FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Chairman Campbell, Senator Kohl, Members of the Committee, it is a pleasure for me to be here before you today to highlight the FY 1999 budget request for Treasury's law enforcement bureaus and offices. With me today are the heads of the Treasury law enforcement bureaus, several of whom are new additions to the Treasury team since the last appropriations hearing: Lewis Merletti, Director of the U.S. Secret Service (USSS), who was appointed by Secretary Rubin on June 6, 1997; Samuel Banks, Acting Commissioner of the U.S. Customs Service (USCS); and Ralph Basham, Director of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), our newest Director. We are pleased to have these new Directors joining today with John Magaw, Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), William Baity, Deputy Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and Ted Brown, Assistant Commissioner for Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS/CID).

Each year, Treasury's mission grows in complexity, scope and importance. Treasury Enforcement performs a critical role in serving the nation's law enforcement priorities. Treasury bureaus protect our leaders, safeguard our financial institutions from money launderers and fraud, and collect taxes. Treasury agents and inspectors protect our borders from drug traffickers and every day our agents fight to protect our streets from the threat of bombs, arson and gun violence.

To ensure excellence in achieving these missions, and in keeping with the spirit of the National Performance Review and the Government Performance and Results Act, Treasury engaged in a thorough strategic management process. The Treasury Strategic Plan, which was submitted to Congress last fall, is the capstone of this planning and analysis process. The purpose of this plan, and of our other efforts, is to improve the results which we deliver to the American people.

Treasury's strategic plan provides an overview for the Department as a whole. In addition, each of Treasury's bureaus developed its own strategic plan for its operations in support of the overall plan. Collectively, these strategic plans describe what the Department intends to accomplish over the next five years and how we will accomplish it. Our bureaus' and offices' FY 1999 budget submissions provide a program level description of the annual resources and actions needed to achieve these goals. The FY 1999 President's budget seeks $3.2 billion for 26,580 direct FTE Treasury Enforcement personnel, strategic investments, and other operational costs. This does not include the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division (IRS/CID). IRS/CID, however, plays an integral role in Treasury law enforcement efforts with their FY 1999 $373 million request for 4,103 law enforcement personnel. We believe the Treasury law enforcement budget request strikes an appropriate balance permitting Treasury to contribute substantially towards balancing the federal budget while supporting new and more effective approaches to law enforcement. I would like to note that Treasury enforcement's $3.2 billion request will allow us to combat crime while making a $33 billion revenue deposit to the U.S. Treasury. By all counts, this is a tremendous return on investment. The budget submissions also set specific annual performance goals for each of our programs and report on our achievements against prior year goals.

Treasury's Office of Enforcement has developed a five-part mission statement which describes the purposes of our broad law enforcement functions. We are committed to ensuring that this strategic plan is a living document. We will use it to guide our operations, and will continue to update and revise it periodically to make certain it remains relevant. Our plan was developed with the active involvement of officials throughout Treasury, and we have sought input from many of our stakeholders in Congress, elsewhere in the government, and in the private sector. We continue to welcome input from all of our stakeholders.

The following describes the goals of our strategic plan, in a format designed to highlight our bureaus' specific expertise, activities and budget requests, as well as our cross-cutting expertise on financial crimes matters. Thereafter, I will discuss the important role that is played by the Office of Enforcement in enabling our bureaus to meet their goals and fulfill their missions.

Goal: Reduce the Trafficking, Smuggling and Use of Illicit Drugs

Treasury brings essential counter-narcotics and money laundering expertise to the implementation of all aspects of the President's comprehensive anti-drug strategy. Our anti-smuggling efforts at the border and our substantial air support to interdict illegal narcotics at the source places Treasury in a leading role in the fight against illicit drugs. For example, this anti-narcotics role is pursued through anti-money laundering measures, reduction of narcotics-related violent crime, and demand reduction programs.

U.S. Customs Service

The Customs Service has the primary role for the Treasury Department and one of the primary roles for the U.S. in interdicting drugs and other contraband at the border, and ensuring that all goods and persons entering and exiting the United States do so in accordance with the law. The Customs Service discovers or seizes, on average, more than half of the narcotics seized by all Federal authorities in the United States each year.

Customs has tremendous responsibilities. We need to recount some of what Customs must confront in order to put the drug interdiction challenge into perspective: Last year, Customs processed over 442 million people, 118 million vehicles, 320,000 rail cars, and $854 billion worth of merchandise. Customs performed the initial checks, processes, and enforcement functions for over 40 Federal agencies and applied hundreds of laws and regulations. It performed these tasks by servicing more than 300 ports of entry sprawled across 7,000 miles of land border. It also provided air support to the U.S. Government's source control efforts in South and Central America. Customs pursued all of these enforcement missions while collecting approximately $23 billion in revenue for the United States in the form of duties, taxes, and fees.

Customs constantly strives to improve its ability to stem the flow of drugs while dealing with the increasing volumes of cargo and passengers into and out of the United States. Indeed, the number one operational priority for the Customs Service is preventing the smuggling of narcotics into the United States. It pursues this mission through interdiction, intelligence and investigative capabilities that disrupt and dismantle smuggling organizations. Although Customs seized nearly one million pounds of illegal drugs in FY 1997, through programs such as Operation Hard Line at the Southwest border and Operation Gateway in the Caribbean, the quantity of cocaine seized last year dropped 12 percent. To counter this decline, Customs recently embarked upon a program to utilize innovative approaches and will focus on the most high-risk ports of entry.

Customs will continue to develop the capabilities to meet the ongoing smuggling threats, on our southwest land borders, in the Caribbean, and at all borders and ports of entry across the country. Customs actively participates in multi-agency criminal investigations, and will continue to strengthen its partnerships with the private sector, cooperative foreign governments and other Federal agencies in order to continue its active role to counter narcotics smuggling.

Customs' budget proposal for FY 1999 includes increases for drug smuggling and money laundering enforcement, integrity awareness, non-intrusive inspection technology and automation, all of which will help us achieve our goal of reducing the trafficking, smuggling and use of illicit drugs.

In addition to Customs many and varied contributions to the drug fight, we also are proud of such efforts as ATF's campaign against armed narcotics traffickers through its Achilles Program, the work of all of our bureaus on HIDTA and ICDE task forces, the use of our financial crimes expertise to attack the financial underpinnings of the drug trade, and valuable prevention such as ATF's GREAT program.

Goal: Combat Financial Crimes and Money Laundering

One of the most important missions of the Treasury law enforcement bureaus is the investigation of financial crimes and money laundering. Treasury's unique structure permits us to use both our regulatory and investigatory expertise to follow the money trail and thus undermine criminal enterprises. We intend to strengthen the capability of our bureaus to fight money laundering and will continue our international efforts to promote stronger anti-money laundering laws abroad. As advances in technology and the removal of barriers allow money to move with increasing speed among nations, an effective, long term anti-money laundering strategy will require other nations to adopt strong anti-money laundering measures in the legal, regulatory, and law enforcement areas. We will also seek to improve our regulatory functions to protect financial systems from illicit assets.

Additionally, we are developing anti-counterfeiting strategies that employ all appropriate technological and investigatory methods to combat designers and traffickers in counterfeit currency and instruments. Working with the State Department, we are expanding our overseas presence to more effectively combat the burgeoning international criminal threat to our financial systems. We are also enhancing our leadership role by continuing to develop partnerships with the financial community and others in the private and public sectors.

Treasury is working in a number of ways to engage both the public and private sectors in a common effort to deny money launderers access to legitimate avenues of finance and commerce. We are continuing to emphasize the importance of interagency cooperation to pool resources and share experiences and information. The Committee is aware of the successes achieved by the El Dorado Interagency Task Force and FinCEN which were responsible for implementing the Geographical Targeting Orders (GTOs) directed towards Colombian and Dominican Republic drug-related money laundering operations.

Treasury held two conferences over the last year, along with representatives from the Department of Justice, which brought together the experts from both our Departments--prosecutors, regulators, and law enforcement agents, all sharing their insights into the problem. Additional conferences are planned both at the national and regional level in order to further shut down the avenues available to money launderers.

The Customs Service, Secret Service, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division all play a vital role in accomplishing our money laundering and financial crimes goals. The Office of Enforcement will seek to enhance the individual and collective work of these bureaus through completion of a Departmental financial crimes review, which is currently being undertaken jointly with the Treasury bureaus and offices.

The following are some of our bureaus' individual efforts in the current fight against money laundering and financial crimes.

Customs Service

In addition to its substantial efforts to counter illicit drugs, Customs also plays a vitally important role in combating money laundering. During FY 1997, Customs' money laundering investigations resulted in 1,054 arrests and 905 criminal indictments. Its investigative strategy is focused on disrupting two key business functions that are necessary for sophisticated international money laundering operations to function: laundering profits and investing the proceeds of their criminal activity. Customs' money laundering coordination center will become operational in 1998 and will coordinate Customs' nationwide undercover money laundering operations and follow-up investigations.

Secret Service

The Secret Service is the nation's lead agency in investigating counterfeiting, forgery, and access device fraud. As the nation's counterfeiting expert, the Secret Service has investigated fictitious financial instruments, counterfeit currency and credit card schemes both domestically and internationally. United States currency is counterfeited around the globe. Indeed, approximately 70 percent of all counterfeit currency detected domestically is of foreign origin. Therefore, it is only prudent that the Secret Service devotes a large portion of its investigative resources to battling international counterfeiting issues.

The Secret Service has learned through experience that the best method to manage this problem is to address counterfeit issues at their source, with the permanent stationing of Secret Service agents in foreign posts. In addition, the Secret Service leverages its resources by enlisting international law enforcement agencies to identify counterfeit currency and suppress counterfeiting plates. These efforts, primarily carried out through counterfeit detection seminars, have promoted a cooperative international law enforcement effort to detect, suppress and prosecute counterfeit violations.

Moreover, to prevent financial fraud schemes, the Secret Service has developed and implemented longstanding and effective partnerships with private industry to better understand various financial systems and combat significant losses. Assisting the industry and their financial systems with "systemic fixes," aggressive analysis, and proactive security enhancement measures has increased the overall security of these financial systems. Proactive joint initiatives with the industry, such as public awareness campaigns, media programs, speeches, seminars, and security training are having a positive impact. These partnerships have reduced the ability of criminal organizations to target financial institutions.

FinCEN

While Customs, Secret Service and IRS-CID are the financial crime investigators, FinCEN serves as Treasury's principal support arm for such investigative efforts. As its name states, FinCEN is a network, a link between the law enforcement, financial, and regulatory communities. It brings together government agencies and the private sector, in this country and around the world. It works to maximize information-sharing among these communities thereby furthering efforts to prevent and detect money laundering activities. The intelligence derived from the GTOs and other efforts has also contributed to the work of an interagency coordinating group (ICG) which is located at FinCEN. The group includes the Internal Revenue Service, the Customs Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Postal Service. The ICG has been building on knowledge which its members, especially the Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS and the Customs Service, have developed about a highly complex money laundering system used by the Colombian Cartel, known as the Black Market Peso Exchange.

The initiatives in FinCEN's budget request will strengthen the quality of the support that it provides to law enforcement.

IRS-CID

I want to say a few words about the important contribution to Treasury's law enforcement efforts made by IRS-CID. Fighting financial crime is a job well suited for the special agents of IRS-CID. They are known for their ability to "follow the money trail" and stop the criminal when no one else can. IRS-CID agents are financial experts in combating money laundering and tax evasion. Their expertise is sought in investigations of all types of financial crimes, including health care fraud, pension fraud, insurance fraud, bankruptcy fraud, telemarketing fraud, gaming, narcotics, and public corruption.

Today, IRS-CID is combating the increased use of computers for committing financial crimes with its latest weapon... a new type of special agent known as the Computer Investigative Specialist (CIS). Through IRS-CID's national Computer Investigative Specialist Program, the CIS continuously receives training in cutting edge investigation automation and evidence seizure and data recovery methods. Combining its unique financial expertise with advanced computer skills permits IRS-CID to optimize its ability to investigate and solve computer based and computer related financial crimes. IRS-CID is taking the lead in providing this specialized computer investigative training to agents from the other Treasury bureaus.

Goal: Fight Violent Crime

Treasury is working to fight violent crime by arresting the most violent armed offenders, denying criminals and juveniles access to firearms, reducing the risk of violent crime in our communities, safeguarding the public from arson and explosive incidents and strengthening our capability to fight terrorist threats to the United States. To enhance our efforts to reduce and prevent violent crime with firearms, Treasury has fully supported the Administration's and Congress' efforts to prevent criminals, gang offenders, and juveniles from illegally obtaining firearms. These efforts have been built on three foundations: implementation of the first phase of the Brady law, to stop felons and other prohibited persons from buying handguns from licensed dealers; reform of the firearms dealer licensing systems to ensure a high level of commercial integrity and compliance with local laws; and a tough, focused illegal firearms trafficking program aimed at stopping trafficking to criminals, gang offenders, and juveniles. Additionally, we are working to maintain appropriate firearms importation and international illegal firearms trafficking policies and to share crime gun tracing and anti-smuggling expertise with the international community in order to combat the illegal firearms trafficking.

To safeguard the public from arson and explosives incidents, we will maintain the highest standards of investigative expertise and state-of-the-art technology to most effectively respond to those incidents. Our studies on the use of tracer elements in explosives materials will continue and we will enhance the national repository for arson and explosives information to assist in the investigation of explosives incidents. We will endeavor to prevent criminal misuse of explosives in crimes of arson through enforcement, regulation, and community outreach and investigate thefts and illegal diversion of explosives.

ATF

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) plays the leading role for Treasury, indeed the entire Federal government, in the fight against armed violent crime. ATF is responsible for enforcement of the Federal firearms laws as well as for regulation of the firearms and explosives industries. It investigates some of the most destructive, dangerous, and controversial crimes in the United States, including bombings of abortion and family planning clinics, church arson, firearms crimes and illegal trafficking, and firearms and explosives violations.

In an effort to reduce armed violent crime, ATF focuses its investigative efforts on armed violent criminals, career criminals, armed narcotics traffickers, violent gang offenders, and domestic and international firearms traffickers that supply the illegal firearms market. It strives to deny criminals, gang offenders and juveniles access to firearms, safeguard the public from bombings and arson, and imprison violent criminals.

Through its Violent Crime Coordinators (VCCs), ATF is focusing its investigations on armed recidivist and violent career criminals. The VCCs will continue to assist in removing the armed criminals that pose the greatest threat to society by identifying and investigating the most violent offenders, analyzing the best route to prosecution and working closely with the United States Attorneys' Offices to maximize the effectiveness of our investigative efforts.

Through its Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative (YCGII), which began as a small pilot effort in 1996, ATF is working to further reduce the illegal trafficking of firearms to gang offenders and juveniles. Due to the positive reception of the program in the 17 pilot cities and to ATF's first comprehensive trace analysis report designed for agents and police departments, the President confirmed his support by announcing that 10 additional cities would be included in FY 1998. We are grateful for the support you have already provided to this program, which is designed to supplement and strengthen ATF's illegal firearms trafficking program. Through YCGII, ATF is developing new methods of identifying the illegal sources of firearms being supplied to gang offenders, juveniles, and criminals and to prosecute the traffickers responsible for providing these guns. ATF will work with the nation's police departments to provide comprehensive crime gun tracing, illegal market analysis, investigative information and training to the 27 cities. To break the chain of illegal supply of crime guns to violent gang offenders and juveniles, we will hire more than 160 agents to collaborate with U.S. Attorneys and police departments in investigating and arresting the illegal firearms traffickers.

ATF is also renowned for its expertise in the areas of arson and explosives. Through its certified fire investigators, National and International Response Teams, accelerant and explosives detection canine program, its accredited laboratory, its arson and explosives repository, and numerous other programs, ATF maintains its role as the leader and innovator in these areas. Its expert work on the National Church Arson Task Force has helped produce a 33 percent clearance rate for the arsons under investigation, a rate that is more than twice the average rate for arson crimes in general. ATF assists State and local authorities with arson investigations falling under Federal jurisdiction and having a significant impact on their community, particularly when the nature or extent of the problem extends beyond the available resources or expertise of the locale involved. ATF also provides training to other Federal, State, and local enforcement agencies in the detection and investigation of arson, particularly arson-for-profit, and post-blast bombing investigation.

As Director Magaw will explain in greater detail, the additional funds requested in ATF's budget for the VCCs and YCGII will permit it to better fulfill the goal of countering violent crime.

Goal: Protect Our Nations Leaders and Visiting World Leaders

Treasury is striving to manage the ever changing nature of threats by developing, acquiring and deploying necessary countermeasures. One aspect of this proactive approach is developing a formal risk assessment-based decision making process to enhance protective capabilities. Toward this end, we will identify emerging technologies that pose a threat to those we are entrusted with protecting and develop defenses against them. We will also exploit technology that can be used to lower risk to protectees and ensure their safety. To help fulfill the vital protective mission and to provide the safest possible environment for all protectees, we will continue to develop partnerships between the law enforcement agencies inside and outside Treasury.

Secret Service

As you know, the United States Secret Service has the critical responsibility of protecting the President, Vice President, and other specially designated protectees. It accomplishes this protective and investigative mission effectively in an increasingly hostile society. During the past fiscal year, the Service successfully managed protective security for several major events, as well as the implementation of numerous, ongoing security enhancements at the White House complex and the Vice President's residence. The Secret Service's White House Emergency Plan was revised to include enhanced procedures in the event of a crisis situation at the White House complex. The Service also continued its efforts to combat the increasing threats from chemical/biological weapons. To respond to this threat, the Service has formulated a chemical/biological detection and protective program which combines multiple systems: fixed detectors, collective protection systems, and portable detection equipment for deployment at critical protective sites. Additionally, the Service's ultimate goal is to provide immediate chemical/biological detection, mitigation and decontamination support for all Presidential movements.

During FY 1999, the Service begins the build-up for the Presidential campaign of the Year 2000. As it begins planning for the Presidential campaign and the inauguration of January 2001, the Secret Service's budget request will further advance its ability to maintain the highest level of physical protection possible for its protectees through the effective use of human resources, protective intelligence, risk assessment and technology.

Goal: Provide High Quality Training for Law Enforcement Personnel

Assuring the excellence of training of Federal law enforcement is of vital importance to the future effectiveness of our law enforcement efforts. As the training agent for the majority of all Federal law enforcement agencies, we currently have 70 Federal agencies participating in training programs at the FLETC. We are committed to enhancing basic and in-service training programs to meet the changing needs and increasing demands of Federal law enforcement as we combat increasingly sophisticated, technologically advanced and globally linked crime. Our objective is to develop and operate state-of-the-art facilities and systems responsive to interagency training needs.

To meet the goal of quality training within a limited budget, to meet current training needs and to prepare for the future, we will maintain and improve FLETC's physical plant by implementing the master plan to guide the expansion of facilities to meet projected training needs. We will also develop alternative training delivery systems, such as distance learning capabilities, thereby effecting long term cost savings. Additionally, we will expand the use of advanced technology in training and support, especially in the areas of computer-based training and simulation, to provide not only state-of-the-art training but long-term budget savings as well. We will also provide international training in support of the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in Budapest and the ILEA being developed for Latin America (ILEA South).

FLETC

One of the reasons that Treasury law enforcement is so successful is the quality of training that its agents and inspectors receive at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC). Since its establishment by a memorandum of understanding in 1970, FLETC has built a reputation for providing high quality, cost effective law enforcement training. As you know, there are many advantages to consolidated training for Federal law enforcement personnel, not the least of which is an enormous cost savings to the Government. Seventy agencies in 200 different training programs now train at FLETC. Additionally, FLETC has been involved in providing law enforcement training overseas for over 20 years and has trained more than 5,000 foreign law enforcement officials from more than 102 different countries. We expect this growth to continue as more agencies recognize the many benefits of consolidated training.

Over the last two years, the FLETC has seen an unprecedented increase in its workload. Current projections indicate continued workload growth through FY 1999 and beyond. During FY 1997, the FLETC provided training to 23,329 students representing 109,116 student-weeks of training, the largest workload in the history of the Center. In FY 1998 the workload is expected to grow to 32,404 students. The majority of this growth is attributable to recent Congressional and Administration initiatives to control immigration along our Nation's borders and to provide a safe workplace for Federal employees.

To permit FLETC to train the law enforcement agents in the skills needed for the future, it has continued to implement its master plan for facilities. This plan was first introduced in 1989 and when fully implemented will permit FLETC to achieve its goal of further developing, operating, and maintaining state-of-the-art facilities and systems responsive to interagency training needs. Indeed, a major portion of FLETC's budget request is the continued implementation of the facilities master plan for new construction at FLETC's two centers in Glynco and Artesia. This funding will ensure that less efficient temporary facilities, now relied upon to meet workload requirements, are phased out as soon as possible. Since early 1996, FLETC has been operating at full capacity and we expect that this workload will continue through FY 1999. To accommodate this increasing demand, FLETC has been utilizing temporary buildings and contracted or licensed facilities. In addition, some Border Patrol training is occurring at a temporary facility in Charleston, South Carolina. As FLETC's capacity increases, the need for a temporary site at Charleston can be phased out.

In addition to its domestic training responsibilities, the FLETC is also being called upon to play a larger and more important role in support of the Administration's and Congress' foreign policy initiatives involving the training of foreign law enforcement officials. We estimate that there will be a 36 percent increase in FLETC's FY 1998 international training workload as compared with FY 1997. A key provision in the FLETC's FY 1999 budget request and central to FLETC's ability to meet these increased training needs is the ILEA South initiative.

At the San Jose Summit on May 8, 1997, President Clinton announced that an international law enforcement training academy would be created in Latin America (i.e., ILEA South) before the end of 1997. Patterned after ILEA Budapest, the goals of ILEA South are to expand relationships with and among foreign law enforcement officials from Latin America and the Caribbean, support democracy by stressing the rule of law in international and domestic police operations, foster international cooperation and raise the professionalism of law enforcement judicial officials.

The Department of State selected the Department of the Treasury as the lead agency to establish ILEA South. In turn, the Department is relying on the FLETC to provide operational management oversight and administrative support to guide program development for ILEA-South. The first ILEA South training program was recently conducted in Panama City, Panama, during November and December 1997. Thirty-two students from eight Central American countries attended the program. The program was extremely well received and was considered by all those involved to be a great success.

Office of Enforcement

We recognize that the work of our law enforcement bureaus can only be enhanced through the oversight and support provided at the Departmental level. In this regard, I am pleased to report that the Office of Enforcement has worked diligently over the past year to fulfill these responsibilities, and has a plan in place for maximizing such efforts over the next year. This Committee's support in the creation of an Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) will help us meet these goals. Since receiving funds in last year's appropriations, we have developed a precise staffing and hiring plan for the OPR positions to provide direct oversight on such important matters as internal affairs, training, and inspection issues. The process included extensive outreach to expand the pool of qualified applicants, as well as thorough reviews of applications and several rounds of interviews for select candidates, including interviews with our bureau heads. While the process continues, we have selected a number of impressive members of the OPR team. They are on board, and we are confident that they will help our bureaus perform their missions as safely, professionally, and well as possible. On one issue in particular -- integrity -- Treasury and its bureaus share the Committee's strong commitment, and have made it a priority for OPR.

The Office of Enforcement also has taken other measures to enhance its support and oversight missions. Among other activities, we worked closely with Customs, ONDCP, and others to ensure close cooperation on anti-narcotics matters; solidified the Department's vital role on anti-money laundering issues through such activities as the geographic targeting orders and the anti-money laundering conferences hosted jointly with the Justice Department; coordinated all enforcement-related strategic planning activities for Treasury as it fulfilled its GPRA responsibilities; maintained a lead role within the Administration on the National Church Arson Task Force, as well as international money laundering and financial crime issues; performed a complete management assessment at FLETC by working with an outside consultant, expanded the Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative to 10 additional cities; and established ILEA South in conjunction with the State Department and others.

Conclusion

In summary, the Treasury Department is proud of the contributions that its law enforcement bureaus have made and continue to make to this nation. Treasury and its bureaus have defined goals and objectives to ensure our excellence in protecting our borders, fighting violent crime, protecting our nation's leaders, defeating financial crimes, and training our law enforcement agents for the challenges of countering increasingly sophisticated criminals. This budget request will enable Treasury's law enforcement bureaus to meet the current challenges and to begin preparations for the challenges of the 2lst century. I am confident you will find this to be a responsible budget, as it considers the growing demands of the law enforcement in a constrained budget environment.

With your permission Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the Directors of the Treasury law enforcement bureaus to describe in more detail those strategies and goals we see as playing a key role in the coming fiscal year, as well as our recent accomplishments. After which we would be pleased to answer any questions you or Members of this Committee may have. Thank You.