Issue Position: Hate Crime Legislation

Issue Position

The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 or H.R. 1913, authorizes the Attorney General to provide assistance for criminal investigation or prosecution of State, local, or tribal felonies that are motivated by prejudice based on actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability, if requested by the State, local, or tribal law enforcement. It also allows the federal government to intervene in certain cases that would normally be under the jurisdiction of local law enforcement.

Although I can support the intent of the legislation -- to end crimes based on bigotry -- I have concerns on the details of the possible implementation of this bill. This bill removes local law enforcement discretion from criminal investigations and places an overshadowing federal authority over local law enforcement investigation by specifically defining sentencing for a hate crime. I also worry about the potential to have law enforcement focus on one specific set of crimes at the expense of dealing with equally devastating crimes and that the terms included in the bill are not defined specifically enough, opening up avenues for federal overreach. For these reasons, I joined 174 of my colleagues in voting against H.R. 1913 and have voted against similar legislation in the past two Congresses.

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