GOP women senators defend Brown's vote on pay bill
BOSTON—Three Republican women senators from New England are defending U.S. Sen. Scott Brown's vote to block a Democratic bill calling for equal pay in the workplace.
Brown's campaign issued a joint statement Wednesday from Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire. The senators said the Massachusetts Republican supports enforcing existing laws to prevent gender-based workplace discrimination, but opposes unnecessary government intrusion into the private sector.
Brown's Democratic Senate challenger Elizabeth Warren seized on Brown's vote Tuesday, telling Massachusetts women that Brown thinks it's OK that they to earn less than men.
The so-called "Paycheck Fairness Act" aimed to strengthen the Fair Labor Standards Act's protections against pay inequities based on gender.
The bill failed along party lines, 52-47, short of the required 60-vote threshold.
