SENATE PASSES BILL TARGETING ASIAN HATE CRIMES

Measure to boost law enforcement response to attacks

The Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation Thursday aimed at strengthening federal efforts to address hate crimes directed at Asian Americans amid a sharp increase in discrimination and violence against Asian communities in the United States.

The 94-1 vote was the first legislative action either chamber of Congress has taken to bolster law enforcement’s response to attacks on people of Asian descent, which have intensified during the pandemic.

“By passing this bill, the Senate makes it very clear that hate and discrimination against any group has no place in America,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “By passing this bill, we say to the Asian American community that their government is paying attention to them, has heard their concerns and will respond to protect them.”

The measure, sponsored by Sen. Mazie Hirono, DHawaii, would establish a position at the Justice Department to expedite the agency’s review of hate crimes and expand the channels to report them. It would also encourage the creation of state-run hate crime hotlines, provide grant money to law enforcement agencies that train their officers to identify hate crimes and introduce a series of public education campaigns around bias against people of Asian descent.

The legislation will next go to the House, where lawmakers passed a resolution last year condemning antiAsian discrimination related to the pandemic. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, pledged Thursday shortly after the bill’s passage to put it to a vote on the House f loor next month, calling it a catalyst for “robust, impactful action.”

“I cannot tell you how important this bill is” to the Asian American community, “who have often have felt very invisible in our country; always seen as foreign, always seen as the other,” said Hirono, the first Asian American woman elected to the chamber and one of only two serving there. “We stand with you and will continue to stand with you to prevent these kinds of crimes from happening our country.”

The legislation marshaled a level of support rarely seen in the bitterly divided Congress — even on issues as straightforward as addressing a spate of racially motivated crimes. The lopsided vote reflected the will in both parties to respond to the rash of violence against Asian Americans, and a determination among rankand-file senators to show that they could work across partisan lines to reach consensus on legislation and steer clear of a filibuster.

Republicans had initially offered a lukewarm response to the bill. But they rallied around an amended version after Hirono worked behind the scenes with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, to secure enough Republican support to win 60 votes. That included adding a section explicitly documenting and denouncing attacks against Asian Americans, as well as the provision establishing the hate crime hotlines, proposed by Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan.

Collins took to the Senate floor Thursday to urge her colleagues to support the legislation, calling on them to join her in sending “an unmistakably strong signal that crimes targeting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in our country will not be tolerated.”

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., was the lone opponent of the legislation, arguing that it mandated an overly expansive collection of data around hate crimes that could slide into government overreach.