How the 118th Congress Can Prevent Violent Conflict & Promote Peace in the United States

 
 

Publication Date: March 6, 2023

Publisher: Alliance for Peacebuilding

The Alliance for Peacebuilding urgently calls lawmakers to action to collectively work together to address grievances across the political spectrum and provide the necessary resources to fund vital programs to prevent and reduce violent conflict and extremism and build sustainable peace in the United States. Peacebuilding organizations across the country are working to address the drivers of increasing violence and extremism in the U.S., and now it is time for Congress to devote sufficient resources to their efforts.

The 118th Congress Can Build Sustainable Peace in the U.S. By:

  1. Doubling the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) domestic extremism grants program;

  2. Providing additional resources to DHS and its civil society partners to scale early warning systems;

  3. Investing in a new, holistic initiative to protect American democracy;

  4. Increasing funding for civic education;

  5. Providing funding and support for industry standards and regulatory or policy measures that promote a free and nonviolent internet;

  6. Expanding funding for U.S. peacebuilding initiatives;

  7. Supporting multiple federal agencies to integrate conflict prevention initiatives in existing programs and ensure interagency coordination;

  8. Advancing legislation that builds relationships across and within ideological and other identity-based divides in the U.S.';

  9. Supporting $225 million to improve police-community relations generally, as well as $150 million for a community-based violence intervention and prevention initiative;

  10. Increasing funding to agencies such as the National Institute of Justice, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services;

  11. Providing resources to feasible yet transformative approaches to U.S. policing, as modeled within Police2Peace’s Peace Officer Project and Promise;

  12. Reintroducing and passing the bill to create a Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Commission; and

  13. Passing H.R.61, the Leading Against White Supremacy Act of 2023, which aims to prevent and prosecute the commission and conspiracy to commit white supremacy-inspired hate crimes by expanding the scope of hate crimes as defined in title 18 of the U.S. Code.

Policy and AdvocacyNick ZuroskiPolicy Brief, AfP