Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise to speak on paycheck fairness, a bill on which we will be voting on cloture. The paycheck fairness bill picks up where the famous Lilly Ledbetter bill left off. I was so proud to lead the fight on the Senate floor 2 years ago, under a new Congress and a new President, to ensure that we righted the wrong of a Supreme Court decision, where Lilly Ledbetter, on behalf of American women everywhere, would be assured that she could get equal pay for equal or comparable work. The Congress responded well and that legislation is now the law of the land. The paycheck fairness bill picks up where Ledbetter left off, because Ledbetter left the courthouse door open to sue for discrimination. Paycheck fairness makes it more difficult to discriminate in the first place; it increases penalties for discrimination; prohibits employer retaliation for sharing pay information; it closes the loophole that allows for a broad defense in equal pay cases. Let me go through this one by one. It improves remedies where discrimination has occurred. Current law now says that women can only sue for back pay and fixed damages. The paycheck fairness bill would allow women to get additional compensatory damage, which makes up for the injury or harm suffered based on discrimination. Ledbetter had no provisions regarding that. Also, so crucial is that it prohibits employer retaliation--and, wow, does this go on in the workplace.…”