ACT On Principles

Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana is concerned about supporting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act because of potential impacts on small businesses. Fortunately, he has said, in his letter to constituents on the issue: “I will continue to listen to thoughtful arguments about the bill.” That’s good, because small businesses will not, in fact, be harmed by the passage of this bill, and we have the facts to show that.

In my research for this article this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see a new report by the United States General Accounting Office, dated October 1, 2009, specifically looking at the stats on ENDA’s litigation potential based on state statistics.

There’s been a lot of back and forth on the web about whether Senator Lugar would or would not be supportive about ENDA. But he did vote in favor of the hate crimes bill on several occasions, and was one of five Republican Senators who voted last week to stop the Republican filibuster on that bill. That’s key in terms of bringing ENDA to an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor, where we only need 50 votes (which we now have). Even if he ultimately finds that his convictions lead him to vote against ENDA because of the small business issue, the question is whether he will allow a Republican filibuster to defeat the democratic will of the majority.

But I think Senator Lugar should know this: No small businesses will be harmed in the passing of this law. Please call Senator Lugar and tell him that S1584, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, will not harm small businesses for two reasons.

Those two reasons, and contact info, by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1I33hz