John Katko

I constantly hear from my constituents back home about this issue, about the whole cybersecurity issue. They are terrified.

As Chairman Katko has stated, in 2010, terrorists attempted to hide bombs inside printer cartridges that were shipped out of Yemen.

Terrorists are relentless in their efforts to target aviation.

I applaud you on the public-private partnerships.

It has been long past due for this subcommittee to pay attention to air cargo from a committee standpoint.

I think it is critically important to the function of all of these places, all of these agencies going forward that they had this reauthorization.

I think that the 5-year term for the administrator was probably one of the best provisions 'cause I thought of it.

This is both tragic and unacceptable, and H.R. 2851 is a positive step in eradicating these harmful substances from our community.

Getting these drugs off the streets and out of the hands of our loved ones means a top priority for me.

I hope that today's hearing will further our efforts in seeking avenues to improve, where necessary, rather than criminalize and incarcerate absent due process, but more importantly, as all of us want to do, to save lives, stop the siege…

The SITSA Act will give local law enforcement and Federal law enforcement the necessary tools to target synthetic substances and the criminals who traffic them.

H.R. 2851 finally gives U.S. law enforcement nimble tools to react as soon as these deadly drugs arrive in our country.

I must say, over my 20-year career as a Federal prosecutor doing organized crime cases, as well as the last several years in Congress, it is much different being in the hot seat here than it is being the one asking questions.

Just a week ago, Syracuse Area Hospitals, which are the heart of my district, saw a record number of overdoses due to synthetic drug abuse.

The synthetic drug epidemic has swept our Nation, and it has crippled communities in Central New York and across this great country of ours.

Not only is this our first Secret Service hearing of the 115th Congress, but it is also the first time Director Alles has testified before us in his newly-appointed capacity as head of the Secret Service.

I have already come to appreciate the significant contributions this agency makes to the functioning of our Government, as well as the challenges it faces in manpower, funding, and morale.

The men and women working to carry out the mission of the Secret Service comprise one of the finest law enforcement agencies in the world, and we owe it to them to be responsible overseers for them and give them the tools they need to…

But the private sector does. There are a lot of technological advances in the private sector and the common refrain I hear from them is that it takes too long for them to get the attention of TSA or Homeland Security and then it takes too…

I am very pleased to report that H.R. 2169 is a very bipartisan bill that passed the Committee on Homeland Security unanimously. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the measure, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Having led one of these last term, what you are looking into is critically important to the security of our country.

I must tell you, if I am a member of the general public, seeing your reaction... there is a lot of work to be done.

I prefer a free enterprise system, prefer to keep Government out of the way whenever we can possibly do that.

If the world's largest airport can do it and the costs associated with it can somehow be absorbed--I know Delta is paying for their own screening and I know it is a substantial sum of money, but they--you can't put a value on safety.

What we want to do is be able to get the technologies, like I said, that is cutting-edge on the front lines working as they are supposed to much quicker than we are currently doing.