Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Upcoming Senate Vote To Advance The Bipartisan Resolution Regarding The Equal Rights Amendment

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on the upcoming Senate vote to advance a bipartisan resolution regarding Equal Rights Amendment. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Tomorrow, the Senate will have a chance to take the next major step on an effort a century in the making: ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment under the Constitution.

The story of American democracy has been an uneven but inexorable march towards greater equality for all people. America’s foundation contains a simple premise: no matter who you are or where you come from, you too deserve equal treatment under law.

The Senate will have a chance tomorrow to bring our country one step closer towards greater equity by voting on a bipartisan resolution regarding the Equal Rights Amendment.

The measure is simple: it will recognize that 38 states have now legitimately ratified the Equal Rights Amendment, meeting the threshold required under the Constitution. It will remove an arbitrary deadline set decades ago that invalidated the ratification that occurred in a few states. The states did the work, just not in the required time that was imposed on them a very long time ago. I believe the Senate should now remove that obstacle.

And we must act now because the Equal Rights Amendment has never been more necessary than today. To the horror of hundreds of millions of people, women in America have fewer rights today than they did even a year ago. The protections of Roe v. Wade are gone, thanks to the MAGA majority on the Supreme Court. Over a dozen states have near total abortion bans, and tens of millions of people have to travel hundreds of miles just to access reproductive care. That’s sickening.

We cannot claim that America is a nation of equal justice when half of its citizenry languishes on with fewer rights, less dignity, and limited recourse under the constitution.

That is why the Senate must vote in favor of advancing this ERA resolution tomorrow, so we can bring our nation one step closer to greater justice, greater equality, and equal rights for all people regardless of gender.

Thank you to Senators Cardin and Murkowski for championing this resolution, and I look forward to voting in its favor tomorrow.

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