Toilet-Discrimination Bill Gets House Hearing, While Immigration and Jobs Wait In Line

A bill providing “restroom gender parity” in federal buildings--mandating that the number of toilets for women would need to equal or exceed the number of toilets for men--is getting serious, bipartisan consideration in Congress.

This at a time when, by the O-man's own admission, there is no shortage of crises and when many Americans are pressing Congress to do something about jobs, immigration, and other pressing matters.

The Restroom Gender Parity in Federal Buildings Act received a full committee hearing on May 12, complete with introductory remarks by lawmakers and testimony from witnesses.

I wish I was kidding.

Rep. Darryl Issa of California, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, noted the importance of the hearing process – not to mention the potty parity bill itself:

“As people seldom realize, in Congress, in order to move a piece of legislation, we hold hearings."

"In order to understand the final and best form of that legislation, we hold hearings."

"I think this is no exception,” said Issa, who described the bill as laudable and essential.

The bill’s sponsor, Committee Chairman Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), outlined both the problem and his proposed solution:

“This is not a minor issue,” Towns said. “Women are often forced to wait in long lines to use public restrooms or walk further to find a restroom while men rarely have the same problem.”
 
“Throughout history, public restrooms have been the site of institutional discrimination by race, physical (disability) and gender,” Towns said.
 
"While there have been great strides in dealing with race and physical disability, public restroom facilities for women still lag behind those of men," he said.


“Today women still lack equal access to restrooms in many places of employment,” Towns said.

“The fact that many federal buildings do no provide as many restrooms facilities for woman as they do for men is simply unfair. It is time for that to change,” Rep. Towns said.

The bill requires all new federal buildings and newly renovated federal buildings to have at least the same number of toilets for women as are provided for men.

According to the language of H.R. 4869, “the number of toilets in women’s restrooms will equal or exceed the number of toilets (including urinals) in men’s restrooms.”



When it was introduced in March, H.R. 4869 generated questions in some quarters about Congress spending time on toilets instead of addressing more pressing issues of the day.

The OldTimer thinks Congress better get their collective heads out of their asses and start addressing the real problems facing our country before nobody has a pot to piss in, men or women.