Tackling Homegrown Terrorism (Rep. Dave Reichert)

The problem of homegrown terrorism is real and growing in our country. As we learned in a recent field hearing, there are Americans whose ideological thinking is so extreme and radical that they are only a few steps away from being encouraged to commit acts of violence and do harm to our country. The Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 is designed to combat and prevent this growing “radicalization.”

The bill provides resources to help identify and stop these terrorists from growing in our country. The bill creates a grant program that would direct funding toward outreach and preventative programs to help reduce radicalization at the community level. Prevention is the primary objective, and by working through the new Center of Excellence for the Prevention of Radicalization and Home Grown Terrorism within DHS we will study the social, criminal, political, psychological and economic influences that are pushing these Americans down the path toward terrorism, then make suggestions on how to prevent it. The bill requires homeland security officials to examine what other nations have dealt with in homegrown terrorism so we can apply their lessons. And, importantly, it is a bipartisan bill that does all this while being careful to protect the civil liberties of American citizens.