Bipartisan House Vote Recognizes National Guard Victims of Suspected Terrorist Shooting

The House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution Monday honoring two National Guard members who were shot in what federal authorities are investigating as a terror attack near the White House last month.

The legislation passed by voice vote, with lawmakers forgoing an individual roll call in favor of unanimous consent. The resolution honors Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, both of whom were attacked just blocks from the nation’s most secure address.

Here is what we know: The alleged shooter is an Afghan refugee who entered the United States through Operation Allies Welcome during the chaotic military withdrawal from Kabul in 2021. This fact alone should raise serious questions about the vetting process that was supposedly in place during that withdrawal.

Let us be clear about what happened here. Two American service members, standing guard in their nation’s capital, were shot by someone who was brought into this country as part of a rushed evacuation that critics warned at the time was insufficiently vetted. The Biden administration assured Americans that proper screening procedures were in place. The shooting of these two National Guardsmen suggests otherwise.

The unanimity of the House vote demonstrates that honoring these service members transcends partisan politics. That is appropriate. Beckstrom and Wolfe were serving their country when they were attacked, and they deserve recognition and support as they recover from their injuries.

However, the broader policy questions cannot be ignored simply because there is bipartisan agreement on honoring the victims. Operation Allies Welcome brought tens of thousands of Afghan refugees into the United States in a matter of weeks. The expedited nature of that process meant that normal vetting procedures were either compressed or bypassed entirely. National security experts warned about this at the time, and those warnings were dismissed as heartless or xenophobic.

Facts do not care about feelings, and the facts here are troubling. A person admitted to the United States through a program designed to help those who assisted American forces is now suspected of attacking American service members on American soil. This is not an argument against helping genuine allies. This is an argument for proper vetting procedures that protect American citizens and service members.

The investigation into whether this was indeed a terror attack continues. Federal authorities are examining the shooter’s background, motivations, and any potential connections to terrorist organizations. These are questions that should have been thoroughly answered before this individual was allowed into the country.

Congress did the right thing in unanimously honoring Beckstrom and Wolfe. Now lawmakers must do the harder work of examining how someone brought here under Operation Allies Welcome could allegedly carry out an attack on American service members. The American people deserve answers about what went wrong with the vetting process and what steps are being taken to prevent similar incidents.

Supporting our troops means more than passing resolutions after they are attacked. It means ensuring they are protected in the first place.

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