Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman is “well on his way to recovery” a little more than two weeks after he first checked himself into a Washington hospital “to receive treatment for clinical depression,” his chief of staff said on Monday.

Adam Jentleson shared the health update in a tweet along with photos of Fetterman, a Democrat, reviewing proposed rail safety legislation.

“[He] wanted me to say how grateful he is for all the well wishes. He’s laser focused on [Pennsylvania] & will be back soon,” Jentleson wrote.

Fetterman’s spokesman, Joe Calvello, had said in a statement on Feb. 27 that he was “doing well, working with the wonderful doctors, and remains on a path to recovery.” Calvello stressed then that Fetterman’s staff remained busy, including by opening satellite offices in Pennsylvania and “keeping [Fetterman] updated on Senate business and news.”

The senator sought treatment on Feb. 15, Jentleson announced in a statement at the time: “While John has experienced depression off and on throughout his life, it only became severe in recent weeks.”

Jentleson said then that Fetterman was evaluated on Feb. 13 by Congress’ attending physician, Dr. Brian P. Monahan, who “recommended inpatient care” at Walter Reed hospital. “John agreed, and he is receiving treatment on a voluntary basis.”

“After examining John, the doctors at Walter Reed told us that John is getting the care he needs, and will soon be back to himself,” Jentleson said.

Fetterman won his seat in the November midterms. He suffered a stroke during the campaign, which his doctors said was the result of irregular heart rhythm that led to a clot.

He recovered before the election and returned to the trail, albeit with limited appearances. After the stroke, he worked with a speech therapist and also has had auditory processing issues that require the use of closed-captioning devices.

“He has no work restrictions and can work full duty in public office,” his doctor said, via his campaign, in October.

Earlier in February, Fetterman was hospitalized for several days of observation after feeling lightheaded, though his aides said testing had ruled out seizures or another stroke.

A source close to Fetterman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told ABC News in February that his current hospitalization had no direct connection to the stroke he survived.

He hadn’t been eating regularly and “he’s been doing his job, but he just seems off,” the source said last month.

“This is an ailment — it’s a different ailment,” the source said. After the stroke, Fetterman “was still himself. The last couple of weeks, he hasn’t been himself.”

Fetterman’s family has no timeline for inpatient or outpatient care but believe it’s “weeks, not months — and not days” that he will likely be away from the Senate.

“Depression is very treatable. A lot of people don’t seek treatment because of the stigma. … What John Fetterman is doing right now is exactly what people should do when experiencing mental health challenges,” the source said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer tweeted in support of Fetterman soon after he announced he was getting treatment, writing, “Happy to hear [he] is getting the help he needs and deserves. Millions of Americans, like John, struggle with depression each day. I am looking forward to seeing him return to the Senate soon. Sending love and support to John, Gisele, and their family.”

Some Republicans echoed that. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted that he and his wife were “lifting John up in prayer. Mental illness is real & serious, and I hope that he gets the care he needs. Regardless of which side of the political aisle you’re on, please respect his family’s request for privacy.”

Fetterman’s wife, Gisele Barreto Fetterman, wrote on Twitter that “this is a difficult time for our family, so please respect our privacy. For us, the kids come first.” She and the senator share three children.

“Take care of yourselves. Hold your loved ones close, you are not alone,” she wrote, while praising her husband for “asking for help and getting the care he needs.”

“After what he’s been through in the past year, there’s probably no one who wanted to talk about his own health less than John,” she wrote. “I’m so proud of him.”

ABC News’ Will McDuffie, Allison Pecorin, Lauren Peller, Trish Turner and Alisa Wiersema contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Senate intends to move forward with a vote this week to revoke much-debated changes to Washington, D.C.’s criminal code even as the city council’s chairman sought Monday to withdraw the original legislation so that it could be revised and resubmitted.

The latest episode in the evolving controversy over the so-called D.C. crime bill began Monday when D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson delivered a letter to Vice President Kamala Harris in her capacity as president of the Senate confirming that the city would withdraw its criminal code revisions in order to make further changes and send them back to Congress at a future date.

Under the district’s unique status, Congress has ultimate authority over its laws.

“I’m quite clear in my letter that pulling it back means that the clock stops and it would have to be retransmitted to both houses, and that this will enable the council to work on the measure in light of congressional comments and to [be] retransmitted later. So, I will say I don’t know that that will stop the Senate Republicans. But our position is that the bill is not before Congress anymore,” Mendelson told reporters.

However, Senate leadership aides on both sides of the aisle told ABC News that Mendelson’s letter will not affect the vote or stop Congress from passing a resolution disapproving of the criminal code changes.

A Senate Democratic leadership staffer said that the authority granting Congress the power to green-light Washington laws does not allow for district legislation to be withdrawn after it is sent.

This person also said that the House measure to scrap the code changes, which was already passed, is what is receiving a vote in the Senate — rather than the Senate voting directly on the D.C. crime bill.

“We still expect the vote to occur,” the source said.

A senior GOP leadership aide confirmed the same, saying, “We will still vote and hold Democrats accountable for their soft on crime agenda.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer subsequently told reporters that the vote would be held Wednesday, though he didn’t say how he would cast his ballot.

The district city council last year unanimously passed changes to its criminal code. The revisions, in development for some 16 years, would mark the first major update to the code since its inception in 1901.

Among the changes, it would reduce maximum penalties for burglary, carjacking, robbery and other offenses, scrap some mandatory minimum sentences for some crimes and expand jury trials for some misdemeanors. The penalties for other crimes, such as attempted murder and attempted sexual assault, would increase.

Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, vetoed the legislation but the council overrode her veto in a 12-1 vote in January. Some on the council cited the “robust and healthy debate” that went into the revisions while others said there would still be several years to pass amendments before the changes would take effect.

The legislation was then sent to Congress for approval, under the Home Rule Act.

The House’s Republican majority, with the help of 31 Democrats, in February passed a bill disapproving of the legislation. Sen Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., sponsored an identical resolution to quash the crime bill and a number of Senate Democrats — from conservative to liberal — have told ABC that they plan to vote with Republicans.

The criminal code changes and the resulting backlash in Congress have stirred debate among Democrats about the best approach to public safety while respecting the autonomy of the nation’s capital.

This is the first time in 30 years that Congress is using this power over D.C. and Democrats have reversed their normal support of the district’s independence in the face of GOP criticism and in the wake of high-profile Democratic losses in Chicago and New York, where crime and public safety have become major concerns.

President Joe Biden waded into the debate when he said last week that he would not veto the disapproval resolution if it passes, though the White House previously said it opposed Congress intervening and repeated a call for D.C. statehood.

“One thing the president believes in is making sure that the streets in America and communities across the country are safe,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters last week. “That includes D.C.”

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has said that she wished the president “told us first” before House Democrats voted in support of the new criminal code.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump is seeking to prevent the special counsel investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election from using testimony provided by former top White House lawyers to a federal grand jury, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.

In recent weeks Trump’s attorneys have asked a court to bar special counsel Jack Smith from using testimony from former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and his former deputy Patrick Philbin as evidence in Smith’s ongoing investigation into the events surrounding Jan. 6, said the sources, who spoke about the confidential court battle on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss nonpublic litigation.

Trump’s lawyers have also filed to prevent Smith from using former Trump lawyer Eric Herschmann’s grand jury testimony, the sources said.

Prosecutors in Smith’s office have urged an appeals court to reject Trump’s efforts, arguing that the matter is moot given that the three men have already spoken to the grand jury, the sources said in regard to the sealed testimony.

Representatives for Cipollone, Philbin and Herschmann did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News. The special counsel’s office declined to comment.

“The DOJ is continuously stepping far outside the standard norms in attempting to destroy the long-accepted, long-held, Constitutionally based standards of attorney-client privilege and executive privilege,” a source close to Trump who is familiar with the issues told ABC News.

Investigators late last year overcame a previous legal challenge that was made on the grounds of executive privilege. Both Cipollone and Philbin appeared before the grand jury in September 2022, but declined to answer some questions until issues surrounding claims of executive privilege were resolved. Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., ruled that claims of privilege by Trump didn’t apply, and Trump’s legal team did not seek to stay the ruling.

Cipollone and Philbin then appeared before the grand jury for a second time in December 2022. Trump’s lawyers appealed Howell’s ruling about a month later, after the two had already provided additional testimony.

Cipollone was one of the few aides with Trump on the day of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, and is said to have significant insight into events before, leading up to, and after the attack. In the days following Jan. 6, Cipollone advised Trump that Trump could potentially face legal jeopardy in connection with his role encouraging supporters to march on the Capitol, sources said following the attack.

Both Cipollone and Philbin were part of a Jan. 3, 2021, Oval Office meeting where Trump mulled replacing then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen with Jeff Clark, a Trump loyalist who had vowed to use the DOJ to investigate alleged 2020 election irregularities.

Trump’s previously undisclosed attempt to suppress the lawyers’ testimony adds yet another dimension to the ongoing efforts by his legal team to slow the fast-paced developments in Smith’s investigations — including Smith’s separate probe into Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office and Trump’s potential obstruction of the government’s efforts to retrieve them.

Last month DOJ investigators probing Trump’s handling of classified documents asked a judge to overrule attorney-client privilege and compel Trump attorney Evan Corcoran to answer questions about his interactions with Trump before a grand jury, sources previously told ABC News. The DOJ made the request on the basis of the crime-fraud exception, sources said, which allows for attorney-client privilege to be suspended in cases where it is suspected that legal services were rendered in the commission of a crime.

Oral arguments in the matter are scheduled for later this week, according to sources.

The special counsel has also asked a federal judge to compel former Vice President Mike Pence to testify after Pence was subpoenaed last month as part of the Jan. 6 probe, sources familiar with the matter previously told ABC News. Last week, Trump’s attorneys filed a motion to prevent Pence from testifying on the grounds of executive privilege.

Sources told ABC News that in February, prosecutors investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election also moved to compel testimony from a number of other top Trump aides, including former chief of staff Mark Meadows. In some cases the motion seeks to break through claims of executive privilege that either some of the witnesses or attorneys for Trump have attempted to assert.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former “Boy Meets World” star Ben Savage is running for Congress in California’s 30th Congressional District, he announced on Monday.

“I’m running for Congress because it’s time to restore faith in government by offering reasonable, innovative and compassionate solutions to our country’s most pressing issues,” Savage wrote in an Instagram post.

“And it’s time for new and passionate leaders who can help move our country forward. Leaders who want to see the government operating at maximum capacity, unhindered by political divisions and special interests,” he continued.

He described himself as a “proud Californian, union member and longtime resident of District 30 who comes from a family of unwavering service to our country and community.”

Savage is running for Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff’s seat while Schiff is now running to succeed Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who will retire at the end of her term.

In January, Savage submitted paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run as a Democrat in the 30th District, which encompasses West Hollywood, Burbank and parts of Pasadena.

A representative for Savage told ABC News in a statement at the time, despite the filing, that “he is focused on his upcoming wedding. Ben is still making decisions and always looking for opportunities to give back and serve the community.” (Earlier in January, Savage announced he is engaged to Tessa Angermeier.)

This isn’t Savage’s first campaign to hold office. He ran unsuccessfully to be on the West Hollywood City Council in the 2022 election, focusing on community safety, housing and homelessness, according to his website.

Savage famously played the lead role of Cory Matthews on ABC’s “Boy Meets World” from 1993 to 2000 and then reprised his character in the 2014 reboot, “Girl Meets World.” His most recent roles were two TV films, in 2022 and 2020.

Savage has seemingly long had an interest in politics, having studied political science at Stanford University, where he graduated in 2004. He also interned for Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, then a Republican, in 2003.

The general election will be on Nov. 5, 2024.

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(NEW YORK) — A Norfolk Southern freight train derailed Saturday in Springfield, Ohio, marking the fourth rail incident in the state in the last couple of months, including the toxic crash in East Palestine, Ohio.

Although the company said there were no hazardous materials in the latest incident, elected officials in the area have expressed more frustration with Norfolk Southern and called for better safety protocols.

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown spoke with GMA 3 about the incident and his legislation, the Railway Safety Act.

GMA 3: Joining us now is the senior senator from Ohio, Sherrod Brown. Senator, thanks for taking the time. Let’s jump right in to this because we have a lot to talk to you about. Begin by telling us the latest that you can share with us about the second Norfolk Southern derailment, which is near Springfield, Ohio.

SEN. SHERROD BROWN: That’s the fourth derailment in five months. Steubenville, Sandusky, of course, the most disastrous East Palestine in eastern Ohio and now Springfield. And I have some questions about Springfield that there was some residue in the cars. I want to make sure that that’s not a problem for local residents. But I mean, start with this: This is a company immensely profitable. They’ve done billions of dollars in stock buybacks. In the last couple of years alone…they’ve laid off a third of their workforce.

They’ve compromised on safety. The workers don’t have enough time to do the thorough inspections they should do. So companies like this do the kind of damage they did for, again, four derailments in five months in my state.

What it’s done to East Palestine, it’s going to take tens of millions of dollars to fix what they did, and people there are still suffering. [They’re] coming back into their homes, testing their water, testing the soil, testing the air, the damage to farmers and local businesses. So they still have a lot to answer for.

GMA 3: And while this new one is much different than what happened in East Palestine, you were just talking about that no hazardous chemicals were leaked. You met with residents of East Palestine last week. What stood out to you from that discussion? Are you satisfied with the cleanup efforts that are going on there?

BROWN: No, I’m not satisfied. I’m not satisfied that this company is going to change its behavior. I’m not satisfied that they have really listened to local residents whose lives are upended. They just want to get their lives back to normal. Norfolk Southern says they’re going to pay for everything. They said they’re going to pay for hotel stays and testing and damages. But one of the fears I have is what these chemicals mean for somebody two years, five years down the road.

And I compare that to what Congress did on the PACT Act, for the hundreds of thousands of veterans who were exposed to these football field-sized burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan and breathed all this stuff in. We passed a law, the PACT Act, that simply says if you have one of 23 illnesses that we’ve identified in that law, you get immediate care at the VA without having to get a lawyer and suing and all of that.

I don’t know if that’s what we’re going to need to do in East Palestine. If we do, if we write a law like that or we’re going to hold Norfolk Southern accountable for the damage they did.

GMA 3: And Senator, we’re getting word today that Norfolk Southern announced and they announced it today that all of its trains over 10,000 feet will now use distributed power units, which will be remotely controlled and help with acceleration and braking. That’s what they have done. You have recently introduced your own suggested changes to this bipartisan Railway Safety Act of 2023. So I’m curious, what would that legislation do? And do you think it would have prevented what happened in East Palestine?

BROWN: Well, I don’t know if it would have prevented it, certainly would have mitigated the damage. It wouldn’t have been nearly this, this is damaging to a local community. Think about a couple of things. One hundred and fifty cars in East Palestine, many of them jumped the tracks. In Springfield, as you just reported, more than 200 cars.

That’s one of the things our bill does is create, would require a two-person crew. Norfolk Southern wanted to have a one-person crew on these trains. It also says it also mandates when these trains come into the state, they’ve got to notify the state authorities if they’re carrying hazardous materials so the state can then inform local firefighters to be ready in case something happens.

It improves the safety of wheel bearings, which has been the cause of more of these accidents than anything else. It ups the fines. The average fine Norfolk Southern paid in the last few years is $10,000 for safety violations. That’s pennies on the dollar of a company that gives $6, $7 billion in stock buybacks.

So we will do a number of those things in this bill. And Sen. [J.D.] Vance, the Republican sponsor, and I and then Sen. [Bob] Casey in Pennsylvania, we have three Republicans, three Democrats. As soon as I return this week…we’re going to work to get this bill through the Senate.

GMA 3: Now we hear you criticizing Norfolk Southern. You’re mentioning the stock buybacks. The CEO of Norfolk Southern, Alan Shaw, is due to testify before the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Thursday. Now, you’re not actually on that committee, but what would you like to see them press the company on?

BROWN: Well, I’m testifying too when the CEO does. I want him to promise to a congressional committee, to a Senate committee that he’s going to do all these things that he is going to notify when trains come into the state, that he’s committing to a two-person crew, that he will not object, that he will even support bigger fines, that he will pay, that they will reimburse all these residents.

Five thousand people live in that town. But we think the damage could be to farmers. A farmer told me that she has 25-herd of beef cattle. She’s getting calls from regular customers that buy a side of beef, half a beef. Is it safe this year? I don’t know. She doesn’t know. The customers don’t know.

So Norfolk Southern needs to commit especially to long-term health problems that might come to people in this community. They need to commit to pay for that, to bring this community back to normal as much as it possibly can.

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(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is seeking to delay the civil fraud case he faces in New York by several months. This timeframe would push the trial, currently scheduled for October, deeper into the 2024 presidential campaign.

In a recent court filing, Trump’s attorneys said the delay they’re seeking is “borne of necessity” given the case’s complexity and the “staggering volume” of evidence.

“The current schedule makes the preparation of a defense impossible,” Trump’s attorneys Alina Habba and Clifford Robert wrote. “Fundamental notions of fair play and due process mandate that Defendants are afforded every opportunity to prepare a meaningful defense, rather than to have an impossible schedule forced upon them.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a $250 million civil lawsuit last September against Trump, his eldest children and his company that alleged they schemed to inflate Trump’s net worth and the value of his real estate holdings, duping lenders and insurers into giving the Trump Organization better terms than deserved.

Trump has denied wrongdoing and has derided the lawsuit as part of a partisan witch hunt.

James has not formally responded to the new motion but has written previously to the judge opposing delays.

“[T]here is no unfair prejudice to Defendants under the existing schedule and Defendants’ claimed hardship is self-inflicted,” Assistant Attorney General Colleen Faherty wrote in a letter to the court last month. “In short, Defendants have had ample time and opportunity to familiarize themselves with the matter. Instead, they have waited until the eve of the fact discovery deadline to only just begin their process of conducting discovery to prepare for trial, and now seek more time.”

Delaying the case would require the approval of Judge Arthur Engoron, who has previously signaled his intention to begin the trial as scheduled on Oct. 2 “come hell or high water,” according to a February court filing.

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(SIMI VALLEY, Calif.) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis visited Southern California on Sunday, taking swipes at Gov. Gavin Newsom in his own backyard amid a widening Republican Primary battle ahead of 2024.

“I know you guys got a lot of problems out here, but your governor is very concerned about what we’re doing in Florida, so I figured I had to come by,” DeSantis said, speaking before a crowd of over a thousand people at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library’s Air Force One Pavilion and drawing considerable applause.

But it was not a warm welcome from everyone. The Simi Valley Police Department said Sunday that library employees discovered black spray paint on an entrance sign reading “Ron DeFascist” in the early morning hours.

Authorities said employees were able to remove the paint before DeSantis’ arrival. However, soon after, a large contingent of several dozen protesters took to the sidewalks in front of the library to protest his speech.

DeSantis’ visit to the Golden State follows two days spent in Texas fundraising for the Harris and Dallas County Republican Parties and exactly one year away from Super Tuesday when voters in both states will hit the polls to cast their ballot for a 2024 presidential nominee.

While DeSantis has not officially entered the race for the Republican nomination, he is widely viewed as a potential favorite by many. A recent UC Berkeley/LA Times poll released last week showed him leading former President Donald Trump by eight points in California’s primary next year.

In a statement issued on Saturday before his arrival, Newsom sarcastically welcomed DeSantis to the “real freedom state.”

“California residents are safer, healthier and more prosperous than those unfortunate enough to have you as their governor,” he said. “Oh, by the way, you’re going to get smoked by Trump.”

During his speech, DeSantis took the opportunity to draw a sharp contrast between his state and California, as well as other Democratic states like New York and Illinois.

“I think it goes back to this woke mind virus that’s infected the left and all these other institutions,” DeSantis said. “I mean, think about the way they have governed the states. They put things like woke ideology over the tried and true principles that President Reagan stood for and that most Americans believe in.”

Following his speech in Simi Valley, DeSantis traveled south to Orange County to speak to over 900 donors at the Westin Anaheim Resort in a closed-door event.

“We raised more money from this event than we’ve raised on any one-night fundraising event in the history of the Orange County Republican Party,” Fred Whitaker, chair of the county party, said. “So you could say the interest for Governor DeSantis is off the charts.”

Areas like Orange County and Simi Valley offer ample opportunity for potential Republican candidates like DeSantis to rub elbows with some of the country’s wealthiest and most powerful GOP members ahead of 2024.

“We are the county with the most Republican donors; we’re the county that still, as far as urban counties, is the most competitive for Republicans; we control over two-thirds of all the elected offices in Orange County and yet we’re in the heart of the LA basin,” Whitaker said. “I think if you have any interest in running for president, then you need to talk to Orange County Republican donors. You need to talk to Orange County Republican voters.”

According to OpenSecrets, DeSantis brought in nearly $4 million alone from California amid his gubernatorial reelection battle in 2022, outpacing even more conservative states like Texas. Although California is a liberal stronghold, it could wield substantial weight in a GOP presidential primary.

Between its winner take all status and the number of delegates it offers — more than any other state — California could be critical to any candidate hoping to make it through Super Tuesday amid a potentially crowded GOP field.

“California, by moving its primary from June to March for the 2024 presidential election, is going to have a much different dynamic than there was in 2016,” Whitaker told ABC News. “In 2016, by the time the primary happened, the nomination had already been decided. Super Tuesday’s right in the heart of it.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The Equal Rights Amendment was first drafted and introduced in Congress in 1923 — and now, a century later, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is working to at last enshrine its guarantees of gender equality in the Constitution.

“I’m dismayed that in 2023, we still have to fight to be seen as full citizens given the contributions of women as defenders of our democracy and all the contributions that we make to civic life, to culture, to our economy,” Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who is leading the effort in the House to ratify the ERA, told ABC News in a segment on “This Week” on Sunday.

Congress passed the ERA in 1972 with support from members of both parties, following efforts by leading female legislators like then-New York Rep. Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman in Congress.

The amendment states that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”

But after passing the House and Senate, the proposed amendment fell short of the three-fourths majority of states — 38 — needed to ratify it before a seven-year deadline set by Congress. Although lawmakers voted to extend the ratification deadline by an additional three years, no new states signed on amid a campaign by conservative activists led by Phyllis Schlafly to stop the amendment.

Schlafly and others argued at the time that rather than extend legal protections for women, the ERA would force them to be treated like men in other ways — such as pushing them into the military draft. Some also said the amendment would expand abortion access, upend child support requirements or encroach on the sex-separation of bathrooms.

“The majority of women simply don’t want it,” Schlafly argued in 1976.

Complicating matters further, five states later voted to rescind their earlier support for the amendment, though such a move has disputed legal value.

The ERA has seen revived public interest in recent years, following the #MeToo movement, women’s marches and the record number of women running and winning seats in Congress.

Nevada voted to ratify the amendment in 2017, Illinois did so in 2018 and it reached the 38-state threshold needed when Virginia voted to do the same in 2020.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the congressional deadline on the ERA was legally binding, so the later three ratifications were not valid. Illinois and Nevada sued to demand publication of the measure as the 28th Amendment but failed to show why the deadline that Congress set shouldn’t be enforceable.

Lawmakers and advocates backing the ERA now argue that Congress has the power to lift the deadline because they had the power to impose it in the first place. Pressley told ABC News that it was the “only thing standing in our way.”

“What I think it does is put the ball back in Congress’ court, and that’s where we’ve been playing for quite some time,” said Zakiya Thomas, president and CEO of the ERA Coalition.

Some activists renewed their push to codify the ERA in light of the Supreme Court’s decision last year overruling Roe v. Wade’s national guarantee to abortion access.

“Especially now, it’s important to reintroduce this … in the midst of draconian, very dangerous and targeted attacks against women and the LGBTQ community,” Pressley said. “And really, it’s always time to uplift and to center the humanity and dignity of all people and we need that to be enshrined in the Constitution. I want to vote on this now.”

Last week, the Senate held its first hearing on the ERA in 40 years.

“Here we are, a century after its first introduction, 2023,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill. “It’s time to get the job done. In fact, it’s long overdue.”

The amendment could have real world implications. Jadonna Sanders is a sergeant paramedic with the Washington, D.C., fire department. She has filed a federal lawsuit against the district’s Fire and EMS department alleging gender discrimination and demanding equal pay.

“This is the same story everywhere you go, especially with women who are in a profession such as firefighting, police, you know, where men dominate,” Sanders said.

Officials have pushed back on her claims.

“The department has a long history and a recent history of … hiring women, promoting women,” the department’s chief, John Donnelly, said last year. “Those things seem foreign to me, but we’ll look into them.”

The compensation gap between men and women is just one of several areas that advocates say the ERA would shore up. In 2022, women earned 82 cents on average for every dollar earned by men — a disparity almost unchanged over two decades.

But the battle in Congress is still breaking down along usual party lines.

“The people who are pushing politically to pass this are hanging their head on if it became law, every pro-life measure in this country would fall,” the Senate Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican member, Lindsey Graham, said during last week’s hearing. Others in the GOP say there is no legislative authority to “revive” the amendment.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is one of few Republicans on board with the ERA, hoping this latest push builds momentum.

“What has happened in the states should not die here in the Senate,” Murkowski said in recent remarks, noting that “we still have a long ways to go when it comes to achieving equality for women.”

In the House, where the Republican majority has declined to take up the bill, Pressley hopes to keep the fight alive.

“It’s long past time,” she told ABC News.

“Equality for all people? Certainly there should be nothing partisan about that.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Sunday had sharp words for the chorus of Republican-led critics to his response to the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, in February.

In an interview with CNN, Buttigieg offered his most vociferous defense to date, seeking to rebut claims that the Biden administration doesn’t care about the blue-collar town by casting his detractors as the ones truly out of touch.

“It’s really rich to see some of these folks — the former president [Donald Trump], these Fox hosts — who are literally lifelong card-carrying members of the East Coast elite, whose top economic policy priority has always been tax cuts for the wealthy, and who wouldn’t know their way around a T.J. Maxx if their life depended on it, to be presenting themselves as if they genuinely care about the forgotten middle of the country,” Buttigieg said.

The transportation chief, a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who also ran for president in 2020, took specific aim at Trump, who visited East Palestine last month.

While in East Palestine, Trump praised local responders and said, “What this community needs now are not excuses … but answers and results.”

Trump also said his trip pressured Buttigieg to subsequently make his own appearance.

“That’s bull—-,” Buttigieg told CNN. “We were already going to go.”

He said it was “somewhat maddening” that Trump would visit East Palestine after easing environmental and rail regulations during his time in the White House “and then show up giving out bottled water and campaign swag.”

Buttigieg has been the target of a fusillade of conservative attacks since last month’s train derailment and concerns over the spread of the noxious chemicals that were on board.

He conceded to CNN that he should have gone to the site of the crash sooner, saying, “Sometimes people need policy work, and sometimes people need performative work. And to get to this level, you’ve got to be ready to serve up both.”

Transportation secretaries do not typically visit train derailments, as some Biden administration supporters have noted. But being there in person was valuable, Buttigieg said: “I think it was important to hear and see how the community was responding, what they were worried about it just a different way that you can sense on paper.”

But Republicans have kept up their scrutiny, which follows past criticism of how the secretary handled issues like Southwest’s holiday season flight meltdowns.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and others have said Buttigieg should resign. Some have personally targeted the first openly gay Cabinet member to be confirmed by the Senate, with attacks on his sexuality.

Donald Trump Jr. insisted that Buttigieg was only tapped for his job because he was “that gay guy,” while Fox News host Tucker Carlson has referred to him as “flamboyantly incompetent” to the point of “evil.”

Buttigieg’s Democratic defenders say those attacks are off base and that while Buttigieg could have made the trip earlier, Republicans are overestimating his ability to ameliorate the issue while using his past presidential bid as low hanging fruit for attacks.

“Maybe they think that because he ran for president, he’s an easy target to hit,” outgoing Labor Secretary Marty Walsh told CNN. “People always say, ‘What’s Secretary Buttigieg going to do next? What’s Buttigieg going to do next?’ We’ve talked. What he’s going to do next is be secretary of transportation.”

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(SELMA, Ala.) — President Joe Biden traveled to Selma, Alabama, to commemorate the 58th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday.”

There, Biden spoke at the Edmund Pettus Bridge — where in 1965 hundreds of civil rights marchers were attacked by police. The violence, which sparked national outrage, marked a turning point in the movement and led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act.

“They forced the country to confront the hard truth and to act to keep the promise of America alive,” the president said in his remarks at the bridge. He also stressed that he believed voting, a “fundamental right,” remains under assault decades later — from conservative Supreme Court justices and from state lawmakers and from election deniers.

Biden touted some steps he and others had taken, such as enacting the post-Jan. 6 Electoral Count Reform Act. But “we must remain vigilant,” he said, repeating his plea for Congress to pass new voting legislation named for the late Georgia Rep. John Lewis, who was beaten and suffered a skull fracture during “Bloody Sunday.”

And while the president said there was a list of other accomplishments he was proud of, including various investments in the Black community, “We know there’s work to do,” he said, briefly touching on destructive tornado weather that had blown through Selma.

His message, on the anniversary of the march, was “extremism will not prevail …. Silence, as the saying goes, silence is complicity. And I promise you, my administration will not remain silent. I promise you.”

After speaking, the president marched across the bridge with civil rights advocates — the first time he did so since entering the White House.

Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday, as she previewed the trip, that he would “talk about the importance of commemorating ‘Bloody Sunday’ so that history cannot be erased. He will highlight how the continued fight for voting rights is integral to delivering economic justice and civil rights for Black Americans.”

Biden has repeatedly spoken on voting rights, highlighting the issue in a sermon honoring Martin Luther King Jr. in January and in his most recent State of the Union, despite legislation faltering during his first two years in the Oval Office.

Democrats attempted last year to update the 1965 Voting Rights Act with a bill named after Lewis but failed to gain enough support to break the Senate filibuster. Now, with a Republican-led House, any effort to push legislation through will face an even greater challenge.

“In America, we must protect the right to vote, not suppress that fundamental right. We honor the results of our elections, not subvert the will of the people. We must uphold the rule of the law and restore trust in our institutions of democracy,” Biden said during his State of the Union last month.

Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Selma last year for the 57th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday.” She said then the marchers beaten by state troopers were fighting for “the most fundamental right of American citizenship: the right to vote.”

“Today, we stand on this bridge at a different time. We again, however, find ourselves caught in between injustice and justice, between disappointment and determination, still in a fight to form a more perfect union,” Harris said. “And nowhere is that more clear than when it comes to the ongoing fight to secure the freedom to vote.”

Biden in 2020, while he was on the campaign trail, received a warm reception as he addressed the congregation gathered at the historic Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma to observe “Bloody Sunday.”

Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., said she invited Biden to attend the “Bloody Sunday” anniversary during his State of the Union.

“I look forward to welcoming the President to my hometown as we reflect on the sacrifices of the Foot Soldiers in the name of equality and justice for all,” Sewell said in a statement.

ABC News’ Justin Gomez contributed to this report.

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