I believe it is time for the U.S. House – and the Senate as well – to bring back the Committee on Internal Security, more popularly known as the House Committee on Un-American Activities, often referred to as HUAC. (A similar committee had existed in the Senate, called the Overman Committee, which investigated possible pro-German, Bolshevik, and other activities and propaganda deemed dangerous to the nation, from 1918–1919.)

In 1945, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H. Res. 5, 79th Congress, and authorized HUAC as a new permanent committee to make investigations of:

(1) the extent, character, and objects of un-American activities in the United States, (2) the diffusion within the United States of subversive and un-American propaganda that is instigated from foreign countries or of a domestic origin and attacks the principle of the form of government as guaranteed by our Constitution, and (3) all other questions in relation thereto that would aid Congress in any necessary remedial legislation.

HUAC, throughout its various permutations, focused on the United States’ struggle against communism, German nationalism and later Nazism, and Japanese militarism. 

The permanent committee of HUAC was a reaction to the Cold War and the decades-long U.S. international struggle against Soviet-sponsored communism. No doubt, many of our ill-educated citizens today don’t realize this, but starting in 1917, the Soviet Russian Empire was a deadly enemy of the United States, which sponsored communist groups throughout the world to overthrow the U.S. and allied democratic governments to install communist regimes. Communism, of course, was a system of government that was the antithesis of the U.S.’s democratic republic that valued human rights, individual rights, and supported capitalism. Among the communist rebels sponsored by the Soviets, beginning in 1919 under the Soviet Regime’s initial dictator, Vladimir Lenin, were communists and other radicals active in the U.S. Radical left-wingers in the U.S. were extremely violent – in 1919 and through the 1920s, the U.S. was rocked by bombings in eight cities, and attempted assassinations of government officials, including the U.S. Attorney General, from left-wing communists and anarchists. 

Today, the threats to the U.S. have multiplied exponentially, with at least four major ideological threats facing our nation. 

First, the Soviet-style communists are still around. They tend to dominate our colleges and universities, and many other institutions. They even have infiltrated the U.S. government; for example, John Brennan, the former head of the CIA, has admitted to having voted for the communist party in 1976, which he called a youthful “indiscretion” made because he was unhappy “with the system” and saw the “need for change.” Communist fundraisers and foot soldiers have participated in mass rioting in the U.S., including the anti-Semitic rioting in 2023-2024, and the George Floyd riots of 2020 that resulted in at least 25 deaths and could cost up to $2 billion in damages and interfered with the 2020 U.S. elections. 

They are connected with the other leftist instigators who are often sponsored by dangerous anti-American billionaires, such as George Soros, Neville Roy Singham and Jodie Evans, Pierre Omidyar, the Rockefeller family, and others. 

Second, there is also the menace of Red China: 

China is -- let’s not forget -- a communist state that is conducting a “soft war” of propaganda and espionage against the U.S.  For example, China continues to sponsor the controversial Confucius Institutes, spending more than $158 million since 2006 to place them in U.S. schools.  These institutes are placed on college campuses, but controlled, funded, and mostly staffed by the Chinese communist government.  They are not the innocent cultural centers offering Chinese language instruction they pretend to be.  In fact, their legacy is “an epidemic of self-censorship at U.S universities” that funnels students away from “topics likely to offend the Chinese Communist Party.”  Allegations of espionage have become quite common, prompting Congress to pass legislation barring universities with Confucius Institutes from also receiving money from the Defense Department.  Additional efforts to limit foreign control over these Institutes achieved some success in the Senate but has stalled in the House.  Chinese espionage expands well beyond university grounds.  In July 2020, FBI Director Christopher Wray put China’s threat in stark terms:  “The greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property and our economic vitality is the counterintelligence and economic espionage threats from China… 

TikTok, a very popular app in the U.S., is clearly “a tool of Chinese communist propaganda” that spreads propaganda to and gathers information from American citizens for China’s communists. Organizations with Communist Chinese ties have also been involved in the anti-Semitic rioting on campuses. 

Third, there is an Iranian influence problem as well. The National Iranian American Council (NIAC), an American-based interest group, is the de facto lobby of the Islamic Republic. And, as we all should know by now, the Islamic Republic is at war with the U.S. and is threatening to develop nuclear weapons. The Iran lobby in the U.S. has real influence with Robert Malley, the Biden-appointed U.S. Special Envoy for Iran, and a former advisor to former President Barack Obama, who is currently under investigation for mishandling classified information and on leave from the State Department without pay. Mr. Malley allegedly recruited a possible Iranian spy, Ariane Tabatabai, to join the State Department to assist him in his negotiations with Iran. And after 15 months, she moved to the Defense Department, where she still serves as the chief of staff to the Assistant Secretary for Special Operations for Low-Intensity Conflicts. 

Fourth, and last, but not least, there is the problem of Sunni Islamism, i.e., radical Sunni Islam, which can come either from international Islamist groups or Islamist nations like Qatar. Andy McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor and legal expert who is now at the National Review, has written several books on this subject, including “The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America.” Dr. Daniel Pipes, and his organization, the Middle East Forum (MEF – an organization I used to work for), also have focused on this continuing problem, most recently summarized in Pipes’ book “Islamism vs. The West, 35 Years of Geopolitical Struggle.” Qatar and other Islamist forces have provided to American educational institutions more than $1 billion in external funding. Worse, because of the Islamist lobby, the U.S. is funding some of these groups – "Of 60 federal grants, worth $15 million, given to Muslim organizations in 2022, $2 million went to groups “controlled by Islamists or involved in Islamist networks.” 

Establishing a new HUAC (and Senate version) would be immensely helpful in dealing with all of these growing national dangers. It certainly helped in the past (despite all the left-wing propaganda in American history texts against it). For example, Whittaker Chambers' testimony to HUAC about intricate Communist activity within the federal government had a major impact on the fight against communism, publicized the struggle, and exposed a high-level U.S. State Department official and communist spy, Alger Hiss. In addition to generating vast publicity on the dangers being investigated, the committees would also be empowered to pass legislation and conduct oversight of the government and major American institutions. There is a reason that this idea is supported by conservative idea man and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.