Former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg has pledged that, if elected president, his administration would allocate $1 billion to combat anti-Semitism and violent extremism.
The Democratic candidate told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that his “administration will devote $1 billion to prevent and combat radicalization and violent extremism. We will empower law enforcement by increasing the FBI’s domestic counter-terrorism field staff and pass federal legislation to expand our ability to track hate.”
Moreover, he said, “to combat the violent extremism that continues metastasizing online, we will dedicate federal funding for technology innovation and training to improve the software tools that track extremism.”
Buttigieg expressed support for the Never Again Education Act, bipartisan legislation that has been introduced in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. If enacted, it would create a grant program at the U.S. Department of Education to enable teachers across the United States the resources and training necessary to teach students about the Holocaust and its lessons.
The candidate also pledged to increase funding for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which allows religious institutions and other nonprofits to protect themselves.
He said that he would “direct the Justice Department’s Community Relations Service, which works to strengthen the ability of communities to prevent and solve conflicts, to prioritize its efforts to combat anti-Semitism and reduce tensions in communities where anti-Semitic incidents occur.”
Finally, he vowed to “create an interagency task force that works on combating all forms of bigotry and hate, including rising anti-Semitism. This task force will coordinate and leverage the resources of the federal government to address anti-Semitism domestically.”
