Katherine Harris

Communities were suffering even before the wildfires and hurricanes. These disasters made a bad environmental crisis even worse.

I am hopeful that today's hearing will provide suggestions for improvement to disaster planning and post-disaster response.

Thankfully, our firefighters are responding as quickly as possible, and the Federal Government should do everything we can to assist the victims.

That is just wrong. When you are a kid, you should be having fun, not worrying about cancer causing toxins.

We need to address the issues of waste management effectively.

We will be looking at how to incorporate steps to protect those Superfund sites from changes that might occur as we can identify they are in an area where there is a fire hazard or a hazard from sea level rise.

Our job is to protect people, and frankly, we are failing.

Climate change, as I think you would agree, acts as a force multiplier in extreme weather conditions.

We must and we can do better.

If confirmed, will you please share with my office any policy memos that the Department is planning to implement affecting the processing of unaccompanied minors?

I would like you to commit to this Committee that you will prioritize training and clear communication and guidance to an agency of hundreds of thousands of people.

Two weeks ago, I sent a letter with 38 other United States Senators to DHS asking the agency to keep its promise by not sharing the information it demanded from these young people in order to deport them.

I believe that we must and we owe it to them to find a permanent solution.

The previous Administration prioritized violent and serious crimes and any conduct that would pose a risk to national security.

Every day since that announcement was made, and even before, they wake up terrified.

You are aware, though, that the unaccompanied minor issue, as it has been playing out in the last few years, is not about the children of Mexico or Canada; it is about Central American countries and, in fact, the five top murder capitals…

When you are running a large agency, you cannot run it just from the top down. It also has to be from the bottom up.

Current DHS policy prohibits enforcement actions at or near sensitive locations such as hospitals, schools, and churches.

Will you commit to this Committee, if confirmed, that you will make that interpretation, which is that that information will not be shared for enforcement purposes, that you will make that policy position clear to all members and employees…

Will you commit to keeping those records during the duration of our investigation?

It is critically important that this Committee have access to all of the information it needs to understand the Russia propaganda in the 2016 election.

That can lead to death.

I would like as a follow up from each who has information about the incidents that we are also hearing of people in Puerto Rico drinking water from Superfund sites because of their desperation to get drinking water, and, obviously, there…

Let us make sure that it is clear that everyone will be counted. Their information will not be shared with law enforcement.

There are a lot of folks who are very distrustful of our government, distrustful of institutions, distrustful of leadership in government