FBI Director Christopher Wray will warn Congress about the "elevated" terror threats facing the United States because of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
"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 will tell members of the House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Thursday, according to his prepared remarks reported by Fox News. "But that is the case as I sit here today. This is not a point when we can let up."
The FBI chief will call on Congress to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the U.S. government to monitor the communications of non-Americans outside the country without a warrant and not to slash the agency's budget in fiscal year 2024 spending proposal.
Wray said the FBI must be fully funded to "tackle these threats" and protect national security.
"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," he will testify.W
Wray also said there is "immediate concern" that bad actors influenced by the fighting in Gaza could carry out terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, pointing to the ISIS-K attack on a concert hall near Moscow that killed more than 140 people last month.
"...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," Wary will tell the lawmakers.
Hard-right Republicans in the House on Wednesday blocked reauthorizing FISA after former President Donald Trump wrote "KILL FISA" on his social media platform Truth Social.
