Legislation to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act will be introduced in the House on Wednesday by Reps. Jerrold Nadler, John Conyers, and all four openly gay members of Congress.
According to a news release from the House, the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal DOMA in its entirety, will be re-introduced by Reps. Nadler, Conyers, Barney Frank, Tammy Baldwin, Jared Polis, and David Cicilline. The legislation already has 105 original co-sponsors in the House, and Sens. Diane Feinstein, Patrick Leahy and Kirsten Gillibrand plan to introduce a companion bill in the Senate.
The Respect for Marriage Act would repeal DOMA, and comes in response to a call from President Obama for Congressional action on the issue, reports the news release. As the President has stated: I stand by my long-standing commitment to work with Congress to repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. Its discriminatory, it interferes with states rights, and its time we overturned it. Last week, on the heels of the Presidents decision not to defend DOMA in court, House Republican Leadership announced that it will defend DOMA in court, making passage of the Respect for Marriage Act more critical than ever.
The re-introduction of the bill will be announced at a press conference at 11 a.m. at the Capitol that will feature the lawmakers, marriage equality advocates and two of the lead plaintiffs in twp cases challenges DOMA, Windsor v. United States and Gill et al. v. Office of Personnel Management et al.
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