Date: 2016-05-25
Speaker: SEAN PATRICK MALONEY (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: New York

Mr. Chairman. last week. I came to the floor to offer an amendment to preserve basic workplace protections for LGBT Americans. My amendment would have kept taxpayer dollars from going to government contractors who discriminate against LGBT employees. That is it. It said you cannot take taxpayer dollars and fire people just for being gay. There are 28 million Americans working for employers who receive taxpayer dollars. and simple math will tell you millions would have been protected from arbitrary firing. So it made sense. it was fair. and it deserved a fair vote. When the vote was held. a bipartisan majority of this House. including 36 members of the majority party. supported my amendment. That tally clock right there showed 217 "yes" votesA more than the 213 needed that day to pass. With all time expired. it was clear as can be that equality had won the vote. But when the world watched. something else happened. Something shameful happened. Something about sticking up for basic workplace fairness for LGBT Americans rankled certain people around here. Even though my amendment simply would have applied the same standard to LGBT employees that we have long applied when people are fired because of their race or gender or religion or disability. it simply was too much. Even though we would have preserved timehonored religious exemptions. it was too much. Something about treating LGBT people fairly just wouldnt do. So people went to work. Even though all Members had voted. strangely. the expired clock stayed up four times longer than it should have. The gavel did not fall. And as we all watched. the tally began to change: 217. 216. 215. The votes in support were dropping. Members of this House were changing their votes. Why? From being in support of fairness. they were now changing them to be opposed to it. Down the vote went. 214. 213. and yet no one came to the well. as is customary. to announce their vote. It was all in secret. happening out of sight. so no one might see the ugly reality of what was happening. And what happened? Well. when it hit 212. one vote shy of the majority it needed to passone vote shy of the majority it had a few moments earlierthe gavel came down and the result was declared. A defeat. It was a shameful exercise. made more shameful in that it took place on a civil rights vote that enjoyed a bipartisan majority of support in this House. From Portland. Maine. to Des Moines. Iowa. to southeast Oregon. to Bakersfield. California. newspaper editorial boards. radio hosts. and ordinary citizens joined a chorus that was heard first on this floor. "Shame." they said. Shame on those who would betray the will of this House. who would betray this vote. and shame on anyone who would rig this vote and rig our democracy. Shame on those who snatched discrimination from the jaws of equality. especially those "Switching Seven" who. having at first voted for fairness. allowed themselves to be dragged backward into voting for discrimination. On Friday. at a meeting of my Veterans Advisory Board back home. I spoke to decorated military heroes and civilians who have dedicated their lives to the service of this country. To a person. they were outraged by what happened on the floor of this House. One member of the group. Edie. who served as a first lieutenant and combat medic in Vietnam. said when she heard about the rigged vote. she thought of her daughter. who right now is serving her country in the military. And Edies daughter is a lesbian. Edie said: When my daughter finishes her active military service. she will enter the civilian workforce perhaps for a government contractor. as so many vets do. Will they be able to fire her. even though she and I are both veterans? Mr. Chairman. does Edies service in combat count for anything here? Does her daughters service right now to this country count for anything here? Her daughter isnt alone. There are 71.000 Active Duty LGBT servicemen and -women right now and over 1 million LGBT veterans. Making it easier to fire LGBT Americans. even LGBT veterans. isnt honoring our values. It is sacrificing them to preserve a worn out and dying prejudice that weakens our Nation rather than strengthening it. So. today. I want to thank Speaker RYAN for allowing an open process so that I can offer my amendment again. It is through this open process that we can give our colleagues another chancea second chanceto do the right thing and to stand for equality. Let us this time ensure that no taxpayer dollars will be used to discriminate against hardworking Americans simply because of who they are. simply because of who they love. And we will also reaffirm legitimate religious exemptions that the President also included in his executive orders on this subject. Discrimination has no place in our law. It does not make our water cleaner. It does not power our homes. It doesnt defeat ISIS. It doesnt support our veterans. Every American deserves the right to work. support a family. and achieve the American Dream. regardless of who they are or who they love. I urge my colleagues to stand up to discrimination and adopt my amendment to the bill. The Acting CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.