The U.S. Senate voted 64-35 to invoke cloture on the conference report for 2010 Department of Defense authorization. This means the Senate will move toward final passage of the report, which includes the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. A spokesman for Majority Leader Harry Reid tells the Washington Blade a final Senate vote will take place Thursday evening or Friday morning.
Two weeks ago, the House voted 281 to 146 for the report.
Roll call here. Five Republicans voted yes: Collins, Lugar, Murkowski, Snowe and Voinovich. Feingold was the only Democrat to vote no.
It's looking good!
Posted by: Marcus | 22 October 2009 at 14:50
Good news indeed, but, I'm kind of shocked that Feingold didn't support the bill?
Posted by: Luther | 22 October 2009 at 14:53
It's about damn time! I've been waiting for this law to pass since 2006 and glad to see it happen. Now Congress can get to work on ENDA...
Posted by: kayman | 22 October 2009 at 17:15