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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LOU CHIBBARO JR
Friday, April 04, 2008
Gay rights advocates and gay-supportive members of Congress say they remain uncertain whether two important gay rights bills can clear the Senate before lawmakers adjourn in the fall to devote their efforts to the upcoming presidential and congressional elections.
Last year, the House of Representatives passed the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, two measures that gay advocacy groups had hoped would be enacted into law in 2007 or 2008 by a Congress newly controlled by the Democrats.
But this week, Capitol Hill insiders said the two bills were in trouble and the chances for either one clearing the Senate this year remained in doubt. Election year politics, threats by Republican leaders to wage a filibuster and a shortage of time on the Senate calendar for scheduling a large number of competing bills were cited as some of the problems the bills face.
The hate crimes measure would authorize the federal government to prosecute anti-gay and anti-transgender hate crimes. ENDA calls for banning job discrimination by private sector employers based on an individual’s sexual orientation. The bill would exempt the military and churches.
House Democrats removed a transgender protection clause from ENDA last September after determining they couldn’t line up enough votes to pass a fully inclusive bill. The decision to drop the transgender clause created sharp disagreements among gay activists and prompted some gay groups to call on Congress not to pass ENDA unless the trans protections were restored.
Capitol Hill sources, most of whom spoke on condition that they not be identified, disagreed over who is to blame for holding up the bills, but most agreed that the transgender flap was the least of the problems.
One congressional source familiar with the hate crimes bill said a number of GOP lawmakers believe Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) did not want to bring the hate crimes bill to a vote because doing so would help the re-election chances of moderate Republican senators who support the bill. Among them are Sens. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), who face strong election challenges by Democrats in November.
Jim Manley, a spokesperson for Reid, disputed that assertion, saying Reid’s deliberations over the bill had “nothing at all” to do with the election.
Manley also disputed a claim by another congressional source that Reid and other Senate Democrats were reluctant to bring up gay rights bills at a time when Democrats are focusing most of their attention on the economy and a mortgage crisis that is causing Americans to lose their homes through foreclosure.
“They prefer to focus their talking points on the economy and not get sidetracked on a potentially controversial issue like gay rights,” said the source. The source said some Democrats worry that conservative commentators, led by Fox News talk show hosts, would try to link ENDA with gay marriage, even though it has nothing to do with that contentious issue.
Manley reiterated earlier statements that Reid was working with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) to determine the best timing for the bill and whether sufficient votes can be lined up to pass both the hate crimes bill and ENDA in the Senate.
He said Senate Republican leaders have made it clear they will initiate a filibuster to block both bills, a parliamentary procedure that requires 60 votes to stop.
“It’s all about getting the 60 votes to break the Republican filibuster,” Manley said adding that it is not clear whether supporters of the two bills have those votes.
He said Reid is deferring to Kennedy on the best strategy for Senate passage of the hate crimes bill.
Kennedy spokesperson Melissa Wagoner said Kennedy is weighing whether to attach the hate crimes bill as an amendment to another bill, similar to what Kennedy did last year. The Senate last year passed the hate crimes bill as an amendment to a defense authorization measure.
The bill died, however, when issues related to the Iraq war prompted House Democrats and Republicans to refuse to link the hate crimes bill to the defense measure. At the time, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chief sponsor of both the hate crimes bill and ENDA in the House, called on the Senate to pass a freestanding version of the hate crimes bill this year.
Kennedy and other backers 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. The White House announced that Bush would likely veto both the hate crimes bill and ENDA.
Nearly 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. His memo was leaked to the media.
Sources claim that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) does not want to bring the hate crimes bill to a vote because doing so would help the re-election chances of moderate Republican senators who support the bill. A Reid spokesperson denied the claim. (Photo by Dennis Cook/AP) |
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The Task Force has called on Congress not to pass a gay-only version of the bill at any time, saying a trans-inclusive version would be the only outcome acceptable for the group and its members.
Scott Tucker, spokesperson for the national gay group Log Cabin Republicans, said Log Cabin wants the Senate to vote on both bills this year and is skeptical over what he called “political games” by the Democrats.
“The bottom line here is the Democratic leadership needs to bring these bills up for a vote,” he said. “What we’re seeing is another example of Democrats playing politics with gay issues.”
Tucker said Log Cabin would speak out against a Republican filibuster aimed at blocking the bills.
National Stonewall Democrats spokesperson John Marble said his group was pushing Democrats for passage of both bills. He said that while Democratic control of the House and Senate does not guarantee passage of the bills, the Republican leaders in Congress would have killed the bills outright if they were still in control.
“The difference between Democratic and Republican control of Congress has been remarkable in advancing this legislation and other LGBT issues,” Marble said.
Veteran lesbian activist Robin Tyler of Los Angeles, who has led efforts in California to secure same-sex marriage rights, said she is among a growing number of “progressive” activists who support passing the gay-only version of ENDA this year, with the aim of adding transgender protections when more support can be lined up.
“As for whether it comes up this year, what I’m hearing is just a bunch of excuses,” Tyler said. “The Democrats have been tip-toeing over this for decades. Are they saying they can’t find a few minutes to schedule on vote on this?”
D.C. Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), a strong supporter of ENDA and the hate crimes bill, said she is certain that Congress will pass both bills in the near future, although she is unsure whether the Senate will pass the bills this year.
“Don’t feel bad,” she said. “We have a backlog of dozens of House passed bills pending in the Senate that are of great importance to the nation. The Senate has hardly passed anything because the Democrats have a majority of just one vote,” Norton said.
With Republican leaders invoking a filibuster on almost every Democratic sponsored bill, the Democrats need 60 votes in the 100-member Senate rather than a simple 51-vote majority to pass legislation, according to both Norton and Reid spokesperson Manely.
“We’ve already done our part,” Norton said of the House, which passed ENDA and the hate crimes bill in 2007. Noting that both bills enjoy widespread bipartisan support from the public, she said the Senate has a responsibility to schedule a vote on the bills soon.
“They better do it,” she said.
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