Continue to occur We must as a people maintain our resolve and we must as a nation strengthen our fortitude. We need to expand our resources and become more vigilant in defending ourselves, our fellow Americans and our way of life. This task will never be easy. But what gives me hope is that there are people like Congressman Josh Gottheimer who has and continues to work tirelessly for bipartisan solutions to fight for the betterment of our country and the protection of its citizens. I thank him for all he does. We in the Fifth Congressional District of New Jersey are fortunate to have him as our federal representative and I am proud to introduce you to him now so we could speak more about his new Anti-terror legislation. Thank you. Good morning. Thank you all for being here today. You so much for welcoming us. I wanna thank our fire Chief. Ron Stokes Assistant Fire Chief Bill Murray, New Milford Police Chief Brian Clancy Jersey's Firefighters Mutual Benevolent Association, the FM VA. Who's here? Bob Allen, members of the New Milford Council who are here. Council, including Councilman Grant and of course, Jimmy and Barbara Drake. Standing here together this week with the Drakes with Jimmy and Barbara knew Milford's leadership in our brave first responders and the entire community to remember the great life of Darren Drake for all he gave to us and what they took from us when they took him and so many other innocent souls. We stand in solidarity and we look forward with hope and to create change. Remembering Darren Also reminds us. We must always remain vigilant in the fight against terror. Today. I'm announcing two concrete steps in the fight against terror to help protect our homeland and democracy and help prevent homegrown terrorists from striking in our country through terror trucks, an online weapons of attack 18 years after 911. Thanks to our nation's remarkable intelligence, community and law enforcement, we have made monumental progress in the global fight against terror, but that. Is not over. We must never get logged into a false sense of complacency because that's when they strike. Just this weekend are incredibly brave US. Special operations forces successfully in heroically carrying out an operation targeting and killing Isis leader Abu Bakar, all back daddy that daddy recognized for his brutality transform the Islamic State into a global terrorist network. It killed thousands of people around the world, including a churches in Sri Lanka, an office party in San Bernardino, California, and a truck attack in these France. Not all their soldiers trained in the California are using or using traditional weapons. Over the years, we've seen terror in New forms with new strategies and flick harm on our great democracy. Now instead of training in Northern Africa, Isis is converting radicalizing and teaching online. That's what killed. On the bike in New York, it lead to the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, and the G hottest bombings in Chelsea in New York. The New Jersey Office of Homeland Security repaired has declared homegrown violent extremists as the single highest threat to the state of New Jersey this year. So has the Fbi. Even in the last several months, homegrown terrorists with connections to Hezbollah and Hamas have it struck here in New Jersey. They were radicalized online. We see a new threat. we must always stay a step ahead through intelligence and might both in the field and online. Our law enforcement National security teams have developed remarkable tools to stay a step ahead of those seeking to do us harm. There's more we can do and today I'm addressing two plans of attack to Ward off these terrorist threats. First, we know that vehicles continue to be used as new weapons of terror. yet in my opinion, and in J, Immy and Barbara's, we are still not taking the necessary measures to respond and prepare for this threat. It's something Jimmy and I talked about two years ago. We imposed new rules for screenings at airports after the shoe bomber struck. If you are a member yet we still haven't filled this glaring vulnerability in the war on terror. On Halloween in 2017, Darren and seven others were taken from us when an Isis inspired homegrown terrorist drove a rented truck onto a bike path in Lower Manhattan. Unfortunately, that wasn't the first or last time that vehicles were used as terrorist weapons. In fact, Indiana Isis literature found online. There is literally a road map showing how to showing how to rent and use a truck as a terrorist weapon to spread fear and cause Mass casualties. That's right. You literally can find it online as a guide for homegrown Isis inspired terrorists in 1990, -, three Ramsey Yousef and I The U Haul in Jersey City drove into a parking garage beneath the World Trade Center and detonated a bomb, killing six people and injuring more than a thousand in 2016. In Nice on the steel day, a nice sense inspired terrorist rented a 19 ton cargo truck and drove into crowds, killing 86 people and injuring more than 400 in 2017 in London, three terrorists inspired by the Islamic State rented a car and drove into pedestrians on London Bridge, killing eight people and injuring. Another 50. In Edmonton, Canada, just a month before the attack alarm Manhattan, a man struck four people with the U Haul, including a Canadian police officer. He then stabbed multiple times. I Ceos black flag with him in his vehicle during the attack in 2018, a terrorist drove a car into security barriers outside UK parliament during London's morning rush hour, injuring several innocent people. Then just last month, a man drove an SUV through a suburban Chicago Mall, Illinois largest shopping Center, causing Mass chaos and panic and an attack he'd researched carefully and planned for weeks just. Weeks ago, a man in Lindberg, Germany stole and hijacked a truck and drove it into getting traffic. In other words, these are not just random occurrences. They represent a new weapon of Mass destruction deployed by terrorists in their fight against peace and democracy. The new bipartisan legislation that I'm introducing today. the Darren Drake Act will help stop this new weapon of Mass destruction, terrorist trucks and will prevent vehicles from being deployed as well. Parent When an active the Darren Drake Act will help US Ford, Isis inspired and homegrown terrorist attacks by requiring that all vehicle dealers and rental companies match critical information against dangerous individuals who may be on the government's terror watch list. Terrorist attempts to rent a van or a pickup truck. That company will immediately alert our federal counter terrorism agencies just like how the TSA checks passenger information against the no fly list, helping stop a terrorist from boarding a plane. Law enforcement will know if a potential terrorist has attempted to rent a vehicle capable of a Mass terrorist attack. The Department of Homeland Security and TSA will provide rental companies and car dealers with the information they need to flag and stop a potential threat in its tracks all rental car. Will be required to report suspicious behavior at every single point of sale. No excuses. The bill also requires the Department of Homeland Security to report to Congress on how this effort is protecting our country against terrorist threats and to identify any additional gaps in cooperation between rental companies and our National security apparatus. I look forward to continuing working with my Republican cosponsor Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, who met with Jimmy and Barbara Drake in Washington. Tell pass this critical legislation. We've been working now, four years on this. We've been last months on this incredibly hard with the Committee with all parties. I'm making incredible progress and Jimmy and Barbara have also in the last year's been in Washington with me helping make the case. Now it's not just Isis inspired lone Wolf terrorists who can use vehicles. Weapons, White supremacists and other homegrown hate mongers are also on the rise. We must take swift action against them as well and their anti-semitism, Islamophobia and other forms of bigotry. According to Fbi statistics, there were 17 percent increase in overall hate crimes from 2016 to 2017. right here at home, the Anti-Defamation League rank New Jersey third in the nation and anti-Semitic incidents. For this past year, all of these hate driven violence is unacceptable and must be stopped cold. In its tracks, aside from physical weapons of war, we must also take additional steps to stop terrorists from utilizing social media as an online weapon of attack. We've made great progress thanks to our excellent work of law enforcement and our National security teams on this front and many of our tech companies have also helped take steps. But this is an area that we all know innovates quickly and moves fast. We must stay ahead of it. We must do everything we. Just scrape the Internet and social media of their ability to brainwash to send signals to communicate to radicalize and to convert to hate. Last week, I stood with a bipartisan group of my colleagues in Washington to sound the alarm on Twitter, which is actively allowing Hezbollah and Hamas twoG hottest terrorist organizations to maintain accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers on their platform. There's simply no reason why terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah determined to kill Americans and our allies deserves access to Twitter's user base and platform to promote themselves as sponsors of violent radical hate-filled extremism. So we've. That by no later than November first, the Twitter follow US law immediately change their policies and cut off. all handles affiliated with Thomas has Bella and all foreign terrorist organizations. Google and Facebook have already taken concrete steps. I strongly urge Twitter to follow the US law and comply as well. Now I'm sure there are those out there who will say that there's nothing more we can do to protect Jersey families from terrorism. I know I hear. I simply refuse to accept that we all refuse to accept that by moving this new bipartisan legislation that Darren Drake Act forward, and by demanding that our social that our American social media companies stopped providing a platform for terrorists, just few hate and violent extremism. We are charting a new safer path forward, and we are standing up for our American values. Those are the concrete steps we are and must take finally. I'd like to take a moment to remember each of the victims of terrorism. those we lost on 911 before and ever since. Especially our brave first responders who have always gotten our backs and continued to today and I know we are all so grateful to you and to what you do for us. While in New Jersey communities and our nation lost so much that day, we also learn just how resilient we can be and how strong we must remain and they continued face of terror. I couldn't be more honored to have this legislation being Darren 's name You know we all read countless stories. I've heard countless stories from his friends and from his family. An honest, kind talented young man that he was. And I mean, I I've heard so many stories from Jimmy and Barbara and time we spent together. And to this day, I don't know how they get up and put one foot in front of another, but they do whether it's John's work on the school board at the office in Class. People just loved Darren, and I think Darren loved everyone. I think he was infectious that way. and there's a reason why there's a plaque remembering him just a few feet from us. I just wish I could spend time with them. Our community and the state of New Jersey and our country will always remember Darren as our own. So thank you Jimmy and Barbara for always being here for standing Strong for standing with me and with all of us and with this wonderful community and for fighting on in Darwin's name. Protect others to save others So today we remember Darren and we look forward to ourselves to take these next steps in the war on terror because here in the greatest country in the world, I believe if we stand together in solidarity as Americans first before Democrats and Republicans, we will always ensure that our best days are ahead of us. Thank you. May God bless you. Continue to watch over and bless the Drake family in the United States of America and with that I have the very distinct honor to introduce the Drake family and Mister Drink.