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Freshman Democrats kill transgender amendment |
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By Jonathan E. Kaplan
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Posted: 10/25/07 11:31 AM [ET] |
Reps. Tim Walz (Minn.) and Ron Klein (Fla.), leaders of the class of freshman Democrats, carried a message to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday that their fellow first-term lawmakers did not want to vote on an amendment extending civil rights to transgender employees.
House Education and Labor panel Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.), whose committee passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, said he told the freshman lawmakers at their Wednesday breakfast with Pelosi that the amendment did not have the votes to pass and would not be brought to the House floor.
In addition, Miller told the freshmen he recognized that the amendment exposed the first-term lawmakers to political attacks from conservatives and liberals alike, said two sources who attended the breakfast.
Democratic leaders are wrestling with when and how to bring the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) had introduced an amendment extending the civil rights protections to transgender workers. Such language was included in the initial bill until Democratic members convinced House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) to pull it.
Frank approves the transgender language but maintains it lacks the votes to pass.
“People didn’t want to force a ‘hard’ vote that might hurt their election chances,” Hilary Rosen, a Democratic lobbyist and gay and lesbian advocate, wrote on the Huffington Post, a liberal blog.
Meanwhile, the Office of Management and Budget said on Wednesday in its Statement of Administration Policy that President Bush’s senior advisers would recommend he veto the bill on the grounds that it is unconstitutional and restricts religious liberty. |
