mr. chairman , i thank the gentleman from virginia for his generosity in yielding to me . 
members of the committee , there is an historical underlying importance about what we are discussing here . 
i mention its importance . 
we have never had on the federal books , in federal law , a prohibition against killing someone because of their race . 
dr . 
e.b . 
dubois and the naacp brought this up in the 1930s . 
it was debated even further back during reconstruction . 
we are at a very critical , important point . 
this house has approved this , but we have never dealt with it substantively before this afternoon . 
so i urge the members to seriously consider the historical nature of what it is we are considering here . 
this is the first substantive consideration of a hate crimes measure that makes it a federal violation of criminal law to kill a person because of their race . 
it is exceedingly important from that point of view . 
as i said , it has been debated down from reconstruction times . 
it was debated during the 1930s . 
it has been dealt with indirectly here on the floor . 
the majority of the members have concurred with it through other procedures . 
but today , for the very first time , we are now considering this matter . 
i commend this to the careful attention of all of my colleagues in this 109th congress . 
we have a tremendous opportunity of an historical nature before us , and i hope that we will successfully move this part of the bill forward with this amendment . 
