The Paycheck Fairness Act, which proponents say would strengthen women's ability to get equal pay in the workplace, failed a procedural vote in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday. Just like yesterday's vote, Missouri's senators are sharply split along party lines.
Missouri's Republican senator Roy Bunt says the bill doesn't have much to do with "fair pay" and a whole lot to do with litigation.
In his weekly call with reports, Blunt called bringing the bill to a vote before it had been through the committee process a political stunt by his Democratic counterparts.
"It was a great bill for trial lawyers, a great bill for more litigation, not a bill that helps women in the workplace," Blunt said. "And I'd like to see us do the right things for the right reasons rather than the wrong things for the wrong reasons."
Missouri's Democratic senator Claire McCaskill, a strong supporter of the bill, says its failure to move forward in the Senate poses yet another roadblock to workplace equality.
In a press release, she says equal pay was a challenge her mother faced, she's faced and now her daughters may face.
