Schneider Calls for House Vote on Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act in Wake of Weekend Attacks in New York, California
WASHINGTON — Today, Congressman Brad Schneider (IL-10) called for the House to immediately take up the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act for a vote. Introduced by Schneider in January 2021, the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act (DTPA) is a bipartisan bill designed to combat the growing threat of domestic violent extremist groups and individuals (DVEs), including racially/ethnically motivated violent extremists and white supremacist groups.
"The rise of racially motivated violent extremism is a serious threat to Americans across the country. Congress can't stop Tucker Carlson from spewing hateful, dangerous ‘replacement theory' ideology across the airwaves. Congress hasn't been able to ban the sale of assault weapons. The Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act is what Congress can do this week to try to prevent future Buffalo shootings – to prevent future California shootings, future El Paso shootings, future Charleston shootings, future Pittsburgh shootings, future Wisconsin shootings. We need to ensure that federal law enforcement has the resources they need to best preemptively identify and thwart extremist violence wherever the threat appears.
"In the case of the Buffalo shooting, law enforcement had the warning signs. The shooter had previously threatened his high school. He had been sent for a mental health evaluation. He was radicalized by social media and he leveraged it to spread his own hateful beliefs. The government and law enforcement have failed to catch these signs, just as Congress has failed to appropriately combat domestic terrorism. As a result, ten people, most of them Black, are dead at a Buffalo supermarket. We cannot continue making excuses.
"I'm calling on Speaker Pelosi to bring the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act to a vote on the House floor this week. In 2020, this bill passed the House on a voice vote with overwhelming support from both sides of the aisle. I am confident that the House can pass this historic, bipartisan legislation to tackle the greatest threat to Americans today: domestic violent extremism."
The bill authorizes domestic terrorism offices within the Department of Justice Department (DOJ), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and requires biannual reporting on the state of domestic terrorism threats. It also requires the offices to focus their limited resources on the most significant threats, as determined by the number of domestic terrorism-related incidents outlined in the joint report. The intent of the legislation is to better equip these agencies and enable them to work together to effectively identify risks and successfully thwart domestic terror threats. The bill does not create new criminal offenses, new lists of designated domestic terrorist individuals or groups, or new investigative powers for law enforcement. Rather, it better equips agencies to handle this identified threat and thwart it.
First introduced in 2017, the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act received broad, bipartisan support, passing the House on a voice vote on September 21st, 2020, and passing out of the Judiciary Committee with an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 24-2. Schneider reintroduced the bill in the House on January 19th, 2021 with 3 Democratic and 3 Republican cosponsors and passed out of the Judiciary committee April 6th, 2022, by a 21 to 17 vote.
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