Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1931 To authorize dedicated domestic terrorism offices within the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Bu- reau of Investigation to analyze and monitor domestic terrorist activity and require the Federal Government to take steps to prevent domestic terrorism. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH 27, 2019 Mr. SCHNEIDER (for himself, Ms. KELLY of Illinois, and Mr. GONZALEZ of Texas) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on Homeland Secu- rity, and Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall with- in the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To authorize dedicated domestic terrorism offices within the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to ana- lyze and monitor domestic terrorist activity and require the Federal Government to take steps to prevent domes- tic terrorism. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:29 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1931.IH H1931 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 1931 IH SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Domestic Terrorism 2 Prevention Act of 2019’’. 3 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 4 Congress finds the following: 5 (1) White supremacists and other far-right-wing 6 extremists are the most significant domestic ter- 7 rorism threat facing the United States. 8 (2) On February 22, 2019, a Trump Adminis- 9 tration United States Department of Justice official 10 wrote in a New York Times op-ed that ‘‘white su- 11 premacy and far-right extremism are among the 12 greatest domestic-security threats facing the United 13 States. Regrettably, over the past 25 years, law en- 14 forcement, at both the Federal and State levels, has 15 been slow to respond. . . . Killings committed by in- 16 dividuals and groups associated with far-right ex- 17 tremist groups have risen significantly.’’. 18 (3) An April 2017 Government Accountability 19 Office report on the significant, lethal threat posed 20 by domestic violent extremists explained that 21 ‘‘[s]ince September 12, 2001, the number of fatali- 22 ties caused by domestic violent extremists has 23 ranged from 1 to 49 in a given year.’’ The report 24 noted: ‘‘[F]atalities resulting from attacks by far 25 right wing violent extremists have exceeded those 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:01 Apr 12, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1931.IH H1931 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 1931 IH caused by radical Islamist violent extremists in 10 of 1 the 15 years, and were the same in 3 of the years 2 since September 12, 2001. Of the 85 violent extrem- 3 ist incidents that resulted in death since September 4 12, 2001, far right wing violent extremist groups 5 were responsible for 62 (73 percent) while radical 6 Islamist violent extremists were responsible for 23 7 (27 percent).’’. 8 (4) An unclassified May 2017 joint intelligence 9 bulletin from the Federal Bureau of Investigation 10 and the Department of Homeland Security found 11 that ‘‘white supremacist extremism poses [a] per- 12 sistent threat of lethal violence,’’ and that White su- 13 premacists ‘‘were responsible for 49 homicides in 26 14 attacks from 2000 to 2016 . . . more than any 15 other domestic extremist movement’’. 16 (5) Fatal terrorist attacks by far-right-wing ex- 17 tremists include— 18 (A) the August 5, 2012, mass shooting at 19 a Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, in 20 which a White supremacist shot and killed 6 21 members of the gurdwara; 22 (B) the April 13, 2014, mass shooting at 23 a Jewish community center and a Jewish as- 24 sisted living facility in Overland Park, Kansas, 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:29 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1931.IH H1931 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 1931 IH in which a neo-Nazi shot and killed 3 civilians, 1 including a 14-year-old teenager; 2 (C) the June 8, 2014, ambush in Las 3 Vegas, Nevada, in which 2 supporters of the 4 far-right-wing ‘‘patriot’’ movement shot and 5 killed 2 police officers and a civilian; 6 (D) the June 17, 2015, mass shooting at 7 the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South 8 Carolina, in which a White supremacist shot 9 and killed 9 members of the church; 10 (E) the November 27, 2015, mass shooting 11 at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado 12 Springs, Colorado, in which an anti-abortion ex- 13 tremist shot and killed a police officer and 2 ci- 14 vilians; 15 (F) the March 20, 2017, murder of an Af- 16 rican-American man in New York City, alleg- 17 edly committed by a White supremacist who re- 18 portedly traveled to New York ‘‘for the purpose 19 of killing black men’’; 20 (G) the May 26, 2017, attack in Portland, 21 Oregon, in which a White supremacist allegedly 22 murdered 2 men and injured a third after the 23 men defended 2 young women whom the indi- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:29 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1931.IH H1931 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 1931 IH vidual had targeted with anti-Muslim hate 1 speech; 2 (H) the August 12, 2017, attack in Char- 3 lottesville, Virginia, in which a White suprema- 4 cist killed one and injured nineteen after driv- 5 ing his car through a crowd of individuals pro- 6 testing a neo-Nazi rally, and of which former 7 Attorney General Jeff Sessions said, ‘‘It does 8 meet the definition of domestic terrorism in our 9 statute.’’; 10 (I) the July 2018 murder of an African- 11 American woman from Kansas City, Missouri, 12 allegedly committed by a White supremacist 13 who reportedly bragged about being a member 14 of the Ku Klux Klan; 15 (J) the October 24, 2018, shooting in 16 Jeffersontown, Kentucky, in which a White 17 man allegedly murdered 2 African Americans at 18 a grocery store after first attempting to enter 19 a church with a predominantly African-Amer- 20 ican congregation during a service; and 21 (K) the October 27, 2018, mass shooting 22 at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, 23 Pennsylvania, in which a White nationalist al- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:01 Apr 12, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1931.IH H1931 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 1931 IH legedly shot and killed 11 members of the con- 1 gregation. 2 (6) In November 2018, the Federal Bureau of 3 Investigation released its annual hate crime incident 4 report, which found that in 2017, hate crimes in- 5 creased by approximately 17 percent, including a 23- 6 percent increase in religion-based hate crimes, an 7 18-percent increase in race-based crimes, and a 5- 8 percent increase in crimes directed against LGBT 9 individuals. The total number of reported hate 10 crimes rose for the third consecutive year. The pre- 11 vious year’s report found that in 2016, hate crimes 12 increased by almost 5 percent, including a 19-per- 13 cent rise in hate crimes against American Muslims; 14 additionally, of the hate crimes motivated by reli- 15 gious bias in 2016, 53 percent were anti-Semitic. 16 Similarly, the report analyzing 2015 data found that 17 hate crimes increased by 6 percent that year. Much 18 of the 2015 increase came from a 66-percent rise in 19 attacks on American Muslims and a 9-percent rise 20 in attacks on American Jews. In all three reports, 21 race-based crimes were most numerous, and those 22 crimes most often targeted African Americans. 23 (7) On March 15, 2019, a White nationalist 24 was arrested and charged with murder after alleg- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:29 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1931.IH H1931 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 1931 IH edly killing 50 Muslim worshippers and injuring 1 more than 40 in a massacre at the Al Noor Mosque 2 and Linwood Mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand. 3 The alleged shooter posted a hate-filled, xenophobic 4 manifesto that detailed his White nationalist ide- 5 ology before the massacre. Prime Minister Jacinda 6 Ardern labeled the massacre a terrorist attack. 7 (8) In January 2017, a right-wing extremist 8 who had expressed anti-Muslim views was charged 9 with murder for allegedly killing 6 people and injur- 10 ing 19 in a shooting rampage at a mosque in Quebec 11 City, Canada. It was the first-ever mass shooting at 12 a mosque in North America, and Prime Minister 13 Trudeau labeled it a terrorist attack. 14 (9) On February 15, 2019, Federal authorities 15 arrested U.S. Coast Guard Lieutenant Christopher 16 Paul Hasson, who was allegedly planning to kill a 17 number of prominent journalists, professors, judges, 18 and ‘‘leftists in general’’. In court filings, prosecu- 19 tors described Lieutenant Hasson as a ‘‘domestic 20 terrorist’’ who in an email ‘‘identified himself as a 21 White Nationalist for over 30 years and advocated 22 for ‘focused violence’ in order to establish a white 23 homeland.’’. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:29 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1931.IH H1931 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 1931 IH SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 1 In this Act— 2 (1) the term ‘‘Director’’ means the Director of 3 the Federal Bureau of Investigation; 4 (2) the term ‘‘domestic terrorism’’ has the 5 meaning given the term in section 2331 of title 18, 6 United States Code, except that it does not include 7 acts perpetrated by individuals associated with or in- 8 spired by— 9 (A) a foreign person or organization des- 10 ignated as a foreign terrorist organization 11 under section 219 of the Immigration and Na- 12 tionality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189); 13 (B) an individual or organization des- 14 ignated under Executive Order 13224 (50 15 U.S.C. 1701 note); or 16 (C) a state sponsor of terrorism as deter- 17 mined by the Secretary of State under section 18 6(j) of the Export Administration Act of 1979 19 (50 U.S.C. 4605), section 40 of the Arms Ex- 20 port Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2780), or section 21 620A of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 22 (22 U.S.C. 2371); 23 (3) the term ‘‘Domestic Terrorism Executive 24 Committee’’ means the committee within the De- 25 partment of Justice tasked with assessing and shar- 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:29 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1931.IH H1931 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 1931 IH ing information about ongoing domestic terrorism 1 threats; 2 (4) the term ‘‘hate crime incident’’ means an 3 act described in section 245, 247, or 249 of title 18, 4 United States Code, or in section 901 of the Civil 5 Rights Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3631); 6 (5) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 7 of Homeland Security; and 8 (6) the term ‘‘uniformed services’’ has the 9 meaning given the term in section 101(a) of title 10, 10 United States Code. 11 SEC. 4. OFFICES TO COMBAT DOMESTIC TERRORISM. 12 (a) AUTHORIZATION OF OFFICES TO MONITOR, ANA- 13 LYZE, INVESTIGATE, AND PROSECUTE DOMESTIC TER- 14 RORISM.— 15 (1) DOMESTIC TERRORISM UNIT.—There is au- 16 thorized a Domestic Terrorism Unit in the Office of 17 Intelligence and Analysis of the Department of 18 Homeland Security, which shall be responsible for 19 monitoring and analyzing domestic terrorism activ- 20 ity. 21 (2) DOMESTIC TERRORISM OFFICE.—There is 22 authorized a Domestic Terrorism Office in the 23 Counterterrorism Section of the National Security 24 Division of the Department of Justice— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:29 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1931.IH H1931 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 1931 IH (A) which shall be responsible for inves- 1 tigating and prosecuting incidents of domestic 2 terrorism; and 3 (B) which shall be headed by the Domestic 4 Terrorism Counsel. 5 (3) DOMESTIC TERRORISM SECTION OF THE 6 FBI.—There is authorized a Domestic Terrorism 7 Section within the Counterterrorism Division of the 8 Federal Bureau of Investigation, which shall be re- 9 sponsible for investigating domestic terrorism activ- 10 ity. 11 (4) STAFFING.—The Secretary, the Attorney 12 General, and the Director shall each ensure that the 13 offices authorized under this section in their respec- 14 tive agencies shall have adequate staff to perform 15 the required duties. 16 (b) JOINT REPORT ON DOMESTIC TERRORISM.— 17 (1) ANNUAL REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later 18 than 180 days after the date of enactment of this 19 Act, and each year thereafter, the Secretary of 20 Homeland Security, the Attorney General, and the 21 Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall 22 submit a joint report authored by the domestic ter- 23 rorism offices authorized under paragraphs (1), (2), 24 and (3) of subsection (a) to— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:29 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1931.IH H1931 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 11 •HR 1931 IH (A) the Committee on the Judiciary, the 1 Committee on Homeland Security and Govern- 2 mental Affairs, and the Select Committee on 3 Intelligence of the Senate; and 4 (B) the Committee on the Judiciary, the 5 Committee on Homeland Security, and the Per- 6 manent Select Committee on Intelligence of the 7 House of Representatives. 8 (2) CONTENTS.—Each report submitted under 9 paragraph (1) shall include— 10 (A) an assessment of the domestic ter- 11 rorism threat posed by White supremacists and 12 neo-Nazis, including White supremacist and 13 neo-Nazi infiltration of Federal, State, and 14 local law enforcement agencies and the uni- 15 formed services; and 16 (B)(i) in the first report, an analysis of in- 17 cidents or attempted incidents of domestic ter- 18 rorism that have occurred in the United States 19 since April 19, 1995; and 20 (ii) in each subsequent report, an analysis 21 of incidents or attempted incidents of domestic 22 terrorism that occurred in the United States 23 during the preceding year; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:29 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1931.IH H1931 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 12 •HR 1931 IH (C) a quantitative analysis of domestic ter- 1 rorism for the preceding year, including the 2 number of— 3 (i) domestic terrorism related assess- 4 ments initiated by the Federal Bureau of 5 Investigation, including the number of as- 6 sessments from each classification and sub- 7 category; 8 (ii) domestic terrorism-related prelimi- 9 nary investigations initiated by the Federal 10 Bureau of Investigation, including the 11 number of prel [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]