Secretary of Defense Robert Gates may have put a stake through the heart of DADT repeal yesterday (or not, but there's little doubt he was doing his best Bram Stoker imitation). But what about ENDA -- you know, the other LBGT rights bill that was supposed to be passed by the most Democratic Congress in ages, and likely the most Democratic Congress ever to be for many years to come?
The ENDA bill is currently tied up in the House Education and Labor Committee. There are more than enough co-sponsors of the ENDA bill on the committee to produce a favorable vote and move it to the House floor, so what is going on?
Two weeks ago, Barney Frank, the sponsor of the House ENDA bill, said that it would be marked up and voted out of committee "This week or the next." Well, he was wrong. Not only has it not been marked up, consideration of the bill hasn't even been scheduled.
This video of US Representative and committee member Jared Polis (D CO-02) talking to an angry group of GetEqual members gives us a strong hint as to what is really going on:
In the latter part of the video (starting about 3:05 in) we hear Polis saying that it would be unwise to moved the bill out of committee until they have the votes to insure that transgender protections now written in to the bill will not be removed by a vote of the full House.
... whipping on the floor right now, making sure we can survive a recommit motion to remove the transgender protection. That's a vote that's going to be very close, and we don't want to lose that vote..."
You may recall that this issue is part of what killed the bill in 2007 (C.f. this Barney Frank essay) as it passed the House without transgender protections but was disowned by many in the LGBT community because of that lack.
There is no way at this point the LBGT community would accept another attempt at an ENDA bill without transgender protections. So what is to be done?
Polis makes another comment in the video (starting at about 2:45 in) that it would be helpful to have more co-sponsors for the bill. Currently, there are 182 co-sponsors, plus Barney Frank as the bill's original sponsor. The sponsor list even includes a few Republicans.
Simple arithmetic suggests that there are approximately 70 Democrats who are not co-sponsors of the bill (not including Speaker Pelosi or House Majority Leader Hoyer, whom I assume are not sponsors for procedural reasons).
All the shouting, protests and sitins by GetEqual and their allies are not going to make a difference if the votes aren't there. Yes, they can call attention to the matter, which is good. And yes, they can energize supporters, which is very good. But the question is, energize them to do what? As Polis suggests, the only thing that is ultimately useful is to secure the co-sponsorships and votes of Representatives who are not currently on record. Or the bill goes down in flames just like it did in 2007.
This is just common sense. So why isn't there a massive callout by the leadership of the LGBT community to do just this? Who does Barney Frank tells us things are proceeding smoothly when they are not, instead of exhorting people to ask their Congressperson to become an ENDA supporter? Where is the call to action to all 750,000 HRC members saying the House needs to be lobbied now?
(To be fair, there is an ENDA button on the HRC site that gets you to a letter writing page. But the latest news on ENDA is dated 12/04/2009, and there is no status report detailing where the legislation is in Congress. Oh yes, there is a story about Aluminum Cans for ENDA...)
So I've created a list of Democratic Representative non-sponsors, organized by state. I took all the House Democrats and removed those who are co-sponsors to create the table (caveat: this list may not be 100% accurate, but should be pretty darned close to correct):
Bright, Bobby | AL 02 |
Davis, Artur | AL 07 |
Berry, Marion | AR 01 |
Snyder, Vic | AR 02 |
Ross, Mike | AR 04 |
Cardoza, Dennis | CA 18 |
Costa, Jim | CA 20 |
Sánchez, Linda | CA 39 |
Boyd, Allen | FL 02 |
Brown, Corrine | FL 03 |
Kosmas, Suzanne | FL 24 |
Bishop, Sanford | GA 02 |
Marshall, Jim | GA 08 |
Barrow, John | GA 12 |
Scott, David | GA 13 |
Minnick, Walter | ID 01 |
Lipinski, Dan | IL 03 |
Gutiérrez, Luis | IL 04 |
Costello, Jerry | IL 12 |
Visclosky, Peter | IN 01 |
Donnelly, Joe | IN 02 |
Ellsworth, Brad | IN 08 |
Hill, Baron | IN 09 |
Chandler, Ben | KY 06 |
Melancon, Charlie | LA 03 |
Kratovil, Frank | MD 01 |
Ruppersberger, Dutch | MD 02 |
Hollen, Chris | MD 08 |
Stupak, Bart | MI 01 |
Peterson, Collin | MN 07 |
Skelton, Ike | MO 04 |
Childers, Travis | MS 01 |
Thompson, Bennie | MS 02 |
Taylor, Gene | MS 04 |
Butterfield, G. | NC 01 |
Etheridge, Bob | NC 02 |
McIntyre, Mike | NC 07 |
Kissell, Larry | NC 08 |
Shuler, Heath | NC 11 |
Pomeroy, Earl | ND AL |
Teague, Harry | NM 02 |
Luján, Ben | NM 03 |
Velázquez, Nydia | NY 12 |
Owens, Bill | NY 23 |
Wilson, Charlie | OH 06 |
Kaptur, Marcy | OH 09 |
Space, Zack | OH 18 |
Boren, Dan | OK 02 |
Dahlkemper, Kathy | PA 03 |
Altmire, Jason | PA 04 |
Carney, Chris | PA 10 |
Kanjorski, Paul | PA 11 |
Spratt, John | SC 05 |
Sandlin, Stephanie | SD AL |
Davis, Lincoln | TN 04 |
Gordon, Bart | TN 06 |
Tanner, John | TN 08 |
Edwards, Chet | TX 17 |
Rodriguez, Ciro | TX 23 |
Ortiz, Solomon | TX 27 |
Cuellar, Henry | TX 28 |
Green, Gene | TX 29 |
Perriello, Tom | VA 05 |
Boucher, Rick | VA 09 |
Obey, Dave | WI 07 |
Kagen, Steve | WI 08 |
Mollohan, Alan | WV 01 |
Rahall, Nick | WV 03 |
You can find more detailed information on a House member's position on ENDA,
including Republicans, here (Google spreadsheet), courtesy of Inclusive ENDA.
You can contact your representative by going here, and selecting the Congressperson's name from the menu near the top and then clicking 'Go'. That will bring you to the Representative's home page, and contact information is available from there. Tell them to support ENDA with transgender protections.
You can also contact Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House here and ask that she use her prodigious political skills to bring about a successful ENDA vote in the House.
You can find the members of the House Committee on Education and Labor here.
Unfortunately, there is no way to get in contact with the committee itself as an entity, but If you are (or imagine yourself to be) a member of the press, you can call their
Press Line: 202-226-0853
and ask why the ENDA bill still isn't scheduled.
And what if it does pass the House of Representatives? How will it fare in the Senate? You can read my analysis of its Senate prospects here.
I'll end with Clarknt67's current sig line:
Trickle Down Equality isn't working