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ENDA Will Get A Senate Vote By Thanksgiving

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced that he will schedule a vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the bill that time forgot, by Thanksgiving. The measure, which has been introduced in nine out of the last ten Congressional sessions, would bar workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The measure passed out of a Senate committee earlier this year with, surprisingly enough, Republican support,  The prospects for the bill in the Senate look relatively good. There are 56 Senators who support the measure, including four Republicans. (Three Democrats are undeclared.) In particular, ENDA will become a test for Republican senators looking for some way to prove that they aren’t completely opposed to the 21st century. If four more Republicans sign on to the measure, that means it can’t be filibustered. The problem, of course, is the House, where knuckle-dragging is considered a fine art. Only a handful of Republicans there have signaled their support for the measure, and Speaker John Boehner has tried to follow a majority-of-the-majority rule in deciding whether to bring a bill to the floor for a vote. Under that standard, ENDA will never see light of day in the House, which prefers to dwell in darkness in any event.

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