SHANKSVILLE, PA — Today, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rick Crawford (AR-01) and Chair of the Committee’s 9/11 Review, Rep. Elise Stefanik (NY-21), delivered the following opening statements at a full Committee field business meeting at the Flight 93 National Memorial to approve the Committee’s final review of the 9/11 Commission report.   Watch the full committee business meeting here.  

Read the Committee’s report here.

Chairman Crawford’s Opening Statement as prepared for delivery:  
 
Good morning. Before we begin the formal business of this hearing, I want to acknowledge where we are and, more importantly, who is with us today.
 
We are gathered on sacred ground. Twenty-five years ago, forty passengers and crew members aboard United Flight 93 found themselves in circumstances none of us can fully imagine. 
 
In a matter of minutes, ordinary Americans were confronted with an extraordinary choice.
They learned what was happening elsewhere in our country. They understood what was likely happening aboard their own aircraft. And they acted.
 
Because of these heroes’ actions, the terrorists aboard Flight 93 did not reach their intended target. Their courage saved lives. And their sacrifice became part of the story of September 11th – and part of the story of America.

To the family members of those passengers and crew who are here with us today: thank you for allowing us to share this place with you.

We know that September 11th is not simply history to you. It is personal. The people whose names are memorialized here were your husbands and wives, your mothers and fathers, your sons and daughters, your brothers and sisters, and your friends.
 
Nothing this Committee says or does can repay what your families gave our country. But we can remember. We can learn.
 
And we can do everything within our power to make sure the government of the United States never becomes complacent about the responsibility entrusted to us. That is why we are here.
 
Our Committee undertook this review because the 25th anniversary of September 11th, 2001 should be more than a moment of remembrance. It should also be a moment of accountability.
 
The original 9/11 Commission identified profound intelligence, policy, structural, and information sharing failures that contributed to our inability to prevent those attacks. 
 
Its recommendations fundamentally reshaped the Intelligence Community — leading to the creation of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Counterterrorism Center, and significant reforms in information sharing, interagency coordination, and congressional oversight.
 
Twenty-five years later, we believed Congress had an obligation to ask a straightforward question: Did those reforms work?

And then an equally important question: Are they enough for the threats America faces today? In many respects, the answer to the first question is yes.
 
The reforms adopted after September 11th have largely succeeded in their most fundamental purpose: helping prevent another terrorist attack of the magnitude of 9/11 on American soil. That is an extraordinary accomplishment, and we should recognize the thousands of intelligence professionals, law enforcement officers, military personnel, diplomats, and others who have quietly contributed to that success over the last quarter century.
 
But the answer to the second question is more complicated. The world of 2026 is not the world of 2001.
 
We still face terrorism. We also face increasingly aggressive nation-state adversaries, sophisticated counterintelligence operations, cyberattacks, foreign malign influence, economic warfare, rapidly advancing artificial intelligence, biotechnology, drones and autonomous systems, and threats to critical infrastructure.
 
Many of these threats do not fit neatly into the bureaucratic boxes our government created decades ago. Our adversaries understand that. They do not organize themselves around our committee jurisdictions, our agency organizational charts, or the lines separating foreign and domestic threats. They organize around our vulnerabilities. And that brings us to perhaps the most important lesson of September 11th.
 
The 9/11 Commission described a failure of imagination. Twenty-five years later, we cannot allow ourselves to make that mistake again.

The next strategic attack against the United States may not involve hijacked airplanes. It may begin in cyberspace. It may target our power grid or telecommunications systems. It may involve artificial intelligence, biological threats, economic coercion, or capabilities we have not yet fully contemplated.
 
As our report concludes, the next 9/11 might not look like 9/11 — but its consequences could be just as grave. That is the purpose of this work.
 
I also want to recognize that this has been a genuinely bipartisan undertaking. I want to thank Ranking Member Jim Himes for his partnership and his commitment to the serious oversight responsibilities of this Committee. And I especially want to thank our two Task Force Co-Chairs, Elise Stefanik and Josh Gottheimer.
 
They have invested considerable time and effort in this review — examining the reforms that followed September 11th, evaluating where they succeeded, identifying where gaps remain, and considering how an Intelligence Community built largely in response to the threats of yesterday must adapt to the threats of tomorrow. The report itself reflects the bipartisan leadership of the Chairman, Ranking Member, and both Task Force Co-Chairs.
 
There will be disagreements about particular policies. There should be. Serious oversight requires serious debate. However, there should be no partisan disagreement about the mission: protect the American people. Defend their constitutional liberties. And never stop asking whether we are prepared for the threat we have not yet imagined.
 
Finally, I want to return to the families here today. Throughout this review, we have tried to keep the heroes of September 11th and their families at the center of our work. Our report says that explicitly: at every point in compiling it, we kept the heroes and their families in mind and sought to honor their sacrifice.

Here at the Flight 93 National Memorial, those words carry a weight that cannot be borne in a hearing room in Washington, D.C. Twenty-five years ago, the Americans aboard that airplane did not wait for someone else to act. When the moment came, they acted. Our government owes them the same resolve.
 
We should not wait for another catastrophe to expose the vulnerabilities we can see today.
We should identify them. We should confront them. And we should act.
 
That is how we honor the 40 heroes of Flight 93. That is how we honor all 2,977 innocent lives taken on September 11th, 2001. It is how we honor the first responders who ran with courage to save their fellow Americans. 
 
That is how we fulfill our obligation to the generations of Americans who came after them. May God bless their families, may God bless all those who continue to defend this nation, and may God bless the United States of America.
 
Rep. Stefanik’s Opening Statement as prepared for delivery:

As Co-Chair of the Committee’s 9/11 Commission Task Force, it is an honor to be here at the Flight 93 National Memorial where we remember the heroism of “the 40” on September 11.
 
We will never forget their sacrifice and the immense courage they displayed in the face of great evil. As a New Yorker, this day hits especially close to home. Not a day goes by where the events of 9/11 don’t touch on some aspect of our daily lives.

I want to thank Chairman Crawford for making this Report a priority of the Committee on the 25th Anniversary of 9/11.
 
This important anniversary is deserving of a renewal of efforts, and i am proud to have played a small role in that endeavor with this Report. Today marks the culmination of a year of this Committee’s review of the 9/11 Commission Report.
 
While the threats have changed over the last 25 years, our mission in Congress and on this Committee has not: keeping the American people safe. Achieving this objective looks a lot different today than it did 25 years ago. One of the key themes gleaned from our review of the 9/11 Commission Report was that we cannot afford another “failure of imagination.”
 
What our Committee attempted to do with this Report was think “big picture” about where — and how — America is vulnerable today and what we can do to address these security gaps.
 
Of particular importance was our review of the emergence of AI, influence campaigns, and cyber operations used by adversarial nations like China, Russia, and Iran.
 
These are becoming increasingly common today — threat vectors that were only in their infancy 25 years ago. To combat these new lines of attacks, our Report concludes that we need to pursue a whole-of-government approach.
 
Yes, we need information sharing and collaboration within the Intelligence Community and between all of our federal agencies. But we also need to continue bringing state, local, and tribal partners into the fold. To meet the national security challenges of our day, it also requires a unity of effort with our industry partners.
 
Expert witnesses before this Committee continuously stressed how important it was that private companies realize they are on the front lines in this fight — not just government.
Throughout our open hearings and closed-door meetings, one thing was clear: every facet of our society must work in cocert to deter threats and keep the American people safe.
It is my wish that this Report offers a roadmap to further fortify our national security.
While its findings and recommendations will be useful, we also recognize that the fight to keep Americans safe requires constant vigilance.
 
We will always have more work to do when it comes to keeping the American people safe.
 
I am hopeful this Report will contribute to the long list of efforts undertaken to ensure a 9/11 type event will never again be perpetrated against the American people. I also want to thank the members of the National Park Service for hosting us today at the Flight 93 Memorial and thank the families of the heroes of Flight 93 for joining us today in our events.
 
The extraordinary actions by these heroes embody every quality that our nation stands for. Coming together in the face of adversity in times of crisis.
 
The heroes of Flight 93 prevented further bloodshed and prevented a tragedy from taking place at the Capitol that day.
 
I hope that all of the people that joined us today are inspired to live by the same virtues these 40 heroes lived by, and that we can come together as a nation and confront the next generation of threats with the same resolve. With that, I yield back to the Chairman.

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