{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.lankford.senate.gov/news/press-releases/icymi-lankford-raises-concerns-on-ai-scams-fentanyl-and-terror-financing-at-worldwide-threats-hearing/", "ICYMI: Lankford Raises Concerns on AI Scams, Fentanyl, and Terror Financing at Worldwide Threats Hearing", "2026-03-20", "2026", "2026-03", "Republican", "Senate", "OK", "James Lankford", "L000575", "www.lankford.senate.gov", "lankford", "https://www.lankford.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "page_html", "WASHINGTON, DC \u2014 US Senator James Lankford (R-OK), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, questioned intelligence community officials during the Committee\u2019s annual Worldwide Threat Assessment hearing, raising concerns about the rise in international scams targeting Americans, coordination with state and local law enforcement to combat narcotics trafficking, and terrorist networks, including the Muslim Brotherhood.\n\nExcerpts:\n\nOn international scams and AI-enabled fraud:\n\nLankford: \u201cA lot of Oklahomans I talk to, and quite frankly folks even outside the state, when they think about threats\u2026 they think about the threat to their family\u2026 a lot of it is international scammers that are now reaching into the United States to be able to gather data or to be able to steal money from them.\u201d\n\n\u201cFBI had noted that in 2024, it was almost $17 billion that was assumed lost to scammers\u2026 some estimates are as high as $50 billion on it.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis is accelerating at a pace that\u2019s pretty dramatic with the use of AI on this.\u201d\n\nFBI Director Patel: \u201cWhat we\u2019re doing on the homeland is going out into the streets of America, on the online platforms in America, and shutting down those networks and shutting down the capability of AI to interfere.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe scam center compounds are largely located in Cambodia and Burma and on the Thai border\u2026 we\u2019ve\u2026 eliminated and scuttled\u2026 numerous compounds\u2026 and\u2026 go into those countries and shut down every single scam center compound.\u201d\n\nOn counter-narcotics and law enforcement partnerships:\n\nLankford: \u201cThe counter-narcotics work has been phenomenal\u2026 What I\u2019m interested in is how are you partnering with local law enforcement to continue to accelerate this process?\u201d\n\nFBI Director Patel: \u201cThe counter-narcotics mission can\u2019t be complete without state and local law enforcement. We are embedding more task force officers across the country\u2026 and\u2026 stood up\u2026 the Southern Border Intelligence Center\u2026\u201d\n\n\u201cWe seized enough fentanyl in 2025 to kill 178 million Americans\u2026 Opioid overdose deaths\u2026 dropped 20 points\u2026 and in Oklahoma\u2026 enough fentanyl to kill 500,000 Oklahomans.\u201d\n\nOn terrorist financing and the Muslim Brotherhood:\n\nLankford: \u201cThe annual threat assessment highlights this year the Muslim Brotherhood in particular\u2026 How is the Muslim Brotherhood financing itself\u2026 and is there something that we need to do here to\u2026 protect Americans?\u201d\n\nCIA Director Ratcliffe: \u201cWith regard to the Muslim Brotherhood\u2026 the CIA is very focused on the counterterrorism front\u2026\u201d\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ve accomplished more in the last year than in the four years of the prior administration combined.\u201d\n\nYou can watch Lankford\u2019s full exchange HERE. You can download it HERE.\n\n###", 1, "2026-04-04T05:28:40Z", "2026-04-04T05:30:10Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.lankford.senate.gov/news/press-releases/icymi-lankford-raises-concerns-on-ai-scams-fentanyl-and-terror-financing-at-worldwide-threats-hearing/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0104798711836338, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}