IB 
Union Calendar No. 263 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2899 
[Report No. 114–344] 
To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to authorize the Office for 
Countering Violent Extremism. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 25, 2015 
Mr. MCCAUL introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Homeland Security 
NOVEMBER 19, 2015 
Additional sponsors: Mr. KATKO, Mr. CARTER of Georgia, Mr. WALKER, Mr. 
DONOVAN, Ms. MCSALLY, Mr. KING of New York, and Mr. MARINO 
NOVEMBER 19, 2015 
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 
House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on June 25, 2015] 
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A BILL 
To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to authorize 
the Office for Countering Violent Extremism. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Countering Violent Ex-
tremism Act of 2015’’ or the ‘‘CVE Act’’. 
SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION OF THE OFFICE FOR COUNTERING 
VIOLENT EXTREMISM OF THE DEPARTMENT 
OF HOMELAND SECURITY. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Title I of the Homeland Security 
Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 101 et seq.) is amended by adding 
at the end the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 104. OFFICE FOR COUNTERING VIOLENT EXTREMISM. 
‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is in the Department 
an Office for Countering Violent Extremism. The head of 
the Office shall be the Assistant Secretary for Countering 
Violent Extremism, who shall be appointed by the Sec-
retary. The Secretary shall also appoint a career Deputy 
Assistant Secretary for Countering Violent Extremism. 
‘‘(b) ASSIGNMENT
OF PERSONNEL.—The Secretary 
shall assign or hire, as appropriate, permanent staff to the 
Office for Countering Violent Extremism. In carrying out 
this subsection, the Secretary shall, to the maximum extent 
practicable, seek to assign to or hire for the Office an indi-
vidual who has a demonstrated background in technical 
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matters, on and offline media, communications, or mar-
keting. 
‘‘(c) SUPPORT.—The Secretary shall appoint within 
each appropriate component and office of the Department, 
including at a minimum, U.S. Customs and Border Protec-
tion, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, United 
States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Office of 
Privacy, the National Protection and Programs Direc-
torate, the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the 
Secret Service, and the Science and Technology Directorate, 
an individual to serve as liaison to the Office for Coun-
tering Violent Extremism. 
‘‘(d) RESPONSIBILITIES.—The Assistant Secretary for 
Countering Violent Extremism shall be responsible for the 
following: 
‘‘(1) Coordinating the Department’s activities to 
counter violent extremism across all the components 
and offices of the Department that conduct strategic 
and supportive activities to counter violent extre-
mism. Such activities shall include the following: 
‘‘(A) Identifying risk factors that contribute 
to violent extremism in communities in the 
United States and potential remedies for use by 
Government and non-government institutions. 
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‘‘(B) Identifying populations targeted by 
violent extremist propaganda, messaging, or re-
cruitment. 
‘‘(C) Managing the outreach and engage-
ment activities of the Department directed to-
ward communities at risk for radicalization and 
recruitment for violent extremist activities. 
‘‘(D) Ensuring relevant information, em-
pirically-valid research, and products inform ac-
tivities to counter violent extremism. 
‘‘(E) Developing and maintaining a De-
partment-wide strategy guiding policies and pro-
grams to counter violent extremism. Such strat-
egy shall, at a minimum, address each of the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(i) The Department’s counter-mes-
saging program pursuant to paragraph (2), 
including a plan to leverage new and exist-
ing Internet, digital, and other technologies 
and social media platforms to counter vio-
lent extremism, as well as the best practices 
and lessons learned of other Federal, State, 
local, tribal, territorial, nongovernmental, 
and foreign partners engaged in similar 
counter-messaging activities. 
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‘‘(ii) The Department’s countering vio-
lent extremism-related engagement and out-
reach activities. 
‘‘(iii) The use of cooperative agree-
ments with State, local, tribal, territorial, 
and other Federal departments and agencies 
responsible for activities relating to coun-
tering violent extremism. 
‘‘(iv) Ensuring all activities related to 
countering violent extremism fully respect 
the privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties 
of all Americans. 
‘‘(v) The development of qualitative 
and quantitative outcome-based metrics to 
evaluate the Department’s programs and 
policies to counter violent extremism. 
‘‘(F) Identifying and recommending new re-
search and analysis requirements in consultation 
with the Under Secretary for Science and Tech-
nology and the Under Secretary for Intelligence 
and Analysis and ensure the dissemination of 
information and methods to Federal, State, local, 
tribal, and territorial countering violent extre-
mism practitioners, officials, law enforcement, 
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