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Veto threat looms over hate crimes bill
White House mum on ENDA position; Pelosi expects fall vote

LOU CHIBBARO J
Friday, August 24, 2007

Supporters of a gay- and transgender-inclusive hate crimes prevention bill say they will continue to call on the Senate to pass the legislation when it returns from its summer recess next month despite a recent statement by the White House that President Bush plans to veto the bill.

A White House spokesperson told the Washington Times on Aug. 6 that the president would veto the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crime Prevention Act, even if it were attached to a defense authorization bill that the president wants Congress to pass.

“The qualifications [in the bill] are so broad that virtually any crime involving a homosexual individual has the potential to have hate crimes elements,” White House spokesperson Tony Fratto told the Times.

“The proposals they’re talking about are not sufficiently narrow,” the Times quoted Fratto as saying.

The White House did not respond by press time this week to an inquiry by the Blade about what, if any, changes the president would like to see in the bill in order for him to sign it.

The Matthew Shepard hate crimes bill would change an existing federal hate crimes statute to give the federal government authority to prosecute violent hate crimes that target someone because of his or her sexual orientation, gender identity, gender or disability. It would also make federal funds available to local law enforcement agencies to help them investigate and prosecute hate crimes.

The existing statute gives federal authorities the ability to prosecute hate crimes based on race, religion and ethnicity.

Fratto’s statement about a Bush veto of the hate crimes bill raised concern among gay rights advocates about whether Bush might also veto the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which calls for banning job discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Drew Hammill, a spokesperson for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said Pelosi still expects ENDA to come up for a vote in the House in September or early October.

Asked if Pelosi thought enough votes could be lined up to override a veto of either the hate crimes bill or ENDA, Hammill said, “Both of these bills enjoy strong bipartisan support in the Congress and the support of the overwhelming majority of the American public. The president should sign both bills.”

Although Bush has said during his 2000 election campaign that he does not support ENDA, neither he nor the White House has said whether the president would veto that legislation. Similar to the hate crimes bill, Capitol Hill observers say ENDA is expected to pass easily in the House and Senate but backers don’t have the votes to override a presidential veto.

“Nobody believes there are the votes to override a veto,” said David Smith, vice president for programs for Human Rights Campaign, the national gay rights group that has led efforts to pass ENDA and hate crimes legislation.

The House passed the hate crimes bill in May by a vote of 237 to 180.

While the House passed the measure as a free-standing bill, Senate sponsors of the bill filed notice in June that they planned to introduce it as an amendment to a defense authorization bill which, among other things, is needed for approval of continued U.S. military operations in Iraq.

Congressional observers said Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), the two lead sponsors of the hate crimes measure, most likely chose the amendment route as a means of discouraging Bush from vetoing a hate crimes bill attached to an important defense bill.

No president has vetoed a defense authorization bill in more than 30 years. Gay rights groups and a coalition of mainline civil rights organizations lobbying for the hate crimes bill supported the Kennedy-Smith strategy as the best possible means of avoiding a veto.

Action on the defense authorization bill became stalled in late June and early July after Democrats introduced amendments seeking to force the president to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq by next spring. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pulled the defense measure from the Senate floor after Republicans initiated a filibuster to block the Democrats’ amendments related to the war.

Reid has said he would bring the bill back to the floor sometime after Congress returns from its recess in September, but he hinted he might continue to withhold action on the bill for another month or more if Republicans did not agree to end their filibuster.

“Nothing is moving in the Senate right now,” said Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), when asked about the status of the hate crimes bill.

“It has nothing to do with us,” said Frank, who is gay. “The same thing is happening to everyone else.”

The reasons cited by the White House for President Bush’s decision to veto the hate crimes bill could provide a potential advantage to efforts by gay advocacy groups to fend off claims by conservative religious leaders that the bill curtails “free speech.”

Several anti-gay Christian advocacy organizations have said the legislation would open the door to prosecution of ministers who preach from the pulpit that homosexuality is a sin. Supporters of the bill point to one of its provisions declaring that nothing in the proposed law could be used to curtail ...

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