Congress has
dropped legislation that would have expanded hate-crimes
laws to include attacks on gays after it became clear the
measure wouldn't pass the House, aides said Thursday.
The bill,
sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy, was widely supported by
Democrats and even some moderate Senate Republicans. But
because it was attached to a major Department of
Defense policy bill that would have authorized
more money for the Iraq war, many antiwar Democrats said
they would oppose it.
''We don't have
the votes,'' said one House Democratic aide, who spoke on
condition of anonymity because conference negotiations on
the defense bill were ongoing. ''We're about 40 votes
short, not four or six.''
The development
is a blow to civil rights groups, which say that
broadening federal laws are necessary to address a rise in
crimes motivated by hate based on a person's sexual
orientation or gender identity.
The military bill
is ''the last clear chance this year for Congress to
make a meaningful effort to stop hate-crime violence,'' said
Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference
on Civil Rights.
Under current
federal law, hate crimes include acts of violence against
individuals on the basis of race, religion, color, or
national origin. Federal prosecutors have jurisdiction
only if the victim is engaged in a specific federally
protected activity such as voting.
Kennedy's bill
would have expanded the law to include sexual orientation,
gender, gender identity, or disability. It also would give
federal authorities greater leeway to participate in
hate-crimes investigations and allow them to step in
if local authorities were unwilling or unable to act.
The measure also
would have provided $10 million over the next two years
to help local law enforcement officials cover the cost of
hate-crime prosecutions.
The bill is named
for Matthew Shepard, a gay college freshman who died
after he was beaten into a coma in 1998 in Laramie, Wyo.
The Senate voted
60-39 in September to attach the bill as amendment to
the 2008 defense authorization bill. Nine Republicans broke
ranks and sided with Democrats in support of the
measure.
The House did not
include similar provisions in its version of the
defense bill, which it passed in May by a 397-27
vote.
While Democratic
leaders said they supported the bill, the bundled
package posed too high a hurdle. A substantial number of
liberal House members routinely vote against the
annual defense bill because of the billions it
authorizes in combat operations and for programs such as
missile defense.
At the same time,
some conservative Democrats and Republicans said they
would oppose the legislation if the hate-crimes provisions
were attached -- either because they don't think
hate-crimes laws should be changed or because they
don't think the issue should be tied to a bill for the
troops.
In a private
meeting on Wednesday, House majority leader Steny Hoyer, a
Maryland Democrat, and House Democratic whip James Clyburn,
of South Carolina, told Sen. Carl Levin that if the
Senate continued to insist on the hate-crimes
provisions, the defense legislation would fail.
Levin, chairman
of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and other Senate
Democratic leaders agreed to back down to allow the defense
bill to move forward.
The White House
called the Senate bill unnecessary, but stopped short of
issuing a veto threat.
''State and local
law enforcement agencies are effectively using their
laws to the full extent they can,'' said White House
spokeswoman Dana Perino after the Senate vote.
House and Senate
negotiators were expected to finalize an agreement on
the defense bill by late Thursday afternoon. The agreement
puts the measure on track to be sent to the
president's desk before lawmakers leave this month for
their holiday break. (Anne Flaherty, AP)
