[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 83 (Tuesday, June 5, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3713-S3714]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          PAYCHECK FAIRNESS ACT--MOTION TO PROCEED--Continued

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the time until 2:30 
will be equally divided, with the minority controlling the first half.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, we are coming to a very critical vote. 
Today we have the opportunity to address an issue that affects the 
bottom line of nearly every American family. The paychecks that 
American women take home at the end of each week or each month are as 
tied to our economic health as just about anything else. It is what 
helps sustain local businesses. It is what pays grocery bills at the 
end of the month. It makes mortgage payments. Ultimately, the pay women 
receive as we continue to make up a larger and larger part of our 
workforce is going to be critical to the growth of this Nation. Yet 
over the course of the past week, as we have debated this bill in the 
Senate and across the country, we have been met by either silence or 
resistance from those on the other side of the aisle. Time and again we 
have heard the same excuses on why we cannot join together to provide 
the guaranteed fairness women deserve.
  First, we heard this was a ``manufactured issue.'' Mr. President, if 
you talk to American women all across our country, you will quickly 
learn what some of my colleagues have called ``manufactured'' is an 
all-too-real part of everyday American women's lives. Women will tell 
you that at a time when families across America are struggling to make 
ends meet, equal pay for equal work should not be a pipe dream; it 
should be law. They will tell you that nearly 50 years after the Equal 
Pay Act was signed, the pay gap between what men and women earn is just 
as real today as it was back then. They will tell you women still earn 
77 cents for every dollar earned by men. They will tell you this gap 
undermines their retirement security because they receive reduced 
Social Security benefits. Then, most importantly, they will tell you 
women are not worth less than men.
  The other argument we have heard is that this critical vote is in 
some way a distraction from the economic issues we face, as if somehow 
the pay of women--who compromise nearly half of all American workers--
is not at its very core an economic issue. Let me be very clear. When 
women are not paid what they deserve, middle-class families, 
communities, and our economic growth pay the price.
  Let's consider that in my home State of Washington where women still 
earn 77 cents on the dollar--or a pay gap that averages over $11,000 in 
lost earnings every year--for the average family that is an extra 90 
weeks of groceries, it is 7 months of mortgage payments or it is 179 
tanks of gasoline--all at a time when women are participating in the 
workforce at higher rates than ever before.
  Surely, my friends and colleagues on the other side of the aisle 
realize this is not the time to be denying American families this extra 
income they need to make ends meet. Surely, we should be guaranteeing 
American women and their families the fairness they deserve. This 
should not be a partisan issue. Throughout the history of the Senate, 
we have joined together to root out discriminatory practices and 
provide the protections American workers deserve. Today, as American 
families struggle, it is time to make sure unfair practices are not 
contributing to those struggles.
  Today we have an opportunity to close loopholes in the system that 
allows for pay discrimination, to create strong incentives for 
employers to obey the laws that are in place, and to strengthen Federal 
outreach and enforcement efforts on behalf of women.
  Today we all have an opportunity to say the status quo is not good 
enough. We have the opportunity to tell our daughters we are not going 
to let another generation face a pay gap because we are unwilling to 
stand and fight. We have the chance to improve our economy right now. 
So to those of my colleagues who claim to be so concerned about the 
economy and the struggles of the middle class, now is your chance to 
prove to your constituents you mean what you say. Now is the chance to 
provide nearly half of all Americans with the economic fairness they 
deserve. Now is the time to guarantee American women equal pay for 
equal work.
  I yield the floor and yield back the remainder of our time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the motion to invoke 
cloture.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the

[[Page S3714]]

     Standing Rules of the Senate, hereby move to bring to a close 
     debate on the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 410, S. 3220, 
     a bill to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to 
     provide more effective remedies to victims of discrimination 
     in the payment of wages on the basis of sex, and for other 
     purposes.
         Barbara A. Mikulski, Harry Reid, Maria Cantwell, Patty 
           Murray, Frank R. Lautenberg, Jeff Bingaman, Sheldon 
           Whitehouse, John F. Kerry, Kent Conrad, Jeanne Shaheen, 
           Bernard Sanders, Tom Udall, Amy Klobuchar, Carl Levin, 
           Mark R. Warner, Mark Pryor, Jack Reed, Kirsten E. 
           Gillibrand.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum 
call has been waived.
  The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the 
motion to proceed to S. 3220, a bill to amend the Fair Labor Standards 
Act of 1938 to provide more effective remedies to victims of 
discrimination in the payment of wages on the basis of sex, and for 
other purposes, shall be brought to a close? The yeas and nays are 
mandatory under the rule.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. KYL. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Illinois (Mr. Kirk).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 52, nays 47, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 115 Leg.]

                                YEAS--52

     Akaka
     Baucus
     Begich
     Bennet
     Bingaman
     Blumenthal
     Boxer
     Brown (OH)
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Conrad
     Coons
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Hagan
     Harkin
     Inouye
     Johnson (SD)
     Kerry
     Klobuchar
     Kohl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Manchin
     McCaskill
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Mikulski
     Murray
     Nelson (NE)
     Nelson (FL)
     Pryor
     Reed
     Rockefeller
     Sanders
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Warner
     Webb
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                                NAYS--47

     Alexander
     Ayotte
     Barrasso
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Brown (MA)
     Burr
     Chambliss
     Coats
     Coburn
     Cochran
     Collins
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Crapo
     DeMint
     Enzi
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hatch
     Heller
     Hoeven
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johanns
     Johnson (WI)
     Kyl
     Lee
     Lugar
     McCain
     McConnell
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Paul
     Portman
     Reid
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rubio
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Snowe
     Thune
     Toomey
     Vitter
     Wicker

                             NOT VOTING--1

       
     Kirk
       
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 52, the nays are 
47. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted 
in the affirmative, the motion is rejected.
  The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I enter a motion to reconsider the vote by 
which cloture was not invoked.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The motion is entered.
  Mr. REID. I now withdraw my motion to proceed to Calendar No. 410, S. 
3220.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The motion is withdrawn.

                          ____________________