House Moves to Prevent Homegrown Terrorism

Press Release

House Moves to Prevent Homegrown Terrorism

Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) today voted to pass a bill that will help counter the threat of homegrown terrorism. The legislation, which establishes a program to study and prevent violent radicalization, is the latest in a series of bills from the Democratic-led Congress to combat terrorism and strengthen national security.

"While the President remains focused on his misguided war in Iraq, the 110th Congress is making our country safer," said Congresswoman Shea-Porter. "We passed the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission to secure our borders and protect us from threats abroad. This bill will help protect us from threats here at home."

The legislation passed by the House today (HR 1955) creates a ten-member National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Ideologically-Based Violence to study the causes of these dangerous trends in our country and recommend corrective actions. The bill also requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to designate a "center of excellence" at a university to study the problems of violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism over the long-term. It further requires federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, to study how other countries have responded to these problems and to use those lessons to our benefit.

The legislation emphasizes that any action by the Administration to prevent domestic terrorism "shall not violate the constitutional rights, civil rights and civil liberties of U.S. citizens and legal residents." It also states that the examination of radical ideology "should not be targeted based solely on race, ethnicity or religion."

One of the first actions of the Democratic-led Congress was to pass a bill implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission (HR 1). On August 3rd, more than three years after the Commission presented its findings, President Bush signed the bill into law.

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