Despite strong support in the Senate for tougher hate crimes legislation, Senate Republicans blocked efforts to consider the bill June 12.

The bill would strengthen the 30-year-old federal hate crimes laws and broaden them to include offenses involving sexual orientation, gender and disabilities. Currently the law allows federal prosecution of crimes based on race, color, religion or national origin. A move to cut off debate on the bill and force a vote failed by a 54-43 vote, six shy of the 60 needed under Senate rules. The bill—S.625, The Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act—passed the Senate twice in the past three years.

In an attempt to block the bill’s passage, opponents filed numerous amendments ranging from one sponsored by Sen. Robert C. Smith (R-N.H.) to add pregnant women to the class of individuals protected by the statute to amendments regarding defense issues and human cloning.

Civil rights groups and their allies, including the AFL-CIO, have supported the bill. They cite as evidence of the need for the bill the growing anti-Muslim sentiment spawned by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the high-profile murders of two union members. Danny Overstreet, a member of the Communications Workers of America, was gunned down in a Virginia bar in September 2000 by a man who said he wanted to shoot some gays. But the hate crimes law as it currently stands did not apply to Overstreet’s murder.

The law did apply to the fatal shooting in August 1999 of Letter Carrier Joseph Ileto in California, who was shot by a member of a neo-Nazi group

Describing hate crimes as a form of domestic terrorism, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said the vote was a “clear sign of the lack of commitment by Senate Republicans on this basic civil rights issue.”

“Hate crimes send a direct and intolerant message to not only the victim but more importantly to the victim’s community,” said Jin Sook Lee, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, an AFL-CIO constituency group. “If hate crimes are not recognized as distinct crimes, then by implication, the criminal justice system is turning a blind eye to the harm inflicted on the victim and the victim’s community. It is because of this we urgently need tougher hate crimes legislation.”