Senate attaches hate crimes bill onto spending legislation

The Senate on Thursday attached legislation to help states prosecute attacks on homosexuals to a bill funding the war in Iraq in an effort to force President Bush to sign it into law. Opponents, citing a Bush veto threat, predicted it ultimately would fail.\n“The president is not going to agree to this social legislation on the defense authorization bill,” said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, S.C.\nNonetheless, the Senate agreed by voice vote – with no dissenting votes – to attach the hate-crimes provision to a pending defense authorization bill that designates billions of federal dollars to the Defense Department and the Iraq war.\nThe Democratic-controlled House passed the same hate crimes legislation as a stand-alone bill earlier this year despite Bush’s veto threat. That makes a repeat of 2004, when the Senate passed a similar amendment to the same bill only to see it stripped out during negotiations with the Republican-led House, less likely this time around. President Bush, who says the bill is not needed, could then be faced with vetoing the vast defense authorization bill containing the same provision.\nBush believes that “all people should be protected from violent crimes,” but that states have their own hate crime laws, many that are more strict than what is being proposed, according to White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.\n“We believe that state and local law enforcement agencies are effectively using their laws to the full extent they can,” Perino said. She wouldn’t comment on the prospects for a veto.\nThe bill is named for Matthew Shepard, a gay college freshman who was beaten into a coma in 1998 in Laramie, Wyo. He died five days later.\nWriting violent attacks on gays into federal hate crime laws is an appropriate add-on to legislation funding the war, Democrats argued, because both initiatives are aimed at combating terrorist acts.