Senate may try to repeal Defense of Marriage Act

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A day after President Barack Obama endorsed gay marriage, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid suggested Thursday that Democrats may move to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, the Clinton-era law that defined marriage as between a man and a woman.

Such a move would energize the liberal base and provide a contrast to House Republicans, who passed their own measure this week aimed at bolstering DOMA.

But it could also alienate conservative Democrats in the middle of an election year.

In any case, it would have no chance of getting through a divided Congress.

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"If it gets on the floor, we’ll be happy to take a look at it," Reid said Thursday. "It’s an important piece of legislation."

Reid, a Mormon who believes that marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman, said in the wake of the president's remarks that the government should not prohibit same-sex couples from marrying.

On Thursday, he also said he expects the Democratic Party's platform to include a stance supporting gay marriage.

"The president is in favor of it, I’m sure it will be" in the platform, he said.

Reid would not commit to a timeframe for taking up the Defense of Marriage Act repeal, which was sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and has languished since passing the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote in November.

"I just don’t know where it is now and we have a few other things to do," the majority leader said. "Presumably ... the Republicans won’t let us get it on the floor anyway, but we’ll take a look at it.

"It’s not a Democratic problem, it’s a Republican problem."

But it could be a Democratic problem — some of Reid's own moderates weren't keen about talking about the debate when asked on Thursday.

"Let the president and the leadership deal with that," Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said about the Defense of Marriage Act debate.

