Barbara Mikulski: “what a bloodless way to talk about such an important public policy issue--to use the motion to proceed--and very few…”

“what a bloodless way to talk about such an important public policy issue--to use the motion to proceed--and very few people realize this. To simply get a bill on the Senate floor, we have to vote on a motion to proceed on whether we are going to take it up. And because this is now going to require a 60-vote majority, because of the invocation of this fog of filibuster, we can't even get to a majority vote on how to make sure women get equal pay for equal work. No wonder people are fed up with us. They wonder why, when all is said and done, more gets said than gets done. I travel the State of Maryland in the United States of America, and people want us to do our job, to work on a bipartisan basis, hands across the aisle, work across the dome, to solve national problems. We heard this morning the talk about the economy. One way to help the economy is for people to make more money. Do we know what is one of the best ways to make more money? Pay women equal pay for equal work. Also, enforce the law, the Equal Pay Act, that was passed in 1963. But we haven't been able to do it for several reasons, and this is what the paycheck fairness bill deals with. Right now, there is a veil of secrecy in businesses all over America--a veil of secrecy about the fact that an employee cannot ask a fellow employee what they are making. An employee is not supposed to talk about their salary.…”