Washington, DC – U.S. Representative Young Kim (CA-39), one of the first Korean American women to serve in Congress, today joined her colleagues to pass out of the House the bipartisan, Senate-amended COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act (S.937).
Rep. Kim has been a strong voice for the AAPI community in Congress, testifying before the House Judiciary Committee in March and urging for bipartisan action to address hate crimes targeting the AAPI community in an op-ed for USA Today.
“While hate and bias targeting the Asian American Pacific Islander community is not new, there’s no question it has been on the rise during the COVID-19 pandemic, with nearly 4,000 hate crimes reported nationwide in the past year and many in particular targeting seniors,” said Kim. “Hate targeting any American should not be tolerated. I’m proud to join my colleagues in to take a bipartisan stand against these hate crimes targeting many of my constituents and others across the nation. While this is a step in the right direction, there’s still more work to do as a country to come together as Americans. I’ll stand with my AAPI community always.”
The Senate-amended COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act will help federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies address reports of hate crimes and expands resources to report these crimes The bipartisan bill passed the Senate 94-1 and is now on its way to the president’s desk to become law.
Kim spoke on the House floor in support of the bill. You can watch her remarks HERE.
