. >> thank you, mr. chairman. welcome, secretary johnson. we're delighted to you have before this subcommittee again to talk your request for the department of homeland security. i should say at the outset that i share concerns about a number of the issues that the chairman raised. i do appreciate, as we do all, the diverse missions of the department and the millions of americans whose lives are affected by the work that you do. i think if anything, the mission may be getting broader because of the challenges that we face today. and i share the chairman's concern about the administration's request which really reduces funding for the department by about $40.5 billion for operations in 2017. now, i guess i have several concerns about this. first has to do also with the proposed $909 million in fees that have not yet been authorized and while i appreciate that that's an important potential source of revenue, i think the politicians of getting that done are questionable. i'm concerned about the reduction in the budget for fema's state and local

. >> there are two if we can talk about the one in junction city and johnson county. and then, mr. secretary, let me raise a topic of construction of a new hospital in leavenworth. again, a military community. the strategic capital investment plan lists leavenworth patient facility as number 13 on the va's priority list. but there were no funds requested in fy '17. what does that mean? what's the value of that 13th ranking and no funding? >> well, i think what it demonstrates, senator, is we need more money in construction. most of our priority projects are seismic projects or projects that deal with human safety. as i showed in my written testimony, we have had catastrophes happen because we haven't been seismically ready. 60% of our buildings are over 50 years old. we would love to get down through the total list, but that's going to require disproportionate amount of capital to do that. >> in that circumstance, is the va open to public/private partnerships, local entity that would build the facility and then lease it back? does that speed up the process and help the budgetary co

. >> there are two if we can talk about the one in junction city and johnson county. and then, mr. secretary, let me raise a topic of construction of a new hospital in leavenworth. again, a military community. the strategic capital investment plan lists leavenworth patient facility as number 13 on the va's priority list. but there were no funds requested in fy '17. what does that mean? what's the value of that 13th ranking and no funding? >> well, i think what it demonstrates, senator, is we need more money in construction. most of our priority projects are seismic projects or projects that deal with human safety. as i showed in my written testimony, we have had catastrophes happen because we haven't been seismically ready. 60% of our buildings are over 50 years old. we would love to get down through the total list, but that's going to require disproportionate amount of capital to do that. >> in that circumstance, is the va open to public/private partnerships, local entity that would build the facility and then lease it back? does that speed up the process and help the budgetary co

. >> mr. kenneth clarke. >> are you persuaded, kent? >> mr. speaker, the prime minister has achieved more on the big issues in this negotiation than i ever expected. and i suspect more than hardline euro skeptics ever expected, which is why they're denouncing it so fiercely. but as he says, he still has to deliver it. does he accept that he's going to have great difficulty persuading governments in central and eastern europe in particular, to accept that their citizens lawfully working here, alongside english people in key sectors like the health service, and the construction industry, should have lower take-home pay in the first few years than their english work mates? and so if he has to offer something in exchange for that, could he perhaps consider underlining our nato commitment to those countries, as their biggest concern is future military adventures by putin's russia? and to underline our role as one, if not the leading military contributor through nato to the european alliance, will b

. >> mr. rodriguez? >> we have had a number of robust tools in place and we are fine tuning and finding those tools as we go along to ensure that any of the actually millions of people who we screened each year do not pose a threat to national security public safety. we use a series of tools. one of them is the interviews by very highly trained officers, in particular refugee officers. we are always seeking to refine their training and their preparation for the specific environment that they are addressing. if it is a refugee officer that is interviewing syrians we make sure they are steep in the country conditions in syria. that along side all of the intelligence tools that we both use and fine tune as we continue to do our work. >> mr. kubiak? >> thank you for the question. i outlined what we did overseas with the visa security unit earlier. the key thing that we bring to our national security strategy is to identify the networks and those criminal organizations that are seeking every day a

mr. francis taylor assumed his post at the department of homeland security in april of 2014. in this role, he provides secretary johnson, dls senior leadership, dhs components of the state and local tribal private sector partners with the homeland security intelligence and information they need to keep the country safe, secure and resilient. thank you for being here and for your service. he served as assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security and director of the office of foreign missions. mr. leon rodriguez was confirmed as the united states citizenship and immigration services. he was the director for the office of civil rights at the department of health and human services from 2011 to 2014. part of that time he served as chief of staff and deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights at the department of justice. mr. kubiak assumed the role -- our next witness -- of assistant director for international operations at the u.s. immigrations and custom enforcement on june 20, 2014. in this position, he is responsible for budget of more than $130 million and op