CHEYENNE - The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday voted for a Democrat-supported expansion of federal hate crimes laws.

The vote was 249-175 for the bill that was opposed by former President George W. Bush on the ground that existing federal and state laws were adequate.

Wyoming Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis was one of the no votes.

"She voted against it because she believes this is a state's rights issue," Lummis' press secretary, Ryan Taylor, said Wednesday afternoon.

The bill, which has the backing of the Democratic White House, now goes to the Senate.

Current law restricts federal jurisdiction over hate crimes of assault based on race, color, religion or national origin.

The proposal removes a requirement that a victim has to be attacked while engaged in a federally protected activity, such as attending school, to qualify as a federal hate crime, according to published reports.

Entitled the Federal Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, the bill would step up penalties for hate crimes and allow the federal government to help state and local authorities investigate hate crimes.

Representative Lamar Smith, ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, opposed the bill on grounds it was discriminatory because it will allow different penalties to be imposed for the same crime.

The Wyoming Legislature has rejected hate crimes bills, including those proposed after the murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998 in Laramie.

Shepard was an openly gay 21-year-old University of Wyoming student who died after a brutal beating.

Two young Laramie men - Russell Arthur Henderson and Aaron James McKinney - were convicted in connection with the crime.

According to published reports, Shepard's mother, Judy Shepard, was in the gallery during the debate and vote on the hate crimes bill.

North Carolina Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx argued against the bill. She said the description of Shepard's murder as an anti-homosexual attack was a "hoax."

"I also would like to point out that there was a bill - the hate crimes bill that's called the Matthew Shepard bill is named after a very unfortunate incident that happened where a young man was killed, but we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn't because he was gay," Foxx was quoted as saying.

"The bill was named for him, hate crimes bill was named for him, but it's really a hoax that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills," she added.

Rep. Steve Cohen, a Tennessee Democrat, said he was sorry Shepard's mother was around to hear Foxx's statement. The argument that Shepard was killed during a robbery is "an urban myth," he said.

During his trial, McKinney testified that Shepard attempted to grab his leg earlier in the evening and that had spurred a "gay panic" that provoked a violent outburst. His lawyers claimed McKinney had suffered homosexual abuse as a child.

Contact capital bureau reporter Joan Barron at 307-632-1244 or joan.barron@trib.com