A bill that seeks to protect same-sex
marriage will not be voted on in the Senate until after the midterm
elections.
Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin of
Wisconsin, the bill's chief sponsor, told POLITICO that a vote in the
Senate would be delayed.
“I'm still very confident that the
bill will pass but we will be taking the bill up later, after the
election,” she
said.
The news comes less than a week after
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York,
signaled a vote on the bill in the Senate would happen before the
midterm elections.
The Respect for Marriage Act cleared
the House in July with the support of 47 Republicans. It would codify
the Supreme Court's 2015 ruling in Obergefell that struck down
laws and constitutional amendments that defined marriage as a
heterosexual union, ushering in nationwide marriage equality.
Schumer said that the legislation was
“necessary” to protect marriage equality after the Supreme Court
overturned Roe v. Wade. Both cases were based on the right to
privacy.
A vote on the proposed legislation was
expected to take place as soon as Monday.
Republicans said this week that
delaying the vote until after the election would improve the bill's
chances of passing in the Senate, where it needs the support of 10
Republicans to clear the chamber.
“We should have a vote when you've
got the votes,” retiring Senator Roy Blunt, a Republican from
Missouri, told POLITICO. “They'll get more votes [in] November and
December than they get on Monday. If I wanted [it] to pass … I'd
wait until after the election.”
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the
nation's largest LGBTQ rights advocate, called the delay “extremely
disappointing.”
“The Respect for Marriage Act is an
incredibly necessary, popular and bipartisan bill – and the lack of
10 Republican 'yes' votes right now is extremely disappointing,”
said Joni Madison, interim president of HRC.