Today’s scheduled vote in the House of Education and Labor Committee has been postponed in order to tweak some legal and technical issues “regarding issues of disparate impact, double recovery, and attorney’s fees.”

Although main sponsor Barney Frank has said that the full House vote might not take place until February of next year, there is hope that a vote will take place before the end of the year.

“Our understanding is that the committee lawyers wanted a few more days to look at several of the outstanding issues,” said Allison Herwitt, legislative director for the Human Rights Campaign.

Today also marks Nationwide ENDA Call-in Day via the Human Rights Campaign:

The House Education and Labor Committee is getting ready to move the Employment Non-Discrimination Act soon, but you may have heard that the committee vote has been pushed back a few weeks.  It’s more important than ever that you call members of Congress to make sure that our voice is heard in support of ENDA on Capitol Hill.   Right-wing groups are using lies to delay the bill, claiming that ENDA will grant “special rights to homosexuals” and take away religious freedoms. We’re working with a broad coalition of more than 20 organizations to generate 25,000 calls to Congress this week. …

The issue of disparate impact was brought up several times as a rusty blemish in ENDA’s armor during the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

Disparate impact is a type of legal case filed against an employer with an employment practice that does not appear to be overtly discriminatory but is nonetheless discriminatory in practice. Herwitt said the lawyers are working to ensure that such cases will not be allowed under ENDA although they are allowed to be brought under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender, religion, or national origin.