mr. chairman , i rise in strong opposition to the amendment . 
mr. chairman , this is a poison pill to a very good and strongly supported bill ; and regardless of whether or not one favors or opposes the federal hate crimes law , i would ask the membership not to put highly controversial legislation of this nature on a bill that has attracted such strong and bipartisan support . 
earlier today , when we were considering the bill granting immunity from civil liability to good samaritans who are going down to help the victims of hurricane katrina , the members of the minority party complained about the fact that there had been no hearings , there had been no committee consideration of this legislation , which is arguably of an emergency nature . 
there have been no hearings . 
there have been no markups to this legislation , and we are talking about a major amendment to the federal criminal code , one that poses constitutional problems of double jeopardy and whether congress is exceeding its constitutional authority , which is something that should go through the regular order . 
i do not think the changes to the criminal code should be taken lightly . 
statistics on hate crimes prosecution should be fully considered in a very thoughtful way , including testimony that scholars have presented that says that hate crimes legislation actually increases those types of crimes , rather than decreases them . 
we also should consider the case of united states v. morrison , where the supreme court considered whether or not section 8 of the commerce clause or section 5 of the 14th amendment would allow congress to enact a federal civil remedy for victims of gender-motivated violence . 
there the supreme court said the congress did not have the constitutional authority to do that . 
i think both on the merits and on the process and on the practicalities of putting a controversial piece of legislation such as this amendment on a bill that has attracted broad and bipartisan support , this amendment should be strongly rejected . 
do not kill the bill with this amendment . 
vote it down . 
