Congress Stupid Party

House Republicans Add Discrimination to the Defense Budget

Written by SK Ashby

Here's a good (bad) demonstration of why House Republicans are barely even capable of funding national defense these days, not to mention funding anything else.

Representative Steve Russell (R-OK) introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Friday that would effectively bring back LGBT discrimination among federal contractors who employ nearly 30 million people.

Though the text of his measure does not specifically mention sexual orientation and gender identity, it is that absence that actually defines what he hoped to accomplish with it.

Federal law does not explicitly offer any protections in employment, housing, or public accommodations to LGBT people, though some oversight has been inconsistently secured under protections based on “sex”.

While federal law does not explicitly prohibit discrimination, as you may recall President Obama signed an executive order prohibiting discrimination among federal contractors. Representative Russell's amendment would roll back President Obama's order.

This is hardly the first time Republicans have accused the president of overstepping the letter of the law to protect vulnerable people.

Russell's amendment was adopted by the House Armed Services Committee and will be voted on by the full House of Representatives. It seems likely to me that our Republican-controlled House will have no problem passing it, which brings us to their inability to fund anything.

The president isn't going to sign a bill that reverses his own orders but House Republican leadership may not have enough conservative votes to pass a budget, even a defense budget, without a few highly controversial riders attached to it.

Republicans are incapable of governing.