National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2010

Floor Speech

NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2010 -- (Senate - July 15, 2009)

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, first, I commend my colleague from Arizona, Senator McCain, for his great leadership and for his important words about Burma. No one would know better than Senator McCain about the human rights violations of someone held in a prison such as that.

As he is aware, on a bipartisan basis, the women Senators have come together to support Aung San Suu Kyi and her fight in Burma.

I would also add, I recently met with a Burmese community in my State. They are concerned about their relatives there and everything that is happening in that country. We have someone in our office whose relatives are in Burma.

So I thank the Senator for his words and also for his leadership on the amendment, the Levin-McCain amendment to strike the $1.75 billion added to the bill that is on the floor to purchase additional F-22 aircraft that have not been requested by the Pentagon.

This is a very difficult issue for many people in this Chamber, including the Senator from Arizona. But we all know in the end what counts is to do the right thing for our troops and for our national security.

This amendment truly gives us an important choice: Will we continue to pour billions into unproven weapons systems, despite repeated cost overruns and program delays or are we going to make the hard choices necessary to ensure that our troops in the field have what they need to fight present and future conflicts?

These F-22s, we know, possess unique flying capabilities, but not one has ever flown over Iraq or Afghanistan. We have much more pressing needs. Both the past President and the current President support this amendment. I hope my colleagues will support it as well.

I am actually here to speak in support of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. I am a cosponsor of this legislation which will help us fight hate crimes and make our communities safer.

Among other things, the bill would impose criminal penalties for targeting a victim on the basis of race, religion, sexual orientation or disability.

I wish to thank Senator Leahy for his work on this bill and, of course, Senator Kennedy for his work and leadership on the issue over the years.

I have been involved with this piece of legislation for many years. If you go way back to 2000, when I was the county prosecutor for Minnesota's largest county, I was actually called to Washington for the first time to take part in a ceremony in which the bill was introduced.

I remember this moment well because there I was with the President at the time, President Clinton, and Attorney General Reno. We were ready to walk in for this ceremony to introduce the hate crimes bill. I was standing outside, and the military band struck up ``Hail to the Chief'' because the President was entering the room. I started to walk, and all of a sudden I felt this big hand on my shoulder, and this voice said: I know you are going to do great out there, but when they play that song I usually go first.

It is something I will never forget.

So here I am now, 9 years later, with this same bill. We are working very hard to get this bill passed. I am hopeful we will be able to do that.

What I remember most about that day back in 2000, however, was the meeting I had with the investigators in the Matthew Shepard case. They were two burly cops from Wyoming, and they talked about the fact that until they had investigated that horrible crime, they had not considered what the victim's, Matthew Shepard's, life was like.

When they got to know the family in the case, when they got to know the mom, and they got to know the people surrounding Matthew Shepard, their own lives changed forever.

I hope by passing this bill we can prevent other Matthew Shepards from being targeted and deter hate crimes.

Attorney General Eric Holder recently appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to talk about his support for this bill, and he gave us some somber statistics. He reported that ``there have been over 77,000 hate crime incidents reported to the FBI'' from 1998 to 2007 or ``nearly one hate crime every hour of every day'' for the past decade.

In my State of Minnesota, there were 157 reported offenses in 2007. But when I think about this issue, it is not just about the statistics. It is about the victims of these crimes.

When I was county prosecutor, we had a number of cases that were clearly motivated by hate. That was one of the reasons, actually, I was chosen to go out to Washington. And part of it was we had worked well with the Federal prosecutors on some of the cases.

We had the case of a 14-year-old African-American boy who was minding his own business, and a guy who did have some mental health issues told his friends: I am going to go out and--he used a different word--but shoot a Black kid on Martin Luther King Day. And he did. And he almost killed this little 14-year-old boy. But he survived, and we prosecuted the case.

I also think about a young Hispanic man. He was working in a factory, and his boss got mad at him because he did not speak English and he was speaking Spanish at work. His boss took a 2 by 4 and hit him over the head, resulting in bleeding in his brain and brain damage--all for speaking Spanish.

I also think about the case we had with a Hindu temple that was severely vandalized by young kids. And I think about the case of a Korean church that had all kinds of hateful graffiti written on it. Some of these cases, as I said, were major attempted murder cases. Some of them were simply graffiti cases. But to the people in that church, to the people in that temple, it meant something much more.

That is why I was glad, at least in a few of these cases, we were able to use our State hate crimes legislation. Those were cases in Minnesota--a place where you might not think you would see these kinds of cases. But we did.

This bill in front of us, the Matthew Shepard hate crimes bill, will strengthen the ability of Federal, State, local, and tribal governments to investigate and prosecute hate crimes. It increases the number of personnel at the Treasury Department and the Department of Justice working on hate crimes. It gives grants to State and local law enforcement officials investigating and prosecuting hate crimes.

It authorizes the Attorney General to provide resources and support to State, local, and tribal law enforcement officials for hate crime investigations and prosecutions.

In addition, this bill authorizes the Federal Government to step in when needed and prosecute hate crimes, when needed, after the Justice Department certifies that a Federal prosecution is necessary. While most of these cases will continue to be handled by State and local jurisdictions, the bill provides a Federal backstop for State and local law enforcement to deal with hate crimes that otherwise might not be effectively investigated and prosecuted or for when States request assistance. It is a backdrop. Think about how many other areas of the law where we have these kinds of backdrops. In the gun area, as the Presiding Officer is aware from his work in the State of New Mexico, sometimes we have overlapping jurisdictions. The gun crime is a perfect example. State laws can apply, but sometimes the Feds will come in or you will want them to come in and handle the case. The same with drug crimes. It helps to have that Federal backdrop for the investigating power, for the sentencing power, and for many other things. So this bill won't usurp the role of local law enforcement but, rather, supplement it when needed.

Finally, I wish to note that this legislation has the support of numerous law enforcement organizations, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Major Cities Chiefs, and the National District Attorneys Association.

For years we have recognized the need for this legislation. I think back to 2000 when I was standing outside of the East Room with President Clinton when it was first introduced. For years we have known we need this legislation, but year after year the forces of reaction have stalled and blocked and tried to do everything they can to make it go away. This must end.

A little over 40 years ago, Robert Kennedy broke the news to a crowd in Indianapolis that Martin Luther King, Jr., had just been assassinated. During his speech, Kennedy called on the crowd and the country to make an effort, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed with an effort to understand with compassion and love. We should answer his call today.

I look forward to the day--and I hope it will be very soon--when the Hate Crimes Prevention Act becomes law. It is long overdue. I urge my colleagues to support it.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

I yield the floor, and I note the absence of a quorum.

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