Coalition Letter in Support of Improving Reporting to Prevent Hate Act

View a PDF of the letter here.

May 8, 2024

Dear Representative,

On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (“The Leadership Conference”), a coalition of more than 240 national organizations committed to promoting and protecting the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States, its Hate Crimes Task Force, which includes civil rights, community, religious, and educational groups that work together to address and prevent hate crime, and the undersigned 32 organizations, we write in support of the bipartisan Improving Reporting to Prevent Hate Act (IRPHA). This bipartisan bill, which was introduced on March 13, 2024, would help improve hate crime reporting and data collection, which is critical to countering bias-motivated crimes.

For more than 30 years, the FBI’s Hate Crime Statistics Act (HCSA) has been the most important and most comprehensive national snapshot of hate violence in America that has been available.  Unfortunately, reporting hate crime data to the FBI is voluntary and data reporting by the nation’s federal, state, local, and tribal police agencies has been incomplete and inconsistent.

IRPHA will require local governments with a population of more than 100,000 to report credible hate crime data to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting program in order to be eligible for federal funding under the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968.  Agencies serving jurisdictions of more than 100,000 that conduct community hate crime public education and awareness initiatives would also qualify for this federal funding.

It is impossible to address our nation’s hate crime problem without accurate data. We cannot confront a problem we are not measuring effectively. We ask that you support IRPHA, which will help address this critical need.

If you would like to discuss this bill further or have any questions, please contact Nadia Aziz, Senior Director of the Fighting Hate & Bias Program at The Leadership Conference, at [email protected].

Sincerely,

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

2nd Lt. Richard W. Collins III Foundation
ADL (Anti-Defamation League)
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
Arab American Institute
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action
Center for Security, Race and Rights
Government Information Watch
Hindu American Foundation (HAF)
Human Rights Campaign
Human Rights First
Interfaith Alliance
Japanese American Citizens League (JACL)
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Lambda Legal
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Matthew Shepard Foundation
Movement Advancement Project
Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)
National Black Justice Coalition
National Center for Transgender Equality
National Council of Jewish Women
National Disability Rights Network (NDRN)
Not In Our Town
PERIL, the Polarization & Extremism Research and Innovation Lab
PFLAG National
Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF)
Southern Echo Inc.
SPLC Action Fund
The Sikh Coalition
Union for Reform Judaism