This morning, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee marked up and passed the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act. In stark contrast to the lengthy and often contentious consideration of the legislation in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last month, the Senate Committee took up and passed the bill in a matter of less than half an hour, with no amendments offered by Republicans to attack the bill. Undoubtedly, the strong bipartisan support for the bill by the committee’s leadership – Chairman Lieberman, I-Conn., and Ranking Member Collins, R-Maine, are the lead co-sponsors – greatly helped to move it forward quickly.
Chairman Lieberman, Ranking Member Collins and Sen. Akaka all spoke eloquently in support of DPBO and then two amendments were considered, both of them offered to improve the bill. The first, a substitute amendment by Sens. Lieberman and Collins, revised the bill to more clearly identify the benefits (and obligations) being made available to the same-sex partners of federal employees. (A similar substitute measure was offered by Chairman Towns, D-N.Y., and passed during the House markup.) The second, offered by Sen. Burris, D-Ill., who also expressed his strong support for DPBO, directed the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a study on the effect of offering DP benefits on the federal government’s recruitment and retention efforts. (Again, similar language was offered during the House markup by Rep. Quigley, D-Ill. and accepted by the committee.) Both amendments were accepted by voice vote.
The bill, as amended, was then put to a final vote by roll call, where it passed 8-1. Of the Senators present, Chairman Lieberman, Ranking Member Collins and Sens. Akaka, D-Hawaii, Burris, Carper, D-Del., Kirk D-Mass., McCaskill D-Mo., and Tester, D-Mont., voted for the bill and Sen. Bennett, R-Utah, voted against it. A number of other members of the committee voted by proxy, with all other Republicans including Coburn, R-Okla., McCain, R-Ariz., Voinovich, R-Ohio, and Graham, R-S.C., voting against the bill (except Sen. Ensign, R-Nev., who did not provide instructions for his proxy vote) and all other Democrats voting for it, except Sen. Pryor, D-Ark., who voted against via proxy.
We thank Chairman Lieberman and Ranking Member Collins for their strong leadership on DPBO and all the Senators who voted for the bill in today’s markup. We look forward to working with them to move this important legislation forward on the Senate floor!
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