Republican senators blocked a Democrat-backed proposal designed to combat "domestic terrorism," arguing that it seeks to set up "Thought Police" for military and law enforcement personnel.
In a 47-47 vote on May 26, GOP lawmakers blocked HR 350 – known as the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) broke away from party lines, joining other GOP senators in voting against the proposal. The resulting filibuster opens up HR 350 for further deliberation at a later date.
If passed, HR 350 would empower "dedicated domestic terrorism offices" within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to "analyze and monitor domestic terrorist activity and require the federal government to take steps to prevent domestic terrorism."
Under the bill, DHS would have a new Domestic Terrorism Unit under its wing that will be "responsible for monitoring and analyzing domestic terrorism activity." It would also be tasked with "investigating and prosecuting incidents of domestic terrorism" and "[coordinating] with the [DOJ's] Civil Rights Division on domestic terrorism matters that may also be hate crime incidents."
The bill introduced by Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) would also mandate the establishment of the Domestic Terrorism Section under the FBI's Counterterrorism Division.
Furthermore – the DHS secretary, the U.S. attorney general and the FBI director would be mandated to "ensure that each office authorized under this section in their respective agencies shall have not less than one employee dedicated to ensuring compliance with civil rights and civil liberties laws and regulations. Employees under these sections would also be required to undergo annual anti-bias training. (Related: Democrats are now moving quickly to reclassify conservative dissent as "domestic terrorism.")
HR 350 does not appropriate a set amount of money to ensure the act is enforced. Rather, it simply authorizes the three agencies to appropriate "such sums as may be necessary to carry out this act."
Paul: HR 350 an insult to the military, law enforcement
HR 350 also mentions that the leaders of the three agencies are required to submit an "assessment of the domestic terrorism threat posed by white supremacists and neo-Nazis, including white supremacist and neo-Nazi infiltration of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and the uniformed services" every year.
It would also mandate the establishment of new training programs that are allegedly designed to root out "white supremacist and neo-Nazi infiltration" of law enforcement and the military.
Such a stipulation did not sit too well with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who slammed the bill in a speech. According to the senator, HR 350 "would be more accurately called 'the [Democratic] plan to brand and insult our police and soldiers as white supremacists and neo-Nazis."
"You're going to have a task force to investigate our soldiers. This is going to be a federal agency that's going to go in and investigate our soldiers for white supremacy. [They will] read their emails [and the] websites they go to, because the implication is 'they're guilty until they can prove themselves innocent,'" said Paul. "That's what this will set up. It will set up more government agencies that presume your guilt."
"It's an insult to our armed services, to our police, and to anyone who works in law enforcement. It's an insult to every police officer in this country … [and] to everyone in our armed forces."
The Kentucky senator said HR 350 seeks to create the "Thought Police" of the military – borrowing the term from the book "1984" by George Orwell.
"This bill wall fails, because the Democrats' message – 'hate the police, defund the police, the police [and] the military are terrible people' – has been roundly rejected by the American people and will continue to be."
Watch Tucker Carlson of Fox News as he talks about HR 350.
This video is from the Son of the Republic channel on Brighteon.com.
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Enemies of the deep state: The government's war on domestic terrorism is a trap.
Harold Meyerson wants all Republicans to be put on a domestic terrorism watch list.
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