Senate sets mid-July vote on marriage

Senate Republican leaders have scheduled the Senate vote on a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman for the week of July 12, just two weeks before Democrats convene in Boston for their presidential nominating convention.

“There’s always an argument you should wait for just one more court decision — at some point you’ve just got to move forward,” said Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican.

“They want to get it done, and it’s the last chance to get it done,” said one Senate Republican aide involved in the process, who said setting the vote for that week should leave Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry without any excuses for missing the vote.

“They were probably trying to make it convenient for a certain senator to get back and vote,” the aide said.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican and the person who sets the floor schedule, yesterday informed fellow senators and key backers about his plan.

Mr. Kyl, a member of the Senate Republican leadership team, said Mr. Frist is the senator most in touch with the White House and party leaders nationwide. His decision to go forward “is reflecting a general consensus among Republicans,” Mr. Kyl said, that they want a vote on the issue this year before the November election.

Several proposals have been introduced, but Mr. Frist is backing the version sponsored by Sen. Wayne Allard, Colorado Republican, which says that “marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman.”

The amendment then goes on to say that states are not required to recognize a same-sex “marriage” approved by another state.

A similar version is being sponsored in the House by Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, Colorado Republican, though House leaders have not scheduled a vote. President Bush has not backed a specific amendment, but has said he supports the thrust of the Allard-Musgrave proposal.

With local officials in San Francisco and elsewhere issuing marriage certificates to same-sex couples and after the decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to declare a state constitutional right to same-sex “marriage,” passing such an amendment has become a priority for religious conservatives.

Yesterday, the Southern Baptist Convention voted to pass a resolution backing a federal marriage amendment. The resolution said that “the union of one man and one woman is the only form of marriage prescribed in the Bible as God’s perfect design.”

Democratic lawmakers were mostly silent on the Republicans’ decision to set the vote.

“I wasn’t even aware that it had been” set, said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.

Mr. Kerry’s campaign said he had no comment. A spokesman for Sen. Russell D. Feingold, Wisconsin Democrat and the top Democrat on the Constitution subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee, also declined to comment.

Aides said the bill will go directly to the Senate floor, bypassing the full Judiciary Committee, where both supporters and opponents said it might not have passed. Right now, it isn’t expected to have the votes to pass the Senate either.

Story Continues →