For the record, the final tally in the Senate, on the pertinent, controlling amendment. Orin Hatch, true to form, submitted his 'more study' proposal, once again. It was defeated.
Voting against are the usual suspects, except Arlen Specter, now D-PA, who voted with the majority.
Senator John McCain joined his freakishly non-mainstream colleague from AZ to vote against. Senator Grassley is on the wrong side, here. Coupled with his stance on healthcare, one wonders if Iowa will continue to be enamored of their l
ongtime warrior Senator...
adding:
"Brief History of the HCPA
Hate crimes legislation was initially introduced in the House and Senate in 1997. During the subsequent 12 years, Congress passed various versions of the HCPA, but was ultimately unsuccessful in advancing the bill for the President’s signature.
This changed during the 111th Congress, when versions of the HCPA were introduced by Representatives John Conyers (D-MI) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) in the House and Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA ), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Arlen Specter (D-PA), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) in the Senate. On April 29, 2009, the House of Representatives passed hate crimes legislation (H.R. 1913) by a vote of 249-175. On July 16, 2009, the Senate voted 63-28 to proceed with hate crimes legislation (S. 909) as an amendment (S. Amdt. 1511) to the Department of Defense (DoD) authorization bill (S. 1390). The DoD authorization bill then passed the Senate with hate crimes legislation attached as an amendment on July 23, 2009.
As part of the final negotiations between the House and Senate, the conferees honored the memory of two victims of hate crimes by naming the hate crimes provision of the Conference Report the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Matthew Shepard was a gay college student who was tortured and murdered in Laramie, Wyoming, and James Byrd, Jr., was an African-American man who was dragged to death in Jasper, Texas.
The final version of the DoD authorization bill, containing the HCPA, passed the House on October 8, 2009 and the Senate on October 22, 2009. The legislation was signed into law by President Obama on October 28, 2009 (Public Law No. 111-84).
The legislation was endorsed by more than 300 law enforcement, civil rights, civic and religious organizations, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police, National District Attorneys Association, Presbyterian Church, Episcopal Church, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Young Women’s Christian Association and National Disability Rights Network."
