(Updated March 20, 2014)
WASHINGTON, DC — Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley today sent a letter signed by more than 200 Senators and Representatives to President Barack Obama calling on him to issue an executive order banning contractors from receiving federal government contracts unless they have a policy prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Support for such an action has grown exponentially in Congress, with 51 Senators — or more than half the Senate — signing the letter.
“All Americans deserve fairness in the workplace,” said Merkley. “There is no reason to wait any longer to extend non-discrimination policies to federal contractors and protect millions of Americans from being fired for who they are or who they love.”
Senator Merkley has been a long-time advocate of equal rights for all Americans. As Speaker of the Oregon House, he championed the successful passage of a bill that banned anti-LGBT discrimination in employment and public accommodations in Oregon. He is the lead sponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) in the Senate. ENDA passed the Senate in 2013 by a bipartisan vote of 64-32 and, with more than 200 cosponsors, is awaiting action in the House.
Executive orders banning various types of discrimination by federal contractors have been on the books since 1941, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the first such order. Federal contractors have been banned since 1965 from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
The full text of the letter and the list of signatories is below.
March 18, 2014
The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
We are writing to urge you to fulfill the promise in your State of the Union address to make this a “year of action” and build upon the momentum of 2013 by signing an executive order banning federal contractors from engaging in employment discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans. As you have said before, “now is the time to end this kind of discrimination, not enable it.”
As we continue to work towards final passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) with strong bipartisan support, we urge you to take action now to protection millions of workers across the country from the threat of discrimination simply because of who they are or who they love. We are committed to doing all that we can in Congress to get ENDA to your desk this year; however, there is no reason you cannot immediately act by taking this important step. This executive order would provide LGBT people with another avenue in the federal government they could turn to if they were the victim of employment discrimination by a federal contractor. When combined with ENDA, these non-discrimination protections would parallel those that have been in place for decades on the basis of race, sex and religion.
An executive order covering LGBT employees would be in line with a bipartisan, decades-long commitment to eradicating taxpayer-funded discrimination in the workplace. In 1941, President Roosevelt prohibited discrimination in defense contracts on the bases of race, creed, color, or national origin. In subsequent executive orders, Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson expanded these protections to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to discriminate.
In addition, most of the largest government contractors – companies like Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin – have LGBT non-discrimination policies in place. They adopted them because business leaders recognize that discrimination is bad for the bottom line.
Finally, time is of the essence. Even with an executive order in place, full implementation of these protections will require regulations to be developed and finalized, a process that will take many months, if not longer, to fully put in place.
Issuing an executive order prohibiting discrimination against LGBT workers in federal contracts would build on the significant progress for LGBT rights made during your time as President and would further your legacy as a champion for LGBT equality. We urge you to act now to prevent irrational, taxpayer-funded workplace discrimination against LGBT Americans.
Sincerely,
Senator Jeffrey A. Merkley
Representative Jared Polis
Senator Tom Harkin
Senator Tammy Baldwin
Representative Mike Michaud
Representative David N. Cicilline
Representative Sean Patrick Maloney
Representative Mark Pocan
Representative Kyrsten Sinema
Representative Mark Takano
Representative Frank Pallone, Jr.
Representative Lois Capps
Representative Diana DeGette
Representative Joe Garcia
Representative Raúl M. Grijalva
Representative Michael Honda
Representative Barbara Lee
Representative Jerrold Nadler
Representative Adam Schiff
Senator Mazie K. Hirono
Senator Tim Kaine
Senator Christopher Coons
Senator Jeanne Shaheen
Senator Richard Durbin
Senator Patrick Leahy
Senator Elizabeth Warren
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Senator Patty Murray
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
Senator Barbara Boxer
Senator Carl Levin
Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr.
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Senator Al Franken
Senator Martin Heinrich
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Senator Thomas R. Carper
Senator Debbie Stabenow
Senator Benjamin L. Cardin
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Senator Ron Wyden
Senator Christopher Murphy
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Senator Tim Johnson
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Senator Bill Nelson
Senator Jon Tester
Senator Mark Begich
Senator Mary L. Landrieu
Senator Robert Menendez
Senator Amy Klobuchar
Senator Cory Booker
Senator Claire McCaskill
Senator Richard Blumenthal
Senator Dianne Feinstein
Senator Tom Udall
Senator John D. Rockefeller, IV
Senator Mark Warner
Senator Joe Donnelly
Senator Kay Hagan
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