On the recordJune 5, 2012
we are coming to a very critical vote. Today we have the opportunity to address an issue that affects the bottom line of nearly every American family. The paychecks that American women take home at the end of each week or each month are as tied to our economic health as just about anything else. It is what helps sustain local businesses. It is what pays grocery bills at the end of the month. It makes mortgage payments. Ultimately, the pay women receive as we continue to make up a larger and larger part of our workforce is going to be critical to the growth of this Nation. Yet over the course of the past week, as we have debated this bill in the Senate and across the country, we have been met by either silence or resistance from those on the other side of the aisle. Time and again we have heard the same excuses on why we cannot join together to provide the guaranteed fairness women deserve. First, we heard this was a ``manufactured issue.'' Mr. President, if you talk to American women all across our country, you will quickly learn what some of my colleagues have called ``manufactured'' is an all-too-real part of everyday American women's lives. Women will tell you that at a time when families across America are struggling to make ends meet, equal pay for equal work should not be a pipe dream; it should be law.…





