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It is the obligation of this subcommittee to ensure that the middle class, working families and low-income families are not harmed by reckless cuts. We will reject these cuts to health programs, medical research, public health, home heating assistance, and so many others; instead, we are going to invest in health, education, and protections for the middle class. Mr. Secretary, I look forward to finding out whether you support these reckless cuts. I truly hope not.

First and foremost, is whether the interests of the American taxpayer are being put first – where they belong – or whether the personal financial interests of President Trump are taking precedence when GSA is making real estate and procurement decisions. To get to the bottom of this, we will need Administrator Murphy to answer our questions truthfully and forthrightly about the construction and consolidation of a new FBI headquarters.

There is an epidemic of gun violence in our nation, and this subcommittee has a key role to play in the urgently needed response, as we oversee the federal law enforcement agencies tasked with overseeing gun dealers, investigating gun crimes, and running our background check system, among other things. That is why I am pleased to welcome our two witnesses today, Thomas Brandon, the Deputy Director and Head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, otherwise known as the ATF, and Christine Halvorsen, the Acting Assistant Director for Criminal Justice Information Services, or CJIS at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. CJIS, among other things, operates the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, more commonly known as NICS.

After several years of increasingly severe weather events in my home state of North Carolina and around the country—and after tens of billions of dollars appropriated for disaster relief and emergency programs, much of it from this subcommittee—we must become more intentional about applying the concepts of mitigation and resiliency into our federal housing and transportation programs. We also need to identify ways we can support these efforts at the state and local level.

The Office of Inspector General serves the important purpose to combat waste, fraud, and abuse within the Department and works to ensure the nation’s taxpayer dollars are well spent. Under your watch, Mr. Missal, OIG sees a $21 return on investment for every dollar spent in your office. While you are proving to be a good steward of the taxpayer dollar, VA still has many challenges that I trust are under close scrutiny by your office.

Director Krebs, congratulations on being named the first director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. We have spoken about some of the challenges you and CISA face, and I want to reaffirm my commitment to helping you address those challenges. As you know, election security has been a major focus of this subcommittee, and for the second year in a row, we have supported significant increases to your budget to address these vulnerabilities to ensure that our election system is secure and reliable.