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listed cybersecurity, domestic terrorism, and threats posed by china as growing concerns during his testimony before a senate appropriations subcommittee. also appearing before lawmakers was the head of the drug enforcement administration anne milgram who discuss combating the flow of illicit fentanyl coming over the border. both officials testimony were related to the president's 2024 budget request for their agencies. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

>> the appropriations subcommittee on commerce justice sites and related agencies will come to order. senator moran who is the ranking member will join us shortly. he is on the phone. there's also a boat going on right now two votes and so we are, expect membersrs of the committee, subcommittee to come in and out but we want to go ahead and begin because we know that director wray has a hardha stop at 430 timex we want to make sure we can get in as much of the hearing as possible. so good afternoon, everyone. welcome to today's hearing to review the president's fiscal year 2020 for funding request for the federal period of investigation and the drug enforcement administration. our witnesses it fbi director christopher wray and dea administrative anne milgram. it's very nice to have you both here again, thank you for

joining us. i want to begin by saying how deeply saddened i am that once again we have our hearing with the fbi in the aftermath of yet another mass shooting. nearly a year ago we met just after the horrific shooting at robb elementary school in you've all the taxes. today we meet after gunmen open fire over the weekend in a shopping mall in the dallas, texas,ll summer killing eight people. i offer my condolences and i'm sure speaker everyone on this subcommittee to all those who lost loved ones. but what i know we really want are policies that help keep americans safe. ii personally stand ready to wok across the aisle to build on the bipartisan safer communities act,t, and to do everything i cn what you with the department of justice to better serve and protect, because we all know the american people deserve that. we account on the more than

37,000 employees at the fbi to protect our country from violent criminals, terrorists and others who minas great harm. andse we charge the more than 90 employees and dea with combating the most devastating drug prices in our nation's history. i wantou to thank all of those employees for the dedication and service to this country. but we need to do more to help them do their jobs and to prevent needless american deaths, whether they are buy guns, fentanyl poisoning, or other drugs. the fbi's budget request of 11.3 billion include additional including additional resources for combating domestic terrorism and violent crimes. i want to hear from you, director wray, where the fbi has lacked the resources to address rising threats ofre violence againstsi vulnerable americans y criminals and criminal organizations, and of this request will help fill those

gaps. we also have a different kind of violence being waged against americans with illicit drugs like fentanyl data flowing in to this country. the introduction of fentanyl to the substance use disorder crisis has had a deadly and devastating impact in my home stateim the new hampshire and throughout the united states. we have a generation of grandparents who are raising their grandchildren, and for some it is because parents were separated from kids due to their addiction, but tragically for others it's because parents did not survive their addiction. now with the risee of social media we are seeing another younger generation become more vulnerable than ever to marketing of these drugs and to the increased accessibility that that means. everything must be done to stop the next generation from succumbing to this epidemic as well as new threats on the horizon. this includes the spread of the

silencing, which is narcan resistant, which means that it is evens more deadly and it's a growing problem again in new hampshire, in new england and across this country. administrator milgram, what you'reun from you if dea's requested increase of 98 million is sufficient for the dea's work both inside and outside the u.s. and to combat the mexican cartels and a a chinese supplies as well as of the threats that you know are coming. i was pleased with her last weeks announcements on the major results of operation last mile which targeted thehe standalone and jalisco cartels responsible for fentanyl and opioidd trafficking. but these criminal organizations are sophisticated. the weapon is a a tools social media, chemistry, violence, intimidation, bribery trait and money laundering all to trick people into taking deadly drugs.

what do both the dea and fbi need to take on these transnational criminal organizations? not to sufficient funding, but either of the tools given to you, for example, section 702 of the foreign intelligence surveillance act which is set te expire at the end of this year, and how h important is that? director wray and administrator milgram, i look forward to your testimony and our discussion today. i think we will go ahead and ask you to begin your testimony, and when ranking member moran comes in he will submit his opening remarks.s. so i will ask you to begin, directoror wray. >> thank you, good afternoon, chair shaheen and members of the subcommittee. there is no question that today's threats are more sophisticated in the book quickly than ever before. to stay ahead of them we have

requested important enhancements to our budget thatqu will help s tackle the wide range of threats that we face and i look forward to discussing those with you this afternoon. let me start with cyber. today cyber threats are more pervasive, hit a wider variety of victims that carry the potential for greater damage than ever before. you take china, a key part of the chinese governments multi-pronged strategy to live, cheat, and steal the way to surpassing as as the global superpower is cyber. the scale of the chinese cyber threat is unparalleled. they have got a bigger hacking programs than that of every other major nation combined. and they have stolen more of americans personal and corporate data than every nation big or small combined. to give you a sense of what we're up against, if every

single one of the fbi's cyber agents and intelligence analysts focused exclusively on the china threat, nothing but china, chinese hackers would still outnumber fbi's cyber personnel by at least 50 to one. and, of course, china is hardly the only challenge in cyberspace, not even close. we, as we speak, are investigating over 100 different ransomware perry gets can each of them with scores of victims as well as a host of other novel threats posed by both cyber criminals a nation state actors alike. in additional to china, countris like russia, iran and north korea. and, and it's getting more and more challenging a to discern whereng nationstate threat activity ends and cyber criminal threat activity begins. recently we've seen cyber attacks targeting the critical infrastructure and services that

ordinary americans rely on every day. i'm talking about places like hospitals, schools, 911 call centers. and the fbi hasas investigations into destructive attacks like these all over the country in communities both large and small, which is why in this year's budget request you will see our need for when you're 92 more cyber positions and a little over $63 million. we will put those critical resources towards ensuring that theen fbi remains a worlds premr cyber investigative agency. by taking the fight to our adversaries through joint sequenced operations and rapid information sharing with the private sector, by building out our model cyber squad, each tackling multiple threads in moorefield is offices, , placing investigators, analysts and other key professionals close to the victims that need us. and by providing our workforce with critical cutting edge training.th

our opponents in this space are relentless, and we needd your help to ensure that we got the resources to keep responding in kind. switching gears, almost every week i am speaking with sheets and sheriffs from all over this country to discuss the threats we fightingth together, and i cn tell you that in those conversations invariably the number one issue is always the same. violent crime. last year working with our state and local partners through our hundreds of fbi led violent crime taskforces, we arrested more than 20,000 violent criminals. that's an average of 55 bad guys per day every day taken off the streets. as part of our fy '24 budget we are requesting an increase to build on our efforts to combate the rising violent crime that affects of many communities all across this country. and a big part of that will also

go towards our investigations of crimes against children and human trafficking. every year the fbi and our partners identify and locate thousands of victims of child exploitation and human trafficking, and enhancement we've requested will allow us to add even more personnel to that vital effort. and finally i have described the threat of gains and cartels moving fentanylar and other deay substances across the border and into communities all over the country as a threat of epidemic proportion. i'm not become governor use words like epidemic lightly. we are now pursuing investigations against transnational organized criminal groups in all 56 fbi field offices and have more than 300, it's close to 400 now, active, active investigations into cartel leadership specifically. on top of that we are leveraging

international partnerships through our legal attaché offices to enhance investigations and gather and share intelligence, and were actively participating in six strike forces along the border. and although we at a the fbi are not the agency tasked with the physical security of our borders, we are committed to doing our part to work with our partners to tackle these very real and very serious threats. as part of that effort we've asked for $53 million in part to keep pace with the sevenfold increase in dna samples from individuals crossing the border that we are testing on behalf of dhs. over the past couple of years we have provided critical dna testing support the 223 investigations, including investigations, including more than 100 sexual assaults, and a dozen homicides, all based on matches from dna samples collected at the border by customs and border protection.

and we expect that volume to increase as border crossings increase, inc. we need your support to continue to process the samples which so often provide the missing piece of the puzzle tos solve serious violent crimes that might otherwise go unsolved if we're not able to process those border crossing dna samples. so in that summer i ever really barely scratch the surface. the breadth and depth of the threats to the american people look to us to protect them from is staggering, and i am proud to beep here today representing the 38,000 men and women of the fbi who work tirelessly and selflessly to meet that challenge every single day. i want to thank you for your support of our men and women in helping us carry out that mission, and a happy to add to any questions that you may have. >> well, thank you very much. ranking member moran has joined us and he has very graciously

suggested that we go ahead with yourah testimony, administrator milgram, before he gives his opening remarks. >> i'd like to speak at some point in time. >> thank you so much, chair shaheen, ranking member moran and members of theen committee. americans today are experiencing the most devastating drug crisis in our nation's history. it is like nothing we've seen before. this is because one drug, fentanyl, has transformed the criminal landscape. fentanyl is cheap to make, easy to disguise, and deadly to those who take it. just two milligrams, the equivalent of a few grains of salt, can kill a person. it is the leading cause of death for americans between the ages of 188 and 45 today. more than terrorism, more than car accidents, more than cancer, and more than covid. and it is killing americans from

all walks of life in every state and community in this country. nearly 200 americans each day. the drug cartels response for bringing fentanyl into this country are transnational and extremely violent criminal enterprises. they rely on a global supply chain to manufacture and traffic fentanyl, and they rely on a global of the said financial network to pocket billions offi dollars from those drug sales. en a transformation of our own to meet this moment. we have transformed our vision. we are now laser focused on the criminal organizations responsible for flooding our fentanyl into our communities. the sinaloa cartel and the hala scow cartel. we have transformed our plans. we've built an entirely new strategic layer with to counter threat teams. one for the sinaloa cartel, and one for the hollis go cartel.

these teams are made up of special agents, intel analysts, targeter's, data scientists, and chemical and finance experts from across our agency. the teams centralize all of -- intelligence. they map these cartels and they analyze the criminal networks that today exist in more than 40 countries around the world. they are also developing targeting information on the members of those networks wherever they operate around the world. and we've transformed our execution. we are drawing on the talent and intelligence of the men and women in our 334 offices worldwide. and we are working as one dea, to defeat the criminal networks. we've made all of these changes in the last two years with urgency, to save lives, stop fentanyl, and to defeat the drug cartels that are responsible for bringing fentanyl into our communities. and we are already starting to see results. on april 14th, 2023, dea

announced indictments against the network that is primarily responsible for the massive influx of fentanyl into the united states. the capito's network of the sinaloa cartel. the tiptoes pioneers, the manufacture and trafficking of fentanyl into the united states and they control a global criminal enterprise that has killed hundreds of thousands of americans. so, the dea proactively targeted the tiptoes network and we followed it across the globe. from china, where the tiptoes partners with chinese chemical companies and brokers, to acquire fentanyl precursor's, the ingredients necessary to make fentanyl, to mexico, their home base, where they run secret laboratories and transform those chemicals into fentanyl powder and fake pills. and then smuggle it into the united states by land, by air, by sea, and by underground tunnel. and then in the united states, where the fentanyl makes its way from -- near the southwest border

across our country, reaching both coasts and everywhere in between. the indictments we announced in april charge 28 members of the chapitos network. eight members of that network are now in custody, seven of them overseas, and we are requesting their extradition. but dea did not stop there. last week, on may 5th, 2023, we announced the result of operation last mile, where we tracked down and arrested 3337 associates of the sinaloa and elise go hard tells here in the united states. our operation showed how the chapitos and others in the sinaloa and jalisoc cartels -- multi city distribution that works and individual drug dealers across their country to get fentanyl across the last mile of distribution on, to our streets, and on to social media. these networks use social media applications, facebook, instagram, tiktok, snapchat,

and encrypted platforms like whatsapp, telegram, and signal, to run their operations and to get fentanyl into the hands of americans. they hide that fentanyl, they hide it in fake pills that look like oxycontin, percocets, adderall, or xanax. they hide it by mixing it in with cocaine, with heroin, and methamphetamines. all to induce americans to take fentanyl without knowing it, and to get them hooked. as part of operation last mile, we see more than 6500 pounds of fentanyl powder. more than 43 million fake pills laced with fentanyl. 91,000 pounds of methamphetamines, 8000 and 400 guns, and over $100 million. this is just the beginning. the 10,000 employees that i have the privilege of working with at dea are the most committed and mission driven people that i have ever worked with, in my career. they are laser focused on one

goal, to stop fentanyl, to defeat the cartels, and to save american lives. every day, the men and women in our 334 offices around the globe risk their lives for this mission. as administrator, i have worked hard to empower our team with the people, technology, and resources they need to confront the current crisis. but we all must do more. i asked for congress's continued support so that together, we may protect in the national security, safety, and health of the american people. thank you. >> thank you both for your testimony. we now have a critical number of senators here, so let me just point out that we hope to go into a closed session for a classified discussion at 3:45, so we are going to ask folks if they could try and stay within the five minute question period, after asking questions and again, we need to go back to senator moran for his opening

statements. >> thank you very much and i will shorten my statement significantly, and i also would just want you to know that i appreciate the efforts to coordinate today's hearing and the vote, having classified briefing. i would, also as the chair woman did, note the massive shooting and allen, texas. painful, sickening reminder that evil still exists in our world and under director wray, i trust the fbi will lead other owen vest occasion into this shooting and your the work your team does to help determine why and how this could happen, and inform federal, state, and local law enforcement how we prevent more mass shootings from happening. director wray, you've appeared before the subcommittee many times. annually since i've been a member of it. administrator, you are new to the subcommittee. i think it's been eight years since the dea administrator has

appeared before this appropriations subcommittee, and i welcome you. i think this is a useful addition to our information and knowledge, and i look forward to hearing what you have to say. tomorrow, and i heard as i came in, the director talking about title 42, with its list tomorrow on thursday. i assume the dea will face an onslaught of challenges related to its mission of preventing cartels and drug trafficking across the southern border. and i note that the fbi is expecting a crush of dna samples that will be required for testing. you've asked for additional dollars to accomplish that mission. i look forward to hearing from both of you on the consequences of title 42 and what we do, in regard to our borders. i will save the rest of my opening statement, we'll -- for the record. without objection. >> thank you. >> we will begin the question

around now and again, hoping everyone will stick within the five minutes. i will try very hard to do that. my first question is really for both of you. director wray, you've referenced in your opening statement that -- strike forces and that sends for organized crime, drugs, task forces. can you talk a little more, both of you, actually, about the benefits of ocdef and what those strike forces do? as we're trying to combat the substance crisis -- in this country. >> so, i will start. i think to me, what i think of ocdef, i think it's one it's working at its best, there are really two concepts. one is the value of partnership and the other is the importance of intelligence. the value of partnership, both because in this world of limited resources and a seemingly unlimited threat, in

this case, the flood of really poison into this country, courtesy of the cartels, we have to look for ways to work closely with our partners to maximize impact. on the intelligence side, i think again, when it's working at its best it is focused on how to prioritize how to being strategic so that team partnerships are focused on what we can do collectively to really maximize the impact. because we're up against a very sophisticated set of adversaries. >> administrator, as we discussed on our call, i was in columbia last month. one of the things we heard as we were meeting with folks there is a recognition that we're now seeing cocaine mixed with fentanyl. can you also speak to that, and how they are looking specifically at fentanyl? >> yes, senator. it is one of the things that

we've seen across the united states over the past year. we have seen what the cartels and drug distributors across the mid-states are doing. in addition to these safe pills they make jokes that like real medicine, they're hiding fentanyl and drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin. and they are marketing and selling those drugs as though they were simply -- as if they were only cocaine, only meth, only heroin. and we've seen americans die across the mid-states from drug poisoning. we issued a public safety letter last year to our law enforcement partners to alert them to this. we want everyone to understand the risk of fentanyl. it's the deadliest drug we've ever seen widespread in united states. it is 50 times more addictive than heroin, and just a tiny amount can kill someone. so many americans do not know that they are taking it. and they are dying. >> it's really frightening, as i hear from constituents in new

hampshire. on a regular basis, this is a more parochial question. because we have a new dea going into manchester, new hampshire. that is going to be really critical if we look at how we can identify different drugs that we are seeing, and that's important for going to prosecute those people responsible. but that project has been delayed longer than i thought it should be. so can you talk about how we're going to move that project forward, and get it done? so we can use it to help get drugs off the street. >> yes, senator. i share your concern on this. because we have nine dea labs across the united states today, and we are doing everything to work as quickly as we can. but we've never seen more fentanyl in the united states. we've never seen more methamphetamine. so we need the ability to have this additional lab to process all the fentanyl, methamphetamine, and other

drugs are coming into the united states. and across the country. so our understanding is that that project has been the lead. this is not a permanent solution, but we will be operational this summer, working as one dea. our field position is going to give us space, so we're already starting to hire chemists, and we will work out of our local feel division to do as much as we possibly can while we're waiting for that space to get built. >> thank you. i am ready to do anything i can to help with this project. so we will stay in very close touch. director wray, the few seconds that i have left, can you talk about the 702 authority and why that's so important to our work to track down transnational criminal organizations, and drug lords. >> section 702 is the critical ingredient for the entire intelligence community to protect americans from foreign threats overseas, that affect our national security.

and it is what we rely on to protect americans from international terrorism, from sober espionage, from cyberattacks from foreign adversaries. but also as director burns has cited in some public testimony of his own, it has been very useful in illuminating with the mexican drug cartels in particular, drug networks and global supply chains. if you think about foreign threats, you've got the drug cartels getting chemicals from china, you've got two foreign threats combined with one. and the ability to be agile with these adversaries, as much as administrator milgram referenced in her comments already. they are reliant on these adversaries. it requires the intelligence community to be agile and nimble. and not to be constantly playing catch up with the bad guys. that's where 70 to become so

important. it's focused on foreign adversaries, not americans overseas. it's foreign threats overseas it impact us here. >> thank you. i'm sure we'll get into more of that in the post session. i will turn the mic over to senator moran. and anybody else who has not yet voted. the time has run out. thank you. senator moran? >> if somebody voted on the first vote, we can take over the chair. i will leave never i've asked my question. so thank you. >> let me start with the administrator. welcome again, thank you. thanks for the conversation. we've had, over a period of time. i wanted to highlight for you that i met with president lopez of mexico, bipartisan, bicameral delegation to mexico city last month. i think he and i had a promising discussion abuja

addressing synthetic opioids that are flooding across our southern border. my request of him is that we would do more to fight guns going to the south. could he ask china to eliminate the precursor chemicals are coming from china to mexico? he indicated he was willing to do that. my understanding, at least from press reports, is that he has made that request in writing with china. with the chinese government. perhaps this development has some benefit. but the fact remains that our two countries have had our challenges in cooperation in the drug wars. and i know the dea remain significantly constrained by abilities in a way that we wish they could.

anything that can confirm that china has abided by the request from mexico, and give me an understanding of the state of affairs between drug enforcement in the united states and the situation in mexico. >> thank, you senator. and i think it's really important to start the conversation on china. because that is where this problem largely begins today. the vast majority of precursor chemicals that are going to mexico and being made into fentanyl powder, as you note, are coming from china. we recently as part of that indictment -- with a chemical broker from guatemala, using those chemicals to make -- as the leaders of the sinaloa cartel right now. importantly, in those charges, in those allegations, we have included information that one of the chinese nationals said

they knew that those chemicals were going to be used for fentanyl. and also that they were going to hide what those chemicals were in order to ship them out. so we have called on china to stop the shipment of precursor chemicals to mexico, as well. and we are right now, for over a year, we have not had law enforcement cooperation with china. so we do have offices in china. we continue to try to work there because we believe it's vital to attack the entire supply chain. right now, we are doing a network wide approach that is looking at every piece. we are targeting the chinese precursor chemical companies as part of our work. those chemicals now going into mexico, my deepest concern is that there is no limit on the amount of fentanyl or methamphetamine that the cartels can make. that is the only limit right now, so we must work at that point. in terms of mexico, we are very much looking to continue to work with mexico and mexican

law enforcement. they recently arrested -- one of the chapitos, which we thought was an important step forward. and last, year they arrested are sekiu. we do now want them to work with us together. we have 16 additional mexican nationals who have not been arrested as part of the investigation. it's vital to us, we have these in constipates. fighting to us we have everyone that is part of that case extradited eventually to the united states to stand justice in a court of law here. >> well, i was pleased to see the mexican president tell me what he would do, which was to make that request. i don't know what the chinese response will be and you made that request, i guess, have not had a response or nothing has changed since you made that request, i assume. >> yes, senator, we have not had a response, but we will continue to do the work we are doing and to target these largely unregulated chemical companies in china. >> i spent time with dea agents

when i was in mexico, i admire and respect their work. director who wray, you spent an enormous amount of your time warning us, as policy makers, about the republic of china and its threat to our economy and our national security. i also note that you were successful in closing china's ministry of public security in new york city. is that a rare is that a rare circumstance for new york city public security facilities continue to operate in the united states there or else will? >> so, we have been successful in our law enforcement actions in getting the facility in new york shut down. and, of course, we've recently announced some arrest which include obstruction of justice charges. and, frankly, it is outrageous outrages that the chinese government would think that they

could operate a facility like that in the united states without proper coordination. violates our sovereignty and it shows a flagrant disregard for well-established processes and the rule of law. i wish i could tell you that the disregard for the rule of law was an aberration. i would say it's a pattern and tond me it fits into a pattern that i've been calling out for some time now, which is harassment, harassment, stalking, intimidation, surveillance, blackmail of dissidents and critics of the ccp who live here in the united states. they don't do it all in the united states. they inflict the same kind of harm on dissidents in other countries as well, but if they tried to use stations like the one in new york to conduct that kind of activity, they're going to keep encountering the fbi.

>> thank you for your answer. >> thank you, senator moran for on behalff of shared she will recognize myself. i want to commendnt both of you and the men women of your agency's and mixed when you work they do. director wray, secretary yellen indicated we will likely default on june 1st, unless congress takes action and speak mccarthy's indicated he does not intendnt to take this off te table. as aen member of intelligence committee has he fbi assessed whether our adversaries can rush in china, particularly china, will exploit a potential default in order to propagate disinformation or even other activities, international, economic position to weaken hours? >> i guess i would start by saying that the concern, consisting some was with my answer to senator moran, i think there's a pretty clear record now of the chinese government, the chinese communist party, taking advantage of any avenue

they can to try to gain the upper hand against us. as to the specific question i think, i don't think i've anything, anything to add to what director haines testified to. i think before you any armed service committee but i would associate myself with her,. >> in her comments she said she fully expect they would exploit this to the degree possible, best degree possible for them. administrator, thank you for your great work. i've got some questions on fentanyl. director, do you think the fbi should be fully engaged in the fight against fentanyl? >> i think we should be anything we are. i will say we can always use more resources against the fight. i think administrator milgram did it very good job of outlining just aow massive the problem is and it requires a team effort and we worked very closely with the dea. our focus is on willie what it

is the fbi through its unique authorities, expertise and resources can contribute to the team fight. i will be happy to talk about what those are. >> speaking about resources, again the house has passed a bill that would likely cut all agencies except the defense department by about 22%. for rather than than having more resources you would have sinned typically less. is the arithmetic right? >> so a cutut of that magnitude would be disastrous not just for really hard-working public servants career law enforcement professionals of the fbi, but more importantly in many ways on the american people that they are sworn ton protect. it is not uncommon for me to get briefed on single seizures from probably every state represented on this subcommittee, single seizures off enough fentanyl to wipe out ano entire state, what

operation, one seizurepe by one squad in one field office. so a cut of that magnitude would mean countless seizures that wouldn't happen and countless more fentanyl pills affecting neighbors all over this country. >> it would also inhibit your ability to grow your cybersecurity force, would that bed accurate? >> also, we are as i said in my opening statement, dealing with in the chinese cyber program alone an adversary that essentially outnumbered us 50 to one, and that's just a china. if add on top of that the hundred plus ransomware variants thate we are investigating, eah one of those with scores and scores of victims, , we need moe resourcesre for cyber which is what our enhancement asks for that, not less. and a cut would mean scores more attacks on american critical infrastructure, american hospitals, american schools, american 911ri call centers from

nationstates and cyber criminals alike. >> so again it would be the american people who would beit hurt the most. >> thank you for that very candid answer. administrator, cuts like that would also in danger the progress you've made, which is significant. >> yes, senator. cuts like that would be devastating for our work.at we are already about 600 60s down, and so we are running eight classes of this year. that kind of cut would mean we couldn't on board in the of the more than 400 agents we're scheduled to bring on board. it also would set us back dramatically inma the work we're doing across the world to map of the cartels and to be able to put the right tools and technology into the men women of dea's hands. wewe have technology and data system that is over 20 years old and is well past time that we are updating it. we are building an entire mission operating system that will allow us to break silence

come share information across dea and also really manage the agency more effectively. so for many reasons it would be devastating for our work. >> thank you very much, madam, both you and the men women of agencies. thankyo you. >> thank you star reach. we're going to go out of order a bit because with the chair of the appropriations committee with us and we are delighted she is here, so senator murray. >> thank you very much. appreciate you and ranking member moran and all the work you are doing with these, were to make sure were assessing our countries needs and working to live up to our responsibility to craft andnd pass bills deliver e funding opportunities need and need and the time a bipartisan way. keeping this going is really important because thehe are real stakes for our families here if we let our work fall behind. none of our global competitors are debating whether they should invest in the future. will and we have to remember that keeping our country safe

and secure doesn't just mean a strong military. it means a fair, functioning system of justice, law enforcement protecting our communities and ourmu rights. we cannot keep our family safe from threats like drug trafficking, including deadly fentanyl, domestic terrorism, cyber attacks, or white supremacy and the uptick in hate crimes and by the attacks without making sure our law enforcement agencies have the resources they need to t be effective and keep people safe. which is part of what makes the house republicans plan so alarming. you just outlined some ofne the impacts of that. reading it, i see the house republicans voted to essentially fired nearly 30,000 law enforcement personnel, and that's in just year one. though severe budget caps would mean more cuts to our law enforcement budgets every year for the next decade. so i hope we can all agree now is not the time to fire or

furlough or freeze hiring of our drug enforcement officers, agents, our attorneys, analysts, cyber experts, all who are working to keep our country and communities and families safe. and to do that we have to make sure we provide our federal law enforcement agencies with the tools they need, not blow a massive hole in the budget. so i appreciate our witnesses being here today and having this opportunity to have this hearing because i hope really that we can all work together to reject though severe cuts and agree to make reasonable investments in these agencies. i just have a couple questions, senator reed asked about the 22% cut that has been proposed or voted on in the house. i think we all have to be cognizant of the impacts of that as we move forward. but let me ask you, director wray, criminal organizations are increasingly using technology for criminal activity like drug trafficking and cyber crime and violent extremism.

as we continue to do more online, the united states has to adapt and anticipate those combat threats because he fbi have the resources it needs to combat cyber related to threats from criminal organizations? and one of the greatest cyber threats that you see facing us today? >> so i would mention a few things. first, i strongly agree that our adversaries not just nationstates but sophisticated transnational criminal organizations are relying more and more unsophisticated technology. there's a lot of ways in which our budget request asked for more resources to i like that but i would ask to one particular which is our request for enhancement that focuses on our ability to focus on the dark web encrypt of currency. because one of the things we are seeing is the dark web has become essentially a rogue gallery of different kinds of

criminal products and services, and the payment mechanism for those deadly products and services is typically crypto currency. and someone place where i think the need for enhancements are particularly acuteness help us grow our scale to deal with those issues. we just had last week operation specter or i think it was that was the largest ever seizure of fentanyl trafficked on the dark web, and that's come on the heels. we need more operations like that to dismantle the darknet marketplaces and to go after the crypto currency that is the, these are profit motivated adversaries, and so we have gotten better in cybercrime and on cyber threats at chasing the crypto and seizing the crypto, we need to be able to scale that

because the threat is metastasizing. >> administrator milgram, in a recent press release the dea stated that an operation last mile which targeted drug trafficking by the sinaloa and the jalisco cartels, more than 1100 cases involve social media and encrypted communications platforms. how has the dea adapted to these technology by these criminal drugug networks? >> senator, is a really important question because we are in the process of adapting and transforming to do just this. focusing is a drug cartels as director wray has said, they have evolved since really 2014, 2015 with the onset of fentanyl. they are nimble. they are deadly, and they're literally putting that no onto our and all over social media in a way that we had never seen before. and so an operation last mile we talk about social media is loving the last mile problem for the cartels. they are getting the drugs into

people's hands by any, think about hundreds of millions of americans have cell phones, and if social media accounts.ph and so within a a matter of cs they are marketing oftentimes things that are, they are fentanyl but they're marketed as if they were real prescription medicines like oxycodone. just to tell you one story, onem one of our operations and investigations from last mile just down the road from here in washington, d.c., diamond lynch was a 20-year-old mama, and she tookok we should thought was a percocet pill.t it was fentanyl. she died and she was at the time planning her sons first year old birthday party. she never saw that day. our agents -- >> bod on my? >> she did not buy online. online part comes in a minute. so she purchased it to a dealer that she knew. .. dealer. they then traced it back to the source in los angeles that was working with other suppliers on

instagram. we then trace it back directly to the sinaloa cartel in mexico. that's the kind of work we are now transforming our agency to be able to do, to trace it back to the cartels and to identify the entire global supply chain, including supply chain across the supply chain across united states, distribution network that leads to the death of 107,735 americans between august 2021 in august of 2022. >> thank you for sharing that and thank you for taking it out of order. >> senator hegarty. >> thank you. your response was due earlier today.

as the fbi complied with the subpoena the document? >> we submitted a lengthy e-mail letter earlier today. >> an e-mail, not to document? >> i can't speak to the specific document, we are committed to working collaboratively with both committees but had to balance ongoing investigations and will continue to work through the process. >> was our plan? >> it goes through discussion about the proposed approach. the document does exist? >> i will tell you we understand completely the importance of congressional oversight and i

understand as i think you do the importance of protecting sources and methods and ongoing investigations and we ares. committed to work through the process. >> i had a frustrating conversation with attorney general comment. tell the biden administration can investigate the biden family so want to come back to if i could to get out it deeper. my first question is whether you medicated with white house eyemployees or d.o.j. staff regarding investigations that pertain to president biden. >> my instructions including

attorney general garland. >> i don't know that i can get into discussions, i talked to him probably everyday about all sorts of investigations but what i will tell you is i'm an fbi director appointed by the previous president in our agents in our baltimore field office are working with u.s. attorney from the previous administration u.s. attorney in delaware on i think investigation you are referring to end my expectations of our agents on every investigation which i communicate like a broken record that we are to follow the facts wherever they lead, to whom ever they lead no matter who likes this. >> with the delaware u.s. attorney be responsible for deciding about evidence of

unlawful conduct forward to do works.dence >> i want to engage in hypotheticals for thet u.s. attorney is leading i think the investigation publicly disclosed that ico think you're referring to. >> let me come back to him trying to understand. if the fbi has evidence the criminal conduct and we headed to the d.o.j. but i understand the d.o.j. policy will not charge a sitting president while they are president and the d.o.j. is not going to provide information or comply with subpoenas or documents, it feels it's a dog chasing his tail and the question is, how does the american public ever get the

evidence? >> decisions made by d.o.j. about how to stack prosecutions which u.s. attorney's office in which counsel to appointment all those things are interested by regulation to the department, the attorney general. i can be choose the fbi who in my expectations of the fbi agent and those the ones of communicated. >> to be clear, he handed over to the d.o.j. and they would make the determination if the delaware u.s. attorney, what to do with the evidence in their policy is not to start a sitting president and we can't get thehe evidence in congress, correct? >> decisions about who to charge, what to charge, those are decisions made by prosecutors of the justice department including u.s. attorney of dollars in decisions about the justice department's

communicationsns decision-making are the justice department'sit decision, i want to speak for them. >> we are back where we started on the. i appreciate the opportunity, it is frustrating. >> thank you senator hegarty. we are pleased vice chair of the operations committee is with uso today so we are going to ask her if she would like to give a statementke and take her questions. >> thank you very much. you be happy to note that i'm not being a statement and i'll go straight to my questions. first of all, welcome to both of you, i so appreciate the work you do. t it is vitally important. director ray and we have also talked, i was trying to think

whether you're director or administrator, last month employees overmi restaurant and armor were shocked when they opened the box they expected to contain mugs they ordered and instead they found 14 kilograms of fentanyl. that's an amount sufficient to kill entire population of maine five times over. they immediately called local police working with federal partners on what is clearly a major interstate trafficking networks. the fbi and dea play a key role working with state and local law enforcement partners combating drug smuggling violent crimes and gangs and local communities. director right, we've had the

opportunity to discuss the importance of these relationships during your visit to maine of last year which have been much appreciated. in particular, i'm hoping for continued collaboration and support for the southern thanks passports and england prescription opioid task force launched last june to address illegal opioid prescription in maine and new hampshire. director ray and administrator, to implement the budget, will you ensure these programs receive as much support as ppossible? >> something on my end these are both team efforts very important to me and i know as you may recall from my visit last august, i think we are working closely more than ever the state

and local partners in maine and it meant a lot to me when one of our longtime state law enforcement partners and fbi move from when he called promise to present meaning instead of just talking about being there for them, which is there and could be counted on in that something i'm very grateful for the goal i am shooting for. >> we are fortunate to have more than 3000 task force officers across the united states and incredible partnerships with state and local law enforcement so in thef example from the restaurant you gave in maine, our agentse, responded and are actively working that investigation right now in partnership with localg police. the work we get for the operation is 3300 and arrest there were police chiefs and

departments, we could not to the work we are doing across our communities without them so we are incredibly supportive of work and anything that brings us together sharing information and working with them. >> thank you. i appreciate that. in our 2024 budget hearing with the attorney, i express my dismay while the department is requesting funds to hire hundreds of new attorneys in litigating decisions in antitrust and headquarters, it's proposing to hire only for new dna special agents, that's incredible to me and particularly puzzling in the context of the drug overdose poisoning crisis, i bet everybody here has experienced record high in the number ofpe people who lost their lives in

our home state in maine, record 716 people last year end 80% that's were linked to fentanyl so last year congress provided da $40 million to the request to psupport more than 120 additionl new agents. administrator, did you request more agents than before granted to you? >> if i could start by thanking you for the additional $40 million lastt year, it's been incredibly important for our transformation at da. i believe this year because we have not yet hired those agents from last year, we beat on boarding 131 agents, 50 investigators and 35 intelligence analysts but certainly we can do more with more. >> thank you, senator peters.

>> thank you, miniature. director ray, according to g,reporting, people in texas ths past week and were murdered by a man who allegedly held a white supremacist field. you and i have discussed the fact that white supremacy and extremist pose the greatest terrorist threat domestic terrorism threat here in the home and for many years. as you know we'll talk about this, still waiting for accounting from the fbi dhs mandated by law i wrote with johnson in 2019 and the information iss important becaue if you don't have a full measure of what you're doing with, it's difficult to know how to properly resource it so my question, can you tell me

specifically what in the 24 budget request demonstrates the fbi is24 prioritizing the investigation and response to this significant domestic terrorism threat? >> i appreciate the question and have found my conversations on this topic to be productive helpful to know how important this is to you. t the fiscal 24 budget, we have requested enhancement so on top of the base funding which is significant to this issue. 13 million-dollar counterterrorism enhancement that would augment our ability to address investigative requirements and provide sophisticated toolsme necessaryo correct of the counter the threat from increasing our investigative capacity andy, facilitating information sharing and identifying emerging trends and tried to get that ahead of the threat and enhance liaison relationships with law enforcement and the privateel

sector. as you may recall in 2019 i elevated extremism to national threat priority which is level of highest priority threat and these are significant growth in the number of investigations we were conducting throughout 2020 and certainly since then so we look for the enhancement of described to build on top of the base we are to have because we can't really rob peter to pay paul they are not subsiding and we are having to focus on terrorism. >> the increase you're talking about is directly related to your efforts on domestic terrorism? >> 13 million specifically posted on domestic terrorism. >> okay, just wanted to be there. frequently a discussion about the movement of fentanyl focuses

on department of home and security measures and ports of entry across the border is critical work that needs to be done to deal with fentanyl literally when it comes to the supply chain discussed in the your opening remarks so the question is related to how we deal with longchain that leads to dangerous products coming into our country. how does da work specifically the department of homeless security identify and investigate illicit movement precursors and fentanyl production and other additional tools or authorities you believe will be necessary to enhanceyo e dna dhs ability to disrupt the supply chain in a significant ntway? >> thank you for raising this because i think it is vital look at this as a network problem so

traditionally with focusob on high-value targets, leaders of the cartel, it's important but not enough. wek it have asked with counter threat teams 6000 members associates and facilitators of the cartels in more than 40 countries worldwide and visa the cartels we have identified as most responsible for the death of fentanyl on our streets today. it starts in china with precursor chemicals and goes to mexico where the chemicals are used to make fentanyl so wear ae targeted specifically for precursor chemical companies both on the clear that and darknet and individuals engaged. we work closely with dhs, they have capacity related to cargo shipment. one of the challenges we are facing is right now because the chemical industry is so under regulatedd as i mentioned

earlier, a network case where we have charged 20 individuals including four in china, they are hiding what the chemicals are as they are being shipped out so there's no know your customer requirement, no requirement anything correctly labeled so we are working as hard as we can with dhs and others to figure out how we can best infiltrate and adapt to track shipments stop them even before they get to mexico. >> thank you, madam chair. >> senator kennedy. >> the two cartels sending fentanyl into the united states are located in mexico? >> yes so sir. we could stop cartel in their tracks president lopez over door would invite american military

and/or law enforcement personnel to come into mexico and work with his military and law enforcement personnel? >> what i would say as head of the da -- >> is my statement true or not? >> i would say we are focused on the two cartels we believe are doing exactly what you say, responsible for the fentanyl. >> president lopez over door invited the american military and/or american law enforcement officials to come into mexico to work with the same in mexico, we could start the cartel, could we not? >> this is a whole of government effort and has to beat, including whether it's military, us, fbi -- >> i've listened to you for almost an hour telling us how bad fentanyl is, a cue for that but we know.

i'll ask a third time, it president lopez over door invited american military and/or law enforcement personnel to come into mexico and work the same in mexico, we could stop the cartels, isn't that effect? >> i can't speak to the law enforcement side and you mentioned law enforcement. i believe it's vital for both mexico and the united states. mexicans are dying as well as we showed. >> and why don't we stop them? let me ask you all for time, wouldd help if president lopez - i don't think it's a complicated question, you asked us for more money every year and it getsm worse and worse. in the real world, the nitty-gritty of the real world when you fail, you get fired. in government when you fail, you get more moneyyo because obviouy youu need it.

now let me ask you a fourth time. if president lopez over and over, and ipe would appreciate n answer, if president lopez over door invited the american military and law enforcement personnel to come into mexico and work, we could stop the cartel, couldn't we? >> i believe we can stop the cartel. >> have you made that suggestion to president biden? >> i believe can stop the carte- >> have you made that suggestion to president biden? >> i haveedid been vocal in the whole of government setting on the importance of this and using every effort and authority -- >> why hasn't president biden bennet? >> this is the way the american people, sons and daughters are dying look at it -- our economy is $23 trillion -- mexico's economy is $1.3 trillion.

ours is 18 times bigger. $400 billion every year from mexico. without the people of america, mexico figuratively speaking would be eating cat food out of a can living in a tent behind an outback so why don't you and the president, embarrassing no one, get on the phone and call president lopez over door and making a deal he can't refuse to allow our military and law enforcement officials to go into mexico and work with his to stop the cartels? why don't you do that? >> what i'm doing every single day is working with the incredible men and women risking their lives across 334 offices. >> and i appreciate that but you're not doing what would work. why won't you do what will work? why don't you call the presidena

this afternoon and say mr. president, let's call president overdose privately and make him a deal he can't refuse? we both knoww president lopez over door has needed the ability nor the will to stop the cartel but yet go along and pretend they are our friends and mexico is our friend but he has criminal organizations killing our people and you know how to stop in the president does and you are not doing it. >> weird working everyday to stop it. >> but you're not doing what s would stop it. >> we are working in countless ways to do what needs to be done for the american people and there's nothing. >> when it's important to you, you make it happen. but it's not important, make an excuse. >> thank you.

>> senator britt. >> thank you, madam chairman. director and administrator, take you for being here today. you've publicly stated the fbi opens to china related counterintelligence investigations everyday. that's a concerning statistic to say the least. the threat the united states is facing from a chinese communist party can you characterize the nature of thete threats? >> i would say that been saying this since early in my tenure as fbi director, there's no country that presents a broader more severe, embryos of threat to our economic security, innovation and ideas than the chinese government, chinese communist party and that threat is massive in scale and complicated in

different targets and tools, techniques and agendas they have, all of which are ultimately designed to advance the chinese government at our expense and includes everything from cyber with a have a bigger problem than every other major ernation combined to economic espionage and intellectual property theft from businesses ranging from fortune 100 companies to small startup in silicon valley everything from big cities to rural, we've had them stealing seeds in agricultural areas all the way to foreign influence where they are targeting both officials, influence and shape in a more pro- chinese communist direction but also harassment, stalking, intimidation and critics here in the united states whether they are chinese-americans or other

critics of the regime so it's in all front threat and requires will of country response ranging not just across the intelligence community or law enforcement but working in partnership with the private sector, the universities in foreign partners because the same thing they are doing to us, they are doingey to our friends and allies as well and i find when i talked to partners, is one of the first topics they want to raise so ultimately for us as a country, the solution is to make sure we keep this a priority and working partnership with all of those i mentioned. >> thank you for your candor and the nature of your response. i hope our leaders across the board will listen to what you just said and wake up. i understand visited fbi redstone on several occasions. we look forward to welcoming

additional fbi employees as construction continues and new facilities are open. her next question has two parts. how doess fbi fit into the fbi broader strategic plan for the future and second, will be a redstone provide capacity to for the professional development and training of your workforce to ensure fbi has the most highly skilled innovative analytical workforceti other? >> this is a subject i get excited about. i'm excited about the future at huntsville and we areur on track to i think have 19 different fbi divisions represented there, already up about 1800 employees and i could see easily getting to 3000. in terms of the future i think we seek a couple of things. one, i view it as an innovation hub and we have talked already a lot about technology and

adversaries and technology in our need to use technology to get ahead of them and that's where r&d efforts for handing it would be concentrated in huntsville and will have a cyber connect the range for agents can train an innovation hub so it's both innovation and advanced training. we will always have one as our basic training but i expect gradual level training, we are on track for that. the third piece is we have a counter center of excellence there were all over the world they are sent to do forensics reach lives on the battlefield so we are looking to grow that as well.

as you said many times i'm sure we will visit many m more in evy time we are struck by activity and how excited and enthusiastic all of our people and partners are. >> thank you so much. i'd be remiss if i didn't encourage you and fbi to continue leveraging highly skilled workforce best national security base whether it is network engineering, quantum computing, artificial intelligence will counter you a is, is thehe experience ready to support the mission. thank you. >> nai'm sorry -- you are out of order on my list but your next and we are going to make our 3:45 p.m. deadline but the next two senators questions in the wiopen section and spc for the classifiedif round. >> thank both of you for your service to our country. director ray, i'm sure you would

agree then and women of the fbi deserve a new headquarters for the of their sacrifice. this has been an ongoing discussion. i'm not looking for any response, if you look at the history of this, who want to make sure we can consolidate the agency's mission and provide appropriate safety in my view the maryland sites are the ones that provide new headquarters and across to the taxpayer and meet the mission regarding equitable investments but we will have the opportunity in this committee that oversees the gsa. ...