Senate Expected To Vote This Week On Respect For Marriage Act

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) filed a motion on Monday to send the bill into a procedural vote, which is expected on Wednesday. 

The Senate is expected to vote this week on the Respect for Marriage Act, which would create some federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriages. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) filed a motion on Monday to send the bill into a procedural vote, which is expected on Wednesday. 

In remarks made on the floor of the Senate (and as reported by CBS), Schumer said, “No American should ever, ever be discriminated against because of who they love, and passing this bill would secure much-needed safeguards into federal law.”

Multiple iterations of a federal marriage protection bill have been introduced in Congress over the past decade. The most recent, created by a bipartisan group of senators, was introduced this summer, after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe V. Wade

The bill passed in the House in July. However, Senate Republicans raised concerns over whether the legislation would infringe on religious liberties.

A bipartisan group of senators, including Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Susan Collins (R-ME), Rob Portman (R-OH), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Thom Tillis (R-NC), released a statement on Monday claiming that through a bipartisan effort, they had “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 statement went on to conclude that the legislation would do two things: it would “require the federal government to recognize a marriage between two individuals if the marriage was valid in the state where it was performed” and it would “guarantee” that marriages would be given “full faith and credit” regardless of the couple’s “sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin.”

However, it “would not require a State to issue a marriage license contrary to state law.”

Multiple sources have told CNN that the bipartisan group of senators believe that the bill has enough support in the chamber to pass. 


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