Carper Discusses Ways to Address Domestic Terrorism with National Security Officials, Urges Bipartisan Legislation to Address Homegrown Extremism

Yesterday, U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), senior Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), joined domestic terrorism experts, including former national security officials, for a hearing examining the rise in white supremacist extremist violence in the United States—the first hearing focused on the subject in the committee’s history. Witnesses reviewed current domestic terrorism threats, assessed available data, and evaluated the government’s response to date, including whether the Administration is allocating resources appropriately to address current and future threats.

Senator Carper emphasized the need for Congressional oversight of Administration efforts to counter domestic terrorism and violent extremism and discussed a bipartisan bill first introduced by Senator Carper and Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) in 2016 that would establish the Office for Partnerships Against Violent Extremism within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to counter violent extremism.

“Today, our greatest threat to our homeland does not come from overseas, but from within – from homegrown extremism and self-radicalization,” said Senator Carper. “Tragically in recent years we have seen an increase in targeted violence, especially gun violence perpetrated in our country. In horrific incidences we have seen domestic terrorist attacks against minorities. They’ve occurred against people of color in Charleston, South Carolina, against immigrants in El Paso, Texas last month, and against religious groups in places of worship such as mosques all around our country and in synagogues in any number of places — from California to the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.”

Watch Senator Carper’s remarks here.