Senate moves toward bipartisan endgame on AAPI hate crimes legislation

The Senate is on track to vote this week on an expanded version of a bill to address a rise in violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, as a House committee plans work on its own similar legislation Tuesday.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York said on the floor Monday that several proposed amendments to Hawaii Democratic Sen. Mazie K. Hirono’s legislation would be wrapped into a substitute amendment that would get a vote “in the coming days.”

“We’re seeing that when the Senate is given the opportunity to work the Senate can work,” Schumer said. “Members from both sides of the aisle have worked together over the past week to consider, perfect and soon enact legislation responding to a pressing issue.”

That includes Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins working with Hirono on “a few modifications” to the bill that Democrats welcomed, Schumer said. Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock sought the inclusion of language that acknowledges the shooting spree in the Atlanta area last month that killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent.