John Conyers

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Members of the House, the measure before us enables the Department of Justice to come to the aid of State and local law enforcement agencies in investigating and prosecuting bias-based brutality and helping defer the costs when they overwhelm State and local resources. And when necessary--and if approved by the highest, Senate-confirmed Department officials--it authorizes the Department to step in and prosecute at the Federal level. What we are doing here today is expanding existing Federal hate crimes law beyond the confines of protecting access to a limited set of specified protected activities. What we do is add to the current list of group characteristics deservedly recognized for protection, the reason being due to their being well-known targets for bias-based violence. So we add new ones that also clearly belong on the list, and this is after careful scrutiny and hearings on this issue--they are sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and disability. These crimes of violence are directed not just at those who are directly attacked; they are targeting the entire group with the threat of violence. So the groups in the bill differ from other groups that some have been trying to add on--and I understand some of their reasons for that--but which do not share the same kind of history of being targeted over a period of time for hate-based violence. Our approach is consistent with the judgment made by the States that have hate crimes laws--45 of them. They have made the same judgment as we have made for Federal law, that these many other groups should be protected elsewhere in the law, not in hate crimes law. I close by reminding Members that under Lyndon Johnson in 1968 we first started the hate crimes bill under the church arson bill. The President called us into the White House with the governors of southern States to advise them that the burning of churches, the arson, the cross burnings were so out of control in many States that there was no other remedy except by Federal statute. The Federal Government would have to be authorized to intercede where they invited them to do so. From that has grown this bill, based on law that has been tested in the Supreme Court and many other lower courts. And so we come before you with a bill that does not encroach upon the First Amendment, or the Fourth Amendment, or the part of the Constitution that leaves all other powers to the States. I urge your continued careful consideration of it. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the distinguished majority leader, himself a longtime member of the bar and a supporter of civil rights, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I would like now to yield 2 minutes to a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, who is also a chairperson of another subcommittee, Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Mr. CONYERS. I yield the gentleman an additional minute.

Mr. CONYERS. I yield 2 minutes to the chairman of the Constitution Committee on the Judiciary Committee, Jerry Nadler of New York.

Mr. CONYERS. I am pleased to yield now 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. Markey).

Mr. CONYERS. I am pleased now to recognize a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, the gentlelady from Texas, Sheila Jackson- Lee, for 2 minutes. (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I reserve a point of order.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to Steve Cohen, a State legislator and lawyer for more than 24 years.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased now to recognize for 1 minute the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey), who has been the cochair of the Progressive Caucus for many years.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to give 2 minutes to the Crime Subcommittee chairman for many years, Bobby Scott of Virginia.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased now to recognize the distinguished gentlelady from Maryland, an attorney herself, Donna Edwards, for 1 minute.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New York, Eliot Engel.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, would you advise us with regard to how much time remains on both sides?

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield for the purpose of a unanimous consent request to the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Chaka Fattah. (Mr. FATTAH asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I now recognize the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Al Green) for 1 minute.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that I be permitted to control the remainder of the time that I previously yielded to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk).

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I am now pleased to recognize the gentlelady from Wisconsin who has served ably on the Committee on the Judiciary for a number of years, Tammy Baldwin, for 5 minutes.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts, who is Chair of the Finance Committee but previously has served his entire career on the House Judiciary Committee, and his name is Barney Frank.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank you. I would like to congratulate the Members of the House for the debate that's occurred on the hate crimes legislation because of the very effective way that they have communicated their reservations about the way we approached the subject.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that there would be agreement to dispense with that portion of the motion dealing with the armed services.

Mr. CONYERS. No, sir, I do not.

Mr. CONYERS. I rise in opposition to this motion, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. CONYERS. I thank you. I suppose this is the parliamentary part of the legislative process that a motion to recommit has to be entertained, but before I begin my discussion about the regrets of it, I still insist on complimenting the Members of the House of Representatives who have understood that there are particular acts of violence against the law that are intolerable and should be dealt with as effectively as possible. The question is what is the most effective way. Now, what we have been proposing, since 1968, during the civil rights era, where there was an inability to seek prosecution of violators of civil rights laws at the State level, a southern President, Lyndon Johnson, began realizing that there had to be a Federal method of dealing with certain crimes that were not only violent to the victims but served to send a message of intimidation to others in that same class or group. Those groups, we have listed. These groups are being denied the most fundamental protection of liberty. They are targeted for the most extreme violence by extremists who have decided, in their own warped view of how we should exist among each other in our society, as people who don't deserve to have life. The groups that are on this protected list and are identified as where hate crime laws kick in are being protected in the same way that has been going on all the way back these many years, since 1968. The targets are not only the particular individuals who are attacked, but an extension of everyone in the group. The unmistakable intended threat to all is that not only are you not welcome, but you are despised, and you are not safe, and we are coming after you. But this motion seeks simply to ignore these essential facts. Let me talk about the three areas mentioned. The armed services, for example. While people who are disturbed at governmental policies and may direct anger at the military, members of the armed services are not victims of bias-based prejudice or hatred. To the contrary, they are honored for their service to our Nation, with national holidays in their honor, memorials, and other economic benefits, all of which are deserved. But they are not in the same situation as the groups we are seeking to protect in this bill. Besides, specific protections for members of the armed services already exist in the Federal law----it makes killing someone in the military a capital crime.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.