Thursday, January 22, 2009

Article on Cogress: US Democrats Flex New Power...

The article US Democrats Flex New Power, Pass Pay Equity Bill discusses the fact that now, with the democrats in control of Congress and the White House, many more liberal bills are being passed and made into law. The bill discussed in the article is the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which was passed in the Senate last Thursday. The bill, of which a similar version recently passed in the House of Representatives as well, is now being discussed in a conference committee to iron out the differences and prepare it to be sent to President Obama's desk. He is expected to sign the bill into law early in his term. Once the bill is passed, the requirements for discrimination suits would be changed so that "each new discriminatory paycheck triggers a new 180-day statute of limitations" during which people can file lawsuits against employers for pay discrimination. The bill in essence overturns a 2007 Supreme Court Decision that made it tougher to sue for pay discrimination. (The Supreme Court had said the suit must be filed within 180 days of the first offense.)

The article directly relates to how a bill becomes a law and how the strong majority of Democrats in US politics will affect many bills in the coming months and years. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is very similar to one that the Republicans blocked last year. However, now that the Democrats are in control, the bill was approved 61-36 and, according to the article, "Democrats now expect to pass many of the bills previously stalled by Republicans and send them to President Barack Obama to sign into law."Therefore, the article supports the idea that Senate and House of Representatives are very important in American politics because of the power they have over the development of bills into laws. Without the majority of Democrats in the Senate and House as well as the Democratic control of the presidency, the article makes it clear that many bills proposed by the Democrats would not be able to become laws and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act may have been stopped on the Senate floor.

No comments: