[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 53 (Tuesday, March 27, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S3845]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. KENNEDY (for himself, Mr. Kerry, Mrs. Boxer, Mr. Harkin, 
        Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Lieberman, Mrs. Feinstein, Ms. 
        Mikulski, Mr. Brown, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Schumer, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. 
        Biden, Mr. Levin, Mr. Menendez, Mrs. Murray, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. 
        Feingold, Ms. Stabenow, and Mr. Whitehouse):
  S.J. Res. 10. A joint resolution proposing an amendment to the 
Constitution of the United States relative to equal rights for men and 
women; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, it's a privilege to join my colleagues in 
reintroducing the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution. Our 
strong commitment to equal rights for men and women should be clearly 
reflected in the Nation's founding document.
  The ERA is essential to guarantee that the freedoms protected by our 
Constitution apply equally to men and women. From the beginning of our 
history as a Nation, women have had to wage a constant, long and 
difficult battle to win the same basic rights granted to men. That 
battle goes on today, since discrimination still continues in many 
ways.
  Despite passage of the Equal Pay Act and the Civil Rights Act in the 
1960s, discrimination against women continues to permeate the workforce 
and many areas of the economy. Today, women earn about 77 cents for 
each dollar earned by men, and the gap is even greater for women of 
color. In 2004, African American women earned only 67 percent of the 
earnings of white men, and Hispanic women earned only 56 percent.
  Women with college and professional degrees have achieved advances in 
a number of professional and managerial occupations in recent years. 
Yet more than 60 percent of working women are still clustered in a 
narrow range of traditionally female, traditionally low-paying 
occupations, and female-headed households continue to dominate the 
bottom rungs of the economic ladder.
  A stronger effort is clearly needed to finally live up to our 
commitment of full equality. The Equal Rights Amendment alone cannot 
remedy all discrimination, but it will clearly strengthen the ongoing 
efforts of women across the country to obtain equal treatment.
  We know from the failed ratification experiences of the past that 
amending the Constitution to include the ERA will not be easy to 
achieve. But its extraordinary significance requires us to continue the 
battle to finally see it approved by Congress and ratified by the 
States. The women of America deserve no less.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of the resolution be printed in 
the Record.
  There being no objection, the joint resolution was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                              S.J. Res. 10

       Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
     United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of 
     each House concurring therein), That the following article is 
     proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United 
     States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as 
     part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of 
     three-fourths of the several States:

                              ``Article--

       ``Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be 
     denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on 
     account of sex.
       ``Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, 
     by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
       ``Section 3. This article shall take effect 2 years after 
     the date of ratification.''.

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