[Senate Hearing 116-164]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                        S. Hrg. 116-164

                   DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY 
                  APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2021

=======================================================================

                                HEARINGS

                                BEFORE A

                          SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE

            COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE

                     ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                                   on

                               H.R. 7669

          AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HOME-
           LAND SECURITY FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 2021, 
           AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

                               __________

                    Department of Homeland Security
                 Transporation Security Administration

                               __________

         Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations


                  Available via http://www.govinfo.gov

                               __________
                               
                   U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
40-183 PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2022                     
          
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                      COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

                 RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama,  Chairman
MITCH McCONNELL, Kentucky            PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont, Vice 
LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee               Chairman
SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine              PATTY MURRAY, Washington
LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska               DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California
LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina       RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois
ROY BLUNT, Missouri                  JACK REED, Rhode Island
JERRY MORAN, Kansas                  JON TESTER, Montana
JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota            TOM UDALL, New Mexico
JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas               JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire
SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia  JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon
JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma             CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware
STEVE DAINES, Montana                BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii
JOHN KENNEDY, Louisiana              TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
MARCO RUBIO, Florida                 CHRISTOPHER MURPHY, Connecticut
CINDY HYDE-SMITH, Mississippi        JOE MANCHIN, III, West Virginia
                                     CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, Maryland

                Shannon Hutcherson Hines, Staff Director
              Charles E. Kieffer, Minority Staff Director
                                 ------                                

          Subcommittee on the Department of Homeland Security

             SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia, Chairman
RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama           JON TESTER, Montana, Ranking
LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska               JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire
JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas               PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont
JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota            PATTY MURRAY, Washington
JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma             TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
JOHN KENNEDY, Louisiana              JOE MANCHIN, West Virginia

                           Professional Staff

                               Peter Babb
                               Chris Cook
                             Justin Harper
                             Thompson Moore
                             Kamela Whiter

                         Scott Nance (Minority)
                      Drenan E. Dudley (Minority)
                         Reeves Hart (Minority)
                       Jennifer Piatt (Minority)

                         Administrative Support

                          Anna Lanier Fischer

                            C O N T E N T S

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                                                                   Page

                       Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Department of Homeland Security..................................     1

                         Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Department of Homeland Security: Transporation Security 
  Administration.................................................    45
                              ----------                              

                              back matter

List of Witnesses, Communications, and Prepared Statements.......    71

Subject Index:

    Department of Homeland Security..............................    73

    Transporation Security Administration........................    74

 
  DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2021

                              ----------                              


                       TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2020

                                       U.S. Senate,
           Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The subcommittee met, at 10:00 a.m. in Room SD-138, Dirksen 
Senate Office Building, Hon. Shelley Moore Capito (chairman) 
presiding.
    Present: Senators Capito, Hoeven, Kennedy, Hyde-Smith, 
Lankford, Tester, Shaheen, Leahy, Baldwin.

                    DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

STATEMENT OF HON. CHAD WOLF, ACTING SECRETARY


           opening statement of senator shelley moore capito


    Senator Capito. Welcome. I call this hearing of the 
Subcommittee on Homeland Security to order. This is the 
subcommittee's first hearing of the fiscal year 2021 budget 
cycle.
    And we are pleased to be joined by the Acting Secretary of 
Homeland Security, Chad Wolf.
    Thank you, Mr. Acting Secretary.
    Mr. Wolf was named Acting Secretary of Homeland Security on 
November the 13th, 2019. Prior to taking on this very 
challenging task, he developed and coordinated strategies and 
policies that advanced the homeland security mission and 
protected the American public through his leadership role in 
the Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans. Mr. Wolf is a 
recipient of the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security's 
Distinguished Service Medal for his initiatives to counter 
domestic and international terrorism and safeguard American 
interests throughout the duration of his career at the 
Department.
    So, thank you for that.
    I'm glad to be joined by our subcommittee's Ranking Member, 
Senator Tester. We are continuing to consider--or beginning to 
consider, actually, the fiscal year 2021 budget request, and 
look forward to further insight today from you, Mr. Secretary.
    Very pleased to be joined by the Ranking Member of the full 
committee Senator Leahy, as well.
    In fiscal year 2021, I hope to build on the progress made 
in the fiscal year 2020 bill, which was enacted on December the 
20th, 2019, on a broad bipartisan basis. Our 2020 bill provided 
a total of $50.46 billion in discretionary funding, and 
included several significant investments that will shape and 
protect the homeland for years to come. It provided billions of 
dollars to support border security, including funding for a 
border-wall system, sensors and cameras, humanitarian care 
requirements, and health, life, and safety issues, all at 
existing Border Patrol facilities. It provided more than 22 
billion for FEMA to support disaster relief efforts and State 
grant programs. It provided additional funding for the Office 
of Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention to combat 
emerging threats. It funded the deployment of aviation security 
equipment--which I actually saw, myself, at TSA headquarters 
designed to enhance global threat detection capabilities and 
increase efficiencies for our travelers; included billions of 
dollars to ensure that the men and women of the U.S. Coast 
Guard have the operational capacity to carry out their domestic 
and overseas missions; prioritized funding for election 
security certainly in 2020, it's critical and provided funding 
for greater cyber threat analysis and response capability in 
Federal, State, local, tribal, and critical infrastructure 
networks. It provided millions of dollars to develop a 
detection system for small nuclear material, smuggled 
narcotics, and conventional explosives. It also included 
funding in grant support for missing and exploited children 
investigations.
    But, one of the things I'm most proud of that's in that 
2020 bill, because it's so critical to me and my State, is the 
continuing efforts of the Department to combat the opioid and 
methamphetamine crisis. Our State of West Virginia is acutely 
affected by this challenge. It's promising to see that the 
investments made by the first bill in 2019, the subsequent bill 
in 2020, have had some tangible impacts, and some of these 
previous investments include increases to law enforcement 
personnel and improvements to detection equipment at ports of 
entry; investments to significantly enhance ICE's ability to 
investigate the drug trade on the dark web; and funding to 
increase ICE investigative staffing in Appalachia, particularly 
affected area, and other regions affected by the drug crisis; 
and funding for the opioid detection research. These are real 
investments that will make a significant difference, and we 
plan to continue to work with you to make sure these 
investments are put to good use.
    When we conducted our hearing with the Department of 
Homeland Security for fiscal year 2020, we spent the majority 
of our time discussing the security and humanitarian crisis at 
the southwest border. At that time, the border crisis was 
receiving a great deal of attention, and rightly so. After 
billions of dollars of investments through a supplemental 
appropriations and our fiscal year 2020 bill, I can say that 
the intensity of the situation at the border has diminished. 
But, challenges obviously still remain, with tens of thousands 
of apprehensions every month and tons of seizures of 
contraband.
    We helped provide what was needed at the border, but, at 
the same time, we, as a subcommittee, did not lose sight of the 
Department's many other critical missions throughout the 
duration of the crisis. And just name some: counterterrorism, 
trade enforcement, human trafficking, maritime security, opioid 
and drug interdiction, presidential protection, cybersecurity, 
infrastructure protection, emergency management, continuity of 
government, immigration services, law enforcement training, 
countering weapons of mass destruction, State and local 
information-sharing, and, most recently, supporting efforts to 
contain the coronavirus, just to name a few.
    I know, going forward, we'll remember the role that this 
subcommittee played in enabling and scrutinizing all of the 
missions of the Department. As we are discussing all the 
Department's missions, I'd like to note the budget proposals to 
shift the Secret Service out of the Department of Homeland 
Security. As you know, and as I feel, the Secret Service is a 
critical component of the Department, and conducts important 
missions across our Nation. And I look forward to better 
understanding this proposal.
    Given all of the Department's critical needs, I am again 
disappointed that many parts of this budget request are not 
grounded in reality, including, one, assuming that the 
appropriate committees of Congress will authorize new revenue; 
two, assuming that the appropriate committees of Congress will 
restructure FEMA grants and that the appropriations committee 
will agree to cut these grants by three-fourths of a billion 
dollars; and, three, failing to annualize many of the critical 
bipartisan security-related activities that we funded in fiscal 
year 20. These funding gaps allow the Department to propose 
spending money that it does not have, throwing a massive bill 
on our laps and making our job harder. Congress is not afforded 
the luxury of ignoring reality and pushing think-tank-like 
concepts when it enacts appropriations bills.
    While the practice of digging budgetary holes and expecting 
Congress to fill them may prevent the Department from making 
tough choices at the time that the budget is presented, it 
actually reduces the Department's influence over the final 
outcome.
    Acting Secretary Wolf, thank you for appearing before us 
today. We will make sure that you and your team keep us up to 
date on what resources you need to continue the good work that 
you are doing.
    And I now turn to my Ranking Member, Senator Tester, from 
Montana.


                    statement of senator jon tester


    Senator Tester. Thank you, Chairman Capito. And I want to 
thank you very, very much for having this hearing today.
    And I want to thank you, Acting Secretary Wolf, for being 
here to discuss the fiscal 2021 budget request for the 
Department of Homeland Security. I would be remiss if I didn't 
say, I think it's very unfortunate that ``Acting'' is in front 
of your name. I think we've found plenty of time to nominate 
and confirm judges who some aren't even qualified, but yet 
somebody who has your stature does not get confirmation to have 
that permanent designation. And I just want to put that in for 
the record.
    I want to express my thanks, not only to you, but to the 
240,000 employees of DHS who work to keep us safe and the 
homeland secure. DHS, as the Chairman has pointed out, has a 
broad mission, including countering terrorism from foreign and 
domestic threats, securing cyberspace and critical 
infrastructure, and threatening preparedness and resilience, 
supporting natural disaster response and recovery, and securing 
our borders. I look forward to hearing from you on how your 
budget balances against these priorities. Because, at first 
glance, the budget doesn't fully appear to address some of the 
real security vulnerabilities that our country faces.
    The proposed budget places an emphasis on an ineffective 
border wall and requests thousands of new deportation officers 
and detention beds. This all seems to be funded by cuts to 
vital national security programs, such as cybersecurity, 
aviation security, chemical security, preparedness grants for 
local communities, and innovative research. This is an alarming 
trend.
    With regard to the border wall, Congress has appropriated 
$4.5 billion over the last 4 fiscal years. The President has 
taken another $10.1 billion from military, and 601 million from 
Treasury Forfeiture Fund, over bipartisan objection of 
Congress. Put all those numbers together. That's almost $20 
billion. And now we're being asked to fund another $2 billion 
in DHS budget for fiscal 2021. Not one dime of this has been 
paid for by Mexico, as the President had promised. All these 
dollars have been paid for by the American taxpayer. This is a 
wall that will take hundreds of miles of property from ranchers 
and farmers, it will threaten the border's ecosystem and cost 
nearly $25 million per mile, on average, when alternate 
technology solutions could be deployed at a much lower cost.
    I would also tell you that I've had many people contact me 
on this wall on the southern border and how it's going to 
impact agriculture. I'm forwarding you one of those emails that 
was sent to me from a Trump supporter on the southern border 
who's having their ranch literally cut in half by this wall if 
it goes up.
    We still don't have a plan that explains how this funding 
will be used. The last border wall plan DHS submitted is out of 
date, and the GAO, the Government Accountability Office, 
criticized it as being incomplete and lacking in several key 
areas. Further, 2 weeks ago, FBI Director Christopher Wray 
testified before Congress. He said we face a diverse and 
increasingly dangerous terrorism threat, and that the threat is 
unrelenting. He mentioned the particular concern of domestic 
terrorism, carried out by racially or ethnically motivated 
violent extremists. He also mentioned the growing 
sophistication in cyber intrusions and state-sponsored 
espionage against our economy and our elections. A border wall 
across the southern border addresses none of the concerns that 
FBI Director raised as serious threats to our homeland.
    Now, while I'm a strong supporter of border security, the 
actions taken by this administration to inflame the partisan 
divide do not make us safer, and make it exceptionally 
difficult to get things done here in Congress. The recent 
deployment of special border operation forces to the interior 
of the country and the recent decision to deny residents of New 
York participation in the DHS Trusted Traveling Programs come 
to mind as recent examples of whether resources are being used 
to protect the country or solely to make political points. The 
bottom line for me, as Ranking Member of this committee, is to 
ensure that we're investing hard-earned taxpayer dollars in 
programs that address the most serious threats to our country, 
not empty campaign promises.
    Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention security 
along our northern border. Last year, we received the Northern 
Border Implementation Plan from DHS that lays out specific 
requirements across various DHS components to improve the 
Department's ability to facilitate safe, secure, and efficient 
flows of cross-border traffic and secure the northern border 
against threats. I will be seeking a commitment from you today 
that sufficient resources are being dedicated to execute that 
plan in a timely manner.
    Mr. Acting Secretary, I look forward to your testimony. As 
I said in a recent office visit, I am here to work with you, 
and hope we can find the common ground to fund national 
security investments that truly does make sense for the 
American people.
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Senator Capito. Thank you, Senator Tester.
    And, with that, we'll go to the testimony of the Acting 
Secretary.
    Thank you, Mr. Secretary.


                  summary statement of hon. chad wolf


    Mr. Wolf. Chairman Capito, Ranking Member Tester, and 
distinguished members of the subcommittee, it's a privilege to 
appear before you today to discuss the Department of Homeland 
Security's (DHS) mission to keep the Nation safe and to present 
the President's fiscal year 2021 budget for the Department.
    As Acting Secretary, my priorities are guided by a 
determination to ensure that DHS is robust, resilient, and 
forward-leaning, prepared to address the threats of today and 
those of tomorrow. The fiscal year 2021 President's budget is 
not only a reflection of those priorities, but a path to 
achieving them.
    As the subcommittee knows, the Department of Homeland 
Security's mission spans air, land, sea, and cyber domains, and 
our workforce of 240,000-strong stands watch for the Nation 24 
hours per day, 365 days per year. They safeguard the United 
States from terrorists, adversaries, and others who seek to do 
us harm. They also facilitate our lawful trade and travel, 
balancing security with the freedom of movement with care and 
precision every day. As I often say, economic security is 
homeland security, and the Department plays a critical role in 
this mission.
    The President's Budget ensures that our workforce has the 
resources that it needs to execute these critical 
responsibilities. It includes $49.8 billion in net 
discretionary funding and an additional $5.1 billion for the 
Disaster Relief Fund to support response to, and recovery from, 
disasters in the homeland.
    Our budget priorities remain consistent with recent years, 
which includes securing our borders, enforcing our immigration 
laws, securing cyberspace and critical infrastructure, 
transportation security, and American preparedness. Recognizing 
that the threats to the homeland are more dynamic than ever 
before, the budget also positions the Department to respond to 
emerging threats, including those emanating from nation-states.
    DHS is also helping to manage the U.S. Government's 
response to the coronavirus. Today, the risk from coronavirus 
to Americans remains relatively low, and we will continue to 
implement measures designed to keep it that way. DHS has 
responded with proactive safeguards, including directing all 
flights from China to pre-selected airports for medical 
screening. The Department stood up that medical screening in a 
very rapid fashion, using contracts from our Countering Weapons 
of Mass Destruction Office (CWMD) and we continue to provide 
those contracts at those 11 airports.

    I'll now highlight a handful of specific priorities 
included in the fiscal year 2021 budget:
    The Department must continue to grow its digital defense as 
cybersecurity threats grow in scope and severity.
    The Department maintains an enhanced posture on election 
security to preserve our electoral process and to secure our 
systems against interference of any kind.
    The President's Budget invests $1.7 billion in the 
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to 
strengthen our cyber and infrastructure security mission.
    This is an increase of roughly $150 million from the 
President's fiscal year 2020 Budget.
    The security of our Nation's border also remains a priority 
focus for the Administration and the Department. Most notably, 
as mentioned, the budget includes $2 billion for the 
construction of approximately 82 miles of new border wall 
system as well as funding for additional technology and 
staffing.
    While securing our borders is of utmost importance, the 
integrity of our immigration system requires that we enforce 
the law, as written. It remains the priority of the Department 
to protect our citizens by identifying, detaining, and removing 
criminal aliens from the United States.
    The Budget includes more than $3 billion to ensure that our 
law enforcement officers have the resources that they need to 
execute the law faithfully.
    As true today as it was in the wake of 9/11, 
counterterrorism remains a top focus for the Department. 
Importantly, the President has increased funding for targeted 
violence and terrorism prevention programs by more than 500 
percent in this budget. The $96 million in funding distributed 
across DHS Components is critical to identifying at-risk 
individuals and to preventing their radicalization to violence.
    The Budget also invests in modernizing the fleet for the 
United States Coast Guard, and provides $550 million to fund 
the construction of the second polar security cutter, which 
supports our national interest in the polar region. It also 
includes $564 million for the offshore patrol cutter, another 
critical capital investment for the Coast Guard.
    While physical capabilities and technology are important 
for the Department, our greatest assets remain the men and 
women who execute our mission every day. As threats evolve and 
our capabilities grow, tremendous new talent is needed to 
execute our mission: for DHS, the Budget provides funding for 
500 new cybersecurity employees across the Department; for U.S. 
Customs and Border Protection (CBP), 750 new Border Patrol 
agents, 126 new support staff, and funding to sustain 300 
Border Patrol processing coordinators; for U.S. Immigration and 
Customs Enforcement (ICE), 2,800 new law enforcement officers, 
approximately 400 or so new attorneys, and nearly 1,400 new 
support staff; and for the Transportation Security 
Administration (TSA), funding to sustain roughly 47,000 
transportation security officers to match the pace in passenger 
growth over the next year. The Budget also provides funding for 
an overall pay increase for DHS employees, including a 3-
percent increase for our uniformed Coast Guard men and women.
    These priorities are only a few included in the budget, and 
DHS has one of the most diverse and complex mission sets in all 
of government. I continue to be amazed by the professionalism 
and dedication of the men and women at the Department. Their 
commitment to our mission is beyond reproach, and we all should 
sleep better at night knowing that they are on duty. Therefore, 
I ask your support in providing them the resources they need to 
keep the American people and our homeland safe and secure 
through the President's fiscal year 2021 budget request.
    Again, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you 
today, and I look forward to the questions.
    [The statement follows:]
                  Prepared Statement of Hon. Chad Wolf
    Chairman Capito, Ranking Member Tester, and distinguished Members 
of the Subcommittee. It is a privilege to appear before you today to 
discuss the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) critical mission 
functions that keep this Nation safe and to present the President's 
(FY) 2021 Budget for the Department. This budget will serve as a 
catalyst to assist DHS in maintaining pace with adversaries attempting 
to circumvent our laws and threaten our citizens and our way life.
    My priorities are guided by a determination to ensure the 
Department is three things: robust, resilient and forward-leaning. The 
FY 2021 President's Budget is not only a reflection of those priorities 
but a path to achieving them.
    DHS is comprised of eight major Components and many support 
Components and employs more than 240,000 men and women who stand ready 
to respond to a wide variety of threats in some of the most extreme and 
austere environments. These harsh conditions include Border Patrol 
Agents patrolling the U.S. border in southern Arizona where 
temperatures reach upwards of 120 degrees, to the crew of the United 
States Coast Guard Cutter POLAR STAR, breaking ice as thick as 21 feet 
in the Antarctic Region where temperatures fluctuate between -40 to -90 
degrees to conduct national security missions.
    These men and women continue to make significant contributions to 
the larger homeland security apparatus as they stand watch 24 hours a 
day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, (or 366 days this year given 
it is a leap year). Our mission is to protect Americans and the 
homeland from threats by land, air, sea and cyberspace while promoting 
the nation's economic prosperity through the facilitation of legitimate 
travel and commerce. This balance to ensure security without impeding 
the freedom of movement is a very delicate one and the men and women of 
the Department of Homeland Security continue to execute it with 
tenacity and compassion.
    The Department's key budget priorities remain consistent with 
recent years; Securing Our Borders, Enforcing Our Immigration Laws, 
Securing Cyberspace and Critical Infrastructure, Transportation 
Security and American Preparedness. However, there are emerging threats 
that underscore the importance of the Department's global reach. This 
budget recognizes that fact and positions the Department to respond.
    Though the United States has long faced isolated threats from 
China, Iran, and Russia, we are at a critical time in our Nation's 
history as it relates to threats emanating from these Nation states. 
While the Administration works trade negotiations with China toward the 
goal of achieving a fair and balanced trade deal that both countries 
can call successful, we must increase pressure on the Chinese 
government for the ongoing violations of Intellectual Property Rights 
(IPR) laws. These violations continue to reduce market opportunities 
and undermine the profitability of United States businesses as sales of 
products and technologies are undercut by competition from illegal 
lower-cost imitations. Additionally, there are increasing concerns with 
the Chinese government's continued investment into U.S. interests and 
their impact to national and economic security. Specifically, as the 
United States builds out capacity within the 5G network, we must 
maintain a proactive posture in addressing a multitude of cybersecurity 
threats and vulnerabilities.
    The increased tension with Iran forced the Department to assume an 
enhanced security posture, particularly in the cybersecurity domain to 
prevent threats aimed at revenge for the recent death of Iranian 
General Qasem Soleimani. The Department's Cybersecurity and 
Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) continues to monitor an uptick in 
malicious activity by pro-Iranian hackers and social media users as 
Iran possesses the capability and tendency to launch destructive cyber-
attacks. The 2016 election is a stark reminder that Russia remains a 
significant threat to our democratic process. And with a Presidential 
Election this November, it has never been more important to increase 
our digital defense to prevent cybersecurity threats from influencing 
electoral outcomes.
    To emphasize the variation in threats facing the Department, the 
Coronavirus (COVID-19) which originated in Wuhan, Hubei Province, 
China, continues to spread to other parts of the world at a pace that 
has the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and DHS at the 
ready. At CDC's request, DHS directed all flights en route to the U.S., 
via direct or connecting flights from China, to land at predetermined 
airports to facilitate enhanced screenings and potential quarantine if 
necessary. As the DHS lead for coordinating with interagency partners, 
Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) is currently supporting 
these enhanced health screenings through contracts with local EMS, 
public health, and/or first responders. These contracts allow front 
line Officers and Agents to remain focused on the law enforcement 
mission. The President used his authority to implement travel 
restrictions on all non-U.S. citizen and non-legal permanent resident 
travelers who have been in China in the last 14 days. These actions are 
protecting the American people and help prevent the virus from 
spreading. Based on current information, the risk from COVID-19 to the 
American public remains low. Nevertheless, DHS responded with proactive 
safeguards and is prepared to increase these measures should it become 
necessary.
    The FY 2021 President's Budget for DHS includes $49.8 billion in 
net discretionary funding and an additional $5.1 billion for the 
disaster relief fund (DRF) to support response to and recovery from 
major disasters in the homeland. By providing the men and women of DHS 
the necessary resources to execute their important and extremely 
complex missions, the President's Budget ensures we continue our 
current trajectory of reinforcing the security of our nation through 
enhanced border security, immigration enforcement, transportation 
security, resilience to disasters, and cyber security.
    To help frame the rising threat, I would like to highlight some of 
last year's operational achievements. U.S. Customs and Border 
Protection (CBP) processed and cared for an unprecedented number of 
migrant families and children. Encounters and apprehensions totaled 
more than 851,000 along the U.S. Southwest Border (SWB) alone. This 
total included more than 76,000 unaccompanied children and 
approximately 474,000 family units. This was a 110 percent increase 
over FY 2019 apprehension totals (404,142). They inspected over 410 
million travelers, arrested almost 13,000 wanted individuals and 
prevented nearly 299,000 inadmissible travelers from entering the 
United States. Additionally, their combined efforts with CBP's National 
Targeting Center (NTC), the Immigration Advisory Program and the 
Regional Carrier
    Liaison Group prevented the boarding of almost 19,000 high-risk 
travelers from boarding flights inbound to the United States. AMO 
executed nearly 93,000 flight hours and more than 33,000 float hours in 
balancing law enforcement and humanitarian operations. This effort 
included 300 flight hours during a two-week period to provide relief to 
Bahamian citizens in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian and 3,600 flight 
hours dedicated to the migrant caravan surge along the SWB.
    The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) worked 
tirelessly alongside Federal, State and local election officials 
leading up to the 2018 mid-term elections and in preparation for the 
upcoming 2020 Presidential Election. Over 500 CISA employees supported 
election security preparedness nationwide, including providing 
technical cybersecurity assistance, information sharing and expertise 
to election offices, campaigns and technology vendors, this included 
staffing a nationwide virtual watch floor. As part of Active Shooter 
Preparedness, CISA also provided information to the critical 
infrastructure community and general public to help prepare emergency 
action plans and education on steps to increase incident survivability. 
Specifically, 39 in-person workshops with over 3,600 participants were 
conducted; nearly 87,000 people successfully completed an online course 
and a website focusing on active shooter training was viewed more than 
937,000 times by the public.
    United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) 
naturalized 833,000 new citizens, an 11-year high in new oaths of 
citizenship. The number of refugee applicants interviewed nearly 
doubled from FY 2018 to 44,300 (from 26,000). These interviews 
supported the admission of 33,000 refugees to the United States which 
was a 32 percent increase over last year. USCIS also completed 78,580 
affirmative asylum applications, and experienced a six percent rise in 
credible fear cases processed to 103,235.
    The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) deployed over 12,300 
FEMA personnel and 519 FEMA Corps personnel in support of 99 major 
disaster declarations including Hurricane Dorian, 22 emergency 
declarations and one Fire Management Assistance Grant declaration 
across 45 States, tribes and territories.
    United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removed 
nearly 268,000 individuals from the United States and arrested over 
143,000 individuals. Homeland Security Investigations made nearly 
50,000 arrests, approximately 80% of which were criminal arrests, 
including over 4,300 gang leaders, members, and associates. These gang 
arrests included 452 Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang members.
    The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened 
approximately 839 million passengers, 1.9 billion carry-on items and 
510 million checked bags in FY 2019. This was a 4.3% increase in 
checkpoint volume which equates to an average increase of over 95,000 
passengers per day. They enrolled over 2.1 million new individuals in 
TSA's PreCheck Application Program which is designed to increase 
security throughput by expediting trusted travelers and reducing 
security screening times.
    The United States Coast Guard (USCG), through their search and 
rescue efforts, saved 4,335 lives and prevented over $41 million in 
property loss. Over 400 of those lives saved were during Hurricane 
Dorian response efforts. Simultaneously, while executing their law 
enforcement responsibility, they removed over 458,000 pounds of cocaine 
and 63,000 pounds of marijuana with estimated wholesale value of $6.2 
billion.
    The Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) Office completed 
155 surge deployments of the Mobile Detection Deployment (MDD) Program, 
enhancing interdiction efforts and expanding law enforcement partners' 
ability to protect the Nation from a Weapon of Mass Destruction threat. 
This was an increase of over 115 percent from FY 2018 (72 deployments). 
Additionally, CWMD conducted more than 100 training exercises, training 
events and informational briefings with partners and stakeholders to 
develop doctrine, create training curriculum and validate readiness.
    The United States Secret Service conducted protective advances for 
nearly 6,500 visits and traveled overseas with protection details on 
395 foreign visits. The Secret Service seized $369 million in 
counterfeit U.S. currency, an 81% increase over the previous year. 
Finally, the Secret Service closed 1,718 Cyber Financial Crime cases, 
an increase of 160 percent over FY 2018 and experienced an 18 percent 
rise in Cyber Financial Crime cases opened, while the Cyber Financial 
Potential Losses Prevented increased by 36 percent ($5.2 billion to 
$7.1 billion) during the same year.
    Last year's operational achievements serve as a baseline from which 
to determine the incremental growth of threats to the homeland in the 
coming years. Analyzing the previous year's statistical achievements 
also allows DHS to plan for future threats accordingly. The FY 2021 
President's Budget for DHS is an opportunity for Congress to provide 
the men and women charged with executing complex missions with the 
necessary prevention, response and recovery resources.
    The security of our Nation's borders remains a primary focus area 
for the Administration and this Department. Border security is national 
security as any nation's sovereignty begins with its ability to secure 
its physical borders. Securing the border is extremely complex and 
requires a multifaceted approach. The Department has long executed a 
defense-in-depth model when it comes to border security. There are 
5,000 miles of border between the United States and Canada and over 
1,900 miles shared with Mexico. The President's Budget is a step toward 
enhancing border security through investments in staffing, 
infrastructure and technology. Without a strategy that involves these 
key investments, border security would be unattainable.
    The President's Budget includes $2.0 billion for the construction 
of approximately 82 miles of new border wall system. This funding 
supports real estate and environmental planning, land acquisition, wall 
system design, construction and oversight. While a physical barrier 
alone does not solve all border security concerns, it remains 
foundational to a strategy for achieving operational control of the 
SWB. A physical barrier is a proven deterrent as well as a mechanism 
for channeling activity to predetermined points along the border which 
allows DHS to allocate response resources with much more precision.
    Domain awareness is a vital component to border security and 
complements a physical barrier by providing increased opportunities for 
actionable intelligence, especially in remote areas with little 
infrastructure. To complement the physical barrier, the budget includes 
$28 million to increase domain awareness through the deployment of 30 
Autonomous Surveillance Towers (formerly Innovative Towers) across the 
Southwest border. The towers are designed to provide persistent 
electronic surveillance in remote areas of the border without the need 
for a permanent Border Patrol Agent presence. The data derived from 
these sensors will be relayed in real-time to the Air and Marine 
Operations Center and local Border Patrol Stations and/or Sectors for 
processing, threat determination and response execution.
    The President's Budget seeks funding for a number of CBP's airframe 
and sensor modifications, conversions and/or upgrades. These platform 
improvements are multi-purposed as they provide increased levels of 
domain awareness and are instrumental in interdiction and humanitarian 
operations. They include $15.5 million to convert an Army HH-60L to 
CBP's versatile UH-60 Medium Lift Helicopter configuration. UH-60s are 
the only assets in CBP's fleet that have medium lift capability and are 
rugged enough to support interdiction and life-saving operations in 
extreme or hostile environments (desert, extreme cold or open water). 
The Budget includes $14.3 million to upgrade a DHC-8 Maritime Patrol 
Aircraft. These aircraft operate under broad operational spectrums, 
including coastal/maritime boundaries in the Caribbean and Latin 
America. The Budget also requests $13.0 million for the replacement of 
obsolete, out of production aircraft sensor integrated mission systems. 
Systems requiring replacement include non-High Definition (HD) Electro 
Optic/Infrared (EO/IR) sensors, outdated mapping systems, video 
displays, recorders and data links that facilitate real-time data 
exploitation.
    While technology plays an important role in the Department's day-
to-day missions, our most critical resource remains our personnel. As 
the Department remains focused on threats from those attempting to 
circumvent existing laws, we cannot lose sight of the year-over-year 
increase in the volume of legitimate trade and travel. This volume 
increase, can limit the time CBP has to conduct necessary threat 
analysis down to minutes or seconds without impacting the legitimate 
movement of people and goods.
    The President's Budget seeks funding for additional personnel 
within several Departmental Components including; $161 million for 750 
Border Patrol Agents and 126 support personnel, with an additional $54 
million to sustain 250 Agents hired in FY 2019 and FY 2020; $544 
million for ICE to add an additional 2,844 law enforcement officers and 
1,792 support personnel; and, $3.5 billion to fund 47,596 
Transportation Security Officers, which supports the projected 4 
percent increase in volume. The FY 2021 Budget also accounts for a 3 
percent pay increase for the uniformed men and women of the Coast 
Guard, a 1 percent civilian pay increase, and an additional 1 percent 
increase in award spending, along with annualizing the 3.1 percent 
civilian pay raise in 2020.
    The majority of these personnel increases are targeted for 
frontline Agents and Officers. However, across the Department there 
will be staffing increases in various support positions.
    U.S. Border Patrol, for example, will use Processing Coordinators 
to perform non-border security, non-law enforcement officer activities 
such as support activities related to processing or providing 
humanitarian support. This additional increase will allow frontline 
Agents and Officers currently assigned to perform administrative duties 
out of necessity, to focus more time on operational responsibilities.
    DHS is committed to enforcing immigration laws across the nation, 
including the interior of the United States. Our priority is to 
identify, detain, and remove criminals from the United States that are 
here illegally with particular attention focused on those individuals 
posing a threat to public safety. The Department does not intend on 
stopping there; those employers who knowingly break the law for the 
self-serving purpose of cheap labor will be identified and brought to 
justice.
    FY 2019 apprehensions between the ports of entry along the 
Southwest border increased 115% when compared to FY 2018. This 
unprecedented spike in illegal crossings drove a corresponding increase 
in the ICE average daily population (ADP). The resulting effect was an 
increase in historical occupancy levels within DHS detention 
facilities. Forecasting models reinforce the need for an increase in 
ICE's detention beds to 60,000 (55,000 adult and 5,000 family). The 
budget includes $3.1 billion for this capacity increase and ensures ICE 
is able to maintain pace with projected migration flows and enhance 
enforcement activity within the interior of the United States.
    We must continue to increase our digital defense as cybersecurity 
threats grow in scope and severity. The FY 2021 President's Budget is 
poised to continue investments in the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure 
Security Agency (CISA) to assess evolving cybersecurity risks and 
protect Federal Government information systems and critical 
infrastructure. CISA continues to work tirelessly to ensure cyber-
attacks are unable to compromise or disrupt Federal networks. With the 
November Presidential Election fast approaching, CISA is also working 
with State and local organizations in all 50 states to ensure American 
elections are decided by Americans without outside interference. 
Accordingly, the President's Budget seeks $1.1 billion in CISA 
cybersecurity operational costs and investments for programs to include 
the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program and the 
National Cybersecurity Protection System in order to strengthen the 
security posture for government networks and systems. The budget also 
includes $157.6 million for the Emergency Communications program which 
enables improved public safety communications services throughout the 
nation. This program also manages funding, sustainment and grant 
programs to support communications interoperability and builds capacity 
with Federal, State, local, tribal and territorial stakeholders.
    The Coast Guard is a unique Component given it is the only branch 
of the U.S. Armed Forces within DHS. As a military service and a law 
enforcement organization with a regulatory responsibility, they possess 
broad jurisdictional authorities and flexible operational capabilities. 
This combination necessitates an inherent need to ensure they are 
postured for rapid response to a variety of missions with a modernized 
fleet that supports these requirements.
    The President's Budget includes $555 million to support the Polar 
Security Cutter (PSC) program management and to fund the construction 
of PSC 2. This acquisition recapitalizes the Coast Guard's heavy polar 
icebreaker fleet to support national interest in the Polar Regions and 
provide assured surface presence in ice-impacted waters. The Budget 
also includes an additional $153 million for existing airframe 
modernization (combines $88 million for Fixed-Wing Aircraft and $65 
million for Rotary-Wing Aircraft). These improvements will help ensure 
the Coast Guard fleet is appropriately equipped for the complex 
missions they are charged with executing.
    This modernization effort aligns the Coast Guard's recapitalization 
of airframes with the Department of Defense Future Vertical Lift 
acquisitions to create additional acquisition efficiencies. Finally, 
$564 million is included for the Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC). This 
funding supports the production of OPC #3 and Long Lead Time Materials 
for OPC #4 along with technical and program management costs.
    The FY 2021 President's Budget includes $96 million in additional 
resources, distributed across several Components to fund the Targeting 
Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) program. This program is 
designed to support early detection and prevention of radicalization of 
individuals prone to violence by interrupting those efforts with 
appropriate action by leveraging civic organizations, law enforcement 
and community organizations. The Department's investment includes 
Components vested in research and development, early detection and 
response.
    What makes the United States great is its resiliency in the face of 
adversity and hardship. Throughout our storied history, there are 
dozens if not hundreds of examples of that resiliency displayed. And 
though the people of this country are resilient by nature, it is 
important that we as a Department appropriately plan ahead for things 
we know are coming including hurricanes, earthquakes and fires. One of 
FEMA's strategic goals is to Ready the Nation for Catastrophic 
Disasters. The FY 2021 President's Budget helps FEMA achieve this goal 
by funding numerous initiatives aimed at preparedness and disaster 
recovery. FEMA continues to invest in State and local governments to 
increase preparedness and resiliency. The budget includes $2.5 billion 
to support State, local, tribal and territorial governments in the form 
of non-disaster grants and training. These funds are key in sustaining 
and building new capabilities to prevent, protect against, respond to, 
recover from and mitigate high consequence disasters and emergencies in 
our Nation's high-risk transit systems, ports, and along our borders.
    In addition, the Nation's transportation systems are inherently 
open environments. Part of TSA's mission is to protect these systems to 
ensure the free and secure movement of people and commerce. U.S. 
transportation systems accommodate approximately 965 million domestic 
and international aviation passengers annually, that number is in the 
billions when you factor in, over-the-road buses and mass transit 
systems.
    Ensuring effective screening of air passengers remains a top 
priority for TSA. In an effort to balance the need for increased 
security without impeding freedom of movement for legitimate travelers, 
the President's Budget includes $28.9 million to expand TSA's Computed 
Tomography (CT) Screening capability. CT Screening is the most 
impactful property screening tool available today. Not only is it more 
effective against non-conventional concealment methods but it 
eliminates the need for passenger to remove electronic items from 
carry-on bags. This combination improves security and expedites the 
screening process to increase passenger throughput efficiency. To 
offset TSA operations, a $1.00 increase is proposed in the Aviation 
Passenger Security Fee. This minimal increase would generate 
approximately $618 million in additional revenue and help defray the 
increasing cost of aviation security.
    Finally, the FY 2021 President's Budget proposes to transfer the 
U.S. Secret Service (USSS) functions, personnel, assets and obligations 
along with the functions and responsibilities of the Secretary of 
Homeland Security related to the Secret Service over to the Department 
of the Treasury.
    I have only touched on a handful of priorities included in the FY 
2021 President's Budget for DHS. This is not intended to convey a 
message of less importance for those Components, resources or 
initiatives not highlighted. DHS executes its vast mission 
responsibility using a defense-in-depth strategy and much of DHS's 
success is predicated on this approach to execution. Components within 
the Department have individual mission responsibilities however, they 
cannot disassociate themselves from one another as their daily 
activities are intertwined to close gaps in security, resiliency and 
economic prosperity. Accordingly, those Components, resources or 
initiatives not listed remain just as important.
    I continue to be amazed by the professionalism, dedication, and 
tenacity displayed daily by the men and women of this Department. Their 
resolve and genuine commitment to the complex homeland security mission 
is above reproach and we should all sleep better at night knowing they 
are on duty. Despite their continued commitment, they cannot safely nor 
effectively execute their mission without the proper resources. 
Therefore, I ask for your support in providing them the resources 
needed to keep our families safe through the FY 2021 President's 
Budget.
    Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you and discuss the 
Department's FY 2021 Budget submission and I look forward to taking 
your questions.

    Senator Capito. Thank you. Thank you very much.

                       CYBERSECURITY: BUDGET CUT

    I'm going to begin by going to cybersecurity, because I'm 
very concerned, in your testimony that the President's budget 
requests more than what the President requested last year. But, 
in effect, it's about $250 million less than what this Congress 
enacted in cybersecurity. How do you account for your own 
testimony at the urgency of cybersecurity and how it's growing, 
how are you justifying a $250 million cut to an area that's so 
critical?
    Mr. Wolf. So, I think there are a couple of different 
factors at play. One is the process and the timeline of which, 
when the budget was created, it was created well before we 
received our funding last year. But, what I will say is, we're 
in an election year this year, so the plus-up from Congress--
and again, thank you for providing us with enough resources. As 
we look at 2021, which is an off-election year, the budget 
request fully funds what CISA needs to continue to provide that 
election security resource. And again, election security, while 
it's called out specifically in CISA's budget as a line item, a 
lot of what CISA does contributes to a lot of the resources and 
services that it provides to State election officials as well 
as to our political campaigns.
    Senator Capito. What you're saying is, that the $250 
million difference is the election security piece? Is that how 
I'm hearing that?
    Mr. Wolf. No, not specifically. There is a reduction to our 
2021 request from what was enacted in 2020. What I can tell you 
is, in fiscal year 2020, again, that's our election year, we're 
doing a lot more activities this year as we look at 2021.
    Senator Capito. Right. Okay.
    Mr. Wolf. We'll sustain that, and the budget that we 
requested for 2021 will sustain those activities.
    Senator Capito. Well, I would note also that you are 
canceling the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards 
(CFATS) program, at the same time, which is part of that 
reduction, as well.
    The other thing I would note is that just because this is 
an election year doesn't mean elections stop as we go past 
November of 2020.
    Mr. Wolf. Agree.

                           BORDER WALL SYSTEM

    Senator Capito. This is going to be an ongoing 
responsibility of you and others within the administration.
    Mr. Wolf. Okay.
    Senator Capito. Let me ask about the border wall, because 
that's a source of interest. Can you tell us--you're asking for 
enough to build another 100 miles and well, no, currently, 126 
miles have currently been built, to date, of the money that's 
been previously provided for. What are the new capabilities as 
a result of this, and what are you seeing as the next $2 
billion, and how will that affect this border wall system?
    Mr. Wolf. Sure, Chairman.
    As you indicated, we have about 126 miles that are 
completed. We have another 213 miles that are currently under 
construction, and another 414 miles in the preconstruction 
phase. The capabilities, as I often talk about, are night and 
day over the existing landing-mat--1970s-era landing-mat fence 
that the Border Patrol had. So, new capabilities include not 
only the physical infrastructure, but lights, cameras, radars, 
and fiber optics. The impedance and denial that the new border 
wall system provides to Border Patrol agents, is night and day 
to what they previously had. So, as I have toured the border, 
and, as I go down there and talk to our men and women in green, 
I ask them what do they need to secure the border? Resources, 
technology, and the staffing. So, it's sort of a three-legged 
stool.
    But, when we talk about technology, the first thing that 
they ask for is an effective border wall system that, again, 
provides that impedance/denial so that they can respond in a 
timely manner and then apprehend those who are looking to get 
in.

                      BORDER PATROL AGENTS: HIRING

    Senator Capito. The processing agents that we provided 
for--and I might have the incorrect name there, but you know 
I'm talking about Border Patrol.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.
    Senator Capito. That we provided for in the last budget was 
kind of a new concept for the Department, partly to alleviate 
what our border agents were doing--Border Patrol agents were 
doing in lieu of their front-line job of law enforcement, maybe 
transportation or other healthcare or something of that nature.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.
    Senator Capito. And also to be part of a recruiting tool 
to, maybe, get folks involved in the Border Patrol so that they 
may want to advance to different areas of Border Patrol.
    How many people have you hired into that? And what's been 
the success of that? I mean, I know it's been a short period of 
time, because you're asking for more in this budget.
    Mr. Wolf. Right. Thank you for that. Thank you Congress, 
for providing that. Let me get back to you on an exact number 
of our hiring to date.
    I will say that those positions are absolutely critical. It 
goes toward retention. It goes toward recruitment. When you 
have Border Patrol agents who are fully trained to do their 
mission on the border but are, instead, at hospitals or handing 
out food or doing things that they normally didn't sign up to 
do, they're certainly not trained to do.
    Senator Capito. Right. But, you don't know if you have 
hired any into that?
    Mr. Wolf. We have. I don't have the exact number of those 
processing in.
    Senator Capito. Yeah. Because before we re-fund it, we want 
to make sure that actually you're able--this has been a problem 
for the Department, hiring into certain positions.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.
    Senator Capito. So, I think, we need to carefully watch 
that.
    Mr. Wolf. Right. Okay.

                          CORONAVIRUS: ACTION

    Senator Capito. I'll ask one more question, and then move 
on. I really want to ask about the soft-sided facilities, but 
I'm going to ask about coronavirus.
    Mr. Wolf. Okay.
    Senator Capito. I'll get another chance to ask about the 
soft-sided facilities.
    This is a source of great concern for so many people. I 
mean, I'm sure you all, as you're walking around your 
respective States, people are asking all the time, ``What are 
we doing? How are we on top of this?'' You mentioned there was 
a briefing this morning.
    Mr. Wolf. There was.
    Senator Capito. Basically, telling us that it's going to 
come more broadly to the United States, which I think we all 
expect. But, can you tell us how you're working on the 
coronavirus, and with who, what other coordinating entities?
    Mr. Wolf. Thank you.
    As you mentioned, the task force, led by U.S. Department of 
Health and Human Service (HHS)--did brief members of Congress 
this morning. I will say that we're working hand-in-hand every 
day with that task force. From the Department's perspective, we 
are taking the direction from the medical professionals at HHS. 
As they lay out a medical strategy to deal with the 
coronavirus, we are implementing measures to support that. So, 
particularly in the airport environment, in the seaport 
environment, as well as at land ports of entry, we're making 
sure that the measures that we put in place, the medical 
screening that we put in place are there for the protection of 
the American people. That's really what the President has asked 
us to lean into.
    To date, we have about 15 cases that we've identified 
coming in from China. That's separate from those on cruise 
ships that have been parked overseas. So, we feel like, the 
threat right now remains low. As we talk to the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and others, I think that 
they continue to expect the number of cases in the United 
States to increase. I will say, over the last several weeks, it 
really has not increased. It's remained relatively flat, 
between 12 and 14 cases. So, the Department feels very 
comfortable in the measures that we've put in place. But, as 
CDC continues to adopt its medical strategy, the Department 
will adopt its operational.
    Senator Capito. Presently, do you have the resources you 
need to move forward?
    Mr. Wolf. We do. So, we continue to look at that on a very 
close basis. We report every week to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) on those resources. Right now, we have them 
within our existing budget.
    Senator Capito. Okay.
    Mr. Wolf. We likely will have to move some money around 
this year to adjust for that.
    Senator Capito. All right.
    Mr. Wolf. But, we'll certainly be in contact with you and 
other members of the committee, as well as OMB, if we need 
additional or supplemental funding.
    Senator Capito. Thank you.
    Senator Tester.
    Senator Leahy.

               BORDER WALL SYSTEM: ATTEMPTS TO DEFEAT IT

    Senator Leahy. Thank you, Senator Tester, and thank you, 
Madam Chair.
    Acting Secretary Wolf, welcome. And I would echo what 
Senator Tester said. While I appreciate your service, I regret 
that you're one of the very, very many positions in this 
administration to which we should be speaking to somebody 
actually confirmed by the Senate. This is the most ``Acting'' 
positions I've seen in my decades in the Senate. Now, the 
President might appreciate that flexibility that Acting 
Secretaries give him. I prefer the constitutional checks and 
balances.
    Now, you talked a little bit about the border. The 
President has raided billions of congressionally appropriated 
dollars from critical defense projects to fund his border wall, 
including money to clean up housing for servicemembers, from--
everything from mold to lead to helping the children. But, 
we've seen reports that it could be defeated with ease if you 
could go get a $100 cordless saw from a department store. In 
the El Paso sector, I've been down there and visited it. Border 
agents have even found a large number of $5 rebar ladders, 
which are used more and more to climb over. How many $5 ladders 
or $100 cordless saws have been used to defeat the wall?
    Mr. Wolf. Senator, I don't have that----
    Senator Leahy. No.
    Mr. Wolf. We do see a number of attempts to defeat the 
border wall system in a number of locations outside of El Paso, 
across the whole Southwest Corridor. So, yes the adversaries 
will continue to try to find innovative ways to cross the 
border.
    Senator Leahy. How many, total too innovative to get a 
cordless saw or to get a $5 rebar ladder. That's not very 
innovative, is it?
    Mr. Wolf. I would say no. That can be found at probably any 
hardware store.
    Senator Leahy. And do we have numbers of how many times 
that's been done?
    Mr. Wolf. In the past, I'm sure that we could find those 
numbers. Again, what we see largely is from that 1970s-era mat, 
where it's about 8 feet high, you can get a ladder on, or you 
can actually jump over that wall. So, we've seen a lot of 
ladders. That's what we're trying to replace.
    Senator Leahy. Let me know how many in the past year.
    Mr. Wolf. In the past year? We'll get that information for 
you. Border Patrol will have that.
    Senator Leahy. Okay. How many tunnels?
    Mr. Wolf. I'm sorry?
    Senator Leahy. How many tunnels have been discovered?
    Mr. Wolf. That's probably in the single digits, but we 
continue to invest in technology that will look for tunneling, 
as well.
    Senator Leahy. Well, then will you let me know the number 
of devices and the types that have been discovered by CBP that 
used to defeat the wall?
    Mr. Wolf. Yes, Senator, we'll take that for the record.
    Senator Leahy. And when can I expect the first accounting 
of these numbers?
    Mr. Wolf. I'll get with CBP today, and we'll provide you 
numbers as quickly as possible.
    Senator Leahy. Thank you.

                            DRUG TRAFFICKING

    We're told by the Drug Enforcement Administration's 
Counterdrug Assessment--and they keep telling us the most 
common method for transporting illicit drugs into the U.S. is 
through the ports of entry. Now, they've been increasing--I 
know they've been increasing the use of drive-through scanners 
at ports of entry. Do you know the approximate percentage of 
passenger and commercial vehicles that are scanned across ports 
of entry along the Southwest Border?
    Mr. Wolf. Right now, it's about 1 percent of passenger 
vehicles and about 15 percent of commercial vehicles. I will 
say that Congress, in fiscal year 2019 and in fiscal year 2020, 
did provide funding for our NII nonintrusive inspection 
technology that would screen for narcotics. So, the goal by 
2023 is to increase for passenger vehicles, from 1 percent to 
40 percent using the funding that Congress provided, and then 
for commercial vehicles, from 15 percent to 72 percent.
    Senator Leahy. And what are the most recent statistics of 
the percentage of hard narcotics, like methamphetamine and 
heroin that are apprehended between ports of entry compared to 
at ports of entry?
    Mr. Wolf. So, roughly, we see the majority of narcotics 
coming through the ports of entry. We will interdict those 
about two-thirds of the time. About one-third is coming between 
ports of entry. But, over the last fiscal year, we have seen an 
increase of those narcotics, to include--the wide range of 
narcotics between ports of entry. So, we're growing concerned 
about that, as well.

                             DETENTION COST

    Senator Leahy. Now, the DHS has continued to cannibalize 
funds from other critical accounts to fund more detention beds 
so that you have--the constant ballooning of ICE's detention 
capacity really flouts Congress appropriations decision. For 
example, the roughly 40,000 individuals currently detained by 
ICE, nearly 8,000 of them are asylum seekers who have 
demonstrated--it's about 20 percent--a credible fear of 
persecution and torture. Roughly what percentage--I'm repeating 
my last question, my time is up--roughly what percentage of 
these 8,000 individuals have committed serious criminal 
offenses, such that they'd be a public safety risk if they were 
released? And how much does it cost to detain those 8,000 
individuals every day?
    Mr. Wolf. Yeah. Well, Senator, I don't have that exact 
8,000 figure. What I can tell you is that ICE, on any given 
day, continues to prioritize the removal of criminals from our 
communities. So, it's about between 87 and 89 percent of the 
amount of individuals that they remove every year are either 
criminals, those on final orders of removal, or have a criminal 
arrest of some kind. So, we'll continue to prioritize removing 
criminals from our communities. But, ICE does have a wide 
mission, so its enforcing immigration law at the border, in the 
interior, and elsewhere.
    Senator Leahy. But, you're going to let me know how much it 
costs to detain the 8,000 who are asylum seekers?
    Mr. Wolf. Yes, Senator, we'll take that for the record.
    Senator Leahy. And the other 40,000 I'd like that within 
the week, if we could.
    Mr. Wolf. Okay.
    Senator Leahy. Thank you.
    Mr. Wolf. Thank you.

                      CORONAVIRUS: NUMBER OF CASES

    Senator Leahy. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Senator Capito. Senator Kennedy.
    Senator Kennedy. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
    Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for being here.
    How many cases of coronavirus do we have right now in the 
United States?
    Mr. Wolf. Well, we have 14 cases, plus an additional--I 
believe it is 20 or 30-some-odd cases that we have repatriated 
into the United States from a number of cruise ships.
    Senator Kennedy. And how many are you anticipating?
    Mr. Wolf. Again, we're working with HHS to determine that.
    Senator Kennedy. I understand. How many are you 
anticipating?
    Mr. Wolf. We do anticipate the number will grow. I don't 
have an exact figure for you, though.
    Senator Kennedy. Do you have an--is someone modeling that? 
Do you have any way of guessing?
    Mr. Wolf. Again, HHS, through their medical professionals.
    Senator Kennedy. Well, yes, but you're head of Homeland 
Security and your job is to keep us safe.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes, sir.
    Senator Kennedy. Do you know, today, how many the experts 
are predicting?
    Mr. Wolf. We only know that--again, we anticipate those 
numbers to grow in the United States. That's why we're making 
sure that our operations, at our airports, landports, and 
elsewhere are flexible.
    Senator Kennedy. But, you can't tell us how many your 
models are anticipating.
    Mr. Wolf. No, Senator. Again, I would defer you to the 
Department of Health and Human Services for that.
    Senator Kennedy. Okay. Don't you think you ought to check 
on that?
    Mr. Wolf. We will.
    Senator Kennedy. As the head of Homeland Security?
    Mr. Wolf. Absolutely. We have task force members that are 
working this on every day.
    Senator Kennedy. I'm all for committees and task forces but 
you're the Secretary.
    Mr. Wolf. So, we're coordinating with them to make sure 
that our operations----
    Senator Kennedy. I think you ought to know that answer.
    Mr. Wolf. I understand that.

                       CORONAVIRUS: TRANSMISSION

    Senator Kennedy. How is the coronavirus transmitted?
    Mr. Wolf. Through a variety of ways. Obviously, human-to-
human. We've seen that. We're making sure that those 
procedures, as they come into the United States, are medically 
screened so that we can identify those----
    Senator Kennedy. How is it transmitted?
    Mr. Wolf. A variety of different ways, Senator.
    Senator Kennedy. Tell me what they are, please.
    Mr. Wolf. Again, human-to-human is primarily what we've 
seen.
    Senator Kennedy. Well, obviously human to human. How?
    Mr. Wolf. Being in the same vicinity. Physical contact is 
usually what we've seen from the medical cases that we've seen 
here in the United States. We've had several--I think two to 
three human-to-human cases that have showed up here in the 
United States. So, it's those who are closest to those 
individuals who have that human contact.

                      CORONAVIRUS: MORTALITY RATE

    Senator Kennedy. What's the mortality rate, so far, nation 
worldwide?
    Mr. Wolf. Worldwide, I believe it's under 2 percent.
    Senator Kennedy. How much under 2 percent?
    Mr. Wolf. I will get you an exact figure. I'll check with 
CDC. They're monitoring the worldwide mortality rate, and I can 
get that for you.
    Senator Kennedy. But, you don't know the mortality rate 
today.
    Mr. Wolf. It changes daily, Senator.
    Senator Kennedy. Well, I understand that. What's the 
average since we discovered the virus?
    Mr. Wolf. Again, It's under 2 percent. It was as high as 3. 
Numbers were recalculated based on reporting from China.
    Senator Kennedy. Is it between one and a half and two?
    Mr. Wolf. It's between one and a half and two percent.
    Senator Kennedy. Okay. What's the mortality rate for 
influenza over the last, say, 10 years in America?
    Mr. Wolf. It's also right around that percentage, as well. 
I don't have that, offhand, but it's right around 2 percent, as 
well.
    Senator Kennedy. You're sure of that?
    Mr. Wolf. It's a little bit. Yes, sir.

                        CORONAVIRUS: RESPIRATORS

    Senator Kennedy. Okay. Do we have enough respirators?
    Mr. Wolf. To my knowledge, we do. I'm focused on making 
sure that our operators at DHS have the protective equipment. I 
know HHS, as part of the supplemental.
    Senator Kennedy. Well, we just heard testimony that we 
don't.
    Mr. Wolf. Testimony from?
    Senator Kennedy. In a briefing.
    Mr. Wolf. Okay. For medical professionals.
    Senator Kennedy. So, you're head of Homeland Security.
    Mr. Wolf. I'm sorry, I don't understand the question.
    Senator Kennedy. Homeland Security. Do we have enough 
respirators, or not?
    Mr. Wolf. For patients? I don't understand the question.
    Senator Kennedy. For everybody, every American who needs 
one, who gets the disease?
    Mr. Wolf. Again, I would refer you to HHS on that.
    Senator Kennedy. Mr. Secretary, you're supposed to keep us 
safe.
    Mr. Wolf. My budget supports the men and women of the 
Department of Homeland Security.
    Senator Kennedy. You're the Secretary of Homeland Security.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes, sir.
    Senator Kennedy. And you can't tell me if we have enough 
respirators.
    Mr. Wolf. What I would tell you is that my budget--our 
operations are focused not only on the men and women of DHS, 
making sure that they're protected to do their jobs, to screen 
individuals coming in.
    Senator Kennedy. You don't know the answer, do you?
    Mr. Wolf. We're working with HHS, CDC and their budgets to 
ensure that they have enough medical equipment

                        CORONAVIRUS: FACE MASKS

    Senator Kennedy. Do we have enough face masks?
    Mr. Wolf. For the Department of Homeland Security, we do.
    Senator Kennedy. I'm not asking for the Department of 
Homeland Security.
    I'm asking for the American people.
    Mr. Wolf. For the entire American public?
    Senator Kennedy. Yes.
    Mr. Wolf. No. I would say probably not.
    Senator Kennedy. Okay. How short are we?
    Mr. Wolf. I don't have that number, offhand, Senator. I 
will get that for you.

                CORONAVIRUS: ANTICIPATED NUMBER OF CASES

    Senator Kennedy. Okay.
    But, I want to be sure I understand. Somebody is doing 
modeling on how many cases we're anticipating.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes, sir.
    Senator Kennedy. You're just not aware of.
    Mr. Wolf. You're asking me a number of medical questions 
that CDC and HHS are focusing on.
    Senator Kennedy. I'm asking you questions--because you're 
the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and 
you're supposed to keep us safe.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes, sir.

                          CORONAVIRUS: VACCINE

    Senator Kennedy. And you need to know the answers to these 
questions.
    How far away are we from getting a vaccine?
    Mr. Wolf. In several months.
    Senator Kennedy. Well, that's not what we just heard 
testimony about.
    Mr. Wolf. Okay.
    Senator Kennedy. Who's on first, here?
    Mr. Wolf. HHS is the lead Federal agency for the 
coronavirus response.
    Senator Kennedy. What's on second?
    You're telling me we're months away from having a vaccine. 
That's your testimony, as the Secretary of Homeland Security.
    Mr. Wolf. That's what I have been told by HHS and CDC, yes.
    Senator Kennedy. Have you probed that to make sure that's 
accurate?
    Mr. Wolf. Yes. We continue--every day, we have task force 
meetings with those individuals and elsewhere, talking about a 
number of these issues.
    Senator Kennedy. Well, your numbers aren't the same as 
CDC's.
    Mr. Wolf. Then I would certainly defer to CDC on our 
medical questions.
    Senator Kennedy. Well, don't you think you ought to contact 
them and find out whether you're right or they're right?
    Mr. Wolf. We're in contact with them every day on our task 
force planning department.
    Senator Kennedy. But, you don't know why you have a 
discrepancy.
    Mr. Wolf. I would refer you to the CDC on specific 
questions.
    Senator Kennedy. Mr. Secretary I'm going to hush, here. 
You're supposed to keep us safe. And the American people 
deserve some straight answers on the coronavirus. And I'm not 
getting them from you.
    Mr. Wolf. Senator. I disagree.
    Senator Kennedy. That's all I have, Madam Chair.
    Senator Capito. Senator Shaheen.
    Senator Shaheen. Thank you, Madam Chairman.

               CORONAVIRUS: PROVING INFORMATION TO PUBLIC

    And, Acting Secretary Wolf, thank you for being here.
    I would like to just pick up a little bit on the 
coronavirus, because we did have a briefing this morning. And I 
would like to urge the Department and the other officials 
within the government to have some open briefings. I didn't 
hear anything this morning that I haven't read in the 
newspaper. And I think it would be very helpful to the American 
public to have a better sense of what's going on with this 
issue.
    Mr. Wolf. Okay.
    Senator Shaheen. And also, to try and post some information 
that could answer questions for the public. I've met with some 
constituents after that briefing, and that's one of the things 
that I heard from them, is that they don't have the information 
that they would like to have to share with their employees and 
to try and do what's right in response to this medical 
emergency.
    Mr. Wolf. Okay.

                       DRUG INTERDICTION: OPIOIDS

    Senator Shaheen. I would now like to go to border security 
and the devastating opioid epidemic. New Hampshire, like West 
Virginia, has been very hard hit. And we've seen some small 
progress, thanks to the bipartisan support for funding that has 
provided significant increases for technology, for drug 
interdiction, to support treatment. But, I'm concerned that 
what we need to do to interdict Fentanyl and other drugs is 
more than just build a wall. I think there are more effective 
ways to address that interdiction.
    So, I wonder if you can discuss the Department's progress 
in deploying additional chemical screening devices to detect 
Fentanyl--it was required under the INTERDICT Act--and also to 
obtain the advanced data on international mail shipments that 
were required by the STOP Act.
    Mr. Wolf. Sure.
    Senator Shaheen. Can you tell us where we are?
    Mr. Wolf. So, the Department's efforts to address the 
opioid crisis, are multifaceted, from CBP, on the interdiction 
side. We've talked a little bit about the NII and other 
technology that we have out there. We're continuing to work 
with the Postal Service to target shipments, and then looking 
at technology that will screen those shipments, as well.
    Of course, ICE Homeland Security Investigations certainly 
has a role here in investigating these seizures. Every time we 
make a seizure, we turn those over to investigators. They'll 
investigate. And, of course, the Department of Justice (DOJ) 
will help us to prosecute those, as well. And, of course, 
Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), we continue to have 
money. I believe we had money in fiscal year 2020, about $8 
million, and a similar request for fiscal year 2021 to enhance 
the technology that we have out there so that they can find 
smaller and smaller amounts of Fentanyl and opioids and the 
like across the spectrum.
    Senator Shaheen. And when do you expect both of those--the 
full implementation to address what's in those laws to be 
completed?
    Mr. Wolf. That's a good question. Let me take that one.
    We do have a timeline. I don't have the exact date on full 
implementation of all of those efforts, but I'm sure CBP, which 
is the lead component that's working this, certainly does.
    Senator Shaheen. And are we doing any cost-effective 
analysis to see what makes more sense, in terms of stopping 
drugs from coming into the United States? Is it a wall, or is 
it these kinds of interdiction efforts that use technology? I 
will just ask you to also share that when you respond.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes. Absolutely.
    I mean, from a holistic view, it's all of the above. Again, 
as I mentioned earlier, about two-thirds of the opioids that we 
do detect come through ports of entry, whether that's an air 
port of entry or a land port of entry.
    Senator Shaheen. Right.
    Mr. Wolf. So, we're focused on the funding that Congress 
provided and again, thank you for that--to deploy small, 
medium, and large amounts of NII technology--that's everything 
from a hand-held to something that screens a vehicle and making 
sure that we deploy that in rapid fashion.

                           H-2B VISA PROGRAM

    Senator Shaheen. I would like to switch topics now to the 
H-2B visa program, because that's been a critical program to 
help small businesses in New Hampshire, particularly those who 
employ seasonal workers. Our tourism industry, our lodging and 
restaurant industry, landscapers. Making those new visas 
available is very important. I was pleased to see that there 
was an announcement that the visas will be increased.
    Mr. Wolf. Right. Yes.
    Senator Shaheen. Can you talk about how soon those visas 
are going to be released, and whether that's all going to be at 
the same time? Because the summer season is fast approaching.
    Mr. Wolf. Sure. I would say, as of right now, no decision's 
been made about the supplemental H-2B cap increase. I, would 
urge Congress--you're in the best position to identify how many 
visas that program needs. For the fourth year in a row, the 
Department has been given that duty to coordinate with the 
Secretary of Labor. We've been doing that. But, I would 
encourage Congress to pick the overall number for the H-2B 
program.
    Senator Shaheen. Well, I can tell you, I've been on 
multiple letters, that are bipartisan, saying, ``You need to 
increase that cap,'' and pointing out past years, when the cap 
has been increased, and how effectively they've been used.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes. Right.
    Senator Shaheen. So I don't think the problem is at 
Congress. I think the problem is at the administration level.
    And if it's not your Department that needs to make that 
decision, then you need to tell us who is making that decision, 
because I've got a whole bunch of small businesses in New 
Hampshire who aren't going to be able to do their business this 
summer if they don't have those workers.
    Mr. Wolf. Right. I understand.
    The reason that I say it's a better fit for Congress to 
decide this is because I believe it gives industry 
predictability. They'll know, each and every year, how many 
visas that they have to work with, and will plan their business 
accordingly. Every time that you give it to the Department, 
we'll continue to do our work, and I'll outline what we've done 
thus far. It takes time to make that decision. Then, of course, 
we have to publish a rulemaking to do that, so it continues to 
increase the time before the visas get out there.
    I will say, I've talked with Secretary Scalia, the 
Department of Labor, six times over the past 3 or 4 weeks, 
coming up with a solution, coming up with a proposal. We hope 
to announce that very shortly. And we'll continue to push that 
decision.
    What I will say, it's not only a number, but it's also 
looking at the fraud and the abuse in the program, which the 
Department of Homeland Security is certainly concerned about. 
So, if we do reach out and increase, you'll also see a number 
of provisions there that get to that waste, abuse, and the 
fraud that I believe Members of Congress, on a bipartisan 
basis, have expressed concern with, as well.
    But, I share your sense of urgency, Senator. I just want to 
make that clear. I'm pushing as quickly as we can to make a 
decision, and then hopefully announce that decision before any 
rulemaking is finalized so that the industry knows how many 
visas to work with and can, again, plan their businesses 
accordingly.
    Senator Shaheen. Thank you.
    Senator Capito. Senator Hoeven.

                       UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS

    Senator Hoeven. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    And, Secretary Wolf, thanks for being here. Appreciate you. 
And we appreciate the work that you do.
    Border security--well, let me ask this one first. In terms 
of counter unmanned aircraft systems the budget request 
includes 35 million for DHS science and technology.
    Mr. Wolf. Correct.
    Senator Hoeven. That's up from 13 million in fiscal year 
2020
    Mr. Wolf. Yeah.
    Senator Hoeven. Tell me how that money is going to be spent 
on UAS, will you?
    Mr. Wolf. So, that's primarily on the research, 
development, and testing of countering UAS (unmanned aircraft 
systems) capabilities. So, the Department has some limited 
jurisdiction and capabilities. We're continuing to explore 
that. That's mainly for DHS facilities. We are working with the 
Department of Defense, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), 
Department of Transportation, and others, as well. Secret 
Service has been using counter-UAS technology for some time. 
So, we're trying to capitalize on their experience and what 
they've seen, and then S&T is building on that with additional 
research, development, and testing, hopefully, to have 
capabilities out there in the short term.
    Senator Hoeven. Well, I know you're busy on the Southern 
Border, and obviously, coronavirus and all these important 
issues, but I would like you to come to the northern border. 
Grand Forks, North Dakota, has the responsibility for 900 miles 
of border, that State, all from the Great Lakes out through 
most of Montana.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Hoeven. We also have a very large UAS operation. We 
have the Northern Plains Test Site there.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes. I've been there, Senator.
    Senator Hoeven. Okay.
    Great. We'd love you to come back, now that you're the 
Secretary.
    Mr. Wolf. Great.
    Senator Hoeven. All right?
    Senator Tester. And you can come to Montana, too, when you 
go to North Dakota.
    Mr. Wolf. Absolutely.
    Senator Hoeven. Yeah. Tester's got a beautiful State. He'd 
love to have you check it out Montana, as well. But, we'd like 
you to come back and see----
    Mr. Wolf. Happy to do that.
    Senator Hoeven. We think we can help you with all your 
border security operations.
    Mr. Wolf. Great.
    Senator Hoeven. Yeah.
    Mr. Wolf. I believe it was a test site, in conjunction with 
North Dakota State University.
    Senator Hoeven. University of North Dakota.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.
    Senator Hoeven. Yeah. We have a very large aviation school 
there.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.
    We were there in, late 2018, I believe.
    Senator Hoeven. Fantastic. Did you come with----
    Mr. Wolf. With Secretary Nielsen.
    Senator Hoeven. Oh, great, great. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I 
remember that visit. I'm sorry I forgot you were with us. But, 
I appreciate you being up there, and we want to--I'm glad 
you've seen it. We continue to make progress and want you to 
come back.
    Mr. Wolf. Great.

                     AUTONOMOUS SURVEILLANCE TOWERS

    Senator Hoeven. Tell me a little bit about autonomous 
surveillance towers.
    Mr. Wolf. So, that's a piece of Border Patrol technology 
that's absolutely critical. We talk about securing the border. 
We do it through technology, we do it through physical 
infrastructure, and then, of course, people. The autonomous 
surveillance towers are that other piece of critical 
technology. I believe we have upwards of 200 towers that we're 
looking to deploy. These are relocatable, so that you can 
position them. They run off of self-supported power, mainly 
sunlight. They provide a capability--a domain-awareness 
capability for the Border Patrol that improves upon some of the 
towers that they previously had out there. So, we look forward 
and we're very excited about the capabilities that that 
provides them.
    Senator Hoeven. Don't you have to make it a program of 
record and expand it, or are you still going through that 
process to make that determination?
    Mr. Wolf. That's a continuing discussion that we have with 
CBP, but, again, we like the capabilities that those towers 
provide, and we'll continue to deploy them.

                                REAL ID

    Senator Hoeven. REAL ID, I just went through that process 
and got my REAL ID. And you've got to have--I mean, it's quite 
a bit. Fortunately, in our State, they're on top of it. And, 
you know, if you get the four different types of required 
documentation, so on and so forth, go in and get it.
    Tell me, you know, by October 1, folks are going to have to 
have that to go on a get on an airplane.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Hoeven. What's going to happen when somebody shows 
up and their ID isn't REAL ID?
    Mr. Wolf. Thank you for the question.
    Senator Hoeven. What are you going to do there at TSA?
    Mr. Wolf. Yes. Thank you for the question. This continues 
to be an issuing program, because, in our mind, the States have 
had more than 14 years to phase this in.
    The law passed in 2006. So, we encourage States to invest. 
The majority of them have. We have--all States are compliant. 
All but two are issuing REAL IDs at the moment. We would like 
them to go faster. I think that they would like to go faster. 
We continue to have that dialogue with them.
    Today, about 35 percent of IDs in circulation are REAL ID-
compliant. So, that's a relative----
    Senator Hoeven. Thirty-five?
    Mr. Wolf. Around 35 percent. So, that's a relatively low 
number.
    Senator Hoeven. Well, I got mine, so it's, like, 35 
percent, plus one, then.
    [Laughter.]
    Mr. Wolf. Yes, sir.
    It's a relatively low number when you look at October 2020. 
We're doing a number of things, to engage the industry. We just 
issued a policy adjustment that allows individuals seeking to 
come in for a REAL ID. They could submit their documents 
electronically to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), and 
then that makes it easier as they go in. I will say that the 
original law that REAL ID passed is very restrictive for the 
Department. It was passed in a time where there were no 
smartphones; there were flip phones. This idea of transmitting 
information securely, versus coming in with the information, is 
a real challenge. That's where you see a lot of bottlenecks at 
DMVs and a capacity issue at DMVs.
    Senator Hoeven. Yeah. But, the thing that I'm suggesting to 
you is, come October 1, you're going to have a lot of people 
show up at TSA.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.
    Senator Hoeven. And they're going to want to get on an 
aircraft and they're going to show their driver's license, and 
they won't have their passport, they won't have something else.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Hoeven. And now they're going to say, ``Hey, but 
I've got to get on my flight.'' And that--that's going to 
happen. You know it's going to happen.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.
    Senator Hoeven. And so it's incumbent on the States to get 
it out. I think they're trying. I'm just saying for TSA, as an 
organization, you're going to you're probably going to need 
some contingency.
    Mr. Wolf. Right. We are certainly planning.
    Senator Hoeven. Yeah.
    Mr. Wolf. We're planning for a variety of eventualities. We 
also are trying to educate the public. So, you can certainly 
have a REAL ID-compliant ID, but there's other alternative 
forms of ID that you can have, as well--a military ID, a 
passport, as well as a number of others. So, we continue to try 
to educate the American people and the traveling public on what 
type of identification they need, come October. Our partners in 
the airline industry, airline associations, and travel 
associations are also pushing out a lot of useful information, 
as well.
    Senator Hoeven. And just a final question. Back to 
coronavirus.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes

                SCREENING PEOPLE ENTERING UNITED STATES

    Senator Hoeven. Do you feel you've got adequate screening 
in place now for people coming into the country?
    Mr. Wolf. We do. We do. We have 11 airports where we're 
prescreening folks. To date, since those measures went in 
place, DHS, CBP, CWMD, we've screened more than 50,000 
individuals coming into the United States. And that's just at 
airports. We're also screening folks at land ports of entry as 
well as at maritime ports of entry.
    Senator Hoeven. Right. But, is it fair to say that your 
message to the public, then, is that you feel you do have 
adequate screening.
    Mr. Wolf. Absolutely. We--I have all the information that I 
need from CDC and HHS on a daily basis to make operational 
decisions to determine whether we're keeping the American 
public safe. Absolutely, threat remains low. We'll adjust those 
measures as the CDC and HHS directs us. But, as of today, I'm 
very satisfied with the measures that the Department has taken.
    Senator Hoeven. Thank you, Secretary, appreciate it.
    Mr. Wolf. Thank you.
    Senator Capito. Senator Tester.

                    BORDER SECURITY IMPROVEMENT PLAN

    Senator Tester. Yeah, thank you, Chairwoman Capito.
    I want to, first, talk about the wall budget for a second, 
$2 billion in additional money for construction. And, quite 
frankly, the last border security improvement plan we had--as I 
said, that was 2 years ago--it was criticized by some of us and 
by GAO. We keep hearing that another plan is coming.
    Mr. Wolf. It is.
    Senator Tester. When?
    Mr. Wolf. I would say in the next several months. It's 
currently in review at the Department, and is being finalized.
    Senator Tester. So, can you give me--if it isn't here by, 
like, the 1st of June, should we be calling you in front of the 
committee and raking you over the coals, or the 1st of May, or 
the 1st of April?
    Mr. Wolf. I think that's fair. I think a June deadline. I 
will push, personally, to get it before that.
    Senator Tester. Okay.
    Mr. Wolf. But, we have it. It's being finalized today.
    Senator Tester. And if you can get it quicker than that--I 
mean, we're talking--I misspoke--it's only $15.185 billion for 
the wall.
    Mr. Wolf. Yeah.
    Senator Tester. That's a huge amount of money.
    Mr. Wolf. Sure.

                  BORDER WALL CONSTRUCTION: CONTRACTS

    Senator Tester. And we need to have a plan, and it needs to 
be a good one, and better than the last one.
    Last week, you announced a plan to expedite the border wall 
construction by waiving ten Federal procurement laws for 
several sectors where the border wall is being planned. This 
will eliminate the full and open competition process. It will 
eliminate the requirement for a contractor to submit cost and 
pricing data, provide a bond, guarantee wage payments, and 
eliminate the bid--the bid protest process. We're talking about 
$17 billion of this budget goes through, as advertised. How can 
we protect the American taxpayer if these procurement laws are 
waived?
    Mr. Wolf. So, the design--the concept behind waiving that 
specific waiver was to reduce the length of time between award 
and construction.
    Senator Tester. I got it. I understand. But, the truth is 
they're there for a reason.
    Mr. Wolf. We talked with----
    Senator Tester. And, by the way, this argument could be 
made for building the polar cutter, the C-130s, whatever it 
could be.
    Mr. Wolf. The funding that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 
will get will continue to go to vetted and qualified applicants 
who are currently on contract with the Army Corps, or to those 
who are on a larger task order for the----
    Senator Tester. But, doesn't your procurement law eliminate 
any bidding, any protests? So, the question is, how do we hold 
these folks accountable if they get a sweetheart deal?
    Mr. Wolf. Well, they've already been pre-qualified; they've 
already determined contracts. They're--most of them are already 
building the border wall system today. So, the idea is to add 
to those contracts as that additional wall and that additional 
property become available. So, these contractors have been 
vetted, they've gone through that contracting process, they 
hold the task order with the Army Corps or an IDIQ (indefinite 
delivery/indefinite quantity).
    Senator Tester. So, you have a list of contractors, then.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.
    Senator Tester. Are any of these classified as small 
businesses?
    Mr. Wolf. I believe there is one.
    Senator Tester. Could you give me that list? Because the 
procurement also waives the provision that provides 
opportunities for small businesses.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes. Okay.
    Senator Tester. And I would love to have that, because the 
procurement is it a pain in the neck? Yeah. Do you have to jump 
through hoops? Yeah, it's tough. But, they're there for a 
reason. And they're there to make sure that we hold our 
contractors accountable and that the taxpayer dollars--I get 
it, you want to get it built, and you want to get it built 
quickly.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Tester. But, you still have to do certain things, 
and have to do it right. Otherwise, after it's built, the 
dollars have been spent, and it wasn't the best value, the 
question is it too late then.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes, Senator. I don't believe that it is. So, 
again, we continue to work with the Army Corps of Engineers, 
making sure that their vetted contractors, their task orders, 
and the IDIQs that they hold are going to get the best value 
for the American taxpayer.

                   BORDER WALL SYSTEM: EMINENT DOMAIN

    Senator Tester. I appreciate that. So, from my math, about 
235 miles will be needed to be acquired from private 
landowners, or private holdings. Have landowners been 
contacted?
    Mr. Wolf. They have.
    Senator Tester. And how many have given you permission to 
access their property for a wall?
    Mr. Wolf. Well, again, it's certainly a complex procedure, 
anywhere from the title search to----
    Senator Tester. I got it. The question is, if you come on 
my land and you use eminent domain those are fighting words.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes, Senator. Again, we survey before we ever get 
to the combination part. You know, we're doing the survey, the 
title search.
    Senator Tester. Yeah. So, where are we at, though? Mr. 
Wolf: We have a number of landowners have allowed us on land to 
survey. There are some that have not. We continue to work with 
them. Again, the Army Corps, through their contractors, are 
doing that.
    Mr. Wolf. That's mainly our Rio Grande Valley (RGV) sector.
    Senator Tester. Okay. Well, have you exercised any eminent 
domain as of yet?
    Mr. Wolf. The Army Corps has, I believe, in just a small 
handful of cases.
    Senator Tester. I would love to know where they're at, and 
I would love to know what transpired.
    Mr. Wolf. Okay.
    Senator Tester. And I will tell you--look. I mean, I'm on 
the northern border. I'm not right on the border, I'm about 80 
miles south. But, the truth is, I have a certain amount of 
empathy for those folks who may have their farm or ranch split 
in half, or even a quarter section peeled off, due to this 
wall.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.
    Senator Tester. And the wall may take--I don't know how 
many feet does it take? Half a mile?
    Mr. Wolf. It's a little less. There's an exclusion zone; 
there's the physical building of the wall.
    Senator Tester. But, the fact is, it could have impacts for 
a much greater area than that.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Tester. And it's my understanding, there's a ton of 
lawsuits and maybe you know this from the last time this was 
done, during the Bush administration.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes. Right.
    Senator Tester. How many of those lawsuits on eminent 
domain are still outstanding?
    Mr. Wolf. I don't know how many are still outstanding.
    Senator Tester. This is really an important issue for 
private property rights. It really is.
    Mr. Wolf. I know that we've obviously been sued a number of 
times regarding the border wall.
    Senator Tester. Yeah. I mean you're going to get a letter--
--
    Mr. Wolf. A number of litigations----
    Senator Tester. You're going to get a letter from a lady in 
the--and I just sent it to the Chairman--from a lady by the 
name of Kelly Kimbro, that's ranch is going to be split by a 
wall, who's very concerned. And, by the way, she's a rock-red 
Republican.
    Mr. Wolf. Yeah.
    Senator Tester. She supported Trump.
    Mr. Wolf. I understand.
    Senator Tester. And they're very, very worried about the 
impacts this is going to have on their farm.
    I'll yield for now.
    Senator Capito. Senator Lankford.

                     DRUG INTERDICTION: TECHNOLOGY

    Senator Lankford. Thank you.
    Chad, thanks for being here. Thanks for the work that you 
do. You're covering a lot of issues today, as you do on a 
normal day, from coronavirus to border security, to all sorts 
of law enforcement issues, to election security, to security at 
infrastructure facilities. You've got a lot on your plate. So, 
I appreciate the work that you do, and the professionals that 
work around you. And you have thousands of folks on the team, 
so tell them thank you from all of us, and for what they do.
    I want to run through multiple different issues here, but 
let me start with methamphetamine and through Fentanyl and 
other opioids that are coming through our southern border into 
the United States.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Lankford. We've talked a lot about the technology. 
I've met with some companies, recently in Oklahoma, that are 
doing a significant amount of research on hand-held devices to 
be able to help detect Fentanyl and other illegal substances 
coming across our southern border. There's a lot of dialogue 
about what you have already put into place in technology. But, 
it's always interesting to me, almost everyone I've talked to 
on technology says, ``We're trying to get as good as a dog's 
nose.'' So, let me ask you the odd question with this, on 
what's happening in our ports of entry and other locations. How 
are we doing getting more dogs' noses there as we're trying to 
be able to work towards getting more technology that's almost 
as good as a dog's nose in this process?
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Lankford. Are we increasing our dog-sniffing 
presence in all these locations? How are we doing adding 
technology to be able to line up with that, as well?
    Mr. Wolf. So, it's all of the above, Senator. We're 
certainly looking at both the technology--again, the people, 
canine assets, as well. As we mentioned earlier in the hearing, 
about two-thirds of the illicit drugs that we see--the opioids, 
the Fentanyl, but also marijuana. All of the narcotics are 
coming through our ports of entry. About one-third is between 
our ports of entry. And that number is rising. So, we're 
concerned about that, as well. We have--a number of investments 
have been made by Congress in fiscal years 2019 and 2020 for 
that NII technology. We'll continue to invest in our canine 
workforce.
    Senator Lankford. Right. Will that be able to be 
implemented by the end of this fiscal year? Or when do you 
think that funding will be fully rolled out and implemented?
    Mr. Wolf. Yes. So, the funding for the NII technology will 
be over multiple years.
    Senator Lankford. Okay.
    Mr. Wolf. Some of the 2019 money will be implemented in 
this year, and some of the 2020 money will continue to be 
rolled out. That is 2-year money versus 1-year money.
    Senator Lankford. Right.
    Mr. Wolf. It's a large technology contract.
    Senator Lankford. It is. It is. And it's a significant 
task. And it's extremely important to us. Every one of our 
States, and your hometown, as well, is affected by Fentanyl and 
opioids and methamphetamine coming in. So, the faster we can 
roll that out and be able to be engaged in that, the better to 
be able to help cut off the flow of some of these drugs coming 
into the United States.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.

                 DETENTION: SOFT-SIDED FACILITIES, BEDS

    Senator Lankford. So, I appreciate all that you're doing.
    There's been a lot of conversation about ICE detention 
beds, as well. I've been on the southern border. You've been on 
the southern border a lot. The soft-sided facilities that CBP 
has put into place because there weren't enough ICE beds costs 
a tremendous amount of money.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Lankford. How is that going in balancing out 
better-quality ICE beds at a lower price than CBP having to do 
more-expensive temporary soft-sided facilities to be able to 
handle individuals coming across the border?
    Mr. Wolf. Well, I think our idea is to get out of the soft-
sided-facility business. We did that because of the surge last 
year. Again, thank you for--Congress, for providing those 
resources to do that. What we've seen--As the numbers have 
decreased over the last several months, we were able to take a 
number of those soft-sided facilities offline and, again 
continue to save money.
    Senator Lankford. Right.
    Mr. Wolf. So, we've taken one facility offline. We're 
taking another three offline in the coming months, assuming our 
numbers continue to hold. That'll be about a $20 million 
savings per month as we continue to take those offline.
    Senator Lankford. Right. And is the goal, at some point, if 
there's a surge again, to be able to surge into ICE facilities, 
or to surge back into the soft-sided?
    Mr. Wolf. What we're trying to do is to move some of these 
soft-sided facilities into hard-sided facilities. We do need 
that capacity, that surge capacity, on the southwest border. We 
would like that to be in a hard-sided facility versus the soft-
sided.
    Senator Lankford. Right.
    Mr. Wolf. Over time, those are more cost-effective.
    Senator Lankford. Right.
    Mr. Wolf. As far as ICE beds, though, we do modeling, most 
of which we share with the Committee, almost all of that we 
share with the Committee, and we continue to see an increase in 
the beds that ICE continues to need over time. As the surge 
occurred last year, and we had--we were releasing more than 
100,000--140,000 in some months--individuals into the interior, 
there's a tail to that, and that comes to ICE doing its law 
enforcement mission inside the interior of the country. As ICE 
focuses its attention and resources on criminals and picking up 
those individuals who have a final order of removal and the 
like, we have more than 3 million aliens on the non-detained 
docket, a million of those have final orders of removal. That's 
what ICE does.
    Senator Lankford. Right.
    Mr. Wolf. As ICE picks them up, ICE needs to have the 
ability to detain those individuals for a short period of time 
before we deport them or repatriate them.

                               H-2B VISAS

    Senator Lankford. Right.
    Let me make a couple of quick comments.
    Senator Shaheen had mentioned, before, about the H-2B 
visas.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.
    Senator Lankford. I know Congress had given authority to be 
able to double the number of visas.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Lankford. And that was Congress's statement to say, 
``You can go up to twice as much, but you've got to be able to 
look at the Department of Labor and the numbers that are 
there.'' I know you've mentioned already that Congress was the 
best to be able to set that number. Congress has said, ``Hey, 
work with the Department of Labor and see what'' we need at 
this point.''
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Lankford. And you have the opportunity to go up to 
twice as many as you've done in the past. There was a Wall 
Street Journal story out last Friday, saying that there is some 
conversation about, there may be up to 45,000 additional visas 
that may come online soon. That's not been released by your 
team yet.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.

        BORDER WALL CONSTRUCTION: RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RESTORATION

    Senator Lankford. I would just say, if you're choosing to 
do that, Congress has already spoken into that to say you have 
permission to be able to do that number, and even higher than 
that, even--but, if you choose to be able to do that, do that 
as quickly as possible. If that stretches out into June and 
July, before those actual releases come, that's too late for 
the season. And so, trying to be able to get those done faster 
is better than slowly trying to be able to piece those out.
    And if I can mention one other thing, if I can beg the 
indulgence here of the Chairwoman on this, and that is this 
issue about RFRA and--the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and 
the waiver that's being put in place for construction of the 
wall.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Lankford. I've been very confused by this, because 
DHS has said, ``We're waiving RFRA, and we have authority to do 
that,'' when RFRA actually says, ``You can't waive this unless 
Congress specifically states that it can be waived.'' And I 
know this is going to be a battle of the lawyers to be able to 
determine.
    What I'm trying to figure out is, why is there a need to 
even waive RFRA? Because, as far as I can tell, there's never 
been a need to be able to waive that. So, why preemptively say 
we're going to, when there's not really a statement to say we 
waive religious freedom protections to be able to build the 
wall.
    Mr. Wolf. Right. Well, I've looked into that issue. Thank 
you, Senator. I will say that, you know, the last 12 or 13 
waivers, I believe, that we've signed have not waived RFRA.
    Senator Lankford. Right.
    Mr. Wolf. You have my commitment to making sure that, as we 
look at any waivers going forward, if that's put before me, I'm 
going to ask a series of questions. Specifically, does this 
inhibit building the border wall system at any point? I think 
we oftentimes err on the side of caution on what we waive. And 
I think that it's incumbent on part of the Department to ensure 
that what we're waiving has a specific impact on the number of 
miles that are being built in that specific area. As you know, 
the waivers are to specific sectors and miles.
    Senator Lankford. Right.
    Mr. Wolf. So, it's incumbent upon us. But, I will say, the 
Department has not waived that in the last 12 waivers.
    Senator Lankford. Since 1993, the Religious Freedom 
Restoration Act has never been waived.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.
    Senator Lankford. And so, I'd like not to have a first in 
that.
    Mr. Wolf. Okay. I understand.
    Senator Lankford. Thank you.
    Senator Capito. Senator Baldwin.

                     U.S. COAST GUARD: ICEBREAKERS

    Senator Baldwin. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    So, Acting Secretary Wolf, Executive Order 7521 requires 
the U.S. Coast Guard to conduct icebreaking operations to meet 
the reasonable demands of commerce. However, the Coast Guard's 
icebreaking fleet in the Great Lakes has declined from 14 to 9 
vessels over the past 40 years, and the region's economy has, 
consequently, lost billions of dollars in economic activity, 
particularly over the past 7 years, due to inadequate Coast 
Guard icebreaking resources. Now, I've asked the President to 
include funding to build a new Great Lakes icebreaker, but all 
I've heard back is that other Coast Guard needs are more 
important. I would note that, in your opening statement, you 
equated economic security and national security.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.
    Senator Baldwin. The Coast Guard's fiscal year 2021 request 
includes no funding for this new icebreaker. So, I'm wondering 
how you can ignore the economic injury that is occurring in the 
Upper Midwest, and in particular, obviously, the Great Lakes 
region, in this budget.
    Mr. Wolf. I've talked with the Commandant about our 
icebreaker capability, not only in the polar region, but also 
in the Great Lakes. I certainly understand the concern that you 
have. I will say that, for the Coast Guard in fiscal year 2021 
it has a number of priorities. Polar security cutters would be 
the second one. The offshore patrol cutter will become the 
backbone of what the Coast Guard does offshore. So those 
continue to be the priorities for the Coast Guard. Those are 
high-capital investments. I will also say the readiness of the 
Coast Guard continues to be an issue, as it does with all of 
our service agencies. When you have a limited budget, you have 
to focus resources. As I mentioned at the outset, I've talked 
to the Commandant about the icebreaking capabilities in the 
Great Lakes. He feels comfortable where they sit today. 
Obviously, the Mackinaw, but then they have a number of smaller 
vessels that provide some capability, as well. But we'll 
continue to have that dialogue. It's--you know, limited 
resources, we have to prioritize.
    Senator Baldwin. And I'm fully supportive of the polar ice 
cutter. I would say the Mackinaw is well over--it's a very old.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes, ma'am.

                      MIGRANT PROTECTION PROTOCOLS

    Senator Baldwin. And the cost of repair and the time out is 
very significant. But, what I'm telling you is, the Great Lakes 
region--and, indirectly, the entire Upper Midwest--is suffering 
because of the lack of icebreaking capacity, economically. And 
this should be a priority, especially given your comments of 
equating economic security and national security.
    I want to switch topics. It's been more than a year since 
DHS began implementation of the Migrant Protection Protocols, 
also known as ``Remain in Mexico policy,'' which keeps migrants 
in Mexico while they await their immigration hearings. The 
present advocacy groups have documented widespread abuse of 
migrants returned to Mexico under MPP, including things like 
kidnapping, extortion, and other violence.
    In December, I had an opportunity to travel to Tucson and 
Nogales, Arizona, to visit DHS and HHS facilities, as well as a 
private organization supporting migrants. Service providers 
there told me that the migrants returned under MPP are easy 
targets for criminal organizations in Mexico and, frankly, in 
the U.S., in part because they are readily identifiable because 
CBP mandates that they remove their shoelaces when they are in 
custody, and releases them without returning them. I found that 
sort of odd and surprising, but I heard it over and over again, 
that if you see a family, none of whom have shoelaces on their 
shoes, you know that they are probably folks who have been 
recently released from custody and probably very vulnerable.
    Your budget requests $126 million for MPP, and claims that 
the program offers protections for vulnerable populations. In 
light of the many reports of abuse of these individuals, what 
steps is CBP taking to ensure that they are safe as they await 
their day in court?
    Mr. Wolf. Sure. We're taking a number of steps regarding 
the MPP program. We had an independent team in the Department 
do a review of the MPP program. These are individuals who have 
little to do with immigration, so they were coming to the 
system blind. They recommended a number of steps to take. We're 
implementing some of those that we had already considered. I 
will say that we continue to work with the Government of 
Mexico, who is a partner with us in this program. Through the 
Department of State, we've provided up to $22 million in 
funding to help them build out their shelter capability. That 
includes security for those shelters transportation funding. We 
do a number of things with our Department of State colleagues, 
to make sure that the Government of Mexico is fulfilling its 
requirements under this program to ensure that individuals in 
the MPP program, as they await their immigration court 
proceedings in Mexico, are in safe and secure shelters every 
day.
    Senator Baldwin. Are you aware of the shoelace policy?
    Mr. Wolf. I'm aware of the shoelace policy as it pertains 
to being in CBP custody. I made a note of that, to take a look, 
as we release----
    Senator Baldwin. Seems like that would be a very simple 
thing to correct.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Capito. Senator Hyde-Smith.

                  DRUG INTERDICTION: U.S. COAST GUARD

    Senator Hyde-Smith. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
    And, Acting Secretary Wolf, just want to tell you how much 
we appreciate everything that you do, and congratulate you on 
your new position.
    Mr. Wolf. Thank you.
    Senator Hyde-Smith. My home State of Mississippi is 
certainly grateful to the Department for the responsiveness 
following emergencies and natural disasters, such as Hurricane 
Katrina, when that occurred. Mississippi is also proud of its 
long and storied shipbuilding traditions. We're proud of our 
support of the U.S. Coast Guard, and gratified with the Coast 
Guard's recognition that you've given us of the strong work 
ethic and well-established excellence in shipbuilding on the 
Mississippi Gulf Coast.
    Mississippians take great pride in their contributions to 
the Department of Homeland Security's mission and also our 
national security interest, and we're proud that one of our 
shipyards is constructing a new polar security cutter to aid in 
the security of our Arctic theater. And I certainly look 
forward to ensuring we provide the ships and other equipment 
our men and women in uniform desperately need that we do quite 
well.
    Mr. Secretary, as you've highlighted in your testimony, the 
Coast Guard is a unique component with advanced operational 
capabilities and multiple jurisdictional authorities enabling 
the service to carry out both law enforcement and national 
defense missions. The Coast Guard seizes more drugs than all 
other Federal agencies combined. For example the Coast Guard 
cutter James recently returned from a 2-month deployment, where 
it seized over 13,000 pounds of narcotics. In the past 4 years, 
the men and women of the Coast Guard have interdicted 2 million 
pounds of pure cocaine worth an estimated value of $26 billion. 
Please describe the unique capabilities and authorities the 
Coast Guard provides for homeland and border security.
    Mr. Wolf. Sure. Just to expand on your points about the 
interdiction of drugs at sea, Coast Guard. If you have the 
ability to visit Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) South in 
Key West. That is a facility that's throughout the--DOD, DHS, a 
variety of different agencies are focused on illicit drug 
traffic coming from South America and Central America into the 
United States. I'm proud to say that it's Coast Guard cutters 
that are providing that capability and that interdiction 
capability, both in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific. It's 
using intelligence that we gather from a number of different 
agencies, but it is Coast Guard men and women on ships and in 
the air, and CBP assets as well, that are providing that 
interdiction of all the illicit drugs coming from South America 
on a daily basis. They have a law enforcement mission, as you 
indicated, that's a little different from DOD's mission. They 
are a natural partner to our DOD assets, looking to protect the 
homeland. They not only do that here at home, but they do that 
away from the homeland, in the eastern Pacific, in the 
Caribbean, as well as overseas, providing that law enforcement 
capability that DOD needs.

 U.S. COAST GUARD: BALANCING BORDER SECURITY MISSION AND DEPARTMENT OF 
                            DEFENSE SUPPORT

    Senator Hyde-Smith. And switching to the national security 
arena, last year Coast Guard cutters Bertholf and Stratton were 
deployed in support of the Indo-Pacific--Commander, and 
missions in support of Department of Defense efforts are 
becoming a very common occurrence.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.
    Senator Hyde-Smith. How has the Department prioritized the 
Coast Guard's counterdrug and border security missions versus 
the demand signal for Coast Guard's assets in support of the 
combatant commanders?
    Mr. Wolf. It's certainly a balance. It's a delicate balance 
that the Commandant has to do every week and every month. The 
Coast Guard is happy to provide support to DOD and to serve 
alongside them. We have about 2,000, I believe, Coast Guard men 
and women who are deployed overseas in support of the various 
combatant commanders. You mentioned Indo-Pacific, but also in 
the Middle East, Bahrain, and elsewhere. When we had issues 
flare up in Iraq and Iran at the beginning of the year, we had 
Coast Guard men and women deployed there in support of DOD, as 
well. So it's a balance. They certainly have to do their 
maritime mission here in the States, here in the homeland, 
their drug interdiction capabilities. They have many missions. 
But we're happy to support and serve alongside DOD 
professionals overseas, as well.
    Senator Hyde-Smith. Thank you. And it is very clear that 
it's a huge balance.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.
    Senator Hyde-Smith. But, thank you for what you do in 
addressing that.
    Thank you, Madam Chairman.

                           DRUG INTERDICTION

    Senator Capito. Thank you.
    We've completed the Senators that are here. Apparently, 
Senator Murkowski's on her way. And Senator Tester and I have 
some additional questions, so we'll go to a round 2.
    I just would like to make a comment on the opioid detection 
and how important that is. I was just down in southern West 
Virginia with the head of the Office of Drug Control Policy, 
Jim Carroll went to a drug court graduation.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Capito. He announced, at that graduation--because 
what we're seeing is our drug problem morphing from opioid 
prescription drugs to heroin and Fentanyl to, now, synthetic 
methamphetamine.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Capito. But, he announced that, at the border, you 
had interdicted 432 packages with $18 million worth of 
methamphetamine--I think it was a week ago Saturday--875 
pounds. And, as I was reading the story, apparently one of the 
agents detected something, sent it to secondary screening, and 
it was picked up on the nonintrusive inspection, hidden in a 
bunch of broccoli.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Capito. So, congratulations to you and the 
interdiction that you're doing there.
    Mr. Wolf. Appreciate that.
    Senator Capito. You're saving lives by doing that. Crystal 
meth is pretty nasty stuff.
    Mr. Wolf. And we do work closely with the Office of 
National Drug Control Policy (ONDPC). Late last year, we were 
part of a technology challenge that it announced, to have a 
number of companies continue to invest in the technology to 
find smaller and smaller amounts of opioids. So, again, we work 
very closely.

                   DENTENTION: SOFT-SIDED FACILITIES

    Senator Capito. Well, that's good.
    I'm not going to ask you about soft-sided facilities, 
because Senator Lankford mentioned it, but you know that's an 
area of--where I've been worried about waste and overspending, 
and certainly want to be ready, but we want to be smart. And, 
in visiting these facilities, as I've shared with you privately 
several times they've been underpopulated.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Capito. And so, I've had great concerns about that. 
So, I would encourage you--I know you're closing more than just 
one now.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Capito. And I appreciate that, for your 
responsiveness. And I'm sure it's in the best interest of the 
Department, as well, in terms of the resources, and using the 
resources in the best way. So, I don't know if you want to add 
anything on that.
    Mr. Wolf. Thank you, Chairman--we just need to balance, as 
we bring those facilities offline, making sure that we are 
still prepared, if there is a surge, another surge very similar 
to last year, or even half of what we saw last year.
    Senator Capito. Right.
    Mr. Wolf. We want to make sure that we have the facilities 
in which we can process these individuals, and that we don't 
have them showing up again and spending long amounts of time in 
Border Patrol facilities.
    Mr. Wolf. Those aren't the right locations, and so we need 
to just balance that concern.

                      MIGRANT PROTECTION PROTOCOLS

    Senator Capito. Yes. Thank you.
    Lastly--or, not lastly, but I would also, to Senator 
Baldwin's question on the MPP--I mean, I think that, with the--
in conjunction with the Mexican government, it's been a great 
deterrent to having people flood across our borders, in the 
numbers. I mean, you've seen it go down since June, of what was 
105,000, and then this past month it was 29,000. Something's 
working there. And I think MPP is one of those protocols.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes. I would like to elaborate. MPP is designed 
to do several different things, but one is to make sure that 
those with meritorious claims can have their claim heard and 
adjudicated in a timely manner. So we're able to do that in 
months now, instead of years. It's also deterring fraudulent 
claims. What we're seeing is that about half of these 
individuals who are put in the program never show up for their 
court hearings. That's a similar percentage to what we see in 
the interior, as well. Individuals who are put in this program, 
who know that they do not have a meritorious claim simply 
choose to walk away.
    Senator Capito. Right.
    Mr. Wolf. It's a little bit of deterring that fraudulent 
behavior as well, rooting out, restoring that integrity to the 
immigration system.

              FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: GRANTS

    Senator Capito. Thank you.
    Last question I have is on FEMA. And I want to thank the 
Department here, and thank FEMA, for helping us, in West 
Virginia, recover from the 2016 floods, where you just recently 
have helped us rebuild four of our schools that--and, you know, 
it's 4 years later, so there were some frustrations there, but 
FEMA really worked to help us make sure we were asking for the 
right things.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.
    Senator Capito. So, I appreciate that. And you just helped 
us with the match issue, as well. But, also in your budget 
request, it seems that the fiscal year 2020 grants on the 
National Security and Resilience Grant Program, you're 
revamping and cutting grants by an estimated $623 million. As 
somebody who's prone to--FEMA has a healthy life in a State 
like West Virginia.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Capito. We have, unfortunately, more than our share 
of natural occurrences where we need help. I'm concerned--you 
know, is this going to cut back on--will less overall funding 
mean less grant applications would be granted and--you know, 
when the demand is still up?
    Mr. Wolf. Well, I'd say it's a balancing act, as all of our 
resources are, on what's the appropriate grant funding. I think 
that continues to be a dialogue the administration and 
Congress. The grants are designed to build capabilities that 
are not there for grantees. But, over time, we want to make 
sure that they don't come to rely on grant funding as part of 
their base budget. We want to make sure that we continue to 
find new applicants, new grantees, and continue to build the 
resilience and the capabilities of all of our partners in the 
States. That's a reflection of what you see in the 2021 budget 
request, is to make sure that we continue to focus on those 
areas that need continued funding, that need to continue to 
build those capabilities, but that we don't continue to fund 
and build out individuals' and recipients' base budgets.
    It is a balancing act. It's a share responsibility, not 
only for the FEMA grants. There are certain grants where we've 
increased two- or threefold. Targeted Violence and Terrorism 
Prevention (TVTP) that we talked about, domestic terrorism 
prevention. We've increased the number of grants in that area. 
We look at each grant program differently to determine what's 
needed.
    Senator Capito. Well, I would say, then I'll turn to 
Senator Tester--in terms of FEMA grants and preparedness and 
emergency response, this country, I think all of us have 
collectively responded to each individual areas of our country 
that have had need if we've had to have supplemental funding or 
if we'd had to expedite the response quicker. I think we're all 
kind of pulling for each other, here. But, I think the best 
thing for the Department and for States to plan is to make sure 
we have enough in there to have that baseline response 
capabilities so we don't have to go to the up-and-downs of 
supplements and emergency funding and all that.
    So, Senator Tester.

                BORDER WALL SYSTEM: TOHONO O'ODHAM TRIBE

    Senator Tester. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    And I also want to just say thank you for--thanks again for 
being here, Acting Secretary.
    I'm not going to do a ``gotcha.'' Are you familiar with the 
term ``consultation'' as it applies to having meaningful 
conversations with Indian tribes?
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.
    Senator Tester. Okay. So the question is, there's a wall 
being built with Tohono O'odham tribe.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.
    Senator Tester. The tribe says it's going across tribal 
land that is a burial site.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.
    Senator Tester. The tribe says there has been no 
consultation.
    Mr. Wolf. Sorry. Go ahead.
    Senator Tester. Yeah. No, shoot. I mean, has there been a 
consultation?
    Mr. Wolf. I've had conversations with both, Senators 
McSally and Sinema on this issue.
    Senator Tester. Yeah.
    Mr. Wolf. We have been in constant communication with the 
tribe and with the Nation. We have some differences of opinion, 
but it's not for a lack of communication.
    Senator Tester. Okay.
    Mr. Wolf. We continue to communicate with them. I plan to 
visit them as early as I can on one of my next visits there.
    Senator Tester. I would appreciate that, but the whole idea 
behind consultation isn't its actually listening.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.
    Senator Tester. And I'm not saying you're not, but I'm 
saying that, when you get pictures--like this, that appears 
that it's going through a burial site, maybe there's more to 
the complaint than just somebody unhappy.
    Mr. Wolf. Sure. I know that they were concerned about use 
of groundwater. So we've addressed that concern.
    Senator Tester. Yeah.
    Mr. Wolf. We're no longer using it within a certain 
mileage.

                     BORDER WALL SYSTEM: TECHNOLOGY

    Senator Tester. Okay. Well, it is critically important. And 
more I'm getting to on this is not only with tribes.
    Mr. Wolf. I agree.
    Senator Tester. I brought up eminent domain in the last 
round. These all set up grounds where people come to hate the 
government. And there is nobody that I've served with in the 
United States Senate today, certainly nobody on this committee, 
that doesn't want to empower you to do the job you need to do 
to keep this country safe. You brought up the stuff on the wall 
that's going to keep this country safe.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Tester. It's not a steel wall that's 18 or 20 feet 
high. It's the lights, it's the cameras, it's the radar, and 
it's the heat-seeking information that can be up. It's the 
technology. It's the artificial intelligence. It's all of that. 
I just wish--and I know you can't tell the President that this 
is a bad idea, because if you do, you won't be Secretary 
anymore, because he tends to put people in positions like yours 
that absolutely agree with him 100 percent.
    Mr. Wolf. Senator, we need the entire border wall system. 
So we talk about the border wall system's physical 
infrastructure, and it's all of the other technology that you 
talked about.
    Senator Tester. I got it.
    Mr. Wolf. You need both.
    Senator Tester. But, what I'm telling you is that if you 
use technology, you get away from the problems that the Tohono 
O'odham have, you get away from the problems that the folks 
with eminent domain have, you get away from the million acres 
in Texas alone that's going to be separated and become a no 
man's land that's United States soil but will be south of that 
wall. You get rid of all those things. And I maintain that it's 
going to be more effective than a wall. And you know why? 
Because 10 or 20 years from now, there will be different 
challenges, and you'll be able to change that technology to 
meet the 21st-century challenges that a wall is not going to be 
able to meet.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.
    Senator Tester. And I just put that out there. We can 
disagree. But, mark my word, if I live long enough, there'll be 
somebody standing in front of that wall, some President, that 
will say, ``Tear down this wall.'' Because it's much more 
effective utilizing technology. And it's a fact.
    Mr. Wolf. Absolutely. Border Patrol needs technology. We 
continue to request additional technologies. But they also need 
the impedance and denial that an effective border wall system 
provides. That comes directly from the operators.
    Senator Tester. And what I'm telling you, if you utilize 
manpower and you utilize technology, you can be more efficient 
than a wall. Why? Because you can see further out. And that's 
the question on the northern border. And it's the question that 
the Senator from North Dakota brought up, and that these towers 
are critically important, and they cost pennies on the dollar.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.

                           ELECTION SECURITY

    Senator Tester. You know, we're spending, what, 2-and-a-
half-billion dollars on a potential pandemic that can raise 
heck--and, by the way, if the 2-percent mortality rate we're 
getting out of China, I hope we've got intel to back that up, 
because they haven't been very forthright with a lot of the 
information that they don't want us to know. So, I think that's 
another thing. But, we're spending 2-and-a-half-billion dollars 
on a potential pandemic, and we're spending 17-and-a-half 
million, and we just started, on a wall. Anyway, it doesn't 
make any sense.
    I want to talk about something more fun: election security.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes.
    Senator Tester. We've got interference in the run-up--
potential foreign interference in the run-up to the 2020 
election. It's a serious concern. It is no surprise that 
Russia's at it again. Their goal is to undermine the confidence 
of our democracy and our electoral systems, and spread 
disinformation via social media and other platforms. We're 
seeing it. Based on the intelligence reports that you're privy 
to, do you agree that in the IC community--do you agree that 
Russia's trying to influence this upcoming 2020 election?
    Mr. Wolf. We believe as they did in 2016 and that they will 
try to influence the election in 2020.
    Senator Tester. And do you feel that your Department----
    Mr. Wolf. We don't have any specific intelligence of that. 
We know that they've tried--I mean, we know that they did in 
2016; we assume they will do so again in 2020.
    Senator Tester. So, I understand, you don't want to get in 
trouble, but the truth is, you are a member of the intelligence 
community. Has that information been shared, that Russia's 
trying to influence our elections again? I'm not saying in 
favor of anybody, I'm just saying they're trying to influence 
our election.
    Mr. Wolf. Right. Yes. They continue to sow discord with our 
election system.
    Senator Tester. And with this budget, do you think this 
fully--this properly resources DHS to be able to attack this 
problem?
    Mr. Wolf. Absolutely.
    Senator Tester. And you feel good about the potential to 
make sure the States are on board that they know that you're 
there to give them a backstop?
    Mr. Wolf. Yes. Absolutely. We do a number of things with 
the States, not only providing a number of services, at no cost 
to the States. We're working with State election officials, but 
we're also working with political parties and individual 
campaigns to offer those same services to their platforms and 
what they have out there. We're also trying to educate voters 
to determine what foreign interference looks like and sort of 
adjust from there.
    Senator Tester. Okay.
    Mr. Wolf. They have a role to play in this as well.
    Senator Tester. Thank you. I think it's--this is 
foundational to the future of this country and the future of 
this democracy. Russia's screwing around, and they're doing 
this on--for less than it costs for a fighter jet.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.

                   U.S. SECRET SERVICE: PROPOSED MOVE

    Senator Tester. And it's crazy.
    I just have one other question for you, if I might.
    Senator Capito. Go ahead.
    Senator Tester. And that is, is that there is a proposed 
Secret Service move. It was from your Department to Treasury. I 
don't necessarily think that's a good idea, but that isn't the 
point here, whether you think it's good or I think it's good. 
The point is, has there been an independent analysis to 
determine the pros and cons of such a move?
    Mr. Wolf. There has been a study, I believe, that's been 
provided to Congress on a move from DHS to Treasury and the 
pros and the cons of that.
    Senator Tester. Who did it?
    Mr. Wolf. Happy to provide that again to you.
    Senator Tester. And who did it?
    Mr. Wolf. I believe it was a number of folk, to include 
Secret Service, but also other elements of the Department.
    Senator Tester. Was it an independent group that had no dog 
in the fight?
    Mr. Wolf. No. I believe there were folk from the U.S. 
Government who would be involved in that move.
    Senator Tester. I think they need to be involved, but from 
a question-answering side, not a question-asking side.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes. Okay.
    Senator Tester. And so, I think it's important.
    I honestly think Secret Service should remain where it's 
at. Why? Because I think you do a good job, and I think there's 
more benefits and there's more cost-effective benefits if we 
keep it where it is. I don't understand sending it to Treasury. 
There may be a reason or two, but it certainly does not weigh 
the reason to keep it where it's at.
    I just want to say, and just in closing, really quick, 
thank you for what you're doing. There were tough questions 
that were asked today. I appreciate your frankness.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Tester. And I also appreciate getting the 
information back that you said you'd give us.
    Mr. Wolf. Thank you, Senator.
    Senator Tester. Good luck to you.
    Mr. Wolf. Thank you.
    Senator Capito. Thank you.
    I'd like to thank you, as well, for your testimony. We've 
just gotten called for a vote.
    I would like to tell my friend, Senator Tester, that I 
agree with him on the Secret Service. I don't agree that they 
should be leaving and moving over to Treasury. They're part of 
the fabric of the Department of Homeland Security. And so, I 
frown upon that, as well. And I think if the illusion that 
possibly may be thought that more resources or more attention 
would be paid to the Secret Service at the Department of 
Treasury, I think you do a great job at the Department of 
Homeland Security, recognizing that.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.

               CORONAVIRUS: PROTECTING FRONT-LINE WORKERS

    Senator Capito. I've toured a lot of what they do in and 
around the White House and in executive protection, and they're 
such a quality group of individuals that I think Homeland--
they're well-placed in Homeland Security.
    I have one last quick question. On the coronavirus, when 
you mentioned your resources that are screening people--and 
this is probably small, because there's only 15 cases, but I 
think this is something that sometimes we forget, sometimes. 
When the people are in the workforce and they're placed in 
situations.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Capito. Where they could put themselves at risk, 
that we not really that we may overlook that own personal risk 
that they're taking in betterment for the--you know, for the 
good of the country. You know, something like this, I think, is 
a pretty careful and sensitive topic. So, I'm sure that you're 
keeping your eye on those front-line workers, but I do believe 
that that is something that I'm concerned about.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes. It was part of my response to Senator 
Kennedy. I have a responsibility to make sure the American 
people are safe, but also the men and women of the Department 
of Homeland Security in doing their job every single day. We 
provide a number of resources to CBP officers, as to well as 
TSA officers, to make sure that they are aware of the risks and 
that they understand the medical science behind it. We provide 
them with protective equipment that they are able to use, and 
most are using that. We'll continue to lean forward on that. 
During briefing or any discussion about coronavirus and how the 
Department's responding, my first or second question is always 
about the men and women of the Department and how they are 
protected in doing their job every day. As you show up to work 
every day, you expect to be protected.
    Senator Capito. Right.
    Mr. Wolf. And we need to make sure that we do that for 
our--

              CORONAVIRUS: PROVIDING INFORMATION TO PUBLIC

    Senator Capito. Thank you.
    And I would say, to Senator Shaheen's point, if you leave a 
gap of transparency of what's going on and what--how it's 
transmitted, how many people--it's getting filled on Twitter 
and all these other things, and you get the 
sensationalization--like, I read something this morning that 
said somebody was infected after 24 days of--a 24-day 
incubation period. I have no idea if that's true, or not. And 
so, if you're keeping people for 14 days, it doesn't matter, if 
it's 24 days.
    Mr. Wolf. Right.
    Senator Capito. So, I really think, when you get back to 
your task force in the morning, that this is something people 
are starting to get really, really concerned about this, as you 
know.
    Mr. Wolf. Yes. I Understand.
    Senator Capito. So, this concludes our hearing.
    Acting Secretary Wolf, really appreciate you and all the 
men and women in your Department. And thank you for 
representing them so well today.
    The hearing record will remain open for 2 weeks from today. 
Senators may submit written questions for the record, and we 
ask that the Department respond to them within a reasonable 
amount of time. If you need some help with clarifications on 
the questions, I'm sure either relative Senators will provide 
it or we'd be able to help provide it in the Chairman's office.
    Mr. Wolf. Okay.

                          SUBCOMMITTEE RECESS

    Senator Capito. So, with that, we stand in recess.
    [Whereupon, at 11:34 a.m., Tuesday, Feburary 25, the 
subcommittee was recessed, to reconvene subject to the call of 
the Chair.]



  DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2021

                              ----------                              


                         TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2020

                                       U.S. Senate,
           Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The subcommittee met, at 10:00 a.m., in Room SD-138, 
Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Shelley Moore Capito 
(chairman) presiding.
    Present: Senators Capito, Hoeven, Kennedy, Lankford, 
Tester, and Shaheen.

                    DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

                 Transportation Security Administration

STATEMENT OF HON. DAVID PEKOSKE, ADMINISTRATOR, 
            TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

           OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO

    Senator Capito. I call this hearing of the subcommittee on 
Homeland Security to order. This is the subcommittee's second 
hearing of the fiscal year 2021 budget cycle and we are pleased 
to be joined by the Administrator of the Transportation 
Security Administration (TSA), David Pekoske, welcome. 
Administrator Pekoske was confirmed by the Senate as the 
seventh TSA Administrator in August of 2017.
    Prior to joining TSA, Mr. Pekoske served as the 26th Vice 
Commander of the United States Coast Guard. He has demonstrated 
expertise in counterterrorism, crisis management, strategic 
planning initiatives skills that are very useful as he served 
as the Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security for several 
months last year, and thank you for that service. He has 
received numerous awards for his years of service, including 
the Homeland Security Distinguished Service Medal, Coast Guard 
Distinguished Service Medal, and the Meritorious Service Medal. 
I am glad to be joined today by the Ranking Member Senator 
Tester.
    Senator Tester and I have been working together to consider 
the fiscal year 2021 budget request and we look forward to the 
insight from Administrator Pekoske today. I would like to 
mention there is a lot going on and so we will probably have 
members floating in and out throughout the hearing. The 
Transportation Security Administration has proven to be one of 
the most crucial components to the Department of Homeland 
Security's mission of safeguarding our people, homeland, and 
values from current and emerging threats, both domestically and 
internationally.
    I would like to say, Administrator Pekoske, that the men 
and women of the TSA are a source of great pride for all of us 
in this country. They work to keep us safe at our airports 
under stressful conditions when lines develop they try to ease 
that anxiety that comes along sometimes with the traveler, but 
also realizing, and I am going to mention this as well, with 
the onset of a different type of duty with the coronavirus 
issues. We certainly appreciate those that are helping to try 
to contain and also find innovative ways to meet that 
challenge. Since its inception in 2001, TSA could be considered 
the face of the Department, interacting with more than 2 
million passengers every day through screening checkpoints 
across the Nation.
    There is probably no component of the agency that I 
interact with more as I fly back and forth from West Virginia, 
and I want to thank my TSA West Virginia folks. They always 
greet me with a smile no matter if I am grouchy and it is five 
o'clock in the morning. As passenger volume continues to 
increase each morning with TSA breaking records for passengers 
screen that were just set the previous year, we want to ensure 
that you have the proper resources to sustain your current 
operational capacity.
    As more passengers are flying, TSA continually faces new 
challenges, including keeping their workforce and the traveling 
public safe in the face of the coronavirus. We will learn more 
about what TSA is doing to meet that challenge today. The 
budget again proposes to increase the passenger fee to generate 
$618 million in revenue for TSA. A proposal that was rejected 
by Congress in our seven previous budget requests.
    The assumption that Congress would reverse its previous 
decisions and accept the fee increase proposal without proper 
authorization from the appropriate House and Senate committee 
undermines Congressional intent. The assumption also presents a 
budget request that is not founded in reality, but it creates a 
$618 million hole that we have the responsibility to fill.
    Additionally, the budget request eliminates the Law 
Enforcement Officer Reimbursement Program that is important for 
particularly our more rural airports that have revenue 
challenges, and staffing at exit lanes. These two have been 
proposed in previous budget request and subsequently rejected 
by the Congress. I hope you enlighten my fellow colleagues and 
me by explaining your rationale for including these proposals 
once again in the fiscal year 2021 request, and whether or not 
cutting these programs has any merit.
    I have heard from several West Virginian airports, as I 
mentioned in particular about the Law Enforcement Officer 
Reimbursement Program. A particular note, the budget request 
significantly reduces the procurement of computer CT machines, 
Computed Tomography machines, by 90 percent from what we funded 
in 2020. And when I went out and visited, you showed me the 
technology.
    This committee has been told that these machines are vital 
in guaranteeing our aviation security and your proposal to 
slash the procurement of these machines is one we will need to 
discuss as well. I am encouraged by the budget request to 
reform the pay scale incentives for the hard-working men and 
women of the organization, but I am concerned with the budget 
suggestion to delay hiring in the coming fiscal year as a 
mechanism to cut costs. I have been enlightened by my 
discussions with TSA leadership about your workforce challenges 
and opportunities.
    As we approach a predicted record-breaking year of 
passenger volume, I want to make sure that this budget proposal 
will not hinder TSA's operational capacity at our Nation's 
airports. I look forward to hearing more about how you ensure 
efficiency while maintaining your security posture. While most 
think of transportation officers at screening checkpoints in 
airports, when they think of TSA, like my friends I mentioned 
at the Yeager airport. I want to note that TSA's mission spans 
to multimodal security effort, including roads, railroads, 
bridges, tunnels, and ports.
    We want to make sure that you have the proper resources to 
carry out all of TSA's missions, including those that are 
lesser-known. I am very concerned, and we just spoke about, the 
looming deadline for the Real ID compliance. On October 1 of 
this year, a mere 8 months from now, all adult passengers must 
present a Real ID compliant driver's license in order to pass 
through--or I guess you can also present a passport--to pass 
through TSA checkpoint was some noticed exceptions. Yet as of 
right now only one-third of all licenses in use are Real ID 
compliant.
    I look forward to hearing from the Administrator about 
TSA's efforts to ensure that the traveling public is aware of 
this requirement and to hear about contingency plans in case 
significant gains are not seen in the Real ID compliance. 
Administrator Pekoske, thank you for appearing for us today. 
Please keep us updated on what you need to continue your 
critical mission. I have enjoyed our conversations in my visits 
to your facilities to meet your dedicated workforce, and I look 
forward to doing so.
    I will now turn to our distinguished Ranking Member Senator 
Tester for any opening remarks that he may have before hearing 
from our witness.

                    STATEMENT OF SENATOR JON TESTER

    Senator Tester. Well, thank you, Chairman Capito, and I 
want to preach express my appreciation for holding this hearing 
today. And I want to thank you, Administrative Pekoske, for 
being here today to discuss the fiscal year 2021 budget for the 
TSA. First though, especially with the gentleman sitting behind 
you, I want to acknowledge your workforce.
    Whenever I am traveling back and forth, the transportation 
security officers are hard-working, dedicated individuals. They 
don't make a lot of money and they don't have the best hours 
but they are always courteous and professional. So I want to 
thank them for their dedication and keeping us safe. It is no 
small feat and it speaks well to the organization to be able to 
do the job that they do every day and do it pretty darn well. 
The fiscal year 2021 budget requests about $7.6 billion in 
discretionary funding for TSA, $182 million below fiscal year 
2020 enacted level.
    And now, I will tell you it is essential that TSA has the 
resources it needs to fulfill its important security mission. I 
hope that our discussion today will take a detailed look at 
funding the TSA and what they need to stay ahead of 
transportation threats. At the top of my mind is the recent 
hiring freeze TSA put in place and the impacts this decision 
could have on the traveling public. Now, I am going to tell you 
something and I have said this before, I am just a dirt farmer, 
okay, but I am a dirt farmer that flies four legs a week. And 
we have got a lot of my neighbors that fly every year. If I am 
a bad guy and we don't have top-notch security technology, it 
looks like a soft spot, okay. And I know you don't want it to 
be that way. I certainly don't want it to be that way but 
aviation does remain a top threat for terrorists.
    Protecting us against that threat, TSA secures 965 million 
domestic and international aviation passengers every year, and 
experts expect passenger volumes going to continue to grow and 
it will. The traveling public needs to be reassured that the 
TSA is capable of deterring, detecting, and disrupting any 
security threat without creating long wait times and security 
points. In order for that to happen, TSA needs sufficient staff 
and the best screening equipment. 21st century threats require 
21st century solutions, which is why this subcommittee has 
supported investments in new technology to enhance TSA's 
screening capability and passenger throughput.
    I am concerned that the fiscal year 2021 budget only 
request funding for 30 new CT units, despite a total 
requirement of 2,218. We should be building on the progress 
from previous years and the meaningful way so that cutting edge 
technologies can be deployed in the field faster. While it is 
important to have the most advanced screening technology at 
airports, the men and women that wear the TSA uniform are your 
agency's greatest asset. When security checkpoints are 
adequately staffed, the traveler's experience is more enjoyable 
and the entire aviation apparatus is more secure. TSA needs to 
keep pace with hiring in order to process a growing volume, so 
I am interested to hear how TSA plans to support a robust 
workforce.
    Further, as more information surfaces, it is clear that the 
coronavirus presents a substantial challenge to ensure secure 
international and domestic trade and travel. While there are 
still plenty of uncertainty surrounding the virus, TSA must be 
prepared to work with industry and Government stakeholders to 
secure our ports of entry. It is also important to ensure the 
frontline TSA officers have the proper equipment and training 
to protect themselves on the job.
    Finally, I would like to bring up the budget proposal to 
eliminate viper teams and Law Enforcement Officer Reimbursement 
Program. These are short-sighted cuts. These are good programs 
geared toward keeping the traveling public safe. In the end, 
David, I want to thank you for your work. I want to thank you 
for your leadership not only in this capacity, but in previous 
ones.
    We have got a lot of work on this budget to make this thing 
work though. And as I pointed out to folks who come into my 
office every day, President's budget adds another $1 trillion 
to the debt and yet does not fund TSA to the level it needs to 
be funded at. We got a lot of work to do. I appreciate your 
expertise and leadership.
    Senator Capito. Thank you, Senator Tester and now we will 
go to our guest. You have five--well, and then we will allow 
each Senator in order of their arrival five minutes for any 
statements or questions that they may have. So, Administrator 
Pekoske.

                SUMMARY STATEMENT OF HON. DAVID PEKOSKE

    Mr. Pekoske. Thank you. Chairman Capito, Ranking Member 
Tester, and distinguished members of the subcommittee. I 
appreciate the opportunity to appear before you this morning to 
discuss the President's fiscal year 2021 budget request for 
TSA.
    I thank all of you and your staffs for the long standing 
strong support of aviation and surface transportation security. 
It is a privilege to lead the more than 64,000 men and women 
who perform our critical mission with excellence every day. 
This includes our screening workforce, the largest and most 
visible part of TSA, as well as others on the front line that 
include our Federal Air Marshals, our canine teams, our 
inspectors both domestic and international, air and surface 
including air cargo, our vetting staffs, and my representatives 
at embassies around the world. They are all enabled by 
outstanding support, policy, and legal staff throughout the 
agency.
    The President's request provides important new support to 
our screening workforce. This includes, for the first time 
ever, funding for service or longevity pay. The budget provides 
for annual increases of up to 2 percent per year to recognize 
experience and years of service. It also includes the next 
phase of incentives to encourage and recognize career 
progression by providing a 3 percent pay raise for those who 
acquire advanced alarm resolution skills. I ask for your 
support of these critical pay initiatives for our 
transportation security officers. As both of you noted, it is 
very important that we continue to refresh the technology at 
our screening checkpoints in the nearly 440 Federalized 
airports across the country. We need to put the best technology 
in the hands of our outstanding people.
    Thank you for your support of two key ongoing programs. The 
budget continues deployment of the Computed Tomography (CT) X-
ray and the Credential Authentication Technology (CAT) at our 
checkpoints. First with CT, we are in the process of fielding 
the initial 300 machines funded by the Congress.
    This technology represents a significant improvement in our 
ability to detect prohibited items in carry-on baggage and 
eliminates the requirement for passengers to remove electronics 
from their bags. As many of you have witnessed, it provides 
greatly improved imaging for our officers. This will have a 
significant positive impact on checkpoint effectiveness.
    The fiscal year 2021 request continues the CT program as we 
work towards the next contract and will include integrated 
automated screening lanes. The Credential Authentication 
Technology improves our ability to validate the authenticity of 
driver's licenses, passports, and other forms of acceptable ID 
presented by passengers. In addition, it provides near real-
time data from our secure flight system that will ensure 
passengers receive the appropriate level of screening. This CAT 
technology is better and faster than the manual validation 
process it replaces, and it complements the enforcement of the 
Real ID Act pertaining to air travel schedules to begin after 
October 1st of this year, roughly 7 months from now. Real ID is 
critical for security, improving the reliability and accuracy 
of State-issued driver's licenses. This prevents and deters 
terrorists' ability to use fraudulent documents.
    Thank you for your support of both of these critical 
acquisitions. The fiscal year 2021 budget also request funds to 
begin the acquisition process for new on-person anomaly 
detection technology and for new alarm resolution technologies. 
Once complete, our checkpoints will be much more effective and 
efficient, and our officers will have better tools to screen 
passengers. Finally, with respect to check point operations, I 
am pleased to announce that our TSA PreCheck enrollments just 
crossed the 10 million passenger threshold. This is a key 
milestone that exceeds a legal requirement to have 10 million 
passengers enrolled by October 1st of 2020.
    I know you have questions on coronavirus. Supporting the 
President's task force to protect the United States from 
coronavirus has been a top priority for everyone. We have used 
the authority provided by Congress in the Aviation and 
Transportation Security Act to issue a series of directives 
that limit who may board commercial aircraft destined for the 
United States. Carriers have been denying boarding to foreign 
nationals, other than immediate family of U.S. citizens and 
permanent residents, who have either have been in China or as 
of yesterday in Iran within 14 days of travel, and transporting 
all U.S. citizens who have been in either China or Iran within 
14 days of travel through one of 11 airports where they undergo 
medical screening.
    My entire leadership team has worked tirelessly to ensure 
our workforce is protected and we have followed the guidance 
provided by the Centers for Disease Control and OSHA. Both the 
Department and TSA have extensively messaged the workforce to 
ensure that everyone has the latest information.
    Let me close by thanking you for your strong support of the 
men and women who serve their country in TSA. I very much 
appreciate the comments by both the chairman and the ranking 
member with respect to the TSA workforce. I am incredibly proud 
of every single man and woman who works for this agency and 
their service to our country, and I look forward to your 
questions this morning. Thank you.
    [The statement follows:]
              Prepared Statement of Hon. David P. Pekoske
    Good morning Chairman Capito, Ranking Member Tester, and 
distinguished members of the subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me to 
testify on the President's FY 2021 Budget Request, which includes an 
$8.24 billion request for the Transportation Security Administration 
(TSA). I am honored to be here and grateful for the longstanding and 
constructive relationship that TSA enjoys with this subcommittee.
    TSA was established by the Aviation and Transportation Security Act 
(ATSA) in the wake of the September 11th attacks. The world has changed 
since then, but our fundamental mission, to protect the nation's 
transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and 
commerce, has not. While we remain steadfast in providing the highest 
level of security for the U.S. across all modes of transportation, the 
scope and complexity of that goal has increased over the last two 
decades. Today, the U.S. transportation systems accommodate 
approximately 965 million domestic and international aviation 
passengers per year; over 5.3 billion passengers traveling on both 
transit and over-the-road buses each year; more than 10.1 billion 
passenger trips on mass transit per year; 26 million students daily on 
school buses; and nearly 900,000 chemical shipments every day on 
trucks. Our interconnected transportation system and infrastructure 
includes approximately 440 federalized airports; 126,000 miles of 
railroad tracks; 4.2 million miles of highway; 615,000 highway bridges; 
473 road tunnels; and 2.5 million miles of pipeline.
    Since TSA's creation, the modes and methods of terrorist attacks 
have become more decentralized and opportunistic than ever before. 
Aviation and transport hubs, however, remain highly-valued targets. Our 
adversaries are watching us, studying our vulnerabilities, and working 
hard to formulate new attack strategies to replace those that have 
failed. The daily threat environment TSA faces in the aviation, 
surface, and cyber security realms is persistent, pervasive, and 
constantly evolving. To meet the challenge created by such adversaries, 
we must innovate, deploy new solutions rapidly and effectively, and 
maximize the impact of our resources.
    Our continuing vision is to be an agile security agency, embodied 
by a professional workforce that engages its partners and the American 
people to outmatch a dynamic threat. To that end, in April 2018, I 
issued the 2018-2026 TSA Strategy, which established three strategic 
priorities to guide the agency's workforce through its 25th 
Anniversary: Improve Security and Safeguard the Transportation System; 
Accelerate Action; and Commit to Our People. I subsequently published 
my Administrator's Intent delineating short and medium-term objectives 
for the first three years to achieve those priorities.
    Further empowering TSA to execute its mission, serve as a global 
leader in transportation, and become an employer of choice, the TSA 
Modernization Act of 2018, the agency's first comprehensive 
reauthorization since inception, was enacted in October 2018. The TSA 
Modernization Act authorized funding for Fiscal Years 2019, 2020, and 
2021; enhanced organizational structures, operations, and processes; 
and established a five-year term for the Administrator--a critically 
important factor for ensuring organizational stability and setting and 
achieving longer term agency goals.
    As I come before you today, slightly more than halfway through my 
term as Administrator and at a point where we are developing the next 
version of the Administrator's Intent, I want to thank Congress for the 
authorities provided to TSA through the TSA Modernization Act. 
Currently, TSA has completed more than 80 percent of the Act's 
requirements with deadlines and I want to express my gratitude for the 
previous appropriations provided to TSA that have enabled us to execute 
our mission and make significant progress on a number of strategic 
priorities. Additionally, I want to use this opportunity to convey both 
what we have accomplished and our future goals and objectives. In FY 
2019, we--

  --Screened approximately 839 million aviation passengers (with a peak 
        volume of 2.8 million passengers in one day), representing a 
        4.3 percent checkpoint volume increase from FY 2018;

  --Screened 1.9 billion carry-on items and more than 510 million 
        checked bags;

  --Procured 300 Computed Tomography (CT) units and began preparation 
        for the nationwide deployment of CT systems; and

  --Conducted 1,693 air carrier inspections at foreign airports, 144 
        foreign airport assessments, 60 pipeline critical facility 
        security reviews, 107 assessments of mass transit operator 
        security enhancements, and 182 assessments of security 
        enhancements by motor carriers.

    The FY 2021 President's Budget continues to support TSA's strategy 
to improve security and safeguard the Nation's transportation system, 
accelerate action, and reinforce TSA's commitment to its people. It 
supports $3.5 billion for our Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) 
at the Nation's airports. We thank Congress for the continued support 
you've provided for the TSO staffing increases needed to meet passenger 
expectations as well as increasing volumes. This investment will allow 
us to maintain acceptable wait times, and mitigate risk associated with 
crowding at checkpoints.
    To complement a well-trained, sufficiently sized workforce, TSA is 
also focused on strengthening checkpoint operations through the 
development and acquisition of new technology. To this end, we are in 
the process of acquiring Computed Tomography (CT) units and Credential 
Authentication Technology (CAT) units, which represent significant 
technologic enhancements from the equipment currently used for identity 
verification and the screening of accessible property, and deploying 
them to airports nationwide as quickly as possible. CT technology will 
provide superior detection capability, will be more convenient for 
passengers, and eventually may eliminate the requirement to take 
electronics, liquids, aerosols, and gels out of carry-on bags.
    As of February 25, 2020, there are 65 CT units deployed to 
checkpoints with another 49 units supporting testing and research and 
development. The FY 2021 President's Budget provides $28.9 million to 
support the procurement of 30 full-size CT units. The FY 2021 funding 
will enable TSA to continue to accelerate the provision of CT 
technology to the field to enable our workforce to more effectively and 
efficiently execute the mission.
    CAT also provides a significant security upgrade to the 
identification verification and prescreening process. Ultimately, CAT 
will enable Secure Flight screening status to be known and cross-
checked in near real time. In FY 2019, TSA procured 505 CAT units, with 
480 units deployed as of February 10, 2020. The FY 2021 President's 
Budget includes $2.3 million to finalize the procurement and deployment 
of 1,520 CAT units to airports nationwide. The continued rollout of CAT 
units to checkpoints will improve TSA's ability to detect fraudulent 
documents and screen passengers based on assessed risk. The CAT unit 
has also served as a key tool for TSA's efforts to meet the TSA 
Modernization Act requirement for TSA Pre lanes to only serve 
passengers with Known Traveler Numbers, which will improve the TSA Pre 
passenger experience, and serve as a platform for testing voluntary 
facial matching technology.
    Finally, TSA strives through continued investment to improve the 
Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) being used at our checkpoints today. 
The FY 2021 President's Budget provides $5 million to develop Next Gen 
AIT systems, and an additional $3 million of funding for research and 
development enhancements for Emerging Alarm Resolution technologies.
    Our frontline workforce can better execute their security mission 
when equipped with the technology needed to counter evolving threats. 
While sustained technological improvement at our checkpoints is 
critically important, we are also committed to investing in our most 
important asset, our people. TSA is pleased that our employees provide 
input into the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, values their 
feedback, and acknowledges the concerns regarding pay dissatisfaction 
and low morale expressed through the survey. In an effort to address 
these longstanding workforce challenges, I commissioned a Blue-Ribbon 
Panel of public and private sector human capital experts last year to 
identify problems and recommend solutions. In 2019, we received a 
number of recommendations from the panel, including that TSA should 
better leverage the authorities and flexibilities provided through ATSA 
rather than convert to the General Schedule.
    Recently, TSA has addressed locality driven turnover issues through 
the use of retention incentives as a short-term fix for retaining TSOs 
in particularly competitive markets. Concurrently, we took measures to 
create career paths that aligned increased pay to enhanced training and 
skills by implementing the TSO Career Progression initiative. Through 
the FY 2021 President's Budget, TSA is transitioning away from relying 
predominantly on employing retention incentives at specific locations 
and instead adopting a more holistic and permanent solution by 
investing in career service pay, which will create a more predictable 
system for salary increases over a TSO's career. Additionally, the FY 
2021 Budget supports the implementation of a second phase of our TSO 
Career Progression initiative, a merit based promotion to 7,500 top 
performing TSOs.
    The FY 2021 President's Budget funds two workforce initiatives and 
represents a significant long-term commitment to our workforce that 
will help address these concerns. First, the Budget includes $23.6 
million for Service Pay to fund predictable, annual pay increases for 
TSOs who demonstrate service experience. The Budget also seeks $11.3 
million for the second phase of TSO Career Progression, an investment 
that will enable TSA to provide a three percent pay increase to 
screeners who demonstrate higher skill levels in checkpoint operations. 
Although TSA has the legal authority to implement these workforce 
improvements, TSA requires the budgetary resources to provide these 
additional workforce improvements to TSOs. We are confident that the 
investment in Service Pay and funding of the second phase of the TSO 
Career Progression initiative demonstrate how we can employ our ATSA 
authorities to make TSA an employer of choice.
    Finally, in conjunction with the FY 2021 President's Budget, the 
Administration has proposed raising the Aviation Passenger Security 
Fee, also known as the September 11th Security Fee, in order to fully 
cover the costs of aviation security by FY 2028. The fee was created to 
cover the costs of aviation security, but in FY 2020 only covers 39 
percent of today's costs. The proposal would increase the fee by one 
dollar, from $5.60 to $6.60 per one-way trip in FY 2021 and from $6.60 
to $8.25 in FY 2022. This measure would generate $618 million in new 
revenue in FY 2021 and close to $28 billion in new revenue over the 
next 10 years.
    Securing our Nation's transportation system is a complex task and 
we cannot do it alone. To achieve the priorities reflected within the 
FY 2021 President's Budget, we will continue to engage with industry 
and stakeholders, invest resources in our employees, and encourage the 
public to be part of the solution. Finally, through constructive 
oversight and dialogue, we seek to partner with Congress as we work to 
secure all modes of transportation.
    Chairman Capito, Ranking Member Tester, and members of the 
Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you 
today. I look forward to your questions.

    COVID-19 SCREENING: TRANSPORATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION'S ROLE

    Senator Capito. Thank you. I will kick it off here. Let's 
talk a little more in depth on the coronavirus. You mentioned 
in your statement that you are working together in a 
coordinated fashion with other entities that are trying to 
maintain the safety and well-being of so many citizens. And we 
are probably one of the most traveled countries, I am sure, 
around the globe.
    I guess, the first question I would ask is, when somebody 
is screened coming in, explain how that occurs. You mentioned 
to me earlier that it occurs actually at the airport of origin 
and not as that person is flying into the United States. Does 
TSA have a role there and what is your role?
    Mr. Pekoske. We do, Madam Chair. A couple things to answer 
that question. First and foremost, TSA through its security 
directives and emergency amendments provide requirements to 
carriers at all of the last known departure airports to the 
United States.
    So this is 280 airports throughout the world, not just 
airports in China. And essentially, what we asked the carriers 
to do is ask a series of questions of every passenger as they 
are boarding, and they also have the option of checking the 
passenger's passport to ensure there has been no travel to 
China, for example, or now Iran, for the last 14 days.
    Senator Capito. And there are two countries that are going 
to be added to that, correct?
    Mr. Pekoske. There will be additional countries, I am sure, 
as we continue to work with the task force, and I think those 
announcements will be relatively soon. So there is screening 
that is done by the carriers at the gate in last point of 
departure airports throughout the world. And then there is 
additional screening done by the passengers when they come into 
the United States across the U.S. border.
    With respect to non-U.S. citizens, if you have been in 
China or Iran currently in the last 14 days, you cannot travel 
to the United States until 14 days has elapsed and you don't 
present symptoms of disease. But for U.S. citizens, you are 
allowed to return to the United States, but we, what we call 
funnel, those passengers through 11 airports around the 
country. And at those 11 airports, the Centers for Disease 
Control does medical screening for the passengers as they 
present themselves at the border.
    Senator Capito. Do you feel you have the resources and 
capabilities to complete this mission at this point?
    Mr. Pekoske. I do feel we have the resources and the 
capability. This really has not impacted our domestic screening 
operations to date, and we have adequate equipment for our 
officers, because as you know, our officers wear gloves as a 
matter, of course, anyway. That is part of our requirement. 
That is the primary means of transmission for the disease. We 
have also authorized our officers in the screening checkpoints 
if they would like to wear a surgical mask, they are permitted 
to do that, and we provide those masks.
    Senator Capito. Do you have any idea how many people have 
been denied entrance, non-citizens? Is that a large number?
    Mr. Pekoske. It is not a large number, and then of course 
an even smaller number that present at the border and then are 
referred for further medical screening or quarantine.

                                REAL ID

    Senator Capito. Let's talk about the Real ID. I am really 
concerned about this compliance. We all see the little sign 
that says by October first. You have to have the real ID, 
compliant ID. I told you earlier today that I did not realize 
that my driver's license is not compliant although I thought 
that it was, and it has to have a gold star in the right hand 
corner, which I checked a couple of times.
    This to me could really present to be a major nightmare for 
TSA. So, how do you suggest or how are you moving forward to 
making sure, and what are you doing with the States to make 
sure that people know that this is--your life is going to 
change. And so I would like to hear your explanation.
    Mr. Pekoske. Thanks for the question, Chairman. And we have 
done messaging for literally years on Real ID compliance. But 
what we find is that when we post messages at the screening 
checkpoints, people will generally just walk by them. They 
don't stop to read those messages. So that has not been the 
most effective means, and of course we put all messaging on our 
website, but you have to go to the TSA website to receive it.
    What we did recently beginning last August was we asked our 
officers, if a passenger presented him or herself at the 
screening checkpoint, provided their driver's license and the 
officer noticed that that was not a Real ID driver's license, 
which is very easy to figure out because like you said it has 
got that gold star in the upper right hand corner, the officer 
would say to the passenger, this license is fine for today's 
travel and it is fine for travel all the way up through 1st of 
October, but you will need to have a Real ID driver's license 
on the 1st of October of 2020.
    The other thing that we remind passengers of, and our 
messaging is very robust on this, is that there are other forms 
of acceptable ID in addition to a driver's license. For 
example, a passport is an acceptable form of ID. If you are a 
member of the military, military CAT card is an acceptable form 
of ID. If you are a global entry trusted traveler enrollee and 
you have a card for global entry that is an acceptable form of 
ID. We just need to remind people to remember to bring those 
other acceptable forms of ID, if they have them, to the 
checkpoint.
    Final thing, chairman, that we are doing is we are working 
through the carriers, and the carriers have been terrific in 
helping us out with this, to post on their websites as a 
passenger is making a reservation, hey, just remember that as 
of October, if you are making a reservation after October, you 
need to have a Real ID driver's license.
    And then, we will also ask them in the check-in process, as 
we get closer to October 1st, as a passenger goes to check in, 
that they provide that additional information so the passengers 
that don't have them either bring something else that can get 
them through the screen checkpoint or change their travel 
plans.
    Senator Capito. Well, we want to work with you to be able 
to get--I just said I am envisioning, you know, people have a 
tendency to put everything off. They wait till the last minute. 
You got to get four or five different types of ID to go in and 
get your Real ID. So we want to be helpful however we can. And 
so I will turn now to Senator Shaheen.
    Senator Shaheen. Thank you. Administrator Pekoske, I 
appreciate the work that TSA is doing on this but I share the 
concern from Senator Capito that there are a lot of people who 
have no idea that this is an issue and I didn't hear your 
response to her question of do you think we will be ready by 
October the 1st?
    Mr. Pekoske. Yes, Senator Shaheen. You know, I am very 
concerned about this as well. I mean TSA is going to be the 
agency front and center when Real ID implementation occurs on 
October 1st. We are looking at everything we can do to minimize 
and mitigate the impact on travel because the last thing we 
want are more people standing in line at a screening checkpoint 
and they might learn that they won't be able to make their 
flight or even travel that day.
    We are working very closely with the airports to find 
whatever means we can use to separate off the people that don't 
have an acceptable form of ID and handle those passengers 
different than everyone else who does have an acceptable form 
of ID. Because one of my concerns is, you know, I try to avoid 
creating large public gatherings of passengers lined up at the 
screening checkpoint. That is a security vulnerability.
    So we will do everything we possibly can to mitigate this, 
but the reality is that it is a legal requirement that as of 
the deadline, if you don't have--if all you are presenting is a 
driver's license and it is not Real ID compliant, that is not 
acceptable.

                          COVID-19: RESOURCES

    Senator Shaheen. Well, I certainly understand that. I just 
flew this weekend with my daughter who was not told by the 
screening agent that her driver's license was not Real ID 
compliant. So I would urge you to encourage all of your 
screening agents to actually do that when they see people.
    I want to go back to the question about the coronavirus, 
because I understood you to say that you have the resources 
that you need. Does that mean that TSA personnel have all the 
necessary training and personal protective equipment to respond 
to a traveler who may have been exposed to the coronavirus?
    Mr. Pekoske. Yes, ma'am. We have all the necessary personal 
protective equipment available that we think is needed given 
what we see today.
    Senator Shaheen. And do they have the training? They know 
how to respond?
    Mr. Pekoske. Yes, ma'am. And we message this. In fact, I 
just sent a message out to the entire workforce again this 
morning on this topic. And just the things that we have all 
seen in the media of washing your hands frequently. We provide 
hand sanitizer at the checkpoints. We recommend that they 
change their gloves more often than they have in the past. And 
that they try to keep some distance from passengers because we 
have that option in the screening checkpoint.
    So, you know, I think we have got the number of people that 
we need because this really has not impacted our screening 
operations to date, and we will have contingency plans in place 
should we have a lot of call-outs. For example, of people that 
call in sick that are working for TSA. But I also think at the 
same time we will probably see lower passenger volumes as well.
    Senator Shaheen. And so, I talked to somebody who came in 
from Italy just in the last week who was not screened for 
temperature at the airport here in the United States, they were 
screened in Europe. Is there a reason for that?
    Mr. Pekoske. The CDC, as of a couple days ago, had not 
recommended additional measures for either Italy or South 
Korea, the two countries that have a good number of cases right 
now and two countries that have been very, very forward leaning 
on this issue. I expect that in the not-too-distant future we 
will look at some measures for any country that, that seems to 
present more of a risk for Americans.

             FISCAL YEAR 2021 BUDGET REQUEST UNFUNDED ITEMS

    Senator Shaheen. The President's budget request eliminates 
the Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams, 
which is the main way that TSA conducts operations with local 
law enforcement for rail and bus safety. Can you speak to why 
that budget request was eliminated when we have approximately 
76,000 buses that carry 19 million passengers each weekday in 
the United States, and that doesn't address the transit and 
rail security?
    Mr. Pekoske. The reason that and the Law Enforcement 
Officer Reimbursement Program (LEO) and the exit lane staffing 
were not included in the budget again was just simply due to 
affordability reasons. TSA has a top-line budget that we need 
to live within and we need to make very difficult trade-offs in 
living with that top line.
    With respect to VIPR and Law Enforcement Reimbursement 
these are very valuable programs for us, make no mistake about 
it. I appreciate your comments on the VIPR teams. They provide 
very important security augmentation in both the surface modes 
and in the airports. And as I look at airports with our 
increasing concern about the insider threat, VIPR teams will be 
even more valuable going forward. So it is no reflection 
whatsoever on the value of those security measures, it is 
simply an affordability issue.
    Senator Shaheen. And so is the assumption that Congress 
will put the money back in because we understand how important 
it is and then therefore the Administration can have the money 
shown to be used for something else?
    Mr. Pekoske. My commitment to every member on the 
subcommittee is I will provide you whatever information you 
need to make your own determination as to whether or not that 
particular program should continue to be funded. I think we 
have a very good track record in TSA of being very responsive 
to any requests from members or staffs.
    Senator Shaheen. So would you like for us to put the money 
back in?
    Mr. Pekoske. I think the capability that are provided by 
VIPR is very important. And another thing I would add to this 
discussion is that, you know, VIPRs are staffed by Federal Air 
Marshals. One of the things that I am trying to do is to ensure 
that we have enough ground based assignments for Federal Air 
Marshals so that they aren't flying constantly for 10 or 11 
years because that is just not a good use of a resource. So 
there is a lot of utility to the VIPR program.
    Senator Shaheen. I take that as a, yes. Thank you. Madam 
Chair.
    Senator Capito. Senator Kennedy.
    Senator Tester. Your questions are much more enjoyable than 
mine.
    [Laughter.]

                            AIRPORT STAFFING

    Senator Kennedy. I am on my best behavior today. Mr. 
Administrator, we all fly a lot and I guess we have different 
experiences, of course we do, but I will say that not every 
time but about two out of three times that I go to the airport, 
the TSA person checks me and reminds me about the change in the 
ID.
    And in fact, that is how I got to learn about it. I 
remember reading it about it several years ago, and I remember 
thinking what idiot came up with this idea that we all have to 
get new identification. I am sure it sounded like a good idea 
to somebody at the time.
    We have a lot of large airports for which we are grateful, 
but in my State we have a lot of small airports, and some of my 
people have pointed out to me that when they on occasion go to 
our smaller airports, having already paid for PreCheck, they 
like to get there early to get settled in, and there is no one 
from TSA checking people in. They have shifts, and when they 
are not busy, they just don't have a shift. Have you had--do 
you have concerns about that? Have you heard complaints about 
that?
    Mr. Pekoske. Senator Kennedy, at smaller airports, yes, we 
do use a lot of shift work, but that shift work is designed to 
ensure that the screening checkpoint is open well in advance of 
when any flight departures occur. So if there is a specific 
issue, I would be most happy to address that.
    Senator Kennedy. We will get in touch with you. We have had 
some situations where a lot of my people like to get to the 
airport early and get settled in, and they get there in a 
smaller airport and there is nobody working and they have to 
wait till somebody comes on duty.
    When I get off a plane and I am exiting the airport, I go 
through the exit lane and there is generally a police officer 
there saying, you know, to make sure that people don't try to 
sneak in which of course is important. Are you familiar with 
the LEO program?
    Mr. Pekoske. Yes, sir.

             FISCAL YEAR 2021 BUDGET REQUEST UNFUNDED ITEMS

    Senator Kennedy. I realized that the last time Congress 
adopted a President proposed budget was never, but I am curious 
as to why you are recommending a cut in the LEO program.
    Mr. Pekoske. Yes, sir. The reason for the recommendation 
again has no reflection whatsoever on the LEOs. They are very 
good partners of ours. We rely on them heavily. The airport 
security programs, which is a program that we require the 
airports to comply with, always contain a provision that 
requires law enforcement presence within a certain number of 
minutes at the screening checkpoint.
    So it is a regulatory requirement that law enforcement 
officers be present. We have overtime reimbursed law 
enforcement agencies because we recognize that their budgets 
are difficult as well. But the reason why this always appears 
in the budget as a reduction is because there is a regulatory 
requirement so there is no requirement to reimburse.
    And the thought is that over time, those law enforcement 
agencies can budget and then basically move themselves off of 
the requirement for reimbursement. But I do recognize the 
significant value that they provide to us and the partnerships 
are very, very strong.
    Senator Kennedy. Well, if the LEO program were 
substantially reduced or went away, and we have to have the 
security, who would pay for it, the airport, or the law 
enforcement agency would have to eat it?
    Mr. Pekoske. Yes, sir. That would be between the law 
enforcement agency and the airport. You know, if they could get 
into some reimbursable arrangement with the airport, for 
argument's sake that would be between them. We would not be 
involved. Our requirement is just that there be a law 
enforcement officer present in a certain number of minutes 
within the checkpoint for obvious security reasons.
    Senator Kennedy. But you don't have any plans to eliminate 
the LEO program, do you?
    Mr. Pekoske. No, sir.
    Senator Kennedy. I yield back, Madam Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Capito. Senator Tester.
    Senator Tester. Yes, thank you, Madam Chair, and I want to 
thank Senator Kennedy for that line of questioning because I 
can just follow right on it. So see, there is always a plan. So 
there are cuts to the LEO program though, and Administrator, 
you talked about the fact that there is a requirement if there 
is a problem for people to be there.
    So let's put this in a reality form. Local Government, 
County Government doesn't have a lot of money. They are not 
hiring extra cops just to lay around. In fact, I can't think of 
a case in Montana where they don't need more police than they 
already have because the need out there is greater.
    So if we want to expect them to be able to be there and 
come to the aid of a potential problem in an airport, they got 
to have people to do that. The point I would make is with these 
LEO cuts, there is going to be less opportunity for those local 
law enforcement agencies to be able to have the money to be 
able to bring people on, because they are not going to bring 
them on just for this, to be able to come forth.
    So the real question here is this your idea to cut the LEO 
program or is this the Office of Management Budget's idea to 
cut the LEO program?
    Because OMB has cut a lot of things in this budget, not 
this budget, all budgets, not just yours, all of them. Crop 
insurance is a fine example. Some of you don't know what the 
hell is going on and OMB cut that program. Purdue would not 
have done that. And so it is the same thing here. I can't 
imagine you doing this.
    Mr. Pekoske. So, the way we work the budget is every single 
agency in the Department Homeland Security, which I know well, 
receives a top-line. And every year we get a top-line number 
and we just need to make sure that our budget submissions are 
within that top line. That requires some very difficult 
decisions.
    Senator Tester. This budget runs a $1 trillion deficit.
    Mr. Pekoske. I know.
    Senator Tester. The President's budget runs a $1 trillion 
deficit. We have passed budgets were we have more money than 
anything I have ever seen since I have been here in the last 12 
years, yet we are taking a potential--maybe I just see it 
wrong. Maybe flying is no big problem. May be putting those 
planes into the Twin Towers is a one-time thing. It is never 
going to happen again, but I don't think so.
    Mr. Pekoske. Nor do I, sir. You know, I think the risk with 
aviation is as great, if not greater than it was on 9/11.

                            TSA STAFF HIRING

    Senator Tester. Than it was 20 years ago, that is right. 
So, let me let me peel on to this a little bit deeper. The 
Washington Post reported that the TSA has already frozen hiring 
and overtime in fiscal year 2020. There is a little cost of 
living adjustment that has put us in that situation, and quite 
frankly, we haven't allowed enough dollars for the cost of 
living adjustment. You combine that with the LEO program, with 
the VIPR program. What is the Department doing?
    Mr. Pekoske. Yes, sir, with respect to the hiring freeze, 
all we are trying to do is manage the funds we have as best we 
can, as efficiently as we can. And so what we are not doing is 
we haven't stopped recruiting. We haven't stopped issuing offer 
letters for people for employment. But we have decided to do is 
bring them on at certain points in time so we save the salary 
cost in between.
    Senator Tester. This looks like a disaster waiting to 
happen, and I am not being critical of you. I like you. I think 
you are a good guy. But the fact the matter is, have you 
thought about doing a reprogramming or transfer to take care of 
this problem?
    Mr. Pekoske. Yes, sir. Reprogramming of some of my own 
funds and then a reprogramming request to our Department.
    Senator Tester. And when will we receiving that 
notification?
    Mr. Pekoske. That is still under review, sir. And I don't 
know what the response is going to be from the Department or 
from the Office of Management Budget yet, but the request has 
been submitted.

                          SCREENING TECHNOLOGY

    Senator Tester. Well, Senator Hoeven is here. He is the 
chairman of the Indian Affairs committee and we have this 
conversation with the IHS and the BAA all the time. If this is 
something that has to be done, you need to fight for it. It is 
just really important. I think it is really important. Okay, so 
there is a--the best technology for screening passengers and 
luggage.
    We have supported the new CT machines and you know that, 
need more of them. Quite frankly, as I said in my opening 
statement, this budget requests 30, we need over 2,200 of them. 
How is this going to come to reality over time? Look, we get 
briefed all the time about the change in threat. You know more 
about change threat than we do. So isn't the best of technology 
a pretty absolute necessity?
    Mr. Pekoske. Yes, sir. Absolute a necessity as soon as we 
can get it on board. And with respect to----
    Senator Tester. But don't you have to ask for dollars to 
get it on board?
    Mr. Pekoske. We do. Yes, sir. And I will explain why that 
request is $30 million in just a second. But just to reiterate 
that the capability of the CT technology is night and day 
compared to the current technology we have and we need to get 
to this point. We need to get there as quickly as we can. And 
you are right, the numbers are high.
    I mean it is, you know, between 21 and 2,400 X-ray machines 
throughout our system. We decided last year, we put--we issued 
the first contract with the money that you appropriated in 
fiscal year 2019 for the initial 300 machines. That contract 
was a contract that was on an existing contract vehicle that we 
had but we knew that we were going to have to put a new 
contract vehicle in place for all the follow-on acquisitions. 
This contract vehicle that we are putting in place is a big one 
because just take, let's say for argument's sake, you take 
2,000, you take 300 off, there are 1,700 machines. That is a 
lot of capability, a lot of investment on the part of the 
Federal Government, but very, very necessary investment.
    What we have done is we have decided that we don't want to 
be in the business of taking those roller systems. You know, 
those rollers that feed your carry-on bag into the tunnel of 
the X-ray and then you pick it up at the end. We want to see an 
integrated solution to those because our experience is 
government does not do integrated products well.
    And so, we are in the process of working with all the 
vendors that qualified for the initial acquisition and asking 
them in today, or yesterday rather, they should have submitted 
what they think their solution is for this combined baggage 
handling system and X-ray technology.
    And then we are going to go through a testing process. 
mostly on the integration because we don't need to retest the 
X-ray technology. We will be in a position to issue the request 
for proposals for this new very large contract probably mid-
summer of this year. And then we will go through the bid 
process and we expect an award probably a year from there 
because it is going to take some time to work through that 
process.
    Senator Tester. And then when would the delivery be?
    Mr. Pekoske. The delivery will follow immediately after 
that.
    Senator Tester. So we are talking 2 years from now.
    Mr. Pekoske. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. But in the meantime----
    Senator Tester. And you are comfortable that?
    Mr. Pekoske. I wish it could be a lot faster but this----
    Senator Tester. Are there ways we could speed it up?
    Mr. Pekoske. I am working every single angle I can.
    Senator Tester. Well, the point is that we are here to help 
you speed it up. If you give us ideas on how to speed it up, I 
think you would get bipartisan support for that.
    Mr. Pekoske. Will do. Thank you.
    Senator Capito. Senator Hoeven.

                                REAL ID

    Senator Hoeven. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I appreciate it. 
So I went and got my Real ID here last week and am pleased to 
say the State of North Dakota is on top of it, doing an 
outstanding job. And the process was really good when I went 
and the challenge is ahead of time getting roughly four 
different types of ID you need. You know, I am guessing 
everybody's got some of them, but between myself and my wife, 
we didn't have all of them. Our social security cards, you 
know, we lost track of them like 40, 50 years ago.
    So we had to go get those. But the point is a lot of folks 
are going to show up October 1st to see your front line people 
at TSA, who are doing a fine job and we appreciate them a lot, 
and what are you going to do? Because I mean our State is 
promoting it. I know the other States are promoting it.
    I think you are trying to get the word out, but you are 
still going to have a lot of people show up October 1st who are 
going to want to get on a plane and you are going to tell them 
no, you don't have a Real ID compliant driver's license. And 
they are going to go, oh, I know and I am sure going to go get 
it, but golly, we got to go see my grandma or you name it. What 
is your contingency plan?
    Mr. Pekoske. A couple of things. First, on the processing 
part. When the regulation was first issued back I believe in 
2008, a lot of the electronic forms of submission of documents 
did not exist. And so we worked with the State DMVs who have 
been very, very good partners for us in this process and we 
asked for their input as to things we could do to make the 
document process more electronic.
    They came out with some very good recommendations and now 
we are working through the regulatory process to change that. 
So the process for people should be easier going forward.
    Senator Hoeven. That is good because particularly for young 
people, they do everything electronic now. That is important.
    Mr. Pekoske. Exactly. And plus you are not carrying a bunch 
of documents with you, leaving them behind, things like that. I 
mean, it is just better overall. So that process should be in 
place sometime in the not-too-distant future. I don't have a 
date for that yet. With respect to people showing up at the 
screening checkpoint, one of the things that is really 
important to me is what you all pay me to do, is to ensure 
security in our system.
    And so we will not compromise security in any way, shape, 
or form with passengers who show up at our screening 
checkpoints with an ID that we can no longer by law accept as 
of the deadline date. We just can't since it would be against 
the law to do that. And so we are going to have to have an 
enhanced screening process because that is what we do. Our 
standard operating procedure calls for, if a passenger shows 
up--and it happens every day, passengers show up that they lost 
their driver's license, misplaced it. We have a process to get 
them through screening but it is lengthy.
    And so what will happen without a doubt, even if there are 
just several hundred people which is an under estimate of what 
we think is going to occur in any individual airport, it is 
going to take those individuals a long time to get through our 
process. And there really is no way around it because when we 
do screening for people without the acceptable forms of ID, 
that is full bag search and that is a full on body pat-down. 
That takes a lot longer than having your bag go through the 
machine and having us look for specific anomalies in that bag 
or walking through a metal detector and not alarming it.
    Senator Hoeven. Is that going to hold up the person with 
the Real ID and then they are going to miss their flight?
    Mr. Pekoske. We are working every way we can to make sure 
that doesn't happen.
    Senator Hoeven. I think you are going to have to have--
look, it is going to happen. And your folks on the front line 
are doing a fine job. They are going to be confronted with some 
real challenges. I think you better have a clear plan and 
really lay it out and we are going to have to know exactly how 
it is going to work, because I guarantee people are going to 
show up and you are going to have this issue. And I am saying, 
yeah, we need to get the word out. Let's do more of that. You 
still have to have a contingency plan.
    Mr. Pekoske. Yes, sir.
    Senator Hoeven. If I were a frontline worker sitting there, 
I would want to know there is a contingency plan and I would 
want to know what it is because I am going to be facing a lot 
of folks that are going to get pretty angry if they can't get 
on that plane because they just have to go.
    Mr. Pekoske. Right. And I am going to be front and center 
on that issue if it happens at airports around the country. I 
am keenly aware of that and we will do everything we can to 
mitigate the impact but there will be an impact.
    Senator Hoeven. And I think, you know, we will help however 
we can and States will help. But this is something--it has to 
be both the communication but then you have to have a plan that 
day because you will have to handle those people, and we need 
to know what that is.
    Mr. Pekoske. Yes, sir. But I would just add that no matter 
what we do, because we have limited capability of screen 
checkpoints as you know. I mean some checkpoints only have a 
fixed number of lanes, no matter what we do, for people that 
don't have a Real ID driver's license, it will take longer. And 
it could take a lot longer. And as you pointed out, even for 
passengers that have the Real ID or have a passport, there will 
be some time impact to them, but we will try to minimize that 
as much as we can.

                          SCREENING TECHNOLOGY

    Senator Hoeven. I had one other question. Madam Chairman, 
do you want me to wait? I have one more. The other question 
follows up on something that the ranking member brought up. We 
have some really fantastic rural States represented here like 
North Dakota and Montana and West Virginia and Louisiana and 
even Oklahoma. And, what are you going to do to get those--can 
you talk about those scanners, you talked about those CAT 
scanners, out.
    And Senator Tester is right. I mean, we need those things 
out there. You need a lot more of them. How about some more--
what are you going to do in a rural airports, right? Because we 
know you are going to give me the urban airports, but we got a 
lot of rural airports out there that we are worried about. What 
is the plan?
    Mr. Pekoske. Yes, sir. We planned even in our initial 300 
buy, to make sure that we spread the distribution across all 
sizes of airports, because as you point out, every single--
there is no airport that is less important than another one. 
Because as a passenger, if you get through security, you are in 
the entire system. And so I want to make sure that we put the 
technology out at rural airports and at the same level that we 
do for the larger airports.
    Senator Hoeven. Very important point. Well-made. Thank you.
    Mr. Pekoske. Thank you.

                                REAL ID

    Senator Capito. Thank you. Before I go to Senator Lankford, 
I would just like to ask, Senator Kennedy said whose brilliant 
idea was it that we have a Real ID. If you could maybe in 30 
seconds say whose brilliant idea that was and when that was 
conceived.
    Mr. Pekoske. It was the Real ID Act of 2005.
    Senator Capito. That would be Congress, yes. Senator 
Lankford.

                       UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS

    Senator Lankford. If it is of any help to you, Senator 
Kennedy, you weren't here when that passed and so you won't 
have to worry about taking that one. So, thanks for being here. 
Thanks for the work. All of us go through the process of TSA, 
all of us are grateful for the folks that are standing there in 
blue doing a great job.
    And I would tell you in the airports that I fly out of 
Oklahoma City and Tulsa, the most out of those two airports, 
and I fly out of Oklahoma City more often than I do out of 
Tulsa, it is a remarkable group of folks that are there. And 
what they do, the attitude they do it with, the speed and the 
efficiency they do it with, are really a tremendous group of 
folks. And if you get the opportunity to be able to come to 
Oklahoma City and Tulsa and to be able to meet those folks, I 
would encourage you to be able to do it and to be able to see 
how they are doing it because they are really doing it 
extremely well.
    And I know they are in a process in our airport, have taken 
time to be able to merge several sites and doing what all other 
ports are doing right now. They are really doing a remarkable 
job. Let me ask you a couple of quick questions on things. TSA 
has requested an increase of 28 positions on countering 
unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).
    Tell me a little bit about what you plan to do with that. 
There is obviously authorization that Congress gave you a 
couple of sessions ago on it. What is happening and what are 
those positions being used for?
    Mr. Pekoske. Yes, sir. What has happened since the 
congressional authorization is that we have worked through the 
interagency process with the National Security Council staff 
and have developed a concept of operations for counter UAS 
operations in the United States, focused primarily on what we 
call the core 30 airports, the 30 largest airports where if 
there was a disruption in any of those airports, it would have 
a significant cascading effect on the rest of the system in the 
United States.
    So we have a concept of operations. Part of that concept of 
operations was the designation of a lead Federal agency, and 
TSA has been designated as that lead Federal agency. So as the 
lead Federal agency, we have responsibility for making sure 
that con-ops is implemented in a timely fashion. These 
resources provide us with additional staff to do airport 
vulnerability assessments, for example, because we do a 
separate vulnerability assessment for UAS vulnerabilities at 
those core 30 airports.
    We eventually, Senator Lankford, we want to open that 
aperture a bit to get to some still large airports that 
wouldn't be part of the core 30. The other part of that request 
is to provide us some additional attorneys to be able to 
support our counter UAS operation, some additional watch 
standers to do it. And then within the Department of Homeland 
Security's Science and Technology budget, there is a good 
amount of money to do some additional research on the ability 
to detect, monitor, and identify UASs in air space.
    We have good, strong international partnerships and some 
other DHS agencies do counter UAS operations like the Secret 
Service and like the Coast Guard. We are trying to take those 
best examples to be able to provide to airports what we call a 
qualified products list, which is equipment that we have 
tested, we have certified--it meets a certain performance 
threshold and we have determined that it is affordable for 
maintenance and reliability.
    Senator Lankford. Right. But this is for countering the 
threat? This is detection and countering threat.
    Mr. Pekoske. Initially, detection monitoring identification 
just to know what threat is there, and then follow on, on the 
countering.
    Senator Lankford. Okay. Please tell me you are spending 
more on science than you are on attorneys in this process.
    Mr. Pekoske. We definitely are.
    Senator Lankford. Okay, thank you. You listed three of them 
there and I just want to be able to figure out where the 
priorities were on it. And known negations to attorneys. We 
need at least one in the country.
    But that is always my concern, is that we spend a lot on 
consultants and about chasing things rather than the actual 
application of it. So I look forward to seeing that. 28 enough 
to be able to do that? You have got a core 30 facilities there 
that you are doing the evaluation on. Is 28 staff enough for 
that?
    Mr. Pekoske. Yes, 28 is enough because we are using a lot 
of Federal Air Marshals support to deal with multiple 
assessments and we partner strongly with the FBI on this as 
well.

                            AIRBORNE TOXINS

    Senator Lankford. Okay, thank you. We will want to be able 
to get an update on that and how that is going. In your 
detection obviously you are looking for immediate threats to an 
aircraft, to the staff, to the pilots, all those things coming 
into the aircraft. One of the threats that is out there is an 
airborne release of fentanyl or other chemicals as well.
    How is it going on doing your detection of trying to move 
from explosives and a firearm to different airborne toxins like 
fentanyl or something else that may be getting into an 
aircraft?
    Mr. Pekoske. So we are making some progress on that but 
candidly, you know, most of our focus is on explosives because 
the explosive set is very dynamic, it changes over time. We 
look at the intelligence. We look at what our adversaries are 
developing and try to stay ahead of them in that regard.
    And that spills all the way over to for example canine 
training because we train canines for a certain odor set that 
has got to be constantly refreshed. But that, not to minimize 
the threat from Fentanyl and any other airborne agent.
    Senator Lankford. Okay. I would only say I know that 
Customs and Border Patrol, other folks are working on 
technology to do rapid scanning for things like fentanyl, 
opioids, and all of the things that are coming in. Once they 
are transported into the system, as you mentioned before, if 
someone gets through into the system in any airport, they can 
get through to every airport on it.
    If drugs and contraband or some other things are getting 
in, and some of those could be airborne released and become 
lethal or become an issue as well, all of those technologies I 
would encourage you to work with other areas of DHS and the 
technology they are using for screening to see if there is a 
way to be able to actually build that in the algorithm of what 
we are using for screening as well.
    There are several different companies that are out there 
that do the rapid testing like you do for explosives on your 
hands, for random testing. They do that exact same type of 
testing, to be able to actually test for fentanyl or other 
things as well that might also be helpful for us to be able to 
help do some other detection and that might be something that 
can be built into the screen that you already do.
    So, it is not a second type of test, but if you are already 
doing that swab, it would show up as well in that algorithm. So 
if there are ways that we can help or things that you need 
engagement on, pleased to be able to continue to see your work 
on that. Thank you.

                          SCREENING TECHNOLOGY

    Senator Capito. Thank you, Senator. I had a couple of other 
questions and I am sure Senator Tester does too so we will 
proceed that way. I am not sure I quite understand why we have 
300 CT scanners now and this budget asks for 30 more, and I 
know you have been asked this question a couple different ways. 
What is the maximum number that you think you need in the end? 
And why are we only asking for 30 now as opposed to keeping 
those numbers ramped up to an achievable number?
    Mr. Pekoske. Yes, Chairman. You know, the CT acquisition is 
my highest priority acquisition program because of the 
significant improvement it makes in our ability to detect. You 
provided in the fiscal year 2020 budget a little over $200 
million for CT as well. And so we will take that money and 
apply it--once this contract is in place, that money will be, 
those funds will be available to us.
    So if you take the $200 plus million that are in the fiscal 
year 2020 budget plus the $30 million we are requesting in the 
fiscal year 2021 budget. That will give us a good start on the 
acquisition. We think the total number of X-rays is probably 
around 2,400 because we are planning for growth. Air travel is 
increasing it roughly 4 percent year-over-year.
    The other aspect that I would highlight for you is that we 
have very strong partnerships with the carriers in the airports 
on technology, and the Congress provided those the legal 
authority to accept technology as a gift from the private 
sector. And we can also accept services as a gift from a 
private sector entity now. We have found the carriers in the 
airports to be very generous in gifting this technology.
    Senator Capito. So is that occurring right now?
    Mr. Pekoske. That is occurring right now. Yes, ma'am.
    Senator Capito. So are you saying that the money that we 
gave in fiscal year 2020 combined with this money is only going 
to go for the 300 initial? Are you saying this was for the 30?
    Mr. Pekoske. No, no. The 300 initial were funded in fiscal 
year 2019.
    Senator Capito. Okay, so that is done. So you will combine 
that so it will be more than 30 in the end?
    Mr. Pekoske. We will.
    Senator Capito. Okay. But still that is so slow if your 
requirement--and of course the technology is going to change in 
the next 10 years. So by the time you get the CT scanner to 
Yeager airport, it is going to be off to something else.
    Mr. Pekoske. Well, actually we think the CT technology is 
an enduring technology, but what will change is all the 
software that goes into that technology. And so one of the 
reasons that we wanted to put them all in this new procurement 
is where we have several different algorithm development 
processes going on at the same time. And we, for example, just 
now issued a new release on a testing basis that has vastly 
improved detection capability. So we are going to step up the 
capability over time. But we just found that both the vendors 
and the agency needed a bit more time to make sure as we deploy 
these.
    Senator Capito. Okay. I know also in rural airports, and 
one of the issues is and it was pointed out when I went on the 
tour with you is, sometimes there is confined spaces or there 
is not enough place to conveniently locate these machines. 
There are a little larger so that reconfiguring the airport is 
a challenge for our smaller airports, so I understand that.
    Let me talk about the CAT procurement. It is along the same 
lines. You are deploying that now but there is no plan for this 
same technology to go into the smaller airports. How do you 
intend to ensure that the smaller airports are going to have 
something like this or this kind of security? I mean, we 
obviously saw Senator Tester mention 9/11.
    We saw that the perpetrators came in through the smaller 
airport. And so I know you take each airport just too 
seriously. If you could respond to that.
    Mr. Pekoske. Yes, ma'am. You know, we fully intend to start 
a continuation for the CAT program, beginning in likely fiscal 
year 2022 to be able to address the smaller airports. When this 
program was initially put in place several years ago, it was 
just for the larger airports, but to your point, you know, the 
smaller airports are airports we need to pay just as much 
attention to.
    The other part is that at the smaller airports, it was 
sometimes difficult to make the high-speed data secure 
connections at the smaller airports than it would be at a large 
airport.
    Senator Capito. Well, that would be rural broadband, right?
    Mr. Pekoske. That is right.

                              TSA STAFFING

    Senator Capito. That is our other committee. We talk about 
that all time. Let me just see if I can kind of rapid fire 
really quickly. How many TSA agents do you have right now, 
approximately?
    Mr. Pekoske. Approximately 45,000.
    Senator Capito. And this budget provides you for an 
additional----
    Mr. Pekoske. A very small number, actually. It provides us 
for about a 1.7 percent increase, but we think that--and we 
should always try to find as much efficiency in our process as 
we can. The thing that is very important here, and one of the 
reasons why those pay initiatives are in the budget is, as you 
know, TSA has an attrition rate amongst that 45,000 person 
workforce of about 17 percent on average across the system. 
That was last year. This year has already come down to 
somewhere around 12 percent is running right now.
    What I hope happens, and I know hope is not a method but I 
think we have got some analysis to support this, is that as we 
put out these pay initiatives, our retention will go up. And I 
am putting a lot of attention on making sure that we address 
all of the workplace issues that our officers and anybody in 
TSA has identified in the annual surveys we do.
    I mean, I read those things when I visit an airport, I 
visit a field office, for example. I look at their individual 
survey results so I know what the workforce has said about how 
we are doing as an agency. So it is a very concerted effort to 
bring the attrition numbers down so that I don't spend money 
recruiting and training people that are going to leave in a 
very short period of time.
    Senator Capito. Well, I commend you too on the plan that 
you have. Obviously the two gentleman behind you are part of 
that where your detailing off the front lines, TSA agents and 
others to make sure that you are listening exactly to what is 
going on in the day-to-day life of a TSA agent and what their 
specific concerns can be. So I think that obviously gone to the 
benefit.
    Senator Tester.

                                REAL ID

    Senator Tester. Thank you, Senator Capito. I would just say 
that a lot of the numbers I am having a hard time making them 
add up in my mind and that we are going to have a 4 percent 
increase in flyers, we have got a 1 percent increase in 
potential bringing folks on. You are going to have to bump up 
your salaries, which I agree by the way, at least at the 
smaller airports where you got folks coming in, working three 
hours, leaving and coming back.
    So I hope you can make that work. If you do, we need to put 
you work on the Appropriations committee. Maybe the lead 
staffer. I want to talk about Real ID for a second. You exist 
to keep our traveling passengers safe.
    The outfit that really benefits is the airlines, and I know 
you worked very, very well with the airlines, but there might 
be a possibility--when I get my ticket on this, or if it is a 
paper ticket, if they would put on that ticket, if you don't 
have a Real ID, this ticket is worthless, it might help you. 
Because every time I get on a plane, I look at that and it is 
like having a thing on a pack of cigarettes that says, if you 
smoke this it is going to cause cancer, it might be a 
possibility.
    Have you approached the airlines about doing something like 
that?
    Mr. Pekoske. We have, sir. Some airlines have voluntarily 
started to do that. We are looking at a requirement for not 
just purchasing of tickets because oftentimes tickets are 
purchased by third-party vendors.
    Senator Tester. But don't you still have to get a ticket 
from Delta or United or from a third party vendor.
    Mr. Pekoske. Yes, sir.
    And you get that ticket at check-in. So part of what we are 
looking at is, as you check in, it is going to say, hey, 
remember you have got to have a Real ID driver's license.
    Senator Tester. You are right, though. There are some--I 
mean I am trying to get as many--but it is amazing how many 
people travel with these things now and don't have paper 
tickets, which would be pretty damn simple and pretty cost-
effective, I would think. Just a thought.
    Mr. Pekoske. And that CAT technology, by the way, Senator, 
you don't need a boarding pass for TSA purposes once the CAT.
    Senator Tester. Bingo. That is right. No, I mean I went 
through an Indianapolis Airport that had it. I was pretty 
amazed because I asked them do you want to see my ticket and 
they said, no. I said, why not?
    [Laughter.]

                                PRECHECK

    Senator Tester. At any rate, TSA PreCheck reached a 
milestone of 10 million. Congratulations. I am also aware that 
TSA entered into some partnerships with some private companies 
to increase enrollment. As TSA PreCheck expands, what is your 
overall goal? Everybody?
    Mr. Pekoske. Well, everybody won't qualify, but we would 
like to see as many applicants as we possibly can because we 
know a lot about--these are called trusted travelers. We know a 
lot about trusted travelers. And so we adjust our screening 
process to accommodate.
    Senator Tester. Bingo and I love it. How many additional 
folks are going to be registered by the private sector vendors? 
What have you been told?
    Mr. Pekoske. Well, you know, we are seeing PreChecks, 
Senator, increased by about 18 percent year-over-year, and one 
of the things that we are doing is we are taking people that 
used to get----
    Senator Tester. Got to get more. I mean this the first time 
you went with private sector vendors?
    Mr. Pekoske. We should get more with having a private 
sector vendor right now. This adds two additional vendors.
    Senator Tester. Okay, so won't that increase it?
    Mr. Pekoske. It will and it will also put price competition 
in there as well because those vendors may want to bundle other 
things that they offer, and they will compete on price for 
PreCheck for the things that don't involve the checks that we 
do as a Government.
    Senator Tester. And so you are confident that it will be 
taken care by fees and not add additional cost to the agency?
    Mr. Pekoske. I am and I am hoping to see a much higher 
level of PreCheck registration for a different reason too is 
that PreCheck is going to be even faster than what it is today.
    Senator Tester. Yes. Well, I can tell you that the line at 
DCA, it is often quicker to go through the line that is not 
PreCheck because it is so long. Truthfully, I mean it has been 
a very successful program, very successful.
    Mr. Pekoske. Right, but we need to work to address some of 
those disincentives to make sure that PreCheck on average, 
Senator, is always reliably five minutes or less. Every once in 
a while it will spike up, but it comes down very, very fast.
    Senator Tester. So the heart and soul of your organization 
is the guy sitting right behind you and all the people that he 
represents, and I will just tell you that we are going to be 
working on this budget moving forward. You make good decisions 
with good information. You need to give us good information, 
okay? Thank you. Appreciate it.
    Senator Capito. Thank you. Well, this concludes today's 
hearing. Administrator Pekoske, we appreciate you appearing 
before the subcommittee, really do, and your fine work. You are 
always very thorough and very simple in your explanations, 
which I appreciate because well, we are simple people here and 
we need those explanations. But in all seriousness, talking to 
the American public, you have to be as direct as you possibly 
can.
    Senator Tester. And neither one of us are lawyers.
    Senator Capito. Yes. The hearing record will remain open 
for two weeks from today. Senators may submit written questions 
for the record. We ask that the Department respond to them 
within a reasonable amount of time.

                          SUBCOMMITTEE RECESS

    Senator Capito. I will say this, last week's hearing with 
the Acting head of the Department, I did get the answer to my 
question back in less than a week. So if he is listening, thank 
you very much for that. So this subcommittee stands in recess. 
Thank you.
    [Whereupon, at 11:05 a.m., Tuesday, March 3, the 
subcommittee was recessed, to reconvene subject to the call of 
the Chair.]

       LIST OF WITNESSES, COMMUNICATIONS, AND PREPARED STATEMENTS

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page

Capito, Senator Shelley Moore Capito, U.S. Senator from West 
  Virginia, Opening Statement of 

Pekoske, Hon. David, Administrator, Transportation Security 
  Administration:
    Prepared Statement of........................................   50      50.........................................................
    Summary Statement of.........................................
      49.........................................................

Tester, Senator Jon, U.S. Senator from Montana 


Wolf, Hon. Chad, Acting Secretary, Department of Homeland 
  Security:
    Prepared Statement of........................................
      7..........................................................
    Summary Statement of.........................................
      5..........................................................


                             SUBJECT INDEX

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page

                    DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Autonomous Surveillance Towers...................................  24.............................................................
Border:
    Patrol Agents: Hiring........................................
      13.........................................................
    Security Improvement Plan....................................
      26.........................................................
    Wall:
        Construction:
            Contracts............................................
              27.................................................
            Religious Freedom Restoration........................
              31.................................................
        System...................................................
          13.....................................................
            Attempts to Defeat it................................
              15.................................................
            Eminent Domain.......................................
              28.................................................
            Technology...........................................
              39.................................................
            Tohono O'Odham Tribe.................................
              38.................................................
Coronavirus:
    Action.......................................................
      14.........................................................
    Anticipated Number of Cases..................................
      19.........................................................
    Face Masks...................................................
      19.........................................................
    Mortality Rate...............................................
      18.........................................................
    Number of Cases..............................................
      17.........................................................
    Protecting Front-Line Workers................................
      42.........................................................
    Providing Information to Public..............................
      43.........................................................
    Proving Information to Public................................
      20.........................................................
    Respirators..................................................
      19.........................................................
    Transmission.................................................
      18.........................................................
    Vaccine......................................................
      20.........................................................
Cybersecurity: Budget Cut........................................
  12.............................................................
Detention:
    Cost.........................................................
      16.........................................................
    Soft-Sided Facilities, Beds 

Drug:
    Interdiction.................................................
      36.........................................................
        Opioids..................................................
          21.....................................................
        Technology...............................................
          29.....................................................
        U.S. Coast Guard.........................................
          34.....................................................
    Trafficking..................................................
      16.........................................................
Election Security................................................
  40.............................................................
Federal Emergency Management Agency: Grants......................
  37.............................................................
H-2B:
    Visa Program.................................................
      22.........................................................
    Visas........................................................
      31.........................................................
Migrant Protection Protocols 

Real ID..........................................................
  25.............................................................
Screening People Entering United States..........................
  26.............................................................
Unmanned Aircraft Systems........................................
  23.............................................................
U.S. Coast Guard:
    Balancing Border Security Mission and Department of Defense 
      Support....................................................
      35.........................................................
    Icebreakers..................................................
      32.........................................................
U.S. Secret Service Proposed Move................................
  41.............................................................
                               __________

                    DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

                 Transportation Security Administration

Airborne Toxins..................................................
  65.............................................................
Airport Staffing.................................................
  57.............................................................
Covid-19:
    Resources....................................................
      55.........................................................
    Screening: Transporation Security Administration's Role......
      53.........................................................
Fiscal Year 2021 Budget Request Unfunded Items 

TSA Staff Hiring.................................................
  59.............................................................
Screening Technology 

Precheck.........................................................
  68.............................................................
Real ID 


TSA Staffing.....................................................
  67.............................................................
Unmanned Aircraft Systems........................................
  63.............................................................

                              [all]