Senate Republicans block measure designed to prohibit sex discrimination

Senate Republicans have blocked a resolution put forth by Democrats that would have removed the deadline for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, Politico reported.

The resolution was first passed overwhelmingly in 1971 but then needed 38 states needed to ratify it within seven years. As Politico points out, only 35 states ratified the measure within the original timeline.

"A later vote extended the deadline to 1982, but a sufficient number of states still did not ratify. The Senate’s resolution would remove the 1982 deadline and recognize the ERA in the Constitution," Politico's report stated.

“There is no good reason — none — for this chamber, this Congress, and this nation to bind itself to limitations set fifty years ago,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor.

“The Constitution itself imposes no such barrier; by keeping this barrier in place — this seven year barrier — all we’re doing is needlessly obeying skewed rules set by politicians who are long gone, and whose views ought not rule the day any longer.”