An NFDW Action Alert on Equal Rights and Equal Pay
from President Gail Buckner
Action Alert
February 15, 2022
Contact your congressional members and ask them to sign on to the resolutions in the House (HJ Res 25) and Senate (SJ Res 4) which affirm the validity of the ERA and remove an arbitrary time limit in the preamble.amble.mble.ble.le.e. the new ERA bills that have been submitted to the U.S. House and Senate. Also attached is the ERA Took Kit that was announced at the 2022 Annual Meeting and sent out thereafter. NFDW's ERA Committee will be engaged throughout this process and will have more updates. TChank you to the Legislative Committee's ERA Subcommittee for their dedicated and impactful work.
AFFIRM THE ERA
It is the 21st century. Yet, 2023 marks the centennial of the introduction of the first Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) into Congress in 1923 and the continued denial of affirmation of an ERA bill amending the United States (US) Constitution to guarantee equal rights under the law without regard to sex. In fact, the US is the only industrialized nation whose written constitution does not secure rights that are presently being denied to more than half the population.
President Biden called for Congress to affirm the ERA on January 27, 2022. That marked the date that the ERA went into effect on the two-year anniversary of Virginia’s ratification. Virginia’s earlier victory met the prerequisite of thirty-eight state ratifications needed to pass the ERA.
In January of 2023, congressional resolutions were introduced in the House (HJ Res 25) and Senate (SJ Res 4) by Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), respectively, affirming the validity of the ERA and removing the time limit. Although the passage of the resolution is not required, Congress can and should act to remove any ambiguity that there is no time limit on equality.
100 years. We have waited long enough. The NFDW calls on Democratic women to:
t your congressional members and ask them to sign on to the resolutions in the House (HJ Res 25) and Senate (SJ Res 4) which affirm the validity of the ERA and remove an arbitrary time limit in the preamble.
Find your congressional members: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
Watch Representative Ayanna Pressley’s press conference: https://www.c-span.org/video/?525691-1/representative-ayanna-pressley-news-conference-equal-rights-amendment
Read Senator Ben Cardin’s press release about the introduction of the bills: https://www.cardin.senate.gov/press-releases/cardin-murkowski-pressley-and-colleagues-unveil-resolution-affirming-ratification-of-the-equal-rights-amendment/
2. Ask the White House to direct the U.S. Archivist to publish the ERA.
Call the White House comment line at 202-456-111
Write the White House: https://www.whitehouse.gov/get-involved/write-or-call/
We will see you on the front lines of equality. We will not wait another 100 years.
The National Federation of Democratic Women is a partner of the ERA Coalition: www.eracoalition.org.