Most of the Senate Democratic caucus is asking negotiators to yank an amendment to the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act that they say would allow discrimination based on religious beliefs.
Top negotiators are working to finish up conference on the defense policy bill that would be dealt with in the lame-duck session of Congress. Forty-two senators sent a letter on Tuesday to the heads of the armed services committees asking that the Russell Amendment, which they say supports “taxpayer-funded discrimination,” not be included in the final bill.
“Our government should have no part in funding discrimination,” the letter says.
The amendment allows religiously-affiliated organizations that receive federal dollars to ask about a potential employees’ religious beliefs and not hire them if it differs from the employers’. It would also allow federal agencies or contractors to fire employees who use birth control, use in vitro fertilization, are pregnant and unmarried, or are married to their same-sex partner.
Louise Melling, the deputy legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union, called the amendment “one of the most significant threats to LGBT and women that Congress has put forth in years.”
Democrats tried once on the House floor this year to strip out the amendment, which was introduced by Rep. Steve Russell, R-Okla., but failed. The bill, including the amendment in Section 1094, went on to pass the full House 277-147.
“An individual’s personal, private reproductive health decisions should not put them at risk of workplace discrimination,” the letter says.
Since the amendment applies to the entire federal government and contractors, not just the Department of Defense, Democrats say it would undo the executive order signed by President Obama in 2014 to prohibit federal contractors and subcontractors from discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who took the lead on the letter, would not say that he would filibuster the bill if the Russell Amendment was in the final version that came to the Senate floor.
“I have never voted against a National Defense Authorization Act and I am very very hopeful that I will vote for this one,” he said. “Clearly there are enough signers here to indicate that there is the possibility that the bill could be blocked at least temporarily but we have not explicitly said we would. Certainly, if the bill reaches the floor, we will have to consider all the options.”
Forty Democrats and two Independents signed the letter led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. That means just four Democratic senators didn’t sign the letter: Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee to whom the letter was sent.
The letter was also sent to Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., as well as the chairman and ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, and Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash.
