Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Reintroduction Of A Resolution To Affirm The Ratification Of The Equal Rights Amendment

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on the reintroduction of a resolution to remove the arbitrary deadline for the Equal Rights Amendment ratification. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

A different and extremely important matter: I want to praise and echo the words of all my colleagues yesterday who reintroduced a resolution to affirm the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.

The resolution is simple: it removes the arbitrary deadline for ERA ratification that was placed by Congress in the 1970s and recognizes the amendment as a valid part of the Constitution. There’s no good reason why a Constitutional amendment needs a deadline—especially not an amendment that affirms gender equality.

The Equal Rights Amendment has never been as necessary and urgent as it is today. The Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe v Wade reminded all of us that even today—in 2023, the twenty-first century!—women don’t have the same fundamental rights as men. So this resolution is a terrific and necessary idea. The ERA has been ratified by three-quarters of the states but not in the requisite time, and that’s what this proposal would fix. It is very popular in the minds of the American people, and I strongly support the resolution.

I want my daughters and granddaughter to live in a country where they never have to worry about being discriminated against simply because of their gender, but sadly, today that is not the case. The ERA would fix that. So, I want to thank Senators Cardin, Durbin, Representatives Pressley, Dean, and Bush, and everyone who is championing this important resolution.

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