U.S. Senate Likely to Delay Gay-Marriage Vote Until September
metroweekly.compush forward with a $433 billion climate change, drug pricing, and tax bill that they have prioritized instead.According to Reuters, Sen.
Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), one of only two LGBTQ senators in the chamber, said she now expects the bill to be brought up after the August recess, which stretches from Aug.
8 to Sept. 5.In recent weeks, Baldwin has been whipping votes to try and find 10 or more Republicans to overcome a potential filibuster of the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill that would allow same-sex marriages to be performed legally in all states and recognized as valid by both the state and federal governments.
Unfortunately, the postponement of an up-or-down vote until after the August recess gives opponents of same-sex marriage more than a month to apply political pressure to Republicans who may be on the fence, potentially chipping away at the Respect for Marriage Act’s support.Additionally, some Republican senators may feel blindsided by the surprise deal cut between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and conservative Democrat Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) — who has thwarted much of the Biden White House’s domestic agenda for the past 18 months — and may retaliate by refusing to support the same-sex marriage bill.
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