SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) The most recent Federal Bureau of Inves-
tigation hate crimes report notes an increase of hate 
crimes with 5,850 hate crime incidents reported to 
police in 2015, a 6.8 percent increase over 2014. 
(2) The same report found in one year, anti- 
Muslim hate crimes in the United States rose 67 
percent. 
(3) Anti-Jewish hate crimes rose 9 percent, 
anti-Black hate crimes went up by almost 8 percent, 
and anti-LGBT hate crimes increased by nearly 5 
percent. 
(4) It has been widely recognized that there has 
been an intensification of hate speech and threats 
based on religion and ethnicity throughout 2015 and 
2016. For example, it has been publicly reported 
that 
between 
August 
2015 
and 
July 
2016, 
2,600,000 anti-Semitic tweets were sent by Twitter 
users, with around 800 Jewish journalists receiving 
approximately 19,000 of the tweets. 
(5) Multiple Jewish journalists have reported 
receiving letters at their home containing anti-Se-
mitic messages. 
(6) An Associated Press analysis suggests hate 
crimes go largely under-reported, noting that 2,800 
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city police and county sheriff’s departments across 
the country did not submit a single hate crime re-
port for the FBI’s annual crime tally during the 
past six years, constituting 17 percent of all city and 
county law enforcement agencies nationwide. 
SEC. 3. NATIONAL HATE CRIME HOTLINE AND HATE CRIME 
INFORMATION AND ASSISTANCE WEBSITE. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Attorney General may award 
one or more grants to private, nonprofit entities— 
(1) to provide for the establishment and oper-
ation of a national, toll-free telephone hotline to pro-
vide information and assistance to victims of hate 
crimes (hereafter in this section referred to as the 
‘‘national hate crime hotline’’); and 
(2) to provide for the establishment and oper-
ation of a highly secure Internet website to provide 
that information and assistance to such victims 
(hereafter in this section referred to as the ‘‘hate 
crime information and assistance website’’). 
(b) DURATION.—A grant under this section may ex-
tend over a period of not more than 5 years. 
(c) ANNUAL APPROVAL.—The provision of payments 
under a grant awarded under this section shall be subject 
to annual approval by the Attorney General and subject 
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to the availability of appropriations for each fiscal year 
to make the payments. 
(d) HOTLINE ACTIVITIES.—An entity that receives a 
grant under this section for activities described, in whole 
or in part, in subsection (a)(1) shall use funds made avail-
able through the grant to establish and operate a national 
hate crime hotline. In establishing and operating the hot-
line, the entity shall— 
(1) contract with a carrier for the use of a toll- 
free telephone line; 
(2) employ, train (including technology train-
ing), and supervise personnel to answer incoming 
calls and provide counseling and referral services to 
callers on a 24-hour-a-day basis; 
(3) assemble and maintain a current database 
of information relating to services for victims of hate 
crimes to which callers throughout the United States 
may be referred; 
(4) publicize the national hate crime hotline to 
potential users throughout the United States; and 
(5) be prohibited from asking hotline callers 
about their citizenship status. 
(e) SECURE WEBSITE ACTIVITIES.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—An entity that receives a 
grant under this section for activities described, in 
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whole or in part, in subsection (a)(2) shall use funds 
made available through the grant to provide grants 
for startup and operational costs associated with es-
tablishing and operating a hate crime information 
and assistance website. 
(2) AVAILABILITY.—The hate crime informa-
tion and assistance website shall be available to the 
entity operating the national hate crime hotline. 
(3) INFORMATION.—The hate crime informa-
tion and assistance website shall provide accurate in-
formation that describes the services available to vic-
tims of hate crimes, including health care and men-
tal health services, social services, transportation, 
and other relevant services. 
(4) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this 
section shall be construed to require any shelter or 
service provider, whether public or private, to be 
linked to the hate crime information and assistance 
website or to provide information to the recipient of 
the grant described in paragraph (1) or to the 
website. 
(f) APPLICATION.—The Attorney General may not 
award a grant under this section unless the Attorney Gen-
eral approves an application for such grant. To be ap-
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proved by the Attorney General under this subsection an 
application shall— 
(1) contain such agreements, assurances, and 
information, be in such form, and be submitted in 
such manner, as the Attorney General shall pre-
scribe through notice in the Federal Register; 
(2) in the case of an application for a grant to 
carry out activities described in subsection (a)(1), in-
clude a complete description of the applicant’s plan 
for the operation of a national hate crime hotline, in-
cluding descriptions of— 
(A) the training program for hotline per-
sonnel, including technology training to ensure 
that all persons affiliated with the hotline are 
able to effectively operate any technological sys-
tems used by the hotline; 
(B) the hiring criteria for hotline per-
sonnel; 
(C) the methods for the creation, mainte-
nance, and updating of a resource database; 
(D) a plan for publicizing the availability 
of the hotline; 
(E) a plan for providing service to non- 
English speaking callers, including service 
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