Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) is annoyed at being forced to vote on fair pay.
Republicans blocked a key equal pay measure Monday night, and are whining that Democrats made them vote on it at all. The Paycheck Fairness Act, which would close loopholes in the Equal Pay Act of 1963, was defeated in one of those classic Senate votes in which the bill had 52 votes—a majority—but was blocked by 40 Republicans. That's
no surprise:
Counting procedural votes, it’s the fourth time Republicans have voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act since 2012.
This is a bill with strong public support in addition to its majority support in the Senate. But Republicans have a clear view of
who's causing problems here:
“It’s politics,” said Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska, one of four women Republicans in the Senate. “It’s a one-sided vote for political reasons, so [Democrats] can use it in campaigns.”
Here's a thought! It wouldn't be a one-sided vote if even one Republican would vote in favor of a bill that puts a higher standard on employers' efforts to show they're not discriminating, strengthens penalties for breaking the law, and makes it easier for women to find out if they're being discriminated against. But Republicans object, basically, that if women can find out they're being discriminated against illegally, they might sue, and that would be bad. Heaven forbid people breaking the law face penalties—if they're employers, anyway.
Republicans even added another layer of noxious political gamesmanship to the process of blocking the Paycheck Fairness Act for the fourth time:
Politico reported that Senate Republicans allowed the Paycheck Fairness Act to proceed as an apparent way to choose the lesser political evil: “To eat up Senate floor time and disrupt planned votes on raising the minimum wage and responding to the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby contraception decision.”
That's right, some Republicans voted yes on a procedural vote about a popular issue that works against them
in order to waste time and hopefully avoid votes on
other popular issues that work against them. Because, hey, they can always use their minority to block it on the second vote, thank you very much, broken Senate rules! It's disgusting, and every voter should know that not only are Republicans standing in the way of women being paid what they deserve, they're also manipulating votes on that to better stand in the way of raising the minimum wage and supporting contraception access.