WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a bill that would help combat the rise of hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, a bipartisan denunciation of such violence during the coronavirus pandemic and a modest step toward legislating in a chamber where most of President Joe Biden's agenda has stalled.
The measure would expedite the review of hate crimes at the Justice Department and provide support for local law enforcement in response to thousands of reported violent incidents in the past year. Police have seen a noted uptick in such crimes, including the February death of an 84-year-old man who was pushed to the ground near his home in San Francisco, a young family that was injured in a Texas grocery store attack last year and the killing of six Asian women in shootings last month in Atlanta.
The names of the six women killed in Georgia are listed in the bill, which passed the Senate on a 94-1 vote. Biden applauded the measure, tweeting, "Acts of hate against Asian Americans are wrong, un-American, and must stop." The House is expected to consider similar legislation in the coming weeks.
Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, the legislation's lead sponsor, said the measure is very important to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, "who have often felt very invisible in our country, always seen as foreign, always seen as the other." She said the message of the legislation is as important as its content and substance.
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Hirono, the first Asian American woman in the Senate, said the attacks are "a predictable and foreseeable consequence" of racist and inflammatory language that has been used against Asians during the pandemic, including slurs used by former President Donald Trump.
Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a former Army helicopter pilot who lost her legs during a 2004 attack in Iraq, said she had been asked what country she was from while wearing her U.S. military uniform. Duckworth, the first member of Congress born in Thailand, said there is more work to be done, but the bill's passage tells the community that "we will stand with you and we will protect you."
It's unclear whether the bipartisan bill is a sign of things to come in the Senate, where Republicans and Democrats have fundamental differences and often struggle to work together. Under an agreement struck by Senate leaders at the start of the year, Republicans and Democrats pledged to at least try to debate bills and see if they could reach agreement through the legislative process. The hate crimes legislation is the first byproduct of that agreement. Some said it doesn't need to be the last.
Hirono said it is her "sincere hope that we can channel and sustain the bipartisan work done on this important piece of legislation" to a larger bill that would change policing laws, which Senate Republicans are negotiating with House Democrats. South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Republican, said he hopes the bipartisan example of the hate crimes bill will extend to an infrastructure package that has so far divided the parties.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said the legislation shows that the chamber can work in a bipartisan fashion, and he aims to make that happen as much as possible. "That doesn't mean we forgo our principles. It doesn't mean we cut back on the boldness that is needed," he said. "It means we try to work with our Republican colleagues wherever we can."
