Biden budget adds $111 million to battle domestic terrorism

President Biden’s first budget proposal boosts funding to fight domestic terrorism in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. 

The budget calls for an additional $111 million to address the issue between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice.

The bulk of the new funding, $101 million, lies within Justice Department, funneling $45 million to the FBI for domestic terrorism investigations and another $40 million to U.S. attorneys offices to manage increasing domestic terrorism caseloads.

The two offices have been responsible for the lion’s share of the investigations and cases brought against the more than 300 people arrested in the weeks following the insurrection, which left five dead.

Just $10 million of the new funding is slated for DHS, part of an overall $131 million that will be used for “research on the root causes of radicalization.” Another $20 million goes toward grants to “build local capacity to prevent targeted violence and all forms of terrorism.”

The uptick in funding comes as the intelligence community in March warned domestic terrorists, and in particular militia groups and white nationalists, pose an elevated terror threat.

“Narratives of fraud in the recent general election, the emboldening impact of the violent breach of the US Capitol, conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and conspiracy theories promoting violence — will almost certainly spur some [domestic violent extremists] to try to engage in violence this year,” the report stated.

The budget also sets aside some funding to address extremism within its own ranks at DHS, including $84 million in new funds “to ensure that DHS workforce complaints, including those related to white supremacy or ideological and non-ideological beliefs, are investigated expeditiously.”