House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday vowed to pass the Equality Act.

Pelosi made the promise in her first remarks as House Speaker of the 116th Congress. While she received 220 votes to be elected to the post, 15 Democrats declined to vote for Pelosi on the House floor.

“We will make America fairer by passing the Equality Act to end discrimination against the LGBTQ community,” she said.

First introduced in 2015, the Equality Act seeks to prohibit anti-LGBT discrimination in seven key areas, including credit, education, employment, federal funding, housing, jury service and public accommodations, by effectively expanding the Civil Rights Act, originally approved in 1964.

Human Rights Campaign (HRC) President Chad Griffin praised Pelosi's remarks.

“Now is the time to move equality forward by advancing the Equality Act to ensure LGBTQ Americans are able to go to go to work, raise their families, and live their lives free from discrimination,” Griffin said in a statement. “Far too many LGBTQ people face unfair and unjust discrimination each and every day with only a patchwork of protections across the country. We are thankful for Speaker Pelosi reaffirming her commitment to advance this critically important legislation and seize this historic moment to make full federal LGBTQ equality a reality.”

While passage in the House seems likely with a new Democratic majority, the Equality Act faces a steep incline in the Senate, where Republicans have increased their majority. While President Donald Trump has not specifically commented on the legislation, as a presidential candidate in 2016 he endorsed North Carolina's House Bill 2, which blocked cities from enacting LGBT protections and prohibited transgender people from using the bathroom of their choice in public buildings.