WASHINGTON — Before Thursday’s final passage vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, its lead sponsor, Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, gave a brief speech on the Senate floor to rally support for the bill.

Merkley, D-Ore., quoted Ted Kennedy, the longtime Massachusetts senator who originally sponsored the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in 1996: “The promise of America will never be fulfilled as long as justice is denied to even one among us.”

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act would make it illegal to fire or not hire someone based on his or her sexual orientation or gender identity, just as it is already illegal to discriminate in the workplace based on religion, race or gender. Oregon already affords gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered individuals these protections.

Kennedy died in 2009, not long after Merkley joined the Senate. Before he passed away, Kennedy sent word that he would like Merkley to take over the efforts to shepherd the Employment Non-Discrimination Act to passage.

Four years later, the bill passed 64-32, with 10 Republicans joining 52 Democrats and two independents in voting for the bill. The bill has not passed the House.

The freshly minted junior senator from Oregon was as surprised as anyone that Kennedy tapped him to lead the way on the legislation.

“My understanding is his staff, as they were pondering this issue, felt that they’d like to find someone who had a deep commitment to the issue, who had experience with it, and who was on the right committee,” Merkley recalled. “I was a new member of the right committee — Health, Education and Labor — and, because I had helped carry this battle for nondiscrimination in the Oregon Legislature, had that experience and commitment.”

Kennedy’s relationships

Kennedy was already quite ill by the time Merkley joined the Senate. Much of the energy in 2009 was spent on the Affordable Care Act, which fell under the jurisdiction of the Health, Education and Labor committee. Kennedy was chairman. Merkley remembered attending several meetings on health care with a group of senators at Kennedy’s office.

“On one particular occasion, everyone had left, but he and I were talking about sailing,” Merkley said. “He grew up sailing some small boats and in the end, some very big boats. I grew up sailing some very small boats, (the kind) you could put on a trailer at the end of the day and park in your driveway.”

Shortly before his death, Kennedy sent Merkley a picture of Bobby Kennedy in Baker County taken during the week before his assassination in California in 1968.

“Senator Kennedy was known, among the senators on both sides of the aisle, as one of the most congenial members who was constantly embracing folks, constantly doing little things (to foster a) connection. I got a little taste of that,” Merkley said.

Kennedy had a reputation for developing friendships across party lines, and Merkley suspected that one of those relationships helped Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, a staunch conservative, to support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the memory of (their) friendship and (Kennedy’s) leadership on that bill was one reason that Senator Hatch worked hard to study the issue and worked hard to get to a place of comfort to vote for the bill, both in committee and today,” he said.

Hatch spokeswoman Antonia Ferrier said the religious protections in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act played a large role in Hatch’s decision to support the bill. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, freedom of religion is important to Hatch, she said.

“Senator Hatch and Senator Kennedy did work together a lot on the religious liberty and religious protections” in the bill, she said.

In the years since Kennedy’s death, Merkley helped the bill navigate its way through the legislative process, setting up committee hearings in 2009 and 2012 and the markup of the bill earlier this year.

Some of Kennedy’s collegiality may have rubbed off on Merkley. As the clerk called the role during Thursday’s vote, Merkley remained in the well of the Senate chamber, alternating between chatting with his colleagues and pacing like an expectant father.

“I (felt) a great sense of relief because I was carrying a lot of personal responsibility for the success of this bill,” he said. “What was absolutely unexpected was that we would end up with only one U.S. senator (Dan Coats of Indiana) coming to the floor to speak against adoption of this bill. Nobody anticipated that. … People have really come to recognize in their hearts that this discrimination is wrong, and they don’t want to be on the floor arguing for it.”