Amendment Offered by Mr. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York
Mr. SEAN PATRICK MALONEY of New York. Mr. Chairman, I have an
amendment at the desk.
The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will report the amendment.
The Clerk read as follows:
At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the
following:
Sec. __. None of the funds made available by this Act may
be used in contravention of Executive Order No. 13672 of July
21, 2014 (``Further Amendments to Executive order 11478,
Equal Employment in the Federal Government, and Executive
Order 11246, Equal Employment Opportunity'').
The Acting CHAIR. Pursuant to House Resolution 743, the gentleman
from New York and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York.
Mr. SEAN PATRICK MALONEY of New York. Mr. Chairman, last week, I came
to the floor to offer an amendment to preserve basic workplace
protections for LGBT Americans. My amendment would have kept taxpayer
dollars from going to government contractors who discriminate against
LGBT employees. That is it. It said you cannot take taxpayer dollars
and fire people just for being gay.
There are 28 million Americans working for employers who receive
taxpayer dollars, and simple math will tell you millions would have
been protected from arbitrary firing. So it made sense, it was fair,
and it deserved a fair vote.
When the vote was held, a bipartisan majority of this House,
including 36 members of the majority party, supported my amendment.
That tally clock right there showed 217 ``yes'' votes--4 more than the
213 needed that day to pass. With all time expired, it was clear as can
be that equality had won the vote.
But when the world watched, something else happened. Something
shameful happened. Something about sticking up for basic workplace
fairness for LGBT Americans rankled certain people around here.
Even though my amendment simply would have applied the same standard
to LGBT employees that we have long applied when people are fired
because of their race or gender or religion or disability, it simply
was too much. Even though we would have preserved time-honored
religious exemptions, it was too much. Something about treating LGBT
people fairly just wouldn't do.
So people went to work. Even though all Members had voted, strangely,
the expired clock stayed up four times longer than it should have. The
gavel did not fall. And as we all watched, the tally began to change:
217, 216, 215. The votes in support were dropping. Members of this
House were changing their votes. Why? From being in support of
fairness, they were now changing them to be opposed to it.
Down the vote went, 214, 213, and yet no one came to the well, as is
customary, to announce their vote. It was all in secret, happening out
of sight, so no one might see the ugly reality of what was happening.
And what happened? Well, when it hit 212, one vote shy of the
majority it needed to pass--one vote shy of the majority it had a few
moments earlier--the gavel came down and the result was declared. A
defeat.
It was a shameful exercise, made more shameful in that it took place
on a civil rights vote that enjoyed a bipartisan majority of support in
this House. From Portland, Maine, to Des Moines, Iowa, to southeast
Oregon, to Bakersfield, California, newspaper editorial boards, radio
hosts, and ordinary citizens joined a chorus that was heard first on
this floor. ``Shame,'' they said. Shame on those who would betray the
will of this House, who would betray this vote, and shame on anyone who
would rig this vote and rig our democracy.
Shame on those who snatched discrimination from the jaws of equality,
especially those ``Switching Seven'' who, having at first voted for
fairness, allowed themselves to be dragged backward into voting for
discrimination.
On Friday, at a meeting of my Veterans' Advisory Board back home, I
spoke to decorated military heroes and civilians who have dedicated
their lives to the service of this country. To a person, they were
outraged by what happened on the floor of this House.
One member of the group, Edie, who served as a first lieutenant and
combat medic in Vietnam, said when she heard about the rigged vote, she
thought of her daughter, who right now is serving her country in the
military. And Edie's daughter is a lesbian.
Edie said:
When my daughter finishes her active military service, she
will enter the civilian workforce--perhaps for a government
contractor, as so many vets do. Will they be able to fire
her, even though she and I are both veterans?
Mr. Chairman, does Edie's service in combat count for anything here?
Does her daughter's service right now to this country count for
anything here?
Her daughter isn't alone. There are 71,000 Active Duty LGBT
servicemen and -women right now and over 1 million LGBT veterans.
Making it easier to fire LGBT Americans, even LGBT veterans, isn't
honoring our values. It is sacrificing them to preserve a worn out and
dying prejudice that weakens our Nation rather than strengthening it.
So, today, I want to thank Speaker Ryan for allowing an open process
so that I can offer my amendment again. It is through this open process
that we can give our colleagues another chance--a second chance--to do
the right thing and to stand for equality.
Let us this time ensure that no taxpayer dollars will be used to
discriminate against hardworking Americans simply because of who they
are, simply because of who they love. And we will also reaffirm
legitimate religious exemptions that the President also included in his
executive orders on this subject.
Discrimination has no place in our law. It does not make our water
cleaner. It does not power our homes. It doesn't defeat ISIS. It
doesn't support our veterans.
Every American deserves the right to work, support a family, and
achieve the American Dream, regardless of who they are or who they
love.
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I urge my colleagues to stand up to discrimination and adopt my
amendment to the bill.
The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
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