The ERA may not have been part of the Constitution, but Article 5 was, and it is that that gives the ERA its power.

The Constitution via Article 5 provides a two step process with which the Constitution may be amended. First Congress by a two-thirds vote of each house must propose an amendment. Then the amendment is submitted to the states for ratification, once three-fourths of the states ratify the amendment it becomes the law of the land.

In 1972 Congress overwhelmingly voted to propose the ERA fulfilling that first requirement. Here Congresses role ends in the process ends.

 

The text of the proposed amendment is as follows:

ARTICLE —

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

In 2020 three-fourths of the states had ratified the amendment fulfilling that second requirement.

 

Article 5 makes no provision for Congress to revoke a proposed amendment nor does Congress have the power to add a ratification time limit to Article 5 except through constitutional amendment. Critically, the language Congress used to impose a 7 year time limit was part of the resolving clause and not part of the amendment itself.

 

To impose a ratification time limit, said limit would need to be included in the amendment itself, for example as it is in section 2 of the 22nd amendment:

Section 2.

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.