The United States Senate is poised to approve hate crimes legislation within the next couple days by way of an amendment attached to an unrelated bill on tourism.
According to the Washington Blade, a D.C.-based homosexual news journal, the Senate leadership plans to attach the hate crimes bill, S. 909, also known as the Matthew Shephard Act, to The Travel Promotion Act of 2009 (S 1023). The Blade quoted its source as saying “we're thinking that the vote will happen probably [Tuesday] or Wednesday.”
LifeSiteNews reported last week that Senate officials were looking to smuggle controversial hate crimes legislation into federal law by passing it as an amendment to another major piece of legislation instead of a stand-alone piece of legislation. The US House of Representatives had passed its version, H.R. 1913, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, as a stand-alone bill by a 249-175 margin in April.
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