参议院以94票对1票通过了一项旨在对抗崛起反亚洲仇恨犯罪。这一响亮的投票证明了在意见不一的参议院中，越来越少有人表现出跨党派的善意。
由夏威夷参议员马齐·广野发起的这项立法采取了相对温和的步骤，以使执法部门和社区能够更好地应对袭击增加反对亚裔美国人和太平洋岛民。它还要求司法部任命或指定某人协助加快对仇恨犯罪的审查。
参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)在周四投票前不久的发言中表示:“这项早就应该通过的法案传达了两个信息:对我们的亚裔美国朋友，我们不会容忍针对你们的偏见;对那些反亚裔偏见的人，我们将尽最大努力依法追究你们。”“我们不能——我们不能让最近针对亚裔美国人的偏执、不宽容和偏见的浪潮不受遏制。”
Evelyn Hockstein/路透社
夏威夷州参议员广野在新闻发布会上谈到新冠肺炎仇恨犯罪法案
“通过这项法案，我们告诉我们的执法机构优先考虑反亚洲暴力，并挥舞着剑，以发现，威慑和起诉，各种仇恨犯罪。我们发出了一个明确的信息，一个统一的信息，仇恨在美国没有立足之地，”他继续说道。
参议员乔希·霍利(Josh Hawley)。是周四唯一的反对投票。
“这太宽泛了，”他在对美国广播公司新闻的一份声明中表示。“作为一名前检察官，我的观点是，简单地授予联邦政府无限制的权力来定义一个全新的联邦仇恨犯罪事件类别是危险的。”
舒默称赞参议院努力争取强大的支持。
舒默说:“今天对反亚洲仇恨犯罪法案的投票证明，当参议院有机会工作时，参议院可以努力解决重要问题。”
该法案现已提交众议院，众议院多数党领袖斯坦尼·霍耶告诉美国广播公司新闻，他预计该法案将迅速通过。
“解决AAPI仇恨犯罪仍然是众议院民主党人的首要任务，”霍耶说。
“我们将很快在这个问题上采取行动，”他补充说。
乔·拜登总统已经支持这项立法，并敦促国会迅速采取行动。
艾琳·斯科特/路透社
参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默在一次新闻发布会上展示了他的“停止亚洲饥饿”面具
与参议员谭美·达克沃斯并肩作战。上个月，包括6名亚洲女性在内的8人在亚特兰大地区的几个温泉浴场被枪杀后，广野提出了这项立法。在那起枪击事件之前，美国各地的反亚洲情绪普遍高涨。
美籍日本人Hirono说，自大流行开始以来，她一直在经历反亚洲情绪的上升。
“这当然让我暂停，”广野周一在美国广播公司的“观点”节目中说。“我过去常常戴着耳机听录音带。我不再这样做了，我需要非常注意我周围的环境。”
非营利报告组织“停止AAPI仇恨”记录了新冠肺炎大流行期间一年内近3800起事件。
共和党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔本月早些时候表示，他将通过适当的修正案支持这项法案。他提到了他的妻子、前特朗普政府官员的经历赵小兰。
“作为一个亚裔美国女性的骄傲丈夫，我可以告诉你——我认为这种对亚裔美国人的歧视是一个真正的问题，”麦康奈尔在上周的新闻发布会上说。“它发生在最近全面展示的谋杀之前。我希望我们能达成一项协议，以正常方式通过该法案，进行一些修正，并最终获得通过。”
在一系列两党幕后讨论产生了几项变化后，大多数共和党人支持这项立法。
其中一个变化是共和党的主要焦点，它确保了最初法案中的语言调整，将仇恨犯罪与新冠肺炎大流行联系起来。
参议员苏珊·科林斯、缅因州共和党人和其他共和党人表示担心，证明这种联系对执法官员来说过于繁重。
柯林斯和广野提出的一项修正案触及了这一措辞，允许该法案更广泛地适用。尽管如此，广野和其他民主党人一直坚持认为，反亚洲情绪的上升与新冠肺炎疫情有关。
他们说，部分责任在于前总统唐纳德·特朗普，特朗普称新冠肺炎为“中国病毒”和“功夫流感”
参议院通过的法案还包括康涅狄格州参议员理查德·布卢门撒尔和共和党参议员杰里·摩兰的修正案。，为各州和地方建立举报仇恨犯罪的热线提供额外资金。他们的修正案还允许法官在他们所针对的社区内指派仇恨犯罪的犯罪者进行改造工作。
Anti-Asian hate bill clears Senate with bipartisan support
The Senate voted 94-1 in favor of an amended bill aimed atcombatting the risein anti-Asian hate crimes. The resounding vote proved an increasingly rare show of across-the-aisle goodwill in the evenly divided Senate.
Sponsored by Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, the legislation takes relatively modest steps to equip law enforcement and communities to better deal with therise in attacksagainst Asian American and Pacific Islanders. It also requires the Department of Justice to appoint or designate someone to assist with an expedited review of hate crimes.
"This long overdue bill sends two messages: to our Asian American friends, we will not tolerate bigotry against you, and to those perpetrating anti-Asian bigotry, we will pursue you to the fullest extent of the law," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in floor remarks shortly before the vote Thursday. "We cannot -- we cannot allow the recent tide of bigotry, intolerance and prejudice against Asian Americans go unchecked."
"By passing this bill, we tell our law enforcement agency to prioritize anti-Asian violence, and wield the sword to detect, deter and prosecute, hate crimes of all variety. We send a clear message, a unified message that hate has no place in America," he continued.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., was the lone dissenting vote on Thursday.
"It's too broad," he said in a statement to ABC News. "As a former prosecutor, my view is it's dangerous to simply give the federal government open-ended authority to define a whole new class of federal hate crime incidents."
Schumer applauded the Senate for working across the aisle to garner robust support.
"The vote today on the Anti-Asian hate crimes bill is proof that when the senate is given the opportunity to work the Senate can work to solve important issues," Schumer said.
The bill now heads to the House, where House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told ABC News he anticipates it will move expeditiously.
"Addressing AAPI hate crimes remains a top priority for House Democrats," Hoyer said.
"We will take action on this issue soon," he added.
President Joe Biden has already backed the legislation and urged Congress to act swiftly.
Alongside Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Hirono introduced the legislation after the shooting of eight people, including six Asian women, at several spas in the Atlanta area last month. That shooting followed a general rise in anti-Asian sentiments across the United States.
Hirono, who is Japanese American, said she's been experiencing the rise in anti-Asian sentiments since the start of the pandemic.
"It certainly gives me pause," Hirono said on ABC's "The View" on Monday. "I used to walk around listening to audio tapes with my ear pods on. I don't do that anymore, I need to be very aware of my surroundings."
The non-profit reporting organization, Stop AAPI Hate, documented nearly 3,800 incidents over a year during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said earlier this month that he would support this bill with the appropriate amendments. He referenced the experiences of his wife, former Trump administration officialElaine Chao.
"I can tell you as a proud husband of an Asian American woman -- I think this discrimination against Asian Americans is a real problem," McConnell said at a press conference last week. "It preceded the murders that were recently on full display. I'm hoping we can work out an agreement to get on the bill in a normal way, have some amendments, and move forward to final passage."
Most Republicans supported the legislation after a series of behind-the-scenes bipartisan discussions yielded several changes.
One of those changes, which was a chief focus for Republicans, secures a tweak in language in the original bill that tied hate crimes to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and other Republicans had expressed concern that proving this link would be too onerous for law enforcement officials.
An amendment offered by Collins and Hirono struck that language, allowing the bill to apply more broadly. Still, Hirono and other Democrats have been insistent that the rise in anti-Asian sentiments is tied to the COVID-19 pandemic.
They said the blame falls partially on former President Donald Trump, who referred to COVID-19 as the "China Virus" and "Kung Flu."
The Senate-passed bill also contains an amendment from Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., to provide additional money for states and localities to establish hotlines for hate crime reporting. Their amendment also allows judges to assign hate-crime perpetrators rehabilitative work within the community that they targeted.
