Wednesday, July 10, 2013

US Senate Committee on HELP: Passes ENDA

On a 15-7 vote in the committee the bill is passed with three amendments on ENDA to be considered 1) shared facilities 2) define the word "transition" 3) no action to be taken against employer who fires an employee for legitimate reason.
ENDA advances with bipartisan backing
By Steve Benen
MSNBC
Wed Jul 10, 2013

Following up on an item from late yesterday, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions (better known as the HELP Committee) easily approved the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (better known as ENDA) this morning. The final vote count, by way of my colleague Tricia McKinney, was 15 to 7.

The two-to-one margin matters. If the legislation is going to have any chance of overcoming a Republican filibuster on the Senate floor, ENDA is going to need several GOP votes to side with the Democratic majority. With this in mind, this morning's vote was heartening -- all 12 Democrats on the committee backed the law, and they were joined by Republican Sens. Mark Kirk (Ill.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and most importantly, Orrin Hatch (Utah).
You can read the whole story here.

Video of the committee hearing... Executive Session - S. 815, Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2013