Washington, DC -- U.S. Representative Neil Abercrombie supported House passage this week of two highly important pieces of legislation overshadowed by Congressional passage and presidential veto of emergency funding for Iraq: the "Improving Head Start Act of 2007," and the "Local Law Enforcement and Hate Crimes Prevention Act."

The Head Start legislation renewed the acclaimed pre-school program, which provides early childhood education for more than 3,000 low-income students in Hawaii.  Created in 1965, Head Start is the longest-running program for stopping the cycle of poverty in the United States.  It provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families.

"As we reauthorized Head Start, we took the opportunity to make several significant improvements," said Abercrombie.  "We eliminated the rigid testing system required by the Bush Administration, which completely ignores solid research on the way young children learn.  We also took steps to improve the quality of the teachers, requiring that 50% of all Head Start teachers in the country have a bachelor's degree in early childhood education by 2013, and requiring increases in pay and professional development for those teachers."

The House also rejected a move to allow faith-based Head Start providers to limit hiring to employees of particular faith or denominations.

"Not only would this violate our fundamental religious freedom and sense of fairness," Abercrombie said.  "But it also flies int he face of the idea of trying to hire the very best people."

The "Local Law Enforcement and Hate Crimes Prevention Act," extends the federal hate crimes law to include crimes that target a person because of their actual or perceived religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.  The bill also provides grants to state and local law enforcement agencies to investigate such crimes.

Some have expressed concern that this law might effectively muzzle ministers, priests or other religious leaders who feel homosexuality is a sin.  However, the law establishes strict evidentiary rules that only allow such "evidence of expression or associations" to be used in court only when it is directly linked to a crime.  Furthermore, the bill explicitly states that it does not prohibit expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment.

"This bill protects all of us by protecting the diversity and tolerance that defines us," Abercrombie said.  "It can help us defend our communities from the violence that hate breeds."

-30-