Senate passes bill targeting hate crimes against Asian Americans

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday approved a bill designed to make it easier for law enforcement to investigate hate crimes against Asian Americans after a surge in violence amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a rare, if fleeting, moment of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill, senators approved the bill 94-1.

“We will send a powerful message of solidarity to the AAPI community that the Senate will not be a bystander as antiAsian violence surges in our country,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, ahead of the vote.

Hirono, who led the bill, cited the more than 3,800 anti-Asian hate crimes reported around the country in the last year, according to research by Stop AAPI Hate. Days after Hirono introduced the bill last month, a gunman killed eight people, including six Asian women, in attacks at three spas in Georgia.

The bill would designate one Justice Department official to expedite review of potential hate crimes against Asian Americans. It would also set up a voluntary database of hate crimes and issue guidance to help local law enforcement make it easier for people to report crimes. And it would help local agencies develop public education campaigns on prevention and reporting of crimes.

“More reporting of hate crimes will provide us with increased data and a more accurate picture of the attacks that have been occurring against those of Asian descent,” said Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., who is the leading the bill’s effort in the House. “And a more centralized and unified way of reviewing these crimes would help to address the problem in a more effective manner.”

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who is Thai American and worked on the bill with Hirono, said that her mother was recently “harassed” at a grocery store.

“This bill will allow me to go home and tell my mom we did something about it,” she said after the vote. “This tells the AAPI community we see you, we will stand with you and we will protect you.”

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who was the only senator to vote against the bill, said it was “too broad.”

“As a former prosecutor,” he said, “my view is it’s dangerous to simply give the federal government open-ended authority to define a whole new class of federal hate crime incidents.”