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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. 449, H.R. 8404.

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Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, let me say a few words about the cloture motion we will file.

In a few moments, I am going to set up the first procedural vote on legislation that will codify marriage equality into law. Members should expect the first vote on Wednesday.

The Respect for Marriage Act, which my colleagues Senators Baldwin, Sinema, Collins, and others have done a great job working on, is an extremely important and much needed bill. No American should ever, ever be discriminated against because of whom they love, and passing this bill would secure these much needed safeguards into Federal law.

I want to make clear that passing this bill is not a theoretical exercise, but it is as real as it gets. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe, Justice Thomas argued that other rights, like the right to marriage equality enshrined in Obergefell, could come next.

Now, the Senate had a chance to bring marriage protection to the floor for a vote back in September, but at the urging of colleagues from both sides of the aisle, I agreed to wait because we were given an assurance that enough votes would materialize after the election. Because my top priority is to get things done in a bipartisan way whenever we can, we determined that this legislation was too important to risk failure, so we waited to give bipartisanship a chance.

I hope, for the sake of tens of millions of Americans, that at least 10 Republicans will vote with us to protect marriage equality into law soon. The rights and dignity of millions of Americans depend on it. Cloture Motion

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