On the recordAugust 5, 2010
I will be happy to tell the Senator from Arizona what hate crimes has to do with the defense of this country. Men and women who defend this country defend this country for a lot of reasons. One of them is we try to act against hate in this country. That is one of the values we stand for; that we try to defeat hate. That was debated last year. It was voted on last year. The vote maybe did not come out the way the Senator from Arizona wanted. If we want to debate last year, that is OK. Let's bring the bill to the floor so we can debate it. But the objection now makes it much more difficult to bring a bill to the floor so we can debate the very issues the Senator from Arizona wants to debate. We should debate the don't ask, don't tell decision we made in the committee. It was debated there; it should be debated on the Senate floor. By the way, it is a conditional change in the don't ask, don't tell policy. The policy was put in place by the Pentagon and by the Armed Services Committee and by the Senate. It is perfectly appropriate that it be considered as part of this bill because it was our committee which put that policy in effect to begin with. The debate is appropriate. But how do we have that debate unless we can get it to the floor of the Senate? How can we debate the amendments of the Senator from Arizona? There were two or three that he offered in committee that I objected to. How do we get to those debates unless we can get the bill to the floor?
