Volume 167, No. 99, covering the 1st Session of the 117th Congress (2021 – 2022), was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“Paycheck Fairness (Executive Session)” mentioning Mitch McConnell was published in the Senate section on page S3968 on June 8.
Of the 100 senators in 117th Congress, 24 percent were women, and 76 percent were men, according to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Senators’ salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
Paycheck Fairness
Mr. President, now, on paycheck fairness, finally, this week the Senate will vote on whether to take up legislation that would provide equal pay for women in America.
We have been talking about the wage gap for years now, with no action taken by the Senate.
Women with the same jobs, the same degrees, sometimes even better degrees than their male colleagues, are making less money. For women of color, the gap between them and their male counterparts is even wider.
This is a fundamental issue of fairness, and we have a very simple, commonsense legislative proposal to address the issue. But yesterday, the Republican leader said Democrats’ attempts to bring this issue up for a debate was “transparently designed to fail.” He went on to say that issues like gun safety and pay equity were merely “demands of
[our] radical base.”
Look, the only way that a bill to provide equal pay for women is designed to fail is if Senate Republicans block it. And if the Republican leader wants to talk about “radical” positions, I would say that opposing legislation to provide equal pay for women, supported by a solid majority of voters, is a radical position. Does he believe that?
You know what is radical? Opposing legislation to expand background checks to prevent felons and the mentally ill from getting a gun. More than 90 percent–90 percent–of Americans support that policy. But Republicans have, in the past, opposed it. That is truly a radical position.
You know what else is radical? Opposing a bipartisan, independent Commission to report on a violent mob that attacked this Capitol. Spreading doubt about the veracity of our elections. That is radical and, in my opinion, despicable. It gnaws at the very roots of this grand democracy. And we hear either encouragement or acquiescence from the other side when President Trump and his minions do this.
You know what else is radical? Passing laws that specifically make it harder for younger, poorer, and non-White Americans to vote. That is truly radical and dangerous. It is against the whole grain of progress we have made in America. Remembering that when the Constitution was passed, the vast majority of us in this Chamber, not the vast majority but probably the majority–I haven’t counted–would have to be White, male, Protestant property owners to vote, we have made progress. They want to take a giant step back for pure electoral gain. Radical. That is radical.
So we are going to have a vote on paycheck fairness this week. The first vote is not even a vote on the bill; it is just a vote on whether to take it up for debate. We will see if our Republican colleagues take the radical step of blocking the Senate from even debating equal pay for women.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
