Hearing of the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee - Opening Statement on "Protecting America from the Threat of ISIS"

Hearing

As submitted for the record:

The purpose of this hearing is to examine the threat posed by ISIS to U.S. interests at home and
abroad, and the actions taken by the United States government to address this threat.
As the administration struggles to formulate a comprehensive strategy and to provide the
leadership necessary to accomplish the president's goal of destroying ISIS, the effects of the
instability in the region continue to spill over into other parts of the world. Nearly two years ago,
the leader of ISIS declared that the organization was an independent state. Since then, successful
attacks in Paris and Brussels led to a warning from James Clapper, the Director of National
Intelligence, that ISIS could direct terrorists in the United States to commit a similar attack.
After all, ISIS provided the inspiration for the San Bernardino terrorists who killed and injured
dozens of Americans last December. More recently, on Tuesday, an ISIS supporter was arrested
in the Bronx.

According to some reports, there are 43 groups either affiliated with or proclaiming to support
ISIS, and more than 42,900 foreign fighters have joined the group. ISIS claimed to bring down
at least one commercial airliner and is the first extremist group to successfully conduct a
chemical attack since Aum Shinrikyo in 1995. This is a barbaric terrorist organization whose
atrocities include rape, enslavement, mass murder, crucifixions, beheadings and torture.

Today, we will ask three questions: First, what is the administration's strategy for defeating and
destroying ISIS? Second, what are the consequences to our homeland security of failing to
defeat ISIS? Third, what steps is the administration taking to address ISIS' threat to our
homeland security?

Yesterday, our committee passed important legislation that Senator Carper and I have worked on
for over a year. Our bill would help address management challenges at the DHS and bring
increased transparency, accountability and effectiveness to the agency's operations, enabling the
agency to better protect the American people. Today, I want to hear from the deputy secretary
where we need to further improve our homeland security defenses to protect Americans from the
threat posed by ISIS.

In a few months, we will mark the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. I am
gravely concerned that the American people are at a greater risk of suffering a terrorist attack by
Islamic extremists today than at any time since 2001.

The American people deserve a strategy to defeat ISIS. Today we will examine what more the
DHS and other federal agencies must do to protect the American people from the threat posed by
ISIS. I look forward to hearing our witnesses answer these key questions today.

Source