Discrimination

November 5, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC – Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez today stated that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is a “top legislative priority” of the Obama Administration. The remark came during a Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing focused on the legislation.

Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley, the chief Senate co-sponsor of ENDA, applauded the comment as a major endorsement of the Senate’s efforts to pass a fully inclusive version of the bill.    » read more »

November 5, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC- At a hearing today of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) urged passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) which would prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Senator Casey is a cosponsor of ENDA.

Senator Casey released the following statement:

“It is long past time to require employers in the private sector to respect the rights and dignities of their employees and to provide employees with remedies in federal courts when they are the victims of egregious and insidious discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.    » read more »

November 3, 2009 -- WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced today the largest monetary payment ever obtained by the department in the settlement of a case alleging housing discrimination in the rental of apartments. Los Angeles apartment owner Donald T. Sterling has agreed to pay $2.725 million to settle allegations that he discriminated against African-Americans, Hispanics and families with children at apartment buildings he controls in Los Angeles. The settlement must be approved by U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer.    » read more »

Calls For Workplace Anti-Discrimination Law

October 29, 2009 -- Washington, DC -- Today, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Executive Vice President Mary Kay Henry praised President Obama for his signing into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, and called for greater protections for LGBT workers.

"There's a motto we have in the labor movement: 'An Injury to One is An Injury to All,'" said Henry. "For Congress to pass, and the President to sign into law, the first explicit protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the nation's history, is an incredibly important first step in ending the decades of violence and discrimination suffered by the LGBT community.    » read more »

Cosponsors Bill To Restore Fairness in the Workplace Following Recent Supreme Court Ruling

November 2, 2009 -- Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Russ Feingold is joining an effort to protect older workers from age discrimination in the workplace. On June 18, 2009, in the case Gross v. FBL Financial, the Supreme Court changed long-standing practices and ruled that victims of age discrimination need to prove that the age discrimination was the “deciding factor” in employment decisions, making it much more difficult for these workers to protect their rights.

As a result, Feingold is cosponsoring legislation introduced by Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act, to restore fairness for older workers.    » read more »

October 30, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, today applauded the long overdue enactment of his legislation by the Obama Administration to finally end a travel ban that prevented those with HIV from entering the United States.

Since 1987, the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) contained a provision to bar HIV positive individuals from travelling or immigrating to the US, including HIV positive doctors and experts, as well as refugees seeking asylum. No scientific evidence supported the ban as effective for disease control or to curb costs to the public health care system.    » read more »

Letter Urges Negotiators Merging Senate HELP and Finance Health Care Reform Bills to Include Provisions Ending Discrimination Across All Insurance Markets

October 26, 2009 -- Michael Bennet, U.S. Senator for Colorado and member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, is pushing to bring an end to discriminatory health insurance industry practices that unfairly deny coverage to women.

In a letter to Senate leaders responsible for merging the HELP and Finance committee bills into one comprehensive Senate bill, Bennet and other HELP Committee members urged the leaders to include provisions eliminating gender rating and discrimination based on pre-existing conditions and to ensure that these provisions apply to all insurance markets in a timely manner.    » read more »

Congress recently reached agreement on landmark legislation that brings our nation closer to living up to its ideals.

October 16, 2009 -- "Senate and House negotiators included the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010. The act, which I helped shape as the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, will soon become law.

The hate crimes language included in the act has passed both houses of Congress in the past. Existing law gives federal officials jurisdiction over crimes of violence which are committed because of a person's race, color, religion, and national origin. The new language adds gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability and membership in the military.    » read more »

Momentum Builds for Repeal as the Military Readiness Enhancement Act Secures 180th Cosponsorship

15 October 2009 -- (Washington, DC)- Today, Congressman Patrick Murphy (D-PA, 8th District) and Congressman Tim Walz (D-MN, 1st District) announced the 180th cosponsorship of H.R. 1283, the Military Readiness Enhancement Act.    » read more »

Sánchez Works to Make Similar Federal Law

October 14, 2009 -- Washington, DC - Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-CA), applauded California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for signing state legislation into law to end gender discrimination in health insurance premiums. The new law will prevent health insurers from charging men and women different rates for the same health insurance policies in the individual market.    » read more »

10/14/2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), a senior member of the Finance Committee, vows to continue his push to limit the amount insurance companies can charge older Americans for healthcare premiums. During the Finance Committee’s debate on healthcare legislation, Kerry offered an amendment to impose a 2:1 limit on “age rating” which mirrors provisions in legislation approved by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

In response to the Kerry proposal, Chairman Baucus agreed to reduce the age rating band from 5:1 to 4:1. Kerry will continue to push for a lower age rating band with the ultimate goal of eliminating the discrimination of older Americans.    » read more »

Legislation to overturn the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) Progresses

October 13, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, on the heels of the National Equality March in Washington, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO) celebrated the 101th co-sponsor of their bill, the Respect for Marriage Act. This landmark legislation would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a 1996 law which discriminates against lawfully married same-sex couples.    » read more »

The Hate Crimes Prevention Act will help protect Americans, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, religion or national origin, in the event of violent hate attacks

October 8, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), a conferee on H. R. 2647, the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2010, cheered the passage of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which was included in the Defense bill, while registering his strong reservations on the military commissions provision also included.    » read more »

October 8, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC – The US House of Representatives today voted in favor of legislation containing the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which extends the definition of violent hate crimes to include gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability.

The original bill, H.R. 1913, passed the House on April 29th of this year, mostly along partisan lines. The Senate attached its version of the Hate Crimes Bill to the Defense Authorization Act of 2010 (H.R. 2467), and after the bill passed the Senate, the language was maintained by the House/Senate Conference Committee. Today, the Defense Authorization Act conference report passed on a vote that broke largely on partisan lines, 281 to 146.    » read more »

DeGette Applauds House for Extending Hate Crimes Protections

8 October 2009 -- WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) today joined her colleagues in passing the National Defense Authorization Act of 2009, which includes the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, on a vote of 281 to 146.    » read more »