Merkley Leads Over 200 Members of Congress in Calling for Executive Order Protecting LGBT Workers from Workplace Discrimination

(Updated March 20, 2014)

WASHINGTON, DC — Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley today sent a letter signed by more than 200 Senators and Representatives to President Barack Obama calling on him to issue an executive order banning contractors from receiving federal government contracts unless they have a policy prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Support for such an action has grown exponentially in Congress, with 51 Senators -- or more than half the Senate -- signing the letter.

“All Americans deserve fairness in the workplace,” said Merkley. “There is no reason to wait any longer to extend non-discrimination policies to federal contractors and protect millions of Americans from being fired for who they are or who they love.”

Senator Merkley has been a long-time advocate of equal rights for all Americans. As Speaker of the Oregon House, he championed the successful passage of a bill that banned anti-LGBT discrimination in employment and public accommodations in Oregon. He is the lead sponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) in the Senate. ENDA passed the Senate in 2013 by a bipartisan vote of 64-32 and, with more than 200 cosponsors, is awaiting action in the House.

Executive orders banning various types of discrimination by federal contractors have been on the books since 1941, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the first such order. Federal contractors have been banned since 1965 from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

The full text of the letter and the list of signatories is below.

March 18, 2014

The President

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW

Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

We are writing to urge you to fulfill the promise in your State of the Union address to make this a “year of action” and build upon the momentum of 2013 by signing an executive order banning federal contractors from engaging in employment discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans. As you have said before, “now is the time to end this kind of discrimination, not enable it.”

As we continue to work towards final passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) with strong bipartisan support, we urge you to take action now to protection millions of workers across the country from the threat of discrimination simply because of who they are or who they love. We are committed to doing all that we can in Congress to get ENDA to your desk this year; however, there is no reason you cannot immediately act by taking this important step. This executive order would provide LGBT people with another avenue in the federal government they could turn to if they were the victim of employment discrimination by a federal contractor. When combined with ENDA, these non-discrimination protections would parallel those that have been in place for decades on the basis of race, sex and religion.

An executive order covering LGBT employees would be in line with a bipartisan, decades-long commitment to eradicating taxpayer-funded discrimination in the workplace. In 1941, President Roosevelt prohibited discrimination in defense contracts on the bases of race, creed, color, or national origin. In subsequent executive orders, Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson expanded these protections to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to discriminate.

In addition, most of the largest government contractors – companies like Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin – have LGBT non-discrimination policies in place. They adopted them because business leaders recognize that discrimination is bad for the bottom line.

Finally, time is of the essence. Even with an executive order in place, full implementation of these protections will require regulations to be developed and finalized, a process that will take many months, if not longer, to fully put in place.

Issuing an executive order prohibiting discrimination against LGBT workers in federal contracts would build on the significant progress for LGBT rights made during your time as President and would further your legacy as a champion for LGBT equality. We urge you to act now to prevent irrational, taxpayer-funded workplace discrimination against LGBT Americans.

Sincerely,

Senator Jeffrey A. Merkley

Representative Jared Polis

Senator Tom Harkin

Senator Tammy Baldwin

Representative Mike Michaud

Representative David N. Cicilline

Representative Sean Patrick Maloney

Representative Mark Pocan

Representative Kyrsten Sinema

Representative Mark Takano

Representative Frank Pallone, Jr.

Representative Lois Capps

Representative Diana DeGette

Representative Joe Garcia

Representative Raúl M. Grijalva

Representative Michael Honda

Representative Barbara Lee

Representative Jerrold Nadler

Representative Adam Schiff

Senator Mazie K. Hirono

Senator Tim Kaine

Senator Christopher Coons

Senator Jeanne Shaheen

Senator Richard Durbin

Senator Patrick Leahy

Senator Elizabeth Warren

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse

Senator Patty Murray

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand

Senator Barbara Boxer

Senator Carl Levin

Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr.

Senator Bernard Sanders

Senator Al Franken

Senator Martin Heinrich

Senator Sherrod Brown

Senator Edward J. Markey

Senator Jack Reed

Senator Thomas R. Carper

Senator Debbie Stabenow

Senator Benjamin L. Cardin

Senator Mark Udall

Senator Ron Wyden

Senator Christopher Murphy

Senator Barbara Mikulski

Senator Tim Johnson

Senator Charles Schumer

Senator Bill Nelson

Senator Jon Tester

Senator Mark Begich

Senator Mary L. Landrieu

Senator Robert Menendez

Senator Amy Klobuchar

Senator Cory Booker

Senator Claire McCaskill

Senator Richard Blumenthal

Senator Dianne Feinstein

Senator Tom Udall

Senator John D. Rockefeller, IV

Senator Mark Warner

Senator Joe Donnelly

Senator Kay Hagan