|
An imbroglio between the Senate and the House over a provision that protects gays from hate crimes is pushing conference negotiations of the 2008 defense authorization bill into December.
The Senate language would extend federal hate-crimes law to violence against gays. But conferees from both sides of the aisle and both chambers are warning that the Senate provision would jeopardize the passage of the entire defense authorization bill, which includes policies designed to help wounded soldiers and increase military pay.
What was a tactical victory in the Senate — the provision was adopted by voice vote — is now becoming a quandary in the House, where Armed Services Committee leaders worry they do not have enough votes to pass the defense authorization bill with the hate-crimes provision attached. The chairmen of the two chambers’ armed services panels are still working out the issue. The report was supposed to be done by Wednesday in hopes that Congress could vote on the bill by the end of this week.
Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), a senior authorizer and one of the conferees, said that there could be a middle ground.
“This is a strategic question, not a tactical question. The middle ground is to recognize that and realize to put the defense bill out as is, as opposed to changing it,” he said. “It does no harm to the principle involved in the hate crimes bill.”
Abercrombie warned that a failure to find middle ground could have the “devastating consequence possibly of killing both bills.”
Losing the defense bill as well as the hate crimes legislation would be an outcome “that would leave a lot of people bitter,” said Abercrombie. He added that the defense bill should not get bogged down by subordinate issues.
He also pointed out that the House already passed a stand-alone hate crimes bill earlier this year. For that reason, defense conferees will not be diluting the principle behind the hate crimes provision if they drop the language from the authorization measure, he said. |
