Senate votes to advance same-sex marriage legislation

November 17, 2022

A dozen Senate Republicans joined Democrats on Wednesday, November 16, in supporting landmark legislation that would cement same-sex marriage rights into federal law—with lawmakers aiming to get the measure to President Biden’s desk before year-end, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The 62-37 vote underscored how a once politically divisive issue now draws bipartisan support despite opposition from some social conservatives, less than a decade after same-sex marriage became legal nationwide under a 2015 Supreme Court ruling.

The Respect for Marriage Act, if signed into law, would codify the ability of same-sex as well as interracial couples to get married and require states to recognize the marriages, rights established in Supreme Court rulings. The bill needed 60 votes to proceed under Senate rules.

The proposal faces at least one more vote in the Senate and would need approval by the House by the end of the year to become law. President Joe Biden reiterated Wednesday that he backed the legislation, and the House is expected to pass it after approving a similar bill earlier this year.

Historically, many in the GOP have opposed same-sex marriage, and the vote was seen as a test of how much lawmakers’ stances have shifted in recent years amid growing public support.

“While I believe in traditional marriage,” said Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah), “this legislation provides certainty to many LGBTQ Americans, and it signals that Congress—and I—esteem and love all of our fellow Americans equally.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) voted against the measure.

The legislation would also repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as a union between a man and woman. The act passed the Senate in 1996 by an 85-14 margin and was signed into law by former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat. Court rulings later invalidated it.

“While it’s true that this law is not currently enforceable…it still represents Congress’s last word on the subject,” said Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who voted in favor of Wednesday’s measure.

A May poll by Gallup found that 71% of Americans say they support legal same-sex marriage—up from 27% in 1996 ,when the organization said it first surveyed Americans on the issue.

Former Democratic President Barack Obama opposed same-sex marriage before shifting to support it in 2012. Obama had faced pressure to lay out a clear stance on the issue after Biden, then the vice president, endorsed it.

The congressional effort to pass a same-sex marriage bill started after the Supreme Court ended the federal right to an abortion in June.

Same-sex marriage supporters say outreach efforts have focused on Republicans who represent swing states and those who have family members who would be affected by the legislation. Former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, who is gay, said he has talked with Republican senators as part of a group called Centerline Action, which is advocating for same-sex marriage protection.

From his conversations in recent months, he said in an interview, it is clear that Republican lawmakers “know people who are in relationships that are concerned” about losing their marriage protections.

Earlier this year, the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy nonprofit, organized a letter signed by more than 225 companies—including Starbucks Apple, and Amazon—urging lawmakers to support same-sex marriage protections.

Research contact: @WSJ

September 26, 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle on Wednesday, September 25—fielding questions on her economic agenda, former President Donald Trump’s economic plans, and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D), reports The Hill

.The MSNBC interview was a friendly forum for the vice president, who has been under pressure to ramp up her media presence. Harris sat down with Ruhle in Pittsburgh, following an economic-focused speech in which she laid out a framework for her manufacturing agenda.

Here are five takeaways from Harris’s interview on MSNBC:

Harris lays out pricey agenda

Much of the interview was spent talking about the economy and involved Harris outlining her agenda. Her “opportunity economy” involves a housing plan to help first-time homebuyers, a child tax plan that involves expanding credits to families, and a plan to boost small businesseswith tax deductions for entrepreneurs, among other proposals.

“If you are hardworking, if you have the dreams and the ambitions and the aspirations I believe you do, you’re in my plan,” she said.

When it comes to how to pay for some programs, Harris reiterated that she would not raise taxes on Americans making less than $400,000—maintaining a pillar of President Joe Biden’s tax plan—but that corporations should pay their “fair share” in taxes.

Much of Harris’s economic agenda would need congressional approval, particularly when it comes to tax policy. That would make it an uphill battle, should Congress see a Republican majority; but also if either or both chambers are closely split between parties.

Ruhle questioned the vice president on polling that shows likely voters think Trump is better on the economy. Harris recently closed the gap with Trump on the economy in one survey — an Associated Press/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll that found Harris and Trump with equal support on the issue.

“Donald Trump left us with the worst economy since the Great Depression,” Harris said, citing data that about 200,000 manufacturing jobs were lost during the Trump years.

Walz pick was gut decision

Toward the end of the interview, Ruhle asked Harris when was the last time she made a “gut decision,” given that decisions made by presidents take “extraordinary instinct and guts.”

“When’s the last time you had to make a gut decision? This here is very prescribed. It’s very controlled,” Ruhle asked, referring to the interview setup.

“The biggest gut decision I made most recently was to choose my running mate,” Harris responded, referring to her decision to pick Walz to run as her vice president. “There were lots of good, incredible candidates, and ultimately that came down to a gut decision.”

Harris picked Walz in August, just more than a month after she announced her presidential bid. The governor emerged as a dark horse contender for the slot just before Harris made her choice, being selected over other more high-profile names Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D) and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly (D) ,who were largely viewed for weeks as the favorites for the position.

Harris knocks Trump on tariffs

Harris bashed Trump for his suggestion to place tariffs on foreign companies, which he has laid out repeatedly on the campaign trail.

“Part of it is, you don’t just throw around the idea of just tariffs across the board, and that’s part of the problem with Donald Trump,” Harris said when Ruhle asked about the former president’s plans to expand tariffs.

“He’s just not very serious about how he thinks about some of these issues,” Harris added. “One must be serious and have a real plan that’s not just about some talking point ending in an exclamation at a political rally.”

Trump gave an economic-focused speech this week in Pennsylvania, during which he spoke about his plan to use tariffs, continuing to expand on his claims that he wants to expand the use of tariffs if he’s elected.

He also threatened Illinois-based John Deerewith massive tariffs on its products if it outsources some of its manufacturing to Mexico, as it has previously announced.

Harris defends opposition to U.S. Steel sale

Harris defended her opposition to Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel acquiring U.S. Steel, after Ruhle mentioned the potential consequences of blocking it.

U.S. Steel warned earlier this month that it may cut staff and move its headquarters from Pittsburgh, if the company’s planned sale falls apart. Nippon Steel announced it would acquire U.S. Steel in December—prompting outcry from lawmakers, including Biden and Trump, who argued the deal could undermine national security and industrial capacity.

“It’s most important that we maintain America’s ability to have American manufacturing [of] steel by American workers for a number of reasons,” Harris said, defending the opposition.

“There is not a new industry that I can imagine that is not going to require steel,” she added, noting, “And having American workers in an American company manufacturing that steel for those industries is going to be critically important.”

Ruhle interview is Harris’s deepest on policy

Harris’s interview with Ruhle went deeper into her proposed economic policies than any of the other media appearances and interviews she’s done to date as the Democratic nominee.

Ruhle questioned Harris, for example, on how she planned to pay for such proposals and how the federal government would cut through red tape to reach municipalities on matters such as the shortage of housing.

The vice president outlined incentives the federal government can create for communities to build more homes and provide transit. Harris maintains that such proposals could be paid for with an increase in corporate taxes but has not gotten into details about how such hikes could get through Congress.

“I know that we have to reduce the red tape and speed up what we need to do around building, and that is going to require working from the federal level with state and local governments,” she said.

Research contact: @thehill