A Gridlocked and Unproductive Congress: Will the House Vote on the Senate’s Immigration or Sexual Orientation Bills?
With Republicans having the majority of votes in the House and Democrats having the majority in the Senate, it is no surprise that this year’s Congress has been derided for its lack of production. By some estimates, there will only be 44 substantive bills passed this year, well below the annual average of 70 substantive bills passed from 1999 to 2012. In a similar vein, Congress has not passed any major labor and employment laws in 2013. We’ve reported in prior articles this year about immigration reform, including the Senate’s passing of a mammoth immigration bill on June 27, 2013. The Senate’s immigration bill, however, has made little progress in the House. This year we’ve also observed House Republicans grow seemingly more resolute in their opposition to the administration’s health care reforms, as House Republicans have voted for numerous bills to repeal or amend those reforms, none of which have passed the Democrat controlled Senate. Those opposition efforts have been emboldened by the fact that the administration has struggled to implement its health care reforms and even delayed the implementation of major components of the Affordable Care Act until 2015.
Against this backdrop of a gridlocked and unproductive Congress in 2013, the hopes for major reforms are beginning to shift to the November 2014 elections, where 33 seats in the Senate and all seats in the House will be up for grabs. But, not so fast. In late 2013, there has been some progress in legislation that is of interest to employers, including the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that recently passed the Senate.
Although there are still a few days left in Congress in 2013 in addition to the Spring of 2014 before election season begins, and although it is the season for wishes, based on this Congress’s track record, we think it is highly unlikely that any controversial legislation (including the ENDA) will make it to the President’s desk until after the 2014 elections.
Update: Employment Non-Discrimination Act (S. 815; H.R. 1755) Passes the Senate
As we previously explained in our prior article here, The ENDA, introduced in both houses earlier this year, would prohibit employers from firing, refusing to hire, or discriminating against those employed or seeking employment, on the basis of their perceived or actual sexual orientation or gender identity. On November 7, 2013, the ENDA passed the Senate by a vote of 64 to 32. The vote was largely split along partisan lines, with all 32 nays being from the Republican Party. However, 10 Republicans voted to pass the bill.
An identical version of the ENDA was introduced in the House on the same day as the Senate bill earlier this year, but it has made no progress. While the Senate’s bill has now been referred to the House, many predict the ENDA will never reach a vote in the House due to the opposition of the Speaker, John Boehner, and other Republican House leadership. The Speaker has criticized the bill as unnecessary and likely to spur costly litigation for employers.
If the ENDA ever reaches a vote in the House and garners a similar percentage of Republican votes in the House as it did in the Senate, it will pass. However, due to the Republican House leadership’s opposition, most pundits predict that it will not reach a vote in the House during this Congress. Likewise, the immigration bill, which passed the Senate with an even greater number of Republican votes than the ENDA, appears unlikely to reach a vote.
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