Date: 2009-01-27
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I yield myself 5 minutes. Mr. Speaker. today the House of Representatives meets to give final approval to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and send it to President Obama for his signature. What a difference a new. Congress and a President make. Nondiscrimination in the workplace must be a sacred American principle. Workers should be paid based upon their merits. not an employers prejudices. Yet. more than 40 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. the Supreme Court dramatically turned back the clock on this bedrock principle. Instead of abiding by decades of longstanding law. a narrow majority of the Supreme Court decided to commit legal jujitsu to satisfy a narrow ideological agenda. The Supreme Court simply told bad employers that to escape responsibility for pay discrimination all they need to do is keep it hidden for the first 180 days. The Ledbetter ruling has already dramatically impacted how Americans can remedy discrimination. It has been cited in hundreds of caseB over the past 19 months since the ruling. Not only have pay discrimination cases been adversely impacted. but even fair housing protections and title IX complaints. The Supreme Court sent these lower courts backwards down the wrong path. and today the Congress will correct that course by passing this bill. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act would simply reset the law as businesses. most courts. employers and employees and the EEOC had understood it before the Courts 2007 fihng. Under S. 181. every paycheck or other compensation resulting. in whole or part. from an earlier discriminatory pay decision or other practice would constitute a violation of title VII. In other words. if an employer keeps issuing discriminatory paychecks. that employer will keep restarting the clock for filing charges. Thats only fair. As long as workers file their charges. as Lilly Ledbetter herself did. within 180 days of a discriminatory paycheck. *the charges will be considered timely. The legislation also clarifies that an employee is entitled to up to- 2 years backpay as provided in title VII already. Finally. S. 181 ensures that these simple reforms extend to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act to provide these same protections for victims of age and disability discrimination. Correcting pay discrimination poses significant challenges to workers. made all the harder with the Supreme Courts Ledbetter decision. This is best illustrated by Lilly Ledbetters own words from an Education and Labor Committee hearing in 2007: "What happened to me is not only an insult to my dignity. but it had real consequences for my ability to care for my family. Every paycheck I received. I got less than what I was entitled to under the law. "The Supreme Court said that this didnt count as illegal discrimination. but it sure feels like discrimination when you are on the receiving end of that smaller paycheck and trying to support your family with less money than the men are getting for doing the same job. And according to the Court. if you dont figure things out right away. the company can treat you like a secondclass citizen for the rest of your career. This isnt right." I agree with Lilly Ledbetter: what happened to her wasnt right. Unfortunately. its too late for Lilly Ledbetter to receive justice. But today. thanks to Lillys incredible courage and perseverance. and thanks to millions of Americans making their voices heard. Congress will reject this ruling for the millions of Americans suddenly now subject to legal. discrimination. The Ledbetter v. Goodyear Supreme Court ruling was a painful step backwards for civil rights in this country. Today. the House will correct this injustice and send President Obama his first bill to sign into law. All victims of discrimination are entitled to justice. and I urge my colleagues to support the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Mr. Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.