In 1998, Lilly Ledbetter, a 19-year employee of Goodyear Tire & Rubber, sued her former employer claiming that she had not been paid as well as men in similar job positions. The case wound its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled, in May 2007, in favor of Goodyear on the basis that Ledbetter did not file her suit within 180 days of the alleged discrimination. On January 22, 2009, the U.S. Senate eased this restriction by passing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. The entire Democratic delegation in the Senate voted in favor of the act and was joined by four Republicans, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas and Chuck Schumer of New York. The House of Representatives, which had already passed a similar bill two week earlier, is expected to approve quickly the revised version.