Congress has passed landmark legislation that provides federal recognition of same-sex marriages, a measure born out of concern that the Supreme Court could reverse its support for legal recognition of such relationships, Reuters reported.
The House of Representatives gave final passage to the legislation in a bipartisan vote that reflects a remarkable shift in public opinion just over a quarter-century after Congress defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
The final vote was 258 to 169, with 39 Republican members joining every House Democrat in supporting the bill. One Republican, Burgess Owens of Utah, voted present.
The measure now goes to President Joe Biden to sign into law.
The Respect for Marriage Act, as it is called, won Senate approval last month.
The legislation requires federal and state governments to recognize same-sex and interracial marriages, prohibiting them from denying the validity of marriage legally performed in another state on the basis of sex, race, or ethnicity.
Momentum for the bill began to build after the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v Wade, ending the national right to an abortion. It raised fears that the conservative-stacked court might reverse same-sex marriage next.
And it was feared for good reason. Writing in support of the majority’s decision on overturning Roe, the conservative supreme court justice Clarence Thomas had suggested the court might also consider striking down “demonstrably erroneous” precedents set by rulings like Obergefell v Hodges, the 2015 decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide and ended bans in the states that had them.
The vote was one of the final acts of this lame-duck Congress before the balance of power shifted and Republicans take control of the House in January.
Also passed in the House was a bill backing record military spending.
The legislation paves the way for the defense budget to hit a record $858 billion next year, $45 billion more than proposed by President Joe Biden.
The House passed the compromise version of the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, an annual must-pass bill-setting policy for the Pentagon, by 350-80, far exceeding the two-thirds majority required to pass the legislation and send it for a vote in the Senate.
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