A protester was removed from the Senate gallery Thursday for disrupting lawmakers as they cast a procedural vote on a measure aimed at removing a barrier to the Equal Rights Amendment.
The measure would remove the deadline established for states to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, which would prohibit discrimination based on sex. After Congress passed the act in 1972, not enough states ratified the amendment within the seven-year window established by the measure or a later extension, so the amendment never went into effect.
The protester who yelled out in favor of the ERA and was led out by U.S. Capitol Police to an elevator.
“Women in law enforcement are paid less than the men,” the protester said as police escorted her away with her hands behind her back.
The protester was arrested for disrupting Congress, the Capitol Police said in a statement to NBC News.
Senate Republicans blocked the procedural motion related to taking up the measure in a 51-47 vote. 60 votes were needed to overcome a GOP filibuster.
Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, were the only Republicans to vote in support of the motion.
Earlier Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., opened the floor by speaking in favor of the measure.
“This resolution is as necessary as it is timely,” he said. “America can never hope to be a land of freedom and opportunity so long as half its population is treated like second-class citizens.”
Virginia voted to ratify the ERA in 2020, reaching the three-fourth’s threshold of states needed to establish the amendment. But a federal judge later ruled that the ratification vote came too late to make the amendment part of the Constitution. Subsequent efforts to remove the ratification deadline have not been approved by both chambers of Congress.
Julie Tsirkin contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
