Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday asked a House subcommittee for an increase of $85 million to bolster the Justice Department and FBI's efforts in probing domestic terrorism cases.
"[O]ur budget supports my commitment to protecting our national security, including addressing both international and domestic terrorism while respecting civil liberties. It includes increases of $45 million for the FBI domestic terrorism investigations and $40 million for the U.S. attorneys to manage increasing domestic terrorism caseloads," Garland told the House Appropriations subcommittee during a hearing on the Fiscal Year 2022 Budget Request for the DOJ.
Garland at his confirmation hearing said his first priority would be to investigate the events on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol, where rioters broke into the House and interrupted the chamber's count of the 2020 Electoral College votes.
Democrats have tried to label the protestors at the Capitol as domestic terrorists, domestic violent extremists, and white supremacists.
"[M]y oath is to protect the Constitution and Americans from all enemies, both foreign and domestic," Garland said at the hearing.
"And so both forms of terrorism are extraordinary concern to me. We never want to take our eyes off of what happened on 9/11 and that the risks that the country continues to face from foreign terrorist attacks on the homeland. Likewise, we have a growing fear of domestic violent extremism and domestic terrorism and both of those keep me up at night…virtually every morning, I get a briefing from the FBI in one of the other or both areas."
Garland also told the committee that the DOJ budget request includes an increase in funding for the civil rights division, the community relations service, programs supporting "community-oriented policing and addressing systemic inequities," combatting gun violence and improving background checks, and for immigration courts and judges, among other programs.
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