The legislation would give domestic partners the same benefits available to spouses of federal employees, including life and health insurance, retirement pay and compensation for on-the-job injuries. Domestic partners could be gay or straight, as long as they file an affidavit saying they are living together in a committed, intimate relationship, but are not married.
The legislation was introduced last year by Minnesota's Democratic Sens. Mark Dayton and Paul Wellstone, who died last fall in a plane crash. Lieberman, Connecticut's junior senator, said he will pick up where Wellstone left off in pressing for the bill.
The measure must be reintroduced in this session of Congress. It will be referred to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, where Lieberman is the ranking Democrat, and it faces long odds in the Republican-controlled Congress.
"If it doesn't get done in the next two years, I intend to introduce and sign it as president of the United States," Lieberman said in a speech to the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
Lieberman is one of nine Democrats seeking the presidency. Three candidates -- Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and Reps. Dick Gephardt of Missouri and Dennis Kucinich of Ohio -- were co-sponsors of the legislation last year. Another candidate, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, signed a civil union bill that allows gay couples to receive all the rights available to married couples under state law.
Dean, addressing the same group Monday, outlined a plan to provide health care for all Americans. He said he would insure those under 25 through Medicaid and other programs, provide prescription drug benefits under Medicare for those over 65 and help small businesses and individuals afford health insurance for everyone in between. Dean, who is a physician, said he would also increase reimbursement rates for doctors and hospitals.
"This is not a partisan issue," Dean said. "This is frankly an issue of joining every other industrialized national on earth and making health care the right of every American."
Talking to reporters after the speech, Dean said he is still working on the details for a formal presentation of his plan, but the cost would equal about half of President Bush's tax cut already passed into law.
"We believe that the cost will be less than the amount of
money you would save if you rescinded the tax cut for all the people who made
under $300,000 a year," he said.
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In a speech at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the Connecticut Democrat said the legislation would give domestic partners the same benefits available to spouses of federal employees, including life and health insurance, retirement pay, and compensation for on-the-job injuries.
Domestic partners could be gay or straight, as long as they file an affidavit saying they are living together in a committed, intimate relationship but are not married. Lieberman said gay Americans should enjoy "the rights, respect and dignity the Declaration says (they) are entitled to."Lieberman record on gay issues is mostly good, with one notable exception: the issue of gay marriage. The former vice presidential contender is a co-sponsor of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, the long-pending federal bill to end some workplace discrimination against gays and lesbians. However, during his debate with Dick Cheney during the 2000 campaign, Lieberman stopped short of supporting equal marriage rights.
Asked what kind of recognition he would favor, Lieberman replied:
"The question you pose is a difficult one, for this reason: It confronts or challenges the traditional notion of marriage as being limited to a heterosexual couple, which I support. But I must say, I'm thinking about this because I have friends who are in gay and lesbian partnerships who have said to me: 'Isn't it unfair that we don't have similar legal rights to inheritance, to visitation when one of the partners is ill, to health care benefits?' And that's why I'm thinking about it. And my mind is open to taking some action that will address those elements of unfairness while respecting the traditional religious and civil institution of marriage."
The legislation to extend benefits to partners of gay federal employees was introduced last year by Minnesota's Democratic U.S. senators, Mark Dayton and Paul Wellstone. Wellstone died last fall in a plane crash. Lieberman, Connecticut's junior senator, said he will pick up where Wellstone left off in pressing for the bill.
The measure must be reintroduced in this session of Congress. It will be referred to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, where Lieberman is the ranking Democrat, and it faces long odds in the Republican-controlled Congress.
"If it doesn't get done in the next two years, I intend to introduce and sign it as president of the United States," Lieberman said.