On the recordSeptember 21, 2020
I thank my friend, the gentlewoman from Texas, for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise in support of my bill, H.R. 5602, the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2020. White supremacists and other far-right extremists are the most significant domestic terrorism threat facing the United States. Don't take my word for it. Making that point last week in testimony to the House Homeland Security Committee, FBI Director Christopher Wray stated that domestic violence extremists, DVEs, ``pose a steady and evolving threat of violence and economic harm to the United States.'' He notes in his next paragraph: ``The top threat we face from domestic violent extremists stems from those we identify as racially/ ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVE).'' RMVEs were the primary source of ideologically motivated lethal incidents and violence in 2018 and 2019. From the Tree of Life synagogue to Walmart in El Paso, Texas, we have all tragically seen the deadly effect. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of white nationalist groups rose by 55 percent since 2017. Last November, the FBI reported violent hate crimes reached a 16-year high in 2018, and that number went up in 2019. Groups like the boogaloos, Rise Above Movement, and white nationalist militias across the country are organizing, and so must we.…





