The Senate on Wednesday passed and sent to the White House a bill spending an estimated $63 million over the next five years to investigate civil-rights related homicides committed prior to 1970.
The bill is called the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. Kansas Citian Alvin Sykes was a key figure in the passage of the measure after more than a year of debate.
"Now the greatest criminal manhunt in this country's history is under way for these perpetrators," Sykes said in a statement. "If they didn't believe it before, they'll believe it now."
The bill is named after the 14-year old African American from Chicago killed in Mississippi in 1955. The crime has never been solved.
Last-minute wrangling almost doomed the bill. Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican, objected to the bill Tuesday because he wanted it to be funded by cutting other programs.
He withdrew the objection Wednesday, but was still mad about the spending.
“I’m disappointed by the majority’s cynical manipulation of this issue and willingness to exploit for partisan gain the efforts of those who worked for many decades to prosecute these crimes," he said in a statement.
"Cutting lesser priorities within the bloated federal budget could have paid for this legislation, but congressional leaders refused to eliminate pet projects back home or demand the Department of Justice direct funds to pay for solving these civil rights violations."
But Coburn -- in the statement and on the floor -- could not praise Sykes, with the Emmett Till Justice Campaign, enough.
"I can't say enough about his stamina, his integrity, his forthrightness, his determination," Coburn told the Senate. "So I come to the floor now sing his praises, to recognize him publicly for his tremendous efforts."
Some of the money in the bill -- assuming it is signed by President Bush -- will go to local law enforcement agencies to reopen unsolved civil rights murders. Most of it will go to the Justice Department and the FBI.
