By Laura DeKoven Waxman
December 7, 2009

Hate Crimes Legislation

President Barack Obama on October 28 signed into law important civil rights legislation that expands the definition of a hate crime to include crimes based on a victim's actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability. Strongly supported by the Conference of Mayors, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is included in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010.

In a May 20, 2009, letter to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the bill's chief sponsor, then Conference of Mayors President Manny Diaz wrote: "The bill serves to strengthen the ability of local, federal, and state governments to investigate and prosecute hate crimes based on race, ethnic background, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and disability. Current law does not recognize violent crimes committed because of a person's sexual orientation, gender, or disability as hate crimes. Inclusion of these categories will ensure that all victims of vicious acts of violence are protected by the full strength of this nation's judicial and investigative systems."

When he signed the bill, President Obama acknowledged all of the hard work Kennedy, who succumbed to brain cancer on August 25, had done to make enactment of the bill possible. Members of the Senator's family were present at the signing ceremony.

The bill also:

• removes the current prerequisite that the victim be engaging in a federally'protected activity, like voting or going to school;

• gives federal authorities greater ability to engage in hate crimes investigations that local authorities choose not to pursue;

• provides $10 million in funding for 2008 and 2009 to help state and local agencies pay for investigating and prosecuting hate crimes; and

• requires the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to track statistics on hate crimes against transgender people (statistics for the other groups are already tracked).

The House passed H.R. 3791 on a 395'31 vote November 18 that would authorize $11 billion over five years for firefighting programs. The bill would provide $1 billion per year for the Assistance to Firefighter Grants (AFG) program and $1.2 billion per year for the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER). AFG grants provide fire departments and emergency medical services organizations funds to purchase equipment. SAFER grants are used for hiring and retaining firefighters and emergency response personnel.

The House'passed bill would revise the grant allocation requirements. Career fire departments, volunteer fire departments, and combination career'volunteer departments would each be allotted 25 percent of the funds. The remaining 25 percent would be awarded on a competitive basis to any type of department. Maximum annual awards to departments would be based on the population of the jurisdiction they serve: Those which serve less than 100,000 people would receive up to $1 million per year; those which serve 100,000 but less than 500,000 would receive up to $2 million; those which serve 500,000 but less than 1,000,000 people would receive up to $3 million; those which serve one million but less than 2.5 million would receive up to $6 million; those which serve 2.5 million people or more would receive up to $9 million.

The bill now goes to the Senate, where the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee is expected to mark up legislation soon.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency notified states and other recipients of Homeland Security Grant Program funds on September 22 that these grant funds may be used to pay for "maintenance agreements, user fees, and other sustainment costs as long as the equipment was purchased with FEMA preparedness grant funding and the sustainment costs fall within the performance period of the grant that was used to purchase the equipment." This means that these funds cannot be used to maintain equipment purchased with other funds or during previous performance periods.

State and local officials have registered their strong concerns with FEMA about this. In response, Ohio Representative Mary Jo Kilroy introduced legislation (H.R. 3837) that would amend the Homeland Security Act to permit funds to be used for maintenance agreements, user fees and sustainment costs and prohibit FEMA from imposing any time limit on grant recipients using these funds to maintain equipment. That legislation was reported out of the House Homeland Security Committee by a voice vote on November 18.

FEMA issued a revised policy on November 20 that states, "Effective immediately, the use of FEMA preparedness grant funds for maintenance contracts, warranties, repair or replacement costs, upgrades, and user fees are allowable under all active and future grant awards, unless otherwise noted. Grantees are reminded to be sensitive to supplanting issues. Maintenance contracts, warranties, repair or replacement costs, upgrades, and user fees previously purchased with State and or local funds cannot be replaced with Federal grant funding."

H.R. 3837 had been expected to move quickly to the House floor, but with the issuance of FEMA's revised policy, Committee leaders now are waiting to get state and local officials' assessment of the impact of that policy.