Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today voted to approve legislation (61-36) that would effectively overturn a Supreme Court decision that limited an American workers' ability to seek recourse on pay discrimination. The bill can now go to President Obama for signature.

"We must work to ensure that the courts remain a source of redress for employees many of whom are fighting much larger and better financed employers. Employees should not face unreasonable obstacles in their efforts to pursue a discrimination claim and to seek appropriate remedies," Bingaman said.  

"By placing an undue burden on employees to quickly prove discrimination the decision has negatively altered the use of the courts as a remedy to discriminatory conduct by employers. Employers who are more successful at hampering their employee's efforts to prove discrimination and delay are now afforded more protection than those employers who treat their employees justly under the law," he added. "The American judicial system is the envy of the world. In times of great national strife the courts have been a bastion of reason and justice. The Fair Pay Restoration Act seeks to restore this equity and to ensure that employees and employers have full and equal access to the courts."