Pelosi Remarks at ENDA Press Conference Today
Contact: Drew Hammill, 202-226-7616
Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks today at a press conference with Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn (D-SC), Congressman Jared Polis (D-CO), Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-CA) and Congressman Joe Garcia (D-FL) announcing a discharge petition to force a vote on the bipartisan, Senate-passed Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Below are the Leader's remarks.
Leader Pelosi's opening remarks:
"Here we are again. Good afternoon. Here we are again. I believe one of you said it was my last press conference before we adjourned. Hey, here we are.
[Laughter]
"We have important work to do. Thank you for being here this afternoon. We will be joined by our distinguished whip, Mr. Hoyer, and glad to be here with our Assistant Leader Mr. Clyburn; Jared Polis, a leader in our Equality Caucus; Congresswoman Susan Davis, a distinguished senior member of the Armed Services Committee; and Joe Garcia who will be joining us momentarily.
"What's exciting about today for us is that an issue of equality and fairness in our country is being manifested in a discharge petition for ENDA.
"Every American who works hard and plays by the rules deserves a chance to succeed wherever they live, worship, who they are, who they love. You hear me talk all the time about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those are the values, the goals that our Founders had. Thanks to the outstanding leadership of Congressman Jared Polis and members of the Equality Caucus, we're moving closer to ensuring equal rights for all Americans.
"We're very, very proud of what we have done working together on these issues – Mr. Hoyer has now joined us. Working together, we passed a fully-inclusive hate crimes legislation. People told us at the time you can pass it in a minute if you take out ‘transgender' and we said: no, we'll never pass it in a million years if you take out transgender – that's a critical part of the legislation. Then of course, we repealed the discriminatory ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy, and we have more work to do on that in terms of families having all the rights they're entitled to in the military wherever they live in our country. Marriage equality is – what did the Chief Justice say? ‘People are falling all over themselves to support marriage equality now.' Didn't he say that when we were listening to the arguments on DOMA?
"And this important part of it all – some people think: why do you even need this bill? It's so obvious that that should be the case. Well, it may be obvious, but it's only the law in many of our states, but not all of our states. It's about justice for a college student who puts herself through school, but fears being fired because of her gender identity. It's about justice for a father who shows up on time, does good work, is a leader in his job, but lives in fear that he'll be denied a promotion for that good work because he is gay. Working LGBT Americans and their families cannot wait for all the time it seems to be taking.
"The Senate has passed the ENDA bill in a bipartisan way. The House should take it up. Instead of wasting time and money, squandering over three million dollars defending discrimination on the DOMA bill and now squandering more resources to fight equality, we should be taking up the ENDA bill. That's what this discharge petition is all about. That's why I'm so proud, really, very proud of the work of Jared Polis and the members of the Equality Caucus.
"With that, I'm pleased to yield to a champion for rights for LGBT community members Mr. Hoyer, our distinguished whip.
"Mr. Hoyer."
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Leader Pelosi's closing remarks:
"I thank all of our participants coming together this afternoon for their great leadership. Thank you Jared for giving us this opportunity to support a discharge petition on the floor. Thank you Mr. Hoyer for your ongoing support of ending discrimination against anyone in our country. Mr. Clyburn's life work has been dedicated to that. Susan Davis – I mentioned she's on the Armed Services Committee where she fought very hard for the repeal of ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell' and then on the Education and Labor Committee to advance ENDA and also the Violence Against Women Act, while we're on the subject, which affects LGBT women and men. And I thank Mr. Garcia for his very, very strong words of support.
"So, we are very pleased with the long lines that we've seen on the floor of the House to sign the discharge petition – so many names already. As we speak, the number grows to identify with ENDA, ending discrimination in the workplace. So I thank you all.
"I have to go the floor now, but my colleagues – some have already spoken here. But I yield to Mr. Hoyer and Mr. Polis and my colleagues to take any questions that you may have. And thank you for coming today."
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