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LGBT Discrimination on the House Floor

May 19, 2016
E-Newsletters

Dear Friend,

This week, the House voted on the National Defense Authorization Act, known as NDAA. The NDAA is a critical bill Congress passes annually in an effort to keep Americans safe and to shape our broader national security policy. Unfortunately, the House majority included a number of extreme provisions in the final bill, including one aimed at LGBT contractors.

Last year, President Obama signed an executive order prohibiting discrimination against LGBT federal contractors. President Obama's actions offered employment protections for 28 million people—or 1 in 5 American workers—and signaled a definitive shift towards a more inclusive workplace. This week at the subcommittee markup, Rep. Steve Russell (OK-05) successfully offered an amendment to provide so-called "religious exemptions" to federal contractors, undermining President Obama's historic executive order. Bipartisan attempts to have this language stripped from the final bill failed, and it was ultimately included in the NDAA. For this and other reasons, I was unable to support the final bill and was proud to vote no.

On top of that, today the House majority pressured members of their party to change their vote on Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney's (NY-18) amendment to the Military Construction-VA Appropriations bill. The Maloney amendment would have reinforced President Obama's historic executive order banning LGBT discrimination by federal contractors.

Discrimination has no place in our armed services, our workplaces or our country. From the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to the Supreme Court's landmark decision on marriage equality, it's clear incredible progress has been made in the fight for LGBT equality. But amendments like Rep. Russell's demonstrate how much work still remains as we continue to move towards a more perfect union.

I will continue to fight for the equality of all Americans and appreciate your dedication to this issue.

Sincerely,


Mike Quigley

Issues:Equality