[Senate Hearing 117-112]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 117-112
OVERSIGHT OF THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL
POLICE FOLLOWING THE JANUARY 6TH
ATTACK ON THE CAPITOL, PART II
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON RULES AND ADMINISTRATION
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
DECEMBER 7, 2021
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Printed for the use of the Committee on Rules and Administration
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available on http://www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
46-372 WASHINGTON : 2022
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COMMITTEE ON RULES AND ADMINISTRATION
FIRST SESSION
AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota, Chairwoman
DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California ROY BLUNT, Missouri
CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York MITCH McCONNELL, Kentucky
MARK R. WARNER, Virginia RICHARD SHELBY, Alabama
PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont TED CRUZ, Texas
ANGUS S. KING, JR., Maine SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon Virginia
ALEX PADILLA, California ROGER WICKER, Mississippi
JON OSSOFF, Georgia DEB FISCHER, Nebraska
CINDY HYDE-SMITH, Mississippi
BILL HAGERTY, Tennessee
Elizabeth Peluso, Staff Director
Rachelle Schroeder, Republican Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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Pages
Opening Statement of:
Hon. Amy Klobuchar, Chairwoman, a United States Senator from the
State of Minnesota............................................. 1
Hon. Roy Blunt, a United States Senator from the State of
Missouri....................................................... 3
Michael A. Bolton, Inspector General, United States Capitol
Police, Washington, DC......................................... 6
Prepared Statement of:
Michael A. Bolton, Inspector General, United States Capitol
Police, Washington, DC......................................... 27
Questions Submitted for the Record:
Hon. Amy Klobuchar, Chairwoman, a United States Senator from the
State of Minnesota to Michael A. Bolton, Inspector General,
United States Capitol Police, Washington, DC................... 33
Hon. Roy Blunt, a United States Senator from the State of
Missouri to Michael A. Bolton, Inspector General, United States
Capitol Police, Washington, DC................................. 33
OVERSIGHT OF THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL POLICE FOLLOWING THE JANUARY 6TH
ATTACK ON THE CAPITOL, PART II
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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021
United States Senate
Committee on Rules and Administration
Washington, DC
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:02 a.m., in
Room 301, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Amy Klobuchar,
Chairwoman of the Committee, presiding.
Present: Senators Klobuchar, Blunt, Warner, King, Padilla,
Ossoff, Cruz, Capito, and Fischer.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HONORABLE AMY KLOBUCHAR, CHAIRWOMAN, A
UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MINNESOTA
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Good morning. I call to order this
hearing, which is the Rules Committee's oversight hearing of
the United States Capitol Police following the January 6th
attack on the Capitol. As you know, Senator Blunt and I have
led a series of hearings over improvements that must be made,
changes that must be made, and we joined forces with Senators
Peters and Portman of the Homeland Security Committee so that
we had a more comprehensive look at the security failures on
January 6th, which of course included mistakes at the top of
the Capitol Police, mistakes of leadership within this
building, and then mistakes on the side of the Defense
Department and other agencies.
We are greatly appreciative of what Mr. Michael Bolton, the
Inspector General for the Capitol Police, has done. I want to
thank you for being here, Inspector General Bolton. We welcome
your wife, who is also with us today. We will try not to ask
her questions if you cannot answer them. I think, you know the
significance of this moment. We are here just over 11 months
after the violent insurrection at the Capitol. Why? Because
this Committee has the responsibility of oversight of the
police.
As we approach this year's end, we will hear more today
about the measures that have already been taken to improve the
Capitol Police Department's preparedness and operations, as
well as the work that still needs to be done. You, Inspector
General, put together a comprehensive list. I remember Senator
Blunt and I reviewing it as we prepared our own
recommendations, a comprehensive list of over 100
recommendations. We consolidated some of those, came up with
some of our own that, as I noted, were outside of the police
department as well.
I think January 6th is a pretty good date to get the vast
number of these things done, which we will be telling the
Sergeant of Arms of both bodies, as well as the Capitol Police
Chief. But we know progress has been made, and in the new year
we will continue this discussion as our first hearing will be
with the new Capitol Police Chief and then we can get much more
focused on the details of our own recommendations. In June, the
week before you testified Mr. Bolton, before this Committee, we
issued our bipartisan report with the Homeland Security
Committee, as I noted, focused on the security, planning, and
response failures of that day, that unprecedented, horrific
day.
Our report laid out key findings and recommendations.
Importantly, as I noted, progress has been made in putting many
of those recommendations in place. We recommended that the
Capitol Police produce a department-wide operational plan for
all large scale events at the Capitol, and now those plans are
standard procedure and have been used several times since then.
The Department has also worked to improve its handling of
intelligence, including by making sure that information is
shared with rank and file officers, another of our
recommendations. We said that Congress should provide
sufficient funding to support Capitol Police training and
equipment requirements, as well as needed staffing levels.
In July, President Biden signed our emergency funding
legislation into law, which passed both houses of this
Congress, to deliver resources to do just that. Significant
resources in the supplemental budget that many of us on this
Committee worked with Senator Leahy, who is a member of this
Committee, as well as Senator Shelby, to make sure that these
resources were included. We did not want to wait until year
end. We wanted to get it done immediately. That legislation
also provided funding for mental health support for officers,
something I have strongly supported.
Another recommendation was for the Capitol Police Board to
appoint a new Police Chief, which it did in July with the
selection of Chief Manger. For the past several months, Chief
Manger has worked to make needed changes and implement
recommendations, both from our report as well as from your
Inspector General reports, Mr. Bolton. At our last hearing with
you, you updated us on the review of Capitol Police policies
and practices since the insurrection, including on the four
reports you had issued at that time. Since then, you have
finished three more reports detailing issues that impacted the
Department's response to the events of January 6th, and you are
finishing a final report outlining your findings and progress
to address them.
Significantly, you have issued a total of 104
recommendations, of which 30 have now been implemented, in an
effort to ensure that the Department is equipped to fulfill its
mission. It is not as though work is not being done on the
other recommendations. As you know, they are in progress. As I
noted, we will have an ideal moment at the beginning of January
to go back through with the Chief himself, the work that needs
to be done, the work that is done. This kind of alert to those
working on these recommendations, not just--not just with the
Capitol Police, but the other agencies as well, that they get
their work done. This work is crucial to improving the security
of the Capitol and also to supporting the brave officers who
served heroically in unimaginable circumstances.
It was an honor to stand with some of those officers with
Senator Blunt and their families as the President signed our
bipartisan legislation to honor the heroes who defended our
democracy with the Congressional Gold Medal. We owe it to these
courageous officers to make sure they have the resources and
support and the rules in place to do their jobs. Since January
6th, anyone that walks around this Capitol, talks to officers
as I do, asks officers questions, sees how they are doing, you
find out, one, that there has been some improvement in morale,
which I think is really important. They lost so many of their
fellow officers, including those who sadly died by suicide. But
we also know from them there continue to be staff shortages. We
have now put the money forward for that but this police
department, like many across the country, is facing staff
shortages and we must fill those jobs.
As our country moves forward, we know that there are many
issues that merit serious consideration. A major investigation,
which I support is going on, a bipartisan investigation, in the
House of Representatives, looking back at the root causes of
what happened.
Our job today is to look at the security at the Capitol,
and I look forward to discussing your findings, Inspector
General Bolton, the progress that has been made at the Capitol
Police Department in the past several months, and certainly the
work that lies ahead not only with the Capitol Police
Department but getting answers to the other issues we raised in
our report, along with Senator Peters and Senator Portman, with
regard to the other agencies and how they work with the Capitol
Police.
Thank you very much, Mr. Bolton, and we look forward to
hearing from you. I will turn it over to my friend and
colleague, Senator Blunt.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HONORABLE ROY BLUNT, A UNITED STATES
SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MISSOURI
Senator Blunt. Well, thank you, Senator Klobuchar. Again,
and thank you also for your focus on these issues. I think the
fact that we quickly began to look into what had happened and
try to come up with our own recommendations, and as I think you
also pointed out, we referenced the IG's recommendations at the
time, and I know the new recommendations we are going to hear
about today.
This is the fourth hearing that this Committee has had
regarding the January 6th attack on the Capitol, and the second
time we have had a chance to have the United States Capitol
Police Inspector General come and be here with us today. I
appreciate the opportunity to talk to him as he concludes what
is his 11 month investigation. It began also immediately. There
were recommendations made immediately and others to be made
today. Glad to have Mr. Bolton's wife, Bridget here with us
today, and I will share Senator Klobuchar's view that we will
not ask her any questions that you are not able to answer.
But I know she is proud of your work, and I know the amount
of work you have had to put in to cover this territory, to come
up with all the recommendations you have over the last 11
months has meant that your family has had to be an important
and patient part of that, and we are grateful to Bridget for
what she has done to support this work as well. The impact on
the Department has been clear, though I think we are still
trying to be sure we fully understand the impact today. You
know, the detailed 104 recommendations from your office made
with the help of the Department's Operational Readiness
Committee has made a difference already. As I have said before,
what you do and what we have talked about and what your report
makes clear, and what Senator Klobuchar just mentioned, you
know, the front line officers were the true heroes that day.
They defended the Capitol bravely and without hesitation,
particularly those officers at that door on the west side of
the Capitol secured that door for a significant period of time,
never even getting the information that there were already
people who had breached the building in other ways. My
colleagues and I remain incredibly grateful for the dedication
of the Capitol Police and what they do to not just protect the
Congress but protect everyone who works here and everyone who
visits here, and it is incredibly important. I would like to
highlight two divisions that were subjects of your most recent
flash report.
They, according to your report, and something that we all,
I think, had no surprise in, you described their performance as
exceptional and excellent, the Dignitary Protection Division
and the Hazard Incident Response Division. First, the Dignitary
Protection Unit, the Division successfully evacuated and
relocated all of the congressional protectees on January 6th,
even without having the critical intelligence that they would
have needed in advance to know the kinds of things that might
happen that day.
Second, the Hazardous Incident Response Division disposed
of multiple hazardous devices found on or near the Capitol
campus. Later that day, those teams conducted sweeps of the
Capitol grounds and buildings, which really allowed us to get
back to the important work of the joint session. You know that
division could have created all kinds of, since, well, we need
to have more time, we are worn out, we are exhausted.
Nobody did that and that allowed us to get back in the
Capitol, and I think Senator Klobuchar and Senator Warner and
others here were back in the Capitol by 8 o'clock or so, and
when we left the Capitol at 3:30 a.m. that morning, Senator
Klobuchar, we were able to do that knowing that that building
had been secured by the Capitol Police, who also understood, I
think, the importance of the work we do here. It would have
been an easy minute--there would have been an easy moment to
say, well, let's come back tomorrow or we need another 48
hours. But the Capitol Police and particularly the unit that
had to do the sweep of the Capitol also shared and understood
the importance of the work we do here.
Any comments or questions I have today regarding any
deficiencies of the Capitol Police are certainly not meant to
disparage or reflect on the rank and file or diminish their
actions on the 6th. Frankly, our questions, I think, and
certainly mine are likely to continue to be about the
leadership failures that day. I think the Committee should
hear, and I am glad that the Chairwoman has decided we will
hear, in January from Chief Manger. There is no better time to
find out what the Capitol Police have done in what will then
have been the past 12 months to be sure that this kind of thing
cannot happen again.
If it does happen again, we would be much better prepared
for it in ways that would ensure, frankly, that the kind of
events that happened that day would not be successfully
repeated or even attempted. It is important that we understand
limitations that have prevented the Capitol Police from fully
implementing the recommendations that you made, and our
Committee has made. But there better be limits that makes sense
whenever we have a chance to talk to the Chief about those
limits in this Committee in January. Chairwoman and I drafted
legislation that would provide the Police Chief with unilateral
authority to request emergency assistance from the National
Guard.
Even this week, Senator Klobuchar, we are reading stories
about some of the testimony that we took in--eight months ago
and finding out that that testimony is still is highly dubious
as it appeared to be the day we took that testimony. We work
with our colleagues with the supplemental bill to provide the
Department with additional necessary funding for salaries. Many
officers were reaching their salary cap and obviously with the
officers leaving, the officers that remained were asked to do
more and more.
We have also looked at overtime pay, at trauma support,
riot control equipment for all officers, and specialized
training for those officers that need to be part of specialized
units. I think we are going to work together to see that the
officers are better trained, better equipped, and better
prepared. We owe that to the front line officers and their
families.
They do everything they can every day to protect the
Members of Congress, the congressional officers, employees, and
visitors to the Capitol on a daily basis, and we are grateful
for that, and glad you are here today.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Well, thank you very much, Senator
Blunt. When I think of that day, I think of the two of us, as
you noted at 3:30 in the morning, walking across those
hallways, those corridors with broken glass on every side, with
those two young women, with the mahogany box, with the last of
the electoral ballots.
I think that is forever seared in our memories. Much of
this is not just getting to the root causes, which is critical
to what is happening in the House, but it is making sure it
never happens again. That is going to be about both the
improvements we have made and will make with the Capitol Police
and the agencies that are affiliated with them and making sure
that there is better coordination and intelligence sharing and
the like. I also want to note we have been joined by Senator
Warner, who is on this Committee and also is the chair of the
Intelligence Committee, so this will be helpful to have him
here, as well as Senator King and Senator Padilla and Senator
Capito. We thank them for being with us today.
I will now introduce our witness, Mr. Michael Bolton, the
Inspector General for the United States Capitol Police. Mr.
Bolton has served in the Capitol Police Office of the Inspector
General for 15 years. He was appointed as Inspector General in
January 2019. Earlier in his career, he served as Special Agent
in charge of the Treasury Department's Office of Investigation
for four years. He also served for 21 years with the United
States Secret Service.
Mr. Bolton holds a degree in criminal justice from the
University of Maryland. I will now swear in our witness. Mr.
Bolton, will you please stand and raise your right hand. Do you
swear that the testimony you will give before the Committee
shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,
so help you, God?
Mr. Bolton. I do.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you. You are now recognized for
your testimony.
OPENING STATEMENT OF MICHAEL A. BOLTON, INSPECTOR GENERAL,
UNITED STATES CAPITOL POLICE, WASHINGTON, DC
Mr. Bolton. Thank you. Good morning, Madam Chair Klobuchar,
Ranking Member Blunt, and distinguished Members of the
Committee. Thank you for this opportunity to appear before you
at the Committee of Senate Rules and Administration to discuss
and review events in regards to the Capitol Police Department's
operation, programs, and policies that were in effect during
January 6, 2021. I would like to extend my appreciation to the
Committee for holding this hearing and the important work that
this Committee continues to do to make the Capitol complex safe
and secure.
I always like to take the time and extend and recognize the
outstanding efforts and work done by my staff in the Office of
Inspector General. Through their collective efforts and skills,
we have produced eight flash reports outlining areas of
improvement for the Department, resulting in 104
recommendations. Our last and final flash report is a summary
of the status of the recommendations we have made and security
improvements that the Department has made since January 6th.
Although the Department has addressed some of our
recommendations and have made security improvements throughout
the Capitol complex, much work still needs to be addressed in
relation to training, intelligence, cultural change, and
operational planning. We are currently finalizing our final
flash report, which we anticipate issuing within the next few
days. Since my last hearing before this Committee, we have
issued three additional flash reports. These reports include
areas in the Department, such as Communication Coordination
Bureau, the Hazards Incident Response Division, K-9 Unit, and
finally Dignitary Protection Division, and Human Capital. Our
fifth flash report was designed to communicate deficiencies
within the Department's Command and Coordination Bureau.
Additionally, to gain a perspective on department-wide
command and control challenges, on January 6th, we contacted 86
officers and completed interviews with 36 of them who agreed to
be interviewed. We also reviewed 49 after action reports the
United States Capitol Police officers and employees completed.
Based on our interviews with the Capitol Police officers and
review of it after action reports, we identified department-
wide command and control deficiencies related to information
sharing, chain of command direction, communication,
preparedness, training, leadership development, emergency
response procedures, and law enforcement coordination.
Our sixth flash report was designed to communicate
deficiencies with the Department's Hazardous Incident Response
Division and K-9 unit. Deficiencies included the lack of
adequate Department guidance for both units. The Department did
not always comply with guidelines related to K-9 operations or
training and did not always ensure K-9 policies and procedures
were up to date.
A lack of K-9 related training or operational experience
required for officials and formal guidance for emergency
procedures, as well as inadequate hazardous device response
guidance, could have hampered the efficiency of the K-9 unit on
January 6th. Our seventh flash report was designed to
communicate inefficiencies with Department's Dignitary
Protection Division and Human Capital. The Dignitary Protective
Division contributed towards--greatly contributed towards the
Department's mission through proper training and successfully
evacuating individuals under its protection during January 6th.
However, the Dignitary Protection Division incurred
authorization issues with staging evacuation vehicles on
January 6th, in addition to training programs, lacked a
dedicated training staff, facilities issues, and weapons system
training integration. USCP could not provide documentation
supporting that it implemented those recommendations. Our
eighth and final flash report is a summary of the status of our
104 recommendations and any security improvements made by the
Department since January 6th. Although the Department has made
several changes to include updating policies and procedures,
additional training for CDU units, the Civil Disturbance Units,
and the hiring of a subject matter expert in the planning and
coordination of large events or high profile demonstrations,
the Department still has more work to achieve the goal of
making the Capitol complex safe and secure.
Out of the 200 security enhancements that the Department
has provided to the OIG, only 61 of those items have supporting
documentation to support those enhancements to have occurred.
Some of the other security enhancements the Department has
instituted has been an additional intelligence briefings
provided to the rank and file, as well as to Department
leadership. The Department still lacks an overall training
infrastructure to meet the needs of the Department. The level
of intelligence gathering, and expertise needed, and an overall
cultural change needed to move the Department into a protective
agency as opposed to a traditional police department.
In conclusion, the Department is comprised of extraordinary
men and women who are dedicated to protecting democracy,
putting their own lives in harm's way in order for Congress to
exercise their constitutional duties in a safe and open manner.
It is our duty to honor those officers who have given their
lives, but also ensuring the safety of all those working and
visiting the Capitol complex by making hard changes within the
Department.
Finally, I would like to thank not only this Committee, but
also the Committee on House Administration and the Select
Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack for their
continuing support of my office and the work they have done in
protecting democracy so that events such as January 6th never
happen again. Thank you for this opportunity to appear before
you today. I will be very happy to answer any questions the
Committee may have.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Bolton was submitted for the
record.]
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you very much, Mr. Bolton. We
will never forget the words of one officer on January 6th
picked up on the radio, ``Does anybody have a plan?'' in the
middle of the insurrection. In your report on command and
control issues, you found that there was no plan. The
Department did not have adequate procedures for coordinated
emergency responses, officers were not briefed in intelligence,
and there was a lack of direction about what to do about the
attack. You recommended that officers be given briefings at
roll calls on potential hazards. Can you elaborate on what was
lacking in this area on January 6th? How has that changed?
Mr. Bolton. Thank you. That has changed in a couple of
different ways. First, they have hired from the outside a
subject matter expert for operational planning. As evident, as
you probably saw the difference on September 18th,
demonstrations that we had up here just recently. The signal
they have started attending--intelligence division analysts
started attending roll calls to provide briefings to the
officers as well as to the command staff, whether it be the
sergeants and above, the lieutenants and inspectors. They are
now receiving daily briefings and receiving the appropriate
threat assessments. In addition, every officer has been
provided a Government cell phone for any alerts on campus and,
or recall messages that may be needed.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Okay. You recommended, you mentioned
this in your testimony, that the Department establish
comprehensive lockdown procedures for the Capitol complex to
account for various potential hazards. How would these plans
improve safety in emergency situations? Have you received any
response from the Department as to how they are going to
implement them?
Mr. Bolton. They are in the process of updating their
policies and procedures. In addition to that, they have started
conducting training, making sure that not only do the officers
on post, but also as well as the officials around have
knowledge of the lockdown procedures. You need to have that
coordinated effort, if we indeed need to have another lockdown.
Everybody knows how to do those procedures in a quick and
timely manner so that we can lock this building down quickly.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. The emergency supplemental funding
legislation signed into law in July included significant new
funding for the officers' access to equipment. We noted the
need for funding for equipment in our joint report, after
finding that 75 percent of the officers--900 of 1,200 on duty
that day--were forced to defend the Capitol in their regular
uniforms. Do you agree that this funding should help the
Department improve officers' access to protective equipment?
What steps have been taken to address this issue?
Mr. Bolton. The Department has just recently purchased new
equipment to include either replacement of those shields that
we had talked about in the previous flash reports where they
were more properly stored, they are now storing them properly.
They have the additional munitions now, up to date. Now they
have improved, and now they have also conducted joint training
for the CDU units, the Civil Disturbance Units, so they are
conducting the joint training and getting the training and
getting the equipment needed.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. In our last hearing, you noted in
response to questions that the Department was suffering from
low morale. Do you still see that as a major challenge facing
the Department? Do you have any comments on the Department's
effort to recruit new officers? Obviously, all the overtime,
the repeated day after day after day of working would take a
toll on anyone.
This is, of course, coming after having been through that
insurrection, not properly trained, not properly equipped, and
not properly led. That is what we are dealing with here and we
know what a problem it has been.
Mr. Bolton. When you talk about morale, that is a difficult
thing to pinpoint as far as getting a definitive feel for
morale. That is something anecdotal that you may get from time
to time is the thing. But I would say that their morale has
generally increased, or we have gotten better since obviously
the--because they are seeing some changes.
The officers and the rank and file are starting to see that
things are starting to turn around a little bit. The Department
is actively recruiting those--they have been filling the
classes with--down the--in fact, they just had one just
recently just before Thanksgiving that they sent down to the
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.
They are starting to see some improvement, but I think the
officers are in that wait and see mode. They want to see what
else are we going to do. They do recognize it does take time,
but also they are watching leadership and watching the
community at large, how we are going to move forward.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Well, as you know, there has been a
massive change in leadership, both at the Sergeant of Arms
levels for both the House and the Senate, as well as a new
Police Chief. Do you think that the selection of a permanent
Chief has impacted the Department's ability to make needed
changes? What issues, when this Committee has the Chief before
us at the beginning of next year, what things should we be
pushing for in your opinion and what maybe keeps you up at
night that has not gotten done yet?
Mr. Bolton. Besides having two kids, a lot of things keep
me up at night. Certainly having a permanent Chief, that is one
step forward. Because it is very difficult when you start and
try and make changes when you are having an acting--somebody in
an acting capacity that does. Those are important to fulfill.
The areas that I have some concern still is major--two
major is training, a training infrastructure, a proper one in
intelligence. One, intelligence is still considered a division
as opposed to being a bureau level. They have yet to hire a
permanent Director to head up the intelligence. I would like to
see that certainly position be filled with an individual who
has the necessary skills and abilities to elevate that
intelligence into the bureau level. Now, training, which we are
already conducting--we have actually started.
Our next job is not a flash report, it is our normal type
of job that we have with our annual plan. We are looking at
training services bureaus from top to bottom, and we anticipate
that report will be issued sometime in February, that we want
to see training become the flagship of this Department, much
like when we view Quantico's and the Secret Service Rowley
Training Center, you look at their org chart compared to ours,
we are nowhere near close and we need to have a training
service bureau infrastructure that is going to handle all the
training.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Okay, thanks. I will let Senator
Warner talk about intelligence sharing. My last question is
just, the Defense Department, relationships with the Defense
Department, which obviously there was much help of our National
Guard here at the Capitol. We now--that has been drawn down.
But as we look forward to how we have better coordinated
efforts, if ever necessary, in the future, any recommendations
on that? That was a major problem as well.
Mr. Bolton. I think a lot of this is going to be
continuously have the training, integrated training, whether it
would be the National Guard, Metropolitan Police Department,
and that kind of goes right back to the Training Services
Bureau is the one who should be handling that and making those
relationships stronger within the realm of training. It needs
to be a continuing. That is what also worries me is that yes,
we are getting--like, still the central unit is getting trained
now. Is it going to be continuous?
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Okay. Yes. I will ask you about this
later. I will let my colleagues go. But part of this was, you
know, having the Defense Department on the ready and the
soldiers on the ready to help us out. We ended up, of course,
with Senator Warner's National Guard there in Virginia and
other ones stepped in. But there was, in our opinion, some
delays that were very costly. Senator Blunt.
Senator Blunt. Thank you, Senator Klobuchar. Mr. Bolton,
when we had our last hearing with you, I think it was pointed
out that most of the recommendations that you had made up until
that time could be done, the majority of them could be done
without the Police Board being involved or without any even
additional funds. How many of your, I think now around 104
recommendations, have been implemented?
Mr. Bolton. Out of 104, we have 30.
Senator Blunt. 30?
Mr. Bolton. Yes, sir.
Senator Blunt. Are you getting significant pushback on the
remaining 74?
Mr. Bolton. Not at this time. We have not gotten any
pushback. There may be some, the recommendations that we will
have to sit down with the Chief and with the Board to hash out
the very nature of what we are looking for, and then would make
the changes and what they feel also--what is comfortable for
them.
Senator Blunt. Your first set, your first recommendations
were available to them when?
Mr. Bolton. We first issued our first flash report, I
believe it was sometime in, was it March?
Senator Blunt. That is what I was thinking.
Mr. Bolton. Yes, it was March, and it was--that was the
intelligence and operational planning flash report in which
they have, as far as the operational plan. They do have that
department-wide operational plan now being produced in a
singular document.
Senator Blunt. Do you have regularly scheduled meetings
with the department leadership to talk about those
recommendations and the implementation of them?
Mr. Bolton. Recently, we have not had a meeting with the
Chief, but I am sure he is busy with trying to assimilate
through with the Department, all the other issues that he has.
I do attend the monthly board meeting so that there is an
opportunity there and then I do brief the Board on a quarterly
basis.
Senator Blunt. You have not had a meeting with the Chief
yet, the two of you?
Mr. Bolton. We have had one meeting. I think that--I
believe was back in August and when we had our initial meeting.
Senator Blunt. Are there any recommendations that you have
made that you can clearly see resistance in the Department?
Mr. Bolton. I believe there probably may be a couple that
they have, at least as indicated to me, there may be
resistance. One is with the CERT teams, the Containment
Emergency Response Teams, and issues concerning a potential,
with about security clearances. That was with one of, I
remember one of our recommendations is that every sworn and
civilian would either have a top secret, or at worst, a secret
clearance. There seems to be some hesitation toward moving
toward that.
Senator Blunt. Why do you think that is?
Mr. Bolton. It has not been expressed to me directly. I
think some of it is potentially having to change your hiring
standards, what to do with those who are already on the job
that came on the job without that particular hiring standard.
So and also with will be issues that the union may raise. I do
not know of any specific ones, but they may, so there may be
some concern about what the union may feel about their folks
having to get clearances and maintain those clearances.
There is always the fear that once you expend that
additional funds, which is going to be additional funding, to
get the clearances, that you will have to pay for those, that
your individuals may end up leaving to another Federal agency
with that clearance because that is a sought after tool within
the rest of the Federal Government, that if you already have a
clearance, then it makes it much easier to move to another
Federal agency.
Senator Blunt. How many officers have left the Department
since January 6th?
Mr. Bolton. I do not have the exact numbers as far as
those, but I believe it has been around 200 or so.
Senator Blunt. How many--are there jobs where we are having
sworn officers that have the sworn level of training do jobs
that somebody else could do? Have we got the right match of
training and jobs that are being done in the Capitol complex by
officers?
Mr. Bolton. If you are talking about the, what is being
proposed right now, where you may have some contract, think of
it as the court security officers that you see at the United
States Marshals, those gals and guys in the blue blazers and
pants doing basically mag checkpoints there, and providing
those--something similar.
I know that that right now is in discussion with the Board
and Department on bringing over some maybe potentially
contracted folks to augment the officers to one, to allow them
to be able to get their days off, cut down a little bit on the
overtime, and also to provide that the officers would be able
to get the much needed training.
So that I know those things are in a discussion right now
between the Board and Department, and I imagine some with the
Committees as well.
Senator Blunt. With 200 officers or so retiring or leaving
the force this year, what percentage of vacant jobs are there
in the Capitol Police?
Mr. Bolton. I would say it would probably be that number. I
think that is what they are down. I think they are authorized
1,800 or so, and they are in an area right now, either 1,600 or
1,500, I am not exactly sure of the numbers that they have. But
they are down significantly of officers, and they need to be
able to bring at least folks on that can augment that because
think, even if you hire somebody today, you are talking over a
year before you get them on post.
By the time they get done with FLETC, Federal Law
Enforcement Training Center, and an even--by the time you get
all that training done, get them through their on the job
training, when they are with another officer learning about the
actual post and everything, you are talking almost a year
before they are operational.
What they are thinking and proposing now is to be able to
get immediate help, or to augment those officers, and identify
posts that may not require--strictly still provide some
training, but it is not the same extensive training that you
are giving somebody who is coming on a job for law enforcement.
Senator Blunt. My last question for this round, one of the
things we did in the supplemental funding was waive the maximum
limits that officers could be paid during a year. Are we going
to face that again this year with that big a shortage of--from
the full force? Are we going to face that same situation again
where one, we have more overtime than the officers or their
families want them to have, and two, get officers at a point
before September 30th, the end of the Fiscal Year, that they
have already reached their maximum income potential?
Mr. Bolton. I would anticipate that you will probably find
yourselves in the same position through the remainder of this
Fiscal Year and potentially into Fiscal Year 2023. It will take
a while to get folks on board. Not only that, but there are
certainly things that you cannot dictate or anticipate, whether
it be additional protests for something that comes up that
you--nobody knew was coming, that you will, you know, require
officers to have overtime or late night sessions with Members
and voting or whatever--something you cannot anticipate.
Senator Blunt. Well, if you never get more than 90 percent
of the jobs filled in this organization, either we had expected
that we have more jobs there than we need, which we know that
is not the case, or you are going to have people working harder
and longer hours than you want them to work, and we need to
begin to think about that. That may be the thing that argues
the most for looking for whatever jobs are there that do not
take the same training skills or arms that you need in other
locations. Thank you for that. Thank you, Chairwoman.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you very, very much, Senator
Blunt. Next up, Senator Warner.
Senator Warner. Well, thank you, Madam Chair. Let me just
say at the outset, as somebody who has not always been a great
attendee at the Rules Committee, I very much appreciate the way
that you and the Ranking Member have led this Committee on this
subject. This Committee's investigation may not have attracted
the same level of attention that our friends in the House have,
but I think the fact that you have been professional,
bipartisan, and looking for the facts and looking for how we
move forward is a tribute to both of you and the Members of the
Committee.
You indicated where I want to go, Mr. Bolton, is the--my
role from the intelligence standpoint, and I am lucky enough to
have Senator Blunt and Senator King on the Intelligence
Committee. I have--you raised the issue about security
clearances, I know, back in your June report, and one of the
things I hope that the Capitol Police knows is that this is an
area that we have focused on for some time. I mean, few years
back, there was a 750,000 person backlog on security
clearances. I actually give--one of the few areas that give the
Trump Administration credit. They worked with us to reform
that. We have brought that down to about 250,000. We are down
to about a 30-day wait in terms of a secret clearance.
I hope that the movement we have made on security clearance
reform, and you have got to stay on this all the time, and
reciprocity so that once you get clearance, you can take it
with you or you can move from entity to entity, we maybe ought
to give you a briefing so you can get that to the Capitol
Police. But I am concerned on this intelligence sharing between
the IC kind of writ large, and DHS and FBI.
You brought up the point that you were concerned about that
ability to have that sharing. How do you think--do you think
progress has been made since June? Are there any more formal
procedures in place on how Capitol Police shares with DHS, FBI,
and the IC intelligence?
Mr. Bolton. I would say that there has been some progress
where we do have some folks embedded in some of the task force
and intelligence. I just see it as we need to do more. One, I
think by again, as I said earlier, making it into Intelligence
Bureau, having somebody from the intelligence community--has
lived all their lives. Those folks are, I look at them--anybody
that comes from the intelligence community, there are folks
that are cut from a different cloth. They are unique skills and
sets. You just cannot learn that, and it is something that you
really--takes time to actually know that kind of field.
That is where I--the Department needs to recognize that
they really need to put a lot of resources into the
Intelligence Bureau. Now I know that you have hired additional
intelligence analysts. There is a group right now, they are in
school learning, but there is more that we need to hire, and
make it a very large and make it something almost similar to
what maybe the service, the Secret Service has, the FBI--that
just this area here is, we need to have that kind of abilities,
especially all around the Capitol complex.
Senator Warner. Well, I would agree with that, although I
do not--you know, I am not sure that would mean that every
Capitol Police officer needs a secret or top secret clearance
but having a large number--and one of the things that, again
Senator Blunt, Senator King and I have looked at, just
communications between different components of the IC. You have
got to have a classified communication systems in place.
My fear is if we do not have that kind of classified
information sharing so you can have real time information, the
Capitol Police are always going to be at a disadvantage. If you
have to wait for the FBI or the DHS or some other part of the
IC to come and brief on a periodic basis, that is always going
to be a hurdle.
Do you know whether the Capitol Police has, or has in place
or are putting in place any kind of classified communications
so you can go literally online real time and get updates from
the IC?
Mr. Bolton. Yes, they do have that capability so they can
go online and have real life communication with the community,
whether it be in their skiffs, that they have throughout--they
had their own skiff as well, so they can do that in real time.
I just want it real quick. The whole reason for whether or not
the officers have a top secret or secret clearance, there are a
couple of components to the reasoning for that.
One is the insider threat, having an individual that has to
have a clearance, whether it be on or off duty, making sure
that their lives comport to what their jobs entail, but it also
elevates your standards and your expectations of the people
that you are bringing on. It is a good recruiting tool as well
that this is what we require, we require a high standard
individual. That is going to, I believe, that is going to
attract additional folks to look upon the Capitol Police as a
job that you would wish to use as a career.
Senator Warner. Again, one of the things we are working
through is this issue of reciprocity. If you have--if someone
is going to move from one part of the IC over to the Capitol
Police, they could take their clearance with them. That is
still remaining a problem. I know I have got eight seconds
left. I am going to go completely to the other end of the
spectrum. An issue I have been strangely interested in for some
time is the performance of the K-9 units. You pointed out that
that was also a challenge in one of your early reports. Is
there any progress on the Capitol Police use of the dogs?
Mr. Bolton. Yes, there are. They are starting to get their
training that they need and making sure they document whenever
they do. Some of their sweeps, so that they do--they are making
progress to updating their policies and procedures and getting
the training. But again, it goes back to I would really like to
see their training is being conducted by Cheltenham and not by
the units themselves here. Again, that to me that poses a
problem. You need to have that separation of duties and make
sure that it is separated from the day to day operation to
training, and they need to continue to move forward in that
area.
Senator Warner. Well, thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you
for giving me the flexibility to go from security clearances to
K-9 units.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Okay. Very good. Senator Capito, a
Member of the Appropriations Committee as well. We thank you
for your help in getting the funding that was needed.
Senator Capito. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you Ranking
Member Blunt too. I thank you, Inspector General Bolton, for
being here. I do think it bears repeating how appalling January
6th attack was for all of us and it remains a stain on our
democracy, so I appreciate everything that you have done, but I
also mostly want to express again my sincere thanks and
appreciation to all of our Capitol Police officers and law
enforcement personnel that were protecting our Capitol that
day.
It is always great when you are on the dais and the person
in front of you asks the question that you were going to ask,
because last time you were here I was asking about the canines,
and the reason I ask about them from another perspective is
what the Chairwoman mentioned being on the Appropriations
Committee, when I was chair for the Capitol Police
Appropriations, there was a whole lot of talk about expanding
the use of canines into different types of areas, more
perimeter, purchase of these dogs--we know the training and the
purchase, it is very expensive.
So I do not need for you to repeat. It sounds like it is
the training aspect as to how they can use the K-9 units
better. Do you anticipate that as the training improves for the
canines, that they would expand their different parameters of
what they can be used for? I know some of them are used for
sniffing toxic materials. Some of them are used for other, you
know, obviously inspecting vehicles, those kinds of things. Is
that the type of thing you are talking about?
Mr. Bolton. Absolutely. Yes, ma'am. Whether it be the vapor
wake dogs or the regular traditional canine sweep vehicles,
having that training is so important and they continuously
train because you have to make sure that the dogs are
performing the way they should be performing.
Senator Capito. Right. The other thing I would say, and I
think all of us, certainly I do on my phone, as early as this
morning as I was deciding how to navigate the way into the
Capitol, I--since January 6th, we are getting repeated messages
on our phones that raise our awareness as to what streets are
closed, for what purpose, what is going on on Capitol Hill. I
think that was one, from a member's perspective, one of the big
fallacies of that day because we did not know really what was
going on, where there were safe areas, and----
Senator King. How is that any different than every day?
Senator Capito. Well, this is true. This is true. Yes, like
today, we do not know what is going on, but we do know what
roads are closed, I will say that. But I do want to express
appreciation both to the Sergeant of Arms, but also to the
Capitol Police because they have upped their communications
with, at least with me personally and I assume everybody, and I
am appreciative of that because we do need to know, we do use
it, so the alerts are very useful.
One of the--you know, one of the aspects that you--I picked
up in one of your reports is that there was no continuous radio
contact between the officers. They were having trouble
coordinating, communicating with one another. Has that been
improved? It seems to me that would be something that would be,
I do not want to say anything is easy, but easier to improve
than maybe some of the long term training aspects of this.
Mr. Bolton. That would be--that is a hard one too, in a
sense as far as the communication, as far as--because we have
not had something similar to that. But I think certainly what I
would tell you is an improvement is by issuing all the officers
with Department cell phones, so they can receive those very
alerts that you just had mentioned, with street closures, to
give them that situational awareness in real time because there
is difficult--when you do have an incident, people end up
overusing the radio and your communications ends up breaking
down.
But I think the long term answer to that is through
additional training and being able to once things get a little
bit more settled down, to have either tabletop exercises,
having areas into--instruct its officers how to do radio
discipline.
Senator Capito. Well, it seems to be training, training,
training is the aspect that has come very forward in all of
your recommendations. I am wondering if there has been or are
there plans to have like a full out drill of these trainings?
Drill of a like incident so that you can, you know, deploy
these training, you know, in real life? You are not just
sitting in a classroom or looking at something on a computer.
To your knowledge, has there been a full out drill, an
evacuation drill? I question the evacuation standards that were
used to actually remove us from the chamber. Those are
questions that I am wondering have we actually drilled this
training?
Mr. Bolton. What I have seen is that you have to continue
to do at least the evacuation training, but not the overall,
which I think is what you are thinking about. They are doing it
in bits and pieces. The childcare center, where we are
evacuating that Fairchild Building or some of these individual
buildings, and we will just do it as opposed to a whole
encompassing like situation where you had to evacuate the
entire Capitol complex, which is very difficult to do. Make no
mistake about that, because especially if Congress is in
session that is not going to--we are not going to do a training
exercise if anyone is in session, so it would have to be
something, or during a break.
Senator Capito. Well, in my view, the fact that it is very
difficult to do speaks to the need to do it. Yes, I would agree
when we are in session, that would cause additional problems.
But I do think that--and the reason I have got this top of mind
is the horrifying shooting in the school that occurred in
Michigan last week. If you read some of the reports from the
students and the teachers as to what they did, they had drilled
as to what to do if there was an active shooter in their school
and they barricaded themselves into the classrooms, they had
practiced this, and I think honestly it saved lives. It kind of
reinforced to me how important actually physically drilling
really difficult situations in the whole would save lives in
the end. Thank you very much for all your work. Thank you.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you very much, Senator Capito.
Senator King, Member of the Intelligence Committee, as well.
Senator King. Thank you. First, I have to observe how
profoundly sad it is that we are here even talking about this.
January 6th was one of the saddest days in our country. That
our magnificent Capitol is not open to the public, and we had
an attack on the heart of our democracy. It just cast a pall
over this whole discussion. Second point, part of--as I recall,
the 9-11 Commission, one of their conclusions was that there
was a failure of imagination. We had not--the people had not,
security people had not thought about what could happen. The
use of an airplane as a bomb. In this case, that the United
States Capitol would be attacked.
I think part of the recommendation is a not a very--not a
specific one, but there should be red teams. There should be
people in the Capitol Police who think the unthinkable, who
think about what could happen in the mind of a malefactor, and
it might be domestic terrorist, or it might be an international
terrorist or some combination. I hope that that is something
that you can recommend. Again, it is not as specific as saying,
okay, let's fix the K-9 corps or those things. But there should
be a conscious and deliberate policy of trying to think the
unthinkable and therefore be ready for it.
A specific question, and I have not read all your reports
in detail, but I commend you for the work that you have done. I
have been surprised there has not been more discussion of
physical security. It is pretty easy to secure a building these
days. Why do we have windows that can be broken on the first
floor of the Capitol? Why don't we have--and why don't we have
an automated system that when a button is pushed, metal doors
shut on all the entrances? Is that part of your analysis?
Mr. Bolton. Not specifically because those type of issues
really almost fall under the Architect of the Capitol. Any
physical structure----
Senator King. Yes, but we are talking--here is another
silo, Madam Chair. I mean, come on.
Mr. Bolton. Exactly. But yes, that would be outside of my
authority, to look at those kind of issues. I know General
Honore and his task force, did look at and did make several
recommendations on physical security or the structural
security. But those really fall in the realm of the Architect,
and that does not quite fit into my----
Senator King. I hope, Madam Chair, that that is something
we could look into, because, you know, if all the doors and
windows had been sealed, we would not have had a lot of the
problem that we have. There are ways--there is Lexan you can
put in the windows that is virtually bulletproof, unbreakable.
I think that should be part of our analysis. Finally, with
regard to intelligence. I leaned over to Senator Warner and
said, is the total intelligence budget of the United States
Government classified?
Neither of us are sure, so I am not going to--I am not
going to cite the number, but we spend tens of billions of
dollars every year on intelligence. It bothers me that we are
creating another Intelligence Bureau. I think there should be
someone in the Capitol Police whose job it is to look out for
the intelligence, but we do not need to start another
intelligence examination. We have got the FBI, we have got the
Department of Homeland Security, we have got enormous
intelligence assets throughout the Federal Government.
I would hope that what we can talk about is the receipt of
intelligence information, but not necessarily the creation of a
new intelligence division. I mean, that is--the problem in this
case. For example, apparently there were indications that in
the FBI system that there was danger that day, but it did not
get to the right level in the FBI, and it never got over to the
Capitol Police. To me, it is a coordination issue rather than a
collection of intelligence issues. Do you see what I mean?
Mr. Bolton. Yes, sir, I do. This is not something that we
are proponents that we would be actually going out and
gathering the intelligence. We would still be users of the
intelligence. We are just elevating the ability to receive that
intelligence, and then be able to process it and get it to the
rank and file, into the Committee, or Committees or Members of
Congress. We are not advocating that we actually become where
we are out there actually gathering the intelligence.
No, we are still users of it, but we have more ability
where we have folks there. For instant, real quick, when our
counter surveillance units are out there and they receive
information just by whether they overhear or see, that we need
to have a basically an intelligence test for them to report to
our folks who can immediately then push it out to the rank and
file, so they get that information of what our folks are
there--so they are not so much is just what they see and hear--
so there no active where they are searching or----
Senator King. But I think again, this is pressing beyond
your jurisdiction, but there should be very vigorous
discussions with the overall intelligence community, the
Director of National Intelligence, to be sure the Capitol
Police are part of their dispersal, their distribution of
information. Again, the tragedy is to have intelligence, but it
does not get to the people that need it. That may not be a
failure of the Capitol Police. It may be a failure of some
other agency, intelligence agency within the Federal
Government.
It is a question of coordination and that we need our
intelligence gathering agencies, which are very good, to be
sure that that information is being shared with the appropriate
entities, one of which is the Capitol Police. The best
intelligence in the world is no good if the people that need it
do not have it, so I appreciate your reporting. Thank you very
much for your really diligent and excellent work on this. Thank
you, Madam Chair.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you very much, Senator King.
Then on with us remotely is Senator Ossoff.
Senator Ossoff. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Mr.
Bolton, for your testimony today. When we spoke in June during
your prior appearance before this Committee, I asked you a
simple but important question, which is which individual is
ultimately responsible for the security of the United States
Capitol complex? Who is in charge? Who has ultimate
accountability? That was not a question that you at that
hearing, nor your colleagues who testified before the Committee
in February were able to answer with specificity.
You acknowledged, Mr. Bolton, during that discussion at
your last appearance that that was a problem, that the lack of
a single individual who is accountable for and has
responsibility for the security of the United States Capitol is
a major management problem and a security risk. That is my
assessment. Is that your assessment? Let me ask you the
question again now, now that there has been time to regroup,
consider reforms, consider recommendations from this Committee,
who is ultimately responsible for the security of the United
States Capitol?
Mr. Bolton. Once again you ask a difficult question. That
is, if you look at it strictly from an operational, let's say,
an operational side, that would be the Chief, the Chief of
Police, but because the Chief also has to coordinate and you
have the House and the Senate and the Architect of the Capitol,
the Capitol Police Board, that kind of muddies the water in a
sense of ultimate responsibility. But if you had to pick the
ultimate responsibility, it would fall under the Chief of
Police for security. But that still again poses an issue
because you still have the Board. It is not--I am not trying to
say that the Board does not have its roles and
responsibilities. Certainly they do. That is not the question
here.
The question is, who do you look for to have in that
responsibility for Capitol security? Obviously, if you have an
issue or you have a question or a member of your staff does,
they are going to go pick up the phone and probably call one of
two people, either the Chief or on this side for the Senate
side, you are going to be calling the Senate Sergeant of Arms.
Again, that does pose a potential problem that exists.
Senator Ossoff. Mr. Bolton, we have engaged extensively
with you this year and with your colleagues because there was
an egregious security failure which threatened the peaceful
transfer of power as required by the Constitution between
Presidential Administrations. I do not need to remind you, but
I remind all who are tuned in that that failure resulted in the
sacking of the United States Senate.
The invasion of the Senate floor, a suspension of
constitutionally vital processes. Here we are now, nearly a
year later, and the answer to the question who is in charge,
which we have identified repeatedly as being a crucial driver
of both the failure to respond promptly to the contingency on
January 6th and also the lack of effective management and
sharing of intelligence in the weeks beforehand, no one is in
charge. Does that need to change, and how would you change it
if you could simply impose a different set of policies and a
different org chart?
Mr. Bolton. Well, it kind of pushes me outside of my realm
as Inspector General for the Capitol Police, but I think there
is certainly--there would be an ability, and this would be
something that the Committees would have to look long and hard
at where you have maybe something similar to, let's say, the
FBI, where you have a Director in charge. That--it would answer
your question. Who is ultimately in charge of the FBI? It is
the Director. Who is ultimately in charge of the Secret
Service? Well the Director of the Secret Service. That is who
you are going to go to hold accountable for any questions that
you may have. That would be something that would have to be
thought long and hard because of the uniqueness of the Capitol
Police and the various elements, whether it be the House
Sergeant of Arms, or the Senate Sergeant of Arms, or the
Architect of the Capitol who make up the Capitol Police Board
and a lot of different moving parts there. It is not as clear
cut and as easy as areas over in the executive branch.
Senator Ossoff. Thank you, Mr. Bolton. Well, it is a matter
that I think this Committee needs to continue to focus on. In
any management context, in any security context, in any command
context, as you know, the lack of a single point of authority
and accountability is a major vulnerability, and we have seen
the consequences of that, in part, earlier this year. With my
remaining time begging the Chair's indulgence, just one further
question for you. I want to express my gratitude and respect
and appreciation for the men and women of the United States
Capitol Police.
I want to express my gratitude and appreciation and
understanding of the extraordinary burden that they have had to
bear. The tremendous amount of overtime that United States
Capitol Police personnel have worked. In 2020, officers worked,
according to my notes here, over 700,000 hours of mandatory
overtime. As USCP union representatives have noted, this is
driven by chronic understaffing. There was, of course, a wave
of retirements and resignations after the January 6th attack.
Congress has an unpredictable schedule. At present, none of
this overtime, again mandatory overtime, 700,000 hours of it in
2020, counts toward the officer's base pay for retirement
purposes. My question for you, Mr. Bolton, is what more can
Congress do to relieve the extraordinary burden on the United
States Capitol Police requiring so much mandatory overtime, and
to ensure that their compensation and their retirement benefits
reflect the true measure of their commitment and sacrifice to
the security of the Congress? I cannot hear you, Mr. Bolton.
Mr. Bolton. Can you hear me now, sir?
Senator Ossoff. Yes, I can.
Mr. Bolton. Okay. I have been here since 2006 with the
Capitol Police Inspector General's Office. I have yet to see
were any Committees, or Congress as a whole, or even the Board
be an impediment to the Capitol Police in getting the necessary
resources and funding required to complete their job. Some of
this is a result of the circumstances beyond even the
Committee's control or even the Capitol Police's control,
whether it be the events of January 6th or just natural
retirements or folks wishing to get out of law enforcement,
there are many different factors and certainly I do not want to
leave any kind of--I would not leave any kind of an impression
that in any time the Committees and, or the Board were an
impediment to the Capitol Police receiving, like I said,
funding and, or resources.
Basically, from my position, it is incumbent upon the
Capitol Police to present to the Committees and to the Board
their needs, and to be looking forward, forward looking into
potential what they will need, whether it be retirements coming
up, need additional classes, or utilizing different aspects in
order to bring folks on quicker, whether it may be rehiring of
those Capitol Police officers who are coming up on a retirement
as opposed to them going to, let's say, over to the Marshall
service to conduct their court security officers. We keep them
here. We just may end up changing into instead a uniform they
are wearing a blue blazer. Those kind of ideas where you can
have a force multiplier, and those are the type of things that
it are really incumbent upon in the Department to be looking to
those type of things. But certainly, like I said, since I have
been here, I have never seen any Committees and, or Board that
had inhibited the Department from getting those resources.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Okay. Next up, Senator Cruz. Thank
you. Thank you, Senator Ossoff.
Senator Cruz. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Bolton, welcome.
Thank you for your testimony. Thank you for your service. On
January 6th, all of us in the entire Nation was horrified at
the terrorist attack that occurred here in Washington, DC. The
violent assault on the Capitol was horrific. The men and women
of the Capitol Police and DC Metro Police and law enforcement
demonstrated extraordinary bravery and heroism and courage. At
the same time, what happened on January 6th must never be
allowed to happen again.
A riot that succeeds in breaching the Capitol that
endangers the lives of lawmakers and law enforcement is an
unacceptable security situation, and you have done a serious
job examining what caused, what law enforcement failures
precipitated what occurred that day. When you previously
testified to this Committee, you stated the primary problems
were on the front end, the lack of adequate intelligence
gathering, and on the day of execution, a lack of operational
planning in place to handle an incident like the January 6th
attack.
I would like to follow up on what specific steps Capitol
Police have taken since then to ensure that never happens
again. What specific steps has the Capitol Police taken since
June 2021 to improve its intelligence gathering?
Mr. Bolton. Thank you, sir. One of the first--one of the
things they have done is they went out and hired actually was a
retired Secret Service agent who had extensive training and
expertise in large event planning, operational planning. They
went out and hired someone from the outside. You could
certainly see the difference in September 18th, the latest
large demonstration that we had here on the Hill. By bringing
that expertise in there and coordinating, the gathering to have
an operational plan has greatly enhanced the Department's
ability to respond and react to potentially large
demonstrations.
The Department has increased a number of intelligence
analysts. They still have a ways to go, I would say, but they
have increased intelligence analysts. In fact, like I had
testified earlier that they have additional four or five
analysts in training as we speak. They have made some
improvements in providing the intelligence briefings to the
rank and file officers, to the other beyond the executive team,
as I would call them, but you know, your inspectors and your
captains, your line folks that are actually going to have to
react to a situation.
Those folks are getting the briefings now, they are getting
the intelligence materials and assessments in a timely manner
so that it is real time, with the Department also issuing
department or Government cell phones. They can get the alerts
in real time in case there is a problem with the radios. Now
they at least have a backup to get that information, and that
is solely relied on a radio that could potentially get
overwhelmed immediately, but you still have that ability with
the cell phones.
Senator Cruz. What additional steps do Capitol Police need
to take to improve their intelligence gathering capabilities?
Mr. Bolton. I think they still need to, one, first order of
business is they need to hire a full-time director. Right now,
they are in the capacity of an acting director. They need to
fill that position, fill it quickly, and then look to have that
individual who has that expertise to look across his folks that
he has, he or she has, and one, is to elevate to a bureau
level. I still believe that they need to elevate it from a
division to a bureau to a standalone, full robust Intelligence
Bureau. Hire additional analysts and look--and keep up with the
ways intelligence gathering is done and also to be able to
disseminate the information that you receive from the field
quickly and timely to the officers.
Senator Cruz. Now, the other major source of the problems
on January 6th that you identified was the failure to implement
effective operational plans during the attack. What specific
steps have the Capitol Police taken to develop and design
workable operational plans to deal with a situation like that
in the future?
Mr. Bolton. One of the things we noted when they came up
with that operational planning, initially for January 6th, it
was so stovepipe, the term, that there were different elements
within the Capitol Police who either would either do their own
plan or did not have one. So you did not have a department-wide
plan. Now what they have done is they have incorporated whether
it be CERT, K-9, Hazards Incident Response Teams, DPD, all
under one umbrella.
So you have an overall--everybody else knows what everybody
else is doing, what their plan of action is going to be,
whether it be the bike units or just the patrol division units.
So everybody at least understands what the other units--what
other assets they may have to call upon under one operational
plan. So it is a department-wide as opposed to the way it was
in January, which was just basically CDU, and that was it.
Senator Cruz. So what more do the Capitol Police need to do
to improve their operational capability in the event of a riot
or other violent attack?
Mr. Bolton. I think they need, one, is continue with their
training. Do not make the training that they have had, they
have conducted with CDU units. But also they need to train
together. In other words, whether it be CERT and DPD, they need
to be trained, doing training exercises together in case of
emergency so that it becomes a little bit easier or even K-9.
How is K-9 going to be--in a way assist, set up scenarios where
K-9 is going to have to assist the Dignitary Protective
Division. Come up with scenarios, train together. So these
units actually need to start training together as opposed to
separate.
Senator Cruz. Thank you.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you very much, Senator Cruz. I
know something that you and I have discussed, and you care
about very much as to all of us, Senator Cruz, is the number of
threats that we have seen against Members of Congress over the
past several years. The Capitol Police reported over 4,100
threats against Members of Congress in just the first three
months of this year. That is on track to more than double the
number of threats against Members in all of 2020.
The Chief has said that he expects that the Department and
law enforcement partners will have to respond to 9,000 threats
to Members this year. Has the Capitol Police, Mr. Bolton, taken
action since June to keep up with these serious threats, and
are additional resources and personnel needed?
Mr. Bolton. The Department is doing a good job in keeping
up with the threats. I think by having them open up a field
office down in Florida is going to assist once that gets up and
fully running. But they are taking steps to have hired
additional analysts. They have, like I said before, they have
several in school, but there still needs to be additional folks
hired and brought on board in the intelligence. So we still
have a ways to go, but we are making improvements. We are
taking our steps now.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Yes. I think understandably focused
on, because of January 6th, the intelligence piece of this. But
there is more than that as well, of course, and that is the
followup when there is active threats and the police protection
and the like that we are very concerned about. I had, let's
see, oh, one smaller question. Your report raised broader
concerns about the accuracy of department staffing records. We
have all talked about the problem with lack of staff, but the
records. Do you agree that the Department should maintain
accurate records of anyone on duty and where they are
stationed?
Mr. Bolton. Oh, yes. As we noted in our--one of our last
flash reports with the manpower issue we dealt with, that the
Department could not provide us records, whether it be recalls
or the amount of folks they actually had at that time. So the
concept that it was an all hands is dubious at best in the
sense. They could not provide us with that kind of
documentation.
It is also important to note, when it came time for
deputizing some outside law enforcement, the Department did not
have the proper records to document who was deputized and by
whom, which could present an issue if that individual made a
Federal arrest and it was a local officer, then the question of
their legal authority for making that arrest could come in
question if we cannot prove that they were actually deputized.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Okay. Something to followup on. In
your report on command communications, you recommended that the
Department implement a policy requiring senior officials to
rotate through various posts of the Capitol Police. I just am
recalling when I was the DA I did this a day at a time, but I
would see, line people at work and basically, on the front
line, and it gave me a much bigger sense of challenges and the
like. Could you elaborate on that? Then I have one last
question, Senator Blunt.
Mr. Bolton. The Department needs to develop a rotational
policy. You cannot have certain individuals who will spend
their entire career in one unit, whether it is 23 years out of
their 25 years in CERT or even DPD.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. You are talking about senior managers
rotating to be in charge of different units.
Mr. Bolton. Whether it be the senior manager--also the rank
and file officers. Because what you want to do is you want to
develop your officers or individuals who are specially trained
in the CERT or K-9 or they have these other skills, you want
them back in the field with those skills, so you get them
promoted through the ranks into leadership positions because
then they also have that background and that knowledge and
skills.
Also allow your younger officers to come into those
specialty skills without having to wait numerous years in order
to become a CERT officer, or K-9, or DPD agent. That you
start--what you want is a well-rounded police department. If
you do not have a rotational policy, you are not going to get
there.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Okay. Just a yes or no question. We
know there is so much more work to do, but do you believe that
the Department is better prepared than they were on January
6th?
Mr. Bolton. Keeping it simple, yes.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Okay. I want to thank you so much,
Inspector General. Senator Blunt, you want to say any closing
remarks?
Senator Blunt. I have got just one or two questions. I know
you just responded to the event planning question that Senator
Cruz asked and talked about bringing somebody in who was more
prepared for that. What about the event on September--the
planning for the event on September 18th? You know, there was
installed temporary fencing announced publicly, all of the
information that had been shared with the officers, as well as
partner agencies and had those partner agencies on standby.
What did we learn from that?
Mr. Bolton. Our biggest--we learned from it, that is how we
should be doing business. This is the way--the detail, the
effort, and not only am I going to say effort, but the impact
that you have if you are planning correctly, how you have good
outcomes. Certainly, you know, September 18th was a good
outcome. They were properly prepared. They were ready for any
contingency. That is where we need to continue to be each and
every day, and whether it be a larger event or just a regular
day to day operations, we need to be prepared for any
contingency.
Senator Blunt. Of course, there was not much of a
contingency to be prepared for there. Do you think that is
because of the widely discussed preparations or was there an
intelligence lack of understanding of how many people were
going to come to that event?
Mr. Bolton. I really do not have any direct hand knowledge
as far as reasons why it was so or was not so well attended.
There could be various reasons why that. But I think what we
need to take from that as an example of how we, you know, the
Capitol Police, what we can control and how we should be
prepared.
Senator Blunt. The cost of that event, preparing for that
event and paying for that event was----
Mr. Bolton. We have not conducted any kind of work on that
to be able to provide that information----
Senator Blunt. Well, I think I have read somewhere it was
right around $1 million. Well, I think there is maybe more to
learn from that than that we should do that every time we think
something might happen, and probably that is more on the
intelligence side. I have actually been supportive of the
Chief's determination of that, if for no other reason than to
have a trial run of what happens in terms of how quickly the
fence can come up and down, and it was quickly up and quickly
down, and how our partner agencies could be prepared to
respond.
Though I am not of the view that there was ever the level
of threat, but there, you know, it could be that the
preparations made a big difference in who was going to come. I
do think the combination of event planning and solid
intelligence would make a difference on how we plan for those
events, and I am sure I will have some questions for the Chief
about that. I think that is all I have. I may have some
questions for the Record, Chairwoman, but I think I am done for
this morning.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Alright. Well, thank you very much. I
want to thank you, we both have thanked you, as all the Members
of this Committee, regardless of political party, are very,
very thankful for what you have done, Mr. Bolton. You laid out
detailed recs. We know there has been progress as a result of
those recommendations, but we know there is a lot more work to
be done.
That is why we are going to be calling the Chief before the
Committee, following up on the progress. Everyone involved in
this who has been watching today, we will have a few weeks'
notice here. There is always time to get more things done and
we will go over your recommendations as well as ours that came
out of the report.
I want to thank you, Mr. Bolton, and we look forward to
whatever you are providing for us next because it is always
done in a professional manner and you are not afraid to tell
the truth, which we need more of every day in these hallways.
The Record will remain open for one week. With that, Senator
Blunt, you want to add anything?
Senator Blunt. No, Chairwoman, I do not think there's much
to add here. We both expressed our thanks to Inspector General
Bolton. I do think the recommendations he has made and his
consistent following up to be sure those are done, and I know
he has looked also at the recommendations we made in our Joint
Committee Report, have been significant in moving, helping the
Department move in the right direction. Like you, I look
forward to his continued good work in this area.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you, and the hearing is
adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:26 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED
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