Brian Higgins

I want to thank the Chair, and I am pleased to serve as Ranking Member today, particularly given the topic at hand, staffing and infrastructure at America's ports of entry.

I will focus my comments today on our Northern Border, since our border with Canada is often somewhat forgotten in these discussions.

Cross-border travel and the efficient flow of goods and people across the border are vital to the communities I am privileged to represent.

There was a hearing earlier today in Foreign Affairs where it was disclosed that in the past year ISIS has had their footprint reduced in both Iraq and Syria.

We must ensure our friends and allies halt government-sponsored ransom payments. Doing so will lead to fewer kidnappings while also depriving terrorists of a major revenue source.

Kidnapping for ransom, antiquity smuggling and private donations represent an alarming and largely under appreciated source of terrorist financing that has largely gone unaddressed.

I believe it is important to distinguish the terms 'radicalization' and 'terrorism.'

I hope we can have a robust discussion of the existence of these programs as we seek to understand whether post-prison countering violent extremist reentry programs may be helpful in reducing recidivism and decreasing the allure of…

I believe it is important to distinguish between the terms radicalization and terrorism.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you for holding this, today's hearing, to explore the detention and monitoring of radical ideology in prisons.

These groups are so desperately needed today.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, just let me thank you, because a lot of what you do is about what didn't happen.

Again, I thank Chairman King, Chairman Katko, and my fellow Ranking Member Rice for their leadership in focusing our oversight on this hearing.

My bill, which was advanced through my Counterterrorism and Intelligence Subcommittee today unanimously, would direct the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Intelligence and Analysis to conduct an assessment of the risks…

My concern with this issue led me to introduce legislation in July entitled the Known Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Threats to Transportation Act.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing to examine options for enhancing the safety and security across our surface transportation sectors.

The snap-back provisions in this agreement are real and powerful, and I think are born out of a deep distrust of Iran.

This deal cuts them by two-thirds, which I think is very, very significant.

For context, the United Nations has indicated that of Western nations resettling Syrian refugees, Germany will resettle the largest number.

By doing so, the United States will proudly honor its tradition of providing safe haven for refugees.

I would offer that the attempted fraud associated U.S. Refugee program is no more or less than the attempted fraud that exists within other programs.

Christians in the Middle East and Africa are losing entire communities that have lived peacefully for 2,000 years.

Christians have been persecuted and killed from Lebanon to Sudan, well, now South Sudan, and civil wars have lasted decades.

Five hundred thousand Christians, Christian Arabs, have been driven out of Syria during the last 3 years of civil war.

Christian kids have been beheaded, their mothers raped and their fathers crucified, literally.