A prominent Senate Democrat last week took steps to block an amendment to the minimum wage bill that would provide tax deductions for employer-generated health benefits for domestic partners. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, threatened to invoke a parliamentary rule to stop Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) from introducing the domestic partner amendment.

Baucus said he ruled out consideration of the Smith-Schumer amendment — along with all other health-related amendments — saying they would jeopardize a compromise package of tax relief proposals for small businesses that Republicans have demanded as a condition for backing the minimum wage measure.

“This was one amendment of many that was not considered procedurally,” said Carol Guthrie, a spokesperson for Baucus.

“He assured his colleagues, including Senator Smith, that he would welcome the full consideration of all health-related amendments at another time,” Guthrie said. “Senator Smith seemed to understand that.”

Guthrie said Baucus supports the domestic partners measure proposed by Smith and Schumer.

The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, to which Smith and Schumer sought to attach their amendment, calls for raising the nation’s minimum wage, a proposal that Democrats in Congress have placed at the top of their list of priorities for this year.

R.C. Hammond, a spokesperson for Smith, said Smith backed down from introducing the amendment in committee on Jan. 17 and on the Senate floor on Jan. 24 after Baucus and Democratic leaders informed him they would rule the amendment non-germane, preventing it from coming up for a vote.

Smith filed the amendment for floor consideration on his and Schumer’s behalf on Jan. 23 but did not take further action.

A spokesperson for Schumer could not be reached.

The head of the national gay group Log Cabin Republicans called on Democratic leaders to overrule Baucus and to allow the domestic partner measure to be considered as an amendment to the minimum wage bill.

“LGBT Democrats gave a lot of money and support to their party last November,” said Log Cabin President Patrick Sammon. “Now Senate Democrats better not block the first piece of pro-gay legislation in the 110th Congress,” he said.

 “Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) should stop Senator Baucus from obstructing this amendment and allow a vote by the full Senate,” Sammon said.

David Smith, vice president of programs for Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay civil rights group, said HRC is confident that Baucus was not singling out the domestic partner amendment for delay.

“None of these health amendments were actually put to a vote because Baucus was taking the same line with everyone — there would be a later health tax bill and that would be the time to offer such amendments,” David Smith said.

“The most important point is [Sens.] Smith and Baucus had a very positive verbal exchange about the amendment after Smith withdrew it, where Baucus said that he believed the amendment had a lot of merit and that he hoped to consider it as soon as possible in the context of another legislative vehicle,” HRC’s Smith said.

A spokesperson for the National Stonewall Democrats, which represents gay Democrats, called Sen. Smith’s involvement in seeking to add the domestic partners measure to the minimum wage bill a publicity stunt aimed at portraying himself as being more moderate than he is for his 2008 re-election bid.

Stonewall Democrats spokesperson John Marble noted that Smith voted for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and “maintains an overall dismal record on issues that impact LGBT families.”

“It is important to point out the irony in which Senator Smith fully supports efforts to amend the United States Constitution to permanently remove the very protections that this amendment seeks to extend,” Marble said.

Sen. Smith’s gay Republican supporters point to Smith’s past support for other gay rights legislation, including the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, which would ban employment discrimination based on sexual orientation; and a hate crimes prevention bill that includes protection for gays and transgender persons. Hammond said Smith has yet to take a position on whether to support a revised version of ENDA that includes protections for transgender persons.

Smith and Schumer’s proposed amendment to the minimum wage bill consists of a portion of the Domestic Partner Health Benefits Equity Act, which Smith and Schumer introduced in 2005.

The part of the bill included in Smith’s amendment would provide a tax exemption for the cost of health insurance benefits that self-employed individuals provide for their domestic partners. Under the current tax code, self-employed persons who are married already receive this tax exemption for the health benefits they provide to their spouses.

Language in the bill that Smith did not include in his amendment would provide a tax exemption for health insurance benefits received by domestic partners of all employees who obtain health insurance from their employer. The current tax code requires employees with domestic partners to pay taxes on such benefits as if they were ordinary income.

“Non-traditional families are part of the fabric of our society and deserve fair treatment,” Smith said in a statement. “The tax code weighs heavily on small business owners as it is; we shouldn’t increase the burden by leaving this inequity on the books,” he said.

The House of Representatives passed the minimum wage bill without amendments. Senate Democrats also called for passing an amendment-free version of the bill. But Senate Republican leaders refused to clear the bill for a vote unless Democrats agreed to a series of amendments that provide tax breaks for small businesses, which the Republicans said would be hurt financially by being forced to provide higher minimum wages to employees.

Baucus, who favored an amendment-free minimum wage bill, noted that Republican opposition to such a bill would prevent Democrats from securing any minimum wage legislation without agreeing to some tax-lowering amendments. Under Senate rules, it would take 60 votes, rather than 51, to pass the minimum wage bill without the amendments Republicans want. Baucus said the Democrats are unable to muster 60 votes.

Guthrie said Baucus worked out a carefully crafted compromise “package” of tax breaks for small businesses that excluded health-related matters, such as Smith’s domestic partners measure. The package of amendments was to be introduced on the Senate floor as a bipartisan amendment to the minimum wage bill.

“Senator Baucus said no health-related provisions should come up as part of this small business package because they would be too controversial and could jeopardize the bill,” Guthrie said.

But the tax-lowering amendments were not enough for some GOP senators, who held up passage of the bill unless the Democrats agreed to more amendments. Democratic and Republican leaders said a final compromise amendment package was expected to be reached late this week.

Hammond, Sen. Smith’s press spokesperson, dismissed charges by Democratic critics that Smith and other GOP senators were introducing a flood of amendments as a ploy to stall or kill the minimum wage bill. He said Smith has stated repeatedly that he supports the bill but believes various amendments would improve it.

“Sen. Smith feels one way to improve it is by adding tax relief for domestic partners,” Hammond said.

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