ACT On Principles

The House Committee on Education and Labor, which was due to mark up the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) on Wednesday of this week, has announced that it is postponing its markup. A terse statement on the Committee’s website states simply that “This markup has been postponed.”

I had posted on Wednesday about rumors of a possible slow-down on ENDA. DC insiders said there was no slow-down, and that the bill is “on track.” However, it appeared, after comparing statements made when the bill was introduced with later statements, that the House vote, initially thought to be in October or November, was now being discussed in a “December or February” timeframe. That would put the bill up before the Senate during midterm election campaigns, which could make it more difficult to gain support among conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans.

Since the House is not in session next week, the earliest date for markup would be in December. That would make it difficult to obtain a House vote on ENDA before year’s end.

More info here: http://bit.ly/22qfhl

U.S. Representative George Miller, Democrat of California’s 7th Congressional District, is the Chair of the House Committee on Education and Labor, and a supporter of H.R. 3017, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. He will be presiding over the mark up of the ENDA bill this Wednesday at 10 am. You can view it as the Committee’s website (see Live Webcast on the top right).

“Markup” is a meeting of the Committee to consider whether the bill should be reported back to the House floor for a vote of the full House. The markup will involve the full Committee, consisting of 47 voting members. Amendments are likely to be made at that hearing, some friendly, some not so much. There are 27 definite yes votes for ENDA on the Committee, which is a majority, so the bill expected to pass the Committee. You can see the positions of each of the Committee members here.

Once a bill is reported back to the House, it is given a number and will normally be considered when all the bills reported out before it have been considered. That could take a while. However, the House has a procedure to consider bills out of turn when it is important to the leadership. The Committee on Rules can issue a special resolution to permit this. The rules for getting the bill to the House floor for a vote via this mechanism are complex, but the bottom line is that the House could vote on the measure by Thanksgiving.

But ENDA could also be left until February, as recent comments by Congressman Frank suggest. I have also heard from someone in the know that the Senate may be in no rush to consider the bill, and might also be in slowdown mode, with markup in March and a vote in June.

That would put the ENDA Senate vote in the midst of midterm election campaigns, making support of the measure into a vulnerability for Senators up for re-election. The fragile coalition-building that has been going on in the Senate with the more conservative members of Congress is more likely to collapse in the heat of a likely-to-be very dirty, mudslinging election in which the Republicans struggle to gain a toehold in the most conservative parts of the country. That would increase the chances of ENDA dying in the Senate.

What will control the timing here, and how can we make it sooner, rather than later?

For more info, click here: http://bit.ly/18wJRN