...and now the U.S. House!

This good news just in from the Associated Press!

The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday rejected a proposed U.S. constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, ending for another year a congressional debate that supporters of the ban hope will still reverberate in this fall's mid-term elections. The 236–187 vote for the proposal to define marriage as a union of a man and a woman was 47 short of the two-thirds majority needed to advance a constitutional amendment. It followed six weeks after the Senate also decisively defeated the amendment.

Opponents dismissed the proposal as both discriminatory and legislatively irrelevant because of the Senate vote. The measure is "all for the purpose of pandering to a narrow political base." said Rep. Tammy Baldwin, an openly gay Democrat from Wisconsin. "This hateful and unnecessary amendment is unworthy of our great Constitution."

The marriage amendment is part of the "American values agenda" the House is taking up this week that includes a pledge protection bill and a vote on a bill promoting embryonic stem cell research, which Bush is expected to veto. Bush has asked, and social conservatives demanded, that the same-sex marriage ban be considered in the run-up to the election.

The White House, in a statement Tuesday, urged passage of the measure. "When activist judges insist on redefining the fundamental institution of marriage for their states or potentially for the entire country, the only alternative left to make the people's voice heard is an amendment of the Constitution." The same-sex marriage debate mirrors that of the 2004 election year, when both the House and Senate fell well short of the two-thirds majority needed to send a constitutional amendment to the states.

The Senate took up the measure last month but fell 11 short of the 60 votes needed to advance the legislation to a final vote. The last House vote on the issue, just a month before the 2004 election, was 227–186 in favor of the amendment, 39 short of the two-thirds majority needed to advance a constitutional amendment.

The U.S. Constitution has been amended only 27 times, including the 10 amendments of the Bill of Rights. In addition to two-thirds congressional approval, a proposed amendment must be ratified by three fourths of the states. (AP)