As police and FBI agents continue their investigation into the Tops Market shooting in Buffalo, NY last weekend, Congress is considering legislation to tackle domestic terrorism. Authorities say the attack is believed to have been motivated by racial hatred.
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As police and FBI agents continue their investigation into the Tops Market shooting in Buffalo, NY last weekend, Congress is considering legislation to tackle domestic terrorism. Authorities say the attack is believed to have been motivated by racial hatred.
Image by Scott Olson / Getty
The House of Representatives limitedly passed legislation on Wednesday aimed at enhancing the federal government’s efforts to combat the threat of domestic terrorism.
The number of votes was 222-203.
The action takes place a few days later a gunman in armor kills 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, NY. He was arrested and law enforcement quickly said it was a racially motivated hate crime.
The bill, the Homeland Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022, creates offices in the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security and the FBI specifically focused on investigating and tracking domestic terrorist threats. . It also directs these offices to share potential risks and take steps to prevent future attacks.
The bill received bipartisan support when it was enacted earlier this year. A similar measure was passed by the House of Representatives by voice vote in September 2020, just months before the January 6 uprising. But there was only one Republican – Illinois Representative Adam. Kinzinger — joined all House Democrats to pass the bill late Wednesday evening.
With no vote on gun bill, Democrats target domestic terrorism
With no votes to pass any new gun control measure in a narrowly divided Congress, House Democrats say the focus needs to be on something that shouldn’t be a partisan issue.
Representative Brad Schneider, D-Ill., the bill’s sponsor, told NPR he pushed for the vote on the bill because it was something that had garnered bipartisan support in Congress this past week. .
“Last weekend, we had a shooting in Buffalo. We had a shooting in California. We had a shooting in my county, a gang shooting where a 14-year-old boy was. killed,” he said. “We need to tackle the epidemic of gun violence in our country. We need to address the challenge of domestic extremism. And the only way we can do that is to find a bipartisan way to advance it together. ball.”
The Illinois Democrat said threats are increasing and efforts need to be stepped up to find ways to prevent future incidents.
“I can’t say this law will stop what happened in Buffalo,” Schneider said. “What I can say is that if we provide the ability of the FBI, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security to try to stop these threats before they become a reality, maybe we can stop them.” block the next Buffalo or the next El Paso, next. Attack in Pittsburgh.”
Republicans say federal effort could target parents
GOP lawmakers who voted for the 2020 bill now argue that the Biden administration would overreact if the bill were introduced. Many maintain it would allow the Justice Department to label parents critical of their school boards as domestic terrorists.
“The difference from two years ago and now is that the DOJ has started to go away after concerned parents showed up at school board meetings, labeling them as domestic terrorists,” said the statement. Pennsylvania GOP Representative Guy Reschenthaler said in the House of Representatives in response to Democrats’ indication of earlier support for the measure.
The controversy stemmed from a Remember board issued by the Department of Justice in October 2021, directing federal law enforcement agencies to investigate an increase in threats to school boards following intense community debates over the service of vaccines and masks.
Attorney General Merrick Garland last fall denied there was a concerted effort against the parents. During a hearing, he told a House panel “The Department of Justice supports the First Amendment right of parents to complain as heavily as they want” and added, “It’s not content of this memo.”
Nebraska Republican Don Bacon, one of the GOP’s sponsors of the current bill, said that conservative media attacks on the bill have worried voters in his county.
“They feel as if it’s been politicized, these investigations. So I’m really hearing from people, they’re going to investigate me because I’m pro-life? And I’m not just saying one or two. I’ve heard it from dozens of voters – “How can you be on this bill?”
Even hours before the vote, Bacon was ripped off, telling NPR “I like Brad Schneider. Brad and I work very well together on this and I think there’s a case to be made for this to happen. vote for it. So I’ll give you the other side – the resistance I’m getting. But I got rid of the bill for a reason and I think it does some good too.”
The debate in the House of Representatives was tense at times. Bacon said he didn’t like the tone and said he thought some Democrats were suggesting some members of his party were racist.
Texas Democratic Representative Veronica Escobar, who represents El Paso County, where a gunman in 2019 targeted Hispanic shoppers at a Walmart, leaving 22 people dead and 26 injured business, has urged the passage of a bill to address what she says is a growing problem.
“America has a racism problem. America has a hate problem, and America has a domestic terrorism problem,” she said.
Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Garland last week saying he had heard from several parents that they were being investigated for alleged misconduct. actions related to the protests by school officials.
Whistleblower: The FBI has labeled dozens of investigations against parents with a threat tag created by the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division pic.twitter.com/STlLdrfbMz
– Representative Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) May 11, 2022
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on the GOP lawmakers’ statement on the House legislation.
Schneider denied the federal excessive infringement claims, saying, “It is not a new statute, does not create any new statute or penalty. It provides the agency Our federal law enforcement resources to identify growing threats of domestic terrorism like those we saw in Buffalo and hopefully prevent these types of events in the future. future.”
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told NPR on Tuesday that a partisan vote on the issue would “say that the Republican Party is not as focused on domestic terrorism as it is in terms of domestic terrorism.” they need it because they think a lot about their stance to turn around and side with someone who ‘could be implicated’.”
2nd Senate Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, said he planned to introduce a bill in line with the House bill and said both parties on Capitol Hill should agree that the time has come. focus on the problem before it gets worse.
“Since we have taken 9/11 seriously, we need to take this seriously,” he said.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., announced the Senate would hold a procedural vote to pass the bill next week, but it was unclear whether the measure would require 60 votes.
