Improving Reporting to Prevent Hate Act of 2026

Key Points

• This bill requires cities with more than 100,000 people to report hate crime data to the FBI to stay eligible for certain federal law enforcement grants. The goal is to ensure the federal government has an accurate count of hate crimes happening across the country.
• Local governments that fail to report any data or claim they have 'zero' hate crimes will be reviewed by the Attorney General. If the reporting is found to be unreliable, those cities could lose their federal funding for the following year.
• Cities can keep their funding even if their reporting is questioned if they prove they are taking the issue seriously. This includes creating special police units for hate crimes, adopting new investigation policies, or holding public meetings to educate the community.
• The Attorney General would have three years to set up a system for checking whether local reports are believable. A list of cities that receive special exceptions to keep their funding would be published online every year.
• This policy addresses a long-standing problem where many local police departments do not share hate crime information with federal authorities, making it difficult to track and prevent these crimes on a national level.