House Republican leaders quickly staged a show-vote in response to Sunday’s terrorist shooting massacre at Orlando’s Pulse gay nightclub, and rushed through the Countering Terrorist Radicalization Act by 402 to 15 votes.
This House bill endorses and expands the failed domestic anti-jihad polices of President Barack Obama, said Rep. Louie Gohmert (R.-Texas), one of three Republicans voting against the bill. The other two were Rep. Justin Amash (R.-Mich.) and Rep. Tom Massie (R.-Ky.).
The bill creates a new coordination committee inside the Department of Homeland Security for sharing domestic security and for pushing skewed federal Combating Violent Extremism training guidelines and curricula onto local law enforcement. The bill says;
The Secretary of Homeland Security is authorized to provide training for personnel, including Department of Homeland Security personnel, State, local, tribal, and territorial representatives at State and major urban area fusion centers for the purpose of administering community awareness briefings and related activities in furtherance of the Department’s efforts to counter violent extremism, identify and report suspicious activities, and increase awareness of and more quickly identify terrorism threats.
The authorization, plus the long-standing power to withdraw funds from uncooperative state and local police forces, will allow the federal government to impose Obama’s restrictive guidelines onto state and local forces.
Despite last minute cajoling by Gohmert, the mood inside the House Republican Conference was that legislators needed to send a message to voters about the Orlando massacre before jetting out of the Capitol for the weekend.
Most members knew nothing about the bill when they arrived on the House floor to vote on a series of 75 amendments to the Pentagon budget.
The bill was sponsored by the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul (R.-Texas), but it was never approved by his committee. Instead, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R.-Calif.) with the approval of Speaker Paul D. Ryan, agreed to McCaul’s request that the bill be brought to a floor vote under a suspension of the rules.
Normally, bills considered ‘under suspension” involve the naming of highways or other non-controversial measures and are brought up early in the week, early in the legislative session.
McCaul had earlier endorsed Obama’s failed anti-terrorist strategy, which trades political favors to Islamic political groups in exchange for some cooperation in heading off jihadi attacks. That cooperation side of the deal, however, has been rejected by many self-segregating Islamic political groups.
Although the bill has language barring new funds, a Capitol Hill source familiar with the program told Breitbart News there is at least $50 million in unspent funds at Homeland Security in a similar program that could be easily reprogrammed without congressional approval.
Under the Obama administration, federal investigators at Homeland Security and the FBI have been handcuffed and otherwise prevented from asking certain questions or pursuing specific leads that senior officials have determined are unfair or hurtful to the Muslim community, Gohmert said.
“It makes it tough, when you are in the FBI or any other intelligence, and you know the president will not call somebody a radical Islamist,” he said.
Gohmert said current guidelines are based on political correctness which blinding the investigators who are supposed to be on watch.
“The law is a tool like a hammer,” he said. A hammer can be used to build something or to knock it down. “It all depends on who is holding the hammer,” he said. “Why can’t we tell law enforcement they can figure out who is out which Americans are intent on committing treason based on what they’ve said or done.”
A prime example of the word games now in play is the very term: Countering Violent Extremism. Obama “counters” he does not defeat, and “violent extremism” is such a broad term for terrorism that can include Obama’s political opponents. In the government’s guidelines, officials are barred from speaking or studying Muslim-specific terms, such as sharia law, mosque and jihad.
The bill, if it becomes law, will extend the training curbs and gag order from the FBI down to state and local law enforcement.
“If you ever learn about the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda or the caliphate, if you’ve ever been taught to recognize a radical Islamist, you better keep your mouth shut,” the Texas congressman said. “Or you will lose your career.”