ENDA ON THE MOVE IN COMMITTEE; VOTE DATE HAS BEEN SET

Senate Committee Sets Date for ENDA Vote

Washington, D.C. -- Hot on the heels of the Supreme Court’s landmark decisions on marriage equality, according to several news reports a Senate committee will hold a vote July 10 on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

The date set for the vote by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee is exactly two weeks after the court ruled against both Proposition 8 and a key section of the Defense of Marriage Act.

ENDA, which would ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, is expected to easily obtain committee approval, as all 12 Democrats on the Senate panel are cosponsors of the legislation, and Republican senator Mark Kirk of Illinois is as well.

However, the way Republican committee member Lisa Murkowski of Alaska will vote on ENDA is still unclear. Nevertheless, she changed her position to support marriage equality one week before the Supreme Court rulings, becoming the third sitting Republican U.S. senator to do so, and has voted in favor of pro-LGBT measures in the past, including hate-crimes legislation and the repeal of “Don’t ask, Don’t tell.”