As House Republicans continue to their push to defund Homeland Security because of the president’s executive actions on immigration, President Obama will be holding a White House summit on countering violent extremism in February.
Here are the details summit via the White House:
On February 18, 2015, the White House will host a Summit on Countering Violent Extremism to highlight domestic and international efforts to prevent violent extremists and their supporters from radicalizing, recruiting, or inspiring individuals or groups in the United States and abroad to commit acts of violence, efforts made even more imperative in light of recent, tragic attacks in Ottawa, Sydney, and Paris. This summit will build on the strategy the White House released in August of 2011, Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States, the first national strategy to prevent violent extremism domestically.
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Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) efforts rely heavily on well-informed and resilient local communities. Boston, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis-St. Paul have taken the lead in building pilot frameworks integrating a range of social service providers, including education administrators, mental health professionals, and religious leaders, with law enforcement agencies to address violent extremism as part of the broader mandate of community safety and crime prevention. The summit will highlight best practices and emerging efforts from these communities.
At the same time, our partners around the world are actively implementing programs to prevent violent extremism and foreign terrorist fighter recruitment. The summit will include representatives from a number of partner nations, focusing on the themes of community engagement, religious leader engagement, and the role of the private sector and tech community.
Through presentations, panel discussions, and small group interactions, participants will build on local, state, and federal government; community; and international efforts to better understand, identify, and prevent the cycle of radicalization to violence at home in the United States and abroad. Additional information regarding participants and the agenda will be provided at a future date.
While the president is taking action to deal with extremist threats, House Republicans are setting the stage for a showdown that could result in another government shutdown. Congressional Republicans were upset with the president over his executive actions on immigration, so they would only support funding Homeland Security through February 27, 2015.
As Sarah Jones reported, Senate Republicans are worried that the actions taken by House Republicans could lead to a complete defunding of Homeland Security, “If the Senate doesn’t take action on the House bill, the Department of Homeland Security will be unfunded as of February 27th. This is the exact scenario that the Republican leadership promised the public would NOT happen if Republicans were given control of both chambers.”
House Republicans are playing petty games with the funding of Homeland Security while experts around the world are voicing concern over the extremist environment. While Boehner’s bunch of gerrymandered partisans are busy jeopardizing national security, the president is acting to keep American citizens safe.
The contrast couldn’t be clearer. House Republicans are placing partisan politics ahead of national security while the president is doing everything possible to counter the violent extremist threat.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
