Bennie Thompson

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

New sharing under CISPA would have gone to civilian agencies and DHS respectively.

Last week, I, along with Ranking Member Clarke, sent you a letter urging you to insist upon a referral of the bill.

Hopefully the testimony we receive today will help this committee make the case for moving cybersecurity legislation to the House floor.

I appreciate what the Chairman has said about his desire to focus on cybersecurity this Congress. But as we saw in the 112th Congress, simply wanting to pass cybersecurity legislation is not sufficient.

While the issuance of the Executive Order is a welcome development, it will take legislative action to fully address cyber threats and vulnerabilities to critical infrastructure.

Each week brings new reports of cyber breaches. Hackers are becoming more sophisticated.

It will take legislative action to fully address cyber threats and vulnerabilities to critical infrastructure.

The issuance of this Executive Order is a positive step forward.

The Government shut-down may seriously damage our ability to protect the safety and security of this Nation and its citizens because 70 percent of the intelligence community staff has been furloughed.

The funding of the Homeland Security Grant Program has been reduced significantly under Republican leadership of the House, from $2.75 billion to $1.5 billion.

The homeland security grant funds have been essential in developing the capabilities necessary to quickly and effectively respond to a terrorist attack or natural disaster.

The retention of qualified staff, as well as the ability to bring on qualified staff, is essential to the work of this committee.

These efforts and many others are taking place at a time when we must remain as vigilant as ever to protect the homeland.

Yesterday, we learned that our 2013 allocation would be further reduced by 8.2 percent.

In 2011, the Committee on Homeland Security's budget was cut by 6.8 percent.

Is it your opinion that that border control index would be something positive for the security of the border?

So, very succinctly, have we put that strategy in writing so that Members of Congress and others might know what it is?

A number of us for quite a while have been trying to get a comprehensive border strategy, and we have tried to encourage the Department to come up with it.

I want to remind all our Members that border security is linked to immigration matters and will be an integral part of any reform proposal.

This data would appear to suggest that while border-related crime is a concern, border communities are largely safe places to live, work, and do business.

Additionally, reducing the number of available immigration detention beds from 34,000 that we have today is no way to secure our borders.

Forcing the Coast Guard to curtail air and surface operation by more than 25 percent, reducing essential missions including migrant and drug interdiction and port security operations is no way to achieve border security.

Regardless of these differences, Madam Chairwoman, I would hope that we can all agree that pulling the equivalent of 5,000 Border Patrol agents and 2,750 CBP Officers from our borders, as called for by the sequester, is no way to achieve…

This strategy sounds a great deal like the PRECISE Act, a bill this committee marked up last Congress but was prevented from moving to the Floor by the Majority leadership.