Members call for vote on gay marriage ban

By Chris Casteel

Published: June 15, 2006

WASHINGTON - All five Oklahoma members of the U.S. House asked Republican leaders on Wednesday to schedule a vote on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

The proposed amendment was rejected last week in the U.S. Senate, but the Oklahomans said the House should be "on record" on the issue.

"Voting on this amendment would give us the opportunity to stand up both for marriage and also for the people's right to govern themselves," the letter states. "It is sad that a constitutional amendment is necessary, but without it we fear that Americans will be under endless assault by those who want to destroy traditional marriage."

The letter was sent to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. It was signed by Reps. Dan Boren, D-Muskogee; Tom Cole, R-Moore; Ernest Istook, R-Warr Acres; Frank Lucas, R-Cheyenne; and John Sullivan, R-Tulsa.

The letter states that the proposed amendment would limit marriage in the United States to the union of one man and woman.

Today, a publication of Congressional Quarterly, reported last week that Boehner said the House will take up a proposed amendment on gay marriage in July.

Pay raise debate blocked
In a procedural vote Tuesday, the four Republican Oklahomans in the U.S. House opposed a move to force a vote on a congressional pay raise.

Boren supported an effort to allow debate on an amendment on the annual cost-of-living increase. The pay raise is automatic unless Congress acts to reject it. The increase this year would boost congressional pay by 2 percent to $168,500.

The House voted 249-167 for a motion cutting off an attempt to debate the pay increase.

Cole, Istook, Lucas and Sullivan voted for the motion that prevented debate on the raise.

The motion to debate the pay raise came before consideration of the spending bill for Treasury, Transportation, Housing and other departments. There is no pay raise for Congress in the bill, but the bill traditionally is used as the vehicle for discussing the raise since it includes the pay raise proposal for federal civilian workers. This year, the bill proposes a 2.7 percent hike for those workers.

The bill received House approval Wednesday.