Recognizing that passing an employment non-discrimination bill in the House won’t happen any time soon, 195 House and Senate Democrats are asking President Barack Obama to sign an ENDA executive order. In a letter to the President that’s been circulating for weeks, the signatories –forty-seven senators and 148 congressmen, all Democrats, no Republicans — urge President Obama “to take action now to protection millions of workers across the country from the threat of discrimination simply because of who they are or who they love.”
The executive order — which Obama has until now refused to execute, despite heavy pressure from LGBT organizations, especially GetEQUAL — would apply only to federal contractors, but could set a strong tone nationwide.
“We are committed to doing all that we can in Congress to get ENDA to your desk this year,” the letter reads. It adds that “there is no reason you cannot immediately act by taking this important step. This executive order would provide LGBT people with another avenue in the federal government they could turn to if they were the victim of employment discrimination by a federal contractor.”
When combined with ENDA, these non-discrimination protections would parallel those that have been in place for decades on the basis of race, sex and religion.
An executive order covering LGBT employees would be in line with a bipartisan, decades-long commitment to eradicating taxpayer-funded discrimination in the workplace. In 1941, President Roosevelt prohibited discrimination in defense contracts on the bases of race, creed, color, or national origin. In subsequent executive orders, Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson expanded these protections to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to discriminate.
The document was originally circulated by Senators Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, and Tom Harkin of Iowa.
ENDA passed the Senate in an historic and bipartisan vote last year, but John Boehner has refused to bring the legislation to the floor for a vote. The Speaker of the House last year falsely said that LGBT people already have workplace protection and he saw no need for ENDA.
In November, after Senator Baldwin asked Speaker Boehner to “just bring it up for a vote,†the Speaker said, “I see no basis or no need” to protect LGBT workers. In January, he doubled down, stating “no way” would he allow ENDA to come to the full House floor for a vote.
The Huffington Post notes a few Democrats who have not signed the letter:
Sens. Michael Bennet (Colo.), Maria Cantwell (Wash.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Mark Pryor (Ark.) and Harry Reid (Nev.) were the only Democrats who didn’t sign the latest letter on the Senate side. Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, also did not sign. Fifty-six House Democrats didn’t join the effort.
Image by Senate Democrats via Flickr
Hat tip: Huffington Post