Patrick Leahy actually said...

I would just say, therefore, that when we now carve out a different class of people that may also deserve that kind of protection, we need, ...

We did pass the Federal hate crime legislation in 1968 in the wake of the assassination of civil rights icon Martin Luther King.

If the States had the capacity to deal with this issue, that's the preferred route.

There are programs that provide and authorize grants to help State, local, and tribal law enforcement officials.