WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) released the following statement following Virginia’s ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
“With Virginia’s historic ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, the state officially becomes the 38th and final state required to make the ERA part of the U.S. Constitution. This decades-long effort is now one step closer to victory and proving that there is no time limit on equality.
“We urge the Archivist to complete the ERA’s certification. Virginia has now passed the baton, so now Congress must do its part to get it over the finish line. We are pleased that in February the House of Representatives will take up legislation to remove any legal ambiguities with the arbitrary ratification deadline set decades ago. Soon thereafter we hope the Senate will take up our bipartisan legislation, S.J. Res. 6, to do the same and enshrine the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sex into our Constitution once and for all.”
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