Maximum Impact: Assessing the Effectiveness of the Bureau of Counterterrorism and the Path Forward

House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Middle East, North Africa and International Terrorism

2025-05-06

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Source: Congress.gov

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Transcript

Thank you.   .  .   Thank you.   Thank you.   Thank you.
Thank you.   Thank you.   Thank you.   Thank you.
Thank you.   All right.   .  .   Thank you.
you   .  .   Thank you.   All right.   Thank you.
.  .   Thank you.   Thank you.   The subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa will come to order.
The purpose of this hearing is to explore the Bureau of Counterterrorism's placement in the State Department.   the role and responsibilities of the Bureau's leadership, and the execution of its programs.  The chair now recognizes the ranking member from Florida, Representative Shurfilis McCormick, for any statement that she may have.   Thank you, Chairman Lawler, for convening this hearing on the State Department's Counterterrorism Bureau.  I welcome this timely conversation with our two expert witnesses.  Thank you for coming in today.  We look forward to hearing your testimony.  As we sit here, terrorism and violent extremism remain a growing threat that we must address with clear eyes and effective policy.   According to the 2025 Global Terrorism Index, the number of countries recording a terrorist attack increased from 58 to 66, reversing nearly a decade of improvement.  Today, 59 hostages remain captive in Gaza,   as a result of Hamas's brutal terror attacks on Israel on October 7th, including American Eden Alexander and the bodies of four other Americans.  While Iranian proxies have been weakening and have been weakened, and recent developments in Lebanon and Syria persist an opportunity for cautious optimism.  ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis remain an active threat in the Middle East.   have attacked the US ships and have even killed US servicemen.  In Africa, the Sahel region, including 10 countries, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Cameroon, Guinea, Gambia, Senegal, Nigeria, Chad, and Mauritania, accounted for 19 of all terrorist attacks worldwide, becoming the epicenter of global terrorism.  These are just some of the threats that the CT Bureau   has been and must continue to address.
I must also note that while the CT Bureau is primarily focused on terrorism threats facing the U.S. from abroad, we must remain vigilant to the ways terrorism threatens us here at home.  In March, the Center of Strategic and International Studies published its annual Global Terrorism Threat Assessment, which Dr. Banum co-authored.   I encourage my colleagues to read it carefully.  The author's note notes that in contrast to the years following 9 11 in 2025, the greatest terrorist threats facing the United States is not foreign terrorist organizations, but rather domestic terrorism.   In 2025, the threat of terrorism is made worse, is made more complex by terrorist organization and groups using digital assets, social media, and misinformation to strengthen their operations across borders.  We also know that the threat of terrorism is exacerbated by economic instability, political regression, famine, and climate change.  The African countries I mentioned earlier, Syria, Yemen, and potentially Haiti,

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