▶ 0:01:18Let's uh convene the uh the members day meeting of the uh homeland security subcommittee committee will come to order. Good morning and welcome to the Homeland Security subcommittee's member day hearing. This morning we will hear from members about a variety of topics that fall within the subcommittee's jurisdiction. Thank you and to each of our colleagues for taking time out of your schedules to discuss the projects and programs within the homeland security bill that are important to your district. Your input is important.
▶ 0:01:48I look forward to working with ranking member Underwood and the members of this subcommittee to pass the fiscal year 26 homeland security appropriations bill. I will now recognize my colleague, Miss Underwood, for her opening remarks. Well, thank you, Mr. chairman for holding this hearing to kick off fiscal year 2026 appropriation season. I'm grateful that we're hearing testimony from our colleagues as we've done in the past so that uh they can highlight areas of importance for the constituents that they represent. Mr.
▶ 0:02:15Chairman, before we hear from our members, I'd be remiss if we didn't take a moment to raise my concerns with the unconstitutional decisions this administration has been making with the funds provided to the department by this committee, including the sudden and unexplained termination of DHS grants to states and nonprofit organizations, the cancellation of the disaster relief funds building resilience infrastructure and communities program, and reductions in force of parts of the department such as the office of civil rights and civil liberties and the offices the citizenship
▶ 0:02:46and immigration services unbudsman as well as the immigration detention unbudsman, not to mention serious questions about the shortcutting of due process and immigration reviews. These unconstitutional actions put DHS employees, American citizens, and our national security at incredible risk. Federal disaster relief funding is what makes it possible for communities across the country to recover from flooding to wildfires.
▶ 0:03:12The Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties protects the DHS workforce and upholds our values as Americans. These are non-negotiable priorities. As we focus today on our members funding priorities, we must also acknowledge that there are serious concerns with how DHS is executing the funding that we have provided. And I hope that we can work together to address some of these issues in our oversight role. Now, I look forward to discussing the Homeland Security priorities our colleagues are bringing to us today. and I thank them for taking the time to appear before us. Thank you, Mr.
▶ 0:03:42Chairman, for holding this hearing and I yield back. Thank you. And and uh I share your concerns about several of those things. So, we'll look forward to working together on those to see Yes, sir. what we can do. Mr. Mr. Moscowitz, the floor is yours. Uh well, good morning. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um thank you, ranking member. Want to appreciate the opportunity to come and talk to you. So, I just want to quickly just give you a little bit of my background. So before I got to Congress in another life, I was the director of emergency management for the state of Florida for Governor Ronda Santis. So a completely different party of mine.
▶ 0:04:12Uh and did that job for two and a half years and was in charge of the Hurricane Michael cleanup in the panhandle along with the entire COVID response for the state of Florida. You look young for having done all that. I it aged me in ways, Mr. Chairman, I can't describe, which is why I left that job. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Congress much easier. Smart guy. Yeah. Much easier than than than that job. But I I want to talk about FEMA. So obviously since this is an appropriations uh uh committee, obviously I want to make sure that we fully fund FEMA.
▶ 0:04:40Uh but I also want to raise the point that you can't fund something that may not be there. Uh and the FEMA situation is in way worse shape at the moment than the public knows what's going on behind the scenes at Homeland Security. So I mean, look, I have a bill out there that would remove FEMA from homeland. It would uh basically restore to the way it was uh before 911. it would give it back to the White House, which would shrink the agency because right now FEMA is doing all of the grants for the other 22 agencies plus in in Homeland.
▶ 0:05:10We want to know why why is FEMA doing all this immigration stuff as they're being directed by Homeland General Counsel to run all of those grants. Uh and so if we if it looks like FEMA is not as good as they used to be at response and recovery, it's because they've become a bloated grant agency because of Homeland's direction. So Byron Donald's and I have that bill to remove it uh uh from homeland and give it back to the president. In the Senate, uh Tom Tillis and Senator Padilla have that bill. So we have a bipartisan biccameal bill to try to do that with FEMA.
▶ 0:05:39And I know giving up a committee, I mean giving up an agency is is always hard. Um but I'm really worried about trying to say FEMA. What's going on in Homeland? There are discussions right now, Mr. Chairman, about breaking FEMA apart and giving pieces to other agencies. I don't know how that's going to make things more efficient or faster. Uh FEMA needs to get better at response. There needs to be reform. Block grants is definitely something that we should look at. We can look at block grants. Uh some states will do better at block grants than others.
▶ 0:06:07But we can do block grant where you the governor can request it if approved by the president. We can block grant money down. But the if you think for a second that the federal government doesn't have to do any response, I can tell you that that's not the case. Yes, Florida and Texas way more prepared than a Alabama or Mississippi just based on capabilities. Okay, the emergency management departments in Texas and Florida are gigantic.
▶ 0:06:30But if you look at where the majority of the disasters have been from 2011 to 2021, California's number one at 25, but the next states are Mississippi at 22, Oklahoma at 22, Iowa 21, Tennessee at 20, Louisiana 18, Alabama at 17. Those states will go bankrupt if they don't have full reimbursement for the federal government. not only bankrupt, they won't be able to respond. FEMA doesn't have assets. FEMA coordinates other assets from other agencies, a lot from DoD, and they move these pieces of equipment into the area.
▶ 0:07:01And so, someone is going to have to do that. There's going to have to be an agency that does it. If we're not going to call it FEMA and we're going to call it the National Office of Emergency Management, I don't care. But there's going to have to be an agency that coordinate a federal response when a disaster is such that it overwhelms state capacity. So, we can't just push down push this down to the states. That's number one. Number two is, you may not be aware, but FEMA has paused all grants, all of them, not just getting rid of brick, but they've paused all reimbursement that is currently going on to all states.
▶ 0:07:31They're calling it an additional review. It's a distinction without a difference. They have paused all of it. Not only have they paused it, there's discussions about getting rid of certain categories. Right now, we have categories of reimbursement A through G. A and and B are, you know, immediate needs and debris removal, but the others are roads and bridges and parks and beach renourishment. They're talking about getting rid of those as categories of reimbursement. I can tell you that all along the Gulf of America and up and down the coast of of the East Coast, look, I'm I'm on your page, Mr.
▶ 0:08:00Chairman, okay? I'm on your page. But all around the Gulf of America and up and down the east coast, South Carolina, North Carolina, if they can't get their beaches reimbursed under category G, okay, then then there's a major tourism problem on all these states. Uh, and so this is something that we got to be talking about. I think, Mr. Chairman, there's a disconnect between the White House and Homeland. Uh, and I and there's a lot going on. We know there's a lot going on. I don't think this is getting the attention it deserves.
▶ 0:08:28But but I I came here to really implore you guys that this isn't just about funding FEMA in in the Homeland budget. It's about engaging with the White House and Homeland on what the plan is here for FEMA. Um more money goes to red states than blue states. It's not even close. Uh and so this should be a a bipartisan issue. Uh and so I wanted to bring some of those concerns uh Mr. Chairman to you today. Uh and I appreciate the time to address you. Thank you. Miss Underwood, do you have any questions?
▶ 0:08:57Well, I I appreciate you raising the legislation that you've authored uh to do um some FEMA reform, and I think that there's obviously a bipartisan appetite there, but you mentioned in your testimony the damage of Hurricane Ian to your home state of Florida, estimated to be about 10 billion dollars. Given your experience as an emergency management director in Florida, can you talk about what it would have meant to your state if FEMA hadn't been there? So, let me let me say this. So, I want to talk about the reimbursement piece. Okay?
▶ 0:09:26It, as we know, all of this is in the Stafford Act, right? It's in it's in statute. Okay? You know, not to go off on a tangent here, but you know, the administration is not necessarily following what's in statute, right? They're doing a little bit of what they want on their own, and that's the concern. If they do that here with FEMA, they could just end reimbursement. Uh, and then, you know, that will get litigated in the courts. But in the meantime, there are grants that are in process reimbursement. Uh, and we're getting into hurricane season right around the corner.
▶ 0:09:54Uh, if Florida, which is one of the wealthier states, right, Florida, Texas, California, New York, if you were to get rid of reimbursement, even for the wealthier states, they'd have to raid their DOT funds. They'd have to raid their healthcare funds. They'd have to raid their education funds. And that's only for one one event.
▶ 0:10:11If they got a backtoback, if they got a what we what just happened with, you know, Milton and uh and Helen, if they got a Francis, Jean, and Charlie season where they got three hurricanes, you're talking the state would have to take 10 12 billion dollars out of their budget, it would decimate the state budget. Now, take that example and run it on Mississippi or Alabama or Louisiana. That amount of money is almost the entire state budget.
▶ 0:10:39or run it on an F5 tornado in Oklahoma or Tennessee, run it on a major flood in Kentucky. Um, and so, you know, FEMA needs reform. The president is right that FEMA needs reform. And I'm the whole industry is cleareyed on that. But this idea that we've switched from reform to removal, okay, um, states are going to dramatically suffer.
▶ 0:11:04I will tell you this, of all the things currently being discussed, getting rid of this department, getting rid of that department, or block granting money down in the in the emergency management space, it will do more damage to states, state budgets, and state legislatores on a bipartisan basis if all of a sudden we start messing with the categories of reimbursement. And from a response standpoint, you know, we didn't need federal help in Ian, but we would have needed it in Dorian. Dorian was a storm, if you might remember, was a category 5 stom.
▶ 0:11:34I was the director at the time. It stopped 75 miles off the coast of Florida, decimated the Bahamas, went due north. Dorian's wind was beyond all of the building code in Florida was 180 mi sustained winds with 210 gusts. Florida's building code is up to 160. All the hurricane glasses up to 160. DoD had moved all of tons of equipment uh into Florida pre-staged ready for the response because we weren't sure what was really going to happen. FEMA was the one who coordinated all of that.
▶ 0:12:00If there's no one coordinating federal assets from different agencies, states are dramatically in trouble. Katrina and Louisiana without the federal coordinating those assets over their capacity. If you want to know why there's a the the the response in North Carolina looked anemic. The truth is it the state response was a disaster. So FEMA had to come in and basically do the response for the state and FEMA because they need reform wasn't prepared to do that.
▶ 0:12:31So they moved a ton of federal assets in. Well, again, if there's no one doing that, who's moving these federal assets? Thank you so much. I don't know what the answer is.
▶ 0:12:50So if you We haven't done much yet or what that's I'm just curious and the reason I'm curious will be obvious in a minute but where you at in talking with the policy folks on So we've been talking to the committee talking to staff. We've also talked to another subcommittee that I waved on to and talked about this. I literally just came from a Florida delegation meeting where I addressed my colleagues to make them understand that the situation behind the scenes is much worse than than we're talking about publicly.
▶ 0:13:18Uh and so are you going to get a hearing? I'm asking for one. I mean, but they haven't responded yet. They they haven't responded yet. And so, Um, so we try to be conscious about not legislating as an appropriations committee, but but I got no problem. Uh, your member your member day, Mr. Chairman, was before the policy committee, so I I started here. Well, that's because we tend to be crisper than the other committees.
▶ 0:13:48You can tell them I said that. Fair. Um but anyhow um I don't have a problem with hearing the bill from a what are your recommendations and what are the fiscal implications. So it's like we won't step on the policy people's feet. But if you're saying hey I've got a better mousetrap and I I think I've got a pretty good eye on what's you have a pretty good eye on on what the problems are and what your recommendations are in terms of because it's about money.
▶ 0:14:18I mean, unless I miss something, ultimately it's about money. And so, if it helps you in those discussions and and our staff will will get a hold of the of the homeland people and go, "Hey, um, this Moscowitz guy apparently knows a little something about that because he's out of the frying pan and into the fire in emergency this, that, and the other stuff." Um, I'm okay with devoting some time to hearing more about it.
▶ 0:14:45Or if we really want to have fun, when FEMA presents, we'll have you at the at the same thing going, you know, I love them and blah blah blah and here's here's my view of the world. Um, because I think it's an important discussion to have. And by the way, if you are under the impression that I I'm only going to speak for myself that I am clued in on what the plan is for FEMA, you are mistaken. Want to have a hearing over here? Yeah, Mr. Mr. Chairman, I I would love to do that hearing.
▶ 0:15:15Uh we can talk about obviously the bill and block grants because those are those are dollars concerned. While while the bill would have a cost, okay, the it would shrink the department, which then would have long-term savings. The way I look at the bill is if we look at what you know, and I'm not going to go too into Doge, but this is the E part. By the way, it's doggy. Yeah, it's doggy. Fine. It's phonetically. Fair enough. It's not France America. Nugget doggy. This this bill is the efficiency piece.
▶ 0:15:43This is this is about making a FEMA more efficient by getting it out of a a big bureaucracy. It's a smaller agency within a big bureaucracy. Uh and making it more efficient by returning it back to the White House, shrinking it, and then obviously figuring out how we can spend less dollars but still make sure that FEMA is effective to help the states that are going to need it.
▶ 0:16:05to make it crystal clear, if if we say we're going to do a hearing on on on Moscowitz's bill, um if that encourages the people that need to to come together and solve the problem, so we don't need to hear your bill, great. In case it's clear, if that doesn't get somebody's attention to sit down and go, "Hey, what do we want to be when we grow up?" Then we'll have a hearing and just see what the testimony does. Fair enough, Mr. Chairman. Appreciate that. Thank you, Rep. Gillan, the floor is yours. Thank you so much.
▶ 0:16:35Thank you, uh, Chairman, and thank you, Ranking Member Underwood. Um, I just want to echo Congressman Moscowitz's remarks. This is not what I'm here to testify about, but I represent Long Island on in New York, and during Superstorm Sandy, my community was completely devastated. People saw their neighbors houses washed out to sea. And it took us years and years to rebuild. And I can tell you years later when I served in local government, I was still working with FEMA to replenish our beaches and to harden our infrastructure.
▶ 0:17:06And the work they do is so critical. So I appreciate you taking up this cause and I echo his his concerns about FEMA's uh process. But today I am appearing before you um to urge you to continue to make much needed investments in the upcoming fiscal year to help secure our southern border. Mr. chairman, our immigration system is broken. For too long, the federal government has failed to do enough to secure our borders and to adequately enforce our immigration laws.
▶ 0:17:35Every day, my constituents deal with the effects of this failure, including an influx of immigrants into our state and our communities. Um, putting a strain on our schools, putting a strain on our law enforcement, our local governments, and at times undermining our public safety. As a result, our communities on Long Island are overburdened and our taxpayers are left on the hook. Without federal action, we will only continue to struggle to keep up, and this cannot continue.
▶ 0:18:03It is my priority in Congress to work across the aisle to secure our border, to fix our broken asylum system, to find a clear pathway to citizenship for people who want to come here, and to prevent gang members from entering our country and trafficking frenol into our communities. Members of both parties should agree that we must achieve situational awareness and operational control over our southern border.
▶ 0:18:30That is why I urge you to invest in proven and effective methods to strengthen and enhance our border security. That includes hiring more border patrol agents, deploying dome uh drones and smart technology at the border, building strategic barriers where appropriate, and supporting cooperation with state and local law enforcement to help prevent individuals from crossing First, I urge the committee to provide the necessary funding to the US Customs and Border Patrol Protection
▶ 0:19:01to hire an additional 10,000 Border Patrol agents. As you know, fiscal year 24 funding bill called for a staffing target of 22,000 Border Patrol agents and CBP has fallen short of that goal. At the same time, uh GAO has reported that CBP is expecting a huge surge of upcoming retirements in the next two years.
▶ 0:19:22I agree with the president that we need to hire thousands of additional border patrol agents and provide incentives to help recruit and retrain them and retain them and I urge the committee to provide the resources necessary to get this done. Second, I strongly support deploying advanced technology including unmanned aerial systems equipped with thermal imaging and AI enabled facial recognition technology to help stop violent criminals and gang members trafficking fentinel across the border.
▶ 0:19:50That is why I urge the committee to provide the funding necessary to ensure that CBP air and marine operations can achieve 110,000 annual flight hours in FY26 and operate drones along the border 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Increased aerial surveillance and other technology should be supplemented by additional funding to help construct physical strategic barriers barriers where necessary along the border.
▶ 0:20:18Third, I urge the committee to continue to invest in programs that strengthen cooperation between the federal government and local law enforcement to secure our border and to keep our community safe. That includes programs like the Department of Homeland Security's operational operation stone garden, which provides grants to state and local law enforcement to support border security operations. This program was funded at 90 million in FY23 and FY22, but was reduced by 9 million in FY24.
▶ 0:20:47I respectfully request that 110 million in funding for operation uh stone garden is appropriated in FY26. Finally, I urge the committee to provide dedicated resources to help reimburse our local law enforcement for the costs they incur in dealing with the migrant crisis. Our local law enforcement officers know our communities best and can best work with federal authorities to ensure that enforcement is targeted and properly carried out.
▶ 0:21:13How however without additional funding, we're just asking our local law enforcement to do more with less. That is why I'm eager to eager to work with you and your colleagues to help provide the additional funding to alleviate the burden on Nassau County and other jurisdictions. Mr. Chairman and ranking member, thank you so much for your time today and for your work on this committee to protect our homeland and to keep our communities safe.
▶ 0:21:35I look forward to working with you and your colleagues on both sides of the aisle to secure our border, fix our asylum system, protect legal pathways to citizenship that will benefit our economy and our country. Thank you. I yield back. Representative Gillan, thank you so much for being here with us.
▶ 0:21:53I'm so delighted to hear your strong commitment to advancing border security and we really look forward to working with you throughout this appropriation cycle to make sure that we have uh the resources dedicated so that we can uh make sure that the grant dollars end up in communities like yours. You know, as we know right now, a lot of those funding programs have been put on pause or they're redirecting funds outside of um the the direction of the Congress.
▶ 0:22:18And so we look forward to working with you to make sure that this season we're able to have a strong effective bill that gets signed into law. Thank you. Thank you so much. Who's thanks? Whoever helped you get ready for this. I mean she sounds like appropriate. It may not be a compliment but anyhow I have wonderful staff including my staff here Dan Maro. Nice work, strong testimony. Um my commitment to you is this.
▶ 0:22:47Um, we will keep you guys a breast of what we're doing. Is that you, Al? Al here will will be in direct contact with you in terms of what we're doing so that as we go through this process and get ready to start, you know, subcommittee Mark and full committee stuff that you know what we're doing in those areas specifically. Great. Um, and so it it sounds like we're in the same general neighborhood anyhow. But but even if it comes to where it's like I think you guys screwed up here, there whatever.
▶ 0:23:18Um, you have asked for and deserve and you will have complete access to what the committee is doing in those areas so that our product hopefully is as strong as it can be in terms of those areas as well as others. So thank you for your preparation, your effort, and your time. Excellent testimony and thank you. We look forward to working with you. Thank you, chairman. Thank you, ranking member. Anything else, ma'am? I think we did it. Look at this member day.
▶ 0:23:47What a success, Mr. Chairman. Let's Let's declare success and go over the hill. Thank you very much. We're