The Biden administration unveiled a national strategy Tuesday to combat domestic terrorism, a plan that leans heavily on bolstering the ranks of prosecutors, analysts and investigators across the government to confront the elevated threat.
The four-pronged plan includes $100 million in the proposed 2022 budget to add personnel at the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security while attempting to screen existing government employees “who might pose insider threats.”
Administration officials said the Pentagon, DOJ and DHS are “pursuing efforts to ensure domestic terrorists are not employed within our military or law enforcement ranks and improve screening and vetting processes,” administration officials said.
“First, we are focused on violence, not ideology,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said Tuesday in an address at the Justice Department. “We don’t investigate people for their First Amendment activities. … There is no place for violence in resolving political differences in our democracy.”
Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the strategy addresses the “most significant and persistent terrorism-related threat to the homeland today.”
