[Senate Hearing 117-533]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 117-533
OVERSIGHT OF THE UNITED STATES
CAPITOL POLICE
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON RULES AND ADMINISTRATION
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
DECEMBER 19, 2022
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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
50-218 WASHINGTON : 2023
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COMMITTEE ON RULES AND ADMINISTRATION
SECOND 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 Graves, 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....................................................... 4
J. Thomas Manger, Chief of Police, United States Capitol Police,
Washington, DC................................................. 8
Prepared Statement of:
J. Thomas Manger, Chief of Police, United States Capitol Police,
Washington, DC................................................. 22
Questions Submitted for the Record:
Hon. Amy Klobuchar, Chairwoman, a United States Senator from the
State of Minnesota to J. Thomas Manger, Chief of Police, United
States Capitol Police, Washington, DC.......................... 36
Hon. Dianne Feinstein, a United States Senator from the State of
California to J. Thomas Manger, Chief of Police, United States
Capitol Police, Washington, DC................................. 37
Hon. Mark Warner, a United States Senator from the State of
Virginia to J. Thomas Manger, Chief of Police, United States
Capitol Police, Washington, DC................................. 41
Hon. Shelley Capito, a United States Senator from the State of
West Virginia to J. Thomas Manger, Chief of Police, United
States Capitol Police, Washington, DC.......................... 43
OVERSIGHT OF THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL POLICE
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MONDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2022
United States Senate
Committee on Rules and Administration
Washington, DC
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 3:32 p.m., in
Room 301, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Amy Klobuchar,
Chairwoman of the Committee, presiding.
Present: Senators Klobuchar, Blunt, King, Ossoff, Wicker,
and Fischer.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HONORABLE AMY KLOBUCHAR, CHAIRWOMAN, A
UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MINNESOTA
Chairwoman Klobuchar. I call the Committee to order. It is
wonderful to be here for the last hearing with my close friend,
Ranking Member Blunt.
I am going to say a few words about him shortly. But it is
fitting, I would say, that we are ending with this important
oversight hearing of the Capitol Police, because it has defined
so much of our work during the last two years, and we are
forever grateful to the men and women of the Capitol Police.
It is a part, I know, of Senator Blunt's job that he has
always liked. You will always find him, as you know Chief, with
the officers. During the holiday season, you will find him with
them every step of the way.
It was my privilege to see the officers and their families
presented with the Congressional Gold Medal earlier this month
for their courage defending our democracy on January 6th.
Senator Blunt and I led the bill, and we are very excited that
we have had the honor of the Congressional Gold Medal being
bestowed upon the police.
Next month will mark two years since January 6th, since the
peaceful transfer of power that historically we have seen that
day, the Electoral Count Act day when the ballots are counted
from each state, when we saw this disrupted with an
insurrection.
As we know it was more than an assault on a building, it
was an assault on our democracy, and it was an actual life and
death situation for so many of our officers on duty that day.
As we have heard testimony in our joint hearings with the
Homeland Security Committee that we all took part in, our
officers performed heroically under unimaginable circumstances,
suffering many injuries and in some cases, loss of life.
Tragically, five officers passed away following the attack.
Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died the next day. Four
other officers died in the days and months that followed,
Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood and DC Metropolitan
Police Officers Jeffrey Smith, Gunther Hashida, and Kyle
DeFreytag.
Many more suffered injuries and even more suffered
emotional trauma that day. Later that spring, we also lost
Officer Billy Evans, who gave his life defending our Capitol
right there at the front Senate gate. Many of us remember Billy
personally, and I have been honored to get to know his family
and his kids.
We owe it to the officers who stand in defense of the
Capitol to make sure that they have the resources and support
they need. I want to acknowledge, first of all, the
Department's work to expand mental health support for officers,
including establishing the Howard Liebengood Center for
Wellness after we passed funding for it in last year's
emergency appropriations legislation.
After that heroic day, Senator Blunt and I, as I mentioned,
worked with Senator Portman and Senator Peters to hold hearings
and issue a bipartisan report with the Homeland Security
Committee with recommendations that could be implemented
without delay. This is our sixth hearing on Capitol security
during this Congress.
Significant progress has been made to implement our
recommendations for the entities charged with protecting the
Capitol. The majority have been put into effect entirely, as
well as more than 75 percent of the Capitol Police Inspector
General's 103 recommendations.
Through these efforts, the Department has improved its
handling of intelligence by hiring a new Intelligence Director
and sharing information with rank and file officers,
prioritized operational planning by requiring plans for large
scale events, and used the resources in last year's emergency
appropriations legislation to ensure officers have the training
and the equipment that they need.
We will never forget the stories of the riot gear left in
the buses locked. We will never forget the stories of what a
high percentage--and of course, you were not chief then--but
what a high percentage of our officers were not equipped with
riot gear.
In fact, the people attacking them in some cases had gear
that they did not even have themselves. The Department also
faced the difficult task of confronting a shortfall in officers
since January 6th, which placed even more pressure on those
protecting our Capitol. I appreciate your work, Chief, to take
this on head on to restore morale and confidence in your ranks.
I still remember when I knew that the morale was improving
about six months after the attack. I remember how difficult it
was in those weeks and months afterwards. But about six months
after the attack, I was outside in the parking area and I was
standing there and one of the officers was talking to me, and
one of your other officers was on bike patrol and he put up his
megaphone and he said, Officer, the name of the guy I was
talking to, ``do you need backup? Do you need backup?''
I thought at that moment, whatever is going on, there has
been some improvement in morale that people can once again have
a little moment of fun and appreciate the surroundings that
they are in. As I have told your officers, including last week,
they are the ones that are on the front line every single day
for our safety and also the front line of what visitors to the
Capitol see.
Your efforts have paid off, Chief, as the Department met
its goal to hire 280 officers this year and is on track to do
the same next year. Your work to recruit more officers and
overcome attrition has been integral to reopening the Capitol.
We have had tour groups back for nearly nine months now, and
the Capitol Visitor Center reopened about seven months ago.
Just last week, another entrance to the Senate office
buildings opened, and we will open at least one more in January
when the public galleries are planned to be open as well. We
know it has been long, long in coming, but we understand your
plan to ensure our safety and slowly and surely open up some of
these areas because we could not do it all at once and we still
cannot do every single thing we were doing before. There has
been significant progress, but there is also much more to do.
I know you know in that one of those goals is to confront
the dramatic rise in threats targeting Members of Congress.
While the Department has hired more threat assessment agents
and opened two field offices to counter these threats, more
must be done.
Chief, I know you have presented a proposal to the Capitol
Police Board laying out resources that the Department needs to
be effective given the current threat landscape to ensure
Members are safe when they are away from the Capitol.
One of the things we also talked about in that last meeting
that Senator Blunt and I attended was about the prosecution of
these cases, which is not under your purview, one thing that is
not, but making sure that they occur, and I have already
contacted the Justice Department about that.
Another thing we should do without delay is to pass my
bipartisan proposal with Senator Cruz to provide for the
removal of Members of Congress private information from the
internet, similar to a provision for Federal judges that was
just included in the NDAA, and I continue to work to get this
done by the end of the year. I look forward to hearing from you
today, Chief.
Now, before I turn it over to Senator Blunt, I wanted to
talk a little bit about his work and recognize the importance
of his service, not just to this Committee, but really to our
Capitol and to our country.
Through our work leading the Rules Committee, sometimes he
has been Chair, sometimes I have been Chair. Sometimes it just
does not matter who is Chair because we work together so well.
I have gotten to see firsthand Chairman Blunt, former Chairman,
now Ranking Member Blunt's deep respect for our Constitution,
for the Senate, and our democracy.
As a former top election official in Missouri, Senator
Blunt's experience benefited our Committee as we worked to
support the work of election administrators, including
highlighting the rise in threats in the hearing we did last
year. Since coming to the Senate, Senator Blunt's love for this
institution has come through in his efforts to make this a
better place to work.
That includes not okaying every request we get from every
Member, but whenever we can, we try to do that. It includes
joining with me to reform the outdated process of reporting and
handling sexual harassment claims on Capitol Hill. Many great
improvements were made that have been helpful for this
institution.
It includes updating the rules for new parents when we
worked to ensure that Senator Duckworth and future parents can
bring their babies to the Senate floor. He has also been a
great partner to me on many other issues, including we co-
chaired the Travel and Tourism Caucus and passed Brand USA
several times. He co-chaired the Adoption Caucus with me. We
got a number of bills passed over the years. He himself, the
parent of adopted child Charlie Blunt, that he loves so much,
and he has taken that heart and put it into that issue as well.
Above all else, Senator Blunt's career here has been
defined by service. He is more interested in getting things
done than getting the accolades. Although I know talking to
your wife, Abby, there have been a lot of accolades in recent
months, buildings named after you, airports named after you,
all well-deserved.
But what I will most remember about Senator Blunt is that
moment on January 6th, when it was just the two of us and Vice
President Pence walking through that corridor that in the
morning had been a place of celebration, walking through the
broken glass, the spray painted columns to do our jobs.
When we came back at--then it was about 4:30 in the
morning, when it was all done and democracy had prevailed, he
and I decided to go downstairs to look at the damage to the
Parliamentarian office and other offices. It was a horrendous
sight, pictures broken, their own personal belongings all over
the floor.
We knew then that our work had not ended really that day,
but our work had just begun to protect the security of the
Capitol. But I most remember in a typical Roy Blunt way, as we
walked out of that office and the sun is coming out, he turns
to me in all seriousness and says, ``well, see you tomorrow.''
I said, ``tomorrow is here, but I will.'' I think that is
what we say to Senator Blunt today, that we will see you
tomorrow and we will see you many days to come. And we are all
so excited that Senator Fischer will actually become the
Ranking Member. She and I get along very well.
She had asked me to be her Democratic mentor, whatever that
meant, when she came to the Senate. I tried my best, and we are
really excited that she is going to be filling in here and
becoming the Ranking Member.
But Roy, we are all going to miss you. I know Angus came in
specifically to recognize your work, and we thank you, Roy, for
all you have done and we should give you applause here.
[Applause.]
OPENING STATEMENT OF HONORABLE ROY BLUNT, A UNITED STATES
SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MISSOURI
Senator Blunt. I thank all of you. As Abby Blunt would
quickly point out, there have been plenty of recognitions for
me, and she is doing her job to be sure that I keep that in
some balance by representing the other side of the question of
how capable I may or may not be. But glad to be here with all
of you.
This is a unique Committee, and the opportunity to be so
involved all the time, and sometimes almost too involved--some
days just the daily operation of the Senate, it gives those of
us who have done management things like the Governor and others
a chance to have a little bit of that management desire
fulfilled, a chance to really work directly with the Chief, and
the Librarian of Congress, and the Director of the Smithsonian,
and unfortunately, the food service companies and the things
that are--really have been complicated the last few years is
the visits to the Capitol were dramatically changed when the
Capitol building itself was not open.
But I appreciate your kind words. You know, we have served
on this Committee together, both in 2017 and then dramatically
in 2021. We were two of the four people that joined first Vice
President Biden in 2017 and then by Vice President Pence in
2021 to go through the process of certifying the election.
Then only a few days later, two weeks in fact later, in
2021, at the exact same location where our great Capitol Police
force and Metropolitan Police force had been trying to defend
the Capitol and did defend the Capitol, we were out there where
we should be for the whole world to watch the peaceful
transition of power.
From that day, I was the Chairman at that event, and the
Chairman has some gavels to use that day as necessary. Here is
one for you, and the base says the 59th Presidential
Inauguration, January 20, 2021.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you.
Senator Blunt. As you pointed out, we worked on so many
things, it has almost made the work of this Committee seamless.
We go from two or three different issues. We are working on
from adoption to travel, to visa to commerce all at once, and
we have been great friends and I look forward to that continued
friendship with you and others on the Rules Committee.
I have been Chairman twice--let's see, I was Chairman, then
Senator Shelby was Chairman, then I was Chairman again. It has
been great to work with you in this divided Congress as you
become Chairwoman. I know I am leaving the Committee in good
hands as Senator Fischer moves into the position of Ranking
Member at the beginning of the next Congress.
She has been a Member of the Rules Committee since she came
to Congress after the 2012 election, and I feel confident that
the two of you are going to do great things for the Senate and
the people who work here.
One of the most important functions, of course, is our
relationship with the police, the Capitol Police, who every
Member of Congress sees multiple times every day from the
moment we walk in, as a matter of fact usually before we walk
in, until the moment we walk out of the building, and then the
moment we are headed away from the Capitol.
Chief Manger was hired in the wake of the events of January
the 6th. He brought incredible experience to this job, having
been the chief of two of the very biggest neighboring
jurisdictions. I am eager to hear his assessment of where we
are on the recommendations we made.
You know, that coming quickly with our Committee and the
other oversight committee and having those hearings, having a
set of recommendations within just a couple of months really of
the time that we started looking at this. I know one of the
things we will talk to the chief today is about that.
Also later this afternoon, you and I--Chairwoman, you and I
will both be at an event where the 2021 Freedom Award is
awarded--the 2022 Freedom Award recipients will be awarded, and
that is the Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police. Chief
Manger and Chief Contee will be there to recognize that--and
accept that recognition. I think that award was started 20
years ago in 1993.
That was the 200th anniversary of George Washington laying
the cornerstone for the Capitol that would be begun here and
was finished a few years later in Washington. But the Freedom
Award named for the statue on the top of the Capitol, the
Statue of Freedom.
Chief, your officers and the Metropolitan Police officers
who arrived immediately when called, made an incredible
difference that day, as they do every day.
Senator Klobuchar and I and the rest of the Members of the
Committee are honored to be able to welcome you here today.
Thank you, Chairwoman.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Very good. Senator Fischer, you want
to add something? Thank you, Senator Wicker, for being here as
well.
Senator Fischer. Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to thank
Senator Blunt for his time as Chair and Ranking Member of this
Committee. As the former top election official in Missouri, his
firsthand knowledge of the elections process was incredibly
valuable to this Committee.
Senator Blunt understands every policy issue that comes
before him with a curious mind and tireless attention to
detail. He has always been a trusted voice in our conference
and an exceptional member of leadership.
As Leader McConnell said earlier this month, Senator Blunt
has time and again wound up in the middle of high stakes, high
profile work. Yet he remains the same humble and approachable
Missourian who first got into this business to help his
neighbors.
I want to thank Roy for his work to ensure a smooth
transition to me as the new Ranking Member on this Committee.
He has been very helpful in this process, ensuring that both
the Republican Rules Committee staff and my personal staff have
the information they need, and that we are all in a position to
succeed.
In the video announcing his retirement, Senator Blunt stood
on the dairy farm where he grew up and said that he planned to
finish strong, and he certainly has. After 14 general election
victories and 26 years in Congress, Senator Blunt has a lot to
be proud of.
I know we are certainly going to miss him here in the
Senate. Missourians, Nebraskans, and all Americans are better
off thanks to his selfless service. Thank you. Good job, Roy.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Really nice. Thank you for mentioning
Senator Blunt's tremendous staff that really work seamlessly,
as you noted. Senator Wicker, you want to add anything, and
then maybe Senator King.
Senator Wicker. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I spoke
from my heart on the Senate floor several days ago after
Senator Blunt's farewell address.
Let me just echo what Senator Fischer has said and say how
fortunate I feel to have served with Roy Blunt, both on this
Committee, on the Commerce Committee, in the House, and in the
United States Senate. I got to the House two years before he
did. I got over here to the Senate a little bit before he did.
But I was well aware that once he got here, he would
immediately move into leadership.
I was tickled to be a part of that little, small cadre of
people that encouraged Senator Blunt to run for leadership at a
very early point in his Senate career. Senator Fischer
mentioned high stakes and high profile moments in quoting our
distinguished Republican leader.
It does seem that when fortune smiles on us, whether by
chance or by providence, the right person happens to be at the
right place, in the right position, at the right time. I think
of January 20, 2017, when we showed the world once again what
President Reagan said was a both profound and commonplace
moment.
Commonplace because it occurs every four years. Profound
because it occurs every four years on the dot. The way our
friend from Missouri was asked to be in charge of that orderly
Constitutional transfer of power, and then it happens that our
friend Roy was called on to be the symbol of that orderly
Constitutional transfer after a time when the decision was much
more contentious.
I cannot think of another fellow citizen of the United
States who would have been in a better--who would have been
better capable of carrying that off and making that day once
again, profound and commonplace. I thank the Chair for
reminding me earlier today that----
Chairwoman Klobuchar. He means sending him a text.
Senator Wicker [continuing]. this was a special command
performance to me, and I am grateful to her for reminding me.
Also, I am grateful to both of you for allowing me to remodel
my committee room before any others. We would not have done it
without the leadership of these two great friends on the
Committee.
Roy, congratulations to you. Surely this is the last time I
will have to wax sentimental, but it has been a great run. You
have been a great public servant and will always be my great
friend.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. All right. Thank you, Senator Wicker,
for bringing up the inauguration, which I had not, and that was
an incredible moment. As you mentioned, both inaugurations,
where Roy just really stood out for his work. Thank you.
Senator King.
Senator King. Very briefly, because everything has been
said, Roy was one of the first people I met when I got here. In
just a few weeks, I do not even think I had been sworn in yet.
We had a chat and we found that we were both adoptive parents,
and we shared the fact that any adoptive parent will tell you
that you fall in love with those kids just like any other kids.
How important that--and both in fact adoptive parents of
children from abroad, and the important thing about making them
part of our family. Unfortunately, we have not had a chance to
really work together very much on legislation, but my
observation of Roy, a couple of points.
One is the example of leadership is so important. We tend
to think of leadership as speeches and pushing and amendments
and arguing and debating. Just the example that you set of
dignity, common sense, a thoughtfulness has been an example to
me, and I think it is one that is so important to your
colleagues. That is one of the reasons you are going to be so
missed.
One of the definitions of courage is grace under pressure.
I think on January 6th, and again on January 21st, which was--
January 20th, rather, which was not a--it was not a foregone
conclusion how things were going to go that day, it was your
grace under pressure, your steadiness, that I think meant so
much to all of us, but mostly to the country, mostly to the
country.
I love Ronald Reagan's comment that it is commonplace is
profound. Profound because it is commonplace, because what we
have here is very unusual in human history and it is fragile,
as we learned.
Your steadiness and good common sense, goodness, Midwestern
common sense--I am married to a girl from the Midwest, and she
reminds me of that, a woman from the Midwest.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. That is okay.
Senator King. We have been married almost 40 years. Anyway,
Roy, you have meant so much to all of us, but you have meant so
much to the country. Thank you deeply for your service.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Very good. Very nice. I actually have
a picture of us, Roy, that I like because it looks like you are
maybe thinking, what is she saying? Anyway, it is great. There
you are. I am now, my job----
Senator Blunt. Chief, I guess you thought this hearing was
about you.
[Laughter.]
Chairwoman Klobuchar [continuing]. is to introduce Chief
Manger, the Chief of the United States Capitol Police. He was
sworn into his current position on July 23, 2021, after a
distinguished 42 year career in law enforcement--longer than
Angus has been married--most recently serving for 15 years as
Chief of Police in Montgomery County, Maryland. Earlier in his
career, he served as Chief of Police in Fairfax County,
Virginia, where he rose through the ranks after first joining
the force following his graduation from the University of
Maryland.
I will now swear in the witness. If you would, 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. Manger. I do.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you, Chief. You can be seated,
and you are recognized for five minutes.
OPENING STATEMENT OF J. THOMAS MANGER, CHIEF OF POLICE, UNITED
STATES CAPITOL POLICE, WASHINGTON, DC
Mr. Manger. Thank you. Chairwoman Klobuchar, Ranking Member
Blunt, distinguished Members of the Committee, thank you for
this opportunity to share with you the many initiatives
currently underway to strengthen the United States Capitol
Police Department.
Having been in this position for nearly a year and a half,
we now move from fixing the immediate problems identified on
January 6th and its aftermath, to better positioning the
Department for the future.
The USCP's mission is highly complex. To fulfill our
responsibilities, we need to flexibly--the flexibility to pivot
seamlessly from our public order responsibilities, to our
investigative responsibilities, to our protection
responsibilities.
My first priority when I arrived here was fixing the
systemic deficiencies that lay at the root of its operational
and intelligence capabilities. The Department identified,
prioritized, and remediated the most significant gaps,
including those identified by this Committee, such as
developing Department wide operational plans for special
events, training and equipping the Civil Disturbance Unit, and
improving the Department's intelligence gathering and sharing
capabilities.
These front burner priorities have largely been remediated.
In fact, of the 103 inspector general recommendations that came
out in the flash reports, 70 of them have been closed, with
most others on a glide path to closure. While certain items
remain on the Department's post January 6th to do list, we are
working on three key areas, threat investigations, fully
reopening the Capitol, and staffing.
Among the most significant challenges that we are facing is
the ever changing threat landscape. Hate, intolerance, and
violence are part of a disturbing trend. This past year, the
Department saw more than 9,000 threats against Members of
Congress. The attacks on Representative Lee Zeldin and Paul
Pelosi, as well as the threats directed toward other Members of
Congress, are a sad reminder of the extent to which our social
fabric has frayed.
Not surprisingly then, the bulk of the Department's current
efforts are directed to threat assessment and mitigation. These
efforts include an increase in the number of dignitary
protection agents, as well as the training of a reserve team to
supplement protection advance teams, enhance security
protections for Members, their families, and their homes.
To that end, the Department has presented a list of
security recommendations and options to the Capitol Police
Board and the relevant Appropriations Committees of both
chambers.
These recommendations span the gamut of enhanced security
protections and include the installation of state of the art
residential security systems for every Member of Congress, the
creation of a protection operations center, and the expansion
of memorandums of understanding with local law enforcement
agencies nationwide.
With the increase of USCP staffing over the past year, I am
confident that we are on track to meet our goal of fully
reopening the Capitol. However, to meet our ever growing
workload demands, our goal is to increase the sworn police
staffing to more than 2,000 officers, and our civilian staff to
over 450 by the end of Fiscal Year 2023.
Since January 6th, we have hired over 350 new recruits, 175
of which have graduated from the Academy and are now covering
posts throughout the Capitol grounds. Our hiring and
recruitment efforts also include 55 contract Capitol security
officers, a launch of lateral hiring program, and the payment
of retention bonuses.
These enhancements should enable the Department to meet its
target of fully reopening the Capitol to pre-COVID levels
within the next three months. As part of the Department's
continuous transformation, we are working on a Department wide
reorganization plan.
Not only is this in response to the recommendations and
findings of various after action reports, it is also necessary
to establish a structure that fosters and reinforces
accountability, internal controls, and employee development. We
have submitted our proposal to the Board, which is currently
under review.
Once approved, it will allow a number of senior leadership
positions to be filled. Our ability to enhance the protection
of Members and their families is part of a holistic law
enforcement and investigative process. It is not enough just to
identify the bad actors.
Those that commit prosecutable offenses must be called to
account for their actions within the criminal justice system.
Recognizing that these threats are difficult to prosecute, it
is disheartening to me that our prosecution rate remains so
low.
We have made significant inroads on that front by
establishing three special United States attorney positions
assigned to the Capitol Police for the express purpose of
prosecuting those threat cases. Let me conclude by stating that
our increasing workload, the current threat landscape, and
future challenges both known and unknown, will require
additional resources.
This is a reality, and I say this fully acknowledging all
the support that we have received so far. But if we are to
build, enhance, and protect to the scale of the entire
Congress, we cannot do it based on our current resources.
Simply stated, if we are to keep pace with the workload
demands, as well as the Members' expectations, the focus should
be on where we are today and the Department's vision for the
future.
I am steadfast and resolute in ensuring that an incident
like January 6th never happens again. All of our projects and
initiatives require the support of the Board and our oversight
committees. Your Committee has provided constructive input and
oversight.
At the same time, it has been a staunch supporter of the
Department, and I thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Manger was submitted for the
record.]
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you very much, Chief. For his
last hearing, we are going to have Senator Blunt go first, then
I will ask questions, and then Senator King, and then whatever
Republican is next. Thank you.
Senator Blunt. All right. Thank you, Chair. Chief, on the
recommendations that we made after January the 6th, I think you
have completed about 75 percent of those. It is also my
impression that you may need more funding or more authority, or
both, to really address the remaining numbers. Is that correct?
Mr. Manger. The authority, not as much. That was provided
and that has been working fine. In terms of the funding, what
we have done in the first year or so has addressed the security
here at the Capitol.
Then what we really have to focus on now are the threats
against Members. That is not only addressing the threats while
you are here in the Capitol, but when you are in your home
districts as well.
Those protection responsibilities will require additional
resources. We have got in our Fiscal Year 2023 budget, for
instance, there are a number of requests for additional
positions that address the protection responsibilities that--
where we really need to focus.
Senator Blunt. Currently you have vacancies of about, what,
10 percent still vacant? Tell me, how many officers do you have
right now?
Mr. Manger. We have right now about 1,970 officers.
Senator Blunt. You are authorized to have?
Mr. Manger. We are authorized to have over 2,000, or close
to 2,100. Yes, we are about, I think, 10 percent down. But I
have to share with you that I just was informed today that as
we speak, we have 219 recruits in some level of training,
whether they are--whether we just brought them on a week ago,
to the ones that are just about to graduate.
We have got 219 recruits in the pipeline, which I think
sets us up very well, and we will continue to work on our
hiring, recruiting and hiring initiatives so that we keep
those--that pipeline full so that we can meet our goal of
hiring those 280 officers per year for the next couple of
years.
Senator Blunt. How many officers have you brought in in the
year and a half that you have been the Chief?
Mr. Manger. Close to 200. When you couple that with the
attrition, we are in fact--in fact, the last time that I was in
front of this Committee, we had--we have now 100 more officers
than we had then.
Senator Blunt. How is the addition of the contract
employees go for the jobs you have been able to assign to
someone who was not a sworn and totally prepared officer?
Mr. Manger. That, I think, has gone very well. The key
there is to identify the posts that it would be suitable to
have a contract security or Capitol Security Officer. These are
primarily secondary posts, and we have got about 50 or so
assigned.
Right now we are looking for other opportunities. If there
are other posts where we can use those Capitol Security
Officers, we will. But right now, we have got about 50 of them
in place.
That is 50 posts where we used to have Capitol Police
Officers that are now freed up with these security officers
staffing those locations.
Senator Blunt. As you move to more security for Members at
their--in their state, what kind of additional personnel will
you need there?
Mr. Manger. Part of the options that I presented to the
Capitol Police Board is to do for the entire Congress what the
House has begun to do for their Members, where every Member of
Congress would have a security system in their home, in their
district offices, so that it would add a layer of protection
for not only the Member, but their family and their staff as
well.
One of the things that I would--have recommended is to have
a protection--to stand up a protection operations center so
that we would have our folks, and this could be done by
civilians, it would not have to be sworn officers, but have our
folks monitor those security systems.
They would also be monitored by the company that installed
them. But to have that redundancy and to have that instant
recognition, if there is a problem, and instant response, if
there is a problem, I think provides exactly what we need in
terms of enhancing the protection. We want to stand up the
protection operations center.
The big ask really has to do with the number of protection
agents for the Members. Right now, we, I think, do not provide
the level of protection to some of the leadership that perhaps
we should. It is certainly not on par with what is done in the
Executive Branch, and I think we need to look at that and
strengthen some of the protection details that we have in
place.
But as a result of the number of threats that are coming in
and the number of credible threats that we have some concern
about, I believe that we need to strongly expand our--the
number of protection agents that we have.
Again, I have got I think in the Fiscal Year 2023 budget,
there were 64 positions, additional special agent positions,
that would be assigned to protection details. With the demands
that we have, this is both in terms of protection and
investigation of threats, I think this is the big ask that we
have.
Senator Blunt. Thank you. I may have more questions later,
Chairwoman, but--[technical problems]----
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Very good. Senator King has an
important call coming up, so I am going to have him go next.
Senator King. Thank you, Senator. Chief, just to give you
an idea of how far the Capitol Police have come. I had a friend
who was a Capitol policeman in the 60's, and he told me that
the firearms competency test consisted of handing the recruit a
gun and having them shoot at the target until they hit it.
Then they were--successfully passed the test. Fortunately,
I think we have gone beyond those days. I want to compliment
you on your recruiting. I think the challenge of protection at
home is a huge, serious challenge. If we had--well, as
Governor, I had a trooper with me 24 hours a day for 8 years.
If we went to that level for every Member of Congress, it
would be hugely expensive and in many ways obtrusive. It seems
to me that one fruitful area that you might think about
pursuing, and you may already be doing this, is a cooperative
relationship with local police departments and State Police,
who the Members are not home all the time, but they can be
there, at least be on call and perhaps even go further in terms
of being present for public events and those kinds of things.
Is that something that might be a way to solve this without
hiring another, you know, 435 times 5?
Mr. Manger. Absolutely. We have--one of the other things
that I forgot to mention, Senator, was the getting together a
small staff that would work full-time in developing those
relationships with the state and local law enforcement for
every Member of Congress.
If we, you know, there is 538 jurisdictions that would be
involved and we would have, get those MOU's in place so that we
would not have to wait for a crisis to make the first call to
that local agency saying, hey, can you help us out? We would
have those, and we will use in place ahead of time, so it would
be a very efficient process to get the help we need.
Your suggestion about having local law enforcement at
events where there may be issues, where, you know, the public
will be there, and perhaps the Member even has a couple of
threats that they are concerned about, having local law
enforcement there is something that we want to do routinely.
The advantage that we have now is that as a result of the
supplemental from last year, we have funding that we can
reimburse these jurisdictions. Many of these jurisdictions, you
know, have told us, look, we have staffing shortages, we really
do not have the folks to do some of the things you are asking
us to do.
But when we say we can reimburse you and we can, if you
need to pull somebody in on overtime, we can reimburse that for
you, it really enhances their ability to help us.
Senator King. Do you think that reimbursement would be far
less expensive than having five full-time agents?
Mr. Manger. Oh, no question.
Senator King. You mentioned the number of threats, and I am
not sure whether you have the historical data, but my sense is
this is going up significantly. Is that accurate?
Mr. Manger. Absolutely is accurate. I can tell you that
back in 2017, we had 1,000 \1\ maybe, somewhere around 1,000,
and last year, 9,000. It has gone up steadily and profoundly
over the last five or six years.
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\1\ In response to Senator King, the number of threats to Members
of Congress was cited as 1,000 in 2017. The actual number of threats
and directions of interest toward Members of Congress was 3,939 in
2017.
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Senator King. That is very disturbing. One other area of
questioning, and Senator Blunt touched on this, it seems like
you are doing fairly well recruiting. Are you satisfied with
the recruiting that you are doing? In this economy, doing any
recruiting is difficult.
Mr. Manger. I am very pleased.
Senator King. You are satisfied with the quality you are
getting?
Mr. Manger. Yes. A couple of issues. One, there were things
that the Congress did to help us in terms of raising our pay
for officers and allowing us to give retention bonuses to keep
people.
I talked to chiefs from all over the country, and to a
person--everybody is having trouble recruiting and getting good
people, for a number of reasons, that want to be involved in
the law enforcement career.
But I firmly believe that just like after 9/11, when the
military and police and fire had no problem recruiting because
people wanted to serve their country, I believe that January
6th helped us because so many of the people that have come to--
that have come on since then have said the reason that they
were here is because they wanted to serve here because of
January 6th.
Senator King. Well, I appreciate that. I hope you will
express the view of--the Chairwoman talked about this. The
Chairwoman talked about this, the appreciation that we have for
all the Capitol Police.
We do not really think about it, but police, fire, and
military, unlike almost any other job in our society, when they
sign on the dotted line, they are committing to put their life
on the line for us, for other people, and that is an
extraordinary commitment. Of course, on January 6th, we saw it
in action.
Please convey the deep appreciation that we have for the
work. I love to banter with your officers and see them--to see
how they are doing. You have an extraordinary group.
Congratulations, and thank you, Chief.
Mr. Manger. Thank you.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you very much, Senator King.
Just following up on Senator King's questions and this threat
issue, it would seem to me that kind of, if we want to be
practical about it, as he said, we are not going to have--most
likely not every Member is going to have around the clock
detail unless there is an actual threat.
There is two ways of looking at it, depending on the
resources. One is to change the level at which that is
considered a threat. To perhaps scoop in more people, sometimes
for periods of time.
The second is for events that are publicly noticed or
things that are a bit higher risk, that those are the ones that
we are really focused on in terms of having that. Higher risk
to me is more like people know you are going to be there as
opposed to some meeting that is not even publicized or
something like that.
That is, I just think we have to be a little more practical
about how we look at these things. I found our local police to
be good when we call them ahead of time, but we do not even
think about it ahead of time sometimes about if things are out
there or they are planned. But I think that is what we need to
do.
I do not know if you want to expand on that a little more.
Mr. Manger. You have hit the nail on the head because
oftentimes we do not know what is on your schedule or what is
on any Member schedule unless they share it with us. When they
share it with us and say, hey, we have got a big event back
home expecting, you know, 500 people or whatever, we can be
proactive.
The United States Capitol Police will reach out to the
local jurisdiction there, let them know about the event, and
see what they can do to assist at the event, even if it is just
having an officer, you know, stand in the back of the room.
Oftentimes they are able to help us at events like that.
The key is having the Member, the Member staff reach out to us
and let us know. We will do the rest.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Okay. One of the things I mentioned
earlier on that we are trying to work on is this bipartisan
proposal, hopefully by the end of the year, to allow for the
removal of Members' personal information from public websites.
We just did it for Federal judges. Could you talk about how
that could be helpful when it comes to home addresses?
Mr. Manger. It would be a huge help. There is no question
about that. As you know, we will provide staff--Members and
staff advice. We have just finished doing the new Member
orientation, and we talked to them about social media and
about, you know, what to put on social media, what not to put
on social media.
But, you know, just to sort of help with that. But removing
personally identifiable information of Members really would
impact not only the Member, but it would impact their family.
Just keeping the, you know, people's address and all this other
personal identifiable information from being public would have
a huge impact.
Unfortunately, as we all know, the internet makes it very
easy for people to find addresses and find information.
Unfortunately, that information is used to harm folks too
often.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Right. I think it is not--the
question to ask is not, could anyone ever find it out, because
obviously some sophisticated people could figure out where you
live. It is more for that moment, the person that might be just
looking to harm in a particular day or moment.
I think many of us understand that, and that you are not
probably limiting all your risk, but you are limiting some of
your risk.
Mr. Manger. Anything helps.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Yes. You mentioned that the
Department is expanding its work beyond the Capitol in response
to the threats, including opening field offices. I know
Florida, California, I think one more, working with United
States Attorneys' Office across the country.
Last year, the Capitol Police referred 458 threat cases for
prosecution, 40 resulted. I know part of this is to
prioritize--40 resulted in prosecution. Part of this is
increasing the number of those cases that are prosecuted. As a
former prosecutor, I believe that has a deterrent effect as
well.
Talk about your efforts there. I would like to allow for
these prosecutors to be able to do things across state lines
and like. Talk about what is happening there.
Mr. Manger. We have been working with our appropriations
folks to give us the funding to not only do the residential
assessments and work with our law enforcement partners, but
this third leg of the stool with the prosecutions. I could not
agree more than it has a deterrent effect. We do have special
United States Assistant Attorneys, and they are specially
assigned to work these threat cases.
We are working with DOJ to allow them, and we are hopeful
that we can get DOJ to say it is not just they work them in
that, you know, in the San Francisco area or the, you know, the
area in Florida, but they can go across state lines and work
them anywhere we need to work them.
We did--we just brought on board the third Special USA to
work here at the Capitol in DC. That will help us for cases
here. But it would be nice to be able to send them anywhere we
need to send them so that we can get more of those cases
prosecuted.
It is--look, the FBI and the United States Attorney's
Office are very helpful, but they have a huge caseload. For us,
a threat against a Member of Congress is our highest priority.
It is not always their highest priority.
If we have our own folks to make sure these things get
prosecuted, I think it is a big step in the right direction for
us.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Good. Last question, I know you have
made significant progress implementing each of the
recommendations in this Committee's joint report with Homeland
Security to address the security, planning, and response
failures that we saw on January 6th.
What are your ongoing priorities for security at the
Capitol in the coming years?
Mr. Manger. Probably the biggest issue is working with the
Architect to the Capitol to make those infrastructure changes
and strengthen things, to include the camera system, which we
are redoing. We have got more posts covered here than we have
had certainly since January 6th.
We have increased the number of our Civil Disturbance Unit
platoons. They are now fully equipped, fully trained with, as
you know, better operational planning.
Our partnership with our local agencies around the
district, Maryland and Virginia, is really--helped us numerous
times, whether it was the truck or convoy, the State of the
Union, the abortion protests at the Supreme Court, we have had
to call them in on a number of occasions.
Again, our ability to reimburse them gives us an advantage.
But we have always had as many cops here as we need to get the
job done.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. All right. Thank you. Senator Blunt.
Senator Blunt. Well on that topic, Chief, as many people as
you need to get the job done, when you became Chief, the
balance did not allow that as easily as it does now, and also
began to disrupt any planned time off and other things. We
thought morale was a significant problem.
What kinds of things have you done, rather than evaluate
morale, which is hard for us to do sitting here, what have you
done that you believe has had the most impact on officers
understanding they are appreciated and the morale that comes
with that?
Mr. Manger. I think that the biggest impact we have had is
the additional staffing. People can get days off. If they are
scheduled to be off on a day, they can pretty much count on the
fact that they will be off instead of being told, no, you
cannot have that day off.
There are fewer times when at the end of a shift, the
Sergeant will come and say, okay, Officer Blunt, you know, you
thought you were going home, you have got to stay here and do
another shift because we are short on the next shift. These
things happened all the time. I had cops telling me that they
would go a month without getting a day off. That has changed.
I am not saying that there are still not times when we hold
folks over or have to change days off. But it is far fewer than
we were doing right after January 6th. I think that made the
biggest impact. I think the fact that we have--and I do not
think that money ultimately is going to have a sustained impact
on morale.
But the fact that we have had, you know, a couple of years
of retention bonuses, that we are now offering specialty pay to
those who volunteer to do those specialty assignments like
civil disturbance, I think that has made an impact where folks
feel like, okay, you know, people are acknowledging that this
is extra work and that this does have a little bit more hazard
as a part of it.
Doing things like that, that show the officers that we
appreciate the sacrifices that they are making has made a
difference as well. I think that lastly, you know, the fact
that officers do feel appreciated, that does not happen by
chance.
I think that many of the things that this Committee has
done, that you and Senator Klobuchar have done personally, and
that Congress has done for the United States Capitol Police has
sent a pretty strong message that people do care about what
they do and do appreciate their sacrifices and do appreciate
what they do every day.
For any of us, if we feel like the people that we work for
appreciate what we do, it makes a difference.
Senator Blunt. Well, I know you worked hard on this, and I
certainly know you are continuing, and we would encourage that.
You have a couple of vacancies on your executive team I am
wondering about.
One as the Assistant Chief for Protective and Intelligence
Operation, and the other is the Chief Administrative Officer.
How are you doing in the effort to fill those two top jobs?
Mr. Manger. The announcement for the Chief Administrative
Officer went out last week. My hope is we are going to--that we
can have that out for about a month or so. My hope is that we
get some good candidates to choose from and we can make a
selection for that in the next couple of months.
The Assistant Chief for Protection and Intelligence, I have
got an Acting in there now who--Jason Bell, who has a lot of
experience in the protective responsibilities and
investigations. He is doing a good job. But my intent was to
bring and is to bring someone in from the outside.
I want to get that, my reorganization plan, which I
submitted to the Capitol Police Board, I want to get that
approved and that will allow me to start filling some of those
senior level vacancies. That--hopefully we can get to that soon
as well. But we are--in terms of the sworn positions of the
executive, we are managing.
I have got a good team. I have a lot of depth on my bench
at the higher levels, at the inspector level, the captain
level, really, really deep benches there. We have got folks
that are in acting positions that are doing well.
But eventually, I have got sort of a master reorganization
plan that I would like to get implemented, and all those senior
level positions would be filled.
Senator Blunt. Chair.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Just one or two follow ups. There
is--we talked about that some of the changes you have made and
how you have reached as a lot of, the goals we set,
recommendations.
I am still remembering the haunting words of one officer on
the microphone when he allegedly said, does anyone have a plan?
on January 6th. The Department has made clear progress with
respect to operational planning, particularly by requiring a
Department wide incident assessment plan for all large, high
profile events.
Can you expand briefly on what has been done to improve
preparedness for large events?
Mr. Manger. We have--when we plan for these events, first
of all, we brought on an executive from the United States
Secret Service, who is an expert in planning.
He has really coached us and helped us change to exactly
where I think we need to be. We do--we, it is now routine for
us to do tabletop exercises both internally and with external
partners to moving, you know, when we get just a few days ahead
of a big event.
We are involving outside agencies in a way that we never
did before. We are training with other agencies. When these
folks that we are asking to come in to help us, we are training
with those agencies.
We are also staying--we have a good, close relationship
with the National Guard. I will tell you that if--I would only
call the National Guard in the most dire circumstances. But we
have, I just met with General McCandless last week just to sort
of, you know, stay on the same page with things. We have
actually practiced the drill of how I would go about requesting
their assistance.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. As you know, Senator Blunt and I
changed the law, so it was easier to make the call.
Mr. Manger. Yes. But we practiced how we can get that done
very efficiently. We are doing weekly intelligence calls with
our regional partners. All these things that we are doing now
that were not being done before January 6th, that have--I think
got us on the right page to make sure that there is going to be
no failures in terms of our operational planning for an event.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Okay. There is more to do on how the
Department handles intelligence, as we have talked about. Can
you tell us how the Department has improved the sharing of
information with the officers on the front lines, and feedback
from officers on those improvements?
Mr. Manger. I think you all know that we issued cell phones
to all the officers, but we put out daily bulletins as well
that come to their cell phones, you know, daily intelligence
bulletins. When we are having a big event, Assistant Chief Sean
Gallagher will go to every roll call to do an in-person
briefing for officers to know what to expect, you know, for the
big event coming up.
The fact that we do after action reports on every single
big event, we get feedback directly from the officers, and from
officials, officers, everybody involved in the event is able to
provide their feedback in terms of in and after action report.
With in our incident action plans, those plans that we had
that are typically 20-30 pages long that have every detail
about the planning for the incident, those are widely
circulated. Everybody knows what everybody else's
responsibilities are.
Everybody knows what everybody else is doing. Again, it
helps for everybody to sort of have a bigger picture of all
these events as we go into them.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. One of the things I raised was
equipment. I know you have ordered equipment. When you appeared
before us in January, we spoke about how while all the new
equipment had been ordered, some of the supply chain issues had
delayed delivery. Are you now fully equipped with the type of
equipment that you believe you need?
Mr. Manger. We have over 1,000 officers that have all the
equipment that they need. In fact, I do not think there is
anybody, any uniformed officer in USB that does not have their
equipment.
There are still--supply chain issues are still there. But
now the few officers that do not have all of their new
equipment, it is a very small number, but the people that need
them the most have them.
I am sure within a few months we will have everybody, 100
percent. But again, over 1,000 of the USB officers are fully
equipped.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. The Department, as you know, has
taken steps to formalize a Civil Disturbance Unit to ensure
that its officers are properly trained. How have these changes
improved the effectiveness? What additional--can you talk a
little bit about the onsite training and drills, and what is
going on?
Mr. Manger. We have--all of the--everybody in CDU, by the
way, that we asked for volunteers, and we have got six or seven
platoons ready. I have that written down somewhere. I will find
it. But we have got more platoons of CDU officers that are
trained and equipped.
They train with other agencies. We train here as well. The
officials, the people who are overseeing the CDU, have all been
trained as well. We brought outside trainers in actually from a
couple of European countries that have much more experience in
dealing with unruly crowds than we do.
They provided us really amazing training that we took
advantage of. That--and we have established specialty pay for
the Civil Disturbance Units, so that one of the big problems
that we used to have was that when we would say we need, you
know, 100 people to come in, you know, 100 CDU officers to come
in for an event, not everybody would show up.
There would be a lot of folks call in sick and that sort of
thing. Now we have got folks that want to be there, want to do
this. They are training with the people that they are going to
work with.
All of that stuff is making for better outcomes when we use
them.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. All right. Well, thank you. I think
we are finished up here, but I want to thank Ranking Member
Blunt for this productive final hearing and for all the work
that he has done, not just on these public safety issues, but
leading the Rules Committee, and particularly on the Electoral
Count Act.
He is going to end the year with strength, as has been
noted, in getting that important bill through, the two of us,
to update that old legislation. I am also grateful to you,
Chief for your leadership, and the progress that you have made,
and the openness that you have to take our ideas and listen to
Members and work things out, and your devotion to working on
this Member safety issue as well.
Mr. Manger. Senator, thank you very much. I did want to say
to Senator Blunt that you may not remember, but in my first few
days in this job, you came over to my office, and I will tell
you that I was pretty nervous about the fact that, you know,
that you were coming over to talk to me.
You brought over the Senate rules book and had my name
embossed on it, and I thought that was very kind of you to do
that. I am a big believer in Maya Angelou, who said, ``you
won't remember what people said, you won't remember what people
did, but you remember how people made you feel.''
For someone who was nervous about coming into this job,
when you left, I felt like that I had much more confidence that
whatever it was going to take to get the Capitol Police where
they needed to be, that that was going to be able to happen
because of the talk that you and I had and the fact that I knew
somebody in your position, with your stature, had the, you
know, had in their heart the support for the Capitol Police
that we needed to get things done.
I want to thank you for giving me the confidence to do this
job when I just had a few days here, and I appreciate your
support throughout my tenure here. Thank you, sir.
Senator Blunt. Thank you, Chief.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. What a great way to end this hearing,
because I think it is just an illustration of the kind of work
that Senator Blunt does every day, so much of it behind the
scenes. Chief, when you are talking about going through
calling, if there was a crisis with the Commander of the
National Guard, I was thinking of whatever next crisis I have
starting, you know, January 7th.
I will probably still call Roy Blunt to get his advice. We
thank Roy for his service. We are going to keep the record open
for one week. We thank you, Roy.
Senator Blunt. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. Thank you,
Chairwoman.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. The hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:38 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
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