WASHINGTON — Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who championed the bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act that President Joe Biden signed into law Tuesday afternoon, is celebrating the bill’s signing, calling it a historic step.
“Today, we are making history and making a difference for millions of Americans. We are telling the millions of same-sex and interracial couples that we see them and we respect them,” she said in a statement. “I am thinking of couples like my dear friends Margaret and Denise, who no longer have to worry their marriage could be on the chopping block. Because of our bipartisan work to pass the Respect for Marriage Act, millions of couples like Margaret and Denise can rest assured that the rights, freedoms, and responsibilities that come with marriage cannot be taken away by an activist Supreme Court. I am proud to have worked across the aisle to earn bipartisan support for our Respect for Marriage Act and am overcome with joy to see President Biden make marriage equality the law of the land.”
Biden signed the bill, which would codify same-sex and interracial marriage protections into federal law, during a ceremony at the White House. During his remarks, the president praised Baldwin by name, saying the bipartisan vote “simply would not have happened without the leadership and persistence of a real hero.”
READ MORE: Biden signs gay marriage bill at White House ceremony
Baldwin previously said she expected the bill to have a slim bipartisan majority to overcome a 60-vote filibuster threshold. The bill passed the Senate by a 61-36 margin with three senators not voting.
Wisconsin’s other senator, Republican Ron Johnson, voted against the bill.
On the House side, the bill passed 258-169. All three of Wisconsin’s Democratic representatives — Reps. Ron Kind, Gwen Moore and Mark Pocan — voted in favor of the bill, as did Republican Reps. Mike Gallagher and Bryan Steil. Reps. Scott Fitzgerald, Glenn Grothman and Tom Tiffany voted against the legislation.
The Rev. Tim Schaefer, the first openly gay pastor at First Baptist Church in Madison, previously told News 3 Now he felt in some ways the legislation didn’t go far enough “because it doesn’t require states to conduct marriages, it really only recognizes those that have already been done.”
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