Source: United States Senator for West Virginia Joe Manchin
Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) voted for a bipartisan, bicameral resolution to remove the deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and recognize the amendment as a valid part of the Constitution provided the 38-state threshold has been met. In January, Senator Manchin joined 52 of his bipartisan colleagues in cosponsoring this resolution.
“I proudly voted to remove the procedural barrier blocking the ratification of the ERA and to affirm the bedrock principles of our democracy,” said Senator Manchin. “I took my first vote as West Virginia’s Senator in support of legislation that gave women and men the right to equal pay for equal work, and now I am continuing the fight for equality and fairness. West Virginia was one of the first states to ratify the ERA guaranteeing women equal rights under the Constitution and I was proud to express our West Virginia values by voting for the ERA today.”
Since 1923, the ERA was introduced in every session of Congress until it passed in 1972 in both the House and Senate. Congress placed a deadline for the three-fourths of states (38 of 50 states) to ratify the amendment within seven years, but only 35 states ratified it before then. With recent ratifications of the ERA in Nevada, Illinois and Virginia, the 38 states required for certification of the ERA to become the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has now arguably been reached.
The full text of the ERA resolution is available here.