[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 65 (Wednesday, April 23, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S3288]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   LILLY LEDBETTER FAIR PAY ACT OF 2007--MOTION TO PROCEED--Continued


                             Cloture Motion

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, pursuant to rule 
XXII, the Chair lays before the Senate the pending cloture motion, 
which the clerk will state.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to 
     proceed to Calendar No. 325, H.R. 2831, the Fair Pay Act.
         Harry Reid, Daniel K. Inouye, Barbara Boxer, Patty 
           Murray, Byron L. Dorgan, Edward M. Kennedy, Christopher 
           J. Dodd, Daniel K. Akaka, Benjamin L. Cardin, Patrick 
           J. Leahy, Bernard Sanders, Sherrod Brown, Amy 
           Klobuchar, Richard Durbin, Ken Salazar, Sheldon 
           Whitehouse, Max Baucus.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum 
call is waived.
  The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the 
motion to proceed to H.R. 2831, the Fair Pay Act, shall be brought to a 
close?
  The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. KYL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Nebraska (Mr. Hagel) and the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 56, nays 42, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 110 Leg.]

                                YEAS--56

     Akaka
     Baucus
     Bayh
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Boxer
     Brown
     Byrd
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Clinton
     Coleman
     Collins
     Conrad
     Dodd
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Harkin
     Inouye
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Kerry
     Klobuchar
     Kohl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lincoln
     McCaskill
     Menendez
     Mikulski
     Murray
     Nelson (FL)
     Nelson (NE)
     Obama
     Pryor
     Reed
     Rockefeller
     Salazar
     Sanders
     Schumer
     Smith
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stabenow
     Sununu
     Tester
     Webb
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                                NAYS--42

     Alexander
     Allard
     Barrasso
     Bennett
     Bond
     Brownback
     Bunning
     Burr
     Chambliss
     Coburn
     Cochran
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Craig
     Crapo
     DeMint
     Dole
     Domenici
     Ensign
     Enzi
     Graham
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hatch
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Kyl
     Lugar
     Martinez
     McConnell
     Murkowski
     Reid
     Roberts
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Stevens
     Thune
     Vitter
     Voinovich
     Warner
     Wicker

                             NOT VOTING--2

     Hagel
     McCain
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 56, the nays are 
42. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted 
in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I move to reconsider the vote by which 
cloture was not invoked on the motion to proceed to H.R. 2831.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, we are within minutes of working out 
something to complete tomorrow's work. There will be no more votes 
tonight. We should have several votes tomorrow. Probably, if things 
work out right, we will have three votes tomorrow. We should finish 
before 2:30 tomorrow afternoon.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts is recognized.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I am deeply disappointed we were not 
able to get the required 60 votes. With the majority leader's vote, we 
would have had 57 votes--57 votes. There is virtually unanimous 
opposition on the other side of the aisle to restore what had been 
fairness and decency and equity in our fair pay laws.
  I think most of us who have been around this institution for some 
time and who have been involved in the civil rights issue understand if 
you don't have a remedy, you don't have a right. This debate was about 
restoring a right to Lilly Ledbetter, her right to be treated fairly in 
the workplace and the rights of millions of others too. Those who are 
disabled, elderly, people in our society of various national origins, 
those of particular religious faiths, and women all are threatened by 
the underlying Supreme Court decision. That has to be altered. It has 
to be changed.
  I welcome the fact that our majority leader has sent a powerful 
signal by indicating that we will come back and revisit this issue. 
This issue is about fairness. It is about equity. If we are going to 
permit discrimination in the workplace, we shouldn't permit it to pay, 
and the best way to make sure it does not pay is to provide the remedy 
to ensure it will not.
  This is an early skirmish in this battle toward true fairness and 
equity and equitable pay for women and all others in our society. I 
look forward to working with our colleagues in the ongoing battle. I am 
very hopeful and optimistic that the next time we will get the votes 
that are necessary to permit us to take final action on this 
legislation.
  Again, I thank the majority leader for his addressing this issue and 
for his willingness to bring this back to the floor so we can have 
further debate and discussion on it.
  And I would like to thank my staff--Charlotte Burrows, Sharon Block, 
and Portia Wu, who worked very hard on this important legislation. I 
would also like to thank Michael Myers, Scott Fay, and Kate Dowling 
from my staff for all of their help.

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