Not One Single Republican Votes for Probe of Neo-Nazis in US Military and Police
Zero House Republicans on Wednesday supported a measure requiring the Pentagon and federal law enforcement agencies to publish a report on countering white supremacist and neo-Nazi activity in their ranks.
Rep. Brad Schneider’s (D-Ill.) amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the fiscal year 2023 directing the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Defense “to publish a report that analyzes and sets out strategies to combat white supremacist and neo-Nazi activity in the uniformed services and federal law enforcement agencies” passed in a party-line 218-208 vote.
Among present lawmakers, Democrats were unified in support and Republicans in opposition. Reps. Theodore Deutch (D-Fla.), Kevin Brady (R-Texas), Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) did not vote.
Schneider’s proposal requests “figures on the number of people who were discharged from uniformed services or law enforcement because of situations involving white supremacy and neo-Nazi activity,” The Hill reported. It also calls for “information on how the agency leaders responded to ‘planned or effectuated incidents’ connected to white supremacist and neo-Nazi ideology.”
The report—to be published no more than 180 days after enactment of the NDAA and every six months thereafter—would be submitted to congressional committees, and unclassified sections would be made public.
In a House floor speech on Wednesday, Schneider said that the U.S. is experiencing a rise in domestic terrorism, pointing to the 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh by a right-wing, anti-Semitic gunman, and the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, where Heather Heyer was killed when a neo-Nazi drove his car into a crowd of progressive counter-protesters.
Schneider cited a May presentation from the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, titled “The Insider Threat and Extremist Activity Within the DOD,” which detailed cases of domestic terrorism connected to members of the U.S. military.
“Such behavior, such extremism is a threat to us in all segments of society,” Schneider said during debate. “There is no reason to believe that our military is any different.”
“These are exceptions, they are rare,” he added, “but we must do everything we can to identify them and to thwart them before risks become a reality.”
Originally published at Commondreams.org, written by Kenny Stancil.
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