FAST FACTS
Name: Valerie Foushee
District: 23 (Chatham & Orange)
In the NCGA since: 2013
Key Committees: Appropriations – Education/Higher Education; Appropriations – Base Budget; Commerce & Insurance; Education/Higher Education; Finance; State & Local Government
Previous office: Orange County Board of Commissioners
FEATURED BILL: NC ADOPT ERA
North Carolina is one of just 12 states that have not yet ratified the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The ERA, first approved by Congress in 1972, would enshrine gender equality in the U.S. Constitution, thus protecting women and other marginalized genders from discrimination on the basis of sex.
To rectify this, Sen. Foushee, along with her colleagues Sens. Marcus and Murdock, and Reps. von Haefen, Cunningham, Fisher, and Terry, introduced the NC Adopt ERA bill this January.
The bill would ratify the ERA to the U.S. Constitution and appropriate $10,000 to educate the public about the act.
The ERA would help end gender-based discrimination in employment, property, divorce, and other areas. It’s beyond time for women and other marginalized genders to have equal rights under the law.