Rep. John Kline voted last week to strip President Obama’s executive order barring discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in federal contracting.

The House Armed Services Committee was in the process of marking up the National Defense Authorization Act and Rep. Steve Russell, a Republican from Oklahoma, offered at amendment that would exempt any contractor to discriminate as long as they invoke religious liberty.

Rep. Kline voted for the amendment, along with most of the committee’s Republicans. Rep. Tim Walz voted against the amendment. The amendment passed the committee.

Kline and Walz are the only two members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation to serve on the committee.

“Rep. Russell’s harmful amendment would strip away existing protections for LGBT workers by undermining President Obama’s executive order on LGBT non-discrimination protections in federal contracting,” HRC Government Affairs Director David Stacy said in a statement. “Evidently some House Republicans want to emulate their state legislative colleagues in undermining legal protections for LGBT Americans. House Republican Leadership must get this language out of the bill.”

Rep. Scott Peters, a Democrat from California spoke out against the amendment at the committee hearing.

“The ambiguity of this exemption is dangerous with this broad definition of religious organization.
Every american deserves to be treated equally and with dignity regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. I urge my colleagues to vote against this dangerous amendment.”

The discussion and the vote can be viewed here: