FBI Director Christopher Wray said the U.S. faces “elevated” threats to public safety and national security during a hearing with a House of Representatives panel on Thursday.
“Looking back over my career in law enforcement, I’d be hard-pressed to think of a time where so many threats to our public safety and national security were so elevated all at once,” Wray said before the House Appropriations subcommittee. “But that is the case as I sit here today. This is not a point when we can let up.”
Wray went before the committee to secure funding for the FBI in order to combat those threats. “This is by no means a time to let up or dial back. This is a time when we need your support the most — we need all the tools, all the people, and all the resources required to tackle these threats and to keep Americans safe,” Wray said.
According to Wray, the most immediate concern is an attack similar to the one that occurred in Moscow last month, perpetrated by Islamic terrorists.
“Our most immediate concern has been that individuals or small groups will draw twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home. But now increasingly concerning is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, akin to the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia Concert Hall a couple weeks ago,” said Wray.
Wray also urged Congress to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Legislation to extend Section 702 of the act was defeated on Wednesday after former President Donald Trump urged Republicans to “kill FISA.”
