[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 146 (Monday, September 11, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5165-S5166]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 CONDEMNING THE VIOLENCE AND DOMESTIC TERRORIST ATTACK THAT TOOK PLACE 
        DURING EVENTS BETWEEN AUGUST 11 AND AUGUST 12, 2017, IN 
                       CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 212, S.J. Res. 
49.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the joint resolution by 
title.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A joint resolution (S.J. Res. 49) condemning the violence 
     and domestic terrorist attack that took place during events 
     between August 11 and August 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, 
     Virginia, recognizing the first responders who lost their 
     lives while monitoring the events, offering deepest 
     condolences to the families and friends of those individuals 
     who were killed and deepest sympathies and support to those 
     individuals who were injured by the violence, expressing 
     support for the Charlottesville community, rejecting White 
     nationalists, White supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-
     Nazis, and other hate groups, and urging the President and 
     the President's Cabinet to use all available resources to 
     address the threats posed by those groups.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the joint 
resolution.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I further ask unanimous consent that 
the joint resolution be read a third time and passed, the preamble be 
agreed to, and the motions to consider be considered made and laid upon 
the table with no intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The joint resolution (S.J. Res. 49) was ordered to be engrossed for a 
third reading, was read the third time, and passed.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The joint resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                              S.J. Res. 49

       Whereas, on the night of Friday, August 11, 2017, a day 
     before a White nationalist demonstration was scheduled to 
     occur in Charlottesville, Virginia, hundreds of torch-bearing 
     White nationalists, White supremacists, Klansmen, and neo-
     Nazis chanted racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-immigrant 
     slogans and violently engaged with counter-demonstrators on 
     and around the grounds of the University of Virginia in 
     Charlottesville;
       Whereas, on Saturday, August 12, 2017, ahead of the 
     scheduled start time of the planned march, protestors and 
     counter-demonstrators gathered at Emancipation Park in 
     Charlottesville;
       Whereas the extremist demonstration turned violent, 
     culminating in the death of peaceful counter-demonstrator 
     Heather Heyer and injuries to 19 other individuals after a 
     neo-Nazi sympathizer allegedly drove a vehicle into a crowd, 
     an act that resulted in a charge of second degree murder, 3 
     counts of malicious wounding, and 1 count of hit and run;
       Whereas 2 Virginia State Police officers, Lieutenant H. Jay 
     Cullen and Trooper Pilot Berke M.M. Bates, died in a 
     helicopter crash as they patrolled the events occurring below 
     them;
       Whereas the Charlottesville community is engaged in a 
     healing process following this horrific and violent display 
     of bigotry; and
       Whereas White nationalists, White supremacists, the Ku Klux 
     Klan, neo-Nazis, and other hate groups reportedly are 
     organizing similar events in other cities in the United 
     States and communities everywhere are concerned about the 
     growing and open display of hate and violence being 
     perpetrated by those groups: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
     United States of America in Congress assembled, That 
     Congress--
       (1) condemns the racist violence and domestic terrorist 
     attack that took place between August 11 and August 12, 2017, 
     in Charlottesville, Virginia;
       (2) recognizes--
       (A) Heather Heyer, who was killed, and 19 other individuals 
     who were injured in the reported domestic terrorist attack; 
     and
       (B) several other individuals who were injured in separate 
     attacks while standing up to hate and intolerance;
       (3) recognizes the public service and heroism of Virginia 
     State Police officers Lieutenant H. Jay Cullen and Trooper 
     Pilot Berke M.M. Bates, who lost their lives while responding 
     to the events from the air;
       (4) offers--
       (A) condolences to the families and friends of Heather 
     Heyer, Lieutenant H. Jay Cullen, and Trooper Pilot Berke M.M. 
     Bates; and
       (B) sympathy and support to those individuals who are 
     recovering from injuries sustained during the attacks;
       (5) expresses support for the Charlottesville community as 
     the community heals following this demonstration of violent 
     bigotry;
       (6) rejects White nationalism, White supremacy, and neo-
     Nazism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are 
     contradictory to the values that define the people of the 
     United States; and
       (7) urges--
       (A) the President and his administration to--
       (i) speak out against hate groups that espouse racism, 
     extremism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and White supremacy; 
     and
       (ii) use all resources available to the President and the 
     President's Cabinet to address the growing prevalence of 
     those hate groups in the United States; and
       (B) the Attorney General to work with--
       (i) the Secretary of Homeland Security to investigate 
     thoroughly all acts of violence, intimidation, and domestic 
     terrorism by White supremacists, White nationalists, neo-
     Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, and associated groups in order to 
     determine if any criminal laws have been violated and to 
     prevent those groups from fomenting and facilitating 
     additional violence; and
       (ii) the heads of other Federal agencies to improve the 
     reporting of hate crimes and to emphasize the importance of 
     the collection, and the reporting to the Federal Bureau of 
     Investigation, of hate crime data by State and local 
     agencies.

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