WASHINGTON, Nov. 29,
2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Tonight, the U.S. Senate voted
on final passage of the (Dis)Respect for Marriage Act. Yesterday
the Senate cleared the 60-vote threshold by a vote of 61-35, paving
the way for another 60-vote threshold vote today on final passage
(a modified process was agreed to by Senate leadership in exchange
for votes on three proposed amendments to the bill). The bill
passed 61-36.
For Monday's crucial 60-vote cloture vote, Senate Democrats
needed 10 Republicans to cross the aisle and vote to redefine
marriage; they got 12. Sens. Roy
Blunt (R-MO), Richard Burr
(R-NC), Shelley Capito (R-WV),
Susan Collins (R-ME), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Rob Portman (R-OH), Mitt
Romney (R-UT), Dan Sullivan
(R-AK), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and
Todd Young (R-IN) voted in favor of
the bill.
A previous version of the bill passed the House in July. If this
Senate-passed version passes in the House and is enacted by
President Biden, it will accelerate and intensify the
already-existing attacks on religious liberty (by creating a
private right of action); legislatively cement anti-family policies
harmful to children; make faith-based adoption and foster-care
agencies a greater target for frivolous litigation, curtailing or
ending their ability to help children find homes; threaten the
tax-exempt status of adoption and foster care agencies (and other
vitally needed non-profit organizations, whether religious or
secular); and tacitly vilify millions of Americans who believe in
natural marriage by labeling that belief as "sex discrimination,"
tantamount to racism.
Family Research Council president Tony
Perkins released the following statement after the "Respect
for Marriage" Act passed final cloture in the Senate:
"Republicans clearly acknowledged by their support of the Lee,
Lankford, and Rubio amendments that this legislation is a threat to
the First Amendment freedoms of individual Americans. And yet
12 of 12 Republicans still chose to vote for the (Dis)Respect for
Marriage Act. The (Dis)Respect for Marriage Act makes people prime
targets for government harassment, investigation, prosecution, even
civil action. This bill is a club, with which the Left will attempt
to beat people of orthodox faith--who believe in marriage as God
designed it and history has defined--into submission to their
destructive sexuality ideology.
"My experience as a former chairman of the U.S. Commission on
International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has shown me that
religious freedom's greatest threat is not a military force that
eradicates or suppresses religious freedom, although that has
certainly occurred. The greatest threat are policies like the
so-called Respect for Marriage Act. They are what curtails the
exercise of religious freedom-- which leads not to a violent
overthrow of this fundamental freedom, but to its systematic
suppression and eventual loss. In other words, the government has
declared open season on anyone who believes in marriage as it's
always been, the union of a man and woman.
"We know what is right. We know what is true. Whether by the
Court or by the Congress, truth cannot be altered. We need to have
the courage to stand for it, remembering the words of the Apostle
Paul in Ephesians 6, 'and having done all...stand firm.' These
words apply so directly to us, we will continue to stand," Perkins
concluded.
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SOURCE Family Research Council