Trafficking Web Sites........................ 229
Stopping Human Trafficking and Pedophiles........................ 221
Transfer of Foreign Detainees.................................... 227
Tribal Law Enforcement........................................... 213
Using Innovative Technology to Combat Human Trafficking.......... 230
Veterans Administration Investigation............................ 208
Violence Reduction Network.....................................215, 232
Violent Crime.................................................... 217
__________
DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION
Asset Forfeiture Fund Funding to DEA and State and Locals........ 143
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.............99, 146
Controlled Substances Act........................................ 138
DaTscan...................................................... 138
De-Confliction and Information Sharing........................... 87
De-Confliction Systems....................................... 87
El Paso Intelligence Center.................................. 87
DEA:
Organized Crime Gang Unit within the Special Operations
Division................................................... 137
Task Forces.................................................. 96
Surveillance Technology...................................... 144
Drug:
Abuse........................................................ 114
Enforcement Administration.................................100, 136
Federal:
Bureau of Investigation....................................101, 119
Task Force Operations........................................ 153
Steps Taken To Provide Proper Training:
ATF.................................................. 154
DEA.................................................. 154
FBI.................................................. 153
USMS................................................. 155
Training Certifications:
ATF.................................................. 155
DEA.................................................. 155
FBI.................................................. 155
USMS................................................. 155
Types of Training and Misconduct Procedures:
ATF.................................................. 157
DEA.................................................. 157
FBI.................................................. 156
USMS................................................. 157
Fiscal year 2016 Budget Request.................................. 86
Heroin..........................................................95, 112
High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas............................ 107
Interagency Heroin Task Force.................................... 97
International Drug Enforcement................................... 86
Bilateral Investigations Units............................... 87
Priorities................................................... 136
Sensitive Investigative Units................................ 86
Meth Labs........................................................ 142
National Security................................................ 87
Prescription:
Drug Abuse................................................... 112
And Synthetic Drug Abuse..................................... 139
Education................................................ 139
Enforcement.............................................. 141
Monitoring............................................... 140
Proper Medication Disposal............................... 141
Synthetic Drugs.......................................... 142
Task Force Success Stories....................................... 97
Florida...................................................... 97
Maryland..................................................... 97
Pennsylvania................................................. 97
United States Marshals Service.................................101, 130
Veterans Administration.......................................... 113
__________
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
Background Checks................................................ 105
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.............. 146
Combating Terrorist Groups....................................... 119
Criminal Justice Information Services............................ 110
Drug Enforcement Administration.................................. 136
Federal:
Bureau of Investigation....................................101, 119
Surveillance Technology.................................. 125
Whistleblowers GAO Report................................ 124
Task Force Operations........................................ 153
Steps Taken To Provide Proper Training:
ATF.................................................. 154
DEA.................................................. 154
FBI.................................................. 153
USMS................................................. 155
Training Certifications:
ATF.................................................. 155
DEA.................................................. 155
FBI.................................................. 155
USMS................................................. 155
Types of Training and Misconduct Procedures:
ATF.................................................. 157
DEA.................................................. 157
FBI.................................................. 156
USMS................................................. 157
Fiscal Year 2016 Budget Request Overview......................... 71
Human Trafficking................................................ 104
Legislation.................................................. 124
ISIS Cyber Hacking............................................... 124
Key Cross-Cutting Capabilities and Capacities.................... 75
Intelligence................................................. 75
Operational and Information Technology....................... 75
Key Threats and Challenges....................................... 71
Countering:
Foreign Intelligence and Espionage....................... 72
Terrorism................................................ 71
Crimes Against Children...................................... 74
Cyber-based Threats.......................................... 73
Gangs/Violent Crime.......................................... 74
Public Corruption............................................ 73
Transnational Organized Crime................................ 74
Memorandum on Unmanned Aircraft Systems.......................... 128
National:
Center for Explosives Training and Research.................. 94
Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC).............................. 120
Online Sex Trafficking........................................... 121
President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing.................. 128
Privacy Impact Assessment........................................ 127
Senate Judiciary Questions for the Record from 2014.............. 128
Stopping Human Trafficking and Pedophiles........................ 119
Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center..................... 94
United States Marshals Service.................................101, 130
__________
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
Commercial Crew:
Milestone Schedule Delays.................................... 182
Program Milestone Schedule Delays............................ 183
Transportation Capability (CCTCAP) Contracts................. 184
Diversifying Technology.......................................... 181
Diversity of NASA Scientists and Engineers (As of April 2015).... 175
Diversity Statistics............................................. 176
Explanation of Terms and Acronyms:
AAPI..................................................... 175
AIAN..................................................... 175
AST...................................................... 175
RCLF..................................................... 175
RNO...................................................... 176
SES...................................................... 176
SL....................................................... 176
ST....................................................... 176
NASA:
AST Physical Scientists by RNO vs. the RCLF.............. 178
Engineers by:
Gender Compared to Relevant Civilian Labor Force
(RCLF)............................................. 176
Race/National Origin (RNO) Compared to Relevant
Civilian Labor Force (RCLF)........................ 176
Fiscal Year 2015 Aerospace Technologist (AST):
Engineers by:
Gender vs. the RCLF.............................. 179
RNO vs. the Relevant Civilian Labor Force (RCLF). 178
Physical Scientists by Gender vs. the RCLF........... 179
Physical Scientists by:
Gender Compared to Relevant Civilian Labor Force
(RCLF)............................................. 176
Race/National Origin Compared to Relevant Civilian
Labor Force (RCLF)................................. 176
Senior Aerospace Technologists (AST) Positions by:
Gender.............................................177, 180
Race/National Origin................................. 177
RNO.................................................. 180
Engine Testing Infrastructure.................................... 173
Fiscal Year 2016 President's Budget Request Summary.............. 167
Aeronautics.................................................. 167
Construction and Environmental Compliance and Restoration.... 167
Construction of Facilities............................... 167
Environmental Compliance and Restoration................. 167
Education.................................................... 167
Exploration.................................................. 167
Commercial Spaceflight................................... 167
Research and Development................................. 167
Systems Development...................................... 167
Inspector General............................................ 167
Safety, Security, and Mission Services....................... 167
Agency Management and Operations......................... 167
Center Management and Operations......................... 167
Science...................................................... 167
Astrophysics............................................. 167
Earth Science............................................ 167
Heliophysics............................................. 167
James Webb Space Telescope............................... 167
Planetary Science........................................ 167
Space:
Operations............................................... 167
International Space Station.......................... 167
Space and Flight Support............................. 167
Technology............................................... 167
Goddard Space Flight Center Budget............................... 170
Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Facility.......... 174
International Partners........................................... 170
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)..............................169, 181
NASA's Relationship With Russia.................................. 169
National Space Access Needs...................................... 186
President's Budget Request Summary Fiscal Year 2016.............. 167
Aeronautics.................................................. 167
Construction and Environmental Compliance and Restoration.... 167
Construction of Facilities............................... 167
Environmental Compliance and Restoration................. 167
Education.................................................... 167
Exploration.................................................. 167
Commercial Spaceflight................................... 167
Research and Development................................. 167
Systems Development...................................... 167
Inspector General............................................ 167
Safety, Security, and Mission Services....................... 167
Agency Management and Operations......................... 167
Center Management and Operations......................... 167
Science...................................................... 167
Astrophysics............................................. 167
Earth Science............................................ 167
Heliophysics............................................. 167
James Webb Space Telescope............................... 167
Planetary Science........................................ 167
Space:
Operations............................................... 167
International Space Station.......................... 167
Space and Flight Support............................. 167
Technology............................................... 167
Russian Seat Solicitation........................................ 183
Satellite Servicing.............................................. 171
Space:
Exploration Program.......................................... 172
Launch System Test Launch.................................... 167
Spaceport Launch Pad 0........................................... 185
Upper Stage Engine............................................... 168
__________
UNITED STATES MARSHALS SERVICE
Adam Walsh:
Act Funding.................................................. 130
Child Protection and Safety Act Enforcement.................. 80
Adjustments to Base.............................................. 81
Assets Forfeiture Fund vs Federal Prisoner Detention Funds to
Sustain Costs.................................................. 133
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.............99, 146
Counter Gang Units............................................... 132
Courthouse Renovation............................................ 81
Detention........................................................ 81
Drug Enforcement Administration................................100, 136
Federal:
Bureau of Investigation....................................101, 119
Task Force Operations........................................ 153
Steps Taken To Provide Proper Training:
ATF.................................................. 154
DEA.................................................. 154
FBI.................................................. 153
USMS................................................. 155
Training Certifications:
ATF.................................................. 155
DEA.................................................. 155
FBI.................................................. 155
USMS................................................. 155
Types of Training and Misconduct Procedures:
ATF.................................................. 157
DEA.................................................. 157
FBI.................................................. 156
USMS................................................. 157
Fiscal year 2016 Program Increases............................... 80
Gang Enforcement................................................. 81
Law Enforcement Safety Training.................................. 80
Prisoner Detention Population.................................... 103
Stopping Human Trafficking and Pedophiles........................ 131
United States Marshals Service.................................101, 130
Special Operations Group..................................... 133
Notable:
Domestic Operations.................................. 133
Boston Marathon Bomber........................... 133
Capture of Eric Frein............................ 133
Ferguson, Missouri............................... 133
Gang Enforcement................................. 133
Heroin........................................... 133
Libyan Terrorist Abu Khatallah................... 133
International Operations............................. 134
Afghanistan...................................... 134
Colombia......................................... 134
Iraq............................................. 134
Kenya............................................ 134
Mexico........................................... 134
SOG:
Protection for the U.S. Drug Czar............ 134
Support of Office of National Drug Control
Policy....................................... 134
Surveillance Technology...................................... 134
[all]