Congress

The U.S. Congress is the country’s legislative body and is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Read stories here about elections to these bodies, the laws they introduce and the ways lawmakers shape peoples’ lives.

Carolyn Maloney and Eleanor Smeal Applaud President Biden’s ERA Statement

On Friday, President Biden issued a strong statement declaring that the Equal Rights Amendment has been ratified and is the law of the land, having met both requirements of Article V with the vote of two-thirds of Congress and ratification by three-fourths of the state legislatures.

“The ERA would etch equal rights into the Constitution—to protect and expand our opportunities, choices and rights,” said Carolyn Maloney, president of New York State NOW and former member of Congress.

“There is nothing in the president’s statement that prevents the Congress from also affirming the ERA as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution, as they did with the 27th Amendment,” said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority.

Keeping Score: Senators Grill Hegseth, Call Trump Pick Unfit to Lead DOD; Pregnancy Doubles Homicide Risk for Women; Federal Judge Strikes Down Biden Title IX Rules

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.

This week: Getting pregnant doubles the risk of dying by homicide for women under 25; Biden has appointed a record 40 Black women to federal judgeships; Louisiana’s abortion ban has a chilling effect on maternal healthcare and miscarriage treatment; N.C. Republicans try to overturn the fair election of a Democratic justice; the psychological toll on children in Gaza is severe; Biden’s Title IX protections struck down; Blake Lively filed a lawsuit against actor and director Justin Baldoni for repeated sexual harassment and retaliation; Trump’s Cabinet will be the wealthiest in American history; and more.

‘This Work Is Not at the Fringe’: What It Was Like to Lead the White House Gender Policy Council

Jennifer Klein, head of the first-of-its-kind office, reflects on the wins and the challenges—most notably, the end of federal abortion rights.

Gender equity isn’t simply good for women, she stressed, but good for America, good for the world. “If you look at the data, there is a well-established link between political stability and the treatment of women,” she said, making gender equity essential for national security. 

Reading the Warning Signs: How Trump’s Administration Could Crack Down on Abortion

During the presidential campaign, Trump forcefully avowed he did not support a national abortion ban—a position consistent with two-thirds of the electorate—gloating instead that he was responsible for sending the issue back to the states where it belongs. He also distanced himself from the “virally unpopular” Project 2025—the far-right playbook for the next conservative administration.  

However, warning signs suggest that Trump may have been pandering to the electorate on both scores. Notably, when his remarks on the campaign trail about a national ban are considered alongside his existing ties to Project 2025, his boast about returning control over abortion to the states may well prove to have been stopgap measure en route to a blanket ban, although perhaps by way of a back-channel strategy.

A former Trump official chillingly predicted that Trump’s track record of having “adopted the most pro-life policies of any administration in history … is the best evidence … you could have of what a second term might look like.’”  

Trump and His New Republican Congress Will Make *All* U.S. Taxpayers Fund Unregulated Crisis Pregnancy Clinics

While serial attacks on abortion rights seize the headlines, the anti-choice movement has quietly built an on-the-ground network of unregulated pregnancy clinics—also known as crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) and antiabortion centers (AACs)—that is eroding access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare and electioneering against abortion rights, mostly under the radar and increasingly on the public dime.

Ms. Magazine’s Top Feminists of 2024

From top athletes, to community activists, to badass lawmakers, here are our 25 picks for the top U.S. feminists of 2024, and two of the best things they did or said.

Featuring: Kamala Harris, the 27 women who sued the state of Texas for its abortion ban in Zurawski v. Texas, Sarah McBride, abortion providers and funders, Black women voters, Jasmine Crockett, South Carolina’s “Sister Senators” and more.

Why the ERA Needs Congressional Action—And How We Can Win

Over these past weeks, I’ve read countless emails, sat through heated meetings, and heard the cries for action directed at President Joe Biden urging him to order the archivist to certify and publish the ERA in the Constitution. I understand the yearning for a decisive stroke. But this path, I believe, is a snare, tangled in legal thorns, dangerous and fraught with risk.

After careful study and consultation with leading constitutional experts, I am certain that Congress must pass joint resolutions to recognize the ERA and remove the arbitrary time limit.

His intervention could set off a chain reaction, handing ERA opponents an opportunity to challenge the amendment in court. A judicial gauntlet with Trump-appointed judges risks obliterating decades of progress, forcing us to begin again, clawing our way back through Congress, where a two-thirds vote is needed in the House and Senate, and three-fourths of state legislatures must ratify any new amendment.

The Path to Certifying the ERA Lies With Congress—Not the Archivist

In a statement released Dec. 17, the archivist of the United States, Dr. Colleen Shogan, and the deputy archivist, William J. Bosanko, clarified their position on the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and the constitutional process for ratifying amendments. The press release highlighted their legal responsibilities and the current limitations preventing the ERA from being certified as part of the U.S. Constitution.

‘Guerilla Storytelling’ and Joyful Resistance: Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández and the DWC’s Plan to Combat Project 2025

The Democratic Women’s Caucus (DWC) this week announced the election of Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) as DWC’s chair for the 119th Congress, which starts in January. Leger Fernández served as the DWC vice chair in the 118th Congress and will now lead the largest ever DWC, which includes a record-breaking 96 members in the new Congress. 

Ms. executive editor, Kathy Spillar, sat down with Rep. Leger Fernández, to discuss priorities for the DWC—both to fight back against what will be repeated attacks by the Trump administration on women’s rights and programs benefiting women and their children, as well as strategies for moving forward toward equality.