Combating Domestic Terrorism
and White Supremacy
On Wednesday night, I voted to pass the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act.
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’re seeing an alarming increase in domestic terrorism fueled by this hatred.
The Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act is an important step towards combating this evil and keeping us safer. This legislation will create offices at the Department of Justice, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security 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.
Updating War Crimes Law
For too long, war criminals have been able to escape prosecution by coming to the United States. This week, I introduced the Justice for Victims of War Crimes Act to ensure that the United States will not be a safe haven for these monsters.
With all eyes on Ukraine, and the atrocities being committed against the Ukrainian people, this bill will make sure that anyone who comes to the United States after committing these barbaric acts can be tried and held accountable in our nation’s courts. This bipartisan, bicameral legislation finally negates the “get out of jail free card” that has existed in our judicial system for far too long.
You can read more about the Justice for Victims of War Crimes Act here.
Mass shootings have become ubiquitous – so frequent that some of these horrific events barely make headlines. This is not normal and we cannot let it become normalized. We cannot become numb to these events. This is not the time to settle for the status quo – we must give law enforcement every tool they need to neutralize these threats.
In every single shooting, it is law enforcement that runs to the scene to apprehend the shooter, help victims, and keep the surrounding community safe. And in these stressful, life-or-death situations, law enforcement officers are having to take to social media to communicate with the surrounding community so that no one accidentally walks into the line of fire or a crime scene. Law enforcement needs and deserves better tools than Twitter to communicate with the community.
This Police Week, I was joined by the National Sheriff’s Association, National District Attorneys Association, Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police and Foundation, and Washington DC’s Metropolitan Police Department in calling on Congress to pass my Active Shooter Alert Act.
This bill, which I introduced with Congressman Fred Upton in February, would create a program similar to the AMBER Alert system for law enforcement to alert the public to active shooters in their community.