I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3980 
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. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 5, 2017 
Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI (for himself, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. HASTINGS, Mr. PAYNE, 
Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. EVANS, Ms. CLARKE of New 
York, Ms. NORTON, Ms. MOORE, Mr. GUTIE´RREZ, Mr. RUSH, Ms. WIL-
SON of Florida, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. CICILLINE, Mr. LOWENTHAL, 
Ms. KELLY of Illinois, Mr. HUFFMAN, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. SMITH of Wash-
ington, Mr. MCEACHIN, Mrs. DINGELL, Mr. KEATING, Ms. MICHELLE 
LUJAN GRISHAM of New Mexico, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. NOLAN, Mr. KIHUEN, 
Mr. RUPPERSBERGER, Mrs. LAWRENCE, Ms. LOFGREN, Mr. MCGOVERN, 
Mrs. DEMINGS, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. YARMUTH, Ms. BROWNLEY of Cali-
fornia, Mr. GALLEGO, Mr. TED LIEU of California, Mrs. WATSON COLE-
MAN, Mr. PERLMUTTER, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. CASTRO of Texas, Ms. MAX-
INE WATERS of California, Ms. SLAUGHTER, Mr. LANGEVIN, Mr. SIRES, 
Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mr. COHEN, Mr. GARAMENDI, Mr. POLIS, Mr. SCOTT of 
Virginia, Ms. SHEA-PORTER, and Mr. KHANNA) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Hate Crimes Commis-
sion Act of 2017’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds as follows: 
(1) The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines 
a ‘‘hate crime’’ to be a criminal offense—such as 
murder, arson, or vandalism—against a person or 
property motivated in whole or in part by an offend-
er’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual 
orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity. 
(2) Forty-five States and the District of Colum-
bia 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 re-
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ported 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 su-
premacists and rightwing extremist groups were re-
sponsible for 49 deaths in 26 incidents between 
2000 and 2016, the most of any domestic extremist 
group. The same report found that White suprema-
cists and rightwing extremist groups were the larg-
est threat of domestic terror, and were likely to con-
tinue to pose a lethal threat over the next year. 
(8) In February 2017, a White supremacist en-
tered a bar in Kansas and shot at two Indian men, 
Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani while 
shouting racial epithets. Srinivas later died of his in-
juries. 
(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 Commu-
nity Centers and Schools. 
(10) Since January, there have been at least 
five attacks on LGBT centers across the country. 
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(11) The White nationalist and neo-Nazi pro-
tests 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 ac-
tion to combat hate-based attacks. 
SEC. 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 com-
posed of 12 members. Membership of the Commission 
shall be appointed in accordance with the following: 
(1) Two members shall be appointed by the ma-
jority leader of the Senate. 
(2) Two members shall be appointed by the mi-
nority 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 mi-
nority 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. 
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(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 Commis-
sion 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. 
SEC. 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 com-
mission 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. 
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SEC. 5. REPORT. 
Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Commission shall submit a report to Con-
gress and the President setting forth the results of the 
investigation under section 4. 
SEC. 6. DEFINITION. 
In this Act, the term ‘‘hate crime’’ means an offense 
under section 249 of title 18, United States Code. 
Æ 
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