From Metro Weekly: http://www.metroweekly.com/poliglot/2013/01/barney-frank-enda-victory-not-tied-to-executive-or.html
Posted by Justin Snow
January 16, 2013
Former Rep. Barney Frank isn’t buying arguments that the signing of an executive order that would prohibit federal contractors from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity would build momentum for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
In an interview with Metro Weekly shortly after the 113th Congress was sworn in Jan. 3, the Massachusetts Democrat and former champion of ENDA in the House said President Barack Obama’s delay in signing the executive order, which Obama indicated he would support as a presidential candidate in 2008, should not be interpreted as anti-LGBT.
“That’s a pretty far-reaching policy decision to be made by the executive alone and the Republicans have made a lot of arguments and have scored some points by arguing he has done too much executive power without congressional approval. So I think it is unfair to impugn their reluctance to sign that,” said Frank. “It’s a reluctance to do too many things by executive order and feed into their argument that there’s an executive overreach.”
Advocates have pushed the White House to sign such an executive order, which would apply to contractors who do more than $10,000 of work with the federal government and affect 26 million workers. Many believe Obama could help refocus attention on ENDA and cast a spotlight on legislation that has widespread public support but has faced Republican opposition for decades. According to White House press secretary Jay Carney, the White House remains focused on securing passage of comprehensive federal legislation in the form of ENDA rather than an executive order that would only apply to federal contractors.
“[The executive order] would be hugely helpful to ENDA efforts on the Hill, which the White House has made clear it supports,” Jeff Krehely, vice president of LGBT research at the Center for American Progress, told Metro Weekly last month. “Although we know the rates of anti-LGBT discrimination are high, we also know that many Americans already think federal laws exist to prevent and crack down on this type of discrimination.”
Frank, however, disagrees: “That argument is dumb. D-U-M-B. Dumb.”
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