McCaul’s bipartisan bill sets federal penalties for acts of domestic terrorism

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX-10) on Aug. 13 cosponsored a bipartisan bill that would make acts of domestic terrorism a federal crime.

“As a former prosecutor, I know our federal domestic terrorism laws are insufficient and lack any real legal recourse to charge domestic terrorists with the crime they’ve committed,” said Rep. McCaul. “The bill we introduced today would change that.”

Rep. McCaul introduced the Domestic Terrorism Penalties Act of 2019, H.R. 4187, with bill sponsor U.S. Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX) and fellow cosponsor U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) to establish federal penalties for crimes committed under the definition of “Domestic Terrorism,” according to a summary provided by McCaul’s office. 

For instance, according to the bill’s text, whomever is found to have “the intent to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or influence, affect, or retaliate against the policy or conduct of a government” and then “kills any person, shall be sentenced to death or imprisonment of not more than a term of life imprisonment, fined under this title, or both.”

In the same context, several other penalties are listed in the bill, including those that would dictate life imprisonment for whomever kidnaps any person and imprisonment of not more than 30 years for someone who assaults any person with a deadly weapon, according to the bill.  

Rep. McCaul said that H.R. 4187 would give the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice better tools for identifying and preventing domestic terrorism, as well as fully prosecuting the perpetrators. 

“We need to do more than denounce the hateful ideologies that spur this type of violence — we have to take action to better prevent the spread of homegrown radicalization,” said Rep. McCaul. “I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to create safer communities for Americans everywhere.”