Opening Statement of Chairman Rogers of the Subcommittee on Homeland Security

HEADLINE: OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN ROGERS

BODY:

The House Appropriations Committee issued the following statement:

Opening Statement of Chairman Harold Rogers

Subcommittee on Homeland Security

Witness: Asa Hutchinson, Under Secretary for Border & Transportation Security

Mr. Secretary, it is a pleasure for me to welcome you back as you present your request for the Directorate of Border and Transportation Security. This marks a year of progress as you have established an oversight and management structure for your Directorate, realigned your jurisdiction, and assumed direct responsibility for a major intergovernmental project - the US-VISIT program. Overseeing as you do more than 60% of the Department's employees and about half of its budget, you play a central role in managing the operational missions of the Department of Homeland Security.

When we look at the borders, your employees perform diverse and challenging work: screening passengers and cargo at our over 300 ports of entry, as well as expanding that to dozens of seaports overseas; patrolling the thousands of miles of border between the ports; investigating and enforcing our laws on immigration, trade, money laundering, cyber crime, and national security; managing a massive detention and removal program; securing our travel and cargo throughout our complex national travel systems; protecting our 8,800 federal facilities; and providing basic and advanced training for federal, state, local and international law enforcement.

Your agencies have advanced on many fronts over the past year. You expanded the Container Security Initiative and the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, pushing back our borders. You put in place technical means to detect potential weapons of mass destruction at our ports, and to expedite inspections. You expanded investigative efforts such as Operations Cornerstone and Predator, traditional alien trafficking and drug smuggling cases, and expanded your counter-terrorist focus. You are integrating the Federal Air Marshals into ICE, with plans to ensure the long-term success of that program. You put in place explosive detection and trace detection technology infrastructure to leverage the work of federal baggage and passenger screeners. You also manage two significant air and marine enforcement organizations responsible for US airspace security, counter-drug interdiction, border security, and investigative support. And you preside over efforts to link intelligence, planning and operations of your agencies, as seen during the recent Orange alert.

At the same time, there remain questions about the security of air cargo; our ability to credibly enforce immigration laws when we apprehend illegal border crossers; and the extent to which our agents, sensors, aircraft, aerostats, and marine vessels give us genuine confidence in the physical integrity of our borders. Many of these questions speak not only to the real risk we face, but also to the level of risk that we are willing to accept.

On top of these many operational responsibilities, you have the dubious distinction of being accountable for perhaps the most complex, critical and sensitive automation systems of the entire Department. Prominent among these is US-VISIT, which you directly oversee, and which we'll discuss today. Others include the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) to modernize and automate customs operations; the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS); the Transportation Worker Identification Card (TWIC); the CAPPS II program; and the Border Patrol's Integrated Surveillance Imaging System, to name just a few. These are large, costly, multi-year undertakings. Each of these programs entails major security and privacy considerations and demands the highest standards for project management and accountability.

Mr. Secretary, when it comes to homeland security, you and your agencies are in the eye of the storm each and every day. This Subcommittee has a great interest in seeing you succeed, and we want to make sure you have the tools and resources needed to do so. You can count on us to be candid with you when we see things that need fixing. I expect you will also be frank in telling us what you need and the problems you face. We are grateful for your continued contribution to this effort, and I look forward to hearing your testimony, which of course you may summarize for the record. Let me now turn to my distinguished colleague, Mr. Sabo, for any remarks he might wish to offer.