Bill to Expand U.S. List of Hate Crimes Passes Senate

A divided Senate on Tuesday approved legislation pushed by President Clinton that would expand the list of federal hate crimes to include violent acts motivated by a victim’s sexual orientation, gender or disability.

In a bit of election-year political drama, Vice President Al Gore suspended his presidential campaign and stood by in the Capitol in his role as Senate president to cast the tie-breaking vote, if needed.

He never got the chance: The measure passed, 57 to 42, with 13 Republicans joining 44 Democrats to vote for it.

The provision, included as an amendment to a defense spending bill, still faces an uncertain fate. A similar measure was approved by the Senate last year as part of a spending bill but was stripped out of the legislation’s final version by House-Senate negotiators. A similar scenario may occur this year.

Clinton has stepped up the pressure on Congress to keep the amendment in the larger bill. As part of his effort, he traveled earlier this week to Texas, home of presumed GOP presidential nominee George W. Bush, to meet with the family of James Byrd Jr., an African American who was chained to the back of a truck and dragged to death by three white men in 1998.

The Byrd case, along with the killing that year of Matthew Shepard, a gay Wyoming college student who was beaten to death and left tied to a fence, and the attack on a San Fernando Valley Jewish community center by a white supremacist in 1999 were among the incidents that spurred calls for stronger hate-crime legislation.

Current federal law defines hate crimes as those motivated by bias based on religion, race, national origin or color.

Along with expanding the definition, the legislation would give federal authorities greater powers to aid local officials in investigating and prosecuting hate crimes. It also would give federal prosecutors the option of pursuing a hate crime case if the local officials refused to do so.

California has one of the nation’s toughest hate crime laws--it already includes attacks motivated by a victim’s sexual orientation, gender or disability, said Brian Levin, director of the Center on Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino.

But he said the state would benefit from the increased federal jurisdiction called for by the Senate measure.

California Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein were among those voting for the hate crime measure; Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia was the lone Democratic to vote against it.

Gore, who left the campaign trail in Kentucky to travel to Washington for the vote, used the occasion to highlight his differences with Bush on the issue.

The presumed Democratic presidential nominee called the Senate’s vote a “sign of hope for all Americans.” He gave much of the credit for the measure’s passage to lobbying by civil rights groups and victims’ families--including the families of the children shot at the Jewish day-care center in Granada Hills, allegedly by an avowed white supremacist.

Bush has been criticized by Democrats in his state for remaining neutral while a proposed hate crime bill died in the Texas Legislature last year. That bill offered protection to individuals targeted for attack based on their sexual orientation.

A Bush campaign spokesman said the Texas governor wanted to see the bill’s final wording before taking a position on it. The spokesman could not provide Bush’s position on the legislation approved Tuesday.

At the White House, Clinton applauded the Senate vote as “historic and long overdue.”

Critics contended the legislation is unnecessary.

“Hate crimes laws are based on the faulty premise that some victims are worthy of more government protection than others victimized by similar crimes,” said Janet Parshall, a spokeswoman for the conservative Family Research Council.

Although Gore’s appearance on Capitol Hill and Clinton’s lobbying gave the measure a partisan tone, Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) delivered one of the more impassioned pleas for passage of the legislation.

“I never thought I’d be on the Senate floor saying this until I saw the [police] report of Matthew Shepard’s death,” he said. “I began to ask myself what I could do.

“I think many in the Senate are reflexively inclined to vote no,” he said, referring to “religious conservatives.” “I understand that because I shared those feelings for a long, long time”

Later, he added: “You don’t have to agree with everything the gay community is asking. I don’t, but we ought to agree on protecting them and all Americans.”

Nearly 8,000 hate crimes were reported in 1998, the latest year for which FBI figures are available. Of those, 56% were motivated by race, 18% by religion and 16% by sexual orientation. But the measure’s supporters say the number of hate crimes based on sexual orientation has been increasing.

“Hate crimes are modern-day lynchings,” said the provision’s chief sponsor, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). “They tear at the heart and soul of our country.”

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) was among those questioning the need for the measure. “There is precious little evidence showing that there is a widespread problem with state and local police and prosecutors refusing to enforce the law when the victim is black or a woman or gay or disabled,” he said.