For the week ending February 14th
GIVING NEW LIFE TO EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT: Voting 232 for and 183 against, the House on Feb. 13 adopted a measure (HJ Res 79) that would advance the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution by replacing a long-expired deadline for states to vote on ratification with an open-ended deadline. The ERA states: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”
Congress on March 22, 1972, sent the ERA to the states, allowing seven years for them to muster the three fourths majority (38) needed for ratification. The legislatures of 35 states voted to ratify, although five — Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, Tennessee and South Dakota — rescinded their approvals on or before the March 22, 1977, deadline. In 1978, Congress and President Carter set a new deadline of June 30, 1982, but no states came aboard during the extension. Nevada, Illinois and Virginia have voted to ratify the ERA since 1982.
Republicans said ERA ratification would boost the prochoice agenda and result in more abortions. They also argued that women’s rights are protected by the Fifth and 14th amendments to the Constitution and laws including the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Democrats cited an interview that former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia gave to The Atlantic in 2001, in which he said: “Certainly the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn’t.”
A yes vote was to send the proposed new deadline to the Senate.
YES: Deb Haaland, D-1, Xochitl Torres Small, D-2, Ben Ray Luján, D-3
EXPANDING PROTECTED WILDERNESS BY 1.4 MILLION ACRES: Voting 231 for and 183 against, the House on Feb. 12 passed a bill (HR 2546) that would add nearly 1.4 million unspoiled acres in Colorado, California and Washington state to the 111-million-acre National Wilderness Protection System, which permanently safeguards federally owned land mostly in the West from commercial development including hard-rock mining and oil and natural gas drilling. The newly added acreage is located in areas including Washington’s Olympia Peninsula; northwestern California; the Santa Monica Mountains and Central Coast in California; and 36 distinct areas of Colorado mostly on the Western Slope. The bill also would set aside 100,000 acres as national monument areas and expand the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. In addition, the bill authorizes the departments of interior and agriculture to take whatever measures are necessary to prevent and fight wildfires in federally protected wilderness areas.
A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.
YES: Haaland, Torres Small, Luján
PREVENTING AND FIGHTING FIRES IN WILDERNESS AREAS: Voting 199 for and 215 against, the House on Feb. 12 defeated a Republican motion that sought to ensure that mechanized fire-prevention and firefighting equipment would have unhindered access to wilderness areas protected by HR 2546 (above). This would be in addition to assurances already in the bill that federal agencies have full authority to take actions to prevent and fight fires in the designated areas.
A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate.
NO: Haaland, Torres Small, Luján
ASSERTING CONGRESSIONAL CONTROL OVER WAR WITH IRAN: The Senate on Feb. 13 voted, 55 for and 45 against, to require the administration to obtain advance congressional approval for military actions against Iran or its proxy forces except when there is an imminent threat to the United States, its armed forces or its territories. The bipartisan vote sent the measure (SJ Res 68) to the House and likely on to President Trump, who says he will veto it. The measure invokes the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which asserts the power of Congress to declare war under Article I of the Constitution. Under that Vietnam-era law, presidents must notify Congress within 48 hours when they send the U.S. military into combat, then withdraw the forces within a specified period unless Congress has authorized the action. Last year, the House and Senate invoked the war-powers law to end America’s military involvement in Yemen’s civil war, but lost their bid when President Trump successfully vetoed the measure.
A yes vote was to restrain Trump’s war-making powers against Iran.
YES: Tom Udall, D, Martin Heinrich, D
HOUSE Deb Haaland (D) Ben Ray Luján (D) Xochitl Torres Small (D)
SENATE Martin Heinrich (D) Tom Udall (D)
Contact your legislators at the U.S. Capitol
Zip codes: House 20515, Senate 20510
Capitol operator: (202) 224-3121
Courtesy of Voterama In Congress © 2019 Thomas Reports Inc.