Title: Condemning the violence and domestic terrorist attack that took place during events between August 11 and August 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia, recognizing the first responders who lost their lives while monitoring the events, offering deepest condolences to the families and friends of those individuals who were killed and deepest sympathies and support to those individuals who were injured in the attack, expressing support for the Charlottesville community, rejecting White nationalists, White supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and other hate groups, and urging the President and the President's Cabinet to use all available resources to address the threats posed by those groups.
Policy area: Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues

Summary:
This joint resolution condemns the racist violence and domestic terror attack in Charlottesville, Virginia, and rejects white nationalism, white supremacy, and neo-Nazism sentiments as antithetical to U.S. values.
Congress offers condolences to the families of those who died in Charlottesville and sympathy and support for those injured, and expresses support to the Charlottesville community.
Congress urges the President and the Administration to speak out against hate groups and use all available resources to address the growing prevalence of domestic hate groups.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.J. Res. 117 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. J. RES. 117

 Condemning the violence and domestic terrorist attack that took place 
        during events between August 11 and August 12, 2017, in 
 Charlottesville, Virginia, recognizing the first responders who lost 
 their lives while monitoring the events, offering deepest condolences 
 to the families and friends of those individuals who were killed and 
deepest sympathies and support to those individuals who were injured in 
   the attack, expressing support for the Charlottesville community, 
  rejecting White nationalists, White supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, 
  neo-Nazis, and other hate groups, and urging the President and the 
   President's Cabinet to use all available resources to address the 
                     threats posed by those groups.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 7, 2017

 Mr. Garrett (for himself, Mr. Connolly, Mrs. Comstock, Mr. Beyer, Mr. 
 Griffith, Mr. Scott of Virginia, Mr. Brat, Mr. McEachin, Mr. Taylor, 
     Mr. Goodlatte, and Mr. Wittman) submitted the following joint 
    resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                            JOINT RESOLUTION


 
 Condemning the violence and domestic terrorist attack that took place 
        during events between August 11 and August 12, 2017, in 
 Charlottesville, Virginia, recognizing the first responders who lost 
 their lives while monitoring the events, offering deepest condolences 
 to the families and friends of those individuals who were killed and 
deepest sympathies and support to those individuals who were injured in 
   the attack, expressing support for the Charlottesville community, 
  rejecting White nationalists, White supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, 
  neo-Nazis, and other hate groups, and urging the President and the 
   President's Cabinet to use all available resources to address the 
                     threats posed by those groups.

Whereas, on the night of Friday, August 11, 2017, a day before a White 
        nationalist demonstration was scheduled to occur in Charlottesville, 
        Virginia, hundreds of torch-bearing White nationalists, White 
        supremacists, Klansmen, and neo-Nazis chanted racist, anti-Semitic, and 
        anti-immigrant slogans and violently engaged with counter-demonstrators 
        on and around the grounds of the University of Virginia in 
        Charlottesville;
Whereas, on Saturday, August 12, 2017, ahead of the scheduled start time of the 
        planned march, protestors and counter-demonstrators gathered at 
        Emancipation Park in Charlottesville;
Whereas the extremist demonstration turned violent, culminating in the death of 
        peaceful counter-demonstrator Heather Heyer and injuries to 19 other 
        individuals after a neo-Nazi sympathizer allegedly drove a vehicle into 
        a crowd, an act that resulted in a charge of second degree murder, 3 
        counts of malicious wounding, and 1 count of hit and run;
Whereas 2 Virginia State Police officers, Lieutenant H. Jay Cullen and Trooper 
        Pilot Berke M.M. Bates, died in a helicopter crash as they patrolled the 
        events occurring below them;
Whereas the Charlottesville community is engaged in a healing process following 
        this horrific and violent display of bigotry; and
Whereas White nationalists, White supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and 
        other hate groups reportedly are organizing similar events in other 
        cities in the United States and communities everywhere are concerned 
        about the growing and open display of hate and violence being 
        perpetrated by those groups: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That Congress--
            (1) condemns the racist violence and domestic terrorist 
        attack that took place between August 11 and August 12, 2017, 
        in Charlottesville, Virginia;
            (2) recognizes--
                    (A) Heather Heyer, who was killed, and 19 other 
                individuals who were injured in the reported domestic 
                terrorist attack; and
                    (B) several other individuals who were injured in 
                separate attacks while standing up to hate and 
                intolerance;
            (3) recognizes the public service and heroism of Virginia 
        State Police officers Lieutenant H. Jay Cullen and Trooper 
        Pilot Berke M.M. Bates, who lost their lives while responding 
        to the events from the air;
            (4) offers--
                    (A) condolences to the families and friends of 
                Heather Heyer, Lieutenant H. Jay Cullen, and Trooper 
                Pilot Berke M.M. Bates; and
                    (B) sympathy and support to those individuals who 
                are recovering from injuries sustained during the 
                attacks;
            (5) expresses support for the Charlottesville community as 
        the community heals following this demonstration of violent 
        bigotry;
            (6) rejects White nationalism, White supremacy, and neo-
        Nazism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are 
        contradictory to the values that define the people of the 
        United States; and
            (7) urges--
                    (A) the President and his administration to--
                            (i) speak out against hate groups that 
                        espouse racism, extremism, xenophobia, anti-
                        Semitism, and White supremacy; and
                            (ii) use all resources available to the 
                        President and the President's Cabinet to 
                        address the growing prevalence of those hate 
                        groups in the United States; and
                    (B) the Attorney General to work with--
                            (i) the Secretary of Homeland Security to 
                        investigate thoroughly all acts of violence, 
                        intimidation, and domestic terrorism by White 
                        supremacists, White nationalists, neo-Nazis, 
                        the Ku Klux Klan, and associated groups in 
                        order to determine if any criminal laws have 
                        been violated and to prevent those groups from 
                        fomenting and facilitating additional violence; 
                        and
                            (ii) the heads of other Federal agencies to 
                        improve the reporting of hate crimes and to 
                        emphasize the importance of the collection, and 
                        the reporting to the Federal Bureau of 
                        Investigation, of hate crime data by State and 
                        local agencies.
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