Rep. Jared Polis: ENDA Will Pass In The U.S. House In The Next Few Weeks

Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) tells Karen Ocamb that he believes ENDA will pass in the U.S. House in the next few weeks.

We have the votes to pass ENDA in the House and we hope to bring it before the committee I serve on – the Education Labor Committee – within the month – by the end of April. And then, once it passes the committee, it shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks – a week or two – to schedule it for the floor. It’s just a scheduling matter. We think we would have passed it by now if it wasn’t for healthcare taking up much of the workload of our committee. I don’t know about the Senate – but in the House, we expect to pass out substantially. It has substantial support. The Senate requires 60 votes so it’s a matter of getting some Republican moderates to support it.

The version of ENDA now before Congress is trans-inclusive. A version that did not include transgender and gender identity protections passed in November 2007 but was never taken up by the Senate. My post about the House's trans-exclusive vote was not understood by everybody back then.