Menendez, Booker, Colleagues Mark Era Enactment Day With Renewed Push for Senate Approval of S.J. Res. 1

Press Release

Two years to the day after Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker (both D-N.J.) joined a bipartisan majority of their Senate colleagues in a renewed push to remove an arbitrary deadline in the original congressionally approved ERA, which serves only to prevent the formal adoption of what should be the 28th Amendment to the Constitution.

After the Equal Rights Amendment itself was first passed by the Senate in 1972, Congress changed the seven-year deadline to 10-years, setting a precedent for such authority. There is no deadline in the ERA itself. Legal enactment of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution should take place two years after two-thirds of the House and Senate and three-quarters of the states ratify. Nevada ratified the ERA in March 2017, Illinois in May 2018, and Virginia in January 2020 as the thirty-eighth state.

"I am proud to join a bipartisan majority of my colleagues in the Senate in our renewed push to enshrine the full equality of women under the law regardless of sex," said Sen. Menendez. "Today, of all days, I challenge all of my colleagues to remember the revolutionary spirit of the suffragist movement as we reaffirm the importance of making sure that all women and girls in the United States are fully represented and protected by the U.S. Constitution."

"The journey towards a more perfect union is unending, and the Equal Rights Amendment's guarantee of equal rights to all regardless of sex is necessary for us to continue on our nation's march towards justice," said Sen. Booker. "Now that 38 states have ratified the ERA, Congress must remove an arbitrary deadline that prevents the amendment from becoming part of the Constitution which is why I am proud to join my colleagues today in supporting this important measure."

Article V of the Constitution contains no time limits for ratification of amendments, and the states finally ratified the 27th Amendment in 1992 regarding Congressional pay raises more than 200 years after Congress proposed it in 1789 as part of the original Bill of Rights. The ERA time limit was contained in a joint resolution - not the actual text of the amendment.

S.J.Res. 1 is supported by the ERA Coalition and the Fund for Women's Equality.

"The ERA Coalition is excited to see the addition of the remaining members of the Democratic caucus as co-sponsors on S.J. Res. 1," said Carol Jenkins, President and CEO of the ERA Coalition/Fund for Women's Equality. "We now have a bipartisan majority that wants to see the removal of the time limit from the Equal Rights Amendment's preamble. This just proves that there are still ways to work together to accomplish big things. We eagerly await a vote in the Senate."

S.J.Res. 1, which would officially remove the deadline for the ratification of the ERA, now has 52 cosponsors. In addition to Sens. Menendez and Booker, the cosponsors include Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Angus King (I-Maine), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Jon Tester (D-Mon.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Joe Machin (D-W.Va.), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.).

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