Jul 17, 2009  |  By: Chris Johnson  | COMMENTS     

Passions flared on the Senate floor this week, as lawmakers debated a proposed hate crimes measure.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) introduced the proposal on the Senate floor Wednesday as an amendment to the fiscal year 2010 defense authorization bill on behalf of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). Leahy was unable to introduce the amendment because he was leading the Supreme Court nomination hearings for Sonia Sotomayor.

The amendment was identical in language to the hate crimes measure Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) introduced earlier this year. The measure would allow the Justice Department to assist in the prosecution of hate crimes committed against LGBT people that result in death or serious injury.

The Senate didn’t vote on the proposed amendment before Blade deadline. Check washingtonblade.com for the latest developments.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) was among the senators who spoke in favor of the amendment and said she doesn’t understand opposition to the measure because it only applies to violent acts and victims who are targeted for who they are.

“These crimes come in many shapes and sizes, but they all have one thing in common,” she said. “They leave people hurt, terrified, even dead — and they rip communities apart.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) recalled the brutality of the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student who was killed in 1998 because of his sexual orientation, and said his death captured the attention of a nation.

“Hate crimes rob the members of these communities with a sense of security, and the impact is real,” she said, noting the rate of suicide among LGBT youth.

But Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) spoke passionately against the inclusion of a hate crimes measure in the defense bill. He argued that it’s an inappropriate and irrelevant amendment for a bill geared toward protecting U.S. troops and national security. He also complained that the measure came to the Senate floor without first being reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“That’s not the way this body should work,” he said. “It is an abuse of power and it does not make comity … on both sides of the aisle. In fact, those of us who are committed to seeing this authorization bill done as quickly as possible because we’re worried about the security of this nation take great offense.”

At one point, McCain called for a motion to take the hate crimes amendment off the table and to take up the issue later as a standalone bill. The proposal was denied.

Supporters of the bill have told the Blade that a standalone hate crimes bill could be vulnerable to amendments, including measures that could outlaw same-sex marriage in D.C.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) responded to McCain by arguing that there’s no reason why the Senate can’t take up both hate crimes and defense at the same time, and said Republicans have offered irrelevant amendments 16 times to other bills this year.

“It’s something we need to do and can do with no harm to the underlying bill,” she said.

Noting that the legislation has been pending for more than a decade, Boxer said the hate crimes measure has been a long time coming.

“I could tell you that many gay people live in fear that two people could attack them, or one person could attack them, simply because they are gay,” she said.

Other lawmakers who spoke in support on the Senate floor were Sens. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn).

Those Senators are attempting to pass hate crimes legislation as part of the defense bill that President Obama has threatened to veto. In a statement Wednesday, Obama said he’d veto any defense bill that contains funding beyond the administration’s request for F-22 jets. But two sources familiar with Capitol Hill have told the Blade that a Democratic Congress wouldn’t send to a Democratic president a defense bill that he would veto.

In addition to a hate crimes provision on the defense bill, there also was talk of attaching an amendment that would put an 18-month moratorium on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to immediately halt investigations and discharges of gay service members.

The stay is intended to be a temporary solution until Congress can accomplish full repeal. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) was considering the introduction of an amendment to that effect, according to her office.

Bethany Lesser, a Gillibrand spokesperson, emphasized that the amendment was only under consideration and Gillibrand hopes ultimately to fully repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

“This is still very much in the planning stages,” Lesser said. “[Gillibrand] is looking more big picture. ...