NPR's All Things Considered: Attorney General Urges Congress On New Hate Crimes Bill

clipped from www.npr.org Politics Holder Urges Congress On New Hate Crimes Bill by Audie Cornish Audio for this story will be available at approx. 7:00 p.m. ET All Things Considered, June 25, 2009 · U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called on senators Thursday to expand federal statutes against hate crimes to include protections for gays, women and people with disabilities. The statures currently provide for federal prosecution and increased penalties for violent crimes motivated by race or religion. The new legislation has been 10 years in the making. More than a decade ago, then Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder testified in support of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The bill still carries the name of the 21-year-old gay man brutally murdered in Wyoming in 1998. This time, as attorney general, Holder, speaking to the Senate Judiciary Committee, cited the recent killing of a black security guard at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. The alleged shooter is a white supremacist.