After putting principle before politics in voting for a bill supporting our brave men and women in uniform, Luetkemeyer and some fellow lawmakers have written a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi chastising her for attaching divisive hate crimes provisions to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 as a means to enacting liberal social policy.

“We object to the inclusion of the ‘hate crimes’ provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act Conference Report for Fiscal Year 2010, and regret that legislation intended to provide vital support to our military personnel would be used to advance a social agenda,” wrote Luetkemeyer and six Republican colleagues who voted in favor of the overall Defense Bill. “We all agree that criminal activity against anyone is absolutely intolerable and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. However, we also feel that adding controversial hate crimes provisions to a historically bipartisan bill is an affront to our military. We wish to express our deep disappointment that our dedicated military personnel could be misused to promote social policy.”

Luetkemeyer opposed the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act when it came before the House earlier this year because of his belief that it would make one person’s life more valuable than another person’s life. The congressman has argued that all violent crime is wrong, is founded in hate, is devastating to victims and communities and should always be vigorously prosecuted.

Luetkemeyer also strongly opposed the Majority’s decision to tack the hate crimes legislation onto the Defense Authorization Bill but decided to vote on behalf of our military men and women because our Armed Forces have always been a top priority for the Missouri lawmaker.

“Our military men and women should never be used as pawns in transparent political games in order to enact divisive, non-defense related legislation like this, and Speaker Pelosi and her fellow liberals should be ashamed of themselves,” Luetkemeyer said.          

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