Howard Berman Is Optimistic, But Taking Precautions

The Advocate reports that Berman is confident that President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton will announce a suite of policies in June that will give the domestic partners of gay and lesbian federal employees the same benefits and responsibilities as the husbands and wives of straight federal workers. But just in case, he's introduced legislation that includes a provision to treat the spouses of gay and lesbian foreign service officers equally--currently, they're considered "members of household" and denied access to a wide range of protections and benefits overseas. Michelle Schohn described her experience with those restrictions in our May issue. The Advocate says:

Berman said he agreed to remove that section of the bill based on his understanding that both the Obama administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were committed to equalizing treatment for same-sex partners in the very near future. He suggested that declaration might be part of a greater package of policy pronouncements from the White House.

"My expectation with respect to the issues that were originally part of my bill, is that the State Department and the secretary will provide the kinds of benefits that I sought," he said, adding that he was committed to ending discrimination against gay and lesbian foreign service officers. "If I'm wrong, which I don't think I am, we still have a ways to go on this bill and we can reverse course."

It'll be interesting to see if Berman is right. My sense is that Sec. Clinton is, in fact, planning to roll out reforms to member of household policy. But I'm less certain that the Obama administration plans to make a big deal of this. Because it's federal employee policy, I wonder if they'll back Berman's bill and the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act, but sign them quietly, and move on with other policy priorities.