Senate Passes Hate Crimes Measure

After a furious last-minute lobbying blitz by the Clinton adminstration, the Senate voted 57 to 42 on Tuesday to approve legislation that would make it easier for federal prosecutors to try hate crimes.

In a statement released after the measure's passage, President Clinton said, "This amendment recognizes that hate crimes are different from other crimes. When Americans are targeted just because of who they are—whether because of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or disability—they hurt more."

Vice President Gore also favored the legislation and left the campaign trail in Kentucky to fly to Washington in case his vote was needed to break a Senate tie.

The vote was a major defeat for Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., reports CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer. Lott had argued to the end that it would never become law and wasn't needed.

"This is an area where we have existing federal laws and where state laws are in place and are working and doing a fine job," said Lott.

But Oregon's Gordon Smith, one of a handful of Republicans who supported the bill from the beginning, said there was another reason for the opposition.

"Now I want to be honest with you," said Smith, "if the words sexual orientation were not part of this bill, we wouldn't even be having this debate."

Smith says many social conservatives believe any legislation favorable to gays threatens the traditional family.

Thirteen Republicans defied their leaders to vote "yes" on the measure. Only one Democrat—Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia—voted "no."

Despite the Senate's action, there is a real question whether the legislation will ever become law. The measure is attached as an amendment to a massive defense bill on which more than 100 other amendments were still pending. House Republican leaders refuse to even schedule it for a vote.

But supporters hope that in an election year, congressmen will be shamed into taking some action before the August recess.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., the principal sponsor, called on colleagues to "take a clear and unequivocal stand" for the measure.

The legislation would add offenses motivated by sexual orientation, sex or disability to the list of hate crimes already covered under a 1968 federal law.

It also would give federal prosecutors the option of pursuing a hate-crime case if local authorities refused to press charges.

Supporters cited the 1998 death in Jasper, Texas, of James Byrd, a 49-year-old black man, who was dragged behind a pickup truck; and the death, also in 1998, of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old homosexual University of Wyoming student, who died after being beaten into a coma and tied to a fence.

Neither state had a hate-crimes statute.

But critics, including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, suggested hat the bill would infringe on state and local authorities' law enforcement authority.

Hatch suggested that, under the measure, for instance, all rapes could be tried as federal hate crimes.

Hatch offered his own version, calling for a study of whether states and localities were pursuing hate crime prosecutions, and providing $5 million a year for the Justice Department to help pay for such prosecutions.

The Senate also accepted Hatch's amendment, 50-49, then went on to approve the Kennedy one.

The vote further bogged down the defense bill, which has now become a catchall for many pet pieces of legislation. Earlier, a campaign-finance proposal pushed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was added to the bill.

Lott suggested that unless some way was devised to separate the unrelated amendments, the entire defense bill might have to be indefinitely put aside.