Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022
Floor Speech
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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1124, I call up the bill (H.R. 350) to authorize dedicated domestic terrorism offices within the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to analyze and monitor domestic terrorist activity and require the Federal Government to take steps to prevent domestic terrorism and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
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Mr. NADLER. 350.
Mr. Speaker, in 2018, a gunman shot and killed 11 worshippers attending Shabbat services at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. In 2019, another gunman shot and killed 22 shoppers at an El Paso Walmart. Over the weekend, yet another assailant allegedly shot and killed 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.
These are tragedies. I could cite many others. I could spend my time here today talking about the scourge of gun violence, or the dramatic rise in the number of hate crimes, or the obvious consequences of the hate-filled rhetoric that fills our airways and has, sadly, been adopted by some of our colleagues.
Instead, I will use my time to point out what these three cases have in common: The gunman in each case was a White man, each angry about so-called replacement theory, each traveling some distance to target a minority community, each hoping to terrorize that community through mass murder.
This is not right. This is not normal. This is not consistent with who we are as a country. We must act. H.R. 350, the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, which sits before us today, is the least we can do to signal our opposition to white nationalism and this rising menace of organized intolerance.
H.R. 350 creates three offices--one each within the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the FBI--to monitor and investigate cases of domestic terrorism.
These newly created offices would issue joint biannual reports to Congress assessing the state of domestic terrorism threats, with a specific focus on white supremacists, and would be required to focus their resources based on the data collected and the most significant threats.
Recent white supremacist attacks have reminded minority communities across the country of a dark history we have not yet escaped. These include the murder of six people of Asian descent at spas in Atlanta last summer, five Jewish Americans being held hostage in their Texas synagogue, numerous bomb threats phoned into historically Black colleges and universities last February, and, of course, the violence in Buffalo just days ago.
Because every part of the country deserves a responsive, well-trained response to this kind of violence, H.R. 350 also requires DOJ and DHS to provide training and resources to assist State and local law enforcement agencies in understanding, detecting, and deterring acts of domestic terrorism and violent white supremacy.
And because there should be no confusion that we are targeting criminal activity, as opposed to the legitimate religious or political activity of most citizens, the bill also includes an explicit protection for First Amendment rights and other constitutionally protected activity.
This legislation is a bipartisan solution to a serious and documented problem facing our country. I thank Representative Brad Schneider for all of his work in introducing it. The House stood together last Congress to pass this legislation in a bipartisan fashion.
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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, the Anti-Defamation League reported after a study last year that 80 percent of racist violence was from white supremacists--80 percent. Mr. Jordan should take heed of that.
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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I don't understand how you can look at the devastation in Buffalo and the manifesto left behind by the terrorist and not take this issue seriously.
I now yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn), the whip.
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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues across the aisle seem to want to talk about everything but the subject matter of this bill, domestic terrorism.
Manning), to talk about domestic terrorism.
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Mr. NADLER. Escobar), a member of the Judiciary Committee.
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, it is hard to overstate how concerning the problem is that has so invaded our politics. We have seen in so many ways institutional norms be trampled underfoot in this Congress. The metal detectors at the door are one example, but they go on and on and on.
The hearing in the Judiciary Committee today aimed at intimidating the United States Supreme Court while it is in the midst of a particular decision is another one. Concepts about packing the Court, ideas by Democrats to pack the Court by the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and they go on and on and on. This one might be the worst.
You wonder what in the world the majority may be thinking to turn the issue of terrorism--any form of terrorism--into a partisan cudgel. It is beyond belief. If this issue returned to a nonpartisan posture, you would find that Republicans would be pleased to join it. It has been grossly distorted and turned into a political weapon that should never happen. It should never happen in this country. It should never happen in this Congress. This bill should be defeated.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, the problem is not that the Republican Party is racist, except the Republican Party won't call out the racists in its midst. They won't call the insurrection on January 6 of last year what it is: an insurrection. They call it legitimate public discourse.
It is not legitimate public discourse when police officers are attacked, when the Members of this House are attacked, when the Members of the Senate are attacked. That is domestic terrorism.
Madam Speaker, too many Americans have felt the pain and horror of domestic terrorism striking in their communities. Many of these attacks are fueled by white supremacy and hatred targeted at racial and ethnic minorities. We cannot bury our heads in the sand and pretend that this problem does not exist. We must confront this challenge head on.
That is why I strongly support the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, which would identify the greatest domestic terror threats and would concentrate law enforcement resources to addressing those threats.
I appreciated the Republicans supporting this last year. Why they won't support this--because they decided that terrorism doesn't have to be addressed--I don't know. That is terrible.
Madam Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to support this important legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 350, the ``Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022.'' I am proudly supporting this critical measure and encourage my colleagues to do so, as well.
On this past Saturday, 13 people were shot and 10 were killed going about their daily lives at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. of those lost souls were Black.
We know from the racist, xenophobic screeds posted online by the perpetrator of this attack that this particular supermarket was targeted because it was located in a predominantly Black residential neighborhood.
Then, on Sunday, one person was killed and four people were critically injured at a church in Laguna Woods, California. It appears this attack was motivated by political hatred directed at the Taiwanese community.
We must respond to these brazen attacks because this country--our country--cannot continue down this hateful pathway.
H.R. 350, the bipartisan Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, of which I am a cosponsor, will strengthen the federal government's efforts to respond to domestic terrorism, focusing primarily on the threat of white supremacy.
It is a necessary response to the elevated threat of violence posed by domestic violent extremists, as declared by the FBI--which we must not allow to continue.
Each component of this bill has been carefully tailored to address the inadequacies of our current approach to fighting domestic terrorism and white supremacy.
First, it would authorize the creation of dedicated offices within the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the FBI to analyze, investigate, monitor, and prosecute domestic terrorism jointly; promote information sharing among federal law enforcement agencies; and take preventative measures, focusing federal resources on the most significant threats based on the data collected.
Second, DOJ, FBI, and DHS would be required to provide critical training and resources to help state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies focus on understanding, detecting, preventing, and preempting domestic terrorism.
Third, the bill would also require establishment of an interagency task force to address the chronic infiltration of Federal law enforcement agencies and the military by white supremacists and neo- Nazis and biannual reporting on the state of domestic terrorism threats.
Fourth, this bill does not create new criminal offenses, new lists of designated domestic terrorist groups, or new investigative powers for law enforcement.
And because the fight against terrorism should not encroach upon Constitutional protections, the bill makes clear that no provisions shall be construed to infringe upon rights protected by the First Amendment and requires that each report must include a certification that all civil rights and civil liberties laws and regulations were followed when conducting assessments and investigations.
We must better equip law enforcement in all communities, on the local and federal level, to collaborate effectively to identify domestic terror threats and thwart these cowardly attacks before they happen.
In the last decade, every ethnic group in the United States has been touched by the increase in domestic terrorism.
These tragedies and their circumstances are all too familiar--the shooting spree at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas which left twenty-two dead and twenty-four injured; the rampage at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue where eleven people were killed; the racist attack on the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin which left six people dead; the brutal murder of nine worshippers at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina; three Muslim college students executed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina supposedly over parking but tinged with hostility for the young people's ``look''; the spa shooter in Atlanta who killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent; and bomb threats repeatedly called into historically black colleges, universities, and places of worship during Black History Month this year.
This bill addresses a real problem that we can no longer ignore. Thoughts and prayers are not enough. It is time we do more to help root out domestic terrorism and white supremacy.
I would like to thank Representative Brad Schneider for his dedication to crafting this bill in a thoughtful, responsive manner.
I urge all members on both sides of the aisle to support this important legislation just as they did last Congress.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 350--Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022, a bill that will counter domestic terrorism.
I am a cosponsor of H.R. 350, and I thank Chairman Thompson for his leadership of the Committee on Homeland Security and his efforts to prioritize the issue of domestic terrorism.
H.R. 350 would authorize a dedicated domestic terrorism office within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responsible for identifying and analyzing domestic terrorism activity in keeping with existing authorities and would codify in statute the establishment of dedicated offices within the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate and prosecute domestic terrorism.
Domestic terrorism has posed a growing threat over the past decade. FBI Director Wray, when testifying before the House Committees on Homeland Security and Judiciary warned about this escalating threat, including in congressional testimony.
In 2017, Director Wray characterized domestic terrorism as a ``very serious'' issue and noted that the FBI had approximately 1,000 open domestic terrorism investigations, approximately the same as the number of FBI's investigations into U.S.-based individuals inspired by foreign terrorist organizations.
In 2018, Director Wray warned that ``law enforcement, racial minorities, and the U.S. Government will continue to be significant targets for many domestic extremist movements.''
In 2021, Director Wray stated that the domestic terrorism threat is ``metastasizing across the country.''
In response to the Biden Administration's direction to produce a comprehensive assessment of domestic terrorism threats, the Intelligence Community and law enforcement concluded in March 2021 that domestic violent extremists ``pose an elevated threat to the Homeland.''
No matter what other challenges might emerge we must never forget that one of our nation's greatest threats comes from our struggle against violent extremism that began on September 11, 2001 and has extended to violent extremist living among us who use political affiliation as a justification for acts of terror.
September 11, 2001 remains a tragedy that defines our nation's history, but the final chapter will be written by those who are charged with keeping our nation and its people safe while preserving the way of life that terrorists sought to change.
I was at the September 11, 2021 commemoration held in New York last year and reflected on the twenty years since that day of the attacks.
Since September 11, 2001, it has been a priority of this nation to prevent terrorists, or those who would do American's harm, from boarding flights whether they are domestic or international.
Over the nearly twenty years since enactment of the Homeland Security Act, the mission of the Department of Homeland Security has expanded to include cyber defense of civilian agency and private sector networks; protecting critical infrastructure in the form of the nation's electric grid, water delivery systems, transportation networks and federal election systems; and most recently managing the question of essential workers during this pandemic.
Annually the Committee on Homeland Security has held a hearing on the topic of Worldwide Threats to Homeland Security, which have covered a range of topics from terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda and ISIS, to home grown involving Lone Wolves and White Supremacists.
The mission of the Committee on Homeland Security has been and will continue to be on the nearly 3,000 people who died on September 11, 2001, and whom we owe a debt to do all that we can to prevent another attack on United States soil.
The escalation in violent domestic attacks since the January 6 attack has particularly been felt by our nation's law enforcement officers, but others as well in the rise in murder and assaults across the nation.
Today, we find ourselves in a nation where the terrorism landscape is more complex and it is imperative that we recognize the unorthodox nature of the terrorism threat we face today.
The current terrorism threat landscape has three major drivers of heightened threat:
(1) the convergence of extremist ideologies;
(2) the speed at which individuals who ascribe to extremist ideologies escalate to violence;
(3) and the enormous growth of misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information.
The fringe ideologies that have adherents that move from group to group complicates the work of counterterrorism investigations, operations, and policy making because the focus would be on means and methods, understanding the hagiarchy of an organization, then moving to nullify threats before they manifest into acts of physical violence.
Research shows that ``over the past roughly 15 years, the average time span of radicalization in the U.S. has shrunk from 18 months to 7 months.''
As Director Wray said in a hearing before the Committee in September 2020, domestic violent extremists ``can go from radicalization to mobilization in weeks, if not days.''
The speed and ease of the proliferation of misinformation, disinformation mal-information is unprecedented joined with the mass invitation to willing minds to commit acts of violence based on information is unprecedented.
Misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information proliferate on the internet and build bridges between conspiracy theory and violent extremism.
According to research by the Soufan Group, ``algorithms employed by social media companies to generate continued engagement with platforms are partly responsible for radicalizing individuals to support QAnon,'' with anti-Semitism serving as a bridge between QAnon and white supremacy extremism.
The non-profit research group Tech Against Terrorism issued a report finding that ``terrorist and violent extremist operated websites from across the ideological spectrum . . . pose one of the most significant threats to global efforts in tackling terrorist use of the internet by governments, the tech sector, law enforcement and NGOs.
While mis-, dis-, or mal-information may not in and of itself constitute terrorist content, conspiracy theories in such information may propel terrorists and violent extremists to action.
Misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information undermine homeland security and law enforcement efforts to combat violent extremism.
Misinformation and false narratives in political discourse, news media, and online have increased support for political violence.
The availability of extremist content online means that today, ``everyone is just a few clicks away from an ever-expanding series of rabbit holes that offer up whole worlds of disinformation and hate.''
In January 2021, President Biden initiated a 100-day comprehensive review of Federal efforts to address domestic terrorism.
The review found that racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists who advocate for the superiority of the white race and anti- government or anti-authority violent extremists are the two most lethal elements of today's terrorism threat, and as a result of that review, in June 2021 the Biden Administration released the first-ever National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism.
It is a comprehensive strategy for addressing the threat posed by domestic violent extremists and recognizes that online narratives promoting attacks on U.S. citizens, institutions, and critical infrastructure are a key factor driving radicalization and mobilization to violence.
Under the Strategy, DHS is responsible for preventing terrorism and I targeted violence, including through threat assessments, grants, and community-based prevention programs; enhancing public awareness; assessing, evaluating, and mitigating the 'risk of violence inspired by violent extremist narratives, including those narratives shared via online platforms; and establishing partnerships with nongovernmental organizations.
In May 2021, DHS announced the establishment of the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3), which would help the Department combat terrorism and targeted violence.
The City of Houston's Mayor's Office of Public Safety and Homeland Security (MOPSHS) is a recipient of $603,855.00 and has used the funds to reengage the cities community partners to form a coalition that will share information, assess threats, and be a resource to the community.
The city will work with the Texas Educational Service Center to develop a curriculum to educate students about radicalization to violence, media literacy, and bias.
According to CSIS, White supremacists, extremist militia members, and other violent far-right extremists were responsible for 66 percent of domestic terrorist attacks and plots in 2020.
On June 7, Harry H. Rogers--a self-proclaimed leader of the Ku Klux Klan--intentionally drove his pick-up truck into a crowd of Black Lives Matter demonstrators in Henrico, Virginia. One protester was injured, and Rogers received a six-year prison sentence.
In another case a Nevada man used an armored truck to block traffic on the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge and held up signs--then he fled to Arizona where he was arrested.
At the time of his arrest he referenced QAnon conspiracy theories and discussed related conspiratorial beliefs.
No matter what other challenges might emerge, we must never forget that one of our nation's greatest threats comes from our struggle against violent extremism that began on September 11, 2001 and has extended to violent extremists living among us who use political affiliation as a justification for acts of terror.
I ask fellow members of the House to join me in voting in favor of H.R. 350.
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