Senators strike deal on bill to codify Supreme Court's same-sex marriage protections
A bipartisan group of senators on Monday unveiled a deal on legislation to codify the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage protections, signaling they believe they have the votes to get past a filibuster and move the measure to Presient Biden’s desk.
The new deal updates language from before the election, and includes provisions to assuage GOP members on religious liberty related issues.
A group of five senators — Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), released the updated legislation, which protects nonprofit religious organizations from providing services in support of a same-sex marriage.
It also would protect religious liberty and conscience protections under the Constitution and federal law.
“Through bipartisan collaboration, we’ve crafted commonsense language to confirm that this legislation fully respects and protects Americans’ religious liberties and diverse beliefs, while leaving intact the core mission of the legislation to protect marriage equality,” the senators said in a statement.
“We look forward to this legislation coming to the floor and are confident that this amendment has helped earn the broad, bipartisan support needed to pass our commonsense legislation into law,” the group added.
The updated language would also ensure that the federal government does not recognize polygamous marriage.
The main question at the moment is when the bill would come up for a vote.
Semafor reported earlier on Monday that Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) will bring the proposal up for a vote this week, indicating that the requisite support of 10 Senate Republicans has been secured.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told HuffPost that the timing is “still being debated” by leadership.
Prior to the October recess, Schumer and Baldwin punted a vote on the bill until after the midterms due to the lack of GOP willingness to back it at the time.
If the Senate passes the legislation, the House would have to approve the measure for it to reach President Biden’s desk.
The House has already passed similar legislation, but it is not identical to the new deal.
Forty-weven House Republicans initially voted for the proposal in July.
Source: TEST FEED1
