Washington, DC – Today, Congressman Jim Himes (CT-04) chaired a hearing of the Subcommittee on National Security, International Development, and Monetary Policy of the House Committee on Financial Services.
On January 6, 2021 a mob of armed insurrectionists descended on the United States Capitol with the goal of disrupting the Congressional certification of the 2020 Presidential election. Members of Congress were hunted, and members of law enforcement lost their lives. This attack was the latest example of domestic terrorist activities that have been escalating in frequency and intensity in recent years. This hearing will take an in depth look at the ways in which domestic terrorist groups and individuals raise funds such as crowdfunding, steaming and subscription services, false charities, and cryptocurrencies.
“In the past decades, our government has worked to understand the threat of foreign terrorism, and significant time and resources were devoted to disrupting their streams of funding,” said Himes. “We should now employ a similar strategy. To effectively disrupt these domestic extremist groups, we need to better understand their financing.”
Witnesses at today’s hearing include:
- Iman Boukadoum, Senior Manager, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
- Lecia Brooks, Executive Director, Southern Poverty Law Center
- Daniel L. Glaser, Global Head Jurisdictional Services and Head of Washington, DC Office, K2 Integrity, Senior Advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and former Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes, U.S. Department of the Treasury
- Dr. Daniel Rogers, Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer, Global Disinformation Index
- Dr. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, CEO, Valens Global
“Unlike many foreign terror groups where funding comes from a handful of easily disruptable areas, domestic organizations are not pyramid shaped,” continued Himes. “An online fundraising drive for a legitimate charity and one that helps support an extremist group can look very similar from the outside, making our job of disrupting that flow that much more difficult. Add in the fact that some extremist groups are eschewing the traditional banking sector in favor of cryptocurrency, and we can start to see the weaknesses in our traditional methods of disrupting extremist financing.”
For more information or with any questions, contact Patrick Malone at Patrick.malone@mail.house.gov.
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