The EDNA is near?

By Mustang Bobby

There is an outside chance that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) could become law.

On Monday, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) signed on as the bill’s 51st cosponsor. The legislation would outlaw workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

“Senator Carper believes it is important for federal law to explicitly prohibit workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation — in the same way that current law addresses race, sex or religion — in order to ensure that all Americans are protected equally under the law,” said Carper spokesman Ian Sams.

When asked why Carper decided to sign on now, Sams added, “There’s nothing significant about the timing of his cosponsorship since he’s cosponsored the bill before, but he’s pleased to be the 51st senator to sign on in this Congress, as it means a majority of senators stand ready to pass this important legislation.”

Last week, both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) signed on as ENDA cosponsors.

Although the legislation now has majority support, it will need more votes in order to reach the 60-vote threshold to avoid a filibuster.

It still has to make it past the inevitable filibuster attempts by the Republicans who would run over their own grandparent to foil anything supported by President Obama, and it still has to get through the House, whose GOP antediluvians make the Senate GOP sound like a Quaker meeting, but it’s some progress to get 51 co-sponsors.

(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)