Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) has announced that he wants to expand federal hate crimes laws to protect gays by expanding upon a major defense policy bill.

Levin, who serves as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, would also use the bill to try to bring troops home from Iraq and force the Iraqi government to foot more of the cost of reconstruction. Democrats tried a similar tactic last year to expand hate crimes laws, but Republican opposition threatened to defeat the bill.

”Diversity and tolerance and hate crimes runs smack against what the men and women of the American armed forces fight for,” Levin told reporters Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.