Pelosi says she’s optimistic about background checks
NEW HAVEN — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is optimistic a series of bipartisan bills, including pay equity and background checks, that have passed in the U.S. House
of Representatives but stalled in the Republicancontrolled Senate, will pass prior to the 2020 election.
“The first 10 bills that we advanced when we took control of the House, they all had bipartisan support,” Pelosi said Saturday in New Haven. “It is interesting though, that if they don’t pass those bills, there is a consequence in the election, so we hope that would be a motivator in addition to doing the right thing.”
Pelosi was a guest Saturday morning at the Speaker in the House series, hosted by U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D3rd District, at Gateway Community College, to discuss equal pay for equal work. The issue of background checks was briefly mentioned, and the possible impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, which has dominated headlines and media appearances for Pelosi, did not come up during the event, which focused on powerful women in the room and the work they are doing on issues of equality.
“Whether we’re talking about equal rights, whether we’re talking about equal pay for equal work, whether we’re talking about gun safety, whether we’re talking about the Violence Against Women Act, whether we’re talking about minimum wage and the rest, we would rather have the issues passed into law than have them as issues in the campaign because they make such a tremendous difference in the lives of America’s working families, and in terms of gun safety, of course, make a difference of life and death in our country,” Pelosi said.
A pay check fairness bill passed in the House of Representatives in March with seven Republicans joining the unanimous Democratic caucus in favor of the bill. The bill would strengthen and close loopholes in the Equal Pay Act of 1963 by holding employers accountable for discriminatory practices, ending the practice of pay secrecy, easing workers’ ability to individually or jointly challenge pay discrimination, and strengthening the available remedies for wronged employees, but the bill has yet to be taken up by the Senate.
“Now we’ve got to get the word to the Grim Reaper,” DeLauro said, referring to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “It’s at his doorstep, so that the Senate will pass paycheck fairness, and make it the law of the land ... It’s a simple concept: Men and women with the same job deserve the same pay.”
The event featured a slate of powerful women, including Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, who has chaired the state’s newly formed Council on Women and Girls, a group tasked with providing a coordinated state response to issues that affect the lives of women, girls, their families, and the state of Connecticut.
“In Connecticut, women on average are still only making 83 cents on the dollar that men make, and in the case of black and Latina women, they earn 63 cents, and 54 cents, respectively,” Bysiewicz said, noting the state legislature’s passage earlier this year of paid family medical leave and a $15 minimum wage. “But we have much more work to do. The governor and I know that a pay equity gap still exists and we are fighting to close it.”