[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 917 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 917

 To direct the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and 
 Information to prepare and submit periodic reports to Congress on the 
               role of telecommunications in hate crimes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 27, 2019

    Mr. Casey (for himself, Mr. Booker, Ms. Harris, Mr. Jones, Ms. 
 Klobuchar, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Sanders, and Mr. Van Hollen) introduced 
the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee 
                on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To direct the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and 
 Information to prepare and submit periodic reports to Congress on the 
               role of telecommunications in hate crimes.

    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 ``Stop Harmful and Abusive 
Telecommunications Expression Act of 2019'' or the ``Stop HATE Act of 
2019''.

SEC. 2. REPORTS ON THE ROLE OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN HATE CRIMES.

    (a) Periodic Reports Required.--Not later than 1 year after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, and not less frequently than every 5 
years thereafter, the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for 
Communications and Information, with the assistance of the Attorney 
General, shall prepare and submit to the appropriate congressional 
committees a report on the role of telecommunications in violent acts 
and the commission of crimes of hate, as described in the Hate Crime 
Statistics Act (34 U.S.C. 41305), against individuals or groups of 
individuals on the basis of race, gender and gender identity, religion, 
disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, color, or national origin.
    (b) Scope of Reports.--A report required by subsection (a) shall--
            (1) analyze information on the use of telecommunications, 
        including broadcast television and radio, cable television, 
        public access television, computer bulletin boards, and other 
        electronic media, to advocate and encourage violent acts and 
        the commission of crimes of hate, as described in the Hate 
        Crime Statistics Act (34 U.S.C. 41305), against individuals or 
        groups of individuals on the basis of race, gender and gender 
        identity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, 
        color, or national origin;
            (2) include in the analysis required by paragraph (1) an 
        analysis of--
                    (A) the role that such telecommunications are 
                playing in giving groups that advocate and encourage 
                such violent acts and the commission of such crimes of 
                hate a platform to spread their messages and to 
                organize across the United States; and
                    (B) how such use and role of telecommunications 
                have changed due to the evolution of new forms of 
                communication on the internet and other electronic 
                media since the submission of the previous report under 
                subsection (a) (or, in the case of the first report 
                submitted under such subsection, the report submitted 
                under section 155 of the National Telecommunications 
                and Information Administration Organization Act); and
            (3) include any recommendations, consistent with the First 
        Amendment to the Constitution, that the Assistant Secretary 
        considers appropriate and necessary to address such use and 
        such role of telecommunications.
    (c) Appropriate Congressional Committees Defined.--In this section, 
the term ``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
            (1) the Committee on Energy and Commerce, the Committee on 
        the Judiciary, and the Committee on Appropriations of the House 
        of Representatives; and
            (2) the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, 
        the Committee on the Judiciary, and the Committee on 
        Appropriations of the Senate.
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