FBI Director Christopher Wray is expected to advocate for increased funding Thursday while warning of “growing threats” to U.S. public safety and national security.
“As I reflect on my career in law enforcement, it is difficult to remember a time when so many threats to public safety and national security were heightened at once,” Wray said during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing. I plan to talk about this. Thursday afternoon. “But as I sit here today, it’s true. This is not the point where we can give up.”
Wray will argue at the hearing that the federal government needs financial assistance to “address these threats” to keep Americans safe.
“Now is not the time to relax or back down. This is the time when we need your support the most. We need all the means, all the people, all the resources to be safe,” Ray would say.
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FBI Director Christopher Wray testified at a hearing before all committees of Congress. [Chinese Communist Party] “Cyber Threats to America’s Homeland and National Security” (January 31st in Washington, DC) (Julia Nickinson/AFP via Getty Images)
Wray would say that the FBI’s “immediate concern” is that individuals take inspiration from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East and carry out terrorist attacks in the United States.
He is expected to point to the terrorist attack on a Russian concert hall that killed 144 people in the worst attack on mainland Russia in 20 years.
“…our most pressing concern is that individuals or small groups will take perverse inspiration from events in the Middle East and carry out attacks here at home. But now we are increasingly concerned. “It’s the possibility of a coordinated attack here on the mainland, like the ISIS-K attack we saw at a Russian concert hall a few weeks ago,” he would say.
FBI’s ‘immediate concern’ is individuals inspired by Israel-Hamas war to carry out terrorist attacks in the US (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana/File)
Wray asked Congress to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which monitors foreign nationals overseas and is set to expire on April 19.
“…The absolutely essential tool that Congress gives us in fighting our foreign enemies is the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,” he would say. “It’s critical to keeping our country safe, and we’re at a critical moment.”
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While Section 702 has been credited with preventing terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, it has also been criticized as a tool for spying on American citizens.
The FBI is accused of improperly using Section 702 to conduct espionage. Black Lives Matter protesters Not just those who rioted in the summer of 2020, but those who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
FBI Director Christopher Wray is expected to ask Congress to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which monitors foreign nationals overseas. The expiration date is April 19th. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
The FBI director will warn that budget cuts to the FBI will affect more than just the agency’s operations. They will directly impact state and local law enforcement partners.
“Every day, FBI agents, analysts, and professional staff work side by side with thousands of special forces personnel from hundreds of police departments and sheriff’s offices across the country as part of an FBI-led task force,” Ray said. he says. “Additionally, we provide technology and expertise, valuable investigative leads such as DNA matching, and cutting-edge training to law enforcement agencies across the country to keep our communities safe.”
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“So any cuts to us are cuts to our partners, which are state and local law enforcement agencies and police officers who are out there putting themselves in the fire and putting themselves in the field. “There are a lot of them,” Ray would say.
