Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 17:18:14 -0500
From: Kevin Ivers <kivers@lcr.org>
Subject: STRONGER ENDA INTRODUCED BY JEFFORDS, SHAYS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE             CONTACT: Kevin Ivers

June 24, 1999	                               (202) 347-5306 x12


JEFFORDS, SHAYS INTRODUCE STRONGER ENDA

Member of House GOP Leadership, Two GOP Freshmen Join as Co-Sponsors

(WASHINGTON) The Republican chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor
and Pensions Committee, Senator James Jeffords (R-VT) and Congressman
Christopher Shays (R-CT), joined by Republican and Democratic Members of
Congress, announced the introduction of a modified Employment
Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) at a Capitol Hill press conference today.
Joining as a new original co-sponsor of the measure, which prohibits
employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, is
Congresswoman Deborah Pryce (R-OH), Secretary of the House Republican
Conference and senior member of the House Rules Committee.

The sponsors of ENDA added a new provision to the bill which expressly
prohibits affirmative action on the basis of sexual orientation, addressing
a chief concern some Members of Congress have raised in previous debates.
Combined with an exemption for religious organizations and prohibitions on
preferential treatment, quotas, use of "disparate impact" studies and EEOC
collection of workplace statistics on sexual orientation, the 1999 version
of ENDA is the strongest since its original introduction in 1994.

"People should be judged in the workplace on their merits, not on their
sexual orientation," said Rich Tafel, executive director of Log Cabin
Republicans, one of the leading organizations involved in the drafting of
ENDA.  "That is a core Republican principle, and it's written into the
Congressional office policies of about 100 Republican Members of Congress.
Senator Jeffords and the sponsors have listened to their colleagues and
have responded with a number of modifications throughout the process, and
the bill is now closer to that core Republican principle than ever before."


"Today also demostrates the vital importance of Senator Jeffords and his
leadership in the Senate," Tafel said.  "His extraordinary dedication to
this bill is another reason why the gay community must unite behind
re-electing him in 2000 and keeping him at the helm."

Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Senator John Chafee (R-RI) joined as
original Senate GOP co-sponsors.  Original House GOP co-sponsors, in
addition to Shays and Pryce, include openly gay Congressman Jim Kolbe
(R-AZ), chairman of the House Treasury Appropriations Subcommittee;
Congressman Jim Leach (R-IA), chairman of the House Banking Committee;
Congresswoman Nancy Johnson (R-CT), chair of the House Ways and Means Human
Resources Subcommittee; and Congresswoman Sue Kelly (R-NY), chair of the
House Small Business Subcomittee on Regulatory Reform; and Republican
freshmen Congressman Steve Kuykendall (R-CA) and Congresswoman Judy Biggert
(R-IL), both endorsed and supported by LCR in 1998.

Log Cabin Republicans is the nation's largest gay Republican organization,
with state and local chapters nationwide, a federal political action
committee and a national office headquartered in Washington, D.C.

####

Log Cabin Republicans		Kevin Ivers
(202) 347-5306 phone		Director of Public Affairs
(202) 347-5224 fax			http://www.lcr.org