CBS "Face the Nation" - Transcript: Overseas Travel

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SCHIEFFER: Well, gentlemen, thank you very much. This is disturbing news today, but we thank you for bringing it to our attention. Thank you.

And we turn now to the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee here in the United States, Congressman Mike McCaul of Texas.

You just heard Mike Morell saying the intelligence services in France have had their budgets cut, and then cut and cut some more. I understand that the homeland security budget is being cut, especially as far as the TSA, the people who are the people who guard our airports. Is that so? And are you satisfied, are you good with that?

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R), TEXAS: Well, we're planning to vote on Tuesday on a measure that would actually increase spending within the department.

SCHIEFFER: But you're cutting TSA funds, right?

MCCAUL: My understanding is, there are plus-ups in many areas of the department.

And I think TSA, obviously, the overseas travel is very important. Look, this is a threat that happened in Paris that could happen anywhere. And I think we need to be focused on that threat. This is a different style attack, in the sense that you had foreign fighters that went to Yemen to train in the art of warfare and then bring that war back home to where they lived in France.

That could happen here in the United States. We have had thousands of these Western travelers that have become foreign fighters in Syria, Iraq and Yemen that pose a threat and a risk returning to where they came from, and to do the same thing that we saw in Paris.

In addition, you hear a lot about the homegrown violence, lone wolf, if you will. We have heard lot about that and radicalizing over the Internet, but it's this foreign fighter piece that disturbs me greatly, because we don't have a good handle, intelligence-wise, who is on the ground in Syria, in Iraq and Yemen to identify them, to put them on no-fly lists so they can't get into the country.

These individuals were actually on a no-fly list and still traveled to Yemen and back. We had the woman who -- the female terrorist, leave and go to Syria, and yet she's on a no-fly list. So, I think Europe has to strengthen and tighten its travel restrictions, but we need to look at protecting this country, because I see it as real threat.

SCHIEFFER: Well, what do we need to do that we're not doing here? MCCAUL: Again, I think a couple things.

I think our no-fly lists are working, I think, well, but you don't know what you don't know. We need to identify who has gone over there, traveled over there to fight this fight. And then how do we keep them off of airplanes and restrict their travel.

Western Europe, again, is more lenient in their travel restrictions. And we have a visa waiver, free system where they can fly into the United States without even having a visa. We need to look at all sorts of the things like that. But, mainly, it's driven by intelligence.

I'm launching an investigation on my committee to look at security and defense gaps that may exist as it pertains to foreign fighters. This is the most successful foreign fighter terrorist attack that we have seen to date.

SCHIEFFER: Well, how much of a threat does al Qaeda in Yemen pose now? Because we see now that they're taking credit for this attack. You heard Mike Morell say, when they say they take credit for it, it generally proves to be true.

MCCAUL: And they did in a video last night.

Remember, this is Awlaki, who inspired Major Hasan at Fort Hood.

They traveled -- these two brothers traveled to Yemen and trained under Awlaki in the art of warfare and took that back. I would argue -- you mentioned the war on terror to General Holder. And I think there's been a -- in this administration a tendency not call it that and to sort of have a false narrative that everything is OK, when, in fact, the threat, I believe, is not distinguishing. It's getting greater in Northern Africa, in the Middle East.

And as that threat becomes greater, so, too, does the threat to the United States. And that's what we have to be prepared for.

SCHIEFFER: So you think these are more dangerous times than before?

MCCAUL: I believe, with small-scale attacks -- I think the larger-scale, 9/11-style, more difficult to pull off, a bigger cell we can detect.

A small cell like this one, very difficult to detect, deter and disrupt, which is really our goal. And I think we're going to see more and more of these taking place, whether it be foreign fighters going to the warfare in return or whether it be someone who is getting on the Internet, as John Miller talked about, in this very sophisticated social media program, and then radicalizing over the Internet.

SCHIEFFER: Congressman McCaul, thank you for joining us.

MCCAUL: Thanks, Bob. SCHIEFFER: And we will be back in one minute with more on all this.

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