00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome. It's good to see you here. I want to thank you, General
00:08Bondi and your staff and all the men and women that work for you that keep us safe.
00:14I'd like to echo Senator Moran's comments from earlier. I am always open to conversations
00:20about where federal agencies can find savings and efficiencies, and I believe that is critically
00:26important for government accountability. However, I received outreach from local law enforcement
00:33in Nebraska about the possible transfer of high-intensity drug trafficking areas program
00:38to the Justice Department. They feared this recommendation from the Office of Management
00:44and Budget could hinder the program's ability to fight drug trafficking. I appreciated your comments
00:51before the House appropriators earlier this week, confirming that Haida will remain where
00:57it is in the Executive Office of the President. We've heard your offers today to many on this
01:06committee. I appreciate those offers to work together to make sure that we're going to find
01:13effective and needed grants and keep those open, and I thank you for that. I continue
01:20to be concerned about the threat of the Chinese government, General Bondi, the threats that they
01:28pose to our critical infrastructure here in the United States, and that's whether we're looking
01:33at vulnerabilities in our communications network or with agriculture. The CCP is trying to exploit
01:41our information and our innovation every time. I want to recognize good work of the FBI field
01:48office in Omaha. They have been working proactively to address the state-sponsored foreign cyber threats,
01:55and especially where Nebraska's agricultural operations are concerned. How does the Justice Department's
02:04budget request support the essential work of FBI field offices so that they can address the rising threats,
02:12both locally and regionally? We have numerous threats, as you well know, from China, and you discussed. And it's not, you know, we often talk about the physical threats to our citizens, but as you pointed out,
02:28the cyber threats are so very real in our country. There's not a day that goes by that we don't discuss that. There are many meetings about that. We have some very frightening actors in our country right now, and we are making many cases regarding those.
02:44I know a particular interest in Nebraska is the agro-terrorism as well to you, and that's a high priority for our Justice Department. And this happened, I believe this one was in Michigan, but it was Chinese bringing pathogens into our country, and that was a case that I'm very proud of that our National Security Division and our FBI made very recently, though. That was in Michigan, but we're working on the
03:14by a Chinese national. Exactly. But we're working on many in Nebraska because of your farmlands, because of the demographics of your beautiful state. I appreciate that. And I need to correct, though, I want to correct, though, that one thing that you said with the HIDA grants. I'm a career prosecutor, and those high-intensity drug grants are very important, but 196 million of that will go to the Office of Justice programs, and we will be sure that they are administered in law enforcement
03:44receives the money that they need to continue with that. Our law enforcement in Nebraska uses those grants, again, in a really responsible way, and they're very, very effective across the state. I'm glad you brought up about the Michigan work that you've done there with regards to ag. Sometimes this country, because we're very, very fortunate to have food security,
04:11to have food security. But when we look at that and the effect it would have on national security, if some of these adversaries that we have would interfere with that, it would be devastating, not just to my state, but to our country as well.
04:27I wanted to bring to your attention something else. We've seen evidence of rising cases of cargo theft since 2020.
04:36Estimates on the financial impacts of cargo theft are upwards of $35 billion annually. A major concern of mine beyond the immediate harm that we see there to the multimodal supply chain is the cartel activity that's involved in this.
04:54Transnational cartels, they're increasing to turn over that cargo theft to help fund all their criminal activities, and a huge increase.
05:06I applaud the administration's ongoing efforts to crack down on violent crime from cartels.
05:12I hope you would look into this new activity. How do you think the department could optimize resources for federal law enforcement and prosecutors to investigate and disrupt these very, very sophisticated criminal groups like the cartels that are behind these thefts?
05:31On my first day, we call for total elimination of cartels and TCOs.
05:36And I believe what you're talking about in your state is through, I would imagine, I-80, interstate I-80.
05:42Trucking and also rail.
05:44And the rails, and the rails, but also in our states that are ports.
05:48So sometimes we feel like cargo only is a port area, but it's not because it's transported across our country.
05:56And we are on high alert and working very diligently to prevent all of that and to take out these cartels who have come into our country.
06:07And that's a very, very real threat to Americans and to your state, Senator.
06:12Thank you again, and thank you for the good work you and your team do every single day.
