Introducing Bill to Combat Transnational White Supremacist Extremists and Strengthen Intelligence Assessments on Transnational White Supremacist Threats

Floor Speech

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Mr. CARSON. Madam Speaker, I rise to introduce a bill that will address intelligence gaps and sharpen our focus on transnational white supremacist extremist threats. Specifically, this bill will improve our federal intelligence agencies and prioritize the white supremacist extremist threat, including its ties to international groups. This bill builds on previous work done by a number of congressional committees, including the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence's Intelligence Authorizations (IAA) over the past few years.

As the Chairman of the Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation (C3) Subcommittee on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, I am proud to strengthen our earlier provisions in the IAA and introduce this new bill. I am also extremely grateful for the collaborative efforts and support of Chairman Adam Schiff--who joins me as an original cosponsor of this bill, and whose work was invaluable in developing this legislation for introduction today.

This bill mandates that the National Counterterrorism Center-- alongside the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security--explore and analyze more completely the ideology and objectives driving white supremacist groups with transnational connections, including their leadership and operational structure. Currently, the United States government too often and too heavily relies on outside research organizations for detailed analysis of white supremacist extremists. It is imperative that United States government's intelligence agencies and subordinate organizations perform the high-level analysis needed to best utilize existing data, add additional data that may be missing, and ensure this is done on a national level. The new assessments required by this bill will allow lawmakers and the public to more completely understand the full scope of the transnational threat and will help foster a sustained examination of its international impact well into the future.

As a former law enforcement professional, I have warned my colleagues for a number of years that the threat of white supremacist extremist organizations has been growing worse. Today, this problem is the top terror threat to American lives, and the United States Government needs to take actions that reflect this heightened priority, especially since the January 6th insurrection and home-grown attack on the U.S. Capitol. While there has been improvement under the Biden Administration, plus increased Congressional efforts, the Intelligence Community continues to place a priority on the international terror groups and their offenses, while ignoring the domestic terror threats. While some were taken by surprise by domestic terrorists that blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, we should never again be caught by surprise--especially when we have the ability and the duty to prevent future attacks with stronger intelligence assessments.

I strongly believe this bill will complement and enhance the recently announced Department of Justice strategy to combat the domestic terror and domestic violent extremism threats, so I urge all my colleagues to join me in cosponsoring this bill.

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