House Republicans are yet again attempting to sneak through a "religious liberty" provision that would allow federal contractors to discriminate against women and LGBTQ Americans in hiring while receiving taxpayer dollars. The discriminatory provision isn't entirely new—a similar one was faced down earlier this year—but this time a source working on the issue tells me Republicans stand a chance of getting it through unless more attention is brought to the issue.
The problem is that House Republicans have already attached the provision to the House version of the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act, which won't come up for a final conferenced vote until after the election during the lame duck session. If the Defense authorization bill were to pass with the House provision during the lame duck crunch, it would leave President Obama with a very difficult choice: veto the bill and potentially leave the Pentagon unfunded as an outgoing president or sign the bill and codify taxpayer-funded discrimination into law.
What would the provision do? ACLU attorney Ian Thompson provides some background:
Allowing religiously affiliated contractors and grantees to discriminate against individuals who don’t adhere to an employer’s religious tenets, isn’t right or fair. This could affect an individual in a same-sex relationship, someone who is undergoing gender transition, or a woman who is pregnant and unmarried.
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The White House did issue a veto threat on the House’s Defense bill this summer, but that was when the legislation included a lengthy list of unacceptable items. The two main sticking points that remain are the so-called "religious liberty" (aka "license to discriminate") measure and an environmental dispute over the sage grouse. My source, an advocate working on the bill's final passage, says Democrats and Republicans have reached a verbal compromise on the sage grouse issue. The singular hurdle likely will then surround codifying taxpayer-funded discrimination into law.
On the bright side, efforts are under way to shine a spotlight on the issue. A sign-on letter opposing the provision is being circulated among Senate Democrats and my source says more than 40 of the 46 Democrats have signed it. That level of opposition in the Senate could pose problems for Senate Republicans since a conference report reconciling the House and Senate bills can be filibustered. In that case, Mitch McConnell would need at least six Senate Democrats to join his 54-member caucus to advance the bill.
But here's a couple other interesting points worth noting:
1) The White House is aware that this provision exists in the House version of the Defense bill but hasn't made an issue of it publicly beyond including it in the veto threat earlier this year. It seems like the perfect issue to take a stand on with Republicans in the midst of this ugly campaign, specifically because it targets both women and LGBTQ Americans.
2) As the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John McCain is one of four key lawmakers overseeing passage of the Defense authorization bill and according to my source they are currently deadlocked over it, with the two ranking armed services Democrats (Rep. Adam Smith and Sen. Jack Reed) opposing it and the two GOP chairs (Rep. Mac Thornberry and McCain) supporting it.
As one of the main detractors of "don't ask, don't tell" repeal, McCain has already proven to be no friend of the LGBTQ community. But this measure is also profoundly anti-woman in nature. As McCain tries to insulate his re-election from serial groper and sexual predator Donald Trump, he can't afford even a whiff of supporting any anti-women policies. This provision actually takes Trump's idea of punishing women for having abortions to a whole new level—being able to punish women for getting pregnant.
If there were ever a ready-made illustration of how John McCain is acting like Donald Trump—this measure is it. His Democratic Senate challenger, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, could easily make an issue of it by challenging McCain to take a public stand on the measure, which he has yet to do.