Miller-Meeks Questions Witnesses at Hearing on DHS Preparedness Grant Programs
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, April 28th, 2021, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-02) questioned witnesses at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing titled “State and Local Perspectives on DHS Preparedness Grants”.
Click here to watch Miller-Meeks’ questions
Witnesses at today’s hearing were:
- The Honorable David Ige, Governor, Hawaii
- Mr. Jared Maples, Director, New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness
- Mr. Orlando Rolón, Chief of Police, City of Orlando, Florida
- Mr. Robert Altman, Battalion Chief, Ocala Fire Rescue
Rep. Miller-Meeks: Thank you so much Chair Demings and Ranking Member Cammack, and to all the witnesses for this very important hearing. It's fascinating to me, being a former Director of Public Health, especially after the emergency preparedness and Homeland Security took place. And also, I want to thank Representative Payne for giving me and an opening for my question.
So, this is for Mr. Director Maples. Within the state of Iowa as a State Senator, we had to advance legislation because of some of our localities and our cities, because of cybersecurity, they were ransomed and being paid in Bitcoin.
And we know that China, the Chinese Communist Party, now has its own cryptocurrency and is trying to advance that. And I think that's extraordinarily troublesome and problematic for the United States.
And you had mentioned in your written testimony, you said that you were welcoming conversations with DHS about the dedicated funding, or a prioritization for cybersecurity. Both State Homeland Security grant program and UASI recipients are required to spend 7.5% of their award on cybersecurity. And as you had just started earlier, would you be able to elaborate your thoughts on additional dedicated funding for cybersecurity?
Mr. Jared Maples: Sure. Absolutely. And one quick, ad joiner to the previous question that I'd add to this. And It impacts your question as well, which is the other side, the real impact would be the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. I think there can be an uptick there very quickly that we'll see a lot of impact from. So, I do want to make sure I mention that.
From a cybersecurity perspective, I thank you for the question. It's a great one. Number one is, there's been this tremendous convergence of threat that we see. And so previously, a cyber security incident, may be isolated as a specific online or cyber environment incident. And now you see this nexus between extremism, whether it be recruiting, whether it be online pieces, ransomware, the criminal act. You see an incredible nexus from our foreign organizations, like a foreign state, sponsor organizations, like you talked about with China that there's a real benefit quite frankly to them to impact us, whether it be through causing chaos online, causing those attacks, exfiltrating information or IP, there's a there's a huge Nexus to that convergence of threat that we deal with every single day, in New Jersey.
So, when we talk about an uptick, whether it be again an investment percentage or in a specific and set aside grant stream for cybersecurity. A lot of it will deal with that convergence. So, they have to connect. It can't just be independent of the extremism piece and a lot of other preparation and preparedness grants that are out there, it has to be complementary. But then on a cybersecurity side, it is things like getting to small local businesses, because they become targets. They become targets of something as big as a Chinese state actor all the way down to the criminal act on a small level. And you see huge impacts in New Jersey, and I'm sure you do in Iowa as well.
From a dollar figure, from an economic impact, from a trust in the system that we can protect PII and all the information and data that's available. We can protect our networks. And so, the dedicated streaming at least in New Jersey, of course, that's what I'm speaking on behalf of, we can dedicate that funding for technology, for resources, for personnel, for access to communication platforms to really increase our capability with the federal government to team up together to beat that convergence.
So, I think that's how I'd answer that one.
MMM: And I only have a little bit more time left, but I'm so glad that you brought the issues that you brought up because we also have disinformation from other governments that are not friendly to the United States. And hopefully you saw the recent Wall Street Journal article, talking about both the Russian and the Chinese Communist party with their disinformation campaigns on social media to exaggerate the side effects from our vaccines, for COVID-19.
This is extraordinarily serious. We know we have to get through this pandemic. It's part of, I'm sure it has impacted all of you and your jobs in emergency preparedness and your thoughts on that type of disinformation campaign by foreign leaders in the digital or Internet realm.
JM: Well, thank you for that question. It's safe to say it's become part of our wheelhouse in New Jersey. The governor and I spoke very early in the pandemic, and we realized there was a problem and one of those was a state-sponsored, I don’t want to get into the specific details, but a state-sponsored actor started a text message string that started, we really believe, started some of the panic around that first of March time frame.
And it said essentially that they have a friend that's high ranking in FEMA or the military and they're going to kick the doors in and lock the entire country down. And that’s what led us to start saying, well, this is a core homeland security problem. I was getting calls from private sector leaders, Chairman and Chairwoman of companies, CEOs, you name it.
And people are really concerned about that. That was 100% a foreign influence misinformation, disinformation campaign. And that led us to the vaccinations like you said, and really across the board, some of the unrest that we've seen over the past year and a half. So, at our website at NJOHSP.gov, we've got a dedicated web page towards combating the disinformation and misinformation.
And again, we see this now in New Jersey as a core Homeland Security discipline and problem set that we have to deal with, and counter that narrative by being trustworthy, transparent, direct with the information. We are an apolitical organization, we fight to maintain that apolitical nature, and we do that through again, those mechanisms.
MMM: Thank you so much for your answer. And thank you Chair Demings for indulging his response. I yield back.
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