Violence In Myanmar: Southeast Asian Leaders Call For Immediate End To

Capping nearly two weeks of talks between Democrats and Republicans, the Senate approved legislation on Thursday to ramp up law enforcement efforts to better protect the Asian American and Pacific Islander community from hate crimes.

The move marks a rare moment of bipartisan unity needed to approve the Senate legislation despite a new political era marked by increasingly bitter party divisions.

The bill, which needed 60 votes for passage in the evenly divided Senate, was approved by a 94-1 vote. Only GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri voted no.

“The vote today on the anti-Asian hate crimes bill is proof that when the Senate is given the opportunity to work, the Senate can work to solve important issues,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said ahead of the vote.

The bill next heads to the House, where it’s being led by Democratic Rep. Grace Meng of New York and is expected to gain approval. Following House passage, it will go to President Biden’s desk. Biden had urged approval for hate crimes legislation in the wake of a March shooting in Georgia that left several women of Asian descent dead.

Article continues after sponsor message

The legislation, introduced by Hawaii Democrat Mazie Hirono in the Senate, saw a breakthrough late Wednesday during negotiations with Republicans. GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine helped lead efforts to broaden the original scope of the bill to go beyond hate crimes initiated during the pandemic.

“Senator Collins and I identified changes that will broaden support for the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act while retaining the bill’s core purpose to combat anti-Asian hate,” Hirono said in a statement after the breakthrough in talks.

The legislation does highlight that in a nearly one-year period ending Feb. 28, the country has seen about 3,800 cases of related discrimination and hate crime incidents.

“Crimes motivated by bias against race, national origin, and other characteristics cannot be tolerated,” Collins said. “Our amendment both denounces those acts and marshals additional resources toward addressing and stopping these horrible crimes.”

The bill was held up in recent days over which amendments Republicans could offer up for floor votes ahead of Thursday’s final passage. About 20 were filed, many of which had nothing to do with the bill, Hirono has said.

In the end, the parties agreed to vote on three of those GOP amendments that all failed to garner the 60 votes needed on Thursday.

Schumer said the legislation was the mark of progress since “dark chapters in our history,” with accounts of discrimination against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community rising under former President Donald Trump.

“Over the past several years, the forces of hate and bigotry seemed to have gained strength too often encouraged by our former president,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “The Senate makes it very clear that hate and discrimination against any group has no place in America. Bigotry against one is bigotry against all.”

Through grant programs and other efforts, the legislation incentivizes law enforcement agencies to better track instances of hate crimes and establish related hotlines. It also requires the attorney general to designate a Department of Justice official to initiate a review of such hate crime reports quickly for law enforcement departments across the country.

The attorney general would also direct guidance for agencies to take part in new, related online reporting requirements and efforts to expand public awareness campaigns.

Finally, the measure includes a bipartisan provision authored by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and GOP Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas to allow alternative sentencing during prosecution. In such instances, a defendant could complete educational courses or community service in the communities harmed by the defendant’s action.

Schumer said the bill’s passage sends two messages: One, the government is in solidarity with the Asian American and Pacific Islander community and, two, that hate crimes will not be tolerated.

He also said the bill bodes well for the Senate to work across the aisle again soon, including plans to take up legislation focused on boosting U.S. competition with China in the coming weeks.

The U.S. House of Representatives has once again voted on a bill to grant statehood to Washington, D.C., and enfranchise more than 712,000 Americans, a cause that enjoys unprecedented support but still faces an uphill battle in the U.S. Senate.

“This country was founded on the principles of no taxation without representation and consent of the governed. But D.C. residents are taxed without representation and cannot consent to the laws under which they as American citizens must live,” said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s nonvoting delegate, on the House floor ahead of the vote.

Her statehood bill, H.R. 51, would reduce the size of the federal district and create a new state with the remaining territory with two U.S. senators and a representative, placing residents on equal footing with voters in other states. Statehood advocates contend the cause is also a fight for racial justice. If admitted, Washington, D.C., would be the first state with a plurality of Black residents.

In Ward 6 at Maine Ave SW in front of The Wharf, Emma P. Ward, left, (Ms. Senior District of Columbia 2011) and Joyce Robinson-Paul show their support for D.C. statehood.
Tyrone Turner/WAMU
“The folks who live in the beacon of democracy that is the nation’s capitol don’t have a voice,” says Ravi Perry, chair of the political science department at Howard University and board member of DC Vote, a statehood advocacy organization.

Article continues after sponsor message

House Democrats passed Norton’s bill last year in a historic vote, but the legislation never reached the GOP-led Senate.

Now, with Democrats controlling the White House and the Senate, the effort to make D.C. the 51st star on the nation’s flag has more support than ever before — even though it is unclear whether the measure has the backing of all 50 Democratic senators, let alone 60 votes in all, for it to pass in the Senate.

It passed the House on Thursday 216-208 along party lines.

Ahead of the vote, Republican lawmakers linked D.C. statehood with a laundry list of progressive policies.

“This is not about a balance of power, this is about more power,” said Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C. “This is about government-run health care, a 93 trillion [dollar] Green New Deal, packing the Supreme Court, higher taxes and a bigger, less efficient form of government.”

Jasmine Joyner places signs at Martin Luther King Jr. Ave & Malcolm X Ave SE in Washington, D.C.
Tyrone Turner/WAMU
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., claimed Democrats’ push for statehood is a transparent attempt to grow their power in Washington.

“I wonder, listening to the debate, if our friends on the other side of the aisle would be so passionate if Washington, D.C., were 90% Republican as [opposed to] 90% Democrat,” he said. “H.R. 51 goes against the Founding Fathers’ intent, and is unconstitutional, impractical and a blatant power grab.”

But Democrats counter that at its core, the fight for statehood is a fight for equal representation, and frequently cite the fact that D.C. residents pay more in federal taxes than 21 states and more per capita than any state, according to 2019 IRS data.

“[Republicans] don’t see taxation without representation. They don’t see military service without representation, when tens of thousands of people from the nation’s capital have served America in every war that we’ve ever had,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md.

Violence In Myanmar: Southeast Asian Leaders Call For Immediate End To

Violence In Myanmar: Southeast Asian Leaders Call For Immediate End To

Related Posts:

Zaraki Kenpachi

You may also like

Recent posts

Topics

Help & Support

Contact Us

Most popular

Most discussed