Protecting Religiously Affiliated Institutions Act of 2017

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in favor of the legislation. I want to thank the honorable gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) for his leadership on this and also salute Representatives Kustoff and Kilmer for their introduction of this legislation.

It is important legislation, Mr. Speaker, because it extends protections under current Federal law for religious real property. We know there is no religious free exercise for our people if they are too afraid to go to church or to synagogue or to the mosque.

Currently, section 247 of the Federal criminal code prohibits both the damaging of religious property because of the property's religious character and the intentional obstruction--by force or threats of force--of anyone's exercise of their religious beliefs.

H.R. 1730 clarifies that not just force but threats of force against religious property are included in this prohibition.

In addition, the bill provides that the damaging or obstructing of such property that results in damages exceeding $5,000 constitutes a felony punishable by up to 3 years in prison.

Finally, H.R. 1730 clarifies that real property covered by the statute includes property leased by a nonprofit, religiously affiliated organization.

The importance of the bill, of course, is underscored by the recent upsurge, as Mr. Goodlatte said, in bomb threats, hate crimes, and vandalism committed against churches, synagogues, mosques, and other communities of faith, a wave of hate that is now etched in the public's mind by the shocking events in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August, which began at a local synagogue.

The Hate Crimes Statistics for 2016 released by the FBI indicate that anti-Semitic hate crimes increased 20 percent from the prior year. There has been an alarming surge committed not just against synagogues, but against churches and mosques in 2017.

We know that violent attacks against religious facilities have always accompanied waves of racial terror in our history. In the 1960s, African-American churches in many parts of the country were vandalized, fire bombed, and burned during the struggle for civil rights in the South. In the 1990s, there was a resurgence of arsons committed against African-American churches. In response, Congress passed the Church Arson Prevention Act in 1996 to make it clear that such behavior was also on the wrong side of the law.

Yet, in 2017, here we are again, facing another rise in hate crimes. We must do more to prevent and fight these threats to our most basic First Amendment freedoms that our people have, including the right of our citizens to practice their religion of choice.

While some may disagree with the religious practice of others, what they may not do is use physical obstruction, force, or threats of force to deny other people the right to worship as they choose. No American should ever have to choose between their faith and their personal security and the safety of their family. Therefore, I strongly support H.R. 1730, and I urge all of my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter from the American Jewish Committee and a letter from the Anti-Defamation League.

AJC, Global Jewish Advocacy,

Washington, DC, November 1, 2017.

Hon. Robert Goodlatte,

Chairman.

Hon. John Conyers,

Ranking Member, House Committee on the Judiciary, House of

Representatives, Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman Goodlatte and Ranking Member Conyers: I write

on behalf of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the global

Jewish advocacy organization, in strong support of H.R. 1730,

the Combating Anti-Semitism Act of 2017 (which we understand

will be renamed the Protecting Religiously Affiliated

Institutions Act of 2017).

This critically needed bipartisan legislation, introduced

by Rep. David Kustoff with Rep. Derek Kilmer as chief

cosponsor, addresses long-standing gaps in Federal hate

crimes law. H.R. 1730 amends the Church Arson Prevention Act

of 1996 (18 U.S.C. Sec. 241) (CAPA), which covers attacks on

religious real property, to bring all religiously affiliated

institutions--such as community centers--under the scope of

its protections. The bill also amends CAPA so as to encompass

threats against, as well as acts that result in damage or

destruction to, religious real property. Further, H.R. 1730

enhances the penalty for intentional damage to religious real

property, which is at the moment only at a misdemeanor level

unless there is bodily injury to a person.

In addition to closing these gaps in the law, enactment of

H.R. 1730 will send a signal of zero tolerance for hate

crimes against people of faith. Hate crimes against religious

institutions are on the rise in our country. Since January

2017, at least five mosques have suffered arson attacks,

while dozens of Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and other

religious institutions have been vandalized. These attacks

are intolerable. They infringe on the Constitution's

protection of the free exercise of religion. Moreover, crimes

against religious institutions are intended to create an

atmosphere of fear that deters community members from

attending worship services and social involvement. They pose

a danger to the religious freedom and security of all

Americans. In light of the violent anti-Semitic and racist

white nationalist rally held in Charlottesville, Virginia,

this legislation is more important than ever. We as a nation

must take action in response.

For these reasons, AJC strongly urges your support for, and

speedy action on, the Combating Anti-Semitism Act.

Respectfully,

Richard Foltin.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Kilmer), the distinguished coauthor of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman from Washington an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Schneider), my colleague on the House Judiciary Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz), my distinguished colleague.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 20 seconds to the gentlewoman from Florida.

Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, the First Amendment protects every citizen's right to free exercise of religion, and we, in Congress, must be zealous and vigilant partners with the Constitution in that enterprise.

From Charleston, South Carolina, to Charlottesville, Virginia; from suburban Maryland, where racial bias incidents are up 80 percent in my congressional district in 2017, to California, Oregon, and all over the country, America has seen a surge in threats and violence against individuals and religious real property in our country, all in an effort to deter our citizens from practicing their faith, or simply to assault or kill them for doing so.

There has also been a rise in threats made by telephone, in person, by email, or by phone all over the country, including to churches, synagogues, and mosques. In the first 7 months of this year, there were 63 reported incidents against mosques across 26 States, spanning from Florida to Hawaii. Clearly, Congress must act. We have excellent legislation in H.R. 1730 to expand our law to include threats of force, as well as to toughen up the penalties for this kind of conduct.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on February 27 of this year, about 250 men, women, and children gathered at the Stroum Jewish Community Center on Mercer Island in my home State of Washington.

It was a regular evening. The center was alive. People were swimming laps in the pool. They were lifting weights in the gym. Seniors were taking classes like the popular one on Bollywood dancing the center offers on Monday nights. They were assembling peacefully, united by their common faith. Then, they were targeted because of it.

On that night, a man, cowardly hiding behind the anonymity of a telephone, called in a bomb threat on the center. Children and their parents and seniors dropped everything and were evacuated as the police swept it with dogs.

How did we get to the point where places people come to take an aerobics class or drop off a child for Hebrew school become flash points of hate?

The threat to this center is, sadly, not unique. In the first 3 months of this year alone, there were 126 bomb threats called in to 85 Jewish community centers across the country. Imagine the disruption and the fear created by that.

Let's talk about the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, an organization that advocates for peace and provides classes and community activities and funds scholarships to Seattle-area students.

In 2006, a man walked into the federation's offices with two handguns. He fired shots through the office after gaining access by holding a 14-year-old girl at gunpoint as she called her aunt who worked in the building to buzz her in. He killed one woman and wounded a group of others. He then took them hostage, and a 911 operator talked him into surrendering.

Places of worship and faith-based nonprofits must take any threat seriously. Across the country, because of threats of violence, churches, mosques, synagogues, and nonprofit religious community centers associated with them must spend money that could have gone to classes, gym equipment, or food for the poor, instead, on locks, cameras, and security guards.

Mr. Speaker, that is why we are here today. Today is a victory for everyday people who come to a Representative with a problem and who are hurt.

Earlier this year, a friend from Washington State, who is here with us today, came to me and said: These threats are hate crimes. We are being targeted because of our faith. But unless someone acts on the threat, it doesn't count as a hate crime under the law.

That is how this bill came to be. This bill is about people coming to their elected Representatives and being heard.

H.R. 1730 will amend the Church Arson Prevention Act to punish the cowards who make threats against our places of worship and religiously affiliated nonprofits. It will classify the act of making credible threats as hate crimes.

What happened in my State wasn't a fluke. The FBI has reported a rise in hate crimes. This affects every faith.

There were an average of 16 hate crimes per day last year. American Jews were targeted with bomb threats. Islamic centers have faced arson. Christians have faced threats in the pews as they pray. This doesn't count the credible threats that I mentioned earlier that create chaos and make people feel as though they are targets for no other reason than the God to whom they worship.

So, Mr. Speaker, today is about coming together as Americans and saying enough is enough. It is about communities crying out, ``Never again,'' and being heard by this body. It is about saying, as leaders, that we must never endorse hate.

Silence in the face of intolerance and violent threats isn't enough. We must condemn hate wherever and however it exists. Mr. Speaker, this is about the people of the Stroum Jewish Community Center and the faithful everywhere who should never have to fear.

Around this country, around this world, too many families have been impacted by religious intolerance and violence. Even my own family's family tree has felt that scourge.

Mr. Speaker, this bill acknowledges that, when someone tries to terrorize Americans based on their faith, we need to stand up and do something about it. We must embrace our common humanity and ensure that Americans, wherever they pray, however they come together, are respected.

I thank everyone who has worked on this: my colleague, the chairman, and his committee staff; and Rachel Appleton from my team.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support for this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I rise in strong support of H.R. 1730, the Protecting Religiously Affiliated Institutions Act of 2017. I thank Congressman Kilmer for his vision and leadership on this critical issue.

This legislation would strengthen current Federal law to prohibit threats against religious property, increase the penalty for damaging religious property, and expand protected religious property to include not just houses of worship, but also religiously affiliated nonprofits, like Jewish community centers.

Over the past few years, there has been a frightening rise in incidents of racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia in the U.S. and around the world. All too often, the perpetrators of hate target houses of worship and other religious centers.

From the Sikh temple shooting in Wisconsin in 2012, to Charleston's Emanuel AME Church shooting in 2015, to the mosque attack in London this summer, and the firebombing of a synagogue in Sweden just this past weekend, these violent, cowardly bigots go after what is most sacred to the communities they so odiously abhor.

While the hateful incidents that result in loss of life are undoubtedly the most tragic, any threat or attack against religious property can shake communities to their core.

The Jewish community of south Florida, sadly, knows this firsthand.

Last year, a man planned to bomb a synagogue in Aventura in my congressional district during Passover. He was caught, thankfully, but incidents like this proliferating around the country are instilling fear, causing unease, and requiring additional security measures to be deployed. Sadly, in south Florida, this was not an isolated incident.

Mr. Speaker, I will say that, although not specifically an attack against a Jewish institution, I remember my children, then in preschool, attended preschool at our local JCC and, after the 9/11 attack, my husband racing to their school to take them out of school that day because of the panic that was instilled that automatically occurs in every Jewish family's life with children in a Jewish institution when there is a terrorist attack. We are constantly on edge as to whether or not our community is next.

It is deeply disturbing that the people in my community who attend synagogues and visit our Jewish community centers do so knowing these domestic terrorists intentionally want us to feel uneasy about it. Their mission is to instill fear in the hearts of Jews, Muslims, and other religious minorities so that we will not feel at home in America.

And they are not relenting. The most recent annual report on hate crimes by the FBI showed that there was nearly a 5 percent increase in incidents last year. It is the first time in 10 years that America has experienced consecutive annual increases in reported hate crimes.

More than half of the religiously based hate crimes were anti-Jewish, and a quarter of them were anti-Muslim. We cannot let bigoted threats and vandalism become the new normal.

We must pass this legislation to make it 100 percent clear that, in the view of Congress, when it comes to religious bigotry, there are not good people on both sides.

We must pass this legislation to make anti- Semitic and Islamophobic cowards think twice before they spread fear, while hiding behind a computer or a phone.

We must pass this legislation to ensure that America is always a refuge from religious persecution. I deeply wish this legislation were not needed, Mr. Speaker, but, sadly, it is. I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1730, the Protecting Religiously Affiliated Institutions Act of 2017. I introduced this bipartisan bill with the support of my friend, Representative Derek Kilmer of Washington State. Our legislation is essential in safeguarding religious institutions of all kinds from atrocious threats and acts of violence.

Earlier this year, we saw a disturbing rise in bomb threats at Jewish community centers, churches, and other religious institutions across the country. Our communities were in distress as cemeteries were vandalized because of their religious affiliation.

This kind of hate crime is simply unacceptable. After all, religious tolerance is the bedrock on which this great Nation was founded.

According to a report by the Anti-Defamation League, the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States increased dramatically, by 86 percent, in the first 3 months of 2017. We can attribute this year's increase to 155 vandalism incidents, including three cemetery desecrations and 161 hoax bomb threats against religious community centers. This is a dramatic increase of 127 percent over the same quarter in 2016.

On November 13, 2017, the FBI released its 2016 annual Hate Crime Statistics Act data documents. The study found that more than 100 hate crimes occurred at churches in the United States in 2016 alone.

Unfortunately, hate crimes motivated by religious affiliations accounted for 1,538 total offenses and 1,273 incidents that were reported by law enforcement.

Hate crimes do not just hurt one person. They cause great distress to our families, communities, and society as a

whole. In my own home State of Tennessee, we, sadly, experienced multiple bomb threats at a local Jewish community center. These events shook the entire community.

In addition to the fear inflicted upon these institutions after a threat, there are tangible ramifications for the centers. Many community centers and places of worship are forced to temporarily close their doors as a result of these threats.

Families who rely on the center's services, such as Bible study and early childhood education programs, have been forced to choose between their faith community and their safety. Here, in the United States of America, people should not have to make that choice. Our Nation was founded on the idea of religious freedom, and our commitment to religious freedom must remain unshakable. It is time we say enough is enough. Religious intolerance has no place in this country.

The Protecting Religiously Affiliated Institutions Act of 2017 would ensure that individuals who make credible threats of violence against religious community centers and places of worship can be prosecuted for committing a hate crime under Federal law.

This bipartisan bill strengthens Federal criminal statutes to prevent threats while preserving our First Amendment rights. It is our moral imperative to protect the right of all Americans to worship freely and without fear, a right that is sewn into our Nation's very fabric. We must strongly condemn any acts of hate against people and all institutions of faith.

I thank Representative Kilmer for his hard work on this legislation. I am proud of this bipartisan effort that we have led. I also thank all of the cosponsors of this bill and Chairman Goodlatte for his leadership on the Judiciary Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this very important legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1730) to amend title 18, United States Code, to provide for the protection of community centers with religious affiliation, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 1730, currently under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, the Protecting Religiously Affiliated Institutions Act of 2017 is a bill designed to address recent attacks on religious institutions. It amends the Church Arson Prevention Act to clarify that the act covers religious real property, such as religious community centers. It also increases the penalty for destruction of property offenses on religious property where the conduct results in more than $5,000 in damages to the property.

This legislation is a direct response to the recent onslaught of bomb threats to various synagogues, mosques, churches, and religious community centers. In 2017, there have been more than 100 reported bomb threats against Jewish community centers, Jewish day schools, and other Jewish organizations and institutions in more than 38 States. Islamic centers and mosques have been burned in the States of Texas, Washington, and Florida. We must send the message that any attempt to instill fear in a religious community will not be tolerated.

From its inception, our country has recognized that freedom of religion is a fundamental right. It is just as important to protect this right today, if not more so. We must continue to ensure that the American people can continue to practice their faith without obstruction.

I commend Representative David Kustoff and Representative Derek Kilmer for introducing this bill, and I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Kustoff), the chief sponsor of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe), a member of the Judiciary Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I have no more speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, this is good, bipartisan legislation to protect the religious freedom of people of all faiths. It is particularly important that we stand up at a time when some religious faiths are under particular pressure from those who would attempt to smother their ability to freely exercise their religious beliefs by intimidation. This legislation speaks strongly to that.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Members on both sides of the aisle. I thank Mr. Kustoff, Mr. Kilmer, and others for their good work.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this important legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.