Statement on Mitt Romney and Paycheck Fairness Act
President Obama has a clear record of supporting women and their families. The first bill President Obama signed into law once entering the Oval Office was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. The law amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by expanding the statute of limitations for filing a lawsuit based on gender-based pay discrimination, becoming a crucial protection for women who face long-term prejudice by their employers. The President established the Equal Pay Task Force to improve enforcement of equal pay laws. And he helped increase the participation of women and girls in science, technology, engineering, and math fields.
As the Senate now prepares to vote on follow up legislation to the Lilly Ledbetter Pay Act, the Paycheck Fairness Act, the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, has a chance to publicly take a stand for fairness for women in the workplace. Yet Romney has remained silent on this and many other issues facing women.
Under a Mitt Romney presidency, American women will likely see the clock turned back on many of the hard-fought victories won over the past few decades. Romney is usually nowhere to be found when key issues affecting women are debated on the national stage. He has not voiced support for women achieving pay equity with their male counterparts, the ability to find shelter from domestic abuse, achieve security in their reproductive rights, and access to affordable healthcare.
Despite his unwillingness to disclose his supposed solutions to these issues, he has shown his hand and revealed some very telling positions. Positions which make it clear that were Mitt Romney to win the election this fall, he would immediately seek to erode the longstanding protections American women deserve.
Discovering where Romney really stands on any issue is like playing Three Card Monte on a street corner. On the other hand, President Obama has been an economic champion for American families. He gets it ─ he is much more in tune with the struggles of families trying to pay bills and survive, said UAW President Bob King.
