Hate Crimes Commission Act of 2017

To establish a United States Commission on Hate Crimes to study and make recommendations on the prevention of the commission of hate crimes, and for other purposes. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Hate Crimes Commission Act of 2017 2. Findings The Congress finds as follows: (1) The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines a hate crime (2) Forty-five States and the District of Columbia have statutes criminalizing various types of bias-motivated violence or intimidation. (3) The Federal Government has had hate crimes statutes since 1968, with the most recent law enacted in 2009. (4) The impact of underreporting on hate crimes statistics hinders hate crimes prevention. (5) According to multiple, nonpartisan studies, hate crimes have increased sharply over the past year, with over 900 new hate incidents reported since November 2016. (6) The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found that in 2016, there was a 6.7-percent increase in reported hate crimes since the prior year, one of the largest one-year increases in over a decade. (7) In May 2017, the FBI found that White supremacists and rightwing extremist groups were responsible for 49 deaths in 26 incidents between 2000 and 2016, the most of any domestic extremist group. The same report found that White supremacists and rightwing extremist groups were the largest threat of domestic terror, and were likely to continue to pose a lethal threat over the next year. (8) In February 2017, a White supremacist entered a bar in Kansas and shot at two Indian men, Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani while shouting racial epithets. Srinivas later died of his injuries. (9) The nonpartisan Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism documented 55 instances of anti-Semitism between January and March 2017 in New York City alone, a 189-percent increase from the same time period in 2016, and close to 100 bomb threats have been received by Jewish Community Centers and Schools. (10) Since January, there have been at least five attacks on LGBT centers across the country. (11) The White nationalist and neo-Nazi protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 11–13, 2017, which resulted in 1 death and 20 injuries from a White nationalist driving his car into a group of counterprotesters, show the need for increased action to combat hate-based attacks. 3. Establishment of Commission (a) Establishment There is established the United States Commission on Hate Crimes (hereinafter in this act referred to as the Commission (b) Membership The Commission shall be composed of 12 members. Membership of the Commission shall be appointed in accordance with the following: (1) Two members shall be appointed by the majority leader of the Senate. (2) Two members shall be appointed by the minority leader of the Senate. (3) Two members shall be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives. (4) Two members shall be appointed by the minority leader of the House of Representatives. (5) Two members shall be jointly appointed by the two appointing officials under paragraphs (1) through (4) who are members of, or caucus with, the Democratic Party. (6) Two members shall be jointly appointed by the two appointing officials under paragraphs (1) through (4) who are members of, or caucus with, the Republican Party. (7) Not more than 6 members of the Commission shall be from the law enforcement community and not more than 6 members of the Commission shall be of the civil rights community. (8) Not more than six of the members shall be of the same political party. 4. Duties of the Commission The Commission shall investigate the following: (1) If there has been an increase in hate crimes during the period beginning January 1, 2007, and ending 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act. (2) To the extent that any increase in the commission in hate crimes is determined to exist, what factors have contributed to such increase. (3) What policies or actions law enforcement agencies might adopt or engage in to reduce the commission of hate crimes. (4) The impact of underreporting on hate crimes statistics and hate crimes prevention. 5. Report Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Commission shall submit a report to Congress and the President setting forth the results of the investigation under section 4. 6. Definition In this Act, the term hate crime

Summary: Hate Crimes Commission Act of 2017 This bill establishes the United States Commission on Hate Crimes to investigate and report on: whether hate crimes have increased; factors that contributed to an increase in hate crimes, if one is determined to exist; policies or actions by law enforcement agencies to reduce hate crimes; and the impact of underreporting on hate crimes statistics and prevention.