Posted on 07/18/2006 11:44:27 AM PDT by madprof98
WASHINGTON - The House on Tuesday rejected a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, ending for another year a congressional debate that supporters of the ban hope will still reverberate in this fall's election.
The 236-187 vote for the proposal to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman was 47 short of the two-thirds majority needed to advance a constitutional amendment. It followed six weeks after the Senate also decisively defeated the amendment, a top priority of social conservatives.
But supporters said the vote will make a difference when people got to the polls in November.
"The overwhelming majority of the American people support traditional marriage," said Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (news, bio, voting record), R-Colo., sponsor of the amendment. "And the people have a right to know whether their elected representatives agree with them."
Opponents dismissed the proposal as both discriminatory and legislatively irrelevant because of the Senate vote. The measure is "all for the purpose of pandering to a narrow political base." said Rep. Tammy Baldwin (news, bio, voting record), an openly gay Democrat from Wisconsin. "This hateful and unnecessary amendment is unworthy of our great Constitution."
The marriage amendment is part of the "American values agenda" the House is taking up this week that includes a pledge protection bill and a vote on President Bush's expected veto of a bill promoting embryonic stem cell research. Bush has asked, and social conservatives demanded, that the gay marriage ban be considered in the run-up to the election.
The White House, in a statement Tuesday, urged passage of the measure. "When activist judges insist on redefining the fundamental institution of marriage for their states or potentially for the entire country, the only alternative left to make the people's voice heard is an amendment of the Constitution."
The same-sex marriage debate mirrors that of the 2004 election year, when both the House and Senate fell well short of the two-thirds majority needed to send a constitutional amendment to the states. But the issue, in the form of state referendums, helped bring conservative voters to the polls.
One result has been that, while Congress stayed on the sidelines, state legislatures moved aggressively to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Forty-five states have either state constitutional amendments banning gay marriage or state statutes outlawing same-sex weddings. Even in Massachusetts, the only state that allows gay marriage, the state's high court recently ruled that a proposed constitutional amendment to ban future gay marriages can be placed on the ballot.
"Our momentum in the states is extremely strong and Washington is playing catch-up," said Matt Daniels, president of the Alliance for Marriage.
Daniels, who was involved in drafting the amendment's language, said it was essential that Congress eventually set a national standard. Members of Congress are "the only hope for seeing marriage protected in this country and they should be on record."
But Rep. Barney Frank (news, bio, voting record), an openly gay Democrat from Massachusetts, said the amendment would prevent states such as his own, where thousands of same-sex couples have married over the past 2 1/2 years, from making decisions on what constitutes marriage.
"I do not understand what motivates you," Frank said Monday, addressing Republicans on the Rules Committee. "I don't tell you who to love."
The proposed amendment says that "marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither the Constitution, nor the constitution of any state, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman."
One conservative group, the Traditional Values Coalition, said it was a "good thing for traditional marriage" that the measure was unlikely to pass because it wasn't clear enough in ruling out civil unions between gays.
"We have just won several important court decisions in the past few weeks," said the coalition's executive director, Andrea Lafferty, but the amendment's proponents "are still playing 'Let's make a deal' with the liberals and the homosexual lobby."
The Senate took up the measure last month but fell 11 short of the 60 votes needed to advance the legislation to a final vote. The last House vote on the issue, just a month before the 2004 election, was 227-186 in favor of the amendment, 39 short of the two-thirds majority needed to advance a constitutional amendment.
The U.S. Constitution has been amended only 27 times, including the 10 amendments of the Bill of Rights. In addition to two-thirds congressional approval, a proposed amendment must be ratified by three-fourths of the states.
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The amendment is HJ Res 88.
This is absurd!
Poll afer poll after polls tells you the public at LARGE doesn't want GAY MARRIAGE!
Someone ought to list the ones that voted against this!
"I do not understand what motivates you," Frank said Monday, addressing Republicans on the Rules Committee. "I don't tell you who to love."
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If Barney Frank's against it, it must be wrong.
This should be and will be dealt with on the state level, AND it can only help us in the election. And yes, this election IS that important.
Well this can work another way. The House can get itself off the hook by saying let the states do it themselves--amend their own state constitutions. (local pols will look like the baddies to the gays and lesbians)
Wonder how much money has been raised by both sides on this issue? Really, how is this going to change the average American`s life?
| Yeas | Nays | PRES | NV | |
| Republican | 202 | 27 | 2 | |
| Democratic | 34 | 159 | 1 | 7 |
| Independent | 1 | |||
| TOTALS | 236 | 187 | 1 | 9 |
| Aderholt Akin Alexander Bachus Baker Barrett (SC) Barrow Bartlett (MD) Barton (TX) Beauprez Berry Bilbray Bilirakis Bishop (GA) Bishop (UT) Blackburn Blunt Boehner Bonilla Bonner Boozman Boren Boucher Boustany Boyd Bradley (NH) Brady (TX) Brown (SC) Brown-Waite, Ginny Burgess Burton (IN) Buyer Calvert Camp (MI) Campbell (CA) Cannon Cantor Capito Carter Chabot Chandler Chocola Coble Cole (OK) Conaway Cooper Costello Cramer Crenshaw Cubin Cuellar Culberson Davis (AL) Davis (KY) Davis (TN) Davis, Jo Ann Davis, Tom Deal (GA) Dent Doolittle Drake Duncan Edwards Ehlers Emerson English (PA) Etheridge Everett Feeney Ferguson Flake Forbes Ford Fortenberry Fossella Foxx Franks (AZ) Gallegly Garrett (NJ) |
Gibbons Gillmor Gingrey Gohmert Goode Goodlatte Gordon Granger Graves Green (WI) Gutknecht Hall Harris Hart Hastert Hastings (WA) Hayes Hayworth Hefley Hensarling Herger Herseth Hoekstra Holden Hulshof Hunter Hyde Inglis (SC) Issa Istook Jefferson Jenkins Jindal Johnson (IL) Jones (NC) Keller Kelly Kennedy (MN) King (IA) King (NY) Kingston Kline Kuhl (NY) LaHood Latham LaTourette Lewis (CA) Lewis (KY) Linder LoBiondo Lucas Lungren, Daniel E. Mack Manzullo Marchant Marshall Matheson McCaul (TX) McCotter McCrery McHenry McHugh McIntyre McKeon McMorris Melancon Mica Miller (FL) Miller (MI) Miller, Gary Moran (KS) Murphy Musgrave Myrick Neugebauer Ney Norwood Nunes Nussle |
Ortiz Osborne Otter Oxley Pearce Pence Peterson (MN) Peterson (PA) Petri Pickering Pitts Platts Poe Pombo Porter Price (GA) Putnam Radanovich Rahall Ramstad Regula Rehberg Reichert Renzi Reynolds Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rogers (MI) Rohrabacher Ross Royce Ryan (WI) Ryun (KS) Saxton Schmidt Scott (GA) Sensenbrenner Sessions Shadegg Shaw Sherwood Shimkus Shuster Simpson Skelton Smith (NJ) Smith (TX) Sodrel Souder Spratt Stearns Sullivan Tancredo Tanner Taylor (MS) Taylor (NC) Terry Thomas Thompson (MS) Thornberry Tiahrt Tiberi Turner Upton Walden (OR) Walsh Wamp Weldon (FL) Weldon (PA) Weller Westmoreland Whitfield Wicker Wilson (NM) Wilson (SC) Wolf Young (AK) Young (FL) |
| Abercrombie Ackerman Allen Andrews Baca Baird Baldwin Bass Bean Becerra Berkley Berman Biggert Bishop (NY) Blumenauer Boehlert Bono Boswell Brady (PA) Brown, Corrine Butterfield Capps Capuano Cardin Cardoza Carnahan Carson Case Castle Clay Cleaver Clyburn Conyers Costa Crowley Cummings Davis (CA) Davis (FL) DeFazio DeGette Delahunt DeLauro Diaz-Balart, L. Diaz-Balart, M. Dicks Dingell Doggett Doyle Dreier Emanuel Engel Eshoo Farr Fattah Filner Fitzpatrick (PA) Foley Frank (MA) Frelinghuysen Gerlach Gilchrest Gonzalez Green, Al |
Green, Gene Grijalva Gutierrez Harman Hastings (FL) Higgins Hinchey Hobson Holt Honda Hooley Hostettler Hoyer Inslee Israel Jackson (IL) Jackson-Lee (TX) Johnson (CT) Johnson, E. B. Jones (OH) Kanjorski Kaptur Kennedy (RI) Kildee Kilpatrick (MI) Kirk Knollenberg Kolbe Kucinich Langevin Lantos Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Leach Lee Levin Lewis (GA) Lofgren, Zoe Lowey Lynch Maloney Markey Matsui McCarthy McCollum (MN) McDermott McGovern McNulty Meehan Meek (FL) Meeks (NY) Michaud Millender-McDonald Miller (NC) Miller, George Mollohan Moore (KS) Moore (WI) Moran (VA) Murtha Nadler Napolitano Neal (MA) |
Oberstar Obey Olver Owens Pallone Pascrell Pastor Paul Payne Pelosi Pomeroy Price (NC) Pryce (OH) Rangel Reyes Ros-Lehtinen Rothman Roybal-Allard Ruppersberger Rush Ryan (OH) Sabo Salazar Sánchez, Linda T. Sanchez, Loretta Sanders Schakowsky Schiff Schwartz (PA) Schwarz (MI) Scott (VA) Serrano Shays Sherman Simmons Slaughter Smith (WA) Snyder Solis Stark Stupak Sweeney Tauscher Thompson (CA) Tierney Towns Udall (CO) Udall (NM) Van Hollen Velázquez Visclosky Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Watt Waxman Weiner Wexler Woolsey Wu Wynn |
| Lipinski |
| Brown (OH) Davis (IL) Evans |
Hinojosa Johnson, Sam Kind |
McKinney Northup Strickland |
O.K., gang, there's another way to do this. Article V provides an alternative way to send a Constitutional Amendment to the States. If 2/3 of the State Legislatures pass a resolution favoring the creation of a Constitutional Convention, then the Congress must call one. Said Convention can then propose (by a 2/3 vote of the delegates voting by states) Constitutional amendments that are then forwarded to the States (bypassing the Congress) for affirmation by a 3/4 vote. There are already more than 2/3 of the states that have gay "marriage" bans.
Unbelievable! And these jerks say they represent the people. They're an embarrassment.
My rep voted "Present"?! WTF does that mean? I'll have to ask him.
it's not what the PEOPLE want, it's what the liberals and rinos want that counts. Someday , we are going to have had enough, and revolt!!!!!!!!
You better believe it will make a difference. Check the roll-call votes and take names.
A Constitutional Convention is a bad idea... the convention won't be limited to the Gay Marriage question... we'll also have every left-wing, fuzzy-thinking, spendthrift, Commie, pinko liberal issue on the table. I shudder to think what might happen.
It won't be dealt with at the state level if the Supreme Court decides to force it on everyone just like they did with Roe. In fact, unless we act, that's what will happen, at least with the current Robed Rulers. You cannot read Lawrence honestly without knowing that. This is an amendment to curb government overreach by the judicial branch.
It means he is a coward.
It means he refused to take a stand.
The two I was most interested in were Murtha and my own congresscritter Larsen (d-wa)
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