Senate Approves Federal Hate Crime Legislation; Fails to Include All Affected Groups

by Jan Erickson, Government Relations Director, and Casey Shevin, Government Relations Intern

On Tuesday, June 15, the Senate approved the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act (LLEEA), to expand federal hate crimes legislation by adding new protected categories of gender, sexual orientation and disability. Currently, federal law allows for the prosecution of bias crimes committed on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin.

Fifteen Republican senators joined Democrats in voting for the bill, which passed by a 65-33 margin as an amendment to the $422 billion fiscal year 2005 defense authorization bill, while all 33 "no" votes came from Republicans.

NOW Action Vice President Olga Vives commended the Senate for adding additional protections in hate crimes law, but noted that the legislation fails to include an explicit category for transgendered persons.

"We know that transgendered persons are more often the target of bias-motivated violent crime than other groups, yet the senators refused to add clear protections for this vulnerable population," Vives said.

The proposed legislation will enable the Department of Justice to prosecute hate crimes in instances beyond the current narrow scope of intervening only in crimes committed during a victim’s involvement in “federally-protected” activities such as voting, serving on a jury, or attending school.

Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), the bill's sponsors, attempted to attach the amendment to other legislation twice before, in 1999 and then again in 2001, only to have it struck from the final bill upon instructions from the Senate Republican leadership. Sen. Smith reportedly voiced concern that the amendment would again be struck from the final version of the bill: "I've not been told it will be stripped out ...there's no guarantee it won't be, and there's a real possibility it will be."

The legislation faces an uphill battle in the House, where arch-conservatives control the votes. However, the sponsors' strategy of attaching the hate crimes amendment to an important spending bill may prove to be useful: George W. Bush, who reportedly opposes the expansion of federal hate crimes law, is unlikely to veto the Republicans' much-desired defense spending bill just because of this amendment.

NOW has advocated for expansion of hate crimes statutes to address sex-based and sexual orientation-based hate crimes for nearly two decades. More recently, the organization has advocated for protection against bias crimes for transgendered persons.

As stated in a resolution adopted at the 2002 National NOW Conference, NOW "will continue to advocate for the inclusion of 'sex, transgender people, and gender identity and/or expression' as protected categories in legislation currently in Congress."