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Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and other supporters of the hate crimes bill in the Senate have said attaching it to another bill would be the best way to prevent President Bush from vetoing the legislation. (Photo by Mel Evans/AP)
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HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: LOU CHIBBARO J COMMENTS
 
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all gay and transgender rights groups have called on Congress to pass the hate crimes bill regardless of whether the president planned to sign or veto it, saying a Bush veto would likely hurt Republicans in an election year because the bill enjoys widespread, bipartisan support.
“Sen. Kennedy is always looking for an appropriate vehicle, but it is not clear what that might be in this Congress,” Wagoner said.
She said she did not know whether Kennedy would accept Frank’s suggestion that he bring the measure to the Senate floor as a freestanding bill.
Gay rights attorney and lobbyist Christopher Anders, who heads the Washington office of the ACLU’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, said a large number of “must pass” bills associated with the federal budget and defense issues, among other legislation, are competing for Senate floor time. He said there is still time for the Senate to vote on the hate crimes bill and ENDA, but the time for doing so is running out.
“Sen. Kennedy is committed to bringing both bills to the floor,” Anders said. “But there is tremendous competition for Senate floor time. The window for doing this is from now through early to mid June,” he said.
Clyde Wilcox, a political science professor at Georgetown University who specializes in American politics and elections, said Senate Democrats were in “great shape” for the upcoming elections. Wilcox said all Democratic senators up for election this year except for Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) were expected to easily win re-election.
He said Landrieu’s problem stems from the mass departure of Democratic voters from her state due to Hurricane Katrina, not ENDA or the hate crimes bill.
“Polls show that ENDA gets up to 75 percent support,” he said. “So it would be hard for anybody to say that the Democrats would be hurt in the election by bringing up ENDA.”
Sammie Moshenberg, an official with the National Council of Jewish Women, which has lobbied Congress for the hate crimes bill, said the bill faces an uphill fight this year because key Senate supporters favor linking it again to another bill. She did not say why that strategy would hurt the bill.
“We are hoping it will come back this Congress,” she said. “But it is very unlikely. It would be a wonderful surprise if it did.”
Human Rights Campaign and the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force have called on the Senate to pass the hate crimes bill this year. HRC, meanwhile, has said it would defer to Kennedy in working out the best strategy for bringing ENDA up for a vote in 2008.
HRC spokesperson Brad Luna said the group’s director of field operations, Marty Rouse, was not speaking for HRC when he stated in an internal memo last year that it would be best if ENDA did not come up for a vote until 2009. Rouse cited heated objections by transgender groups to the current gay-only version of the bill, saying chances would be better for moving a trans-inclusive version next year.<
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