H. Res. 257 
In the House of Representatives, U. S., 
July 25, 2018. 
Whereas, in the past several years, violent crimes, threats of 
violence, and other incidents of hate-motivated targeting 
of religious, racial, and ethnic minorities have increased 
across the United States; 
Whereas, in 2015, hate crimes targeting Muslims in the 
United States increased by 67 percent, reaching a level 
of violence targeting Muslim Americans that the United 
States had not experienced since the aftermath of the 
September 11, 2001, attacks, according to the Federal 
Bureau of Investigation; 
Whereas, in 2015, anti-Semitic incidents increased in the 
United States for the second straight year, according to 
the Anti-Defamation League’s 2015 Audit of Anti-Se-
mitic Incidents, which describes trends such as the tri-
pling of assaults targeting Jews since 2012 and the rise 
of online harassment and hate speech directed at Jewish 
journalists and individuals through social media; 
Whereas, in 2015, anti-Semitic incidents at institutions of 
higher education nearly doubled compared to the number 
of those incidents in 2014, and during the 2016–2017 
school year there has been an increase in White suprema-
cist activity on college campuses across the United 
States, according to the Anti-Defamation League;
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Whereas, in 2015, among single-bias hate crime incidents in 
the United States, 59.2 percent of victims were targeted 
due to racial, ethnic, or ancestry bias, and among those 
victims, 52.2 percent were victims of crimes motivated by 
their offenders’ anti-Black or anti-African-American bias, 
according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation; 
Whereas, in 2017, there have been more than 100 reported 
bomb threats against Jewish community centers, Jewish 
day schools, and other Jewish organizations and institu-
tions in more than 38 States; 
Whereas, in 2017, Islamic centers and mosques have been 
burned in the States of Texas, Washington, and Florida, 
and Jewish cemeteries have been desecrated in the States 
of Missouri and Pennsylvania; 
Whereas, in 2017, there has been harassment and hate-based 
violence against individuals who are perceived to be Mus-
lim, including members of South Asian communities in 
the United States, and Hindu and Sikh Americans have 
been the target of hate-based violence targeting religious 
minorities; and 
Whereas, on February 28, 2017, President Donald Trump, 
before a joint session of Congress, acknowledged threats 
targeting Jewish community centers and the vandalism of 
Jewish cemeteries, and stated that ‘‘we are a country 
that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all of 
its very ugly forms’’: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) affirms that the United States stands united in 
condemning hate and evil in all forms;
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(2) rejects hate-motivated crime as an attack on the 
fabric of the society of the United States and the ideals 
of pluralism and respect; 
(3) condemns hate crime and any other form of rac-
ism, religious or ethnic bias, discrimination, incitement 
to violence, or animus targeting a minority in the United 
States; 
(4) calls on Federal law enforcement officials, work-
ing with State and local officials— 
(A) to expeditiously investigate all credible re-
ports of hate crimes and incidents and threats 
against minorities in the United States; and 
(B) to hold the perpetrators of those crimes, 
incidents, or threats accountable and bring the per-
petrators to justice; 
(5) encourages the Department of Justice and other 
Federal agencies— 
(A) to work to improve the reporting of hate 
crimes; and 
(B) to emphasize the importance of the agen-
cies’ collection and reporting of data pursuant to 
Federal law; 
(6) encourages the development of an interagency 
task force led by the Attorney General and bringing to-
gether the Department of Justice, the Department of
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Homeland Security, the Department of Education, the 
Department of State, the Federal Bureau of Investiga-
tion, and the Office of the Director of National Intel-
ligence to collaborate on the development of effective 
strategies and efforts to detect and deter hate crime in 
order to protect minority communities; and 
(7) calls on the executive branch— 
(A) to offer Federal assistance that may be 
available for victims of hate crimes; and 
(B) to enhance security measures and improve 
preparedness for religious institutions, places of 
worship, and other institutions that have been tar-
geted because of the affiliation of the institutions 
with any particular religious, racial, or ethnic mi-
nority in the United States. 
Attest: 
Clerk.