September 19, 2000

Dear Conferee:

I am writing on behalf of Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers' Committee) to urge you to support inclusion of meaningful hate crimes language (Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act of 2000) in the final Department of Defense (DoD) Authorization Bill. The Lawyers¹ Committee is a non-partisan, non-profit, national civil rights legal organization formed by leading members of the nation¹s bar in 1963 at the request of President Kennedy to address racial discrimination. It is critical that you, as a member of the DoD Authorization Conference Committee, include the hate crimes language passed by both the House and the Senate in the Final DoD Authorization Bill. The Conference Committee must retain this historic civil rights language which has won bipartisan approval by the Senate (57-42) and by the House (232-192) in a motion to instruct the Conferees to include the language.

As I am sure you are aware, the American public overwhelmingly supports the strengthening of federal hate crimes laws and have indicated that they would be more likely to vote against a candidate who did not support such legislation. In fact, this law is crucial to protect the civil right of all Americans and will assist local and state law enforcement efforts to enforce and prosecute hate crimes by enhancing federal and state cooperation, by removing obstacles to federal involvement, and by providing federal laws to properly address bias motivated crimes in states where the laws are insufficient. Simply put, this law fills in the gaps without compromising the ability of state and local entities to prosecute crimes where they are able.

The Lawyers' Committee believes that this legislation is a reasonable and fair approach to close those gaps in existing law and will send a strong message that we as a nation will not tolerate bias motivated violence perpetuated against individuals because of their identity.

The Conferees must now fulfill the mandate placed on them by both houses of Congress and put this critical legislation in the final DoD Authorization Bill that is presented to President Clinton for his signature. We call on the leadership in the House and Senate and the members of the Conference Committee to make inclusion of the hate crimes language a priority. This Congress should not end without enacting the fundamental civil rights protections provided for in the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act of 2000. The Lawyers' Committee believes that this legislation is a critical step to protecting millions of Americans from the hate and racial violence that is escalating in our society.

Sincerely,

Barbara R. Arnwine
Executive Director

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