The House voted Thursday to expand the definition of violent federal hate crimes to cover those committed because of a victim’s gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.
Democrats and advocates hailed the vote of 281 to 146, which put the measure on the brink of becoming law, as the culmination of a long push to curb violent expressions of bias such as the murder in 1998 of Matthew Shepard, a gay Wyoming college student.
“Left unchecked crimes of this kind threaten to ruin the very fabric of America,” said Representative Susan Davis, Democrat of California.
The hate-crimes measure was approved as part of a broad $681 billion Pentagon policy measure, a strategy that infuriated House Republicans who accused Democrats of employing a form of legislative blackmail.
Republicans said Democrats were essentially forcing through contentious social policy by tying it to a highly popular Pentagon measure that authorizes military pay, benefits, weapons programs and other essentials for the armed forces. Even Republican members of the Armed Services Committee who helped write the underlying legislation said they would oppose it solely because of the hate crimes proposal
“We believe this is a poison pill, poisonous enough that we refuse to be blackmailed into voting for a piece of social agenda that has no place in this bill,” Representative Todd Akin of Missouri, a senior Republican member of the committee, said.
Republicans also criticized the substance of the legislation as an effort to prosecute “thought crimes” in which the motivation of the attacker has to be discerned.
The hate crime provision had passed both the House and Senate in previous years but the bill could never clear its final hurdles. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it was fitting that Congress was acting since Monday is the 11th anniversary of Mr. Shepard’s killing. The legislation is known as the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act, for Mr. Shephard and a black man killed in a race-based attack in Texas the same year. –For rest of the story see New York Times
Democrats and advocates hailed the vote of 281 to 146, which put the measure on the brink of becoming law, as the culmination of a long push to curb violent expressions of bias such as the murder in 1998 of Matthew Shepard, a gay Wyoming college student.
“Left unchecked crimes of this kind threaten to ruin the very fabric of America,” said Representative Susan Davis, Democrat of California.
The hate-crimes measure was approved as part of a broad $681 billion Pentagon policy measure, a strategy that infuriated House Republicans who accused Democrats of employing a form of legislative blackmail.
Republicans said Democrats were essentially forcing through contentious social policy by tying it to a highly popular Pentagon measure that authorizes military pay, benefits, weapons programs and other essentials for the armed forces. Even Republican members of the Armed Services Committee who helped write the underlying legislation said they would oppose it solely because of the hate crimes proposal
“We believe this is a poison pill, poisonous enough that we refuse to be blackmailed into voting for a piece of social agenda that has no place in this bill,” Representative Todd Akin of Missouri, a senior Republican member of the committee, said.
Republicans also criticized the substance of the legislation as an effort to prosecute “thought crimes” in which the motivation of the attacker has to be discerned.
The hate crime provision had passed both the House and Senate in previous years but the bill could never clear its final hurdles. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it was fitting that Congress was acting since Monday is the 11th anniversary of Mr. Shepard’s killing. The legislation is known as the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act, for Mr. Shephard and a black man killed in a race-based attack in Texas the same year. –For rest of the story see New York Times
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