WASHINGTON — 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.
اضافة اعلان
The 94-1 bipartisan 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
coronavirus pandemic.
“By passing this bill, the Senate makes it very clear that
hate and discrimination against any group has no place in America,” said Sen.
Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader. “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, D-Hawaii, 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 anti-Asian discrimination related to
the pandemic. Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California pledged Thursday shortly after
the bill’s passage to put it to a vote on the House floor 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 currently 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 rank-and-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.”
Citing those revisions, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said he
would reverse his position on the measure and support it. Language in the
original bill did not once refer to the Asian American community but instead
mentioned victims of “COVID-19 hate crimes,” Cotton said, adding that an
earlier provision that directed federal agencies to issue guidance advising
what kind of terms to use in describing the pandemic, a move he said was too
prescriptive.
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.
Democrats defeated a roster of amendments proposed by
Republicans, including one aimed at banning federal funds for universities that
discriminate against Asian Americans — something that is already unlawful.
Another would have required a report on how the government had enforced
restrictions on gatherings for religious worship during the pandemic, and a
third would have prohibited the Justice Department from tracking cases of
discrimination that did not rise to the level of a crime. Hirono dismissed the
amendments as “damaging” and partisan.
Legislative efforts and debates around the spike of violence
targeting Asian Americans have not always proceeded with such bipartisan
comity. In sometimes heated exchanges, some Democratic lawmakers have accused
Republicans of supporting and echoing former President Donald Trump’s racist
talk around the pandemic, including calling the coronavirus “Kung Flu.”
Republicans, in turn, have accused Democrats of engaging in overreaching
political correctness, and said that they are more interested in attacking
rhetoric than in addressing violence.
After Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, one of the top Republicans on
the judiciary panel, used his introductory remarks at a hearing in March on
anti-Asian discrimination to issue a lengthy condemnation of the Chinese
government’s handling of the coronavirus and asserted that Democrats were
“policing” free speech, he was met with a fiery blowback.
“Your president, and your party, and your colleagues can
talk about issues with any other country that you want, but you don’t have to
do it by putting a bull’s-eye on the back of Asian Americans across this
country, on our grandparents, on our kids,” said Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y.
“This hearing was to address the hurt and pain of our
community, to find solutions,” she added, “and we will not let you take our
voice away from us.”
Experts testifying before the panel told lawmakers that such
language had contributed to an atmosphere of increased animus against Asian
Americans. Attacks targeting
Asian Americans — many of them women or older
people — have increased nearly 150% in the past year, the experts said.
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