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[Senate Report 114-365]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                                                      Calendar No. 655

114th Congress      }                                      {    Report
                               SENATE                          
2d Session          }                                      {   114-365
_______________________________________________________________________

                                     

                                                       

    COUNTERING ONLINE RECRUITMENT OF VIOLENT EXTREMISTS ACT OF 2015

                               __________

                              R E P O R T

                                 of the

                   COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND

                          GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                              to accompany

                                S. 2418

           TO AUTHORIZE THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY TO
            ESTABLISH UNIVERSITY LABS FOR STUDENT-DEVELOPED
TECHNOLOGY-BASED SOLUTIONS FOR COUNTERING ONLINE RECRUITMENT OF VIOLENT 
                               EXTREMISTS
                               
                               

                 October 27, 2016.--Ordered to be printed
        
 Filed, under authority of the order of the Senate of September 29, 2016
                            _________ 
                                  
              U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
              
 69-010               WASHINGTON : 2016              
                         
                         
                         
                
                
                
                

        COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

                    RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin, Chairman
JOHN McCAIN, Arizona                 THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware
ROB PORTMAN, Ohio                    CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri
RAND PAUL, Kentucky                  JON TESTER, Montana
JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma             TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming             HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota
KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire          CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey
JONI ERNST, Iowa                     GARY C. PETERS, Michigan
BEN SASSE, Nebraska

                  Christopher R. Hixon, Staff Director
                Gabrielle D'Adamo Singer, Chief Counsel
           Elizabeth E. McWhorter, Professional Staff Member
              Gabrielle A. Batkin, Minority Staff Director
           John P. Kilvington, Minority Deputy Staff Director
               Mary Beth Schultz, Minority Chief Counsel
       Harlan C. Geer, Minority Senior Professional Staff Member
          Eric Hanson, Minority U.S. Army Congressional Fellow
                     Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk
                     

                                                       Calendar No. 655
                                                       
114th Congress   }                                           {   Report
                                 SENATE
 2d Session      }                                           {  114-365

======================================================================

 
    COUNTERING ONLINE RECRUITMENT OF VIOLENT EXTREMISTS ACT OF 2015

                                _______
                                

                October 27, 2016.--Ordered to be printed

Filed, under authority of the order of the Senate of September 29, 2016

                                _______
                                

 Mr. Johnson, from the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
                    Affairs, submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                         [To accompany S. 2418]

    The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 2418) to authorize 
the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish university labs 
for student-developed technology-based solutions for countering 
online recruitment of violent extremists, having considered the 
same, reports favorably thereon with an amendment (in the 
nature of a substitute) and recommends that the bill, as 
amended, do pass.

                                CONTENTS

                                                                   Page
  I.  Purpose and Summary.............................................1
 II. Background and Need for the Legislation..........................2
III. Legislative History..............................................5
 IV. Section-by-Section Analysis......................................5
  V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact..................................6
 VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate........................7
VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............7

                         I. Purpose and Summary

    The purpose of S. 2418, the Countering Online Recruitment 
of Violent Extremists Act of 2016, is to authorize the 
Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS or ``the 
Department'') to establish one or more Countering Violent 
Extremism (CVE) Labs at existing DHS university-based centers 
of excellence. The CVE Labs will allow students to leverage new 
technologies to create peer-to-peer solutions that counter the 
online recruitment methods of violent extremist organizations. 
The Secretary may reprioritize existing grants to such 
universities to fund each CVE Lab and is required to report to 
Congress on an independently-commissioned assessment of the 
impact of each CVE Lab that the Secretary opts to establish.

              II. Background and the Need for Legislation

    In 2015, President Obama identified al-Qaeda, the Islamic 
State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and their affiliates, as the 
preeminent security threat to the United States.\1\ In August 
2011, the Administration released a CVE strategy entitled, 
``Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the 
United States.''\2\ This strategy represents a shift in how the 
counterterrorism community understands prevention and a 
willingness to consider new and innovative tools that can 
address the evolving nature of terrorism better than 
traditional Federal counterterrorism functions.\3\ Yet, 
according to the Congressional Research Service, the 2011 CVE 
strategy and accompanying implementation plan lack ``specific 
initiatives to combat radicalization at the grass-roots 
level.''\4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\See generally, The White House, National Security Strategy 20 
(2015), available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/
docs/2015_national_security_strategy.pdf.
    \2\Press Release, The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, 
Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United 
States (Aug. 3, 2011), https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/
2011/08/03/empowering-local-partners-prevent-violent-extremism-united-
states.
    \3\Naureen Chowdhury Fink & Jack Barclay, Mastering the Narrative: 
Counterterrorism Strategic Communication and the United Nations, Center 
on Global Counterterrorism 6 (Feb. 2013), http://globalcenter.org/wp-
content/uploads/2013/03/Feb2013_CT_StratComm.pdf.
    \4\Jerome Bjelopera, Cong. Research Serv., R42553, Countering 
Violent Extremism in the United States 9-13, 15, 17 (2014), http://
www.crs.gov/reports/pdf/R42553.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    During a Committee hearing in October 2015, DHS Secretary 
Jeh Johnson testified that terrorist groups use the internet to 
``inspire individuals to conduct attacks within their own 
homelands.''\5\ During another Committee hearing in May of the 
same year, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a Senior Fellow at the 
Foundation for Defense of Democracies, testified that ``the 
interconnectivity of the Internet . . . suddenly makes someone 
who is alone a part of a group.''\6\ At the same hearing, Peter 
Bergen, the Director of New America Foundation's National 
Security Studies Program, testified about the importance of 
amplifying a positive message rather than trying to attack or 
eliminate ISIS's negative message.\7\ Brian Michael Jenkins, 
Senior Adviser to the President of the RAND Corporation, later 
told the Committee, during a January 2016 hearing, that 
marginalization and alienation are significant motivations for 
radicalization.\8\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \5\Threats to the Homeland: Hearing Before the S. Comm. on Homeland 
Sec. & Governmental Affairs, 114th Cong. (2015) (statement of Jeh 
Johnson, Sec'y, Dep't of Homeland Sec.).
    \6\Jihad 2.0: Social Media in the Next Evolution of Terrorist 
Recruitment: Hearing Before the S. Comm. on Homeland Sec. & 
Governmental Affairs, 114th Cong. 31 (2015).
    \7\Id. at 63.
    \8\Inside the Mind of ISIS: Understanding Its Goals and Ideology to 
Better Protect the Homeland: Hearing Before the S. Comm. on Homeland 
Sec. & Governmental Affairs, 114th Cong. 77-79 (2016) (statement of 
Hedieh Mirahmadi, President, World Org. for Res. Dev. & Educ.); 
National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to 
Terrorism, Community-Level Indicator of Radicalization: A Data & 
Methods Task Force, University of Maryland 7 (Feb. 16, 2010), https://
www.start.umd.edu/pubs/START_HFD_CommRadReport.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In spite of several challenges, governments must somehow 
effectively counter terrorist ideologies and narratives to 
diminish their recruiting and operating capacities.\9\ The 
United States is balancing this national security imperative 
with protections for freedom of speech and expression.\10\ In 
addition, any government counter-narrative campaign must 
consider that their target audience will be skeptical of 
government credibility.\11\ As Hedieh Mirahmadi, President of 
the World Organization for Resource Development and Education 
(WORDE), and Dr. Bernard Haykel, Princeton University Professor 
of Near Eastern Studies, both testified before the Committee, 
any government narrative describing ISIS's atrocities is 
dismissed by the group's followers as an inauthentic 
misrepresentation of the so-called Caliphate.\12\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \9\Inside the Mind of ISIS: Understanding Its Goals and Ideology to 
Better Protect the Homeland: Hearing Before the S. Comm. on Homeland 
Sec. & Governmental Affairs, 114th Cong. 35, 36, 55-57, 64, 65, 69-72 
(2016) (statements of Hedieh Mirahmadi, President, World Org. for Res. 
Dev. & Educ., and Dr. Lorenzo Vidino, Director, Program on Extremism, 
The George Washington Univ., and Dr. Jessica Stern, Research Professor, 
Pardee School for Global Studies, Boston Uni.); ISIS Online: Countering 
Terrorist Radicalization & Recruitment on the Internet & Social Media: 
Hearing Before the S. Comm. on Homeland Sec. & Governmental Affairs 
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, 114th Cong. (2016) (statement 
of Alberto Fernandez, Vice President, The Middle East Media Research 
Institute); Jihad 2.0: Social Media in the Next Evolution of Terrorist 
Recruitment: Hearing Before the S. Comm. on Homeland Sec. & 
Governmental Affairs, 114th Cong. 63-64 (2015) (statement of Peter 
Bergen, Director, National Security Studies Program, New America 
Foundation).
    \10\Jihad 2.0: Social Media in the Next Evolution of Terrorist 
Recruitment: Hearing Before the S. Comm. on Homeland Sec. & 
Governmental Affairs, 114th Cong. 61-62 (2015) (statement of Mubin 
Shaikh, Author, Undercover Jihadi).
    \11\Inside the Mind of ISIS: Understanding Its Goals and Ideology 
to Better Protect the Homeland: Hearing Before the S. Comm. on Homeland 
Sec. & Governmental Affairs, 114th Cong. 77-80 (2016) (statements of 
Hedieh Mirahmadi, President, World Org. for Res. Dev. & Educ., and Dr. 
Bernard Haykel's testimony).
    \12\Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    According to a National Institute of Justice funded 
evaluation of an existing domestic CVE program, as well as a 
separate study by the same researchers, ``those best positioned 
to notice early signs of individuals considering acts of 
violent extremism likely would be those individuals' friends: 
perhaps more so than school counselors, clergy, or family 
members.''\13\ During a Committee hearing in November 2015, Mr. 
Bergen testified that 24 years is the average age of Westerners 
drawn into the Syrian conflict by the Salafi-jihadist 
ideology.\14\ Mr. Bergen went on to explain that American 
recruits are particularly active in online jihadist 
circles.\15\ It logically follows that peers best positioned to 
counter ISIS's ideology are millennials that are active online.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \13\Michael J. Williams, Ph.D., John G. Horgan, Ph.D., & Williams 
P. Evans, Ph.D., Evaluation of a Multi-Faceted, U.S. Community-Based, 
Muslim-Led CVE Program, National Criminal Justice Reference Service 4, 
37, 50, 54, 87, 103 (June 2016), https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/
grants/249936.pdf; Williams et al, The Critical Role of Friends in 
Networks For Countering Violent Extremism: Toward a Theory of Vicarious 
Help-Seeking, 8 Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political 
Aggression 45, 47, 50, 62 (2016), available at http://
www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/19434472.2015.1101147.
    \14\The Impact of ISIS on the Homeland and Refugee Resettlement: 
Hearing Before the S. Comm. on Homeland Sec. & Governmental Affairs, 
114th Cong. 73 (2015) (statement of Peter Bergen).
    \15\Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Finally, in an April 2016 hearing focused on United States 
drug demand, the Committee received testimony from Cheryl 
Healton, Dean of the College of Global Public Health at New 
York University, and Tony Sgro, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) 
of EdVenture Partners, regarding their specific initiatives to 
empower youth-driven messaging to counter-narratives of drug 
demand and violent extremism.
    Dr. Healton, who previously served as President and CEO of 
Legacy, the leading Foundation dedicated to tobacco control, 
focused her testimony on a ``bold counter-marketing campaign 
foryouth, truth--now in its 16th year.''\16\ That campaign 
learned from the same research that drove the strategy of the 1950s 
British-American Tobacco Company advertisements: meet the psychological 
needs of adolescents to take risks, rebel, fit in, remain independent, 
self-express, and be respected.\17\ Through guerilla-marketing stunts, 
youth participated in a grassroots campaign in the days before social 
media to expose how the tobacco industry lied to its customers.\18\ In 
2002, this initiative resulted in 300,000 fewer youth smokers than 
predicted.\19\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \16\America's Insatiable Demand for Drugs: Hearing Before the S. 
Comm. on Homeland Sec. & Governmental Affairs, 114th Cong. (2016) 
(statement by Cheryl Healton, Dean, College of Global Public Health, 
New York University).
    \17\Pete Favat & Bryan C. Price, The Truth Campaign and the War of 
Ideas, Combating Terrorism Center 10 (July 28, 2015), https://
www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/the-truth-campaign-and-the-war-of-ideas.
    \18\Id.
    \19\Dr. Matthew C. Farrelly et al., Evidence of a Dose--Response 
Relationship Between ``Truth'' Antismoking Ads and Youth Smoking 
Prevalence, 95 American Journal of Public Health 429 (Mar. 2005), 
available at http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/
AJPH.2004.049692.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    According to Dr. Healton, a critical component to the 
success of a national campaign to ``un-market'' and prevent 
illicit drug use is its ability to produce youth-driven, 
``unpalatable'' ads.\20\ Dr. Healton testified that certain 
oversight and ``approval'' processes ``can undermine a public 
education campaign's ability to succeed.''\21\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \20\America's Insatiable Demand for Drugs: Hearing Before the S. 
Comm. on Homeland Sec. & Governmental Affairs, 114th Cong. 7 (2016) 
(statement by Cheryl Healton, Dean, College of Global Public Health, 
New York University).
    \21\Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Mr. Sgro's organization administers an education program to 
university students. The Peer-To-Peer (P2P): Challenging 
Extremism program is a grassroots youth-driven contest to 
empower credible, youthful voices to create countervailing 
narratives that appeal to and mobilize their peers to 
proactively undermine violent extremism.\22\ In the words of 
Mr. Sgro:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \22\America's Insatiable Demand for Drugs: Hearing Before the S. 
Comm. on Homeland Sec. & Governmental Affairs, 114th Cong. 29-33 (2016) 
(statement by Tony Sgro, Chief Executive Officer, EdVenture Partners).

        Who better to develop alternative counter narratives to 
        extremist messaging than the very same audience 
        extremists want to recruit. Government has recognized 
        it can't do it, so it makes perfect sense to enlist 
        tech-savvy youth to be part of the solution to push 
        back on hate, terror, and extremism.\23\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \23\Id. at 29.

    The P2P: Challenging Extremism program inspired the 
language of S. 2418 to codify an educational curriculum and 
structure based on the P2P model. The Committee believes that 
DHS university-based centers of excellence could be a driver of 
CVE innovation, especially if CVE Labs incorporate disciplines 
not traditionally associated with counterterrorism. For this 
reason, S. 2418 also modifies current law to include 
universities that can demonstrate expertise in CVE as 
designated university-based centers for homeland security.
    Under this bill, the Secretary may reprioritize existing 
grants to such universities to fund CVE Labs. One year after 
establishing a CVE Lab, the Comptroller General is required to 
report to the Secretary and appropriate Congressional 
committees regarding that Lab's impact on CVE. This bill also 
requires the Secretary to commission an independent assessment 
of each CVE Lab's impact, and provide that assessment to 
Congress.
    By defining CVE as ``providing positive countervailing 
alternatives,'' this bill emphasizes the difference between the 
intent of new CVE functions and traditional punitive Federal 
counterterrorism functions. Finally, S. 2418 states 
congressional findings that campaigns to undermine terrorist 
recruitment of youth ``are credible, authentic, believable, 
[when] they are created by youth for youth.''\24\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \24\Id. at 30.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

                        III. Legislative History

    Senator Cory Booker and Chairman Ron Johnson introduced S. 
2418 on December 17, 2015, which was referred to the Committee 
on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Senators Gary 
Peters and Tom Udall joined as cosponsors on January 21 and 
January 27, 2016, respectively. The Committee considered S. 
2418 at a business meeting on February 10, 2016.
    Senator Booker and Chairman Johnson offered one amendment 
in the nature of a substitute, which reflected negotiated 
changes to the definition of ``CVE'' and ``technology-based CVE 
solutions'' and to the functions of the CVE Lab. The Committee 
adopted the amendment and ordered the bill, as amended, 
reported favorably, both by voice vote. Senators present for 
both the vote on the amendment and the vote on the bill were: 
Johnson, McCain, Portman, Paul, Lankford, Ayotte, Ernst, Sasse, 
Carper, McCaskill, Tester, Baldwin, Heitkamp, Booker, and 
Peters.

        IV. Section-by-Section Analysis of the Bill, as Reported

Section 1. Short title

    This section provides the bill's short title, the 
Countering Online Recruitment of Violent Extremists Act of 
2016.''

Section 2. Definitions

    This section defines the terms ``appropriate congressional 
committees,'' ``center for homeland security,'' ``countering 
violent extremism,'' ``CVE Lab,'' ``institution of higher 
education,'' ``participating student,'' ``technology-based CVE 
solution,'' and ``violent extremism.''

Section 3. Findings

    Section 3 outlines five Congressional findings related to 
the use of social media as a terrorist recruitment mechanism 
and the potential of university-based labs to develop 
technology-based solutions to effectively counter such online 
recruitment.

Section 4. Establishment of CVE Labs

    Section 4 authorizes the Secretary of DHS, acting through 
the Under Secretary for Science and Technology, to establish 
CVE Labs and reprioritize homeland security grants to provide 
funding for such labs.

Section 5. Functions and requirements of CVE Labs

    Section 5 requires faculty of institutions of higher 
education that house a CVE Lab to establish curricula to 
develop and test technology-based CVE solutions. Participating 
students shall receive orientations on cross-cultural 
communications issues and CVE safety issues, learn to 
incorporate technology-based business development practices, 
and develop a scalable business plan of their solutions for 
public and private customers. The faculty shall supervise any 
deployment of a technology-based CVE solution developed by a 
student. Faculty shall also develop enduring research tools to 
support other programs that encourage peer-to-peer CVE 
solutions. It is also the role of faculty to identify experts 
who can help students target their solutions to the needs of 
individuals who are susceptible to recruitment of violent 
extremism while protecting the civil rights and civil liberties 
of individuals not engaged in terrorism.
    The head of an institution of higher education that houses 
a CVE Lab shall ensure that participating faculty and students 
represent an interdisciplinary cross-section that includes 
disciplines not traditionally associated with counterterrorism.

Section 6. Assessment and report

    Section 6 requires the Comptroller General of the United 
States to submit a report to the Secretary of DHS and 
appropriate congressional committees on the impact of each CVE 
Lab, within one year after the lab's establishment.
    Section 6 also requires the Secretary of DHS, acting 
through the Undersecretary for Science and Technology, to 
commission an independent third-party assessment of each CVE 
Lab that the Secretary elects to establish and provide such 
assessment to the appropriate congressional committees within 
180 days of the assessment's completion.

Section 7. Functions of centers for Homeland Security

    Section 7 amends Section 308 of the Homeland Security Act 
of 2002 to add ``demonstrated expertise in countering violent 
extremism'' to the list of criteria used to designate a college 
or university as a center for homeland security.

Section 8. Sunset

    Section 8 provides a seven-year sunset date for sections 1 
through 6. Section 7 is not subject to a sunset.

                   V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact

    Pursuant to the requirements of paragraph 11(b) of rule 
XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee has 
considered the regulatory impact of this bill and determined 
that the bill will have no regulatory impact within the meaning 
of the rules. The Committee agrees with the Congressional 
Budget Office's statement that the bill contains no 
intergovernmental orprivate-sector mandates as defined in the 
Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would impose no costs on state, 
local, or tribal governments.

             VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate

                                     U.S. Congress,
                               Congressional Budget Office,
                                  Washington, DC, October 12, 2016.
Hon. Ron Johnson,
Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. 
        Senate, Washington, DC.
    Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has 
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 2418, the Countering 
Online Recruitment of Violent Extremists Act of 2016.
    If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be 
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Mark 
Grabowicz.
            Sincerely,
                                                        Keith Hall.
    Enclosure.

S. 2418--Countering Online Recruitment of Violent Extremists Act of 
        2016

    S. 2418 would authorize the Department of Homeland Security 
(DHS) to establish programs at institutions of higher education 
to develop technology-based approaches to counteract the 
promotion of violent extremism. Based on information from DHS 
about similar activities that it currently sponsors, CBO 
estimates that implementing the bill would not significantly 
affect the department's spending for university programs.
    Enacting the legislation would not affect direct spending 
or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
    CBO estimates that enacting S. 2418 would not increase net 
direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four 
consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2027.
    S. 2418 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector 
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and any 
costs incurred by institutions of higher education would result 
from participating in a voluntary federal program.
    The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Mark Grabowicz. 
The estimate was approved by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy 
Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.

       VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported

    In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the 
Standing Rules of the Senate, changes in existing law made by 
the bill as reported, are shown as follows (existing law 
proposed to be omitted is enclosed in brackets, new matter is 
printed in italic, and existing law in which no change is 
proposed is shown in roman):

HOMELAND SECURITY ACT OF 2002

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *

TITLE III--SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN SUPPORT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *

SEC. 308. CONDUCT OF RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, DEMONSTRATION, TESTING AND 
                    EVALUATION

    (a) * * *
    (b) Extramural Programs.--
          (1) * * *
          (2) University-based centers for homeland security.--
                  (A) * * *
                  (B) Criteria for designation.--Criteria for 
                the designation of colleges or universities as 
                a center for homeland security, shall include, 
                but are not limited to, demonstrated expertise 
                in--

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *

                          (xv) Countering violent extremism.

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *
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