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April 23, 2008
Cloture Vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
Update by PS: Apparently the Bush White House is against the Ledbetter Bill (via Ohio Employer's Blog). More from NYT.
Paul, who is busy with today's oral arguments sent me the link to this story. James Oliphant at The Swamp, the Chicago Tribune's Washington Bureau reports that Harry Reid, the Senate's Democratic leader, has shut down
the Senate from Tuesday until this evening so that Clinton
and Obama can come to Washington to vote on a motion to cut off debate
on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. The Act seeks to amend Title VII to essentially reverse the Supreme Court's decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire, analyzed by Paul here.
A vote to invoke cloture must occur within 30 hours of the motion being filed and within one hour after the Senate convenes. To ensure that he has enough votes for cloture, Reid is simply shutting down the Senate.
A cloture vote would cut off debate and send the bill to the floor for a vote. Republicans would rather avoid that; as Oliphant notes "[w]ho wants to vote against equal pay"?
From the article:
So he isn't going to convene the session until 5 pm Wednesday, giving both senators time get here and also show their support for equal pay. Then the cloture vote will take place at 6.
If the cloture vote passes, then the Senate will vote directly on the Ledbetter bill and then push off the vets bill until afterward.
"We were all surprised to learn that the Democrat leaders would shut down the Senate--and with it the veterans' bill--all so that their candidates could get back for a procedural vote on a separate bill unrelated to veterans," Don Stewart, a spokesman for Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday evening. "Their action delays the veterans' bill even though they said today that it would be 'unfair' to delay it."
For their part, the Senate Democratic leadership says that Republicans have dragged their feet on taking up the Ledbetter bill, which the House passed last year. And now the Ds are forcing the Rs feet to the fire.
Tuesday had previously been declared "Equal Pay Day," by the National Women's Law Center, as the day that women's wages catch up with men's from last year.
MM
April 23, 2008 in Beltway Developments | Permalink
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Comments
I, of course, hope that the cloture vote works and that the Senate passes the bill. Assuming a veto, the chances of override would be reasonably good with the demonstration of support in this cloture vote.
If, however, the bill is not passed, the issue will no doubt resonate in the next election. To help that along, all workers who work for an employer that does not provide transparency about salaries (which is most) should follow the logic of the Ledbetter decision and file a pay discrimination claim each time they get paid. Organizing workers to do this just once, say on the payday closest to Labor Day, would present an awesome display of the wrongheadedness of the Ledbetter decision which should help getting the law righted.
Posted by: Mike Zimmer | Apr 23, 2008 4:38:12 PM
THE WHITEHOUSE AND CONGRESS ARE AT IT AGAIN
THEY FORGET WHO THEY WORK FOR.......
THE PEOPLE NOT BIG COMPANY MONEY
LETS SEE THIS PASS
LILLY HAD HER DAY IN COURT TO BAD CONGRESS SAW FIT TO TAKE IT AWAY
Posted by: gale | Jul 21, 2008 5:15:10 PM
