(Senators) Hirono, Collins Introduce Bipartisan Legislation To Improve Persons To Rise In Hate Crimes
Press Release
Jan. 29, 2026
Senator Mazie Hirono, United States Senate
Legislation would help strengthen credibility and accuracy of hate crime reporting from law enforcement agencies ~
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced the Improving Reporting to Prevent Hate Act (IRPHA), legislation that would help strengthen the credible and accurate reporting of hate crimes to better respond to the national rise in these incidents. Companion legislation was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Representatives Don Beyer (D-VA) and Don Bacon (R-NE).
Crime reporting to the FBI is voluntary, with less than 16,500 of more than 19,000 law enforcement agencies in the U.S. reporting their statistics to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) in 2024. The FBI’s 2024 Hate Crimes Statistics report documented 11,679 hate crime incidents, including over 13,768 victims. While this is the second-highest number of hate crimes recorded in a single year, the FBI has acknowledged that hate crimes data is underreported, with more than 80% of agencies reporting zero hate crimes and thousands of jurisdictions not reporting any data at all.
“As hate-based crimes and incidents surge in our country, this legislation is a step toward better combatting these incidents by improving the credibility of hate crime reporting,” said Senator Hirono. “All members of our communities deserve to feel safe, regardless of their background. By strengthening reporting and tracking of these incidents, we can better work to prevent these events from taking place and keep our communities safe. Violence and hatred have no place in our country and I will continue to do everything I can to prevent hate crimes and hold those responsible for these acts accountable.”
“Crimes motivated by bias against race, national origin, or other innate characteristics simply cannot be tolerated, but when hate crimes are underreported, it limits our ability to respond effectively,” said Senator Collins. “This bipartisan legislation would improve the reliability of hate crime data at the Department of Justice, equipping law enforcement and policymakers with the information they need to better prevent these heinous crimes.”
The Improving Reporting to Prevent Hate Act would require the Department of Justice (DOJ) to develop a system to assess whether local jurisdictions are reporting credible data on hate crimes. If a locality is found to not be reporting credible hate crime incident data or fails to provide any data at all, it would be required to improve systems for hate crime incident reporting and conduct community education and hate crime awareness initiatives to maintain eligibility for certain federal funding allocations.
“While the pandemic may be behind us, the shadow of anti-Asian hate has not. The latest FBI statistics confirm that anti-Asian hate crimes in 2024 remain nearly triple the pre-pandemic average, underscoring an urgent need for action,” said Sim Singh Attariwala, Director of the Anti-Hate Program at the Asian American Justice Center (AAJC). “Too many incidents never enter official statistics because law-enforcement agencies fail to report them, leaving communities without the visibility or support they deserve. This legislation brings long-overdue accountability to our hate-crime reporting systems so that every survivor is recognized, every community is better protected, and the cycle of invisibility ends.”
“We’re grateful to Senators Hirono and Collins for leading this bipartisan effort to strengthen hate crime reporting. We cannot confront what we can’t measure, and without accurate, comprehensive data communities are left vulnerable,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). “Communities deserve accurate information about antisemitic and other hate crimes occurring in their neighborhoods. Better data means better protection, and this bill is a critical step toward ensuring policymakers and law enforcement have the tools they need to respond to hate-fueled violence.”
"To effectively confront the surge in antisemitic hate crimes—and identity-based violence more broadly—we must first understand the true scope of the threat,” said Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee (AJC). “The FBI’s most recent data reports 1,938 antisemitic incidents, accounting for 70% of all religiously motivated hate crimes. Yet these figures capture only a fraction of reality, as hate crimes are widely underreported. AJC commends Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Susan Collins (R-ME) for introducing the Improving Reporting to Prevent Hate Act, a critical first step toward accurately measuring—and ultimately addressing—the full scale of anti-Jewish and other hate-based violence in the United States."
“At National Council of Jewish Women, we are committed to building a world where every person can live in safety, free from hate and violence,” said Darcy Hirsh, Vice President of Government Relations and Advocacy for the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW). “Yet the Jewish community and our neighbors in so many other targeted communities live in daily fear of attacks fueled by hate. All of our communities deserve better. The Improving Reporting to Prevent Hate Act will ensure that law enforcement agencies around the country accurately track and report hate crimes, creating a clearer picture of the threats so that we can develop effective prevention measures. We are grateful to Senators Hirono and Collins for their leadership on this crucial bipartisan legislation.”
“Sikh Americans continue to be among the most targeted religious groups for hate crimes on a per-capita basis, yet the true scope of hate nationwide remains obscured by inconsistent and voluntary reporting. When law enforcement agencies underreport—or fail to report—hate crimes, policymakers are left without the data necessary to respond effectively,” said Kiran Kaur Gill, Executive Director of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF). “The reintroduction of the Improving Reporting to Prevent Hate Act is a critical step toward strengthening hate crime data collection, improving accountability, and ensuring that impacted communities receive the protections and resources they deserve.”
“We know that every year, thousands of law enforcement agencies do not report any hate crimes to the FBI. As a result, our national-level data on these kinds of crimes—while important to tracking the heightened risk that hate and bias pose to communities across our nation—is consistently and woefully incomplete,” said Mannirmal Kaur, Senior Federal Policy Manager at the Sikh Coalition. “This bill is a critical step towards truly understanding the scope of hate-motivated violence and crimes in our country. By compelling law enforcement agencies to report hate crimes, policymakers can better understand where stronger laws and statutes, front-end preventative measures, and other efforts to make our communities safer are most urgently needed."
“Over the past few years, the FBI has reported increasing levels of hate violence, most frequently against Black people,” said Sakira Cook, Federal Policy Director for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). “The most recent FBI report documented 11,679 hate crime incidents – the second highest number of hate crimes ever reported. Yet, thousands of police agencies across the country failed to report any hate crime data to the FBI and dozens of departments that serve cities with more than 100,000 people affirmatively reported to the FBI that they had zero (0) hate crimes. Voluntary hate crime reporting has not worked. This bipartisan legislation, which conditions federal funding on credible hate crime reporting, will help ensure more complete data and focus law enforcement attention and resources on the principal targets of bias-motivated criminal activity – Black and Brown people and other marginalized communities. We applaud the leadership of Sens. Hirono and Collins for introducing the Improving Reporting to Prevent Hate Act and look forward to working together to ensure its passage.”
The full text of the legislation is available here.
