Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act Of 2009 - Continued

Floor Speech

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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise to speak about my vote on final passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

I want to first reiterate a most important statement of the entire debate on this bill, with which we all agree. As I said yesterday, during debate on Senator Hutchison's substitute amendment, discrimination because of an individual's gender, ethnicity, religion, age, or disability cannot be tolerated. No Americans should be subject to discrimination, and if they are, they have the right to the law's full protection.

Having said that, I am pleased that we have had the opportunity to offer and vote on amendments that Members of the Senate believe would have perfected this legislation. I would also note that this opportunity is a welcome reversal from last year, when we did not have an opportunity to offer amendments, and it was for that reason that I voted against cloture last year.

As you know, I have had concerns about the Fair Pay Act's deletion of the statute of limitations. In my view, once an employee knows, or has a reasonable suspicion, that he or she has been the subject of discrimination, the employee has the responsibility to file a complaint wi thin a reasonable amount of time. That responsibility benefits the employee first of all, but also benefits the employer, if a claim is pursued while records are available and memories are fresh. In addition, the employee is more likely to be able to recover the full amount of his or her lost wages rather than just the previous 2 years' wages.

For these reasons, I supported Senator Hutchison's substitute amendment. Her amendment recognized the important point that many employees do not know that th eir rate of pay is discriminatory. It would also have restored beneficial timeliness to the process once the employee suspected or knew of discrimination. I am disappointed that this amendment failed.

At the end of the day, however, after the amendment process has concluded--a process that was not available to us last year--I believe it is more important to vote for legislation that will improve every American's ability to access full redress for any act of wage discrimination.

The Fair Pay Act provid es that vital protection. For that reason, I will vote for this legislation.

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