WASHINGTON – House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) today said the Marriage Protection Act, which passed the House by a vote of 233-194, will ensure that federal judges do not rewrite states’ marriage laws.

“The Marriage Protection Act reaffirms the current national consensus on homosexual marriage by leaving to the states and the American people the right to define marriage in this country,” DeLay said.

“This is the position many Democrats say they support: all 50 states deciding for themselves how to define marriage rather than a one-size-fits-all definition being imposed on them from above,” DeLay said. “If you support the states and respect the will of the American people, you must support this bill.”

The Marriage Protection Act prevents federal judges from striking down the provision of the Defense of Marriage Act that protects states from having to recognize homosexual marriage licenses granted in other states. The Defense of Marriage Act passed the Congress in 1996 with the support of more than three-quarters of the House and Senate and was signed into law by then President Bill Clinton.

On November 18, 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Court declared that under the Massachusetts Constitution same-sex couples have the right to wed. Since that decision, the U.S. Congress has considered several options for protecting traditional marriage, among them today’s bill protecting states from having to recognize homosexual marriage licenses granted in other states.