Competing With Contractors

I'm at a Senate hearing on the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, just made an argument in favor of the bill that is entirely logical, but not one that I've heard anyone make before: that some of the biggest federal contractors offer standard employment benefits to the domestic partners of their employees. The Senators are also pushing hard on an equal-pay for equal-work argument, saying that gay and lesbian federal employees are being compensated at a lower rate than their heterosexual counterparts because they can't extend their benefits, like health care, to them.

Both of those arguments are reasonably logical, and they have a leading moderate Republican lined up behind them (as well as Joe Lieberman, who is essentially a moderate Democrat, no matter what he calls himself, leading the charge). The passage of this bill isn't, I don't think, actually about getting enough votes for it to pass. It has 121 cosponsors in addition to Rep. Tammy Baldwin in the House, and 24 in addition to Lieberman in the Senate. Really, it's a matter of getting floor time, and convincing lawmakers that it's not too politically risky to vote on a gay rights bill, particularly with the 2010 Congressional elections. Lieberman joked that the schedule for a vote depends on "higher authorities...earthly authorities." He's not exactly exaggerating.