ICYMI: RM Kamlager-Dove Delivers Remarks at Hearing on Terrorism in South and Central Asia

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37), Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia, delivered remarks at a subcommittee hearing entitled, "Assessing the Terror Threat Landscape in South and Central Asia and Examining Opportunities for Cooperation."

You can watch her remarks as delivered here and read the transcript below:

I am glad that this sub-committee is having our first regional hearing on such a critical bipartisan issue. And just off script, you know, counter-terrorism is not a Republican or a Democratic issue and nor should it be. And it shouldn't be subjected to the partisanship that we are seeing in these halls, and I know that there's so many hearings that are put on for the culture wars and the clickbaits, and this is not one of them. And I applaud the Chair for working to get this back on the schedule.

Though I believe there are many reasons why we should be invested in the future of South and Central Asia, being an effective and credible partner on counter-terrorism is particularly important. Just two months ago, we witnessed a terrible attack targeting civilians in Pahalgam, which set off a crisis between two nuclear powers. The threat remains serious. The world's largest concentration of U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations is in Central and South Asia. 

I want to focus in on particularly ISIS-K, the terrorist group that increasingly poses the greatest direct threat to the United States. ISIS-K is the most lethal branch of ISIS, and is internationalizing its recruitment to carry out attacks beyond the region. Successful high-profile operations in Russia and Iran in 2024 demonstrated the group's growing ability to direct and inspire atrocities around the world. ISIS-K has increasingly targeted Europe with plots foiled in Germany, Austria, Turkey, and France. I think we should all take seriously the U.S. intelligence community's warnings that the group's ultimate goal could include striking the U.S. homeland. Although ISIS-K's operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan remain a serious concern, an important enabler of the group's expanding global reach is its ability to recruit and radicalize individuals from Central Asian states. Political repression, lack of economic opportunity, community fragmentation from mass labor migration, and governance failures and corruption all create grievances among Central Asian nationals that ISIS-K is quick to weaponize. Added to that, a lack of education and poor media literacy increases people's vulnerability to online propaganda that ISIS-K is aggressively disseminating. 

Like many of the foreign policy challenges we face, addressing and preventing the threat of ISIS-K from ever reaching our shores requires the U.S. to be engaged and proactive, not isolationist and retreating. And dealing with a challenge as complex and persistent as terrorism requires a multi-faceted and well-resourced foreign policy toolbox, including security cooperation, public diplomacy, economic support, development, and intelligence. Unfortunately, I'm concerned that this administration has eliminated many of the tools we have used to address the terrorist threat in the region, removing lines of defense we have had in place for decades. In fact, it's hard to imagine what resources will be left if U.S. foreign assistance is cut by 84%. How much of the remaining funds will even be devoted to South and Central Asia if it's all merged into an "America First" opportunity slush fund, or whatever that is? Or what personnel will be available to support counter-terrorism efforts if we're firing entire chunks of the Department, including RIFs supposedly going out tomorrow to the counter-terrorism unit? 

But even if we ignore all of that, the administration has already taken actions that I'm worried have sabotaged our ability to combat terrorism in the region: illegally dismantling the U.S. Institute of Peace, which was supporting the repatriation and reintegration of ISIS fighters to their home countries and breaking the cycle of extremism; and canceling U.S. assistance to civilians in Afghanistan, contributing to a worsening humanitarian crisis; terminating USAID's Countering Violent Extremism and Economic Development programs that were critical to addressing the drivers of radicalization in Central Asia; and then shutting down RFE/RL, including its local Tajik network Radio Ozodi.

If this committee is serious about countering terrorism—and we should be, and I believe this Chair [Huizenga] is—it is essential that we not only maintain hard capabilities, but deploy the tools that help our partners address the root causes of terrorism and radicalization. It is time for us to stand up and talk about these issues. I look forward to working with my colleagues on this important bipartisan issue. And with that, I yield back.