[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 188 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 188

To establish Federal, State, and local programs for the investigation, 
               reporting, and prevention of bias crimes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 7, 1997

   Mr. Hastings of Florida introduced the following bill; which was 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To establish Federal, State, and local programs for the investigation, 
               reporting, and prevention of bias crimes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) 5,932 hate crimes were reported to the Federal Bureau 
        of Investigation in 1994;
            (2) bias crimes are far more lethal than other kinds of 
        attacks, with hospitalization of victims occurring four times 
        more often than for other assaults;
            (3) 1,843 anti-Semitic incidents were reported to the Anti-
        Defamation League in 1995, including 118 incidents on college 
        campuses;
            (4) membership in Neo-Nazi groups has increased from 1,500 
        in 12 States in 1988 to 3,500 in 40 States in 1994;
            (5) only 7,356 of the more than 16,000 law enforcement 
        agencies furnished hate crime data to the Federal Bureau of 
        Investigation in 1994; and
            (6) Federal, State, and local law enforcement officials 
        have indicated that training in the area of bias crimes is 
        inconsistent and officials repeatedly cite the need for uniform 
        training of officers in the investigation and prevention of 
        bias crime.

SEC. 2. APPOINTMENT OF DIRECTOR.

    The Attorney General shall appoint in the Department of Justice a 
National Director of Bias Crime (hereinafter referred to in this Act as 
the ``Director'').

SEC. 3. DUTIES OF DIRECTOR.

    The Director shall, in cooperation with the appropriate Federal, 
State, and local agencies, including the Department of the Treasury, 
the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Community Relations 
Service of the Department of Justice--
            (1) examine the needs of Federal, State, and local law 
        enforcement agencies in training officers for the investigation 
        and reporting of bias crimes;
            (2) recommend to the Attorney General policy options for 
        the enhancement of bias crime interdiction and prevention;
            (3) determine a national curriculum for a train-the-trainer 
        program to be administered by the Federal Law Enforcement 
        Training Center;
            (4) determine a national curriculum for officer training in 
        investigation and reporting of bias crimes to be delivered 
        through the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center;
            (5) coordinate the bias crime efforts of the Department of 
        the Treasury, Department of Education, Department of Justice, 
        Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, the Federal Bureau of 
        Investigation, and the Community Relations Service of the 
        Department of Justice;
            (6) develop a national curriculum to be taught as a 
        preventative measure at elementary and secondary schools 
        throughout the country;
            (7) make available to law enforcement agencies materials, 
        prepared by Federal, State, local, and victims' rights 
        organizations, pertinent to bias crime investigation and 
        prevention;
            (8) coordinate technical assistance provided to State and 
        local law enforcement agencies related to the prevention, 
        investigation and prosecution of bias crime;
            (9) coordinate assistance to victims of bias crime; and
            (10) award grants to States that have established lead 
        agencies to coordinate efforts to combat bias crime and 
        developed innovative programs consistent with the purposes of 
        this Act.

SEC. 4. TRAINING REQUIREMENTS.

    The training programs established by the Director, acting through 
the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and in cooperation with the 
Secretary of the Treasury shall include, at a minimum, the following:
            (1) Recognition of basic elements of bias crimes and proper 
        initial response procedures.
            (2) Instruction on how to comply with all Federal reporting 
        requirements under the National Hate Crimes Statistics Act.
            (3) Notification of law enforcement officials regarding the 
        history and growth of organized bias groups in the United 
        States.
            (4) Methods to develop preventative education curriculum 
        for local schools and community youth groups.
            (5) Methods to cope with the trauma experienced by victims 
        of bias crime.

SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

    For purposes of this Act, the term ``train-the-trainer program'' 
means a program that teaches selected members of the law enforcement 
community how to train members of a local law enforcement agency how to 
investigate and report bias crimes.

SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated $2,000,000 for each of the 
fiscal years 1998 through 2000 to carry out the projects under this 
Act.
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