[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4172 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4172

  To establish a United States Commission on Hate Crimes to study and 
   make recommendations on the prevention of the commission of hate 
                    crimes, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 15, 2023

Mr. Krishnamoorthi (for himself, Ms. Meng, Ms. Velazquez, Ms. Barragan, 
   Ms. Bonamici, Ms. Brown, Ms. Bush, Mr. Cardenas, Mr. Carson, Mr. 
Casten, Ms. Chu, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mr. Connolly, Mr. Correa, Mr. 
   Costa, Ms. Dean of Pennsylvania, Ms. DeGette, Mr. DeSaulnier, Mr. 
Espaillat, Mr. Evans, Ms. Garcia of Texas, Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Mr. 
Gomez, Mr. Gottheimer, Mr. Green of Texas, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Higgins of 
 New York, Mr. Huffman, Ms. Jackson Lee, Ms. Jacobs, Ms. Jayapal, Mr. 
   Johnson of Georgia, Ms. Kelly of Illinois, Mr. Kilmer, Ms. Lee of 
California, Mr. Lieu, Mr. McGarvey, Mr. McGovern, Ms. Norton, Ms. Omar, 
    Mr. Payne, Mr. Phillips, Mr. Pocan, Ms. Ross, Ms. Sanchez, Ms. 
Schakowsky, Mr. Schiff, Mr. Schneider, Mr. David Scott of Georgia, Ms. 
 Sewell, Ms. Stevens, Ms. Strickland, Mr. Thompson of California, Ms. 
Titus, Mr. Tonko, Mr. Torres of New York, Mrs. Trahan, Mr. Veasey, Mrs. 
  Watson Coleman, Ms. Williams of Georgia, and Ms. Wilson of Florida) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                             the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To establish a United States Commission on Hate Crimes to study and 
   make recommendations on the prevention of the commission of hate 
                    crimes, and for other purposes.

    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 ``Hate Crimes Commission Act of 
2023''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds as follows:
            (1) The Federal Bureau of Investigation (referred to in 
        this section as the ``FBI'') defines a hate crime as a criminal 
        offense--such as murder, arson, or vandalism--against a person 
        or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias 
        against a race, color, national origin, religion, disability, 
        sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.
            (2) Forty-six States and the District of Columbia have 
        statutes criminalizing various types of bias-motivated violence 
        or intimidation.
            (3) Congress has enacted various statutes to address hate 
        crimes since 1968, with the most recent statute, the COVID-19 
        Hate Crimes Act (Public Law 117-113; 135 Stat. 265), enacted in 
        2021.
            (4) In 2021, the FBI reported 10,840 single-bias incidents, 
        an increase of nearly 12 percent from 2020.
            (5) Hate crimes not only damage the individual victim or 
        victims, but also traumatize entire communities and erode 
        public confidence in their safety.
            (6) In 2021--
                    (A) 64.5 percent of victims were targeted because 
                of the offender's race, ethnicity, or ancestry bias;
                    (B) 15.9 percent of victims were targeted because 
                of the offender's sexual orientation bias;
                    (C) 14.1 percent of victims were targeted because 
                of the offender's religious bias;
                    (D) 3.2 percent of victims were targeted because of 
                the offender's gender identity bias;
                    (E) 1.4 percent of victims were targeted because of 
                the offender's disability bias; and
                    (F) 1 percent of victims were targeted because of 
                the offender's gender bias.
            (7) In testimony before the Committee on Homeland Security 
        of the House of Representatives in September 2020, FBI Director 
        Christopher Wray said, ``Within the domestic terrorism bucket, 
        the category as a whole, racially motivated violent extremism 
        is, I think, the biggest bucket within that larger group. And 
        within the racially motivated violent extremist bucket, people 
        subscribing to some kind of white supremacist-type ideology is 
        certainly the biggest chunk of that.''.
            (8) In August 2012, a shooting at the gurdwara in Oak 
        Creek, Wisconsin, left 6 people dead, and a seventh victim of 
        the shooting succumbed to his injuries in 2020.
            (9) In October 2018, a shooting at the Tree of Life 
        synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, left 11 people dead.
            (10) In July 2019, a Hindu priest in New York City was 
        hospitalized after a man attacked him and screamed ``this is my 
        neighborhood'' during the incident.
            (11) In August 2019, an assailant entered a Walmart in El 
        Paso, Texas, to target Hispanic immigrants and left 22 people 
        dead.
            (12) In November 2020, a woman shouted anti-Muslim slurs 
        and attacked a couple in New York City, leaving one victim 
        needing surgery for facial fractures.
            (13) In March 2021, a gunman targeted 3 spas across 
        Atlanta, Georgia, killing 8 people, 6 of whom were Asian women.
            (14) In May 2022, a gunman injured 3 people after entering 
        a Korean-owned business in Dallas, Texas, and firing 13 rounds 
        before fleeing.
            (15) In May 2022, a gunman targeted a Tops supermarket 
        located in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New 
        York, killing 10 people and injuring 3 others. Of the 13 
        victims, 11 were Black.
            (16) In November 2022, a gunman killed 5 people and wounded 
        25 others after opening fire on an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado 
        Springs, Colorado.
            (17) In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Asian Americans 
        have suffered an increasing number of hate crimes. According to 
        Stop AAPI Hate, nearly 11,500 ``hate incidents'' toward Asian 
        Americans and Pacific Islanders were reported between March 
        2020 and March 2022.
            (18) The Anti-Defamation League (commonly known as the 
        ``ADL'') annually surveys and reports anti-Semitic hate 
        incidents across the country. In 2022, the ADL reported a 36-
        percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents compared to 2021.
            (19) In the original 2021 Hate Crime Statistics published 
        by the FBI in December 2022, the FBI acknowledged the 
        significant discrepancy in reporting from local law enforcement 
        agencies as a result of transitioning to the National Incident-
        Based Reporting System. Due to the lack of reporting by local 
        enforcement agencies, the FBI acknowledged that the 2021 Hate 
        Crime Statistics cannot be compared reliably across years.
            (20) In March 2023, the FBI released supplemental data for 
        the 2021 Hate Crime Statistics consisting of data collected 
        through the Summary Reporting System by local law enforcement 
        agencies.
            (21) There is a clear need for stronger action to 
        accurately report and effectively combat hate-based attacks.

SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF COMMISSION.

    (a) Establishment.--There is established the United States 
Commission on Hate Crimes (in this Act referred to as the 
``Commission'').
    (b) Membership.--
            (1) Size of commission.--The Commission shall be composed 
        of 12 members.
            (2) Appointment.--Members of the Commission shall be 
        appointed in accordance with the following:
                    (A) Two members shall be appointed by the majority 
                leader of the Senate.
                    (B) Two members shall be appointed by the minority 
                leader of the Senate.
                    (C) Two members shall be appointed by the Speaker 
                of the House of Representatives.
                    (D) Two members shall be appointed by the minority 
                leader of the House of Representatives.
                    (E) Two members shall be appointed by the Attorney 
                General.
                    (F) Two members shall be appointed by the Secretary 
                of Health and Human Services.
            (3) Limitations.--Not more than 5 members of the Commission 
        may be from the law enforcement community and not more than 5 
        members of the Commission may be from the civil rights 
        community.
            (4) Deadline.--Each member of the Commission shall be 
        appointed not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of 
        this Act.
    (c) Meetings.--The Commission shall hold its first meeting not 
later than 90 days after the date as of which all members of the 
Commission have been appointed under subsection (b)(2).

SEC. 4. DUTIES OF THE COMMISSION.

    (a) Definition.--In this section, the term ``hate crime'' means an 
offense under section 249 of title 18, United States Code.
    (b) Investigation.--The Commission shall investigate the following:
            (1) Whether the number of hate crimes committed has 
        increased during the period beginning on January 1, 2015, and 
        ending on the date that is 60 days after the date of enactment 
        of this Act.
            (2) To the extent that the Commission determines under 
        paragraph (1) that the number of hate crimes committed has 
        increased, the factors that have contributed to the increase.
            (3) Policies or actions that law enforcement agencies might 
        adopt or engage in to reduce the commission of hate crimes.
            (4) The impact of underreporting on hate crimes statistics 
        and hate crimes prevention.
            (5) Ways to improve hate crimes reporting and ensure full 
        and complete participation in the National Incident-Based 
        Reporting System by local law enforcement agencies, including 
        by identifying any barriers that may deter such reporting.
            (6) Bias prevention efforts and responses to hate crimes 
        that are successful and possible through coordination with 
        nonprofit organizations, local education agencies, and 
        government entities.
            (7) The prevalence and rise of online hate crime incidents.

SEC. 5. REPORT.

    Not later than 1 year after the date as of which all members of the 
Commission have been appointed under section 3(b)(2), the Commission 
shall submit a report to Congress and the President that sets forth the 
results of the investigation conducted under section 4, including 
recommendations for--
            (1) actions Federal agencies can take to help improve hate 
        crimes reporting by local law enforcement agencies, as 
        described in section 4(b)(5); and
            (2) bias prevention efforts and responses to hate crimes, 
        as described in section 4(b)(6).
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