Wider Hate Crime Law Dealt A Blow

The Senate on Tuesday dealt a major setback to a bill that would make violent attacks based on victims' sexual orientation or disabilities a federal hate crime, refusing to limit debate on the measure.

Opponents said the legislation stands no chance of passing the House as now written. The measure would add crimes motivated by gender, sexual orientation and disability to the list of offenses already covered under a 1968 hate-crimes law that prohibits attacks based on race, religion or national origin.

The 54-43 vote derailed efforts to win a speedy vote on the legislation and send it to the House, which has rejected it twice in recent years. While it takes only a simple majority to pass a bill, motions to end debate require 60 votes. Backers of the bill fell six votes short.

Only four Republicans voted to limit debate. Other Republicans said they refused to close off debate because Democrats hadn't given them enough time to attempt to amend the bill.

The legislation would allow federal prosecutors to pursue as a hate-crimes case an assault upon a person or group because of sexual preferences or disabilities if state officials reject filing charges.

The Republican-controlled House will not take the bill as written by its supporters, said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

"If you really want to do something about hate crimes, let's do it the right way and amend this bill so the House will be forced to take it," said Hatch, who wanted to scale the bill back to ensure the federal government doesn't interfere with state prosecutions.

The bill's supporters took it off the schedule before GOP senators could tack their amendments onto it.

"This is just the beginning and we're going to continue this battle throughout the session," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

Added Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore.: "We will be back. We'll find another bill, another vehicle."

The bill could resurface later this year as an amendment to the Defense Department authorization bill.

The Senate has 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans and one independent, Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle swiftly pledged to bring the bill back to the Senate floor by year's end. "There is no argument that can be made that hate crimes can be left unattended," he said.

Republican vote-counters had expressed confidence before the vote that they could hold the bill's supporters short of 60 votes. But they said they were concerned about defections on later votes.

Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi suggested the Senate should be working on terrorism prevention instead of hate crimes.

"The greatest hate crime of all, which we should be dealing with right now, is the hate crime of terrorism against America," Lott said.

But Democrats say hate crimes are nothing but domestic terrorism.

"We ought to be fighting terror here at home," said Kennedy, a longtime champion of the bill. "That's what this is all about."

Current federal law allows only race, color, religion or national origin to be the basis of a federal hate-crime case, and the covered offenses are limited to crimes committed against a person engaged in one of six federally protected activities, such as voting or going to school.

Gays and lesbians, as well as the disabled, deserve the same protection, Smith said.

"It does seem to me that government's business is not to pick between who among its citizens it will defend, but that under the banner of equal protection and due process, we defend all citizens because as our founding document make clear, we are created equally," Smith said.