Congressman Jared Polis filed today to force a vote in the House on a newly revised ENDA.
Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) today filed a discharge petition with the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives to force Speaker of the House John Boehner and Republican leadership to bring the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) to a vote.
Polis, the chief sponsor of the bill and co-chair of the LGBT Equality Caucus, has crafted a revised ENDA with “narrowed religious exemption,” the Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson reports this morning. Polis’ discharge petition would go into effect, forcing a vote, “if a majority of House members, or 218, sign the petition.”
Johnson notes that Rep. Polis filed the petition today, “just two months before a mid-term election in which Democrats are fighting to maintain control of the Senate. The lack of Republican signers on the ENDA discharge petition could serve to highlight to difference between the Democratic and Republican parties just before Election Day.”
Indeed, supporters face an “uphill battle in attempting to pass ENDA by initiating a discharge petition. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), an original co-sponsor of ENDA, has already told the Blade she wouldn’t sign the petition, saying through a spokesperson it’s a ‘partisan political tool.’ No Republican co-sponsor has agreed to signing a discharge petition for ENDA.”
LGBT organizations, after the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision, pulled their support from ENDA because of its extensive religious exemptions. It is believed those exemptions could effectively write anti-gay religious discrimination into law, rather than protecting LGBT people from discrimination.
Â
Â
Related at The New Civil Rights Movement:
After Hobby Lobby, Seven Top LGBT And Civil Rights Orgs Drop Support For ENDA
Distancing Itself From ENDA’s Religious Exemptions, HRC Calls For LGBT Civil Rights Bill
Former Bush Aide: There Were 70 Closeted Gay White House Staffers Working For W