April 25, 2008

Senate Fails to Pass Ledbetter Fair Pay Act BPW/USA is greatly disappointed that the Senate was unable to bring the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (HR 2831) to a vote despite a majority of Senators being in favor of the bill. On April 23rd, the cloture vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act failed by a vote of 56-42, just four votes shy of the 60 need to invoke cloture and proceed to debate and final vote on the bill.* Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), sponsor of the bill, vowed to fight on and Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) agreed to bring the bill to a vote again. The broad coalition of women and civil rights organizations that supported the bill said they would definately count this vote in upcoming Senate elections.

Twenty-five Senators spoke in favor of the bill on the floor including: Senators Kennedy (D-MA), Biden (D-DE), Bingaman (D-NM), Cantwell (D-WA), Clinton (D-NY), Dodd (D-CT), Durbin (D-IL), Feingold (D-WI), Harkin (D-IA), Kerry (D-MA), Launtenberg (D-NJ), Leahy (D-VT), Mikulski (D-MD) Obama (D-IL), Reed (D-RI), Sanders (D-VT), Schumer (D-NY), Smith (R-OR), and Tester (D-MT). The Senators who spoke against the bill were Senators Isakson (R-GA), Enzi (R-WY), Hatch (R-UT), Hutchinson (R-TX) and McConnell (R-KY).

In addition, on Equal Pay Day several women Senators spoke in support of the bill including Senators Mikulski (D-MD), Klobuchar (D-MN), Murray (D-WA), Boxer (D-CA) and McCaskill (D-MO).

"We are counting on the Senate to do the right thing and bring this bill up again and pass it. None of the Senators voting against the bill will admit that they favor pay discrimination yet by voting against this bill they are saying that during the first six months you are hired you must aggressively find out what your peers are making, because if you don't – too bad," said Deborah L. Frett, BPW/USA CEO, in her post-vote statement.