Senator Ted Kennedy On Hate Crimes Legislation

(As Prepared for Delivery)

December 14, 2007 -- Mr. President, I rise to express my deep disappointment that the Congress is taking up the Conference Report on the Defense bill without the hate crimes provision. I commend Chairman Levin for his strong leadership in our efforts to have it included as part of this measure. Despite his efforts, and the strong support of Majority Leader Harry Reid, it’s an extraordinary missed opportunity that we are not able to send the hate crimes bill to the President before the end of the year.

The inclusion of the hate crimes provision in the Defense bill was appropriate. Our military stands for America's ideals and fights for America's ideals. At a time when our ideals are under attack by terrorists in other lands, it is more important than ever to demonstrate that we practice what we preach, and that we are doing all we can to root out the bigotry and prejudice in our own country that leads to similar violence here at home.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, our soldiers are fighting for freedom and liberty – they are on the front line fighting against evil and hate. We’re united in our effort to root out the cells of hatred around the world. We should not turn a blind eye to acts of hatred and terrorism here at home. We should not shrink now from our role as the beacon of liberty to the rest of the world.

If America is to live up to its founding ideals of liberty and justice for all, combating hate crimes must be a national priority.

The hate crimes bill would have advanced those values and goals, and we're committed to getting it enacted. It's long past time for this measure to become law.

We are now facing a time when the FBI reports that hate crimes are on the rise, and there’s been a sharp increase in the number of hate crimes reported against Hispanics – and are at the highest levels since the reports were first mandated by the Hate Crimes Statistics Act, demonstrating the real societal impact of anti-immigrant campaigns.

The Southern Poverty Law Center also reports that hate groups are on the rise. Since September of this year, when thousands of Americans marched for civil rights in Jena, Louisiana – there’ve been more than 50 noose incidents across the country. Just a few weeks ago, the New York Times included a chart reflecting the “Geography of Hate” across America. – over the last two years, it shows that nooses have been sighted in many different states.

This terrifying symbol of racism and prejudice has even appeared recently on schoolyards and college campuses, creating fear in their whole communities. Apparently, we have not succeeded in adequately teaching the lessons of America’s long history of discrimination. Education is an important part of prevention, but we also need strong national legislation to punish those who engage in hate-motivated violence and to expand federal resources available to investigate and prevent these vicious crimes.

As my colleagues here in the Senate know, Senator Gordon Smith and I have been fighting this battle for a long time. Just a few months ago, the hate crimes provision was adopted by the Senate with a vote of 60-39 as an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill. It’s not the first time that the Senate voted to pass this bill. In 2000 and 2002, a majority of Senators voted to pass this legislation.

In 2004, we had 65 votes for the bill and it was adopted as part of the Defense Authorization Bill. But – that time, like this time - it was stripped out in conference. Twice in the last two years, Chairman Conyers has succeeded in getting the House to vote to pass this legislation – but, once again, the House and Senate have not come together to get this bill done.

We’ve been in this battle for nearly a decade, and we’ll continue to press ahead. It’s long past time to stand up for the victims of these senseless acts of violence – victims like Matthew Shepard, for whom this bill is named, and who died a horrible death in 1998 at the hands of two men who singled him out because of his sexual orientation. Nine years after Matthew’s death – nine years – we still haven’t gotten it done. How long are we going to wait?

This year, with Matthew Shepard’s mother Judy at our side, we were filled with hope that finally this would be the year that we would get this bill to the President’s desk. A broad and growing coalition of 210 law enforcement, civic, disability, religious and civil rights groups support the bill, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Anti-Defamation League, the Interfaith Alliance, the National Sheriff’s Association, the Human Rights Campaign, the National District Attorneys Association and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

Over 1,400 – 1, 400 – clergy from a broad spectrum of religious traditions from across the country have come together to support the Matthew Shepard Act. These leaders of America’s religious communities have called on Congress to stand united against one of the worst forms of oppression: violence based on personal characteristics and identity. Together, we must work together to create a society in which diverse people are safe as well as free.

We’ll continue to fight to protect the rights of our fellow citizens, and not let a veto threat stop us from doing the right thing. We’re not giving up – and we’ll continue to push to get the bill through the Congress next year. I remain hopeful that the President will hear our call and that he too will finally support this much-needed measure.

Hate crimes are an appalling form of domestic terrorism that cannot and must not be tolerated anywhere in our country. We’ve made progress over the years, and our focus now should be to strengthen protections for hate crimes so that all Americans will be protected under the law. No Americans should feel that they are second class citizens because Congress refuses to protect them against hate crimes.

Source: Senator Ted Kennedy

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