Last night, the US Senate passed the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (aka The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act) as an amendment to a defense appropriations bill. Here, via Rex Wockner, is a bit of the Associated Press‘ account:
Senate votes big expansion of federal hate crimes
WASHINGTON — The Senate has approved the most sweeping expansion of federal hate crimes protections since the original law was enacted after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
The legislation broadens federal reach to protect those physically attacked because of their gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or a disability. Current law is limited to crimes motivated by race, ethnicity or religion.
Expect a shitstorm of a backlash from these folks and their Republican enablers, AND, while President Obama wants to sign the hate crimes bill into law, he has issues with other parts of the bill.
Thanks to the Human Rights Campaign for this update:
Update and Next Steps on Hate Crimes Bill
Ed. Note: This post is an update on last night’s hate crimes vote and next steps from our policy department.
Last night, we finally had the long overdue Senate vote on the Matthew Shepard Act.
After a long day of Senate negotiations, an agreement was reached between Senate Majority Leader Reid and Minority Leader McConnell on moving to consider to the Matthew Shepard Act (MSA) Amendment. As part of the agreement, votes were held last night on two Republican amendments, one Democratic amendment, the cloture motion to proceed and adoption of the hate crimes amendment. Also as part of last night’s agreement, Republican’s will have the ability to offer three additional amendments on the topic of hate crimes on Monday.
The motion to proceed was the key vote that stopped a Republican filibuster of the MSA Amendment. It exceeded our necessary 60 vote threshold and passed 63 to 28. All Democrats voted yes (except Kennedy and Byrd who were absent) and 5 Republicans voted yes (Collins, Snowe, Lugar, Voinovich and Murkowski).
In addition, Sen. Hatch offered an amendment that would have gutted the hate crimes amendment. It was defeated 29-62. Two innocuous amendments restating the First Amendment were also adopted.
After Monday’s amendments, the DOD bill will still have to pass the Senate and go to a House-Senate conference committee before being sent to the President. Issues not related to hate crimes have prompted a Presidential veto threat. The White House and House and Senate Leadership have repeatedly assured us that regardless of a possible veto, the MSA will be included in the bill that is eventually signed into law later this year.
Thanks to everyone who helped get us to this point.
(emphasis: mine)
A thank-you email or a phone call to the Republican senators, named above, who sided with sanity, justice and equality would take about five minutes. Ditto the Dems. You don’t even have to Google the number: 202.224.3121.
