‘Let us not sacrifice the bipartisan work of the Committee for an amendment that is not relevant.’



Washington, D.C. -- Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following statement on the Senate floor Thursday urging the Senate to vote against the Hate Crime amendment to the Defense Authorization bill:



“A vote for Senator Kennedy’s Hate Crime amendment regretfully puts this whole bill in jeopardy. The only way to ensure that we have a Defense Authorization bill this year is to vote against the Kennedy Amendment.



“There are too many important defense provisions in this bill that are at risk because of a controversial, non-germane amendment dealing with social policy:



“Among the items at risk:

Wounded Warriors The pay raise Acquisition reform

“And many other important defense provisions are all put at risk by the Kennedy amendment.



“We have now gone through a long exercise debating Iraq amendments and non-germane amendments related to the social agenda of the other side. What are we trying to accomplish here?



“Do we want to protect the defense policy matters in this bill that actually matter to our forces in the field? Or do we want to debate political and social issues on this measure?



“This Senate has been on record all year that we will not cut off funding for our forces in the field, and that we need to do more to help our wounded warriors returning from the war. Let us not sacrifice the bipartisan work of the Committee for an amendment that is not relevant to the underlying bill. I would hope the Kennedy Amendment would be defeated.”



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