The attack on Capitol Hill by President Trump’s supporters has sparked renewed interest in a Democratic-backed bill to increase the ability of the federal government to conduct surveillance on the far Right.
The Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, first passed by the House in September of last year, would create “dedicated domestic terrorism offices within the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to analyze and monitor domestic terrorist activity and require the Federal Government to take steps to prevent domestic terrorism,” according to the bill’s language.
First introduced by Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois, the bill gained support from Senate Democrats, including Dick Durbin of Illinois, who introduced the bill in the upper chamber, and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
“While not the only threat, it is one that is the most fluid and prominent one and has recently expanded to the targeting to a wider array of public officials that include Republicans and law enforcement,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism and who has written extensively on domestic political extremists. “Sen. Durbin’s bill is a good step in that direction, as we need structural alacrity and good information to respond to this prominent and fluid coalesced insurgency.”
Last week’s chaos in Washington has breathed new life into the bill, with many on the Left saying it could have been completely preventable had the federal government been equipped with the right tools. The bill orders intelligence agencies and the Department of Homeland Security to staff special domestic terrorist divisions and compile reports on “an assessment of the domestic terrorism threat posed by White supremacists and neo-Nazis.”
“The Secretary, the Attorney General, and the Director shall review the anti-terrorism training and resource programs of their respective agencies that are provided to Federal, State, local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies, including the State and Local Anti-Terrorism Program that is funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance of the Department of Justice, and ensure that such programs include training and resources to assist State, local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies in understanding, detecting, deterring, and investigating acts of domestic terrorism and White supremacist and neo-Nazi infiltration of law enforcement agencies,” the bill states.
Other left-wing groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, have backed the bill, calling the threat of right-wing terrorism the most pressing the country faces.
President-elect Joe Biden has long called for a new security law to combat domestic terrorism and has cited the 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia, rally as the reason he decided to run for president. His campaign platform included a promise to pass “a domestic terrorism law that respects free speech and civil liberties, while making the same commitment to root out domestic terrorism as we have to stopping international terrorism.”
Shortly after the election, a group of advisers to Biden pressed the president-elect on forming a new White House group dedicated to rooting out domestic extremism, particularly focused on neo-Nazi and right-wing militia groups. Biden has yet to announce any initiative.
Both Durbin and Sen. Tim Kaine, who co-sponsored the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, pointed the Washington Examiner to recent statements by the senators supporting the bill, including Durbin’s pledge to reintroduce the bill when the Senate reconvenes.
“Senate Democrats, along with the Biden administration, will work together to investigate, expose, and hold accountable domestic terrorism threats in our country,” Durbin and Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement.
Civil liberty watchdogs have expressed concern about any new legislation, citing unconstitutional provisions in the 2001 Patriot Act that gave the federal government sweeping authority to spy on Americans. Subsequent leaks from individuals like Edward Snowden exposed national security programs that many criticized as violating privacies.
The American Civil Liberties Union objected to the Confronting the Threat of Domestic Terrorism Act, a similar but more broad law introduced in the House by Democrat Adam Schiff in September 2019.
“People of color and other marginalized communities have long been targeted under domestic terrorism authorities for unfair and discriminatory surveillance, investigations, and prosecutions,” a letter from the group read. “Law enforcement agencies’ use of these authorities undermines and has violated equal protection, due process, and First Amendment rights.”
Some Democratic lawmakers, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have pushed back against any new security legislation and argued the federal government is already well equipped to root out any domestic threats.
“As the Vice Chair of the Oversight subcommittee who ran investigations into domestic terror laws, I respectfully disagree,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted in response to political scientist Norman Ornstein’s call for “a domestic terrorism statute.” “Our problems on Wednesday weren’t that there weren’t enough laws, resources, or intelligence. We had them, & they were not used. It’s time to find out why.”
