WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) today released the following statement after voting for final passage of S. 937, the COVID-19 Hate Crimes legislation:
“No person should be discriminated against or face hate or bigotry of any kind. As the former U.S. Ambassador to Japan and someone who has worked with many in the Asian community for decades, I find any anti-Asian sentiment abhorrent and unacceptable. Today Senate Democrats missed a huge opportunity to condemn discrimination in all forms and revealed they are not serious about rooting out actual discrimination against Asian-Americans: namely Senate Democrats used the filibuster to block a GOP amendment to end real, documented discrimination against Asian-Americans occurring in higher education admissions. Only in Washington could an effort to combat Asian-American discrimination completely ignore the most notorious form of it in American society today.”