Swalwell Re-appointed to House Homeland Security Committee
WASHINGTON, DC – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has re-appointed Rep. Eric Swalwell (CA-15) to the House Committee on Homeland Security, on which he served in the 113th Congress.
Swalwell intends to continue serving on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where he has chaired the Intelligence Modernization and Readiness Subcommittee, as well as on the House Judiciary Committee. He also co-chairs the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee.
"I'm honored and excited to rejoin active service on the Homeland Security Committee, where I plan to focus on highlighting and finding solutions to the scourge of white nationalist extremism," Swalwell said. "My committee memberships – along with my experience as a prosecutor and as the son and brother of law enforcement officers – will give me a unique opportunity to delve into one of America's most serious national security threats."
At a House Homeland Security Committee hearing last September, FBI Director Christopher Wray identified white nationalist extremism as the foremost domestic terrorism threat. And a Department of Homeland Security report issued last October said that among domestic violent extremists, "racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists – specifically white supremacists – will remain the most persistent and lethal threat in the Homeland."
"White nationalist extremists murdered a security officer and a sheriff's deputy near my district last year; those victims could've been my brothers," Swalwell added. "Likewise, many of the domestic terrorists who violently invaded the U.S. Capitol at President Trump's incitement last week were white nationalist extremists. This threat is real, it is growing, and I will prioritize helping to expose, confront and eliminate it."
As a member of the Homeland Security Committee, Swalwell in 2013 organized and coordinated a letter signed by 132 other Members of Congress to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), objecting to its decision to allow certain small knives and sporting equipment in the cabins of planes. Ultimately, TSA reversed its policy and continues to prohibit knives on planes.
Swalwell also was the lead Democratic House cosponsor of the Rapid DNA Act of 2017, which President Trump signed into law in August 2017; this bipartisan law helps local law enforcement use new real-time, on-site DNA testing technology to speed up justice. And he has been a leader on issues including ending gun violence, increased funding for transit security, and protecting our elections.
Swalwell founded and is chairman emeritus of Future Forum, a group of almost 50 young Democratic Members of Congress focused on issues and opportunities for millennial Americans including student loan debt and home ownership. Before his election to Congress in 2012, he served as a Dublin City Council member and an Alameda County Deputy District Attorney.