Pelosi Remarks at Press Conference on the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act

Contact: Speaker's Press Office,

202-226-7616

Speaker Pelosi. Thank you very much, Leader Schumer, for bringing us together this morning for this very, very important legislation. I thank you for bringing folks from both sides of the Capitol, and I'm grateful for your appeal for bipartisanship on, again – this is important legislation.

I want to thank Senator Hirono and Tammy Duckworth, Senator Duckworth, as well. And, of course, we're very proud of Grace Meng and her leadership on this legislation. She also had another hate crimes bill earlier, well, in the last Congress, so she's been on this with great ideas, leadership and values. And to Andy Kim from New Jersey, thank you for your leadership as well.

Senator Schumer. It's close. Close.

[Laughter]

Speaker Pelosi. He means New York is close to New Jersey. Again, thank you, Senator Schumer.

Here's the thing. The Senator talked about visits that he has made into the community and heard the concerns that people have put forth. I, myself, last week, was in Chinatown in San Francisco. I visited the North East Medical Services Medical Center, which is a recipient of our rescue package money, so it was very hopeful to hear how the community, AAPI community, was taking the lead in a culturally, linguistically appropriate way to reach out to the community and successfully test, trace, vaccinate and the rest, again, leading the way. Leading the way. It gave us so much hope.

It was so sad, also, though, to hear the stories of fear people had in the community. Again, I represent San Francisco in the Congress. This is a place where we take such pride in our AAPI community – as I'm sure in Hawaii and New York and New Jersey you do, as well. But in San Francisco, we're small, and the community is large, and we are very dependent.

In fact, we learn a lot from that community. A week before, I had virtually visited with them, with our regular meeting that we usually have, to talk about housing and any number of other issues of concern to the community, where public policy has an impact and where values are our guide. And so, again, the community has been an intellectual resource for improving life for all of us in our country.

Actually, I voted in Chinatown. Lim Poon Lee Post Office, that's the first post office named for – he actually worked for Phil Burton.

Leader Schumer. Really?

Speaker Pelosi. And then Phil named a post office for him.

So, you see, the roots run deep. And that's one of the messages I had that day. When the press asks about what are we doing, let us salute President Biden. Right from the start, within 24 hours of his presidency, he had an executive order calling on the Justice Department, even before we had an Attorney General, calling upon the Justice Department to take up this issue in a very specific way. And, again, more recently, his executive actions have been very important. So let us salute him.

But let us do, also, what the Leader said. The President asked us to pass this legislation. It will be marked up in committee within the next week in our House. And we'll pass it immediately and send it over to the Senate. But they have their own version of the bill, too, so at some point we'll have a meeting of the legislation and to pass it to send it onto the President.

Just as a matter of experience, in our community and the rest, it breaks your heart to see how communities are affected by this – these hate crimes and how parents are so protective of their children not feeling that negative attitude. And then also, the target sometimes are older women – women. I say that as an older woman. And I say to them, ‘When somebody is about to make some kind of attack, listen to what they are saying, because what they say is what is evidence of a hate crime.'

It shouldn't have to be that high of a standard if the intent is so clear, but the fact is, for now, what we have to do is to make sure we get the words down. And I say some of us are, shall we say, older, don't have all of the familiarity with the lingo that people might use. And if you are, again, English is your second language, you might not recognize it for the intention that is there.

So, again, we have to do our part here in terms of legislation and making the law. Grace Meng in our House, I can speak to this, has been relentless. I've visited her in her district and seen the beautiful diversity of AAPI in her community. And she is a magnificent spokesperson for them. But I do not have the privilege of yielding to her. It's my privilege to yield to our former House Member, a person we take great pride in, and no, no ¬– I mean every time she speaks, we all think, ‘She's ours. She's ours. She came from the House.' Senator Hirono.

Thank you.