Representatives Peter King (R-N.Y.) and Frank Wolf (R-Va.) yesterday introduced legislation (H.R. 2623) to reconstitute the 9/11 Commission to look at progress in implementing the panel’s original recommendations, emerging national security threats and the threat from domestic radicalization.
King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has held several hearings this year on domestic radicalization by Islamic terrorist organizations.
“This is the issue that Attorney General Eric Holder has said keeps him awake at night,” King said in a statement. Wolf, chairman of the House Appropriations Commerce and Justice Subcommittee, said “we owe it to the American people to have an independent and comprehensive reassessment of the steps taken to guarantee the safety and security of this nation. We also need the commissioners to take an in-depth look at the growing threat of domestic radicalization.”
The original 9/11 Commission was created in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and co-chaired by Thomas Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, and Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic representative from Indiana.
Citing the Congressional Research Service, King and Wolf noted that since 9/11 there have been 43 “homegrown jihadist terrorist plots,” including 22 since May 2009.