The Los Angeles Employment Attorney Services blog is an online portal of elite group of employment and labor law attorneys of Mesriani Law Group.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Employment Non-discrimination Act Passes the Senate; Another First in U.S. History

Finally, after a long time of being stagnated in Congress every time that it is being reintroduced, the Employment Non-discrimination Act (ENDA) has finally passed the senate floor, November 7.
Employment Non-discrimination Act Passes the Senate

According to reports, the bill passed the house by 64-32 votes. All Democrats backed the bill along with the 10 Republican senators - Susan Collins (Maine), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Orrin Hatch (Utah), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Pat Toomey (Pa.) and Rob Portman (Ohio).

As for the media who were present during the landmark civil rights legislation, the most surprising vote was from Flake, who was allegedly still uneasy about the inclusion of gender identity protections moments before the vote. Also, he was said to be worried about the possible litigation that the result from the legislation.

ENDA was first introduced in 1994 by Rep. Jared Polis (Co.) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (Or.) in an aim to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employees in the workplace. The bill would ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual preference or gender orientation.

Since the bill has been introduced and gotten several hearings, the same had never reached the Senate floor until in 2007, when it earned a 234-184 votes. Unfortunately for the legislation, that was its only best chance since then and after.

Thus, the passage of ENDA in senate is another first in U.S. history. Now, the bill will now proceed to the House of Representative wherein much serious ordeals expectedly await.

Following the vote, President Barack Obama renewed his calls for his fellow lawmakers in the House of Representatives.

"One party in one house of Congress should not stand in the way of millions of Americans who want to go to work each day and simply be judged by the job they do. Now is the time to end this kind of discrimination in the workplace, not enable it. I urge the House Republican leadership to bring this bill to the floor for a vote and send it to my desk so I can sign it into law," Obama said.

Meanwhile, in his 15 long years experience in providing assistance to aggravated employees in the labor force of greater Los Angeles, the employment discrimination lawyer herein had witnessed how the entire country has made history through the years. In fact, he likewise believes that no one has to endure harassment or discrimination on the basis of gender preferences and sexual orientation. Everyone deserves to be treated equally.

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