department of war

Senate Democrats are trying to force President Bush to sign hate crimes legislation he has threatened to veto by attaching it to a massive bill funding the Defense Department and the Iraq war. Writing violent attacks on gays into federal hate crime laws is related to the war because both are strikes against terrorism, according to a Republican senator and other supporters of the measure.

The Senate attached hate-crimes legislation to a must-pass Pentagon spending bill Thursday, but opponents predicted it ultimately would fail. In a bipartisan vote of 60-39, the Senate accepted cloture, which ended debate on the bill, and then moved to approve the Matthew Shepard Act by a voice vote -- attaching it as an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2008 Department of Defense Authorization Bill. ''The president is not going to agree to this social legislation on the defense authorization bill,'' said Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. ''This bill will get vetoed.''

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.