Gives testimony before a house judiciary subcommittee. The subcommittee will come to order. Without objection, we are authorized to declare a recess at any time. We welcome everyone to the hearing on the department of justice civil Rights Division. With that, we will have the pledge of allegiance with the gentleman from arizona leading us to the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all. I will now recognize myself for an Opening Statement. I think our witness for being here today. Civil Rights Division is responsible for the enforcement of his local civil rights statutes here in congress and related constitutional guarantees. This is an issue near and dear to my hard. I too in a previous life served in the United States and the e Eastern District of texas. My job there as a witness, my colleagues know, was to equally enforce the law. My grandfather was the chief of police in east water texas. My grandmother was the first woman elected county clerk in nolan county, texas, after my grandfather passed away from cancer. My dad was seven years old. Her job was to equally enforce the law. Justice is blind and we must follow the facts wherever they may take us. Like all components of the Justice Department, the civil Rights Division is expected to do the same. Equally enforce the law. Unfortunately under the Biden Administration this has not always been the case. Then civil Rights Division has fixed its site protecting us. Police departments. There often harassing these departments to the point that they cannot do their jobs. There have been a series of investigations, indianapolis, phoenix, new york, Louisiana State police, new York State PoliceDepartment Special victims unit, dorchester, massachusetts, new jersey, lexington, mississippi. 11 times over the last two years, we have seen a significant disparity. There are a few examples of how the doj civil Rights Division has targeted those who protect our communities. It is not to say there are not circumstances meriting review, but in the midst of open crime, open borders, sentinel, the doj is prioritizing investigations of small to midsized Police Departments. Under president biden, the doj has opened 11 Police Department investigations compared to just one in the previous administration. This combined with fairly radical views that we will talk about with the witness earlier about defending the police in the past which raises concerns about the intent of such investigations, especially at a time of police are demoralized following the defined the police movement. The divisions activities have also too often amounted to using the law to advantage or disadvantage certain states and individuals. For example, the freedom of access to clinical inferences, or f. A. C. E. Act. This law protects abortion clinics, pregnancy resource centers, and houses of alike. They see f. A. C. E. Act violations involving abortion clinics, especially the situation involving mark howell, where he was protecting his young son from a belligerent abortion activist. On may 2nd, 2022, dobbs and the Womens Health organization leaked to the press. This gave widespread demonstrations that attacked prolife facilities. More than 100 prolife facilities were vandalized or damaged including by arson. 218 catholic churches have been attacked since the Dobbs Decision was leaked according to the vote. Current to the Family Research council, there are 57 pro abortion acts of hostility from churches from january 2022 to fiscal 23, there were 69 instances of hostility towards churches. You would expect civil Rights Division to step up and protect the civil rights of these americans. But there was not. In 2022, the department brought 26 prosecutions under the f. A. C. E. Act. All of them involved alleged incidents at the abortion clinics. In 23, they identified one prosecution of four individuals in florida who praise painted a pregnancy resource center. This marked the first time in American History that the f. A. C. E. Act was used against pro abortion protesters. This questionable use of resources is further identified by other divisions. In 2021 20, that a new election law with the active purposes for denying the right of black forges to vote based on race or color. The problem is that is just not true. In the Court Decision today to borne that out commercially the court refused to block several litigations of the law. Notably the court found the department has not shown that any have a disparate impact on black voters. Quite simply the facts on the ground do not match the allegations in the department lawsuit. While the department is devoting resources, they are missing an action when Constitutional Rights are violated. In september this year, the mexico governor issued the lawful carrying of firearms in the state. This order was plainly on constitutional in the Supreme Court precedents. Despite the plain violation of american rights, this was nowhere to be found. And now the department had to bring a lawsuit to overturn the order. The division filed a amicus brief and was given a state of interest to protect americans Second Amendment rights. More importantly, they stand idly by while Jewish Americans have their rights violated by radical propalestinian protesters. Since hamas cowardly attack humans they murdered innocent israelis, raped women, and kidnapped babies, rapid anti semitism has occurred throughout american campuses and major american cities. Protesters in philadelphia protested outside of goldie, a jewishowned falafel restaurant, outside Independence Hall where the declaration of independence was signed. The Division Must return to protecting the rights of all americans. I would note there is a ongoing wave of antisomatic threats throughout the west. Montreal jewish stools and attacked homes in l. A. Investigated how crimes including the search for suspects that spraypainted swastikas on synagogues. Cornell cancels classes after a student was arrested for murder, rape. The fbi investigating after antisomatic graffiti. That is eight literally pages of of examples of antisemitic acts in the wake of october 7th, and it is notable that there has been basically silence. So it is true the Division Must return to nonpartisan work and not just those that it favors. I look forward to hearing this morning how that will happen and i recognize the Ranking Member for her statement. Thank you. I want to welcome you to the Judiciary Committee and this very important oversight to help the American Public understand the Critical Role that the civils Rights Division of the department of justice plays in protecting the fundamental rights and freedoms of all americans. This hearing is particularly important since your predecessor refuse the committees request for oversight hearings amidst the Trump Administrations efforts to up and i the department of justice in a way that was unprecedented in the history of this great nation. Under that administration, we some members of the department of justice leadership acting as a president s personal attorneys, repeating election disinformation, withdrawing support for Voting Rights and other civil Rights Enforcement, and reversing courts on decades of work to ensure that Law Enforcement agencies protect the rights of all americans, and of course under that demonstration we saw the normal hate speech, chaos, and Political Violence which is tearing apart so many of our communities today. That is why it is so important that we understand the Critical Role of the department of justice civil rights in combating and securing our civil freedoms. It is worth remembering that congress explicitly created the civil Rights Division as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 to protect the Voting Rights of black americans and other minorities. The very generation of the civil rights was the belief in a democracy that the right to vote as a Foundation Upon which all other rights and freedoms ultimately rest. These course of rights and freedoms include the rights to cast a vote in a free and Fair Election regardless of race. The right to be free from discrimination and for housing and education, and for the right to be free from violence based on haight. We look for to have the civil Rights Division has renewed these principles underscore leadership. Another trump admission, we saw the administration abdicate its responsibly. We see a renewed focus by the division on vigorous civil Rights Enforcement. Understanding that the right to cast a vote in a free and Fair Election is the foundation of all other rights, i appreciate the divisions renewed focus on taking action in over 40 voting right matters since 2021, ranging from votingrelated Enforcement Actions to numerous private Enforcement Actions including two in pennsylvania. But we continue to vigorous enforcement of the Voting Rights act as we see asian lmia restrictive voting laws enacted by states over the past the Supreme Courts erosion of three years with the potential to impact the 2024 election. Of course much of this legislative activity stands from the Supreme Court erosion of 1955 through a series of decisions beginning with Shelby County versus holder and continuing with one of its versus Democratic National committee. These decisions have made it harder and more resource intensive about the civil Rights Division and other Voting Rights act plaintiffs to prevail in enforcement action. But there is a solution of course. That is that Congress Must act. Congress must respond by re authorizing the Voting Rights act and updating the guardrails of our democratic republic to respond to 21st century threats. We must pass the john lewis Voting Rights advancement act which would ensure full funding for the civil Rights Division to deploy more resources to enforce Voting Rights protections. The civil Rights Division also bears responsibly for enforcing federal hate crime laws, at a time when over the past seven years we have seen an explosion of hate speech and Political Violence whether directed towards racial or ethnic minorities, women and lgbtq persons, or members of religious groups. All over the community, residents have been impacted by hate incidents. Statistics by the fbi show that last year even with imperfect reporting, Law Enforcement agencies reported over 11,000 hate crime incidents, over 59 of those victims being targeted because of their race or ethnicity, and another 17. 3 targeted because of their religion and another 17 because of their Sexual Orientation. Of course on october 7th, the Israeli Military response to the attacked, we have seen increasing reports of anti semitism and islamophobia including potential hate crime. Also, for decades, the civil Rights Division has played an Important Role in helping Law Enforcement agencies keep their communities safe while protecting the civil rights of all citizens. One of the tools for doing this is to work with communities to address patterns and practices in Law Enforcement, a toilet abandoned by the Trump Department of justice and i look forward to hearing what progress has been made in this area. Again, thank you assistant attorney general clark for updating us on the work of the division of what Congress Needs to do to assist the division and that work. I now recognize the Ranking Member of the committee mr. Nadler for his Opening Statement should he care to get one. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I would like to thank you bite beginning with attorney general clark for a period before the subcommittee today. Unfortunately, it is been several years since we were able to department the department of justice civil rights provision. The immediate predecessor during the Trump Administration never appeared before us. We did not blame the department at evasion for the time because back then it basically did nothing good for us and vigorously did not enforce our creative goals and civil rights laws. I am pleased to announce under the Biden Administration and under general clarks leadership they are once again taking their roles seriously. That means protecting american from a nationwide effort to undermined the right to vote, working with local communities to resolve patterns and practices of unconstitutional conduct in Law Enforcement agencies, addressing the disturbing rise in hate crimes across the country, and combating discoloration in all forms whether it be in employment, housing, education, or elsewhere. With all of these Critical Issues and many others, that impacted Many Americans. Tirelessly ensuring all americans regardless of their race, religion, sex, or Sexual Orientation, are treated equally under the law. Thank you for your efforts to keep this department. Excuse me. On top of mind for me is the recent rise in antisemitism and the general rise in hate crimes and other forms of illegal discrimination that has transpired over the past several years. Including recent data compiled by the fbi from 2022, the testimony of lawenforcement officials, there has been a significant documented increase in antisomatic hate crimes and discrimination. According to fbi data, even before hamass brutal terrorist attack, antisemitism was on the rise. In 2022, there were 42 incidents based on religion. More than half of these were driven by antijewish bias. During recent testimony before the senate, the fbi director stated the threat of anti semitism, quote, is reaching in some way sort of historic levels and that is in part because the Jewish Community is targeted by terrorists across the spectrum including terrorist organizations and Domestic Violence and terrorism extremists. They went on to say that the fbi statistics would indicate that for group that represents in about 2. 4 of the American Public, Jewish Americans account for Something Like 60 of all religiousbased hate crimes. And it is not just the Jewish Community that is experiencing a rise in hate. In the week since the october 7th attacks, the been tragic incidents of islamophobia and hate across the country including in vermont and in the murder of a muslim child in illinois. Unfortunately, hate crimes rooted in race, ethnicity, or ancestry, continue to remain the most common. According to that same fbi data, reported incident in 2022. And the number of antiblack incidents of his more than three times higher than the next highest racial or ethnic category. Additionally, fbi data also shows a disturbing trend of instances of violence against the transgender and nongender confirming community. As we all know, while statistics can help us quantify and understand the problem, it cannot fully medicate the bias of these crimes is feeling at this moment committed across our communities. I cannot emphasize how vulnerable the jewish communities are feeling now that there has been an