[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 18, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H5143-H5152]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               DOMESTIC TERRORISM PREVENTION ACT OF 2022

  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.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Espaillat). Pursuant to House Resolution 
1124, the amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the 
Committee on the Judiciary, printed in the bill, modified by the 
amendment printed in part A of House Report 117-333, is adopted and the 
bill, as amended, is considered read.
  The text of the bill, as amended, is as follows:

                                H.R. 350

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Domestic Terrorism 
     Prevention Act of 2022''.

     SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

       In this Act--
       (1) the term ``Director'' means the Director of the Federal 
     Bureau of Investigation;
       (2) the term ``domestic terrorism'' has the meaning given 
     the term in section 2331 of title 18, United States Code.
       (3) the term ``Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee'' 
     means the committee within the Department of Justice tasked 
     with assessing and sharing information about ongoing domestic 
     terrorism threats;
       (4) the term ``hate crime incident'' means an act described 
     in section 241, 245, 247, or 249 of title 18, United States 
     Code, or in section 901 of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (42 
     U.S.C. 3631);
       (5) the term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of Homeland 
     Security; and
       (6) the term ``uniformed services'' has the meaning given 
     the term in section 101(a) of title 10, United States Code.

     SEC. 3. OFFICES TO COMBAT DOMESTIC TERRORISM.

       (a) Authorization of Offices to Monitor, Analyze, 
     Investigate, and Prosecute Domestic Terrorism.--
       (1) Domestic terrorism unit.--There is authorized a 
     Domestic Terrorism Unit in the Office of Intelligence and 
     Analysis of the Department of Homeland Security, which shall 
     be responsible for monitoring and analyzing domestic 
     terrorism activity.
       (2) Domestic terrorism office.--There is authorized a 
     Domestic Terrorism Office in the Counterterrorism Section of 
     the National Security Division of the Department of Justice--
       (A) which shall be responsible for investigating and 
     prosecuting incidents of domestic terrorism;
       (B) which shall be headed by the Domestic Terrorism 
     Counsel; and
       (C) which shall coordinate with the Civil Rights Division 
     on domestic terrorism matters that may also be hate crime 
     incidents.
       (3) Domestic terrorism section of the fbi.--There is 
     authorized a Domestic Terrorism Section within the 
     Counterterrorism Division of the Federal Bureau of 
     Investigation, which shall be responsible for investigating 
     domestic terrorism activity.
       (4) Staffing.--The Secretary, the Attorney General, and the 
     Director shall each ensure that each office authorized under 
     this section in their respective agencies shall--
       (A) have an adequate number of employees to perform the 
     required duties;
       (B) have not less than one employee dedicated to ensuring 
     compliance with civil rights and civil liberties laws and 
     regulations; and
       (C) require that all employees undergo annual anti-bias 
     training.
       (5) Sunset.--The offices authorized under this subsection 
     shall terminate on the date that is 10 years after the date 
     of enactment of this Act.

[[Page H5144]]

       (b) Joint Report on Domestic Terrorism.--
       (1) Biannual report required.--Not later than 180 days 
     after the date of enactment of this Act, and each 6 months 
     thereafter for the 10-year period beginning on the date of 
     enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security, 
     the Attorney General, and the Director of the Federal Bureau 
     of Investigation shall submit a joint report authored by the 
     domestic terrorism offices authorized under paragraphs (1), 
     (2), and (3) of subsection (a) to--
       (A) the Committee on the Judiciary, the Committee on 
     Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and the Select 
     Committee on Intelligence of the Senate; and
       (B) the Committee on the Judiciary, the Committee on 
     Homeland Security, and the Permanent Select Committee on 
     Intelligence of the House of Representatives.
       (2) Contents.--Each report submitted under paragraph (1) 
     shall include--
       (A) an assessment of the domestic terrorism threat posed by 
     White supremacists and neo-Nazis, including White supremacist 
     and neo-Nazi infiltration of Federal, State, and local law 
     enforcement agencies and the uniformed services; and
       (B)(i) in the first report, an analysis of incidents or 
     attempted incidents of domestic terrorism that have occurred 
     in the United States since April 19, 1995, including any 
     White-supremacist-related incidents or attempted incidents; 
     and
       (ii) in each subsequent report, an analysis of incidents or 
     attempted incidents of domestic terrorism that occurred in 
     the United States during the preceding 6 months, including 
     any White-supremacist-related incidents or attempted 
     incidents;
       (C) a quantitative analysis of domestic terrorism for the 
     preceding 6 months, including--
       (i) the number of--

       (I) domestic terrorism related assessments initiated by the 
     Federal Bureau of Investigation, including the number of 
     assessments from each classification and subcategory, with a 
     specific classification or subcategory for those related to 
     White supremacism;
       (II) domestic terrorism-related preliminary investigations 
     initiated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, including 
     the number of preliminary investigations from each 
     classification and subcategory, with a specific 
     classification or subcategory for those related to White 
     supremacism, and how many preliminary investigations resulted 
     from assessments;
       (III) domestic terrorism-related full investigations 
     initiated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, including 
     the number of full investigations from each classification 
     and subcategory, with a specific classification or 
     subcategory for those related to White supremacism, and how 
     many full investigations resulted from preliminary 
     investigations and assessments;
       (IV) domestic terrorism-related incidents, including the 
     number of incidents from each classification and subcategory, 
     with a specific classification or subcategory for those 
     related to White supremacism, the number of deaths and 
     injuries resulting from each incident, and a detailed 
     explanation of each incident;
       (V) Federal domestic terrorism-related arrests, including 
     the number of arrests from each classification and 
     subcategory, with a specific classification or subcategory 
     for those related to White supremacism, and a detailed 
     explanation of each arrest;
       (VI) Federal domestic terrorism-related indictments, 
     including the number of indictments from each classification 
     and subcategory, with a specific classification or 
     subcategory for those related to White supremacism, and a 
     detailed explanation of each indictment;
       (VII) Federal domestic terrorism-related prosecutions, 
     including the number of incidents from each classification 
     and subcategory, with a specific classification or 
     subcategory for those related to White supremacism, and a 
     detailed explanation of each prosecution;
       (VIII) Federal domestic terrorism-related convictions, 
     including the number of convictions from each classification 
     and subcategory, with a specific classification or 
     subcategory for those related to White supremacism, and a 
     detailed explanation of each conviction; and
       (IX) Federal domestic terrorism-related weapons recoveries, 
     including the number of each type of weapon and the number of 
     weapons from each classification and subcategory, with a 
     specific classification or subcategory for those related to 
     White supremacism; and

       (ii) an explanation of each individual case that progressed 
     through more than 1 of the stages described under clause 
     (i)--

       (I) including the specific classification or subcategory 
     for each case; and
       (II) not including personally identifiable information not 
     otherwise releasable to the public; and

       (D) certification that each of the assessments and 
     investigations described under subparagraph (C) are in 
     compliance with all applicable civil rights and civil 
     liberties laws and regulations.
       (3) Hate crimes.--In compiling a joint report under this 
     subsection, the domestic terrorism offices authorized under 
     paragraphs (1), (2), and (3) of subsection (a) shall, in 
     consultation with the Civil Rights Division of the Department 
     of Justice and the Civil Rights Unit of the Federal Bureau of 
     Investigation, review each Federal hate crime charge and 
     conviction during the preceding 6 months to determine whether 
     the incident also constitutes a domestic terrorism-related 
     incident.
       (4) Classification and public release.--Each report 
     submitted under paragraph (1) shall be--
       (A) unclassified, to the greatest extent possible, with a 
     classified annex only if necessary; and
       (B) in the case of the unclassified portion of the report, 
     posted on the public websites of the Department of Homeland 
     Security, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau 
     of Investigation.
       (5) Nonduplication.--If two or more provisions of this 
     subsection or any other law impose requirements on an agency 
     to report or analyze information on domestic terrorism that 
     are substantially similar, the agency may produce one report 
     that complies with each such requirement as fully as 
     possible.
       (c) Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee.--There is 
     authorized a Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee, which 
     shall meet on a regular basis, and not less regularly than 4 
     times each year, to coordinate with United States Attorneys 
     and other key public safety officials across the country to 
     promote information sharing and ensure an effective, 
     responsive, and organized joint effort to combat domestic 
     terrorism.
       (d) Focus on Greatest Threats.--The domestic terrorism 
     offices authorized under paragraphs (1), (2), and (3) of 
     subsection (a) shall focus their limited resources on the 
     most significant domestic terrorism threats, as determined by 
     the number of domestic terrorism-related incidents from each 
     category and subclassification in the joint report for the 
     preceding 6 months required under subsection (b).

     SEC. 4. TRAINING TO COMBAT DOMESTIC TERRORISM.

       (a) Required Training and Resources.--The Secretary, the 
     Attorney General, and the Director shall review the anti-
     terrorism training and resource programs of their respective 
     agencies that are provided to Federal, State, local, and 
     Tribal law enforcement agencies, including the State and 
     Local Anti-Terrorism Program that is funded by the Bureau of 
     Justice Assistance of the Department of Justice, and ensure 
     that such programs include training and resources to assist 
     State, local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies in 
     understanding, detecting, deterring, and investigating acts 
     of domestic terrorism and White supremacist and neo-Nazi 
     infiltration of law enforcement and corrections agencies. The 
     Attorney General shall make training available to Department 
     prosecutors and to Assistant United States Attorneys on 
     countering and prosecuting domestic terrorism. The domestic-
     terrorism training shall focus on the most significant 
     domestic terrorism threats, as determined by the quantitative 
     analysis in the joint report required under section 3(b).
       (b) Requirement.--Any individual who provides domestic 
     terrorism training required under this section shall have--
       (1) expertise in domestic terrorism; and
       (2) relevant academic, law enforcement, or other community-
     based experience in matters related to domestic terrorism.
       (c) Report.--
       (1) In general.--Not later than 6 months after the date of 
     enactment of this Act and twice each year thereafter, the 
     Secretary, the Attorney General, and the Director shall each 
     submit a biannual report to the committees of Congress 
     described in section 3(b)(1) on the domestic terrorism 
     training implemented by their respective agencies under this 
     section, which shall include copies of all training materials 
     used and the names and qualifications of the individuals who 
     provide the training.
       (2) Classification and public release.--Each report 
     submitted under paragraph (1) shall--
       (A) be unclassified, to the greatest extent possible, with 
     a classified annex only if necessary;
       (B) in the case of the unclassified portion of each report, 
     be posted on the public website of the Department of Homeland 
     Security, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau 
     of Investigation; and
       (C) include the number of Federal incidents, 
     investigations, arrests, indictments, prosecutions, and 
     convictions with respect to a false report of domestic 
     terrorism or hate crime incident.

     SEC. 5. INTERAGENCY TASK FORCE.

       (a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of 
     enactment of this Act, the Attorney General, the Director, 
     the Secretary, and the Secretary of Defense shall establish 
     an interagency task force to analyze and combat White 
     supremacist and neo-Nazi infiltration of the uniformed 
     services and Federal law enforcement agencies.
       (b) Report.--
       (1) In general.--Not later than 1 year after the 
     interagency task force is established under subsection (a), 
     the Attorney General, the Secretary, and the Secretary of 
     Defense shall submit a joint report on the findings of the 
     task force and the response of the Attorney General, the 
     Secretary, and the Secretary of Defense to such findings, 
     to--
       (A) the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate;
       (B) the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
     Affairs of the Senate;
       (C) the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate;
       (D) the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate;
       (E) the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 
     Representatives;
       (F) the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of 
     Representatives;
       (G) the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the 
     House of Representatives; and
       (H) the Committee on Armed Services of the House of 
     Representatives.
       (2) Classification and public release.--The report 
     submitted under paragraph (1) shall be--
       (A) submitted in unclassified form, to the greatest extent 
     possible, with a classified annex only if necessary; and
       (B) in the case of the unclassified portion of the report, 
     posted on the public website of the Department of Defense, 
     the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of 
     Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

[[Page H5145]]

  


     SEC. 6. FEDERAL SUPPORT FOR ADDRESSING HATE CRIME INCIDENTS 
                   WITH A NEXUS TO DOMESTIC TERRORISM.

       (a) Community Relations Service.--The Community Relations 
     Service of the Department of Justice, authorized under 
     section 1001(a) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 
     2000g), may offer the support of the Service to communities 
     where the Department of Justice has brought charges in a hate 
     crime incident that has a nexus to domestic terrorism.
       (b) Federal Bureau of Investigation.--Section 249 of title 
     18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 
     following:
       ``(f) Federal Bureau of Investigation.--The Attorney 
     General, acting through the Director of the Federal Bureau of 
     Investigation, shall assign a special agent or hate crimes 
     liaison to each field office of the Federal Bureau of 
     Investigation to investigate hate crimes incidents with a 
     nexus to domestic terrorism (as such term is defined in 
     section 2 of the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 
     2022).''.

     SEC. 7. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.

       Nothing in this Act, or any amendment made by this Act, may 
     be construed to authorize the infringement or violation of 
     any right protected under the First Amendment to the 
     Constitution of the United States or an applicable provision 
     of Federal law.

     SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

       There are authorized to be appropriated to the Department 
     of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the 
     Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of 
     Defense such sums as may be necessary to carry out this Act.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The bill, as amended, shall be debatable for 
1 hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority 
member of the Committee on the Judiciary or their respective designees.
  The gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler) and the gentleman from Ohio 
(Mr. Jordan) each will control 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler).


                             General Leave

  Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and 
insert extraneous material on H.R. 350.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from New York?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  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. I urge my 
colleagues to do so once again, and I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I just want to read from the title of the bill.
  ``H.R. 350, 117th Congress, 2d Session. 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 terrorism.''
  Well, we already know what this looks like. We have already seen this 
happen. The Department of Justice went after parents who showed up at 
school board meetings to voice concerns about what was happening in 
their child's school.

  Never forget what they did. They put in place this apparatus to 
report, to snitch, on parents.
  The timeline here, I think, is so important. September 29, last fall, 
the leftwing political organization National School Boards Association 
writes a letter to the Biden administration asking exactly what this 
bill does. It says: Use domestic terrorism/counterterrorism measures 
against parents.
  And guess what. Five days later, the Attorney General of the United 
States writes a memorandum that does just that, again, what this bill 
would codify and put into practice. He sends out a memo to every single 
U.S. Attorney around the country. In that memo, he says: Set up a 
dedicated line for threat reporting, a snitch line on parents.
  And guess what happens after that. Sixteen days after that, the FBI 
sends out an email to agents all across the country saying: When you 
investigate these parents, when you are doing this, parents who 
reported on the snitch line the Attorney General established, put this 
designation, this threat tag label, on their name. All of that 
happened, and we know it happened, because whistleblowers came forward 
and told us about two dozen cases where this took place.
  This bill is going to codify exactly what they have been doing. That 
is why this bill is so harmful.
  One of the situations, one of the cases, a mom who showed up at a 
school board meeting was reported, and the person who filed the 
complaint said: Well, she is in the group Moms for Liberty, and she 
owned a firearm. Imagine that, a mom who cares about freedom and 
actually exercises her Second Amendment liberties.
  Now, what happened in Buffalo we know is as wrong as wrong can be, 
but this legislation wouldn't prevent the terrible crime that took 
place there. This bill is the same bad bill that Democrats pulled 2 
weeks ago because a few of them actually had concerns about First 
Amendment protected activity and what this legislation could do. Again, 
specifically, it says it wants to create new offices to investigate 
folks in our armed services, in our military, and in our law 
enforcement for the possibility of infiltration by white nationalism.

                              {time}  1815

  But, of course, it says nothing about threats from the left, threats 
like antifa. We know what happened the summer of 2020. It says nothing 
about that.
  This bill is dangerous because we have already seen the weaponization 
of government. We saw it in the IRS a few years ago. We have seen it in 
the FBI,

[[Page H5146]]

as I just pointed out, most recently the Department of Justice working 
with the FBI to go after parents. This bill formalizes what we have 
already seen. That is why it is so dangerous.
  I urge a ``no'' vote on the legislation, and I reserve the balance of 
my time.
  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.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. 
Schneider), the sponsor of this bill.
  Mr. SCHNEIDER. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise in support of H.R. 
350, the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022. I thank the Speaker 
of the House and House leadership for their support in taking action to 
address the very real and present threat of domestic terrorism and, 
specifically, racially motivated violent extremism.
  I am grateful for the leadership of my colleague and friend, 
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, in helping to bring forth 
this bill, and my fellow Illinoisan, Senator Dick Durbin, who has been 
my partner in shepherding this legislation since 2017.
  Our Nation is reeling. Just this weekend, in California, a true hero, 
as well as being a father, husband, and physician, a true hero saved 
countless lives by sacrificing himself to wrestle down a hate-driven 
gunman inside a church. In Buffalo, 10 people were murdered by a 
deranged white supremacist whose hate was fueled by the racist, anti-
Semitic great replacement conspiracy theory.
  I can't go back in time and stop past events. There will be more 
Buffalos; there will be more El Pasos; and there will be more Tree of 
Life synagogue-type shootings. Though the shooters may have acted 
alone, these tragedies past are a harbinger of what is to follow.
  As Amy Spitalnick with Integrity First for America has put it, each 
attack inspires the next one. Whether it is a live-streamed assault or 
a screed posted on the dark web, the goal is not just to kill fellow 
Americans but to inspire like-minded haters to act in kind.
  We cannot sit idly by while domestic violence extremism spreads 
across our country. We must give Federal law enforcement the resources 
and the tools they need to actively identify threats and to 
preemptively act to stop violence before it happens.
  To my colleagues considering voting against this bill, especially 
those who supported this very same legislation in the last Congress, I 
ask them: If not this bill, then what? And if not now, then when?
  Their inaction only gives cover to the next domestic terrorist 
planning an attack.
  Let me be clear: This legislation does not create any new statute or 
establish any new penalties. It doesn't threaten civil liberties. In 
fact, it further protects First Amendment rights, and it helps the FBI, 
DOJ, and DHS do their job.
  In testimony this February before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on 
Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, Seth Jones of CSIS noted there 
were 73 terrorist plots and attacks in the U.S. just last year, 
spanning 18 States and the District of Columbia. He stated: 
``Government, military, and police locations and personnel were the 
most frequently targeted by domestic terrorist attacks regardless of 
perpetrator orientation.''
  He continued: ``These perpetrators identified with a range of 
ideologies and movements, including the QAnon conspiracy, the sovereign 
citizen movement, militia groups, anarchism, antifascism, 
environmentalism, and other antigovernment and antiauthority 
philosophies.''
  And he continued: ``In addition, white supremacists and other like-
minded extremists have targeted individuals because of their racial, 
ethnic, religious, or political makeup, such as African Americans, 
immigrants, Muslims, and Jews.''
  FBI Director Christopher Wray, in testimony before the Senate last 
year, stated that: ``The top threat we face from DVEs,'' domestic 
violent extremists, ``continues to be those we identify as racially or 
ethnically motivated violent extremists, RMVEs, specifically those who 
advocate for the superiority of the White race, and who were the 
primary source of ideologically motivated lethal incidents and violence 
in 2018 and 2019.''
  Mr. Speaker, the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act we are voting on 
today is the right bill for this specific moment. The threat is real. 
It is growing, and if we don't act, more people--people praying in 
their houses of worship, children playing in their schoolyards, police 
officers serving in our communities--will die.
  We must pass this bill because the American people deserve to feel 
secure in their schools, in their supermarkets, and in their churches, 
synagogues, temples, and mosques.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
  Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, we don't give cover to anything. White nationalism is 
wrong. We have always said so. Everyone knows that.
  But I tell you who does give cover, when the chairman of the 
Judiciary Committee says that antifa is a myth, that is giving cover. 
That is a statement made by the chairman of the House Judiciary 
Committee after we had testimony from FBI Director Wray talking about 
the dangers of antifa, after Attorney General Barr told us that antifa 
was involved in instigating and participating in violent activity. Talk 
about giving cover. Give me a break.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Gaetz), my friend and colleague.
  Mr. GAETZ. Mr. Speaker, this bill is ostensibly to fight extremism, 
which wouldn't be so objectionable if the people it empowered weren't 
so damn extreme.

  They are so extreme, they would chill speech at school board meetings 
by targeting parents as domestic terrorists. Obey, accept the mandates, 
accept the requirements, the CRT, or you will be punished at the hands 
of your own government.
  They are so extreme, they would leak a Supreme Court draft opinion so 
that they could gaslight violence and intimidation against the Court, 
all so that the law would abandon those unborn lives and beating 
hearts.
  They are so extreme, they would weaponize the Department of Justice 
against a sitting President over an election that Hillary Clinton lost. 
It was the Russians, they told us, and we were extreme if we said it 
was them all along. Now we know it was.
  The last press secretary thought that COVID discussions on Facebook, 
rooted in science, were so extreme that Mark Zuckerberg had to 
deplatform these people, take them away from the digital world. This 
press secretary wrongly tweeted that FOX News is racist. I wonder if 
she thinks all of FOX's viewers are dangers to the American people.
  Are you a domestic extremist? This bill is about whether or not you 
want the Department of Homeland Security looking over your shoulder at 
the shows you watch, the websites you visit, some politically incorrect 
meme you liked, some joke you forwarded, and any bad association you 
might have had. If you are not a racist, maybe your neighbor is, and 
you weren't antiracist enough to disallow it.
  These things aren't criminal, of course. They are bad politics, at 
worst, in most cases, which is exactly the point of this bill. They are 
trying to deploy criminal, even antiterrorism, authorities against what 
they deem is bad politics.
  How long until mainstream Christianity is deemed domestic extremism?
  All the domestic extremists, they declare their pronouns. So if you 
don't declare your pronouns, maybe you are a domestic extremist, too.
  Under this bill, how long until Facebook jail means a government file 
on you, a higher interest rate on your home loan, or your spouse fired 
from their job?
  At first, I was a critic of the disinformation board, but it might go 
down as one of the most efficient government entities in all of 
history. It took only one action, and it actually shut down 
disinformation by pausing its own activities.
  The worst part of this bill is how it puts a target on the back of 
every one of our military servicemembers. This bill will sic the FBI on 
our military, not to prevent or investigate crimes, but to prosecute 
thought crimes.
  The problem with our military is wokeness at the Pentagon, not white

[[Page H5147]]

supremacy in the ranks. Even the much-maligned Lloyd Austin admitted 
that 99 percent are doing the right thing. A recent DOD report showed 
that less than 100 people in the force of 2 million were problematic in 
any way.
  We seem so intent on a neo-Nazi witch hunt in our own battalions 
while we freely send $40 billion, much of which will end up in the 
hands of the Azov Battalion, without much inquiry.
  I am sincerely worried about domestic extremism, but from my vantage 
point, it is coming from America's political left. You should really 
think about that, how domestic extremism is truly in the eye of the 
beholder, perhaps the beholder of power, and power is about to change 
hands. Who will be the domestic extremists then?
  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.
  Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the 
Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act.
  It is heartbreaking to stand here today, just days after 10 innocent 
lives were taken in a Buffalo, New York, grocery store by a gunman 
espousing white supremacist views and hatred toward African Americans.
  This devastating massacre took me back to June 17, 2015, when another 
white supremacist gunned down nine parishioners at Charleston's 
historic Emanuel AME Church.
  In the intervening years, we have witnessed far too many other acts 
of domestic terrorism: from a counterprotest in Charlottesville, 
Virginia; to a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; to a Walmart in 
El Paso, Texas; to a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin; and to an 
Asian-owned nail salon in Atlanta, Georgia. All told, over 200 mass 
shootings this year.
  To be sure, all of these shootings have not been racially motivated 
or motivated by hate, but all of them share one thing in common: They 
have been committed in a country too tolerant of irresponsible 
regulations of weapons of war and a proliferation of firearms of mass 
destruction.
  This legislation is long overdue. It would enable the Justice 
Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI to 
prevent, investigate, and prosecute cases of domestic terrorism more 
effectively.
  I, and many others in this body, know what it is to experience acts 
of racial hatred and witness events of domestic terrorism. We cannot 
continue to turn a blind eye to white supremacist vigilantes.
  It impacts all of us. While the gunman in Buffalo was aiming for 
people who looked like me, others who did not look like me fell victim 
to his evil act.
  Shortly after my first meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., back 
in 1960, I met with one of my professors, Mrs. Rosa Harris, to share 
the Saul to Paul transformation I was experiencing. Two days later, 
Mrs. Harris handed me a copy of Dr. King's 1958 book, ``Stride Toward 
Freedom.''
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the 
gentleman from South Carolina.
  Mr. CLYBURN. To share one passage from that book, I quote, ``True 
peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of 
justice.''
  Mr. Speaker, this legislation will provide Federal agencies with 
necessary tools to ensure that peace and justice prevail. I urge a 
``yes'' vote from all Members of this august body.

                              {time}  1830

  Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman 
from Georgia (Mrs. Greene).
  Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this 
bill.
  I find it shocking to hear language coming from my colleagues across 
the aisle accusing Republicans of the horrific shooting in Buffalo, 
when in fact, the shooter's manifesto itself stated he acted as a lone 
wolf. No Republican had anything to do with that.
  I also find it shocking to hear these accusations coming from the 
party that supported BLM riots that caused over $2 billion in damages 
in cities and communities across the country.
  Now, when we are talking about identity politics, we should remind 
one another that there were 6 people murdered and 62 others injured by 
a Black American who drove his car through a Christmas parade in 
Waukesha. There was also a Black American that shot and injured 23 
people on a New York City subway. I am not hearing any of those 
examples as domestic terrorism from my colleagues across the aisle, and 
I don't understand why. I think these acts should be blamed on the 
people that are doing them, not on people's identity and their skin 
color.
  Another thing that is wrong with this bill is it provides unlimited 
money to profile Americans that the Department of Justice says are 
white supremacists. That is why Democrats want to pursue every single 
conservative in America, simply because they want to choose who is a 
white supremacist and not.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
  Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the 
gentlewoman.
  Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, the Speaker, herself, has called 
Republicans enemies of the State.
  If the Speaker does not like Republicans' politics and considers us 
enemies of the State, we all know what domestic terrorists will mean to 
Democrats. That will mean anyone who stands in their way in their 
lustful quest for power. This would be parents that are trying to hold 
people accountable with their tax dollars for how their children are 
taught, or anyone else that they want to blame for something they want 
to use for politics.
  Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from 
Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline), a member of the Committee on the 
Judiciary.
  Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Domestic 
Terrorism Prevention Act of 2021.
  We are at an important crossroads in this country. With white 
supremacy on the rise and violent extremists fueling each other's 
bigotry and hate, we are seeing an alarming increase in domestic 
terrorism fueled by this hatred.
  A recent analysis from the Center for Strategic and International 
Studies showed that in 2020, domestic terrorism in America was at its 
highest level since information started being collected nearly 30 years 
ago.
  In 2019, Michael McGarrity, Assistant Director for the 
Counterterrorism Division of the FBI stated that, ``racially motivated 
violent extremists are responsible for the majority of lethal attacks 
and fatalities perpetrated by domestic terrorists since 2000.''
  Mr. Speaker, we are talking about the safety and security of every 
American, and the targeting of already marginalized groups.
  We also witnessed this just days ago in Buffalo, when a self-
proclaimed white supremacist, fascist, and anti-Semite targeted the 
Black community, murdering ten victims in a supermarket.
  We saw this last year in Atlanta when a gunman attacked Asian women 
in spas.
  We saw it in the bomb threats at HBCUs and Jewish synagogues, and as 
terrorists have attacked Black churches, synagogues, and Sikh temples.
  We keep seeing it over and over again. Congress needs to act.
  We can start today by passing the bipartisan Domestic Terrorism 
Prevention Act. This legislation will create offices at the DOJ, FBI, 
and DHS to monitor, investigate, and prosecute cases of domestic 
terrorism, a long-overdue update to not only help prevent these 
horrific crimes, but to also bring perpetrators to justice.
  This bill would also improve and streamline information-sharing and 
training systems between different law enforcement agencies, including 
at the local and State level, to better our understanding of and 
response to incidents of domestic terrorism and white supremacy.
  And finally, it would establish an interagency task force to combat 
white supremacist infiltration of our military and Federal law 
enforcement--a terrifying trend that we need to combat now before it 
gets any worse.
  I thank Representative Schneider for introducing this desperately 
needed legislation. I am proud to be an original cosponsor. I thank 
Chairman Nadler for his leadership, and I urge all

[[Page H5148]]

my colleagues to support this important bill. It should be a strong 
bipartisan vote. Say ``no'' to white supremacy and domestic terrorism 
in America.
  Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Roy).
  Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio for yielding.
  Here we sit on the floor of the House of Representatives, and we are 
talking about allegedly crime. But we are not talking about, of the 
17,000 homicides last year, the 800 homicides in Chicago, the 562 
homicides in Philadelphia, the 89 homicides in Austin, Texas--blowing 
away the former record of 59 homicides. In the 12 major cities that 
broke their homicide records in 2021, all have Democratic mayors.
  We are seeing it across the country. We are seeing the absolute 
destruction of law and order across the United States of America 
through the defunding of police, through the attack on police, as we 
sit here on National Police Week, undermining the ability to prosecute 
bad guys.

  Nobody in this Chamber would say we shouldn't prosecute bad guys. As 
a former Federal prosecutor, sign me up. Let's prosecute bad guys. I am 
all for it.
  But we understand what this is actually about. We understand what 
propping up a domestic terrorism unit in this FBI, in this 
administration's Federal Government, what it is all about because we 
saw it in naked display last fall.
  We see, through all of the information we are getting from 
whistleblowers, we see it in the information that we are getting on 
tags targeting parents. We see it in the empowerment of the FBI to 
focus and target parents in collusion with the National Association of 
School Boards, in active coordination with the National Association of 
School Boards, we are seeing the targeting of parents.
  And this isn't made up. Scott Smith is an actual father. He is an 
actual man in Loudoun County, Virginia, who had his face put up as the 
poster child for an extremist activity by the FBI to target parents in 
coordination with that National Association of School Boards.
  If you go back and look at the video and you hear Scott Smith's wife 
crying that her husband was being targeted, her husband was being 
targeted in the school board meeting because he dared to question the 
school board when his daughter had been sexually assaulted in a 
bathroom at a school he pays taxes for her to attend.
  And then this administration had the audacity to make him the poster 
child to target parents with the power of the FBI. We know this 
happened. We got the information from the school board association. We 
got the whistleblower's account of the tags being used by the FBI to do 
it.
  So as my colleague from Florida pointed out about what this is really 
about, it is about empowerment of the Federal bureaucracy to target 
Americans. That is what it is about. It is questioning that you don't 
think right. It is the extension of thought crimes that is pervasive in 
this body that will allow the government to target us for what we 
believe, inherently undermining our fundamental rights as Americans to 
free speech, to freedom of association, to be able to engage, to be 
able to talk with each other without having our government target us.
  If a bad actor carries out bad acts, prosecute him, prosecute her. 
But you have to do that with police that are funded. You have to do it 
with district attorneys who will prosecute the crimes. And you have to 
be honest about saying we need to target criminals for criminal acts 
and not thought crimes. This is nothing more than empowering the 
Federal Government to police thought and speech in the United States of 
America, and we should oppose it roundly.
  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.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from 
North Carolina (Ms. Manning), to talk about domestic terrorism.
  Ms. MANNING. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Domestic 
Terrorism Prevention Act. Over the weekend, we witnessed one of the 
deadliest racial attacks in recent memory. A man consumed by hateful 
conspiracy theories targeted the Black community in Buffalo, killing 
ten innocent people in a grocery store.
  He posted a manifesto that was filled with hateful conspiracies and 
anti-Semitic propaganda, including the racist great replacement 
conspiracy theory promoted by white supremacists. White supremacy and 
anti-Semitism are poison to our society.
  Today, with these forces on the rise, they are turbocharged by social 
media which spreads these dangerous ideologies to more people around 
the world, creating a toxic blend of misinformation and hate.
  We can't afford to look the other way when individuals are inspired 
by hateful ideologies to attack our fellow Americans. That is why we 
must immediately pass the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act to empower 
our government to confront the threat of domestic violent extremism 
head-on.
  I thank my friend, Representative Schneider, for his tenacity in 
pursuing this important bill, which I am proud to cosponsor.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this 
critical legislation to combat anti-Semitism, white supremacy, and all 
forms of hateful violence which threaten all of our communities.
  Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Clyde).
  Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, the Democrats' so-called Domestic Terrorism 
Prevention Act opens the door for the Biden administration to continue 
its assault on Americans' protected political speech.
  Since President Biden stepped foot into the White House, he has 
blatantly targeted conservatives for exercising their First Amendment 
rights. Whether it is labeling parents protesting COVID-19 mandates and 
racist curriculum in schools as domestic terrorists, holding nonviolent 
January 6 protestors in pretrial detention for over a year, or creating 
a radical ministry of truth to monitor supposed disinformation, the 
Biden administration has repeatedly taken aim at political dissent from 
the right.
  And while the Disinformation Governance Board is reportedly paused--
what a hallelujah moment for the Constitution--just the idea alone that 
the Biden administration would institute such a board under the 
Department of Homeland Security should concern every solitary American 
citizen. And keep in mind that this administration has completely 
ignored the legitimate threats posed by dangerous extremist groups, 
such as Antifa on the left.
  Just this week, Biden's Department of Homeland Security claimed law 
enforcement agencies are investigating violent threats by pro-abortion 
extremists threatening to murder Supreme Court Justices or burn down 
the Supreme Court building--but added, ``. . . generalized philosophic 
embrace of violent tactics does not constitute domestic violent 
extremism or illegal activity. . . .''

  Really? Hey, DHS, why don't you apply the same standard to January 6 
protestors? The glaring hypocrisy is blinding.
  Make no mistake, this legislation is a blatant attempt to further 
transform the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security 
into political weapons, greenlighting additional abuse by the Biden 
administration against the American people.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to vote against H.R. 350, and 
thereby protect Americans' First Amendment rights and block the Biden 
administration from targeting, monitoring, and labeling Americans they 
fundamentally disagree with as domestic terrorists.
  Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the distinguished majority leader of the House.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, before I start making my remarks, the gentleman who just 
spoke is a member of the Republican Party. The Republican National 
Committee passed a resolution telling the American people--and they 
passed it overwhelmingly--that what they saw on January 6 was 
legitimate political discourse.
  A couple of law enforcement officers lost their lives, people were 
injured,

[[Page H5149]]

people in the hallways yelling to hang the Vice President of the United 
States and to kill the Speaker of the House.
  Legitimate political discourse.

                              {time}  1845

  Mr. JORDAN. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio.
  Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, is it legitimate political discourse what is 
going on in front of the Supreme Court Justices' homes all last week, 
maybe even as we speak? Was it legitimate political discourse what took 
place over 100 days straight in Portland, Oregon, where antifa attacked 
a Federal court building? Was that legitimate political discourse as 
well?
  Mr. HOYER. It was not, when they attacked anything.
  You ought to visit the Speaker's home. She has protestors in front of 
her home all the time. All the time, Mr. Speaker.
  Legitimate political discourse is demonstration; it is speaking out. 
And as a matter of fact, as the gentleman knows, we had this bill that 
raised questions by those very concerned--meaning all of us--about the 
legitimate exercising of First Amendment rights by all Americans; left, 
right, and in between. The fact of the matter is that we worked hard to 
make sure that what the gentleman who previously spoke asserted is not 
true.
  Secondly, Mr. Speaker, I will guarantee you that our side of the 
aisle does not condone violence by either the left or the right. 
Violence in and of itself should be rejected.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, on January 6 we saw what happens when extremist 
ideology disseminated online, in the media, and even by elected 
officials is allowed to fester into violent action. And I repeat, 
whether that happens from the right or the left is irrelevant. What is 
relevant is the violence and the danger that it presents to individuals 
as well as to property, I would tell my friend from Ohio.
  Mr. Speaker, we see far too much these days of ideology being 
transformed into violence, which is never acceptable and must not be 
met with silence or acquiescence, or--I would tell the gentleman from 
Ohio--rationalization.
  Legitimate political discourse on January 6. Absurd.
  In recent days, Mr. Speaker, we have watched families mourn those 
killed in horrific acts of hatred in Buffalo, New York, where someone 
who espoused white supremacy committed a mass shooting targeting 
African Americans.
  We have also seen this terror in places like Atlanta and Laguna 
Woods, California, where members of the Asian-American community were 
targeted with deadly violence. We saw it in El Paso in 2019 against the 
Latino community and in Pittsburgh in 2018 against Jewish Americans.
  This resolution does not condemn extremism on the right or the left. 
It condemns extremism which leads to violence against people on the 
right or people on the left or people who are neither right nor left 
and are not politically identified as such.
  Indeed, in the aftermath of these events, and particularly this week, 
Americans have been learning more about the kind of violence-promoting 
and twisted ideologies of hate that pose a clear and present danger to 
our democracy, to the safety of our communities, and to the social 
fabric of our country.
  I condemn violence from the left, from the middle, and from the 
right. And I would hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle 
would condemn, as vigorously, violence from whichever quarter it is 
proposed. One of the worst of these, which is known as the ``great 
replacement theory,'' is no more than a centuries-old form of prejudice 
and bigotry which holds that minorities are conspiring to replace White 
people.
  This vile and false narrative is, sadly, not restricted to the dark 
and distant corners of the internet where extremists lurk. It has found 
a foothold in mass media and, shockingly, even among elected officials 
and Representatives in this House.
  Many in this House who have had the opportunity to condemn this 
theory and those who espouse it have chosen silence. That kind of 
silence, Mr. Speaker. Many in this House condemn violence from 
whichever source, as I just said.
  It is from that same kind of silence that the seeds of 
dehumanization, persecution, and horrific violence were planted in 
Germany in the 1930s. We know where that kind of rhetoric leads, and we 
must not allow our Nation to go down that path.
  This is one of the most pernicious forms of hatred that fuels 
domestic terrorism in our day. It is incumbent upon us as the 
Representatives of the American people and the guardians of our 
democracy to ensure that those who espouse violent, extremist views 
have no place in our government, our military, or any position of 
public trust.
  We have seen published by Members of this House images of violence, 
of threats, of killings of one of our Members.
  Hopefully, this bipartisan legislation will do that and will also 
equip law enforcement with the tools needed to identify and stop 
domestic terrorists--the head of the FBI says that our greatest danger 
in America today is domestic terrorism, the head of the FBI--including 
white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and other racially motivated extremists; 
and do so proactively.
  So everybody on this floor knows, I condemn unequivocally, of 
whatever ideological bent there is, people using violence to promote 
their political ideas, left or right.
  This legislation also commissions numerous reports on the rising 
threat to domestic extremism that will help guide future policymaking 
on this issue.
  Mr. Speaker, to stop these purveyors of evil from tearing our country 
apart, we must act decisively, and we must act now.
  I thank Representative Brad Schneider and Chairman Jerry Nadler for 
their leadership on this very important issue.
  I know, as I believe every Member of this House knows, that extremist 
violence can reach anyone, anytime, anywhere, whether it be a place of 
worship, a grocery store, or as we learned last year, this very Hall.

  That is why, Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues of whatever 
political persuasion--this does not adopt a political persuasion, but 
it adopts the premise that the use of violence and hate and bigotry 
should be shunned by all of us.
  Our Constitution provides protection for almost any speech that one 
can pursue--almost. Not all, if we place others in danger. Not all, but 
almost any speech you can give. We are unique in the world in that 
regard. We protect that, and we call it the First Amendment, one of our 
most important amendments. It makes our country what it has been: a 
free and open Nation for discussion and debate. It must not devolve 
into the use of violence, the result of death, and the tearing apart of 
our Nation.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge each Member to support that premise and support 
this resolution.
  Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, the majority leader of the House just said 
we don't condone violence by anyone. That statement is just not 
accurate.
  The entire summer of 2020, folks in the Democratic Party said rioters 
and looters were peaceful protestors. Republicans have condemned 
violence every time it happened. When it happened on January 6, we said 
it was wrong. When it happened in the summer of 2020, we said it was 
wrong, but they didn't.
  The Democratic chair of the Financial Services Committee said to the 
rioters and looters that summer ``get more confrontational.'' The Vice 
President of the United States supported the effort to raise money to 
bail those rioters and looters out of jail.
  We should condemn all violence, and we should prosecute people who 
commit crimes. We shouldn't be raising bail money to get them out of 
jail, and we shouldn't be encouraging with the comments people make as 
happened all that summer from the Democrats and from the left.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Escobar), a member of the Judiciary Committee.
  Ms. ESCOBAR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 350, 
the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act.
  Here we are again, reeling from another horrific domestic terrorist 
attack. This week a racially motivated

[[Page H5150]]

shooting in Buffalo, New York, perpetrated by an avowed white 
supremacist.
  In 2018, it was the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. In April of 
2019, it was a synagogue in Poway, California. On August 3, 2019, it 
was my community of El Paso, Texas.
  After every attack on minority communities by radicalized and heavily 
armed young men who have embraced white supremacy, our media and even 
some of our colleagues, leaders in this country, refuse to call this 
violence what it is: domestic terrorism.
  H.R. 350 calls on the Department of Justice and the Department of 
Homeland Security to dedicate resources specifically to track and 
combat the growing threat of white supremacy and neo-Nazism in the 
United States.
  H.R. 350 will give communities like mine a fighting chance the next 
time an angry racist shares a deranged screed online and decides to 
drive hours to attack vulnerable and innocent people at our grocery 
stores or our houses of worship.
  The Anti-Defamation League has tracked 450 murders over the last 
decade committed by these terrorists. Rightwing extremists are 
responsible for over 75 percent of these horrific attacks, and 50 
percent of these horrific attacks are by white supremacists.
  Mr. Speaker, America has a racism problem. America has a hate 
problem. America has a domestic terrorism problem. We must address it. 
The Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act is a crucial step in the right 
direction.
  Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina 
(Mr. Bishop) to control the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. 
Bishop) will control the time.
  Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, this bill, or a bill 
substantially like it, has come up before, and it enjoyed substantial 
bipartisan support, and now that has changed. Why is that? It is 
because it has become evident that the majority seeks, for political 
reasons, to conflate the extraordinarily serious issue of domestic 
terrorism with half of the country with their political opposition.
  It is evident that the administration has pursued a concocted attack 
on the credibility on the First Amendment activity of parents who were 
engaging in First Amendment-protected activism in school boards. The 
administration has engaged in a deceitful refusal to account for that 
activity, and whistleblower accounts have now revealed that, indeed, 
FBI agents went to interrogate parents over their activism.
  When Members of the majority recite events in every one of their 
comments today, they are selective and mischaracterized.

                              {time}  1900

  They do not mention the Brooklyn subway shooter. They do not mention 
the Wisconsin fire bombing. They do not mention Waukesha, Wisconsin. 
They do not mention Boulder, Colorado. Why do they not? Why is it so 
consistent that those are not mentioned?
  It is exactly the same issue in which there is always a focus on a 
particular type of hate--white supremacy. Let me tell you something. I 
have no hesitancy to say that the twisted butcher in Buffalo, New York, 
was a white supremacist. More than that, it is evident that he was 
mentally ill.
  That does not mean that Republicans writ large are domestic 
terrorists or white supremacists. It is a smear, and it is deliberate. 
Worst of all, this preoccupation, to the exclusion of all else, that 
smears the right, smears people center right, as racists, white 
supremacists, is a device, a demagogic device to distract from abysmal 
policy disasters led and created by advocacy and policy of Democrats.
  The defund police debacle that led to a 30 percent increase in 
homicides--not as tragic as 10 or 20 killings of people by domestic 
terrorists on occasions--but 5,000 additional homicides a year. Do you 
know what? Sixty-five percent of those are suffered by Black Americans. 
There were 3,250 additional killings in 2020 and more in 2021.
  The abandonment of the southern border that has resulted in a flood 
of fentanyl into the country so that you see mass killings by exposure 
to drugs laced with fentanyl; poison coming in and killing. The figure 
of 100,000, they tell me, is not current. It is not even getting at the 
essence of the problem.
  Under those circumstances, and having committed that sort of policy 
malpractice upon the American people with those abysmal results, 
Democrats would bring a partisan bill to the floor and conflate the 
egregious evil of domestic terrorism with some kind of a political 
smear of your political opposition. What would it take to do that?
  This bill should be bipartisan because it is promoted, it is brought, 
it is worked out with the political opposition. This problem is too 
significant to be cheapened as a political stunt.
  Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  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.
  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.

[[Page H5151]]

  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

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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.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Castor of Florida). All time for debate 
has expired.
  Pursuant to House Resolution 1124, the previous question is ordered 
on the bill, as amended.
  The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the bill.
  The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, and was 
read the third time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on passage of the bill.
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the ayes appeared to have it.
  Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the 
yeas and nays.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to section 3(s) of House Resolution 
8, the yeas and nays are ordered.
  Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further proceedings on this question 
are postponed.

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