The time is now to expand hate crime laws to include disability, sexual orientation and gender identity, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said.

Speaking before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, Holder said the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 would help protect "all Americans from the scourge of the most heinous bias-motivated violence."

"We must do more than simply deplore horrific acts of bias-motivated violence," Holder said in prepared testimony.

Matthew Shepard was a University of Wyoming student who was tortured and subsequently murdered near Laramie, Wyo., in 1998. During the trial, witnesses said Shepard was targeted by two men because he was gay although the prosecutor said he did not think it was a hate crime.

The legislation would create a new federal criminal hate crimes statute that would strengthen federal law enforcement efforts to combat bias-motivated crimes in two ways, Holder said.

First, he said, it would eliminate "the antiquated and burdensome" requirement that prosecutors must prove a hate crime was motivated not only by the victim's race, color, religion or national origin but also participated in one of six federally protected activities, such as attending a public or private college, or applying for or working in a job.

Second, the bill would expand coverage of protected categories "beyond actual or perceived race, color, religion or national origin to include gender, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity," he said.

The legislation has been hanging on for a decade, Holder said. The FBI reported 7,755 hate crime incidents in 1998 and 7,624 in 2007, the latest year for which data is available, he said.

"The time is now to provide justice to victims of bias-motivated violence," Holder said, "and to redouble our efforts to protect our communities from violence based on bigotry and prejudice."