Laurel Lee Questions Alejandro Mayorkas About Bolstering Election Security

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At a House Homeland Security Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) questioned DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas about cyber security and election protections.  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00 I now recognize the gentlelady, Ms. Lee, from Florida for five minutes of questioning.

00:04 Secretary Mayorkas, I'd like to continue the discussion about the Cybersecurity and

00:11 Infrastructure Security Agency and specifically the Chemical Facilities Antiterrorism Standards

00:17 Program that is overseen by CISA. The CFATS program, would you please describe for us

00:23 how your budget provides continued support for the CFATS program?

00:28 Congresswoman, I'll have to remind myself of the specific funding for that program.

00:34 That funding is very important and of course it has been in tremendous peril recently. We strongly

00:40 support the continuation of the CFATS program. It enables us to ensure that high-risk chemical

00:47 facilities are as secure as they need to be. And would you agree that a continuation of that

00:53 program is an important part of the mission to protect critical infrastructure? I would,

00:59 Congresswoman. And would you also encourage our friends and partners over in the Senate to take

01:05 up the bill that was passed by the House and is currently there awaiting their consideration and

01:09 action? Congresswoman, I look forward to reviewing that bill again, but we do indeed consider the

01:17 CFATS program to be very important. And I'd like to then return to the subject of CISA and its role

01:25 in elections infrastructure and its efforts to help state and local election officials protect

01:30 elections infrastructure. Specifically there, could you describe what CISA does to help state

01:36 and local elections officials defend against threats from foreign adversaries and domestic

01:41 adversaries to that infrastructure? Congresswoman, one of the things we do is provide training with

01:48 respect to the threat to be able to identify the threat. We share best practices. We have

01:55 marked election security as one of the six priority areas in some of our Homeland Security

02:04 grant programs to ensure that state and local jurisdictions devote needed resources to a

02:13 fundamental need of our country, and that is to safeguard the integrity of our election processes.

02:18 And moving to the question of breaches and cyber attacks, what efforts is CISA making to bolster

02:30 its own internal cybersecurity? I know they were victim to a recent cyber attack. Can you describe

02:36 for us the efforts internal to CISA on cybersecurity? Congresswoman, so that is a priority for the

02:44 department as a whole. Our chief information officer and that team is consistently working

02:53 day in and day out to enhance our security. In addition, CISA works to enhance the cybersecurity

03:02 of the federal civilian domain. It issues binding operational directives based on what it learns

03:09 from particular incidents to ensure that agencies and departments are patching or protecting

03:15 themselves against detected vulnerabilities. This is a very significant mission area of ours. The

03:21 cybersecurity threat vector is not, unfortunately, diminishing. Related to HSI, I'd like to go back

03:30 to that subject, which you addressed earlier as it related to some transnational gang activities.

03:37 But specifically within your budget, I'd like to discuss HSI and its operations related to child

03:42 exploitation and human trafficking. Your budget calls for additional funding there to help HSI

03:49 investigators combat human trafficking, does it not? Yes, it does. And would you explain for us

03:55 the types of activities and role that HSI takes specifically as it relates to the exploitation

04:01 and trafficking of children? Congresswoman, I named crimes of exploitation one of our six

04:09 mission priorities for the first time in the department's history. Tomorrow I will be with HSI,

04:15 Homeland Security Investigations, in New York City, launching a new campaign against online

04:22 child sexual exploitation and abuse. This is a scourge that is not only nationwide,

04:28 but is global in nature. More than 36 million tips were presented to enforcement authorities

04:36 across the world. Domestically, more than 63,000 of them reflected an imminent or grave threat.

04:43 The extent of this crime cannot be overstated. The work of HSI in combating it is heroic,

04:52 both in disseminating education and awareness, in investigating the crimes, in rescuing victims,

05:00 and holding perpetrators accountable. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.

05:04 >> The gentlelady yields.

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