From Congress.gov and Reuters - The U.S. Senate passed an anti-Asian hate crimes bill on Thursday with a 94-1 vote. Most importantly, the bill requires a designated personnel of the U.S. Department of Justice to facilitate an expedited review of COVID-19 hate crimes and reports of COVID-19 hate crimes.
The bill defines COVID-19hate crimes as any violent crime that is motivated by the actual or perceived characteristic - such as race or ethnicity - of any person and the actual or perceived relationship to the spread of COVID-19 of any person because of that characteristic.
The bill also requires the Department of Justice to issue guidance for state and local law enforcement agencies on how to establish online hate crime reporting processes and how to expand culturally inclusive education campaigns.
Lastly, the bill asserts that the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services must issue guidance on best practices for handling racially discriminatory language in describing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Next, the bill must pass through the House of Representatives before it is sent to President Joe Biden for it to go into effect. Biden has voiced his support for the bill.
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