October 6, 2000 (212)558-5438

When the Majority leaders of the House and Senate decided to drop expanded comprehensive hate crimes prevention legislation from the Department of Defense (DoD) Authorization bill, they made a conscious decision to go against the bipartisan majority will of their colleagues in both houses.

It is incomprehensible that, given the thousands of hate crime incidents that are occurring in this country, the GOP leadership would steadfastly refuse to lead our nation into extending moral outrage to crimes committed because of the victim’s gender, sexual orientation or disability.

The National Urban League finds this abdication of leadership unacceptable and deeply disappointing. The 106^th Congress cannot go home without enacting hate crimes prevention legislation that was overwhelmingly supported in both houses. We need the President to step up the fight!

Hate crimes do more than injure an individual. They harm the psychological well-being of an entire group. These crimes threaten the very fabric of the country because they strike at the core of the American ideal of making one nation out of many different people. The federal government must lend local law enforcement all the support they need to respond to these nationally important cases.

The hate crimes bill that was zeroed out of the DoD bill would give prosecutors an additional set of tools to reinforce society’s moral response to crime and allow the full commitment of federal resources to assist local authorities in solving hate-motivated crimes. The legislation would remove overly restrictive obstacles to federal involvement, and extend coverage to victims because of their gender, sexual orientation or disability.

The President supports this bill, the public supports it, religious groups support it, 175 local law enforcement agencies support it, civic and civil rights groups support it. We call upon the Congress to abide by the will of the people.

Hugh B. Price is President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Urban League. He was appointed on July 1, 1994. Founded in 1910, the National Urban League is a nonprofit organization that, through its 114 affiliates in 34 states and the District of Columbia, provides direct services and functions as an advocate to generate policy reforms that empower African-Americans to achieve economic, academic and racial equality. The League’s headquarters is located at 120 Wall Street in New York City.