Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Announcing A Vote To Advance The Equal Rights Amendment Resolution This Week

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor after filing cloture on the motion to proceed to SJRes. 4, a monumental resolution regarding the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, and announcing a vote to move forward on the resolution this week. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

A few moments ago, I took the first procedural step for the Senate to take up a monumental resolution regarding the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. The Senate will vote to take up this historic ERA measure on Thursday.

It has been exactly 100 years since the first Equal Rights Amendment was proposed here in Congress. Despite the progress America has made in the advancement of women’s rights, we have yet to take one fundamental step: ratification of the ERA to guarantee gender equality under the Constitution.

The Senate has a chance this week to bring our country one step closer to equal justice under the law by passing this bipartisan ERA resolution.

Three-quarters of the states have already ratified the ERA, just not in the requisite time set decades ago. The resolution would remove the arbitrary deadline and formally recognize that 38 states—the number required under the Constitution—have ratified the ERA.

Anyone who thinks the ERA isn’t necessary at a time like this is not paying attention to the terrible things happening in this country. In the past year alone, the U.S. Supreme Court has eliminated the protections of Roe v. Wade, our courts have targeted drugs like Mifepristone, and we’ve seen over a dozen hard right states enact near-total bans on abortions. We need the ERA more than ever, ever before.

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. And while sadly that’s not the case today, we have a great opportunity to make significant progress on ERA ratification this week, so we can enshrine the rights of generations of women to come.

I want to thank Senator Cardin, who has spearheaded this along with Senator Murkowski. It is bipartisan, I thank them for championing this ERA resolution, and I look forward to advance its voting this Thursday.

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