[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 76 (Thursday, May 10, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S2614]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          NOMINATION OBJECTION

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I must regretfully object to the Senate 
proceeding to the nomination of Christopher C. Krebs of Virginia to be 
Under Secretary of the National Protection and Programs Directorate at 
the Department of Homeland Security, DHS.
  Since November of 2017, I have urged the Department, and Mr. Krebs 
specifically, to be more open with the American people about the threat 
posed by foreign governments using cellular surveillance technology to 
target phones in the United States, including those used by senior 
government officials.
  In a March 26, 2018, letter, Mr. Krebs revealed to me that DHS ``has 
observed anomalous activity in the National Capital Region (NCR) that 
appears to be consistent with International Mobile Subscriber Identity 
(IMSI) catchers.''
  However, as I noted in an April 18, 2018, follow-up letter to Mr. 
Krebs, which was also signed by my colleagues Senator Paul, Senator 
Gardner, and Senator Markey, DHS has in recent months shared additional 
information about these and other incidents with Federal agencies. 
Specifically, an official from the DHS National Coordinating Center for 
Communications, NCC, gave a detailed presentation to an audience of 
Federal Government employees on February 6, 2018. That presentation 
included important information that I believe the American people have 
a right to know. My colleagues and I asked Mr. Krebs to remove the 
``For Official Use Only,'' FOUO designation from the slides used at 
this presentation and make them available for public release.
  I remain hopeful that this is an issue we can work through and 
resolve soon. However, until the FOUO designation is removed from those 
slides and they are made available for public release, I will object to 
the Senate proceeding with the Krebs nomination.

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