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to bring traffickers to justice including ongoing investigations and charges against drug cartels and chinese companies. she also given an example of how smartphones have changed the nature of drug trafficking and outlined the budget request for the dea. this hearing runs about two hours. >> this hearing will now come to order. good morning everyone. without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time. administrator milgram, we want to welcome you to the subcommittee today to testify regarding the drug enforcement administration's fiscal year 2025 budget request. on the personal note, i want to thank you for your attendance earlier this year at the annual

prescription drug summit in atlanta. your passion for the efforts to combat the drug epidemic is commendable, and your presence at the summit was greatly appreciated and understood. before we delve into the specifics of the budget request, i want to address a broader theme that has emerged in our examination of the dea's operations. while the mission of the dea remains crucial, and the commitment of administrator milgram appears sincere, it is evident that the support the agency receives from both the department of justice and this administration in general, is

lacking. recent remarks by the attorney general and the fbi director regarding our law enforcement relationship with key partners have raised concerns. three weeks ago, when discussing law enforcement cooperation with mexico, the fbi director testified, quote, "i am pleased with what we have gotten, but we need a lot more." title of fbi director. when the dea encounters obstacles such as difficulties in securing visas in a timely manner for agents who operate in mexico, there are outstanding warrants that the mexican government fails to act upon. it suggests that the state of our relationship with mexico may be far from ideal. additionally, it is troubling

that the dea administrator, despite her efforts, has not been able to secure a single meeting with a mexican government official since assuming her position. this lack of engagement, the nonsensical bureaucratic delays in approving these ads blatantly ignoring extradition requests for cartel members, should be far from pleasing for anyone who cares about our efforts to combat the cartels. furthermore, despite this administration's announcement in november of 2023 that it has secured chinese corporation to take steps to cartel -- to curtail the transit of

fentanyl precursor chemicals, it seems to be lacking. more work remains to be done. in fiscal year '24, our subcommittee was faced with a challenging allocation which required significant cuts to many critical agencies' budgets. despite this, the dea was the only law enforcement agency to receive an increase in funding. the only one. i believe it speaks to our commitment to the mission of the dea and our hopes for your success. notably, the largest increase in the dea's fiscal year 25 budget request is for the expansion of the dea's counter threat targeting teams. while this expansion is commendable, we must ensure that these investments yield measurable results. and that includes bi and from

the department of justice. the attorney general's testimony before the subcommittee two weeks ago highlighted a concerning sentiment regarding the dea's role in combating the fentanyl crisis. when describing the whole of government approach this administration is taking to combat fentanyl, the attorney general noted treasury's role in sanctions, homeland's role in border security, the fbi's role in investigating cartels the marshals' role in securing fugitives. and then said, quote, "the dea has at the very end of the line, a public affairs campaign."

the perception that the dea's role is limited to an education campaign undermined the agency's vital enforcement efforts. nevertheless and continue to believe in the mission of the dea and recognize its importance in the war on drugs. administrator milgram, we look forward to hearing from you today about the dea's plans for fiscal year 25 and how the agency intends to address the challenges discussed here. i am especially interested in hearing your frank and honest assessment of our law enforcement relationship with mexico. your agency's assessment of progress in stopping chinese precursor chemicals and whether the dea is truly receiving the support that it needs from this administration. thank you for being here. i yield back the balance of my

time. let me recognize mr. cartwright for any remarks he may care to make. >> thank you, chairman rogers. i join in welcoming back administrator milgram for her second appearance before this subcommittee. while we discussed the fiscal year 25 president's budget request. first i would like to take a moment to acknowledge the tragic loss of our brothers and sisters of the department of justice last week, when deputy u.s. marshal thomas weeks and three members of the marshals' fugitive task force lost their lives. it is a stark reminder of the risks and threats or federal law and for and their partners face every day and the ultimate sacrifice too many have had to make in the name of keeping our nation safe.

i would also like to convey my deepest sympathies to their families, friends and colleagues . administrator milgram, last year, we focused on how the types of drugs on our streets have dramatically shifted from plant-based narcotics such as cocaine and heroin, to those made in laboratories that require no growing season. the accessibility and affordability of these synthetic drugs leads dea and its federal, state and local partners in a continuous defensive posture to keep dangerous narcotics out of our communities and to combat the drug trafficking networks who are trying to put them there. it is estimated by the cdc that in the last year we have lost 112,000 souls to fentanyl overdoses and poisonings. dea is in many ways the last line of defense we have to save

american lives against this epidemic. so i look forward to discussing with you today what dea has done over the last year to identify and dismantle the entire network and what investments and other tools are most important to you in your fiscal year 2025 budget to continue this important work. i also look forward to hearing how the work you're doing on the international stage further enhances your ability to prevent these dangerous drugs from ever entering our country. we have already heard from both fbi director wray and attorney general merrick garland this year about the mexican government, and the chairman touched on this, how the mexican government can be doing more to help us in this fight. we know that precursor chemicals are largely imported into mexico from the people's republic of

china. we know the mexican cartels are using their decades-old business models, rapidly to produce fentanyl and distribute it. we know they are exploiting their existing drug trafficking routes to smuggle millions of dollars work of fentanyl pills into our country. we need mexico to be a partner in this fight. so i look forward to discussing that more with you here today. i want to say ultimately, all of dea's work relies heavily on congress to provide the resources needed to address the existing and emerging challenges and combating drug trafficking operations. and continued investment in dea sends a clear signal to our adversaries on the global stage that we will not allow this attack on our communities to continue. without consequence. and that those responsible will be held accountable by our

justice system. administrator milgram, i want to upload the work of the men and women of the dea and i look forward to working with you and how we can best invest in this agency in fy 1220 five once again, thanks for being here, welcome back. i look forward to your testimony. >> administrator milgram, you are recognized for an opening statement. your statement will be entered into the record. thank you. administrator milgram: thank you. good morning chairman and members of the committee. i want to thank the subcommittee for inviting me to testify today on a national fentanyl awareness day. it is appropriate that on national fentanyl awareness day that i'm given the opportunity to highlight for you the national tragedy that is being caused by fentanyl. according to this the cdc, in

2022, thousands of americans lost their lives. 42% of americans in the united states now know someone who has died. this tragedy has not. cities, suburbs, rural communities or tribal lands. fentanyl is killing all americans. our communities today are being flooded with fentanyl hidden in other drugs or pressed into fake pills by two mexican cartels, the sinaloa cartel and the jalisco cartels. during the past year, dea has ceased fentanyl -- seized fentanyl throughout the united states at unprecedented levels. last year received nearly 79 million fake pills laced with fentanyl and nearly 12,000 pounds of fat milk powder. together this is more than 380 million potentially deadly doses of the nearly 10,000 employees

working at the dea, there is no greater urgency than to defeat the cartels in order to save american lives. the $3.8 million increase you have provided this fiscal year is invaluable support for our mission. thank you. we know that you are under financial constraints and we are grateful. this will help combat the epidemic and help save lives. building on our many successes over the past year requires continued support and resources from congress. with your support we have continued to transform the dea to meet this unprecedented moment. our counter threat teams, which we set up in 2022 and 2023 are active against every single part of the signal and jalisco cartels and their criminal networks. these teams include special agents, intelligence analysts, target arts, program analysts, data scientist and digital or cyber specialists. we also have partners from

across the u.s. government of that have joined our team. they are providing the dea with an operating future of each cartel that enables us to the ever-evolving threat. we added a third team in 2023 to focus on the elaborate illicit finance of the cartels. this team is providing the dea with a detailed financial picture of the cartels, including their global money-laundering operations. i am sure we will talk more about this today, but we are tracking billions of dollars being moved by cartels across the globe. the work of this team has allowed us to open a significant number of new money laundering investigations targeting these cartels. 2023, dea action against every single part of the global retinal supply chain run by the -- fat no run by the cartels. in april we had just filed charges against suppliers,

chemical brokers, laboratory managers and weapons traffickers, assessment and smugglers in a network of the sinaloa cartel that are responsible for bringing fentanyl to the u.s.. in may of last year we arrested 3377 people across the united states for working in partnership with the two cartels to sell deadly fat no in our communities and a social media. those investigations showed us that half of all cases were directly linked to the sale of fentanyl on social media. in june and october last year as part of our investigations into chinese chemical companies, dea charged 12 chinese chemical companies, 24 chinese nationals, and took two chinese nationals into custody. these were the first ever charges to be brought against chinese companies for fentanyl trafficking and they demonstrate that precursor chemicals are

being sold, they are cheap, they are being sold online on websites. they are shipped through common carriers and payment for those chemicals are being made to group cryptocurrency, bitcoin, western union, paypal, alibaba and other sources. in 2024 dea continues to , innovate and to work with urgency to save american lives. the insights we have learned from our counter threat teams, we are taking them and building the next step in the global fight against the trident directorate. this directorate consists of two dea-led joined a personal task force is staffed by individuals from across u.s. law enforcement, military and intelligence communities. trident will allow us to leverage all of dea's critical information on the cartels with our state, local, federal, intelligence and defense

partners. we very much hope congress will continue to support this work and help us defeat the cartels. before i close, i imagine you have read press reports regarding the doj proposal to reschedule marijuana. because the formal rulemaking process is ongoing, and my role in the process is to determine the scheduling of drugs, they would be inappropriate for me to respond to questions on this rescheduling matter. i also want to take a moment and offer my deep thanks to every member of the subcommittee of the work that you do on this national fentanyl awareness day. the linen limit of the dea are working tirelessly every day to defeat the cartels and save american lives and we all thank you for your support in fiscal year 2024. the threat continues, and the work continues. thank you. >> thank you, administrator. we are now going to proceed under the 5-minute rule with

questions for the witness and i will begin by recognizing myself. administrator milgram, i understand that as of last month, dea has approximately 13 visas pending mexican approval. this has resulted in some dea employees waiting 6-8 months for visa approval to work in mexico. additionally, there are 13 dea warrants pending extradition from the mexican government. do you believe your agents would say they are pleased with our law enforcement relationship with mexico? the same way the fbi director did? >> thank you so much, congressman.

if i can, let me start by talking about the global supply chain that the two cartels operate. those two cartels are based in mexico the, cartels are sourcing chemicals from china, bringing those chemicals along with pill presses, dyes and molds into mexico, producing fentanyl in mexico, and then bringing it across into the united states. so the role that mexico plays -- and then they are involved in illicit finance and money laundering to get money back for their profits. so the role that mexico plays across the global fentanyl supply chain is obviously a significant and critical one. as i said before this committee, we are relentlessly focused on this. let me say something about mexico and the issue you raised. first we are committed to working shoulder-to-shoulder with anyone across the globe who will work with d.a. in

partnership on this fight. the second, i thought director wray said it very well when he said that cooperation has been uneven and that we need much more. i would echo that. . we have had some extraditions. we have seen mexican law enforcement destroy some labs, but there is more work to be done and we very much would like to partner with mexico in doing this. finally, when you talk about visas, just a moment to recognize the incredible work that is happening by the recognize the incredible work by men and women in dea across 69 countries including mexico. that work is hard. they work relentlessly. we are waiting on those 13 visas. one has been pending for eight months. unfortunately, for everyone sitting in this room, we know the price we pay in the country when we wait that long. mr. rogers: let me ask again. are you pleased with our

relationship with mexico on this matter? administrator milgram: congressman, i would describe myself, and say this clearly on national fentanyl awareness day that there is so much more work that needs to be done with urgency to stop this threat. mr. rogers: so you are not pleased? administrator milgram: i could not have higher regard for the men and women of dea and the way they are carrying out our mission. i believe we need more assistance globally as we fight this threat. we also are doing more internally to meet this moment and i couldn't say enough to you. my position as i will never look a family member who is lost a loved one in the eyes and tell them i didn't do everything i could to stop the threat from happening. chair rogers: i gather you are not pleased. administrator milgram: there is much more work to be done. chair rogers: you are not pleased? administrator milgram: congressman, here is one i will be pleased. when there are no more american

deaths from fentanyl. that's what i think we will all be able to say we have succeeded. chair rogers: i understand mexico has created approval committees, but these appear to amount to bureaucratic hurdles that didn't previously exist. what steps have the department and administration taken as a whole to improve dea's relationship with mexico? have you observed any progress? administrator milgram: congressman, i am not familiar with those committees. i do know that the attorney general and deputy attorney general have gone frequently to mexico and are often advocating on our behalf for extraditions, and for our ability to work jointly on operations together. chair rogers: with so much fentanyl flowing across our southern border from mexico and

all the new limitations mexico has placed on dea, how would you respond to americans who view our counter-fentanyl efforts as a war? and the mexican government complicit with the cartels? administrator milgram: what i say often, congressman, is right now we're in a fight to save american lives. this is a significant a fight as i think we have ever seen. you have heard me say this before but we are losing the same number of americans every 11 days that we lost on 911. it would be impossible to overstate how important it is that we be working together to stop this threat. it is a grave threat i believe to the united states. chair rogers: i understand that since being confirmed and assuming the role of administrator of dea in june of 2021, you have been unable to meet with a single mexican government counterpart. is that true?

administrator milgram: i met with attorney general, the attorney general for sukkot, i met with him in the fall of 2021 at the department justice. chair rogers: how can we sincerely believe the mexican government is a partner in our counter drug efforts, when they won't even meet with the head of our drug enforcement administration? administrator milgram: i understand that the challenges we face are grave. again, carcass men, we stand ready to partner and work with any foreign counterpart that is willing to join with us and save lives. chair rogers: i want to tell you that from one member of congress, i think you are doing a real good job, under the most difficult of circumstances. without any support from your superior functions in the government. they are not giving you the

weapons that you need. that is important that you have to have. we will tackle that problem here in the subcommittee. thank you, ma'am. mr. cartwright? >> i want to follow-up on the chairman's line of questioning about partnering with the government of mexico. we have to to do it. i understand you are not in the state department. international relations is not your thing but we have to talk about this. this is where the rubber hits the road when we talked about the distribution of fentanyl into this country. it is coming from china, it is going to mexico, it's coming here, and it is killing our kids. the chairman was asking you about delaying issuance of work visas to dea agents. that's what we're talking about.

mexico is delaying workpieces to american dea agents working in mexico to get out to the jalisco and settle lola carta -- sinaloa cartels. elaborate on what effect that has on our operations. administrator milgram: thank you for the question. let me say a couple things. as i started to say to chairman rogers, we have been waiting eight months for one visa, and we nobler cost of -- know the cost of what that means in terms of our ability to get work done. every year in the united states we're losing more than 100,000 americans, so time matters, and i couldn't speak with enough urgency as to how important it is to get those 13 agents and intel analysts into the country pray the second thing i want to assure the committee's that our work does not stop. we have more than 2000 active investigations into those two cartels trade we have any money

laundering investigations, precursor chemical investigations across the entire supply chain and into those two criminal networks. i want to assure you that the men and women of dea are working nonstop to defeat those cartels. and we shouldn't ask them to work under difficult circumstances, but they do, and they are incredibly effective. i have seen firsthand for the last three years. >> you mentioned four indictments brought against chinese companies and individuals for the manufacture and distribution of precursor fentanyl chemicals. but you are not stopping there. you are continuing the investigation along those lines about chinese companies producing precursor chemicals, am i correct? administrator milgram: you are correct. the global supply chain the cartels are running for fentanyl, and these two organizations dominate the entire fentanyl supply chain, it starts and ends in china. it starts with precursor chemicals and pill presses that

are being manufactured in china. we are actively investigating the beginning, middle and end up the supply chain. just to talk for a minute about the end, we have seen a switch to chinese money laundering, so essentially the cartels are working with chinese money laundering organizations as their bank to clean money. to launder money throughout the globe and that money is going back to the cartels in mexico. >> we are the appropriations panel that funds your operation. do need less money or more money to get after the chinese bad guys? administrator milgram: one of our first weeks, i spoke to one of our senior agents in the field, and he said i am tired of doing more with less, i'd like to do more with more. i would quote him that my commitment to this committee is whatever you give us, we will use in this fight, and already we're grateful for the support. mr. cartwright: we talked about delays in mexico let's talk

about delays in the united states for hiring dea agents. last year you committed on working on reducing the time to hire special agents. in fy 23, your average time to hire was roughly 452 days, and as of february this year your average time to hire in a pretty for is down to 345 days, but it is still too long when talking about an applicant pool that is eager to get to work. they don't have a year to wait for an offer. what can you tell us about how you have changed your hiring practices and what is your target for average length of time to on board special agents? administrator milgram: i appreciate the opportunity to talk about his work. it's been ongoing at dea. we have made progress to get to 245 days to hire, it is still too long, i would like to see between 6-8 months to hire at the outside. what we have done is mapped our entire hiring process and

created a dashboard, so we can track every single applicant, where they are in the process, if there is a delay, we can figure out quickly why there is a delay and a weekly meeting where we are working to execute on our goals, and one is to significantly reduce this amount of time. i would say to you every time we put out a job application noticed, where we invite people to apply, those notices close in a day or two. we are seeing the desire out there for americans to join dea. we need to make sure we're working quickly to get them on board. mr. cartwright we are ironing out the kinks and illuminating the bottlenecks? administrator milgram: and we are making a lot of progress but there is more work to do. mr. cartwright: get after it. i yield back. chair rogers: thank you administrator milgram for being here. the honorable men and women of the administration play a vital role in interdicting elicit deadly drugs before they end up

in the hands of unsuspecting americans. while you have our support in this committee, it is unfortunate that while the stakes couldn't be higher, you have to deal with an administration that is actively undermining your efforts. you have a 5% budget increase proposed, but can you speak to the $10 million decision by omb from your budget request? administrator milgram: my understanding is that all agencies have been asked to take that rescission by omb. chair rogers: so it is across-the-board? administrator milgram: that's my understanding. chair rogers: we want to support you. but we also recognize that sometimes the best of intentions by agencies like yours have unintended consequences and i want to discuss one of those. in 2020, dea proposed rulemaking to register emergency medical services agencies under the protecting patient access to emergency medications active 2017. while the rule doesn't go into

effect until november this year, i am hearing concerns from rural ems operations in my district. some ems providers may have to scale down certifications from advanced lifesaving treatments to basic in order to achieve compliance with what limited resources they have. are you concerned that this proposed rulemaking result in decreased availability in treatments for those when they needed the most? administrator milgram: i have not looked specifically into that rule. i would welcome the opportunity to do that and follow up with you. mr. cline: the proposed rule targets drugs through schedules two through five, however it would push a csr to maintain the supply of basic schedule six drugs and one for one exchanges with hospital pharmacies. this includes drugs such as epinephrine and others, a volunteer ems in rural communities in my district are

already bracing to afford these compliance costs to provide the most basic of lifesaving services. taking out loans is being considered. it is dea working on a solution or can you commit to a solution to reduce the cost of compliance before my constituents experience the unintended consequences firsthand? administrator milgram: i'd be pleased to look at that. i will start looking this afternoon and we will follow up with you. mr. cline: we would like to find ways to reduce those compliance costs. i want to go back to chinese precursors. last year you said the only limit on how many fentanyl pills and how much fentanyl powder the cartels can make is how many chemicals they can buy. following their november 2023 summit president biden and xi announced a verbal agreement in which the department of commerce would delist in exchange for counter narcotics cooperation.

however a recent china select committee found any form of cooperation was an empty gesture considering the chinese government is subsidizing export of fentanyl by according -- awarding monetary grants to companies openly trafficking fentanyl materials. and combating the fentanyl precursor trade, you have made it your top priority. that is ours as well. do you think this rhetoric from the biden administration remains -- rings hollow because there are no arrests and warranted targets of u.s. investigations? administrator milgram: congressman, thanks for the opportunity. i think that this is one of the most important things we can be focused on and talking about. as i noted earlier, the supply chain begins and ends in china. there is no way we can do the work we need to do without being focused on it. i personally went to beijing in january after the two presidents met. i had the opportunity to have a number of meetings with n.p.s.

and with senior leadership and law enforcement people in china. i would say a few things which is one, my commitment to you, this committee, is that we are going to continue to do the investigative work we need to do around the cartels and supply chains wherever that takes us, including a deep focus on precursor chemicals and elicit finance. two we will work shoulder to shoulder with any law enforcement agency that will work in partnership with us. this is a global threat. those two cartels are now engaged in either drug trafficking, money laundering or getting chemicals in more than 50 countries around the globe, so this is vital to the united states. the last piece is we have had constructive meetings. to date with n.p.s. what i would say to you is that it's too soon for us to know where this will end. my feeling is that because there is a limitless supply of chemicals, we need to do everything we can to stop that from happening. so we'll do everything we can

investigating and also if we can partner, we will, but we are not going to stop the work we have to do. mr. cline: thank you, i yield back. chair rogers: mr. ruppersberger. mr. ruppersberger: thank you. i understand d.e.a. is recommending a reclassification of marijuana as a less dangerous drug. is that correct? administrator milgram: congressman, under the controlled substances act, there is a formal rulemaking process for scheduling or rescheduling controlled substances. that process is ongoing. the next step in that process will be a notice of proposed rulemaking. and then an opportunity for public comment. because d.e.a. is involved very much in that scheduling process and the d.e.a. administrator is personally involved in it, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on it at this time. mr. ruppersberger: i know the state of maryland allows adult use of cannabis to be bought and sold under a licensed regulatory framework. without fully de-scheduling cannabis from the controlled substance act, there would be

inherent conflicts between federal and state law. with whatever direction you recommend, i urge you to strike a balance between the exercising of federal oversight and enforcement responsibilities while preserving each state's ability to determine for itself the best approach to cannabis. what's happening in maryland is working well. and we want to preserve each state's ability to determine for itself the best approach to cannabis. can you talk about the impact this recommendation will have? administrator milgram: thank you, congressman. again i can't get into details because this is an ongoing regulatory matter. i appreciate your comments. thank you. mr. rebersburg are: about fentanyl. at the beginning of the year d.e.a. had a huge bust of pills laced with fentanyl here in the d.c. region. 639,000 pills, 2,000 pounds of drug in power form. an almost 300% increase from the previous year. please talk to us about the drug

cartels -- how the drug cartels are working with local gangs. what tools and resources do you need to combat the cartels and gangs? also, please talk about the use of cryptocurrency as a tool to facilitate their activities. honestly, what i'm interested in is technology like artificial intelligence and how it is used by the d.e.a. in operation overdrive. administrator milgram: thank you so much. let me just start with talking about seizures for a moment. last year as i noted we seized almost 79 million fake pills, 12,000 pounds of powder fentanyl. that is the most fentanyl that d.e.a. has ever seized. every year since i have joined d.e.a., year upon year we are seizing more deadly fentanyl. we are also seeing that the amount of purity in the fentanyl powder has gone up. and the number of pills that have a potentially deadly dose has gone up. in 2021 when i started, it was four out of 10, it's now seven

out of 10 pills that have a potentially deadly dose. the work the men and women of d.e.a. are doing taking deadly fentanyl off the streets is saving lives. talking about gangs and local drug trafficking organizations, when we did operation last mile last year, that's the operation we did across the united states to identify people in local communities working with these two cartels, central loa -- sinaloa and jalisco to , essentially cross that last mile because the cartels need to get those pills into americans' hands. that's how they make money. and the way that we have seen this done, we have seen it, it continues to be on the streets sometimes. but overwhelmingly we have seen a shift to the digital world. to social media. we say all the time that the most dangerous place in the world right now is our homes because everyone has a smart phone. within two or three clicks on a smart phone, people are having pills delivered to their front

doorstep like uber eats. like they get pizza delivered. we are losing 22 americans, teenagers, between the ages of 14 and 18, every single week right now. this is a national tragedy. i would suggest you first we need help on technology. we are committed to using the best technology we can. and my personal feeling is we cannot allow the speed of crime to move faster than the speed of government. we have to be agile. we have to be able to meet those moments. the work i have seen from our cryptocurrency tracking, our illicit finance team in the last year, is second to none. it's some of the best work i have ever seen in my career. we have a lot of data. we have a lot of technology. we need to do more and need more, but we are making progress, being able to track that money across the globe. the answer is yes, we'd like to do more. we really appreciate the support of this committee. i believe that we are setting ourselves up to be able to do this very effectively in the long term.

>> thank you, i yield back. mr. ellzey: my apologies to my colleagues. i'm cutting in line. appreciate it. administrator milgram, good to see you again. hard to believe another year has passed of this devastating issue we have in our country. 47,000 men died in vietnam. 33,000 in korea. that was over the course of 23 years. we equal that every year just in the loss of fentanyl. if you want to take fentanyl plus fentanyl poisoning plus overdoses in one year, it equals all the wars since world war ii combined. that is a war. that's a proxy war being put on us by china. being administered by the cartels in mexico. put another way, if you crushed an airbus 321 from one airline

every day across the country, do you think this body would act, do you think the international community would act. if you killed 200 people in every airplane, 365 days a year. we would be howling in this body, passing laws, grounding airplanes. that's what they are doing. this is china's way of ensuring we don't have a military down the road, or workers, or welders, or plumbers, or police officers, or teachers. december 6, 1941 we were at war with japan. we just hadn't declared it yet. right now we are at war with the cartels at least, that's -- you are at the frontline of that job. i want to thank you for what you and your team do every day and everybody who wears the badge. i'd also like to say that just yesterday in my state you worked very closely with local law enforcement. georgetown, texas, the local sheriff, local police department. you got a guy who had two kilos of meth, one kilo of heroin, and 10 pounds of fentanyl.

how many people would that kill? administrator milgram: congressman, i would have to do the math for you with our lab. i could tell you tens of thousands. mr. ellzey: i just want to say, to point out, i don't have a question in lou of the time i have been granted, i just want to say you a great job. i know that each and every one of you has on your shoulders the idea that we are losing 70,000 americans just to fentanyl every year. you are the frontline of defense. that's got to weigh heavily on you. i appreciate the sacrifice that each and every one of you make. the stops you are making. the work you are doing with local law enforcement. i went to visit your station in dallas right next to the fbi that it takes a partnership with local and federal law enforcement. your job never ends. other folks have some questions for you. i'd like to yield back the balance of my time. thank you for what you do. chair rogers: mr. morelle. mr. morelle: thank you, mr. chairman. administrator milgram, thank

you. certainly for taking time to , speak with us today, but also for your service to the country. and thanks to your entire agency, the agents who work tirelessly in my district, around the country, to keep our community safe. i wanted to, if i could, talk a little bit about operation overdrive. in 2022, the d.e.a. initiated an operation driven by data to focus d.e.a. law enforcement resources on communities, including my own in rochester, new york, where criminal networks are causing the most harm. i want to thank you and your staff who are continuing to be in a position to comprehensively brief us on the state of the operation and its successes. can you give me an update on phase two of operation overdrive and what your team saw on the ground in the 57 operating locations last year, including rochester? administrator milgram: we launched operation overdrive in 2021.

we started it and effectively launched it in 2022. the idea is to go into local communities where we live and work and where every american is being impacted and focus on two things. violent crime and drug poisoning and deaths. we do that in partnership with our state and local law enforcement with the local prosecutors, with the u.s. attorneys. we have now been in 86 locations across the united states. and we are very actively working on our next phase, which will be phase four. what we have seen from this work i would note a few things. one, just remarkable partnerships with our local law enforcement, police departments, sheriffs. that is the kind of work we need to be doing together to really effectively stop the next shooter in a community or stop the person who is going to sell the next pill. one of the things i was reading recently was a report on little rock, arkansas. we just finished work in little rock, arkansas, the team working

together, again i want to give credit to the entire team, we geospatially mapped the community. and what that means is we are able to provide to local law enforcement a map of where the crimes are happening, where the shootings are happening, where the drug poisoning are happening. that together lets us figure out how do we stop that harm. we saw significant reductions of both violence and drug poisonings. we are going to start moving on a rolling basis so we can keep moving in communities across the united states. we are also moving to do that kind of geospatial mapping work across the country wherever we are working. because that allows us to provide local law enforcement with more insight into what we see in the community. they are able to provide us with insight into what they see. together we can identify what are the greatest threats. who are the individuals causing the most harm, together we can pretty rapidly target those individuals to make sure they cannot commit harm. mr. morelle: are you confident that the requested budget amount will allow you to do what you

need? administrator milgram: i'm confident we can do that. what i would like to be able to do is get to a point where the kind of geospatial work we are doing, we are able to leave behind in communities. i don't think we are financially there yet. but i would love to be able to help our local police departments. i was a state attorney general and had the privilege of overseeing more than 500 police departments for the great state of new jersey. and i know how much they could use that kind of help to be able to have that kind of assistance with the geographic mapping of threats. and then getting access to what we see as the threats. i'd like to evolve and get there. but right now i'm absolutely , confident we can do phase four. and that, again, what makes this work is the partnership between the local and state law enforcement community. the prosecutors and dea, all of us together. also we have other federal partners. we have had a.t.f., marshals, f.b.i. i'm pleased with the work and the partnerships. mr. morelle: last year you were

kind enough to host myself, mr. cline, mr. ellzey. to dea in quantico. during that conversation you talked about illicit finances aiding the illegal drug trade which i thought was fascinating. to that end, i understand your counter-fentanyl threat targeting team is essential to combating money laundering organizations and influence in the mexican transnational organization. can you discuss more d.e.a.'s work to identify and mitigate the cartel's illicit finance networks that are pushing fentanyl into communities like mine? administrator milgram: we founded the first two counter threat teams in the idea is 20. simple. having people from across the agency, agents, analysts, targetters, data scientist, people with chemistry expertise working together, focused directly on what are the networks look like? mapping the networks. identifying vulnerabilities we can target to take down and defeat the cartels.

we were doing so much work very quickly around illicit finance that we realized last summer in 2023 we needed to create a third team around illicit finance. we have some of our finance experts from across the united states and the globe that have now come together. they are some of the most creative people i have ever seen. they were able to really figure out how to leverage every piece of d.e.a.'s financial data in order for us to understand the threat and start tracking it globally. we have a great number of money laundering, illicit finance cases investigations ongoing. the majority of which right now relate to chinese money laundering. you'll see in the coming months a lot of that work coming forward. mr. morelle: thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate you letting me go a little bit over. i yield back. chair rogers: mr. aderholt. mr. aderholt: thank you for being here and for your work. i know you mentioned you don't want to speak about the process of going to the schedule one

to three in marijuana, do i want -- but i want to ask a different question. i hope you can answer that. there was a 2023 study by the national institute of health that referenced a rising influx of cases on reports of a syndrome but chs is what it is referred to. it exhibited a distinctive pattern with abdominal pain. in other several things prior to cannabis use and the cdc said three in 10 people who use

marijuana have this disorder. can you speak to the adverse affect of marijuana usage? with the adverse effects i just mentioned such as psychosis and

substance abuse disorder, my concern is rescheduling marijuana would make the crisis worse. i want to go on record because i think it's a real concern and and it is very disconcerting and i am deeply concerned about the fact on the impact of young americans performing lifetimes of addiction. without, there are many in washington who are concerned. i yield back.

>> i just wanted to follow-up on your colleague. i appreciate many ways that we follow-up. i'm also proud of how the sacred communities act which president biden signed into law has empowered law enforcement and the courts to hold traffickers responsible. as you know well, it created an offense for firearms trafficking. it will dismantle a gun

trafficking operation in brooklyn. this became one of the first cases in the country to use a provision of this act speak to have the supports to take guns off the streets to coordinate efforts with local and state law enforcement to crackdown on firearms trafficking.

>> dea, we are focused on drug trafficking and the fentanyl threat. we know the intersection between drugs and violence are intertwined. operation overdrive, we have seized an enormous amount of firearms. we also partner very closely with all of the doj components. federal law enforcement are in that room.

and again when weekend be proactive and stopping the next crime from happening and be prosecuting something that is already happened. >> thank you, i yield back. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> it dawned on me you have an unenviable position, i don't envy you. it is like being a goalie where your own coach is calling plays

against you. we have a president with an open border policy. you do work with an attorney general that has relegated the dea at the end of the line with the public affairs mission, and has to be very frustrating with you. the inference is, focus on the demand side and not the supply side. your job description as the word enforcement in eight. we look forward as a subcommittee to do your job and make sure we can catch the bad guys. ag garland gave themselves na, and my opinion that was offensive.

the metrics are self-evident. last year, i'm assuming -- >> yes, congress along with the state department.

you have a $500 million budget, talk about the budget and mission and how do we continue on that? if we had and we would stop that ship before the u.s. borders. talk to us about -- >> if i could saying one thing about demand and we understand

substance abuse disorder, what we are seeing is not demand driven. that is why they are pressing fentanyl into fake pills. it is a really important point. we do work around public awareness. talking about your analogy is a great way to think about the analogy. we have done is not those criminal networks so we can get in front of them. we cannot wait until then.

foreign work is vital. we are and 69 countries, more than 90 offices. of course we assist with local issues. how do we stop sentinel in those cartels? i look at it and see the maps showing 50 countries, so we are working in multiple countries across the globe and with many foreign partners. >> we have a district attorney that will not charge dealers with murder. we are able to raise it under the dea, we appreciate the ability to do that. this is policy driven and we

appreciate everything you are doing to mitigate this as much as possible. >> thank you, mr. chairman. administrator, the to see you again and thank you for coming to my office. if you recall last year, you made a commitment to provide certain information, administered at the total dollar value, my step emailed your congressional affairs office following up on this commitment, etc.. we never received a response. if staff was not one that made

the commitment. i realized the department of justice inspector general when i was a young navy officer and i had a commanding officer, he had three letters, three words printed so every member could see it. those words were performance, not excuses. i believe you are one of the few agencies to actually get a budget increase last year. i still do not have the information i've busted so you can add not just the dollar

number but list them individually so we can see who got them and with what dollar value was associated with each one. my question is, when will you provide me with this information? >> it's not acceptable but you have my commitment and will not happen. >> we have been tracking letters, nothing else until recently. i've worked with and i want to take responsibility. so we are working actively with them to get them to you.

i would like to call your office every day. in our hands. >> thank you, i will accept your offer. let us know. we would like to follow up on it. there was a $30 million program increase for the information sharing center you must. was that the mission operating system? what sino there was some funding that came from the technology overhaul.

>> can you describe what you're doing? i find out we had technology that was over 20 years old. power systems are sold, all the time we need to make changes and when i came in we were only tracking one drug at a time. we cannot be effective. we've already made a lot of those changes. the broader system will allow us

to collect information digitally , so think about the hiring conversation earlier of how we track systems and our people to make sure any agent working in iowa and connect with information from any information. we made a number of changes. we are not there yet but we made a number of system changes and we are already taking a lot of ground. >> thank you. we always put blame on someone else but yet our country continues to fall further behind.

i want to talk about solutions. i think back to my time in the military. let's lock them up, go to war and made the strongest person win. we need more allies. allies on the ground. the police chiefs, the local law enforcement. i fully support state and local taskforces. this is absolutely critical that we have a federal, state and local taxes to ensure we are safe.

is there a need for agents? >> as we stand up these will be state, local and federal teams. that is an example. we served in taskforces every day. we have remarkable partnerships. this is one way one of my views

is we need to share more information. we are talking about tens of thousands and our credible partners can be very effective. help them. >> america needs a win. i'm tired of everyone else placing the blame on the problem. we need to go out and ticket block by block. we are doing a roundtable with enforcement, don't talk about

the problem. to solve the problem. blank checks are not going to solve the problem. blaming china is fine and dandy but it does not keep our kids safe. this is about life or death. the dea is to be at the center of this game. feels, i need your commitment and a more robust manner. the campion secret. >> again, you have my deepest commitment.

i believe we have lost lives so there a lot more work to do. i have a limited time left. being able to give that in an actionable way is so critical, many times they want to do it so i would love to stay abreast of that. thank you and i yield back. >> that includes the first round of questions. i assume there is a desire for a

second round. we will do just that. we will live up to that commitment. ma'am, you've testified in november of 2023. china said they would stem the flow of precursor chemicals. with little to no actionable criminal enforcement and the

amount of chemicals flowing from china to latin america. >> at this moment in time we see them going to mexico. produced at historic rates. what i would say to you is the dea began reading engagement with partner in 2019, china finished that in january this year we have had instruction. we are fighting for the threat.

bringing the first criminal charges. focusing on the movement of those chemicals. we would like to see partners in china taking similar actions. we always ask them to engage in law enforcement activity. >> not only did we not see a decrease in precursors out of china, we're seeing an increase. >> i would have to bring in a colleague to point to the exact numbers.

this partnership, this work has been constructive but i believe it's too early. as long is -- >> how would you characterize the relationship with china? >> nine i came in, we had no law enforcement cooperation or communication, that changed last november when the presidents met and agreed to resume cooperations. there are a few things we have done. one is asked for their health and constituting chemical

companies, stopping pill presses. number two, stopping money laundering and going into capital flight. then, scheduling additional chemicals. one of the things china did effectively was to schedule finished chemicals. just to be clear, what we know from our investigations there are chemists actively trafficking what they believe to be drug traffickers.

if we could stop precursors from china we could impact the amount of fentanyl being made. >> the november 2023 announcement. efforts to combat fentanyl with what they are actually seeing. >> what i would say to you is i would be happy to come back. >> how would you rate mexico's lack of action? how would you characterize china's impact on that matter?

>> i would take the same position as to both countries, which number one we are ready to work with any law enforcement officers. second, we will keep doing the investigative work and the dea has incredible capabilities. even in difficult circumstances, third, we have seen some progress but again to refer back to director, we need more. we need sustained, scalable cooperation in order to have the impact we need to have. the threat is headquartered in mexico. >> keep up the good work. >> not to put too fine a point

on it, i'm interested about precursor chemicals, your written testimony includes the following statement. indictments were announced with four chemicals all based in the people's republic of china for knowingly providing customers with the precursor chemicals

last, the administration announced they would be looking to reclassify marijuana from a schedule one narcotic like heroin or lsd to a schedule three narcotic for example steroids or tylenol with codeine. that will still need to go through a formal rulemaking process and you alluded to that in response to his questions. you are restricted in how much you can go into that by the administrative procedures act. i won't ask you to get into dea's formal position.

i do want you to ask us to give us a sense of how that classification of marijuana might allow the dea to allocate more resources to choosing fentanyl and other narcotics that are killing people. do we have ages that are working on marijuana investigations that could be freed up to go and work on cases tied to pencil? >> yes because some of this will implicate physicians to become a part of that rulemaking process. i will not be able to comment on that. what i can tell you is very high-level is we do currently do work around marijuana across the united states where advisors to the federal level and bring example, have done a number of states on current illicit marijuana growth that is led by chinese organization for example. so there is work we do. our top focus is obviously fentanyl. the drug that is killing americans but we do do work on

it currently. >> ok. now you have said -- you let off your testimony by saying flat out there is no greater urgency than defeating the jalisco and civil law cartels on fentanyl but to be -- beyond that can you walk through what your top priorities are in the fy 20's i-5 budget request? >> yes sir. did two main pieces that we've requested in this budget are additional funding more than $80 million for the counter threat teams. this is allowing us to map the cartels and is criminal networks across the globe who are associates, what countries are they operating in and what are their roles in the organization? that allows us to look for vulnerabilities and to really target in a way that can defeat the cartels. we are then going to expand this into the trident work.

a lot of the work is coming out of the counter threat teams right now and i should step back and say we've counted -- started counter threat teams in the field. each of our divisions has one. some are just getting up and running but the idea was the funding would be to allow us to establish the teams we have at headquarters now. then create broader teams in the field that will allow it -- is it similar? what are they doing? who are the moneylenders responsible? is the evolution of that work as well. the other question which is a little more than $50 million. as a matter of public accountability, that work

continues. >> thank you for your testimony. >> you have been a state prosecutor, you been a federal prosecutor, a federal law clerk, we all you great service. request thank you to the administration for a budget is the second time around. specifically the federal charges being raised on the dealers that are selling the stuff. this is where the dealer admits that the best they give them may be tainted. littlejohn died yesterday. little susie, just make sure you

can bring them back to life. they have the highest density of poisonings. this is like a penguin of gotham city. he actually helps the criminals rather than helps the victims of the criminals and it is very frustrating. go to the federal government. combating the functional poisoning act bill. this is to directly fund local law enforcement for the efforts of chasing down dealers in

cooperation with the da -- dea and a nonprofit. teachers and friends educating the fact that this is a very real threat. one kill is very real. i guess my question is what can we do to better synergize so that the federal government and local law enforcement regardless of county das, regardless of state ag's and paradigms that maybe pro crime, -- that is the challenge. the open border policy is the source of the problem. china is the source of the precursors. >> this is a really important area of our work right now. a lot of the work we are doing

across the u.s. is based on the original. it is one of our operations that we have in every single field division. a lot of that work is based on the work that the teams in l.a. have stood up. that has been happening there for many years between local law enforcement and the dea. we used that. we now have this in every single field division across the united states and i am pleased that we significantly increase the number of cases we can do where we are result in. this is a pill or powder that contains fentanyl and were able to bring federal prosecutions. we also set up a special unit on our special operations division in virginia for local law enforcement. we have checklists. we have a checklist.

who do they call? we have ages in the field that are on-call at all times to answer those questions and then when we can, we adopt those federal cases. i think we significantly increased it in l.a. has been a model for the work we are done. >> we appreciate that. seeing these parents grieve at the local level, they have cleared cases where they have all these text messages. the da doesn't file charges. it is absurd. that partnership is the only lifeline of hope being given to some of these victims families right now. they have a venue and a vehicle to bring federal charges. i applaud you and thank you for allowing that and encouraging that. i'm glad that is spreading across other major cities and throughout the countries as well. i think the technology piece is very important.

whether it is surveillance drones, etc. where we stay within the limits of the constitution but we also improve the possibilities of successful arrest. thank you for your service and thank you. >> thank you for all of your experience. that was many years ago. the form investigator and prosecutor. we were federal state and local together. it was probably more effective than any of the other law enforcement i've seen. i think that the biggest problem we have now is money. no question. i think the dea based on my experiences as a prosecutor --

the dea -- people who work were very unique. they were can tell places it is very dangerous. where they probably don't have the backup. they are probably on a continual basis working in that regard. i just want to say that. you seem to be involved and helping them in more ways than you can. so can you talk more about the chinese money laundering and about and what can the appropriations committee should help you? i know there is not a lot. what staff resources do you need to investigate tracking and stopping while all this is going on and you know what treasury is going. >> some of them were very close with the treasury and they will often bring sanctions we've done an investigation. so we have a very close partnership with them here they

have people stationed with us at our headquarters and we've invited them to join the campus for 10. we think they can be very helpful on the finance work along with all of us. in terms of what we are seeing on and this -- a finance, explain just a little bit, in 26 and, china passed a law limiting the amount of money that chinese nationals can take out of the country. so that has created a space where individuals in china who would like to get money out of china are above that amount, 50,000 u.s. dollars is the equivalent. selby wants to get that money in the u.s. and they need to use a money broker. those money brokers are now essentially becoming the engine of global fentanyl money laundering because the people in the united states that have cash that is available for individuals who want cash in the united states are the cartels. obviously, drug trafficking, we

believe that the cartels are making each fake bill for around $.10 a pill and they are selling in the u.s. for between five and $30. so again we are tracking billet of dollars globally. a lot of the reason i think it has shifted to chinese money laundering organizations is the desire to get money out of china. we are seeing across the united states that these chinese money laundering organizations are almost essentially the bank for the cartel where they can put their dirty money and then that money eventually get back to the cartels. >> i yield back. request you know someone by the name of pain habit? question is amazing. she's incredible part of our team. thank you for letting her come. quick thinking chairman. even straighter, according to a letter dated december 19 of 2023

from the das office of congressional affairs, the dea has the final authority to schedule, reschedule or do schedule a drug under the controlled substances act. do you agree with that? question answer. >> you are it. >> yes. there is a regulation. question your statement you mentioned it was probably reported and confirmed with the doj that proposed rulemaking to reschedule marijuana from schedule one to schedule three handed is currently being considered by the office of management and budget. i ask unanimous consent to enter into the record this particular article. the usda will reclassify marijuana according to the news from april 30, 2024. thank you. in this particular article it says the proposal which still

must be reviewed by the white house office of management and budget -- it says the attorney general circulated the proposal to relax i marijuana from schedule want to schedule three. the administrator -- is the decision to reschedule marijuana encouraged by the white house office of management and budget -- the attorney general's office or the dea question mark >> there will be a notice of proposed rulemaking that is released. i am not going to be able to be able to get into this conversation right now. >> we said multiple times it would be inappropriate to talk about this. inappropriate or illegal. >> i should not be engaged in a conversation about it. just explain a little bit of that. since this is ultimately the decider of scheduling and rescheduling and they are in that role, it would be

inappropriate for me to make comments about this process or part of that process. >> with united states congress, you have authority if we do not give it to you. we make the law, you execute the law, to give you the authority, we are asking the questions. you are in extension of us when we create the law so i'm asking you the question. there is a coming from? isn't coming from the dea? is it coming from the attorney general? is a coming from the white house office of omd? where is it coming from? >> under the administrative procedures act which congress has made into law, there is a formal rulemaking process that goes on that we should issuance of an prm and then the opportunity for public comment and then the process plays out beyond that with an ultimate decision being made at dea as to the scheduling or rescheduling of a substance. as the agency that will be the ultimate decider. i'm not going to engage in

conversations about issues that could be part of this conversation. >> marijuana is a very dangerous drug. not as dangerous as some of the others we talked about here but it certainly is much more dangerous than what you see regularly that people partake of like alcohol. you have a significant increase in traffic accidents that we have seen and sent people to the emergency room's like simply because they have been partaking of marijuana. >> have you had any are we from the white house or the vice president's office regarding the rescheduling of marijuana? i'm not going to be able to get into any of the process. that takes place or has taken place on this. >> already aware of any instance in which a rulemaking that

schedules, reschedules or d schedules the controlled substances act is not signed by the administrator of the dea question mark >> just stepping out of marijuana and talking about the generally, i am not. >> i will look and confirm that is accurate but in my experience, -- i will confirm that with your office but i'm not aware of it personally. >> all right. that's all i had. thank you mr. chair and i yield back. quick thinking is chairman and thank you again. i wanted to -- i was going to ask about the director. a pushing response to that. one of the things i am interested in and you could perhaps expand on this is -- i've always assumed that the cartel because interest was in creating sort of dependency addictions when you have a market to continue to supply

because there is demand. understand that that is changed. part of what is it in your one pill can kill project to educate the american public. there is really no longer any interest in the part -- for the cartels to make sure the people stay alive. this is what we have to do with right now and the new mode of operation. if you just walk through that. >> you just asked the question that i think we get asked more than any other including school. people always ask why would a drug dealer kill your customer? it is the right way to think about it. the older model of drug trafficking. when i was coming up in the manhattan das office we strongly believed that drug traffickers did not kill their clients and it was based on some relationship.

relationship is a strange thing to say but drug traffickers near their clients and the knew who to go to to purchase drugs. we now live in a largely digital world where more than 200 million americans are on social media. >> this has completely changed what we say. we are also in a world where they are actively trying to deceive people. they are selling it as fake bills that look identical to real oxycodone, surreal xanax, real adderall, hiding in other drugs. this whole model has changed. cartels want to sell more drugs. fentanyl is the most addictive substance we've ever seen. 50 times more powerful than heroin.

so they are using it to get people to come back again and again and as long as people survive, they believe they will have more customers. if they die, to the cartels that are the cost of doing business and they're going to go back on social media and they will find someone else. because it is interesting that in a sense, you can become addicted. one pill can kill but it may not. so your center building a market of repeat customers but to the degree they might die, it is just the cost of doing business because of the addictive nature of this and because it is and. it is not only that you need to get hooked on this, it is if you need it legitimately for a medical condition or you're buying it -- you think you're buying it through a prescription and you're not. that is really part of the additional danger now to americans. >> any american and i would like to emphasize this, anyone who gets a prescription from their

doctor and feels that at the pharmacy, you have nothing to worry about. those painkillers or other drugs are absently fine. because they are highly regulated. let the cartels have done is by the pressures from china along with dyes and modes so they can make a pill that makes deck -- that looks identical to an obscene or a xanax or an adderall. they then advertise it for sale oftentimes on social media and though they are real -- as though they are real oxycontin. >> i have a patient it be doing with some the issue that requires this prescription, i get the prescription from the doctor but instead of going to my local pharmacy i go online and think i can get a cheaper this way? is that how it works? what's what we see a lot is people are looking for -- whether it is an object, and audible, a xanax, some people have had prior prescriptions. some are young people who are looking for painkillers, for anxiety or some other issue.

we should be really clear on saying you cannot buy a legitimate prescription drug on social media. at all. that is not for sale. so anything any young person finds on social media -- we can tell you it is going to be most likely fentanyl. and that is killing people. we want to be really careful. we are also seeing this. this goes across the united states. all ages. >> i'm sorry to interrupt you. i just wanted to ask one quick follow-up. have you been in consultation with major platforms about advertising those on social media? >> we are pushing social media very hard to do more. i don't think we would get to 100 7941 deaths if not for the scale and scope of social media and we are asking them to take a zero tolerance policy to raise public awareness. >> thank you for your service. thank you so much.

>> the diaz budget request outlines a substantial increase. substantial increase for counter threat teams. while you are having so much trouble operating abroad and does appear to be receiving the necessary support from the administration, how can we be assured that we are making a smart investment on the agency. >> we have incredible cooperation.

the work that we are doing together is very effective. on the counter threat teams, the reason this is a top priority for us is this lets us put together every single piece of information from across every investigation. every seizure. it allows us to do it on a strategic level. if you think about targeting the entire network which is these which we did, we need all that information to be pulled together so we can identify the key vulnerabilities and now take this next step forward to share that information with the intelligence community and we can figure out the right way to dismantle this organization. >> how is the agency planning to manage the success of this new intelligence driven things. >> we measure success in a number of ways. you can have the best plan but if you're not it is getting on

that plan, you are not going to get something done. the one number that matters in the whenever we care about overall is american lives. we measure a number of things including how many active investigations we have. right now we have more than 2000 against the cartels. how many of those members we are able to identify, where leads are being sent, where prosecutions are being done, we are tracking this in each part of the network and that let's say how many operations do we have going on precursor chemicals? we are using the metrics to drive us to work in a strategic way and then we always measure the amount of fentanyl we sees, every single daily dose of the street we think is a life saved.

>> i understand you are conducting a review of your foreign operations. that could lead to possible closures or relocations. of certain offices, is that right? >> we had a foreign review report that came out about a year ago and has 17 different recommendations. we've taken on a number of those recommendations including running a foreign footprint review. so for the first time in many years, we have a question of where should dea be? what is the threat posed to the united states? what is the risk of operating in that region and how much operational capability do we have? that is ongoing and we will make hard decisions at the end because we need to be in the countries that will allow us to be most effective to combat this. >> this concludes today's hearing. we thank you for your service to the country.

and one of the most important developments in our nations history, that is the fentanyl action that we talked about today. so thank you for your service and thank you for doing a great job. a tough job. >> thank you. >> thank you for coming. and without objection, all members will have seven days to submit additional questions for the witness. with that, the hearing is adjourned.

>> the hush money trial against former prede donald trump continue today with testimony from stormy daniels who was questioned about her alleged affair with the former president back in 2006 and the payment she

received fm . trump's former lawy mhael cohen in 2016. the hill reports on an attempt by mr. trump's currentawyers to have a mistrial declared by the judge. this after the jury heard deilfrom the witness that the defense deemed as inappropriate. he agreed the teimy had gone into too much detail but ultimately denied the request for a mistrial ms. daniels is expected to return to the stand for more questioning when the trial resumes on thursday. kristi spans washington journal, live form involving you to set the latest issues in public policy from washington dc to across the country. coming up wednesday morning we will talk about campus unrest, the israel hamas conflict, and enforcement issues and the congressional news of the day with john rutherford, a member of the appropriations committee and then robert stewart on his

office within the pentagon and tracking u.s. military aid to ukraine. spokesperson for the embassy of saudi arabia. see spans washington journal, join in the conversation live wednesday morning on c-span, c-span now or online at c-span.org. >> lloyd austin and charles don jr. teify about the ongoing fighting between hamas and israel and the war in ukraine. the lawsuit -- they will stay questioned about the pentagon's 2025 budget request. dissenting appropriation subcommittee life 10:00 p.m. eastern on c-span3. or online at c-span.org.

>> will use only swear that the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god? american history stevie as congress invtes as we explore major investigations in your country's history by the u.s. house and senate. authors and historians will tell the stories and will examine the impact of the legacy of the congressional hearings. the 1987earing -- we will hear about the clandestine missiles in iran. proceeds go into nicaragua. watch congress investigates saturday at 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2. >> the house will be in order. >> this year, c-span celebrate 45 years of covering congress like no other. since 1979 we have been your primar