Rep. Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Sen. Leahy (D-VT) have introduced the USA FREEDOM Act (no bill numbers or entries on thomas.loc.gov as of yet), and yes it features an unwieldy title shoehorned into an unlikely acronym, but it shares little else with the USA PATRIOT Act. The bill would not only curb our government's (claimed) powers to vaccum up all the phone records it can, but would also amend the nefarious FISA Amendments Act of 2008 to prevent our government from searching through all that data whenever it likes. And the USA FREEDOM Act would create a privacy advocate within the FISA Court, who would have standing to argue privacy concerns on the public's behalf before the court. Yes, we'd like the bill to do more, but this is a good start. Both Free Press and the ACLU help you support the USA FREEDOM Act. I'm interested to see what all the ZOMG TERRORISM!!!! types have to say about it. Wait, no, I'm not.
Meanwhile, H.R. 1975/S. 942, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, would keep employers from discriminating against their pregnant workers. Specifically, the bill would force employers to make "reasonable accommodations" for their pregnant workers on the job, prevent employers from denying jobs to pregnant women out of a desire not to make such accommodations, ensure that employers don't force workers to accept unreasonable workplace accommodations, and keep employers from forcing pregnant workers to go out on leave in a misguided quest to avoid making reasonable accommodations. And by "reasonable accommodations" I'm talking letting pregnant women lift less or sit down while cashiering. Do these take food out of anyone's damn mouth? Of course not. Both the ACLU and the National Women's Law Center help you support the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.
Finally, Senate Majority Leader Reid plans to bring up ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, this fall. He made that promise in 2010, too, so I'm a little wary of hearing it, but lo and behold thomas.loc.gov informs us that ENDA (H.R. 1755/S. 815) has made it to the Senate legislative calendar. ENDA even has 55 co-sponsors at the moment, including two Republicans. The bill still prohibits employers from discriminating against gays just because they're gay -- which protections we need at the federal level because employers can still fire someone just for being gay in 29 states -- and the bill still specifically addresses pretty much all of the histrionic objections a right-winger could invent, because it still includes appropriate exemptions for religious organization, still won't prevent employers from enforcing dress codes, and still doesn't create affirmative action programs for gays. Daily Kos helps you tell your Congressfolk to support ENDA.
Comments