Dulux dog' breed could become extinct in UK

Shaggy pooch dying out as lifestyle habits change in Britain


The Old English Sheepdog has been listed for the first time as vulnerable to extinction after a drop in popularity. AFP









The Old English Sheepdog, one of Britain's most recognisable dog breeds, has been listed for the first time as vulnerable to extinction after a drop in popularity.

The Kennel Club - the UK's biggest animal organisation devoted to dog welfare - said on Monday the move followed declining numbers since the breed's heyday in the late 1970s.

The club recorded just 227 puppy registrations in 2020 for the dog - instantly recognisable for its shaggy coat and long used in adverts for paint manufacturer Dulux.

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It is the lowest number in 60 years, marking a "steep decline" in the breed's popularity, the club said.

The dog has since 2009 been on the club's "At Watch" list, which monitors breeds with between 300 and 450 puppy registrations a year.

But following the latest 28 per cent year-on-year drop in puppy numbers, it has now been added to its "Vulnerable Native Breeds" list.

The category was devised for British and Irish native breeds which have fallen below 300 annual puppy registrations and could be at risk of disappearing from Britain.

The Kennel Club blamed "lifestyle changes" and the breed's high-maintenance requirements as likely factors in the drop in its popularity in Britain.

"The Old English Sheepdog is such an historic and iconic breed, but they are rarely seen out and about over recent years, so the fact that they are now officially a vulnerable breed is very worrying," club spokesman Bill Lambert said.

"They require a lot of grooming and exercise and aren't suitable for smaller living spaces.

"However, it is a breed that is faithful and trustworthy with an even disposition that can make lovable family pets for the right owners."

The Kennel Club has 32 types of dog on its Vulnerable Native Breeds list, and seven more classed as "At Watch".

At the other end of the scale, gundog breeds have enjoyed a surge in popularity. The club suggested an increase in moves to the countryside and outdoor activity during the coronavirus lockdowns may have contributed to their popularity.

Updated: April 19, 2021 

Greta Thunberg: Rich countries failing 'moral test' on vaccine distribution

Swedish climate activist donates $120,000 to Covax vaccine-sharing initiative

Belgian artist Alain Verschueren wears his "Portable Oasis" while performing in a street, saying he wanted to be in his bubble in the middle of the city, in Brussels, Belgium. Reuters

Environmental activist Greta Thunberg says it is completely unethical that wealthy countries are inoculating young people at the expense of vulnerable groups in poorer nations.

Speaking at a WHO conference on Monday, the Swedish teenager revealed her foundation has donated €100,000 ($120,000) to help end the issue of global vaccine inequality.

The money will go towards providing additional doses to the Covax global vaccine-sharing initiative and help to ensure health workers and vulnerable patients in low-income countries are protected from Covid-19.

"It is completely unethical that high-income countries are now vaccinating young and healthy people if that happens at the expense of people in risk groups and on the front lines in low and middle-income countries", she said.

"This is a moral test. We talked today about showing solidarity, and yet vaccine nationalism is what's running the vaccine distribution. It is only when it really comes down to it, that we show our true face.

"

Greta Thunberg's foundation has donated money to the Covax vaccine sharing initiative. Getty Images


“We have the tools we need to correct this great imbalance that exists around the world today in the fight against Covid-19, just as with the climate crisis. Those who are the most vulnerable need to be prioritised. Global problems require global solutions."

The WHO said the donation was made possible by the Greta Thunberg Foundation following its awards for tackling climate change.

It has previously demanded wealthier countries do more to address the unequal distribution of vaccines, with just one in 500 people from lower-income countries inoculated.

Ms Thunberg was speaking online at a press conference with WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Earlier this month, Ms Thunberg, 18, said she would not attend the Cop 26 UN climate conference in Scotland in November in protest over the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

“Greta Thunberg has inspired millions of people worldwide to take action to address the climate crisis, and her strong support of vaccine equality to fight the Covid-19 pandemic yet again demonstrates her commitment to making our world a healthier, safer and fairer place for all people,” said Dr Tedros. “I urge the global community to follow Greta’s example and do what they can, in support of Covax, to protect the world’s most vulnerable people from this pandemic.”

During the conference, Ms Thunberg also backed a WHO fund to combat the impact of Covid-19 on young people.

The initiative, named Global Youth Mobilisation, will bypass traditional funding to support grassroots movements and assist young people to overcome school closures, mental health issues and job losses caused by the pandemic.

The WHO says an initial $2 million of funding will be available in four tiers – from $500 through to $5,000 – with an ‘accelerator’ program to back promising solutions. More funding has been lined up over the coming months.

It is backed by the 'Big Six' global youth organisations, as well as Unicef, Usaid, Unfpa, the European Commission, Salesforce, Fifa and governments around the world.

Dr Tedros said: “The WHO is committed to ensuring the voice, energy and solutions offered by youth are at the centre of the world’s recovery from Covid-19.

"Our collaboration with the Big 6 and the United Nations Foundation will fuel wide-ranging actions led by young people to address the challenges their own communities face, and will also provide global platforms for their wisdom and ideas to be heard and acted on.”

Updated: April 19, 2021 

Greta Thunberg to skip Cop26 climate change summit in protest over vaccine hoarding


Teenage campaigner calls on UK government to delay key conference

Greta Thunberg's foundation has donated money to the Covax vaccine sharing initiative. 

Greta Thunberg will not attend the UN climate conference in Scotland in November in protest over the inequitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

The 18-year-old Swedish climate change campaigner said many countries were inoculating younger people at the expense of at-risk groups in poorer countries.

She said the UK government should delay the Cop26 climate change summit until global inoculation rates increase.

"Of course I would love to attend the Glasgow #COP26," she tweeted.

"But not unless everyone can take part on the same terms. Right now many countries are vaccinating healthy young people, often at the expense of risk groups and frontline workers."

She said it would be undemocratic for the summit to proceed if some countries could not be represented because of low vaccination rates.

"Inequality and climate injustice is already the heart of the climate crisis. If people can’t be vaccinated and travel to be represented equally that’s undemocratic and would worsen the problem," she said.

"Vaccine nationalism won’t solve the pandemic. Global problems need global solutions."

The activist's decision to pull out of the event is a significant blow for the UK government's aims to be a world leader in limiting climate change.

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson is hoping to bolster his environmental credentials after heavy criticism over his response to the pandemic.

Ms Thunberg has attended every major climate conference since her first protest outside the Swedish parliament two and a half years ago.

But she said urgent action on climate change need not wait for the summit.

"We don’t have to wait for conferences nor anyone or anything else to dramatically start reducing our emissions. Solidarity and action can start today," she said.

"And a digital solution is of course far from optimal. High-speed internet connection and access to computers is extremely unequal in the world. In that case we would lack representation from those whose voices need to be heard the most when it comes to the climate crisis."

Updated: April 9, 2021 

Italy's Matteo Salvini to stand trial on kidnapping charges over migrant standoff

Former Italian interior minister refused to let a Spanish rescue ship dock in 2019, keeping the migrants on board at sea for days

Italy's League Party leader Matteo Salvini, right, leaves the bunker hall of the prison Bicocca with his lawyer Giulia Bongiorno at the end of the court hearing. EPA


Former Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini will stand trial on kidnapping charges, a judge ruled on Saturday.

Mr Salvini is facing the charges over his decision to refuse to let a Spanish migrant rescue ship dock in an Italian port in 2019, keeping the people on board at sea for days.

Judge Lorenzo Iannelli set a trial date in September during a hearing in the Palermo bunker courtroom in Sicily.

An Italian police vessel patrols around the Open Arms vessel, with 107 migrants on board, in 2019. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)

Mr Salvini, who attended the hearing, insisted that he was only doing his job and his duty by refusing entry to the Open Arms rescue ship and the 147 people it had saved in the Mediterranean Sea.

“I'm going on trial for this, for having defended my country?" he tweeted after the decision.

“I'll go with my head held high, also in your name."

He said he had had to make "the most difficult phone calls" to his children after the hearing to inform them of the decision, adding that his "conscience was clear" and he was not "afraid" for having carried out his "duty".

Palermo prosecutors accused Mr Salvini of dereliction of duty and kidnapping for having kept the migrants at sea off the Italian island of Lampedusa for days in August 2019.

During the standoff, some migrants threw themselves overboard in desperation as the captain pleaded for a safe, close port.

Eventually after a 19-day ordeal, the remaining 83 migrants still on board were allowed to disembark in Lampedusa.

Mr Salvini, leader of the right-wing League party, maintained a hard line on migration as interior minister during the first government of Premier Giuseppe Conte, from 2018-2019.

While demanding European Union nations do more to take in migrants arriving in Italy, Mr Salvini argued that humanitarian rescue ships were only encouraging Libyan-based human traffickers.

He claimed that his policy of refusing them permission to enter port actually saved lives by discouraging the risky trips across the Mediterranean from North Africa to Europe.

His lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno, said she was certain the court would eventually determine that there was no kidnapping.

“There was no limitation on their freedom," she said after the indictment was handed down.

“The ship had the possibility of going anywhere. There was just a prohibition of going into port. But it had 100,000 options."

Open Arms welcomed the decision to put Mr Salvini on trial and confirmed it had registered as a civil party in the case, along with some survivors of the rescue, the city of Barcelona where the ship is based, and other humanitarian groups.

Open Arms founder Oscar Camps said the decision to prosecute Mr Salvini for actions taken when he was interior minister was “historic" and showed that European political leaders can be held accountable for failing to respect the human rights of migrants.

“This trial is a reminder to Europe and the world that there are principles of individual responsibility in politics," he said.

The decision to prosecute shows “it's possible to identify the responsibility of the protagonists of this tragedy at sea".

Mr Salvini is also under investigation for a similar migrant standoff involving the Italian coast guard ship Gregoretti that he refused to let dock in the summer of 2019.

The prosecutor in that case in Catania, Sicily, recommended last week that Mr Salvini not be put on trial, arguing that he was only carrying out government policy when he kept 116 migrants at sea for five days.

Italy and other southern EU nations such as Spain and Greece have long argued that other members of the 27-nation bloc must do more to help them cope with an influx of migrants.


Published: April 17, 2021 09:48 PM

Senate bill would restrict F-35 sales to United Arab Emirates

A March report by the Government Accountability Office showed costs associated with the F-35 fighter jet are growing at $2 billion per year. File Photo by Alex R. Lloyd/U.S. Air Force

April 16 (UPI) -- The Biden administration is seeing pushback from Senate Democrats after going ahead with a Trump-era deal to sell F-35 fighter aircraft to the United Arab Emirates.

Citing national security concerns, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., filed a bill Friday to restrict the sale of the most sophisticated F-35 Lightning II fighter jets to the UAE.

Last year, the pair authored similar legislation asking the UAE to normalize relations with Israel prior to any purchase.

In December, the Trump administration approved the sale of 50 F-35 fighter jets worth $10.4 billion, 8 MQ-9B drones worth $2.97 billion and a package of munitions worth $10 billion.

The senators said the sale could affect U.S. national security and stability in the Middle East.

Menendez said UAE's relationship with Yemen and Libya, as well as China and Russia, is debatable, and Israel should be the military superpower in the region.

He noted Israel's comparative position in his opposition to the deal.

"I remain concerned with the implications of a sale of our most advanced fighter jet given numerous outstanding, unanswered questions about the implications of this sale for U.S. national security, our technology interests and implications for regional stability, including the legal parameters of Israel's qualitative military edge," Menendez said in a statement.

The F-35 has been emblematic of significant defense expenditures with questionable results. Over its 20-year development, the plan has cost over $1.8 trillion and produced only around 500 functioning aircraft.

Despite delays, including a recent announcement that jet engine shortages will likely continue indefinitely, Lockheed Martin said production of the aircraft is picking up.

In addition to pending the UAE deal, Lockheed Martin recently noted two significant sales. The Department of Defense provided the aeronautics company with $1.3 billion around the time the deal was announced.

Those dollars are to be used to provide training and support for the F-35 program.

A March report by the Government Accountability Office showed costs associated with the fighter jet are growing at $2 billion per year.

Shortly after that report's release, Lockheed Martin was awarded $4.9 billion over three contracts to produce 140 fighter planes for the Air Force, Marines and Navy.

In January, Lockheed Martin was also granted a combined $145.4 million to upgrade the aircraft's software suite and radio systems.

Denmark recently showed off its F-35s in a demonstration. Belgium also recently entered into a partnership with Lockheed Martin for F-35s.


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LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY 

GM, LG Energy will build 2nd battery cell plant in United States


General Motors' new logo unveiled this year builds on a strong heritage while bringing a more modern and vibrant look to GM’s familiar blue square. The auto giant said Friday it will build a new battery cell plant in the United States with partner LG Energy Solutions. Photo courtesy of General Motors

April 16 (UPI) -- General Motors and its electric vehicle joint venture partner LG Energy Solution said Friday they will invest $2.3 billion into a second battery cell plant for electric vehicles in the United States.

Ultium Cells LLC, the GM-LG Energy joint venture, will operate the plant in Spring Hill, Tenn. The plant will support the production of GM's Lyriq crossover and other electric vehicle production at GM's assembly plant in Spring Hill.

Ultium Cells is currently building its first plant in Lordstown, Ohio.

"The addition of our second all-new Ultium battery cell plant in the [United States] with our joint venture partner LG Energy Solution is another major step in our transition to an all-electric future," GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra said in a statement

Ultium batteries being produced could enable GM vehicles a one-charge range up to 450 miles or more with 0-60 mph acceleration in three seconds.

"This partnership with General Motors will transform Tennessee into another key location for electric vehicle and battery production," LG Energy Solution President and CEO Jonghyun Kim, said in a statement. "It will allow us to build solid and stable U.S-based supply chains that enable everything from research, product development and production to the procurement of raw components."

GM is banking on its Ultium battery technology to allow it to compete against companies producing a wide range of electric vehicles, from everyday passenger cars to luxury vehicles, work trucks, commercial trucks and high-performance machines.

Earlier this month, GM announced it will produce a new Chevrolet Silverado electric pickup truck and recently revealed GMC Hummer EV SUV at its assembly plant in Detroit and Hamtramck, Mich. Both will use the Ultium battery technology.

SOUTH & NORTH KOREAN UNITY

North Korea decries Japan's decision on Fukushima water release

North Korea said the Japanese decision to release treated radioactive water at Fukushima is an “unacceptable crime.” 
File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo

North Korea said the Japanese decision to release treated radioactive water at Fukushima within two years is an “unacceptable crime.” File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo

April 16 (UPI) -- North Korea denounced a Japanese decision to release treated radioactive water into the sea, calling the decision an "unacceptable crime."

Pyongyang's state-controlled news agency KCNA issued a commentary Thursday that accused Japan of "trying to bring upon humanity a new catastrophe" amid a global pandemic.

Japan must "immediately withdraw" its decision to release the wastewater, KCNA said.

North Korea's statement on Japanese policy related to Fukushima comes after Tokyo officially confirmed it would dispose the water into the Pacific in two years.

Meanwhile, tensions also are growing between China and Japan about the plan.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Wednesday that Japan's Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso should drink the water from the damaged Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, referring to Aso's comment that the water was safe.

"A Japanese official said it is OK if we drink this water, so then please drink it," Zhao had said, while accusing Tokyo of environmental "ignorance."

The International Atomic Energy Agency has said Japan's water disposal method is both "technically feasible and in line with international practice." The U.S. State Department has supported the Japanese decision.

North Korea said water from Fukushima would spread through the Pacific Ocean "within days."

"The discharge of contaminated water is a critical issue related to the safety of people's lives," KCNA said. "It is an unacceptable crime that seriously threatens the health and safety of humanity and the environment."

Aso said Friday he defends his previous statement about the safety of the treated radioactive water.

"I'm sure that the water will be diluted so that [the tritium concentration] is one-seventh of the level safe for drinking water under the World Health Organization's guideline," he said, according to Kyodo News.

Japan has said the tritium, a naturally occurring radioactive form of hydrogen, is to be diluted to less than 1,500 becquerels per liter, the report said.

Titanic's Chinese survivors endured racism and deportation after disaster, film shows

By Elizabeth Shim

More than 1,400 people are believed to have died after the luxury passenger ship Titanic capsized in 1912. File Photo courtesy National Archives

April 16 (UPI) -- Chinese survivors of the RMS Titanic, the luxury passenger ship that capsized after colliding with an iceberg in 1912, struggled with racism and discrimination after the disaster, according to a new documentary that aired in China.

The Six, a film directed by Arthur Jones, tells the story of Lee Bing, Fang Lang, Chang Chip, Ah Lam, Chung Foo and Ling Hee, the BBC reported Friday.

The Chinese men survived the Titanic sinking -- which led to the death of more than 1,400 people -- but were dehumanized in U.S. newspapers at the time. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle labeled them "creatures" and claimed then men rushed to lifeboats "at the first sign of danger," concealing themselves beneath the seats, the BBC report said.

Documentary producers said the claims -- rumors the Chinese survivors disguised themselves as women -- were also lies.

The production team reportedly built a replica of a Titanic lifeboat that showed there were no hiding places on the boats.

"I think we see the same thing today. We find immigrants [were] scapegoated by the press," Jones said, according to the BBC.

Titanic historian Tim Maltin said one of the men, Fang Lang, attempted to help other survivors after leaving the ship on a floating door. Fang rowed the lifeboat that rescued him and helped others to safety, Maltin said.

The Titanic's survivors traveled west to New York, but all six Chinese men were turned away at Ellis Island. The U.S. Chinese Exclusion Act barred Chinese people from entering the country.

The six men traveled back to Britain via Cuba. Some of the men married British women and raised children, but anti-immigration policy in the country forced them to leave and separate from their families, the report said.

Gregory Lee, founding professor of Chinese Studies at University of St. Andrews in Scotland, said in a recent article that the British practice of removing Chinese men from British soil, including sailors, continued from 1946 to 1947.

Members of the Chinese Seamen's Pool kept Britain supplied with food and weapons during World War II, Lee said.

ROARING TWENTIES SPECULATION REDUX
Bitcoin ETF launches on Toronto Stock Exchange

Ahn Jae-sung & Kim Tae-gyu, UPI News Korea


The bitcoin logo is displayed on a screen in Times Square when Coinbase Global began trading under the symbol COIN at the Nasdaq opening bell in New York City on Wednesday. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

SEOUL, April 16 (UPI) -- South Korea's Mirae Asset Global Investments said Friday that its Canadian affiliate has launched the first inverse bitcoin exchange-traded fund on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Horizons ETFs, a subsidiary of Mirae Asset, launched the ETF on Thursday, with the ticker BITI, that bets on the plunge of the largest cryptocurrency.

Horizons also launched an ETF product with the ticker of HBIT that allows investors to take long positions on bitcoin futures traded at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission continues to reject mounting applications for listed funds tracking bitcoin. Included in the applicants' list is Fidelity Investments.

"We know that there are polarizing views on bitcoin, and as a result, there are investors with a high degree of conviction on both the bullish and bearish cases for the asset class," Horizons CEO Steve Hawkins said in a statement.

"In launching HBIT and BITI, our goal is to provide investment tools that allow investors to get liquid access to the returns of bitcoin futures with the ability to go long or short the asset class, based on their outlook and conviction," he said.

The Purpose Bitcoin ETF, the world's first crypto ETF with the ticker BTCC, hit the Canadian market in February to attract more than $1 billion in assets in less than two months.

As the bitcoin price keeps rising, watchers expect that regulatory tide will turn in the United States. too.

"I am sure that the U.S. will follow suit of Canada in the not-so-distant future, although the bitcoin ETF is still a tough product for retail investors," cryptocurrency commentator Kang Heung-bo told UPI News Korea.

Korea Investment & Securities analyst Song Seung-yeon agreed.

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"The SEC has worried about manipulation and potential losses of individual investors," Song said. "As Canada gives the nod to ETF products, however, expectations are high that the U.S. regulator will also change its stance."

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency Coinbase went public Wednesday on the Nasdaq with a valuation of about $100 billion.

Simon & Schuster pulls out of book by cop involved in Breonna Taylor raid



A mural of Breonna Taylor, who was killed in her apartment by Louisville, Ky., police officers is seen on a basketball court in Annapolis, Md., on July 8, 2020. File Photo by Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE


April 16 (UPI) -- Publisher Simon & Schuster says it won't distribute a book written by a Louisville police officer who was part of the controversial raid that killed Breonna Taylor more than a year ago.

Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly's book, The Fight for Truth: The Inside Story Behind the Breonna Taylor Tragedy, is being published by Post Hill Press.

Simon & Schuster, which made the announcement late Thursday, distributes books published by Post Hill Press, a Tennessee-based publisher. The company said it had only recently learned of the book's existence.

"We have subsequently decided not to be involved in the distribution of this book," Simon & Schuster said in a statement.

Mattingly was part of a botched "no-knock" drug raid at Taylor's Louisville apartment on March 13, 2020. He fired six shots during the confrontation after he was shot in the thigh by Taylor's boyfriend Kenneth Walker, who later said he thought the officers were intruders.

The FBI concluded that another officer, Myles Cosgrove, fired the shots that killed the 26-year-old Taylor. In all, police fired nearly three dozen bullets into the apartment.

Mattingly needed emergency surgery to repair his severed femoral artery.

Sam Aguiar, a Louisville attorney who represented Taylor's mother in a civil lawsuit against Louisville, thanked Simon & Schuster for its decision not to distribute Mattingly's book.

"This book will be a joke and do nothing to expose all the things he's been hiding," Aguiar said, according to the Louisville Courier Journal.

A MoveOn.org petition demanding that Simon & Schuster cancel Mattingly's book attracted more than 20,000 signatures.

This is the second time in three months that Simon & Schuster has pulled out of a book agreement involving a high-profile author. In January, it abandoned a book by Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley following his continued support for protesters and supporters of former President Donald Trump who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

"[We] cannot support Sen. Hawley after his role in what became a dangerous threat to our democracy and freedom," Simon & Schuster said at the time.

House Democrats pass bill to close

gender pay gap


Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., (L), Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., (C) and Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., talk during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Thursday. Speaker Pelosi spoke on the Paycheck Fairness Act and said that women make only 82 cents for every dollar a man earns. Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI | License Photo

April 15 (UPI) -- The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed legislation to close the gender-wage gap amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has disproportionally affected women.

The Paycheck Fairness Act passed the Democrat-controlled House 217-210 along party lines to limit the defense of employers who are accused of paying their female employees less than their male workers while increasing civil penalties for those found guilty of violations of the federal equal pay provisions.

It also makes it unlawful to require an employee to sign a contract that prohibits them from discussing their salaries with colleagues and beefs up non-retaliation prohibitions.

The bill, which has now passed the House four times but was unable to make it through the Senate, was reintroduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., in late January as the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic have shown to have disproportionally hurt women.

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Prior to the vote, DeLauro told reporters during a press conference that women make 82 cents for every dollar a man makes while women of color make even less with Latinos typically making 55 cents, Native Americans 60 cents, Black workers 63 cents and Asian and American Pacific Islanders making 52 cents.

The pandemic, she said, has also made worse these existing inequalities, resulting in more than 5 million women losing their jobs.

"And as we rebuild our economy and as more and more American families rely on women's income, we know that the pay gap not only hurts women but in fact it hurts their families, their families that depend on them," she said. "We need to take transformative change."

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Republicans as well as business groups railed against the bill viewing it as government overreach.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce voiced strong opposition to the bill over its eroding of employer defenses and expanded compensation for violations, among other concerns.

During the floor debate Thursday, Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., argued everyone is in agreement that wage discrimination is wrong and this bill doesn't tackle discrimination, it only targets employers.

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Laws are already in place to ensure fair pay, he argued, and this is an attempt by the Democratic party to "further insert themselves into the workplace with a purported cure for a disease that doesn't exist."

"Democrats are dependent upon the perception of discrimination victimhood to expand their base of power as they continue to divide this nation," he said. "Democrats also view employers, businesses and job creators with disdain that leaving left to their own devices they would seek to harm their employees. Not to worry, big government to the rescue."

Following the bill's passing, President Joe Biden applauded the House, saying closing the gender wage gap is not just an economic imperative but a moral one.

"Equal pay is about justice, fairness and who we are as a nation -- it makes all of us stronger and it represents what America is truly about," he said in a statement, urging the Senate to swiftly pass the legislation to his desk in order to "help us build an economy that rewards the hard work of every American."