On September 25th, The Human Rights Campaign applauded the filing of a discharge
petition on the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act
(LLEEA) H.R. 1343, legislation that would add real or perceived sexual
orientation, gender and disability to current federal hate crimes law.
"After four sessions of Congress with no progress on this bill, the
discharge petition is the only way we can see right now to move this common
sense legislation forward," said HRC Political Director Winnie Stachelberg.
"The bill enjoys strong bipartisan support, and we are confident that it
would pass the House if it could come up for a vote."
The discharge petition was filed by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., who is one
of the bill's lead house sponsors along with Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Mark
Foley, R-Fla., Barney Frank, D-Mass., Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., Jim Kolbe,
R-Ariz., Connie Morella, R-Md., and Christopher Shays, R-Conn. In spite of
strong bipartisan support for the bill, it has never been brought up for
stand-alone consideration in the House.
A discharge petition is one of the only ways to force congressional leaders
to schedule a vote on a measure. They require 218 signatures. The only
successful discharge petition in recent memory was on the issue of campaign
finance reform, and it took three years to complete.
"Historically, discharge petitions have been politically risky
because of the potential to polarize legislation along party lines. We are
urging every supporter of LLEEA, Republican and Democrat alike, to be at the
forefront of the effort to sign this discharge petition," said Stachelberg.
In 2000, through political maneuvering, congressional allies were able to
force a vote on a non-binding procedural motion in the House in support of
the measure. The motion passed 232 to 192, with 41 Republicans. This came
after a strong Senate vote, 57 to 42, with 13 Republicans, on an amendment
to the Defense Authorization bill. However, the bill was stripped out in
conference committee. A similar scenario occurred in the 105th Congress
after the measure was passed in the Senate as an amendment to the
Commerce-Justice State Appropriations bill.
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