New York Daily News

50 years later, still no equal rights amendment, but there’s new hope

- BY CHRIS SOMMERFELD­T BY MICHAEL MCAULIFF With News Wire Services

Americans anxious about getting their taxes done on time this year got a slight reprieve Wednesday, as the Internal Revenue Service pushed back the filing deadline by more than a month.

Instead of the customary April 15 cutoff, taxpayers will now have until May 17 to submit their 1040 forms to the IRS, according to Massachuse­tts Rep. Richard Neal, the Democratic chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdicti­on over taxation issues.

“This extension is absolutely necessary to give Americans some needed flexibilit­y in a time of unpreceden­ted crisis,” Neal said in a joint statement with New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell, the top Democrat on the committee’s oversight subpanel. “Under titanic stress and strain, American taxpayers and tax preparers must have more time to file tax returns.”

The IRS did not immediatel­y announce the extension officially, but Democratic congressio­nal aides said the May 17 deadline was confirmed directly to Neal, who has urged the government for weeks to push back the filing date.

The IRS is already behind on

WASHINGTON — The equal rights amendment to the Constituti­on that passed Congress nearly 50 years ago took a step toward finally becoming reality Wednesday as the House passed a resolution to extend the deadline for its ratificati­on.

The ERA passed Congress in March of 1972, but only 35 of the required 38 states ratified the amendment before the 1979 deadline that Congress set at the time.

The House voted 220 to 204 to remove the deadline, with just four Republican­s joining Democrats to pass the new resolution.

“Enough is enough. It’s long past time for women to be in the Constituti­on,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn).

Republican­s almost uniformly opposed the step, arguing that it was unconstitu­tional to extend the deadline. They also echoed language from the 1970s, saying the Constituti­on already protects women. “The ERA is unnecessar­y, redundant and divisive,” said Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.), who led the debate for the GOP. “The only thing it will do is empower the far-left special processing millions of 2019 tax returns because last year’s filing deadline was extended until July.

In addition, this year’s tax season didn’t start until Feb. 12 — more than a month late — to let the IRS focus on implementi­ng the $908 billion coronaviru­s relief bill that was signed into law in late 2020 to stave off the economic damage dealt by the still-raging pandemic.

Since then, President Biden has signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law.

Biden’s rescue bill is likely to keep the IRS busy for weeks, as the agency prioritize­s the processing of stimulus checks and other pandemic aid bankrolled by the massive legislatio­n.

The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the IRS has already sent out more than 90 million stimulus checks, totaling more than $242 billion, since Biden inked the stimulus package last Thursday. Biden vowed last week that the government would roll out at least 100 million checks within 10 days of the legislatio­n’s enactment, a goal he appeared likely to meet.

Individual­s earning less than $75,000 per year are getting $1,400 checks and couples earning less than $150,000 are getting $2,800 checks . interest groups and lead to activist litigation.”

Republican leaders also granted time to controvers­ial freshman firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

“The reviving of the deadline and ratifying of this amendment would destroy all distinctio­ns between men and women ... and empower the woke feminist mob,” Greene said. “The ERA would be a new constituti­onal right guaranteei­ng routine abortion on demand. Have we not murdered enough people in the womb in this country?”

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan, Brooklyn) said the Constituti­on places no deadlines on the process of ratifying constituti­onal amendments and that Congress clearly has the authority to extend or remove any deadlines it chose to set previously.

“We are on the brink of making history and no deadline should stand in the way,” Nadler said.

The other measure is a renewal of the original Violence Against Women Act in June 1990 which was introduced by then Sen. Joe Biden. A subsequent version was included in a crime bill that former President Bill Clinton would sign into law four years later.

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