After passing the United States House of Representatives this summer, heading to the Senate where it overcame a filibuster and was amended and approved, the Respect for Marriage Act (RFMA) was passed in the House this week by a 258-169 vote. It will now head to President Joe Biden’s desk.
According to language in the bill, it would provide statutory authority for same-sex and interracial marriages in federal law.
The bill came after concerns from the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Per the statement on the decision, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas also mentioned Obergefell v. Hodges, which ruled that same-sex couples have a right to marry.
The RFMA, if signed into law, would replace provisions in federal law that define marriage as between a man and woman and the word “spouse” as being a person of the opposite sex.
In July, when first going through the House this year, 47 Republicans joined all Democrats in favor.
Washington’s District 3 Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, was not among those 47, telling The Reflector at the time, “House leadership rushed this bill for a vote theoretically in response to Supreme Court rhetoric, yet the Supreme Court majority wrote in its Dobbs decision that ‘nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.’”
However, as the bill was brought to the House again this week, Herrera Buetler was among just 10 Republicans who flipped their vote creating a total of 39 Republicans who voted with all Democrats in support. She was just one of two Republicans whose vote flipped from “no” to “yes.”
Herrera Beutler’s did not respond to a request for comment on the vote.
