ALL CURRENT LEGISLATORS COSPONSORING ERA BILLS, 2004 thru 2008 SENATORS • aronberg.dave.web@flsenate.gov • bennett.mike.web@flsenate.gov • bullard.larcenia.web@flsenate.gov • deutch.ted.web@flsenate.gov • gelber.dan.web@flsenate.gov • hill.tony.web@flsenate.gov • jones.dennis.web@flsenate.gov • joyner.arthenia.web@flsenate.gov Current Bill SPONSOR • justice.charlie.web@flsenate.gov • lawson.alfred.web@flsenate.gov • lynn.evelyn.web@flsenate.gov • rich.nan.web@flsenate.gov • jeremy.ring.web@flsenate.gov • siplin.gary.web@flsenate.gov • smith.chris.web@flsenate.gov • wilson.frederica.web@flsenate.gov REPRESENTATIVES • dorothy.bendross-mindingall@myfloridahouse.gov • mary.brandenburg@myfloridahouse.gov • ronald.brise@myfloridahouse.gov • gwyn.clarke-reed@myfloridahouse.gov • faye.culp@myfloridahouse.gov • nancy.detert@myfloridahouse.gov • keith.fitzgerald@myfloridahouse.gov • luis.garcia@myfloridahouse.gov • dan.gelber@myfloridahouse.gov • joseph.gibbons@myfloridahouse.gov • audrey.gibson@myfloridahouse.gov • ken.gottlieb@myfloridahouse.gov • ron.greenstein@myfloridahouse.gov • bill.heller@myfloridahouse.gov • ed.homan@myfloridahouse.gov • evan.jenne@myfloridahouse.gov • martin.kiar@myfloridahouse.gov • evan.jenne@myfloridahouse.gov • janet.long@myfloridahouse.gov • carlos.lopez-cantera@myfloridahouse.gov • peter.nehr@myfloridahouse.gov • jc.planas@myfloridahouse.gov Current Bill SPONSOR • ari.porth@myfloridahouse.gov • scott.randolph@myfloridahouse.gov • betty.reed@myfloridahouse.gov • david.rivera@myfloridahouse.gov • julio.robaina@myfloridahouse.gov • yolly.roberson@myfloridahouse.gov • franklin.sands@myfloridahouse.gov • ron.saunders@myfloridahouse.gov • elaine.schwartz@myfloridahouse.gov • michael.scionti@myfloridahouse.gov • kelly.skidmore@myfloridahoouse.gov • eleanor.sobel@myfloridahouse.gov • darren.soto@myfloridahouse.gov • priscilla.taylor@myfloridahouse.gov • geraldine.thompson@myfloridahouse.gov • james.waldman@myfloridahouse.gov • juan.zapata@myfloridahouse.gov

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-metro-prop-8,0,2463893.htmlstory?appSession=95889374163369&RecordID=&PageID=2&PrevPageID=2&cpipage=1&CPISortType=asc&CPIorderBy=SumOfAMOUNT

These groups are similar to those that defeated the ERA.

USUAL WEEKLY EARNINGS OF WAGE AND SALARY WORKERS:
FOURTH QUARTER 2008

Median weekly earnings of the nation’s 105.8 million full-time wage and salary workers were $728 in the fourth quarter of 2008, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported
today. This was 4.0 percent higher than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 1.6 percent in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) over the same period.

Data on usual weekly earnings are collected as part of the Current Population Survey, a nationwide sample survey of households in which respondents are asked, among other things, how much each wage
and salary worker usually earns.

Highlights from the fourth-quarter data are:
• Women who usually worked full time had median earnings of $650 per week, or 80.5 percent of the $807 median for men. The female-to-male earnings ratios were higher among blacks (92.1 percent) and Hispanics (90.9 percent) than among whites (80.1 percent) or Asians (79.1 percent).

Here’s the link to read more:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/wkyeng.pdf

There are some excellent demogrphics on that site. Well worth looking at.

Both men and women can also collect a retirement benefit of 50% of their spouse’s benefit (100% after the spouse dies).

“When workers are eligible for retirement benefits from Social Security, certain family members can also be eligible for family benefits. Eligible family members include: • Spouses who are age 62 or older; • Spouses who are younger than 62, if they care for a worker’s entitled child under age 16 or an adult child who is disabled prior to age 22; • Divorced spouses age 62 or older who were married to the worker for at least 10 consecutive years and who are unmarried at the time;• Children up to age 18 or 19, if they attend elementary or secondary school full-time; and • Disabled children, even if they are age 18 or older, who were disabled prior to age 22. . . .

A spouse who has never worked in paid jobs or has not worked to earn sufficient credits to be eligible for his/her own retired worker benefits can receive a spousal benefit that is 50 percent of the eligible worker’s full benefit. If a spouse has his/her own earnings record for one’s own retiree benefits, the spouse will receive the higher amount of either one’s own retiree benefits or spousal benefits. With increases in women’s labor force participation, the percentage of women who are eligible for retiree benefits on the basis of their own earnings record has increased, while the percentage of women eligible only as dependents (on the basis of their husband’s record only) has declined. Yet, because of women’s lower lifetime earnings than men’s,many married women eligible for their own benefits actually receive more than their own records would entitle them to through spousal benefits—called “dually entitled” beneficiaries. Most women receive the amount based on their husbands’ earnings records, up to 50 percent of the husband’s benefit. In that situation, they receive their own benefit plus an amount that brings them up to the level of the spousal benefit. When the husband passes away, the wife can receive her own benefit or 100 percent of the husband’s benefit, whichever is larger; very often the husband’s benefit is larger. [NOTE: When a wife dies, her husband can receive his own benefit or 100% of his wife's benefit, whichever is larger.]

According to data from the Social Security Administration, about 32.7 million women, men, and children received retired worker benefits as of December 2003, accounting for nearly 70 percent of all Social Security beneficiaries (total 47 million). Among all retired worker beneficiaries, 52 percent are women (16.9 million) and 1.5 percent are children (480,490) consisting of minor or in-school children and disabled children (some of whom are older; see Table 1). The majority of both women and men have work records eligible for their own retired worker benefits (85 percent of women and 99.8 percent of men), but a greater proportion of women than men (15 percent of women and 0.2 percent of men) have access to the benefit only as a spouse (as a wife or a widow). Even among women eligible for their own retired worker benefits, many are “dually entitled” beneficiaries who receive the benefit amount that is increased based on their husbands’ earnings records: about 6 million women receive this type of benefit increase, accounting for 36 percent of all women retired worker beneficiaries.That is, the benefit level for these women based on their own earnings records would be less than 50 percent of their husbands’ benefits if the husband is still living or less than 100 percent of their husbands’ benefits if they are widowed. Combined with women receiving benefits only as a spouse (15 percent), a little more than half of all women retired worker beneficiaries rely on husbands’ earnings records, either fully or partially, for their Social Security benefits.”

http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:sxXaZRatM3EJ:www.iwpr.org/pdf/D463.pdf+social+security+spouse+benefits&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us

See also http://www.ssa.gov/ww&os2.htm#divorce (re: survivor benefits for widows and widowers)

We noticed Ron Paul voted against H.R.406 and was the only one who did.

I have written him a letter about wanting to know his reason and will post his reply when I receive it.

To award a congressional gold medal in recognition of Alice Paul’s role in the women’s suffrage movement and in advancing equal rights for women.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Alice Paul Women’s Suffrage Congressional Gold Medal Act’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds as follows:
(1) Alice Paul was born on January, 11, 1885, in Moorestown New Jersey, and died on July 9, 1977.
(2) Alice Paul dedicated her life to securing suffrage and equal rights for all women and, as founder of the National Woman’s Party, she was instrumental in the passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
(3) Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party were the first group ever to picket the White House.
(4) While President Woodrow Wilson trumpeted America’s values of democracy abroad during World War I, Alice Paul was dedicated to reminding the President that not all Americans enjoyed democracy at home.
(5) Alice Paul used nonviolent civil disobedience to bring national attention to the women’s suffrage movement, such as the 3-week hunger strike she undertook when she was sentenced to jail in October, 1917, for her demonstrations.
(6) Alice Paul’s courage inspired thousands of women to join the women’s suffrage movement.
(7) Instead of patiently waiting for States to grant women suffrage, Alice Paul mobilized an entire generation of women to pressure the United States Congress and the President to give all women in America the right to vote.
(8) Alice Paul did not stop her fight after the 19th Amendment was ratified; she drafted the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1923 and fought tirelessly for its passage until her death 54 years later.
(9) Alice Paul lobbied Congress to include gender in civil rights bills and was successful in including sex discrimination in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
(10) Alice Paul sought equal rights for women all over the world, not just Americans and, as a means of pursuing this goal, founded the World Party for Equal Rights for Women in the 1930′s.
(11) Alice Paul was instrumental in the placement of a passage on gender equality in the preamble of the United Nations Charter.
(12) Few people have played a greater role in shaping the history of the United States than Alice Paul.
(13) Alice Paul is an example to all Americans of what one person can do to make a difference for millions of people

yes! This sounds great!!!
can you send us the link to freddie’s so that we can see what they are doing?