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

I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker. Members of the House. the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act goes to basic and fundamental American values. both in our daily lives and in our workplace. and that is that people ought to be rewarded with equal pay for equal work. Its fundamental. its Januaiy 27. 2009 CO basic to our economy. its basic to our society. Its basic to our sense of fairness. to our sense of justice. and to our sense of equality. But in far too many workplaces thats not what is done. Women. in many instances. time and time again. for doing the same job that men are doing in the same manner that men are doing it. are paid less. not because they are not doing the job equally as well as the men. but because somebody decided that they were going to pay them less simply because they were women. That runs counter to the values of this Nation. It runs counter to the values of our society. It runs counter to - the best interests of women. Its rather fascinating that they are suggesting that because of tough economic times some businesses may only be able to survive if they can engage in discrimination. If they can carry out a business plan based upon discrimination. they may be able to survive. so women should underwrite that discriminatory policy and accept less. Well. let me tell you what its like when you are trying to support a family. either as a dual wage earner or by yourself. and you are accepting less every week. every day. every hour for the work that you are doing the same as the people alongside of you. but you are getting less because you are a woman. Try that in these tough economic times. Try running your household in these tough economic times where the Republicans would have you believe we should enforce the policy of discrimination. that somehow women should underwrite these difficult times by accepting. being a victim of discrimination. I dont think so. I dont think the people in this Congress believe that. I dont believe the people in this country believe that. and thats why were going to pass this legislation. Its fundamental to the values of this country. Now. they are trying to run up the scare tactics that this gets rid of the statute of limitation. same statute of limitations. 180 days. that somehow if you had waited a long time you would collect more recovery than otherwise. No. you get 2 years of backpay. thats the maximum. and thats it. But they want to suggest otherwise. no. thats what the law says. And because of that. because we reset the law to what it was. as it was interpreted by courts all over this country and by employers and employees. the CBO in its independent analysis said this does not increase costs because it does not create a new cause of action and they dont expect a lot of litigation as a result of this because we go back to the law as it was. So lets move along here and get rid of this outrageous discriminatory practice that was sanctified by the Supreme Court in some kind of ideological rampage again.qt women and the treatment and the fairness of them in the workplace. We have an opportunity to do that now. We will pass this bill today. we will send it to the White House where our new President. Barack Obama. has said he will sign this legislation. And with that signature on this bill. we can change the law in this country to once again make sure that women are provided equal pay for equal work that they do in the American workplace. and I urge my colleagues to support this legislatiQn.