Marshall, Hawley oppose moving ahead with hate crimes bill

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republicans Roger Marshall of Kansas and Josh Hawley of Missouri were among a handful of conservative U.S. senators who opposed moving forward with a Democratic-sponsored measure for confronting hate crimes against Asian Americans.

Marshall’s office said Thursday that an existing federal hate crimes law already prohibits intentionally injuring or trying to injure others based on their race, color, religion or national origin.

Hawley told reporters in the Capitol that he’s concerned about how the measure mandates data collection in “expansive categories” and called the measure “hugely, hugely open-ended.”

The Senate voted 92-6 on Wednesday to have a debate on the proposed COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act.