By John Mack Freeman
This week, a Republican-led committee in the House of Representatives rejected a proposed amendment that would have added the Employment Nondiscrimination Act to a defense bill that was under consideration. With this rejection, it is unlikely that the bill will pass this term. Further, Congressional watchers doubt that the bill will come up for serious consideration under the entirely Republican controlled Congress after the first of the year.
Introduced by Alcee Hastings (D-FL) on behalf of Jared Polis (D-CO), the amendment failed to gain a single Republican vote. The version introduced had a narrow religious liberty exemption that had been crafted in response to protests from LGBT advocacy groups earlier in the year that the religious exemption had become too large.
