Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007

Floor Speech

LILLY LEDBETTER FAIR PAY ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - July 30, 2007)

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from California for yielding me this time.

Along with everyone else here, I feel it is important to say that I am very much opposed to discrimination. It makes me ill to even think about discrimination that has occurred in this country in the past. But I am also very much opposed to this legislation. We don't need to be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

When I first went to the North Carolina Senate, I was troubled by the way a lot of things were done there. And someone said to me, If you think that people operate here on logic, you are sadly wrong. They operate on emotion.

We have heard some very emotional comments made about this legislation and why it should be passed. Those of us who are opposing it are opposing it on very logical reasons.

This bill makes dramatic changes to civil rights law and would have an incredibly far-reaching impact, one which supporters of the bill have yet to take the time to thoroughly and appropriately consider. The underlying bill constitutes a major change in and expanded application of employment discrimination law.

Traditionally, civil rights laws have had adequate time for thoughtful review and consideration. However, this bill was brought before the Education and Labor Committee about 24 hours prior to markup and rushed to the floor under a closed rule. It is critical that legislation of this complexity and with the potential for such significant impact be carefully considered and not rushed through only weeks after its introduction.

Many other things have been thoughtfully and rightfully said on our side, but I want to say that we need to talk about an area that is most likely to be dramatically impacted is that of our Nation's retirement system. This legislation contains a pension annuity check rule where charges could be brought many years after the discrimination occurs, and it could have long-standing impact on benefits. It could wind up discriminating against a lot more people than we are trying to help as a result of this legislation.

It is going too fast. We need to slow it down and do it right. We want to not have discrimination, but this is not the way to do it

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