Tina Smith: “I will not be long. I was mindful Senator Kennedy was speaking to the issue of hate crimes. I was going to ask him the…”

“I will not be long. I was mindful Senator Kennedy was speaking to the issue of hate crimes. I was going to ask him the question that I think he would agree with. We acknowledge at a surface level the argument could be made that hate crimes do not belong on a State Department authorization bill. That is the case at a surface level, but it is also true that our foreign policy should reflect the values of the American people. The values of the American people say the war on terrorism is waged not just abroad but here at home. Our country is plagued with hate crimes. Some people will say all crimes are hateful, but what Senator Kennedy and I are focusing on are those crimes which target a community of vulnerable people--whether race, religion, gender, disabled, and additionally those whose sexual orientation is different from the majority. It is an incredible tragedy that the Federal Government has not been allowed to participate in the hate crimes prosecution in places where sometimes local police departments are overwhelmed by national media, or places where the prosecutions do not occur as they ought to. Senator Kennedy and I are proposing as part of this bill we take up the issue of hate crimes. This institution has passed this issue before by large majorities. We ought to do so again.…”