The Wall Street Journal - 23.08.2019

A4| Friday, August 23, 2019 PWLC101112HTGKBFAM123456789OIXX THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

The award will have a 15-

member selection committee

made up of former players,

current coaches and others,

Mr. Rubio said. Organizers are

commissioning a bronze trophy

and working with presenting

partner Bernie’s Book Bank, a

nonprofit, to plan a 350-person

end-of-season banquet in the

Chicago area.

The David Binn Award,

named for former San Diego

Chargers long snapper David

Binn, quietly launched last year

with no website, no banquet and

little involvement from Mr. Binn

himself. The award was born on

a Twitter account that issued a

preseason watch list then whit-

tled down the number of candi-

dates as the season wore on.

Newspapers including the

Times-Picayune in New Orleans

and the Los Angeles Times re-

ported on the award, as did

college football blogs and uni-

versities’ athletic websites.

But the David Binn Award

remained shrouded in mystery.

Some speculated it was a hoax.

Mike Hlas of the Gazette in Ce-

dar Rapids, Iowa, declared it

“either a spoof or the work of

one person with a deep love of

snapping.”

Even the first Binn Award

winner, Louisiana State long

snapper Blake Ferguson, didn’t

know where it came from. He

learned he had won the award

in December through social

media.

“They had tagged me in

their tweet,” he said. “And then

they reached out via direct

message to kind of congratu-

late me and all that.”

In fact, the Binn Award’s

founder is Matt Wigley, a for-

mer San Jose State long snap-

per who trains long snappers

in Southern California. He said

he was more interested in hon-

oring active long snappers and

Mr. Binn, whom he had long

admired, than in generating

publicity for himself or his

business.

“People were trying really,

really hard, trying to figure out

who ran it,” said Mr. Wigley,

who was surprised by how

much attention the award re-

ceived. He said he had a four-

person award selection com-

mittee but declined to name its

members.

Mr. Binn, in an interview,

said Mr. Wigley told him the

idea for the award and kept

him posted about the candi-

dates.

The two long snapper

awards have surfaced even as

the organization that sanctions

the top college football awards

recently placed a two-year

moratorium on adding new

ones.

“Frankly, there’s a prolifera-

tion of awards,” said Mark

Wolpert, president of the Na-

tional College Football Awards

Association.

To consider adding an

award to its list of 25 sanc-

tioned honors, the NCFAA re-

quires, among other things,

that it be presented for five

consecutive years, hold a pre-

sentation event such as a lun-

cheon and not be a duplicate of

an existing NCFAA award. Nei-

ther long snapping award yet

makes the cut.

Mr. Wigley said this season

he planned to expand the scope

of the Binn Award to include

long snappers in the sport’s

lower levels such as Division

III—a reaction, he said, to the

Mannelly Award, which will go

to the best long snapper in the

top-level Football Bowl Subdi-

vision.

Organizers of the Mannelly

and Binn awards agree on one

thing: They were both inspired

by yet another award, Holder

of the Year, which started as a

joke. The holder catches long

snaps, then places and holds

the ball upright—like Lucy in

“Peanuts” comics—so kickers

can attempt field goals and ex-

tra points after touchdowns.

In 2015, University of Min-

nesota punter and holder Peter

Mortell created the award for

the best holder, named it the

Mortell Award—the HOTY for

short—and bestowed it on

himself in a tweet that went vi-

ral. He filmed a tongue-in-

cheek speech that ESPN aired

on its annual college football

awards show, and soon after

that the HOTY became a real

thing.

Mr. Mortell has given out

the award three more times

and plans to do it again this

season. On the long snapper

awards, he said he’s not sure

two awards for one position

can survive but wishes them

well.

“Some of my best friends

are long snappers,” he said.

Retired long snapper Patrick Mannelly hiked the ball during NFL

training camp when he played for the Chicago Bears in 2013.

NAM Y. HUH/ASSOCIATED PRESS

achievement in long snapping.
The weird thing is, someone
beat them to it. The David Binn
Award was launched last sea-
son under very different cir-
cumstances.
Mr. Rubio’s award, the Man-
nelly Award, is named for Pat-
rick Mannelly, a former long
snapper for the Chicago Bears.
He helped create the award,
along with Mr. Rubio and
sports agent Kevin Gold.
The Mannelly Award already
has a slick website that lauds
long snappers as selfless and
courageous. “The nurse who
hands the right instrument to
the surgeon is a Long Snap-
per,” the site reads. “The legal
professional who works late
into the night doing the re-
search that uncovers the prece-
dent that wins the case is a
Long Snapper.”

ContinuedfromPageOne

New Honors

For Long

Snappers

WASHINGTON—President

Trump has decided not to

move ahead with a plan to cut

about $4 billion in foreign-aid

funding after coming under

criticism from lawmakers in

both parties, according to ad-

ministration officials.

White House officials had

previously said they expected

to release the proposal this

week, but Mr. Trump backed

away from the effort after

hearing from lawmakers and

opponents within his adminis-

tration, the officials said.

Instead, the administration

plans to attempt to redirect

some of the funds to other pri-

orities, including projects fa-

vored by Ivanka Trump, the

president’s daughter and senior

adviser, and Vice President

Mike Pence.

The White House’s Office of

Management and Budget had

initially proposed to cut a total

of $4.3 billion in funding for

State Department and the U.S.

Agency for International Devel-

opment programs, including

humanitarian, human-rights

and United Nations initiatives.

But Secretary of State Mike

Pompeo and Treasury Secre-

tary Steven Mnuchin, along

with influential Republican

lawmakers, argued against the

cuts, officials said. In a series

of private discussions in recent

days, Mr. Pompeo countered

that the money could be redi-

rected to programs that better

align with the administration’s

priorities, a senior administra-

tion official said.

Mr. Trump ultimately de-

cided in favor of that option, as

it avoided an unnecessary con-

frontation with Congress, the

official said. Instead of cutting

the funding altogether, the ad-

ministration intends to try to

reprogram the funds. Two ad-

ministration officials said Mr.

Trump endorsed a proposal to

shift funding away from pro-

grams in Guatemala, Honduras,

Pakistan and the West Bank.

The administration will at-

tempt to move the money to

priority programs such as a

women’s global development

initiative backed by Ms. Trump

and an effort backed by Mr.

Pence to protect Christians and

religious minorities in the Mid-

dle East, the other official said.

The Trump administration’s

effort to freeze the funds had

threatened to confound the al-

ready delicate process to avoid

a government shutdown this

fall. Although Congress and the

administration have already

agreed to new spending levels,

they must still reach a series of

deals on funding levels for indi-

vidual agencies and programs

before Oct. 1.

A clash between the legisla-

tive and executive branches on

a comparatively small amount

of foreign-aid funding could

have distracted from that task,

increasing the possibility of a

government shutdown.

—Andrew Duehren

contributed to this article.

BYANDREWRESTUCCIA

ANDJESSICADONATI

Trump

Backs Off

Cuts in

Foreign Aid

In addition, domestic ter-

rorism isn’t a federal crime in

itself, though there are pro-

posals in Congress to change

that.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, ter-

rorist attacks, much of the

FBI’s focus shifted to threats

from the Middle East. Thou-

sands of special agents were

reassigned. The bureau essen-

tially remains on that footing,

identifying global terrorism as

its priority.

FBI officials now say that

right-wing domestic terrorism

poses just as serious a threat.

In the fiscal year that ended in

September, the bureau made

about 100 international-terror-

ism arrests and 115 arrests re-

lated to domestic terror.

Far-right ideologies encom-

pass a range of views, includ-

ing white nationalism, white

supremacy, neo-Nazism, as

well as other antigovernment

or anti-immigrant views. Not

all groups or individuals affili-

ated with those ideologies es-

pouse violence. There are also

concerns, including from Pres-

ident Trump, about left-wing

self-described antifascist

groups.

The nonpartisan centrist

think tank New America esti-

mates Islamic extremists have

killed 104 people in the U.S.

since the Sept. 11 attacks,

while people inspired by far-

right ideologies have killed

109.

Data from New Jersey au-

thorities found that 25 out of

the 46 domestic-terrorism

suspects nationwide in 2018

appeared motivated by white

supremacy, eclipsing other

motivations and ideologies.

The FBI started developing

strategies for addressing the

domestic threat by analyzing

how they successfully targeted

international terrorists

through undercover work and

sting operations, a senior

counterterrorism official re-

cently said. It directed more

manpower and support toward

domestic threats.

The FBI also this year

formed what it calls a domes-

tic terrorism-hate crimes “fu-

sion cell” designed to bring to-

gether agents assigned to

civil-rights cases and counter-

terrorism.

Americans’ rights to speak,

organize in groups and even

stockpile firearms are largely

protected by the Constitution.

As a result, the law-enforce-

ment response to domestic

terrorism has been largely re-

million to federal candidates

and political committees, the

fastest its donations have

topped $1 million since at least

the 2010 cycle, according to

FEC data.

The group also contributed

$10,000 each to the Demo-

cratic Congressional Campaign

Committee and the Democratic

U.S. NEWS

gram, including donations and

advertisements to back Repub-

licans and Democrats in con-

gressional races. The amount

also includes operational costs

that aren’t subject to federal

filing requirements; the group

declined to say how that total

compares with its spending in

previous election cycles.

“Our goal is to support can-

didates who understand and

appreciate the critical role

banks of all sizes play in the

economy,” said Rob Nichols,

the ABA’s chief executive. “We

plan to expand our efforts in

2020 on a rigorously biparti-

san basis.”

In the 2018 midterm cy-

cle, the ABA spent more than

$1.5 million on political ads,

polling and other research, the

group said. In addition, it con-

tributed $3.5 million to candi-

dates and other political com-

mittees, according to Federal

Election Commission filings.

The group backed four

Democratic and eight Republi-

can candidates, including Dean

Heller, a former Republican

senator from Nevada, and Sen.

Jon Tester, a Montana Demo-

crat.

So far this year through the

end of July, it contributed $1.

Senatorial Campaign Commit-

tee, and $15,000 apiece to the

National Republican Congres-

sional Committee and the Na-

tional Republican Senatorial

Committee. The group de-

clined to comment on the dif-

ference in the amounts.

The Consumer Bankers Asso-

ciation, which represents big

and regional banks, expects to

raise upwards of $200,000, on

par with previous years, and the

Independent Community Bank-

ers of America, representing

smaller banks, said it plans to

focus more on social-media ads

in 2020.

The ABA’s advertisements

in the 2018 cycle included one

supporting Rep. Ted Budd (R.,

N.C.) that featured Kelly Earn-

hardt Miller—a North Carolina

banker and the daughter of

race-car legend Dale Earn-

hardt. The group also ran

Spanish-language video ads

and a print ad in Vietnamese

in support of Rep. Lou Correa

(D., Calif.).

So far this election cycle,

the ABA is the biggest political

action committee in terms of

donations to federal candi-

dates, according to the Center

for Responsive Politics.

In an era where politics

play out on social media,

banks are working to sell their

message to a broader public,

shifting the focus to their role

in the U.S. economy away from

business practices such as

risky mortgages that fed the

financial crisis. They also are

attaching their names to

newsletters, glossy magazine

ads and public-policy events.

The industry’s efforts ha-

ven’t always hit their marks.

“Is Bank of America really

sponsoring this?” Sen. Bernie

Sanders (I., Vt.), a 2020 presi-

dential candidate who has ad-

vocated for breaking up big

banks, said at a July Washing-

ton Post event on the presi-

dential election, with the

bank’s logo overhead.

The industry has pressed for

regulatory victories by focus-

ing on what it says are burdens

faced by small and midsize

banks, arguing that lower costs

to comply with rules and regu-

lations could mean more loans

are made to small businesses

and consumers. In May 2018,

this approach led to bipartisan

support for the most compre-

hensive rollback of the finan-

cial rulebook since the crisis.

—Chad Day

contributed to this article.

WASHINGTON—Banks plan
to be more active in the 2020
elections, with a large industry
group promising to boost cam-
paign spending and political
advertising after keeping a rel-
atively low profile in the de-
cade after the financial crisis.
The industry’s re-emer-
gence in the political arena
comes amid a friendlier tone
in Washington during the
Trump administration. Con-
gress and financial regulators
have sought to ease capital
rules, limits on trading and
other restrictions placed on
banks by the Obama adminis-
tration after the 2008 crisis,
arguing the financial system is
more resilient now.
“They’re using the current
thaw in what had been a
pretty contentious relation-
ship between Wall Street and
D.C. to tell their story a little
better,” said Ed Mills, manag-
ing director at Raymond
James Financial.
The American Bankers Asso-
ciation, a trade group that rep-
resents banks of all sizes, said
it plans to spend more than
$10 million in the 2020 elec-
tion cycle on its political pro-

BYLALITACLOZEL

Banks to Boost Campaign Spending

The American Bankers

Association’s contributions

to federal candidates and

other political committees

Note: Donations January through July in the

first year of each two-year election cycle.

Source: Federal Election Commission

2006

2008

2010

2012

2014

2016

2018

2020

$809,

1,043,

1,203,

941,

953,

913,

715,

1,311,

active—investigating and help-

ing prosecute attacks after

they occur.

Lawmakers from both par-

ties have made the case in re-

cent years to make domestic

terrorism a crime. Sen. Martha

McSally (R., Ariz.) and Rep.

Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) intro-

duced separate proposals last

week for a new domestic-ter-

rorism crime.

Other officials say other ap-

proaches could be used with-

out passing new laws that

many critics say could

threaten free-speech rights.

By treating domestic hate

groups as “criminal enter-

prises,” the FBI can pursue

federal racketeering, conspir-

acy or hate-crimes charges

that carry steep penalties, said

Adam Lee, a former high-rank-

ing FBI official who oversaw

hate-crimes cases and led the

Richmond field office during

the 2017 Charlottesville rally.

The Charlottesville attacker

was sentenced to life in prison

on hate-crimes charges.

But Barbara McQuade, a

former federal prosecutor who

now teaches law at the Univer-

sity of Michigan, says a do-

mestic-terrorism law could

help. She recalled working on

a 2010 case against Michigan

militia members who allegedly

threatened to kill police offi-

cers. The government charged

them with “seditious conspir-

acy,” via a little-used post-

Civil War law.

The judge, in dismissing the

conspiracy-related charges,

wrote that “offensive speech

and a conspiracy to do some-

thing other than forcibly resist

a positive show of authority

by the federal government is

not enough to sustain a charge

of seditious conspiracy.”

“Without a domestic terror-

ism statute,” Ms. McQuade

said, “it’s difficult.”

WASHINGTON—In the
weeks leading up to a 2017
white-nationalist rally in Char-
lottesville, Va., Federal Bureau
of Investigation analysts pored
over online forums frequented
by white supremacists and
other far-right extremists,
concerned a planned “Unite
the Right” rally had a poten-
tial for violence.
Investigators shared what
intelligence they could with
state and local authorities, a
person familiar with the inves-
tigation said.
But that didn’t stop vio-
lence at the rally. An avowed
white supremacist drove into a
crowd of counterprotesters,
killing a woman and injuring
many others, and more people
were hurt in other clashes.
Demands for federal law en-
forcement to do more to guard
against domestic terrorism—
particularly mass-casualty at-
tacks inspired by white su-
premacy or white-nationalist
ideologies—have grown since
the recent shootings in Texas,
Ohio and California. But the
Charlottesville case highlights
the limits of the FBI’s ability
to be proactive. Without evi-
dence of a planned violent act
or other crime, it can do little
to intervene.
U.S. authorities can ro-
bustly monitor international
terrorists with the goal of dis-
rupting plots before they oc-
cur. But severe legal con-
straints limit what the FBI can
do at home. And anything that
would allow more rigorous in-
telligence-gathering on purely
domestic threats could run
aground in the courts and
prompt criticism in Congress
from those who have opposed
expansion of surveillance au-
thority.

BYBYRONTAU
ANDSADIEGURMAN

Legal Curbs Hobble FBI on Domestic Terror

The man who drove into protesters in Charlottesville, Va., was prosecuted on hate-crime charges.

RYAN M. KELLY/THE DAILY PROGRESS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

FROM PAGE ONE