Bill requiring annual report on domestic terrorism introduced in House

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) introduced Wednesday legislation that would increase research and data on domestic terrorism.

The Domestic Terrorism Documentation and Analysis of Threats in America (DATA) Act would require Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Justice Department, and the Department of Homeland Security, to produce an annual report on domestic terrorism. Specifically, the report would include data on domestic terrorist incidents, assessments, investigations, indictments, prosecutions, and convictions. It would also include the number of full-time staff at DHS and the DOJ who work on domestic terrorism.

“Domestic terrorism, fueled largely by a surge in white supremacist extremism, presents a growing threat to the security of our homeland. In 2018, the lives of 50 Americans were taken as a result of domestic extremist-related killings — all connected to right-wing extremism and mostly tied to white supremacism. Yet, few Americans know much about what exactly the Federal government is doing to prevent domestic terrorism,” Thompson, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said. “There’s an urgent need for robust, centralized, and transparent Federal data to inform counterterrorism policymaking – and Americans deserve to know exactly how their government is allocating resources to understanding and confronting the scourge of domestic terrorism. At this critical time, Congress needs to lead on the issue of domestic terrorism and direct Federal agencies to prioritize efforts to counter these homeland security threats.”

Further, the reports would be audited by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The legislation would also establish a DHS university-based research center to study domestic terrorism and publish a database on domestic terrorist incidents in the United States. It would also require the DHS’ Science and Technology Directorate to study transnational links between groups linked to domestic terrorism in the United States, such as white supremacists, and their counterparts abroad.

Right-wing terrorists committed a third of all acts of terrorism in the United States between 2010 and 2017, according to the Washington Post. Further, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found that domestic extremists killed at least 50 people in the United States in 2018. It marks a significant increase in the number of domestic extremist-related murders in 2017. Last year was the fourth-deadliest year for domestic extremist-related killings since 1970. There were more domestic terrorism-related arrests than international terrorism-related arrests in both 2017 and 2018, the FBI reported. Also, a GAO report found that since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, violent far-right extremists committed almost three times as many attacks — 62, compared with 23 by Islamist extremists.

The bill has been endorsed by the ADL, Arab American Institute, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Southern Poverty Law Center.