[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4398 Introduced in House (IH)]
112th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 4398
To provide grants to States in order to prevent racial profiling.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 18, 2012
Ms. Norton introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To provide grants to States in order to prevent racial profiling.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Racial Profiling Prevention Act''.
SEC. 2. GRANT PROGRAM TO PROHIBIT RACIAL PROFILING.
(a) Grants.--Subject to the requirements of this section, the
Secretary shall make grants to a State that--
(1)(A) has enacted and is enforcing a law that prohibits
the use of racial profiling in the enforcement of State laws
regulating the use of Federal-aid highways; and
(B) is maintaining and allows public inspection of
statistical information for each motor vehicle stop made by a
law enforcement officer on a Federal-aid highway in the State
regarding the race and ethnicity of the driver and any
passengers; or
(2) provides assurances satisfactory to the Secretary that
the State is undertaking activities to comply with the
requirements of paragraph (1).
(b) Eligible Activities.--A grant received by a State under
subsection (a) shall be used by the State--
(1) in the case of a State eligible under subsection
(a)(1), for costs of--
(A) collecting and maintaining of data on traffic
stops;
(B) evaluating the results of the data; and
(C) developing and implementing programs to reduce
the occurrence of racial profiling, including programs
to train law enforcement officers; and
(2) in the case of a State eligible under subsection
(a)(2), for costs of--
(A) activities to comply with the requirements of
subsection (a)(1); and
(B) any eligible activity under paragraph (1).
(c) Racial Profiling.--
(1) In general.--To meet the requirement of subsection
(a)(1), a State law shall prohibit, in the enforcement of State
laws regulating the use of Federal-aid highways, a State or
local law enforcement officer from using the race or ethnicity
of the driver or passengers to any degree in making routine or
spontaneous law enforcement decisions, such as ordinary traffic
stops on Federal-aid highways.
(2) Limitation.--Nothing in this subsection shall alter the
manner in which a State or local law enforcement officer
considers race or ethnicity whenever there is trustworthy
information, relevant to the locality or time frame, that links
persons of a particular race or ethnicity to an identified
criminal incident, scheme, or organization.
(d) Limitations.--
(1) Maximum amount of grants.--The total amount of grants
made to a State under this section in a fiscal year may not
exceed 5 percent of the amount made available to carry out this
section in the fiscal year.
(2) Eligibility.--A State may not receive a grant under
subsection (a)(2) in more than 2 fiscal years.
(e) Authorization of Appropriations.--
(1) In general.--There is authorized to be appropriated
from the Highway Trust Fund (other than the Mass Transit
Account) to carry out this section $7,500,000 for each of
fiscal years 2013 through 2017.
(2) Contract authority.--Funds authorized by this
subsection shall be available for obligation in the same manner
as if the funds were apportioned under chapter 1 of title 23,
United States Code, except the Federal share of the cost of
activities carried out using such funds shall be 80 percent,
and such funds shall remain available until expended and shall
not be transferable.
<all>