Amendments attached to
the Defense Department reauthorization bill that would limit
the extension of the federal hate-crimes law passed in the
Senate on Monday afternoon.
The amendments were
added by Alabama senator Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican
on the Judiciary Committee, who gave a 50-minute floor speech
on why current hate-crimes laws should not be extended to
include gender identity and sexual orientation protections.
The Human Rights
Campaign sent out an alert over the weekend after it became
clear that Sessions was planning on attaching amendments to the
bill. HRC called the attachments "poison pills"
poised to "kill the bill," urging senators to vote it
down.
The amendments require
that hate crimes be identified and prosecuted on "a
neutral and objective" basis, allow that the death penalty
can be imposed on those who commit hate crimes resulting in
death, and require heavier sentencing for attacks on
military members and their families.
Another bill was passed
by Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy that would limit
hate-crimes prosecutions until a state's attorney general
has established standards for applying the death penalty,
according to the article.
Sessions argued that
hate crimes appeared to be decreasing, and that the hate-crimes
expansion bill -- known as the Matthew Shepard Act -- was
attached to the Defense package too hastily.
"We need to be
careful that statutes that become permanent parts of our
criminal code are supported by evidence and principle,"
Sessions said. "I don't think that our focus here is to
deal with symbolic legislation that's broad and could expand
federal criminal jurisdiction beyond its historic role and
where the facts do not support the need."
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