The Senate voted to pass the Respect for Marriage Act with bipartisan support on Tuesday. The bill is aimed at protecting same-sex and interracial marriage.
The 61-36 vote included all 50 Democrats and 12 Republicans and sends the bill to the House to vote on before the end of the year. The vote could happen even as soon as next week before it likely heads to President Joe Biden‘s desk.
Biden praised the passage as a “bipartisan achievement” after the results were made public on Tuesday, and said that after it passes in the House as indicated in a procedural vote, he will “promptly sign it into law.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) praised the bipartisan group comprised of Democratic Sens. Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin) and Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona) and Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Rob Portman (Ohio) and Thom Tillis (North Carolina) for their work on amending the original legislation to garner more GOP support.
“For millions and millions of Americans, today is a very good day,” Schumer said. “An important day. A day that’s been a long time coming.”
If the Respect of Marriage Act becomes a law, it will repeal the Defense of Marriage Act which under federal law defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman. However, if the right-leaning Supreme Court were to overturn 2015’s landmark Obergefell v. Hodges decision that legalized same-sex marriage, the choice would then go to the individual states to vote on their own law regarding same-sex marriage.
The Defense of Marriage Act would require states that outlaw same-sex marriage to recognize same-sex marriage from a state where it is legal.
