I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 64
To enhance Federal enforcement of hate crimes, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY9, 2023
Ms. J
ACKSONLEEintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To enhance Federal enforcement of hate crimes, and for
other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘David Ray Hate 4
Crimes Prevention Act of 2022’’ or ‘‘David’s Law’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds that— 7
(1) the incidence of violence motivated by the 8
actual or perceived race, color, national origin, reli-9
gion, sexual orientation, gender, or disability of the 10
victim poses a serious national problem; 11
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(2) such violence disrupts the tranquility and 1
safety of communities and is deeply divisive; 2
(3) existing Federal law is inadequate to ad-3
dress this problem; 4
(4) such violence affects interstate commerce in 5
many ways, including— 6
(A) by impeding the movement of members 7
of targeted groups and forcing such members to 8
move across State lines to escape the incidence 9
or risk of such violence; and 10
(B) by preventing members of targeted 11
groups from purchasing goods and services, ob-12
taining or sustaining employment or partici-13
pating in other commercial activity; 14
(5) perpetrators cross State lines to commit 15
such violence; 16
(6) instrumentalities of interstate commerce are 17
used to facilitate the commission of such violence; 18
(7) such violence is committed using articles 19
that have traveled in interstate commerce; 20
(8) violence motivated by bias that is a relic of 21
slavery can constitute badges and incidents of slav-22
ery; 23
(9) although many local jurisdictions have at-24
tempted to respond to the challenges posed by such 25
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violence, the problem is sufficiently serious, wide-1
spread, and interstate in scope to warrant Federal 2
intervention to assist such jurisdictions; and 3
(10) many States have no laws addressing vio-4
lence based on the actual or perceived race, color, 5
national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, 6
or disability of the victim, while other States have 7
laws that provide only limited protection. 8
SEC. 3. DEFINITION OF HATE CRIME. 9
In this Act, the term ‘‘hate crime’’ has the same 10
meaning as in section 280003(a) of the Violent Crime 11
Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (28 U.S.C. 12
994 note). 13
SEC. 4. PROHIBITION OF CERTAIN ACTS OF VIOLENCE. 14
Section 245 of title 18, United States Code, is 15
amended— 16
(1) by redesignating subsections (c) and (d) as 17
subsections (d) and (e), respectively; and 18
(2) by inserting after subsection (b) the fol-19
lowing: 20
‘‘(c)(1) Whoever, whether or not acting under color 21
of law, willfully causes bodily injury to any person or, 22
through the use of fire, a firearm, or an explosive device, 23
attempts to cause bodily injury to any person, because of 24
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the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national 1
origin of any person— 2
‘‘(A) shall be imprisoned not more than 10 3
years, or fined in accordance with this title, or both; 4
and 5
‘‘(B) shall be imprisoned for any term of years 6
or for life, or fined in accordance with this title, or 7
both if— 8
‘‘(i) death results from the acts committed 9
in violation of this paragraph; or 10
‘‘(ii) the acts committed in violation of this 11
paragraph include kidnapping or an attempt to 12
kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt 13
to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an at-14
tempt to kill. 15
‘‘(2)(A) Whoever, whether or not acting under color 16
of law, in any circumstance described in subparagraph 17
(B), willfully causes bodily injury to any person or, 18
through the use of fire, a firearm, or an explosive device, 19
attempts to cause bodily injury to any person, because of 20
the actual or perceived religion, gender, sexual orientation, 21
or disability of any person— 22
‘‘(i) shall be imprisoned not more than 10 23
years, or fined in accordance with this title, or both; 24
and 25
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‘‘(ii) shall be imprisoned for any term of years 1
or for life, or fined in accordance with this title, or 2
both, if— 3
‘‘(I) death results from the acts committed 4
in violation of this paragraph; or 5
‘‘(II) the acts committed in violation of 6
this paragraph include kidnapping or an at-7
tempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an 8
attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or 9
an attempt to kill. 10
‘‘(B) For purposes of subparagraph (A), the cir-11
cumstances described in this subparagraph are that— 12
‘‘(i) in connection with the offense, the defend-13
ant or the victim travels in interstate or foreign 14
commerce, uses a facility or instrumentality of inter-15
state or foreign commerce, or engages in any activity 16
affecting interstate or foreign commerce; or 17
‘‘(ii) the offense is in or affects interstate or 18
foreign commerce.’’. 19
SEC. 5. DUTIES OF FEDERAL SENTENCING COMMISSION. 20
(a) A
MENDMENT OF FEDERALSENTENCINGGUIDE-21
LINES.—Pursuant to its authority under section 994 of 22
title 28, United States Code, the United States Sentencing 23
Commission shall study the issue of adult recruitment of 24
juveniles to commit hate crimes and shall, if appropriate, 25
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amend the Federal sentencing guidelines to provide sen-1
tencing enhancements (in addition to the sentencing en-2
hancement provided for the use of a minor during the 3
commission of an offense) for adult defendants who recruit 4
juveniles to assist in the commission of hate crimes. 5
(b) C
ONSISTENCYWITHOTHERGUIDELINES.—In 6
carrying out this section, the United States Sentencing 7
Commission shall— 8
(1) ensure that there is reasonable consistency 9
with other Federal sentencing guidelines; and 10
(2) avoid duplicative punishments for substan-11
tially the same offense. 12
SEC. 6. GRANT PROGRAM. 13
(a) A
UTHORITYTOMAKEGRANTS.—The Adminis-14
trator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency 15
Prevention of the Department of Justice shall make 16
grants, in accordance with such regulations as the Attor-17
ney General may prescribe, to State and local programs 18
designed to combat hate crimes committed by juveniles. 19
(b) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 20
are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be 21
necessary to carry out this section. 22
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SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION FOR ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL TO 1
ASSIST STATE AND LOCAL LAW ENFORCE-2
MENT. 3
There are authorized to be appropriated to the De-4
partment of the Treasury and the Department of Justice, 5
including the Community Relations Service, for fiscal 6
years 2023, 2024, and 2025 such sums as are necessary 7
to increase the number of personnel to prevent and re-8
spond to alleged violations of section 245 of title 18, 9
United States Code (as amended by this Act). 10
Æ
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