Opinion | How Mark Pocan modernized our understanding of the ... - The Capital Times

U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan is one of the most active and engaged members of the U.S. House of Representatives. To a greater extent than any other House member from Wisconsin's 2nd District in the modern era, he has ensured that south central Wisconsin gets its fair share of federal funds — placing a special emphasis on getting resources to the University of Wisconsin, to tech innovators and to small business owners and family farmers.

The voters of the 2nd District recognized Pocan's diligence in November when they reelected the representative with the highest vote total for any member of House from Wisconsin — 268,740 ballots were cast for the Democrat in the Nov. 8 midterm election — and one of the highest totals for a congressional candidate nationwide.

Pocan, a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, the House Education and Labor Committee and the Joint Economic Committee, maintains the broad focus of a member of Congress who is willing to take on the biggest challenges facing the United States. It's no surprise that the representative from the seat once held by former Wisconsin Gov. and U.S. Sen. Robert M. La Follette has been a leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which he currently serves as chairman emeritus.

Pocan has also been a leader in efforts to expand the rights of workers as a co-chair and co-founder of the House Labor Caucus. He has led the fight to cut bloated Pentagon budgets as the co-chair and co-founder of the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus. And he's currently active with the Rural Broadband Caucus, Pro-Choice Caucus, Small Business Caucus, Safe Climate Caucus, Public Education Caucus, Cooperative Business Caucus, Military Sexual Assault Prevention Caucus, Native American Caucus, Animal Protection Caucus, House Bike Caucus, House Organic Caucus, Primary Care Caucus and the Victims' Rights Caucus.

But it is in his capacity as co-chair of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, a proud openly gay member of the House and a serious thinker about the U.S. Constitution and American political progress, that Pocan made a historic contribution to our understanding of the presidency.

On Dec. 20, just before the 117th Congress concluded its work, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved Pocan's 21st Century President Act (H.R. 3285). That followed unanimous approval by the House earlier this year. The legislation Pocan wrote and championed updates the language of the U.S. Code to recognize the fact that a woman or LGBTQ+ person will someday hold the office of the presidency. Specifically, the measure alters narrowly drawn language that presumes that presidents will be straight men.

As an example of the gendered language that Pocan's legislation will address, consider 18 U.S.C. 879, which makes it a criminal act to threaten to kill, kidnap, or inflict bodily harm upon the president, a former president, a candidate for president, or a member of their family. The references in this section of the code have historically referred to presidents as men and to their spouses as wives. With the approval and signing of the 21st Century President Act, terms such as "wife" and "widow" will be replaced by "spouse." Gender-specific pronouns referring to the president and presidential spouses will be replaced with gender-neutral terms.

"Federal law has finally caught up to times, specifically when it comes to who a future president can be," explained Pocan after the Senate approved his bill. "The last presidential election saw six women and one gay man in the Democratic presidential primary, but current federal law would have failed to fully protect them and their spouses if elected. We're closer than we've ever been to electing a woman, or someone with a spouse of the same sex, as president. Today, we've taken one more step toward guaranteed equal protection under the law, and I thank (Wisconsin Sen. Tammy) Baldwin for her support in assisting its passage through the Senate."

Baldwin, who represented the 2nd Congressional District before her election to the Senate, received a good deal of attention — from this newspaper and media outlets across the country — for the leadership role she played in advancing the Respect for Marriage Act, which protects same-sex and interracial marriages from discriminatory court rulings.

Necessitated by the U.S. Supreme Court's wrongheaded decision to overturn abortion protections that were defined by the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, this year's court ruling upended precedent and was accompanied by a concurring opinion in which Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that the court should reexamine rulings that extended the guarantee of equal protection under the law — including the 2015 decision that legalized same-sex marriage.

The plaudits extended to Baldwin for her work on the Respect for Marriage Act were well-deserved. She proved to be a masterful legislative strategist with a clear vision of what Congress needed to do, and with the determination that was required to overcome ideological divisions and break the grip of partisan gridlock in the Senate.

Pocan will not get quite so much attention for his work on the 21st Century President Act. But he, too, deserves plaudits for encouraging us all to recognize that this country is, indeed, progressing toward the day when it will elect a female president and a president with a same-sex spouse.

Adblock test (Why?)