- Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told GOP senators to "vote yes" on a bill to codify same-sex marriage and "move on."
- The Respect for Marriage Act passed the House with bipartisan support last week and now waits in the Senate.
- On CNN, Buttigieg said he doesn't "know why this would be hard for a senator" to vote in favor of.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told Senate Republicans to "vote yes and move on" from on the House-backed legislation to codify gay marriage protections.
Buttigieg, the first openly gay cabinet secretary, made the comments during an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday ahead of the Senate's anticipated vote on the Respect for Marriage Act. The bill to codify same-sex marriage into law passed the House with bipartisan support last week. But some House Republicans voted against the measure.
"This is really, really important to a lot of people. It's certainly important to me," said Buttigieg, who has two children with his husband, Chasten. "Our marriage deserves to be treated equally, and I don't know why this would be hard for a senator or a congressman."
Tapper asked Buttigieg what he has to say to Republicans like Sen. Marco Rubio, who told a CNN reporter that the vote was a "stupid waste of time." Rubio also told Insider's Bryan Metzger that the bill is a "waste of our time on a non-issue," saying the decision should be made at a state level.
"If he's got time to fight against Disney, I don't know why he wouldn't have time to help safeguard marriages like mine," Buttigieg said.
—CNN (@CNN) July 24, 2022
Thus far, at least five GOP senators have said they would vote to pass the bill, according to Forbes.
"If they don't want to spend a lot of time on this, they can vote yes and move on, and that would be really reassuring for a lot of families around America, including mine," Buttigieg said.
He later added that he doesn't "understand" why House Republicans voted against the measure. In the 267-157 vote last week, 47 House Republicans voted in favor.
"I don't understand, because such a majority of House Republicans voted no on our marriage as recently as Tuesday, hours after I was in a room with a lot of them talking about transportation policy, having what I thought were perfectly normal conversations with many of them on that subject," Buttigieg said, "only for them to go around the corner and say that my marriage doesn't deserve to continue."