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Order No. 11246, which requires federal contractors to agree not to discriminate because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, could cover approximately 26 million workers employed by federal contractors, which is nearly 22% of the civilian workforce. Even a more limited order would still be a major step forward in protecting lesbian and gay workers. At present, in the absence of an executive order protecting persons employed by federal contractors against discrimination based on sexual orientation, the federal government has no assurance that its contractors are following the type of nondiscriminatory employment practices that the President ordered for the civilian federal workforce last year when he signed Executive Order No. 13087. In fact, only eleven states bar discrimination based on sexual orientation by private employers. Moreover, nearly half of all Fortune 500 companies and the majority of smaller businesses do not include sexual orientation in their corporate nondiscrimination policies. The Executive's Procurement Powers as the Basis for an Executive Order Early executive action to eradicate discrimination by federal contractors clearly did not rely on any specific nondiscrimination statute. 58 years ago--more than two decades before the enactment of Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964--President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered federal agencies to condition defense contracts on an agreement not to discriminate based on race, creed, color, or national origin. By the time President Kennedy signed Executive Order No. 11114 in 1963, the order covered the same broad range of federal contracts and federally-assisted construction covered today. In 1965, President Johnson signed the current executive order, Executive Order No. 11246, which was subsequently amended. Nearly all federal contracts are covered by the order. Similarly, expanding the nondiscrimination requirements imposed on federal contractors to include sexual orientation does not require any additional statutory authority. The same procurement statutes and inherent constitutional executive power that provided authority for the executive orders on contractors- from President Roosevelt's first order in 1941 through Executive Order No. 11246, as amended--can provide sufficient authority for a new executive order. The President's authority to issue those orders has been consistently upheld by the courts. 1 A Labor Department official testified that "[a]pproximately 22 percent of the labor force (about 26 million workers) is employed by federal contractors or subcontractors" subject to Executive Order No. 11246. Hearings on the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs Before the Subcomm. On Employer-Employee Relations of the House Comm. on Economic and Educational Opportunities, 104th Cong. 1st Sess. (1995) (statement of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Federal Contract Compliance Shirley J. Wilcher). 2 Several courts have also found additional statutory authority for Executive Order No. 11246 in Titles VI and VII of the Civil 2