On the recordMarch 22, 2017
As a senior member of the House Committee on Homeland Security I rise in support of H.R. 1302, Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel Exercise Act of 2017 to require an exercise to terrorist and foreign fighter travel. This bipartisan bill would expand the scope of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Exercise Program by requiring additional scenarios to address emerging terrorist threats. Among the scenarios to be included are those involving U.S. citizens enlisting with or providing support to terrorists organizations abroad, as well as terrorist infiltration in the United States. A nationwide exercise would be held within a year of enactment to evaluate the threat of individuals traveling from the United States to join a terrorist organization. The exercise would also test scenarios involving terrorist infiltration into the U.S. by United States citizens and foreign nationals. DHS would coordinate with other federal departments, foreign governments, state and local governments, and the private sector to conduct the exercise. The growing complexity of the threat may be creating unseen gaps in our defenses, yet it has been years since any large-scale ``stress test'' has been conducted against terrorist travel. Federal officials suspect that Todd Wolfe, an American citizen from Texas, planned to fly his family to Europe where he would meet up with an ISIS handler and take them all to Syria.…
