Chris Lieberman, FISM News
Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has announced that he expects the Senate to vote in the coming weeks on the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill that would enshrine the right to same-sex marriage into federal law.
“Let me be clear, a vote will happen — a vote on marriage equality will happen on the Senate floor in the coming weeks, and I hope there will be 10 Republicans to support it,” Schumer told reporters at a Wednesday press conference on Capitol Hill.
The bill, which the House passed in July with the support of all Democrats and 47 Republicans, would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and require states to recognize marriages that were legal in the states where they were performed. The legislation also aims to protect interracial marriages, prohibiting states from denying marriage “on the basis of the sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin.”
Democrats are seeking to codify same-sex marriage into federal law after Justice Clarence Thomas indicated in his concurring opinion to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision a willingness for the Supreme Court to revisit Obergefell, the 2015 decision that declared same-sex marriage to be a constitutional right. Some also view it as an opportunity to force Republicans to go on the record in their support for or opposition to same-sex marriage during an election year.
To pass the bill, Democrats must gain the support of 10 Senate Republicans in order to reach the 60 votes needed to overcome the filibuster. So far, three Republican senators — Susan Collins (Maine), Thomas Tillis (N.C.), and Rob Portman (Ohio) — have promised to vote for the legislation. Sen. Ron Johnson, who faces a tough re-election battle in Wisconsin this November, has not committed to voting for the bill but says he sees “no reason to oppose” it.
In order to gain the needed support, a bipartisan group of senators led by Collins and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) is working with Republicans on amendments aimed at concerns over religious liberty.
“We are listening carefully to the concerns that have been raised by some of our colleagues,” Collins told reporters Wednesday. “And we’re looking at an amendment that would strengthen the language in the bill to make crystal clear that it does not in any way infringe upon religious liberty.”
The group is also working on an amendment that would clarify that marriage must be between two people to address the concern by some that the bill’s current text would allow for polygamy.
While some Democrats have suggested including the legislation on the short-term government funding bill that Congress must pass before the end of the month to avoid a government shutdown, Schumer indicated that he plans to vote on same-sex marriage as a stand-alone bill. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), concurred, saying that adding it to the funding bill was “not going to happen.”
Republican critics of the bill argue that the bill is unnecessary and nothing more than a political stunt in an election year. “I don’t think that’s a pressing matter,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who is also seeking re-election in November. “There’s no threat to same-sex marriage in America.”
But Baldwin, the first openly gay senator in U.S. history, disagreed, saying, “It’s very real for a whole lot of people.”