Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

We all condemn violence against people based on their race. In America, no one should live in fear that they will be a victim of a crime based on their beliefs, the color of their skin, or the country in which they were born.

We have seen reports of violence directed at Asian Americans increase recently in some places around our country. While the perpetrators of these violent acts must be held accountable, we have serious concerns about some aspects of this legislation and the process behind moving it forward.

For instance, the legislation sets up ambiguous hotlines for people to report anything they find troubling. These hotlines are separate from traditional law enforcement reporting mechanisms, such as calling 911 or your local police department's nonemergency line, and they could enable anyone to report anything that that individual may find offensive.

All crimes should be reported, investigated by law enforcement, and prosecuted. Telling the public that criminal complaints shouldn't be reported to law enforcement but, instead, to a new unrelated State office creates unnecessary confusion and could harm public safety.

In addition, this bill establishes online reporting for complaints about ``incidents,'' but, of course, the bill doesn't specify what an incident is; no definition at all. This means, essentially, that we are asking State governments to act as speech police, and creates a precedent that could extend to any manner of things someone may deem offensive.

We were hopeful that there could be a meaningful discussion and input on this bill, but the chairman pulled the bill from our scheduled markup in the Judiciary Committee last month, preventing Republicans from offering any amendments. Republicans had a number of amendments that would have ensured that the reporting hotlines were focused on actual criminal conduct and not random citizen complaints.

Finally, it is important to note that the Democrats have attempted to blame President Trump for this rise in violence against Asian Americans, but the facts tell an entirely different story. This violence, by and large, is happening in Democrat-controlled cities, many of which, interestingly enough, have defunded their police departments.

For example, New York City saw a 223 percent increase in reported Asian-American hate crimes, while defunding their police over $1 billion. San Francisco saw a 140 percent increase in reported Asian- American hate crimes, while defunding their police by $120 million. Los Angeles, 80 percent increase in reported anti-Asian hate crime, while defunding their police $175 million.

One report found that nearly 60 percent of the reported hate crime incidents from March of 2020 to February of 2021, the past year, were from these two States, California and New York.

It sort of begs the obvious question. Maybe if we weren't defunding the police, if these Democrat-controlled cities weren't defunding the police, we would not have the rise in incidents and the rise in hate crime for Asian Americans. If money wasn't taken from police and they were allowed to do their jobs, we would probably be in an entirely different position.

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Mr. JORDAN. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Kim).
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