WASHINGTON — Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, said he expects there will be enough support from his party to pass a marriage equality bill this month.
Democrats have not yet attracted the 10 Republican senators they need to pass the bill in the evenly divided chamber, but negotiators are making progress, Tillis said.
The legislative push to codify same-sex marriages comes after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas suggested the high court reconsider the decision establishing a marriage right. Polling shows adult Americans strongly favor marriage equality, potentially giving Democrats a wedge issue if Republicans block the measure.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat, and Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine are leading the talks, which now center on an amendment addressing religious liberties. Tillis said he and some of his GOP colleagues are generally supportive of what’s currently being discussed.
“We’ve made progress with the drafting,” he added. “I think we’ve addressed a lot of the religious freedom questions that some had and we think we’re going to move it this month.”
Asked if he thinks there would be at least 10 Republican supporters, Tillis responded, “yes.”
But Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, one of the few Republicans who have endorsed the bill, expressed caution. “I don’t know yet,” he said Tuesday evening. “We have a meeting tomorrow with some of us to talk about it, but it’s still uncertain.”
The House passed the Respect for Marriage Act in July with 47 Republicans joining all Democrats in support. In the Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he wants to bring it to the floor as early as this month.
One Democratic aide said Tuesday that senior Democrats have been weighing a plan in recent days to add the legislation to a must-pass stopgap spending measure that would keep the U.S. government open past the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year. Yet some senior Republicans, including Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, panned the idea, as did Baldwin, who said she wants the legislation to move more quickly.
Attaching it to the stopgap measure “is not my preferred choice,” Baldwin said. “I’d rather have a vote sooner rather than later.”
She declined to provide details on any potential language related to religious liberties, but added that she expects to release the emerging amendment later this week.
Several Senate Republicans have said they would consider backing the bill, including Tillis, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Roy Blunt of Missouri and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.
The House-passed legislation would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage for federal purposes as between a man and a woman and allow states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages legally established in other states.
