January 25, 2021 Media

Colorado Politics: Colorado’s Democratic House members cosponsor Equal Rights Amendment resolution removing deadline

Colorado’s Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives have all cosponsored a measure to remove the deadline for ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment, which passed out of Congress in 1972.

“Since our country’s founding, women have been left out of the Constitution – intentionally,” said U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., who is leading the joint resolution. “To this day, we are paid less for our work, violated with impunity, and disproportionately suffer the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic. Enough is enough. With President Biden and Vice President Harris at the helm, this will finally be the year we ratify the ERA to the Constitution.”

U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette, Joe Neguse, Jason Crow and Ed Perlmutter all back the bipartisan measure. In the upper chamber, U.S. Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, have introduced a corresponding measure.

The Equal Rights Amendment provides that equality under the law “shall not be denied or abridged…on account of sex.” Congress placed a seven-year timeline on ratification, and the amendment failed to reach the necessary threshold from three-quarters of states. Only in 2020 did Virginia’s General Assembly approve the amendment, clinching the required number. The Biden Administration is now facing calls to certify the amendment as part of the Constitution.