Tag: DHS

Digital ID bill sees action in the House and Senate

FCW – July 15, 2022

A bill from Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) and its Senate companion would raise the federal government’s profile in the digital ID ecosystem.

A bill meant to ramp up federal government participation in the digital identity ecosystem is inching closer to passage. The bill is poised to be advanced by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and a Senate version was just introduced.

The bipartisan “Improving Digital Identity Act” was first introduced by Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) in 2020, but never never voted out of committee. It also didn’t get a Senate version in that session of Congress. Foster reintroduced the measure last year.

In the House, the committee recessed on Thursday before finishing officially recorded votes to report Foster’s bill and others out of the committee. That will happen when the committee picks back up on the markup, a committee aid confirmed with FCW.

Sen. Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.) along with Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo) introduced a Senate counterpart on Wednesday.

The bill includes a few deliverables but the main impact will likely be felt from its proposed policy shift that puts the federal government more squarely in the digital ID business.

The legislation pushes the federal government to use existing authority to help Amerians “prove who they are online,” by providing opt-in ID validation services that “augment private sector digital identity and authentication solutions.”

The bill would also set up a task force on digital identity and establish a grant program at the Department of Homeland Security to support the creation of interoperable identity credentialing systems for digital identity verification on the state and local level.

This all comes in the midst of a government still grappling with increased identity fraud since the start of the pandemic. Identity fraud losses shot up from $16.9 billion in 2019 to $56 billion in 2020, according to Javelin Strategy and Research.

https://fcw.com

DHS warns of threats to burn down Supreme Court, kill justices as abortion decision looms

Ryan Foley – May 20, 2022

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is warning that some pro-abortion extremists have expressed a desire to burn down the U.S. Supreme Court building if the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide is overturned.

A Department of Homeland Security memo published May 13, obtained by Axios, warns that violent threats directed at Supreme Court justices and others involved in the abortion debate, such as politicians, members of the clergy and healthcare providers “are likely to persist and may increase leading up to and following the issuing in the Court’s official ruling” in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health.

The memo comes amid protests of an initial draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito. the draft indicates that a majority of justices are poised to reverse Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Politico published the leaked draft opinion on May 2, but the draft is not final.

The prospect of Roe’s reversal, which would send the abortion issue back to states to decide, has already led to acts of vandalism and violence at churches and pro-life pregnancy centers. Protesters have also descended upon the homes of the six Supreme Court justices appointed by Republican presidents, five of whom signed onto the draft of the majority opinion in Dobbs.

Axios reports that the U.S. government is gearing up for a potential surge in political violence once the Supreme Court decision is released, and law enforcement agencies are investigating social media threats to burn down or storm the Supreme Court building and murders justices and their clerks.

According to CBS News, the National Capital Region Threat Intelligence Consortium has referred over two dozen online posts to its partner agencies to investigate. Some of those posts spoke of “burning down or storming the U.S. Supreme Court and murdering Justices and their clerks, members of Congress, and lawful demonstrators.”

https://www.christianpost.com

DHS Bulletin Says Opposition To COVID Mandates Is Potential “Domestic Terrorism Threat”

Tyler Durden – August 15, 2021

On Friday the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued an almost unbelievable new “terrorism” alert contained in a so-called ‘awareness bulletin’. While focused heavily on the threat posed by “false narratives and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election” – clearly making connections to Jan.6, the bulletin pivoted to unprecedented territory.

It’s nothing new for the Biden administration to warn and hype about “calls to violence” related to the “Capitol insurrection” – but what is new and unprecedented is its warning about potential “attacks” by “violent extremists” related to COVID-19 “conspiracy theories”.

The document was the result of a DHS meeting held with top officials and high ranking intelligence officers across multiple agencies from departments in New York, Washington, and Las Vegas, NBC News reported.

The threat bulletin describes that extremists “may seek to exploit the emergence of COVID-19 variants by viewing the potential re-establishment of public health restrictions across the United States as a rationale to conduct attacks.”

This is the first time to our knowledge that “terrorism” is linked to the movement among large groups of skeptical Americans to push back against local, state and federal efforts to impose drastic mask, vaccine, and so-called ‘COVID passport’ mandates.

Interestingly the DHS document is heavily focused on such “extremism” initially manifest online in social media and chat forum groups.

Presumably, given the demographic breakdown, this means DHS is accusing young black folk of being “domestic terrorists?

https://www.zerohedge.com