Senate GOP Blocks Resurrection of Equal Rights Amendment
Senate Republicans blocked the efforts of Democrats on April 27 to revive the long-since-expired Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) a century after it was first introduced.
Specifically, the vote was to invoke cloture on a motion to proceed in taking up a joint resolution (pdf) to disregard the deadline that Congress set decades ago for the amendment’s ratification.
Although two Republicans—Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)—voted with 49 Democrats to take up the resolution, they fell short of the 60 votes required to invoke cloture.
“We lost this vote; we are going to win this fight,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said at a press conference outside the Capitol….