[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 64 (Wednesday, April 14, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1922-S1923]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act

  Ms. HIRONO. Madam President, on March 29, Vilma Kari was walking to 
church near Times Square in Manhattan when a man pushed her to the 
ground and violently assaulted her in broad daylight.
  A silent video of the incident captured by a security camera inside a 
luxury apartment building showed the attack in vivid detail. In it, we 
can clearly see the assailant pushing Ms. Kari to the ground and 
kicking her repeatedly in the head and torso before leaving the scene. 
This video, which has gone viral, is disturbing enough to watch, but it 
doesn't capture the full picture of what happened. Witnesses to the 
attack recounted the assailant's repeatedly yelling ``You don't belong 
here'' to Ms. Kari--an immigrant from the Philippines who has lived in 
our country for decades.
  Now recovering from multiple injuries, including a broken pelvis, 
Vilma Kari has become one of the latest victims in a surging wave of 
hate crimes targeting the Asian-American, Pacific Islander community 
during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  Over the last year, we have seen businesses defaced with anti-Asian 
graffiti, elders verbally accosted on the street, women assaulted, and 
eight people murdered in cold blood at Asian-owned businesses in 
Georgia during unprovoked attacks. All told, people of Asian descent 
have reported more than 3,800 hate incidents across all 50 States and 
the District of Columbia.
  These attacks are disturbing and horrifying, but they are, in many 
ways, a predictable and foreseeable outgrowth of the use of racist and 
inflammatory language, like ``Chinese virus,'' ``Wuhan virus,'' and 
``Kung flu,'' to describe the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, as some 
political leaders, including the former President, started using this 
language, the FBI warned of a potential surge in hate crime incidents 
targeting people of Asian descent.
  At the same time, public health experts warned of the danger of 
singling out the Asian-American community as being responsible for the 
virus. These warnings proved prophetic. A study recently published by 
the American Journal of Public Health found there was a dramatic 
increase in tweets using anti-Asian phrases after the first time the 
former President tweeted using the hashtag ``China virus'' on March 16, 
2020.
  This rise in hate crimes targeting AAPIs over the past year has shown 
the extent to which this inflammatory rhetoric has normalized racist 
attitudes toward and the stigmatization of Asian Americans with 
devastating consequences. The Center for the Study of Hate and 
Extremism, for example, assessed that, in 16 of the Nation's largest 
cities, hate crimes targeting AAPIs spiked nearly 150 percent during 
the pandemic.
  The current dramatic rise in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans 
might be a recent development, but we all know that racism is never far 
below the surface in our country, sadly. Asian Americans have always 
been targeted as the ``other'' in our country--considered the perpetual 
``foreigner.'' It is what drove the passage of the Chinese Exclusion 
Act of 1882 and is what led to the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese 
Americans during World War II. It is also what drove two Detroit 
autoworkers, during the height of hysteria about Japan's growing 
economic strength, to murder a Chinese-American man named Vincent Chin 
in 1982 because they thought he was Japanese. Outrageously, neither of 
Vincent's killers received prison time. Nearly 40 years later, we can 
see clear parallels between the racism that motivated Vincent Chin's 
murder and the ongoing surge in anti-Asian racism and hate crimes. We 
can also see the parallels in the wave of activism both unleashed.
  Today, the AAPI community is uniting, once again, to confront this 
epidemic of racism, discrimination, and hate. We are marching, speaking 
out, and demanding action in cities and States across the country. As 
part of our activism, we are working to dispel the model minority myth 
that all Asians are successful and integrated in society. This racist 
and discriminatory stereotype devalues the struggles and experiences of 
an extraordinarily diverse community. The AAPI community is comprised 
of people from more than 48 distinct ethnic groups who speak over 300 
languages. Some of these groups have been in this country for over 100 
years. Others have grown in size through waves of immigration in recent 
decades.
  Like other communities of color, elements of the AAPI community have 
traditionally suffered from a variety of health, economic, and other 
disparities for years, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only made them 
worse. AAPIs are contracting and dying from COVID-19 at much higher 
rates than White Americans and at comparable rates with Black and 
Hispanic Americans.
  Our community has suffered too much over the past year from the two 
epidemics of racism and COVID, and confronting both will continue to 
present challenges, but it has been a relief to have a President 
capable of demonstrating care and empathy and who shares our sense of 
urgency in confronting this wave of hate.
  In his first week as President, Joe Biden issued an executive 
memorandum that condemned racism, xenophobia, and intolerance targeting 
the AAPI community and directed the Federal Government to actively 
combat it. In recent weeks, following the brutal murder of eight 
people, including six Asian women in Georgia, President Biden took 
additional action. He announced new investments for research into anti-
Asian xenophobia through the National Science Foundation, directed $50 
million in support for victims of hate crimes, and established a COVID-
19 equity task force to combat anti-Asian hate.
  Members of President Biden's administration have followed his lead. 
Attorney General Merrick Garland, for example, pledged to prioritize 
hate crimes enforcement during his confirmation hearing and has taken 
additional steps to help local law enforcement agencies investigate 
bias crimes.
  Under President Biden's leadership, the executive branch is doing its 
part. Now it is time for us--it is time for Congress to act.
  I am encouraged that in just a few minutes, the Senate will vote to 
proceed to the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act on a strong bipartisan vote. 
This is not a controversial bill. It would focus Federal leadership to 
investigate and report hateful acts of violence and provide resources 
for our communities to come together to take a stand against 
intolerance and hate.
  The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act directs the Attorney General to 
designate a person whose responsibility it will be to expedite review 
of anti-Asian hate crimes and report them. It also instructs DOJ to 
issue guidance to State and local law enforcement on culturally 
appropriate public education campaigns and on the collection of data on 
hate crimes or incidents. Such culturally-sensitive, in-language 
outreach is an important element for strengthening trust and awareness 
in impacted communities, and it will help overcome established 
hesitancy to report hate crimes or incidents to law enforcement.
  At a time when the AAPI community is under siege, this bill is an 
important signal that Congress is taking anti-Asian racism and hatred 
seriously. Significantly, Democrats and Republicans are working 
together in good faith to come to consensus to pass this bill. For 
example, I wholeheartedly support a bipartisan amendment from Senators 
Blumenthal and Moran to attach their NO HATE Act to this bill. Their 
amendment improves the data collection and reporting of all hate crimes 
so that we can better understand their prevalence and implement 
effective policies to prevent them. Senator Collins and I are also 
working on additional language to broaden support for the bill.
  The ongoing wave of anti-Asian violence and hate crimes has touched 
virtually every single member of the AAPI community. We are talking 
about millions of people in the AAPI community. Many of us are changing 
our daily routines. Until recently, I usually have my earbuds in, 
listening to an audio book whenever I leave my apartment to go for a 
walk. I don't do that now.

[[Page S1923]]

  An attack on one group in our country is truly an attack on all of 
us. By passing the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, we can come together on a 
bipartisan basis to show that the U.S. Senate will not be a bystander 
to the wave of racist, anti-Asian violence in our country. So let's get 
it done together.
  I yield the floor.