The House Judiciary Committee has taken the next step to make ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment a possibility, by approving legislation to remove the deadline for 38 states to ratify the amendment.
This happens at a significant moment, after Democrats won control of both chambers of the Virginia legislature. Virginia could become the final state needed to ratify the ERA, which says that “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” But Virginia needs Congress to get out of the way by lifting the 1982 deadline for ratification. (Other amendments to the Constitution have not faced such a deadline.)
”With ongoing efforts by the federal and state governments to undermine equality under the law based on sex, it is clear that an Equal Rights Amendment is more important than ever. The resolution passed out of the Committee today will eliminate the deadline for ratifying the ERA, bringing our country closer to truly fulfilling our values of inclusion and equal opportunity for all people,” said committee chair Jerry Nadler.
The way is now clear for the full House to vote on the resolution. After that, it would head to the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell might well stand in its way as he has done for so much other legislation. But the pressure would be on him.