[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 70 (Thursday, April 22, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2151-S2152]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  DRINKING WATER AND WASTEWATER INFRASTRUCTURE ACT OF 2021--Motion to 
                                Proceed

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 34, S. 
914.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the motion.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 34, S. 914, a bill to 
     amend the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Federal Water 
     Pollution Control Act to reauthorize programs under those 
     Acts, and for other purposes.


                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. SCHUMER. I send a cloture motion to the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to 
     proceed to Calendar No. 34, S. 914, a bill to amend the Safe 
     Drinking Water Act and the Federal Water Pollution Control 
     Act to reauthorize programs under those Acts, and for other 
     purposes.
         Charles E. Schumer, Thomas R. Carper, Tammy Duckworth, 
           Jeff Merkley, Debbie Stabenow, Richard Blumenthal, 
           Jacky Rosen, Michael F. Bennet, Amy Klobuchar, Mazie K. 
           Hirono, Richard J. Durbin, Tammy Baldwin, Alex Padilla, 
           Maria Cantwell, Sheldon Whitehouse, Cory A. Booker, 
           Patty Murray, Elizabeth Warren.

  Mr. SCHUMER. Finally, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory 
quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, April 22, be waived.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Thank you.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.


                        COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act

  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I come to the floor to talk about the 
rise in hate crimes in the Pacific Northwest and to thank my colleague 
the Senator from Hawaii for her tremendous leadership in guiding us 
through this process to get this legislation passed in the U.S. Senate.
  I want to thank her for her incredible work as a member of the 
Judiciary Committee and for getting this out and moved to the floor and 
to thank Senator Schumer and Senator McConnell for both helping us to 
get to this point today and our colleagues for passing this incredible 
legislation. But, again, thanks to Senator Hirono for knowing--knowing 
and understanding and being a great member of the Judiciary Committee--
that we needed to get this legislation done now.
  Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have a long history in our 
country. And their contributions have been significant, both in 
cultural vibrancy to our economy and to our way of life.
  But, unfortunately, that has also been marked by periods in our 
history of hate and damaging stereotypes and xenophobia, and we saw 
this again with COVID-19. That is why we needed to act today, to pass 
hate crimes legislation to protect Asian Americans in the United States 
of America and to make sure that they have tools to protect them.
  Our AAPI communities are facing the same challenges we face in the 
pandemic. And trust me, we have lost

[[Page S2152]]

some incredible Asian Americans, who ran markets, who ran restaurants, 
who were small business leaders and continued to work during this 
crisis and ultimately paid the price with their lives. But they also, 
in addition to facing the pandemic, have had to face a range of hate 
and racism against them during this time period.
  According to Stop AAPI Hate, nearly 3,800 incidents of violence and 
hate against AAPI individuals were reported nationwide over a year 
since the pandemic. And sadly--sadly--women made up over half of this. 
Nearly 68 percent of the reported incidents of violence against Asian 
Americans were against Asian-American women. This must stop.
  And it is very important that we think about how a fraction of these 
statistics that are the reported information--how many more are out 
there that go unreported.
  My State, the State of Washington, has the seventh largest Asian-
American population and the third largest Pacific Islander population 
in the Nation. And like the rest of the United States, we have seen an 
increase in these incidents.
  In fact, in 2020, the State had the third highest rate of hate crimes 
targeted against AAPI community members. That is why I am for getting a 
full slate of people over at the Department of Justice, including 
Kristen Clarke, to deal with hate crimes. Why? Because my State is 
plagued by these issues, and we are not going to tolerate it. We are 
going to fight back and make sure that we have the infrastructure in 
place to recognize these things.
  Just this past February, a teacher driving in the Seattle 
International District was assaulted with a sock containing a rock. The 
attacker was charged with felony assault but not a hate crime.
  We have been told that there are widespread reports of AAPI elders 
and women throughout Western Washington who have been verbally harassed 
and randomly physically assaulted. The King County Coalition Against 
Hate and Bias is collecting information about these attacks. But we 
know that there have been many throughout many communities in our 
State.
  Just a few months ago, a woman in King County and her two children 
were accosted with a man yelling, screaming at them just to get out--
``Get out! Get out!'' And a man was captured on video in downtown 
Seattle attacking an Asian couple, spitting on them, slapping the man's 
face, and yelling at them: ``It's your fault.'' So we know these 
incidents are happening.
  In fact, just a week or so ago, I participated in a roundtable of the 
Asian American-Pacific Islander community from my State to talk about 
the need for this national legislation and why it is so important we 
have community-based solutions, which include more cultural education 
to teach our children the history of the Asian-American community in 
the United States, mental health support in multiple languages, 
investing in community groups, and this legislation that was passed 
today that will give us better tools to prosecute those individuals who 
participate in hate crimes.
  This bill would designate a point person within the U.S. Department 
of Justice to expedite the review of hate crimes and continue to work 
with all of us.
  It requires the Attorney General to issue guidance to State, local, 
and Tribal law enforcement to establish an online hate crime reporting 
and data collection system. These are all important tools.
  So I, again, want to thank our colleagues, and I want to also thank 
Senator Blumenthal. His bipartisan amendment would authorize the 
Attorney General to provide grants to States and localities to better 
train law enforcement on identifying, investigating, and reporting hate 
crimes and to operate State-run hate crime reporting hotlines.
  So this legislation will help us in shining a very bright light on an 
alarming rise in violence against the Asian American-Pacific Islander 
community and help us with new tools to combat that crime.
  I, again, thank my colleagues. We all must work together to stop this 
kind of violence.
  I thank the President.
  I yield the floor
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I want to join my colleague Senator 
Cantwell in congratulating Senator Hirono and all of us for almost 
unanimously passing this bill that would try to stop discrimination 
against Asian Americans. I am happy that passed. There was only one 
vote against it.
  I just don't think it goes far enough. I think it is ludicrous, it is 
odious to me, that in the year 2021, we have major universities in the 
United States of America that are setting quotas on their admissions 
for Asian Americans--not quotas to have enough Asian Americans, quotas 
to keep Asian Americans out. They are, and everybody in this body knows 
they are doing that.
  Harvard is in litigation over it. Harvard officials have already 
stated that but for their quotas, there would be twice as many Asian 
Americans at Harvard as there are now if they base the decision solely 
on academic achievement. And that is wrong.
  There is no way to discriminate in the right way. Discrimination is 
discrimination. Judge people on the basis of their academic 
achievements.
  President Biden has talked an awful lot about the error of 
discriminating against Asian Americans, and he is absolutely right. 
What is the first thing he did? He pulled his Justice Department off of 
filing litigation to try to stop these quotas on Asian Americans and 
universities. I mean, if there weren't double standards around here, 
there would be no standards at all.
  So I strongly encourage--Senator Cruz and I offered an amendment to 
Senator Hirono's bill to try to fix this. Unfortunately, we couldn't 
get 60 votes. In fact, I don't think a single--maybe I am wrong in 
saying this, but not very many of my Democratic friends voted for it.
  But I would say to President Biden, now, if you are serious about 
ending discrimination against Asian Americans, tell your Justice 
Department to get off its ice cold, lazy rear end and do something 
about it. Stop the quotas in higher education.
  Anyway, that is not, really, what I came up to talk about.

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