Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I speak today on the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act. As I have said many times, I am committed to fighting political violence from across the political spectrum. This bill doesn't help us do that. In fact, career DOJ attorneys reviewing the legislation have indicated that the bill is ``harmful'' and ``counterproductive.'' I use their words. This short bill merely reorganizes the government offices that already fight domestic terrorism in DHS, DOJ, and the FBI. This reorganization wasn't sought by the Agencies themselves. In fact, in technical assistance provided to us, the operators pointed out a number of problems with it. For example, the bill assigns responsibilities monitoring and analyzing domestic terrorism activity to DHS that actually belong in FBI. The other major feature of the legislation is a direction to the Agencies that they must focus on the greatest historical threats, looking backward. The operators have told us this means they can't be agile or address rapidly evolving threats if they were to follow this law. I am always willing to listen to the needs of Agencies that keep Americans safe. In fact, there are authorities that DOJ and the FBI need, for international terrorism. I introduced an amendment to the NDAA last year, to expand these authorities. I hope we will pass it into law this year. The domestic and international functions work together, and siloing them would not help DOJ fight terrorism.…”