President Joe Biden signed legislation Thursday designed to curtail a dramatic rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
The House sent the bill to the White House after passing it by a vote of 364-62 on Tuesday. Senators had voted 94-1 in favor of the bill in April.
The legislation will expedite Justice Department reviews of hate crimes and make grants available to help local law enforcement agencies improve their investigation, identification and reporting of incidents driven by bias, which often go underreported.
Speaking at a ceremony in the White House East Room attended by lawmakers of both parties, Biden praised members of Congress for their bipartisanship on the issue, saying they proved "democracy can work and deliver for the American people."
Biden said for too long, all of this hate has been hiding "in plain sight." He said for centuries, Asian Americans "have helped build this nation only to be often stepped over, forgotten or ignored."
The president said "hate can be given no safe harbor in America," adding that "silence is complicity."
To many Asian Americans, the pandemic has invigorated deep-seated biases that in some cases date back to the Chinese Exclusion Act of more than a century ago.
And as cases of the illness began to rise in the U.S., so too did the attacks, with thousands of violent incidents reported in the past year.
Yet to some activists, including organizations representing gay and transgender Asian Americans, the legislation is misguided. More than 100 groups have signed onto a statement opposing the bill for relying too heavily on law enforcement while providing too little funding to address the underlying issues driving a rise in hate crimes.
Philadelphia City Council passed legislation to ban ski masks in some public spaces, a measure supporters say will increase public safety amid high violent crime, but opponents argue it will unfairly target people without proof of any wrongdoing.
A federal appeals court ruled that former President Donald Trump won't have presidential immunity in civil lawsuits related to the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference known as COP28 kicked off in Dubai and major progress is already being made.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis squared off in a very unusual political debate Thursday night on Fox News.
Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court, died Friday, the high court said.
Sen. Rand Paul successfully performed the Heimlich maneuver on fellow Sen. Joni Ernst as she choked at a GOP lunch that she was hosting.
Israeli fighter jets hit targets in the Gaza Strip minutes after a weeklong truce expired on Friday, signaling that the war with Hamas has resumed in full force.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to authorize subpoenas for two prominent conservatives who arranged luxury travel and other benefits for Supreme Court justices, but Republicans planned to object to the legitimacy of the action.
Someone in China created thousands of fake social media accounts designed to appear to be from Americans and used them to spread polarizing political content in an apparent effort to divide the U.S. ahead of next year's elections, Meta said Thursday.
The House voted on Friday to expel Republican Rep. George Santos of New York after a critical ethics report on his conduct that accused him of converting campaign donations for his own use. He was just the sixth member in the chamber's history to be ousted by colleagues.
