The Military Readiness Enhancement Act
Bill status
On March 3, 2009, Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) introduced the “Military Readiness Enhancement Act of 2009” (H.R. 1283), to repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in the U.S. military, and replace it with a policy of non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The bill has 121 House cosponsors currently. This legislation is identical to the “Military Readiness Enhancement Act of 2007” (H.R. 1246/110th Congress) which had been introduced in the previous Congress and which had obtained 149 bipartisan cosponsors by the end of that congressional lifecycle. According to several sources close to the Hill, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) is currently involved in the effort to draft a Senate companion bill for the Military Readiness Enhancement Act of 2009.
Current status of advocacy efforts
At the Public Interest Government Relations Office (PI-GRO), we have established collaboration with Rep. Tauscher’s office (Howard Hall, Military Fellow), and with Sen. Kennedy’s office (Mike Riordan, Military Fellow) and a call and email into Rep. Davis’s office (Daniel Hazard). We have also initiated a collaboration on this issue with members of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (Aubrey Sarvis, Aaron Tax, and Jeremy Wilson-Simerman) and with Allison Herwitt and David Stacy from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). We are also pursuing future avenues for collaboration with the Palm Center (Nathaniel Frank in particular currently). Finally, at the Division 19 Executive Committee meeting on March 4, 2009, we offered our support to Armando Estrada in the efforts of Division 19/44 liaison that had been started earlier.
Family and Medical Leave Inclusion Act
Bill status
The Family and Medical Leave Inclusion Act (H.R. 2792, 110th Congress) was introduced by Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) during the previous Congress, and comprises critically important legislation that would expand the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 to permit an employee to take up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave from work if his or her domestic partner or same-sex spouse has a serious health condition. It would also permit employees to take unpaid leave to care for a “parent-in-law, adult child, sibling or grandparent.” In November 2008, PI-GRO staff has created and sent a support letter to Representative Maloney, thanking her for her efforts in developing the Family and Medical Leave Inclusion Act, and to offer APA’s assistance in furthering passage of this legislation during the 111th Congress.
Current status of advocacy efforts
As part of our ongoing collaboration with Rep. Maloney’s office (Anna Cielinsky), we understand that this bill is likely to be reintroduced during the first half of 2009, although no date has yet been set for reintroduction. The only likely substantive change to the legislative language of this bill, according to Rep. Maloney’s office, will be the inclusion of children of domestic partners. PI-GRO will receive the draft legislative text from Rep. Maloney’s office in the coming weeks, which will provide us with an opportunity for further legislative advocacy. Future advocacy efforts will center around garnering additional sponsorship for the bill via support letters to the relevant committee members (e.g. Rep. Woolsey (D-CA)) and other vehicles.
Employment Non-Discrimination Act
Bill status
Two versions of this bill had been introduced during the 110th Congress. The first version, i.e. the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 2015, 110th Congress) would work against discrimination in the workplace through provisions that render illegal actions such as firing, refusing to hire, or refusing to promote employees due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. However, during a hearing on this bill in September 2007 it emerged that there was insufficient support in the House for transgender concerns as part of this legislation. Therefore, the bill’s lead sponsor, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) introduced another version of this bill that excluded gender identity, i.e. H.R. 3685 (110th Congress), which passed in the House during the 110th Congress.
Current status of advocacy efforts
We are in ongoing dialogue with staff members of the House leadership on this issue, i.e. Rep. Frank’s staff (Diego Sanchez) and Rep. Baldwin’s staffer Amber Shipley, and met with the respective offices in January 2009, with follow-up meetings scheduled for mid-March. From the conversations with Rep Frank’s office, we understood that a transgender-inclusive version of the bill may be introduced in the coming months. The LGBT Equality Caucus “GLASS” will host a briefing on this issue, as well as on the Domestic Partnership Tax Fairness Act on March 6, 2009, which we will attend also.
The Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act
Bill status
During the 110th Congress, a Senate bill (S. 2521/110th Congress) was introduced under lead sponsorship of Sen. Lieberman (D-CT), and its House companion (H.R. 4838) under lead sponsorship of Rep. Baldwin (D-WI). The bill intended to grant domestic partnership benefits for federal civilian employees on the same basis as spousal benefits. As of yet, this legislation has not been reintroduced during the 111th Congress.
Current status of advocacy efforts
We have been in contact with Sen. Lieberman’s office (Tom Shull) and Rep. Baldwin’s office on this bill, and have to date not been given information on reintroduction of this legislation in the 111th Congress. It is our expectation that the LGBT GLASS Equality Caucus briefing on this issue on March 6, 2009, will illuminate this matter further.
Tax equity health plan beneficiaries
Bill status
During the 110th Congress, both Chambers introduced legislation intended to equalize tax treatment for employer-provided health coverage for domestic partners and other non-spouse, non-dependent beneficiaries. The Senate version (S. 1556) was introduced by Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) entitled “Tax Equity for Domestic Partner and Health Plan Beneficiaries Act”, and its House companion bill (H.R. 1820), the “Tax Equity for Health Plan Beneficiaries Act” had been introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA).
Current status of advocacy efforts
We have followed up with Rep. McDermott’s office (Anne Grady) on offering our support for the reintroduction of this bill, and are planning to advocate for new Senate leadership for this legislation, given that Sen. Smith’s bid for reelection in 2008 was unsuccessful.
Health issues
We have attended the annual conference of National Coalition for LGBT Health in November 2008, and collaborated with fellow LGBT coalition members since then to ensure that the health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons are fully addressed and embraced in healthcare reform initiatives. In particular, APA was added to the list of signatories for the National Coalition for LGBT Health's "Guiding Principles for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Inclusion in Healthcare Reform" in February 2009, a document issued by the National Coalition for LGBT Health. This document outlines a comprehensive approach to eliminating health disparities in the LGBT communities via comprehensive healthcare reform. A brainstorm meeting with National Coalition for LGBT Health director Rebecca Fox is scheduled for mid-March 2009. Additionally, APA has recently delivered a series of suggested health care reform priorities to Congress, and we are planning to create a set of recommendations relevant to LGBT concerns based on these high-level priorities.
Uniting American Families Act of 2009
Bill status
This legislation would grant binational same-sex couples equal treatment under immigration laws by allowing them to sponsor their partner for immigration purposes. The bill was reintroduced in the 111th Congress on February 12, 2009, by Rep. Nadler’s (D-NY) office in the House as H.R. 1024, and in the Senate by Sen. Leahy (D-VT) as S. 424.
Current status of advocacy efforts
We are working with APA’s senior legislative and federal affairs officer Day Al-Mohamed on this matter and have jointly created a support letter to both congressional offices (Andrew Ginsburg at Rep. Nadler’s office, and Matt Virkstis at Sen. Leahy’s office), to be delivered to the lead sponsorship offices during the week of March 9, 2009.
Youth issues
We work closely with other team members of the APA Government Relations Office (Annie Toro and Micah Haskell-Hoehl) on legislative initiatives related to bullying in particular. APA has engaged congressional offices to revise language from previous versions of the Bullying and Gang Reduction Act to ensure that the bill appropriately represents relevant research data and provides for maximum benefits to children and schools. Among its priorities, PI-GRO continues to strongly advocate for the inclusion of transgender individuals in current language that describes the high rates of bullying victimization experienced by lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth. Introduction of the legislation is expected soon, and PI-GRO will continue to advocate on behalf of this bill and strong bullying prevention provisions during the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
Hate crimes
As a member of the National Hate Crime Coalition, PI-GRO (Diane Elmore in particular) is working with congressional leaders in preparation for the reintroduction of the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act and the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. These bills would expand federal hate crime law to recognize crimes motivated by actual or perceived race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of any person and provide assistance to local jurisdictions in the investigation and prosecution of such crimes. PI-GRO is also working in support of the Hate Crimes Against the Homeless Statistics Act, which would include crimes against the homeless in the crime data collected by the Attorney General.
General legislative initiatives relevant to LGBT concerns
The LGBT Equality “GLASS” Caucus has recently scheduled several events in congress, including a briefing on LGBT Issues in congress, held on February 27, 2009, which we attended. Speakers at the event included the Council for Global Equality (Mark Bromley), the National Coalition for LGBT Health, Immigration Equality (Julie Kruse), the National Center for Transgender Equality, the Anti-Defamation League, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), AIDS Action, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, as well as the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (Becky Dansky).
Based on the presentations and our discussions with participating organizations at the event, our future coalition efforts will center around the following collaboration issues (beyond the issues discussed in the section above):
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With HRC: advocacy relating to the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act
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With National Gay and Lesbian Task Force: focus on Employment Non-Discrimination Act advocacy
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With Immigration Equality: advocacy related to Uniting American Families Act of 2009