Rep. Tammy Baldwin’s bill to provide domestic partnership benefits to federal employees could make it the House floor for a vote by the end of 2009, according to The Hill. The bill, H.R. 2517, states that “An employee who has a domestic partner and the domestic partner of the employee shall be entitled to benefits available to, and shall be subject to obligations imposed upon, a married employee and the spouse of the employee.”

The Hill reports that Tammy Baldwin is optimistic about the chances for the bill’s passage:

Baldwin’s bill has 126 co-sponsors, all Democrats. That leaves Baldwin 92 votes short of the number necessary for passage on the floor.

However, in an interview with The Hill, Baldwin said she “absolutely” believes that the bill will have the 218 votes necessary to pass the House.

“We are doing [an] informal whip count and we have found that people are very supportive of this bill,” said Baldwin, one of the few openly gay members of Congress. “There has been a good response and people seem to understand the necessity of this bill.”

To correct a minor mistake in The Hill’s article: Florida republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who also joined Tammy Baldwin in condemning Uganda’s attempts to pass an anti-gay bill, is an original cosponsor of the legislation.