[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 85 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 85

 Expressing the sense of the Senate that it is the duty of the Federal 
   Government to dramatically expand and strengthen the care economy.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 1, 2021

   Ms. Warren (for herself, Mr. Markey, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Merkley) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
               on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of the Senate that it is the duty of the Federal 
   Government to dramatically expand and strengthen the care economy.

Whereas the preamble of the Constitution of the United States cites the duty to 
        ``promote the general Welfare'', establishing care for the people of the 
        United States as one of the pillars of our system of government;
Whereas, even before the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and 
        the recession it triggered--

    (1) the United States was experiencing profound crises of care and 
well-being; and

    (2) critical public services and programs in the United States were 
underresourced or nonexistent;

Whereas we are interdependent and, at various stages of life, everyone will give 
        or receive care;
Whereas care work makes all other work possible, and the economy of the United 
        States cannot thrive without a healthy and robust foundation of care for 
        all people;
Whereas over 3,700,000 children are born every year in the United States, and 
        about 10,000 people in the United States reach retirement age each day;
Whereas nearly 20,000,000 adults in the United States have long-term care needs 
        arising from old age or a disability;
Whereas, in 2019, more than 1 out of 5 adults in the United States had been an 
        unpaid caregiver for an adult family member or friend, or for a child 
        with disabilities, in the preceding 12 months;
Whereas 60 percent of unpaid caregivers worked for pay outside the home, and 
        most were women;
Whereas over 3,000,000 children and young people in the United States had also 
        been caregivers for adults;
Whereas, in 2019, women in the United States spent an average of nearly 4 hours 
        per day on unpaid care work and housework, 57 percent more hours than 
        men;
Whereas just as our country's physical infrastructure is crumbling, the Federal 
        and State programs constituting our care infrastructure are an outdated 
        patchwork, and quality care is inaccessible for millions of people in 
        the United States;
Whereas the United States does not guarantee paid time off to give and receive 
        care, and is the only industrialized country in the world without a 
        national paid family and medical leave program;
Whereas, in 2018, only 17 percent of the United States workforce had access to 
        paid family leave through their employer;
Whereas the median cost of a private room in a nursing home facility is $105,850 
        per year;
Whereas childcare is the highest household expense for families in much of the 
        United States, and public childcare assistance is limited;
Whereas Medicaid--

    (1) covers long-term care needs, but with strict income and asset 
eligibility requirements; and

    (2) has an institutional bias, requiring State programs to cover care 
in congregate facilities, while home and community-based services are 
optional and limited;

Whereas Medicare generally does not cover long-term services and supports;
Whereas only 7 percent of individuals in the United States aged 50 or older are 
        covered by private long-term care insurance, which is often 
        prohibitively expensive;
Whereas, in 2019, nearly 30,000,000 people, including 4,400,000 children, did 
        not have health insurance in the United States, over half of them people 
        of color, and tens of millions more people were underinsured;
Whereas the median annual pay of childcare and home care workers is $25,510 and 
        $17,200, respectively, leading to high turnover and reliance on public 
        assistance;
Whereas childcare workers are 95 percent women, and home care workers are 87 
        percent women, both disproportionately people of color and immigrants;
Whereas, in 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 8 percent of 
        health care support workers and 3.6 percent of personal care and service 
        workers were members of unions;
Whereas these conditions have historical roots, as--

    (1) in the decades following the abolition of slavery in the United 
States, Black people primarily worked as domestic and agricultural 
laborers; and

    (2) during the New Deal-era, domestic and agricultural workers were 
excluded from social programs and labor protections, particularly those 
created by--

    G    (A) the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 301 et seq.);

    G    (B) the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 151 et seq.); and

    G    (C) the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 201 et seq.);

Whereas the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored that frontline work, including 
        direct care, childcare, nursing, health care, public and community 
        health, mental health, domestic, social assistance, education, service, 
        retail, delivery, food, restaurant, agricultural, and other work, is 
        essential to the functioning and flourishing of the United States, and 
        to the care of all people;
Whereas, during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been necessary for frontline 
        workers to engage in numerous strikes and work stoppages to obtain safe 
        workplaces, personal protective equipment, the right to shelter in 
        place, and other basic protections;
Whereas domestic workers, mostly from the global South, were the most common 
        victims of labor trafficking reported in the United States between 2007 
        and 2017;
Whereas care and domestic workers who are migrants or immigrants are especially 
        likely to face wage theft, abuse, and other forms of exploitation;
Whereas hospitals in the United States are understaffed, and most of the country 
        does not require minimum nurse-to-patient ratios that save lives;
Whereas health care and social assistance workers suffer from the highest rates 
        of injuries due to workplace violence;
Whereas the closure of rural hospitals is accelerating, and 135 rural hospitals 
        have closed since 2010;
Whereas Black, Latino, and Indigenous people have all been more than twice as 
        likely to die of COVID-19 than White people;
Whereas adults receiving long-term care in institutional settings represent less 
        than 1 percent of the United States population, but account for more 
        than one-third of COVID-19 deaths in the United States as of the date of 
        introduction of this resolution;
Whereas the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Olmstead v. 
        L.C., 527 U.S. 581 (1999), established the right of people with 
        disabilities to be independent and supported in their homes and 
        communities;
Whereas lack of access to technology and broadband internet among people of 
        color, low-income and rural communities, older adults, and people with 
        disabilities has negatively impacted the well-being of those people, 
        particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic;
Whereas, on any given night in 2019, well over 550,000 people were unhoused in 
        the United States;
Whereas, in 2019, in the United States, 1 in 7 children, more than 1 in 4 Black 
        children, and more than 1 in 5 Latino and Indigenous children lived in 
        poverty;
Whereas youth suicide rates are rising, and suicide attempts by Black 
        adolescents increased by 73 percent between 1991 and 2017;
Whereas the Federal Head Start program reaches only 36 percent of eligible low-
        income children, and Early Head Start reaches only 11 percent;
Whereas 14,000,000 students attend schools with a police officer but no 
        counselor, nurse, psychologist, or social worker;
Whereas mental health professionals, such as school psychologists and 
        counselors, are best equipped to maintain school safety without pushing 
        children into the school-to-prison pipeline;
Whereas nearly 1 in 4 students, or up to 3,000,000 students, has been missing 
        from school during the COVID-19 pandemic, and will need additional 
        support both in and outside of school to accelerate learning;
Whereas the youth mental health crisis has been exacerbated by the climate 
        crisis, and has worsened due to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic 
        collapse;
Whereas Black, Brown, Indigenous, and low-income communities have borne the 
        brunt of health impacts arising from fossil fuel use, industrial 
        pollution, and crumbling infrastructure;
Whereas, increasingly, climate disasters and extreme weather events are leaving 
        behind communities suffering from widespread trauma and in need of 
        mental health care;
Whereas nurses, care and social assistance workers, and educators--

    (1) have been first responders during climate disasters and extreme 
weather events;

    (2) are essential for responding to other forms of environmental harm; 
and

    (3) have taken grave personal risks to help the people they serve;

Whereas worsening climate impacts will make care work more necessary and care 
        more difficult to administer, disproportionately impacting children, 
        older adults, and people with disabilities, who risk being separated 
        from their regular care workers and caregivers;
Whereas, despite the prevalence of low wages and difficult conditions, direct 
        care jobs, including home care, residential care, and nursing assistant 
        jobs, are already among the fastest growing in the the United States and 
        represent the largest occupational group in the country;
Whereas communities devastated by deindustrialization and disinvestment are 
        particularly reliant on care and social assistance work for employment;
Whereas many care, social assistance, and education jobs are relatively low-
        carbon occupations, and can quickly become green jobs as certain 
        physical infrastructures decarbonize, especially transit systems, health 
        care facilities, and public buildings;
Whereas a robust care workforce will also be required to support a just 
        transition to a healthy, zero-carbon economy, as other workers shift to 
        new industries, move across the country, and develop new care needs;
Whereas the multiple crises now facing the United States require not only 
        unprecedented investments in physical infrastructure, but also similarly 
        sized investments in social infrastructure, including care 
        infrastructure;
Whereas public investment in care work supports care workers' increased economic 
        activity, creating additional jobs throughout the economy;
Whereas we have a historic opportunity to finally build care infrastructure that 
        is equitable and inclusive, and one in which all people can thrive, 
        prosper, weather future disruptions, and age with dignity in their own 
        homes and communities; and
Whereas, in the context of addressing and defeating the COVID-19 pandemic, 
        economic crisis, systemic racism, and climate change, and taking 
        seriously the mandate to ``promote the general Welfare'', bold 
        investments in care can anchor the rebirth of the United States: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) it is the duty of the Federal Government to 
        dramatically expand and strengthen the care economy, healing 
        and supporting the country as we emerge from the COVID-19 
        pandemic and face the challenges of the 21st century and 
        beyond;
            (2) the obligation described in paragraph (1) can only be 
        met with far-reaching public investments, designed to achieve 
        the goals of--
                    (A) repairing the wrongs of history, including by--
                            (i) acknowledging and addressing the 
                        legacies of exclusion and oppression faced by 
                        caregivers and care workers, particularly women 
                        of color and immigrants;
                            (ii) acknowledging and addressing the 
                        trauma of all those with unmet care needs, such 
                        as people of color, including Black, Brown, and 
                        Indigenous people and Asian Americans and 
                        Pacific Islanders, immigrant, LGBTQIA+, older, 
                        low-income, rural, and deindustrialized 
                        communities, people with disabilities, the 
                        unemployed, underemployed, unhoused, people who 
                        are incarcerated or who were formerly 
                        incarcerated, veterans, survivors of abuse, and 
                        children and young people coping with economic 
                        and climate disruption; and
                            (iii) approaching care policy as part of a 
                        broader agenda of dismantling systemic racism, 
                        sexism, economic inequality, and other forms of 
                        oppression, alongside efforts to achieve truth 
                        and reconciliation, reparations, decarceration, 
                        restorative justice, Indigenous sovereignty, a 
                        fair and humane immigration system, 
                        demilitarization, a Federal jobs guarantee, and 
                        economic, environmental, and climate justice 
                        for all;
                    (B) raising pay, benefits, protections, and 
                standards for existing care workers, such that--
                            (i) care jobs are family sustaining, paying 
                        substantially more than $15 an hour and 
                        offering generous benefits;
                            (ii) all care workers have--
                                    (I) the right, and have pathways, 
                                to unionize;
                                    (II) the ability to engage in 
                                collective action; and
                                    (III) full labor protections, 
                                including those specified in the 
                                Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Act;
                            (iii) all care workers who wish to form 
                        worker-owned cooperatives have access to 
                        resources and technical support with which to 
                        do so;
                            (iv) all care workers have access to ample 
                        training opportunities, apprenticeships, and 
                        career ladders leading to higher compensation, 
                        along with other resources and support, 
                        including funding to facilitate those 
                        opportunities;
                            (v) all care workers have the mandated 
                        employer protections they need to conduct their 
                        work safely in general, and in the event of a 
                        pandemic, infectious disease outbreak, or other 
                        disaster, including having optimal personal 
                        protective equipment, optimal isolation 
                        protocols, testing and contact tracing, and 
                        paid days off due to exposure or illness;
                            (vi) all care workers are safe from 
                        workplace violence, harassment, and threats to 
                        health; and
                            (vii) all undocumented workers have 
                        pathways to citizenship and full and equal 
                        access to all public benefits, including 
                        health, nutrition, and income support;
                    (C) creating millions of new care jobs over the 
                next decade, including as part of existing and new 
                public jobs programs, subject to the same principles in 
                subparagraph (B), in the context of the COVID-19 
                pandemic recovery, the Green New Deal, and any similar 
                efforts to meet the challenges and opportunities of the 
                21st century;
                    (D) building and expanding zero-carbon, non-
                polluting, climate-safe infrastructure, including 
                physical infrastructure and social infrastructure, to 
                guarantee care to all people throughout the life cycle, 
                moving the United States toward universal, public 
                programs ensuring--
                            (i) high-quality health care, including 
                        comprehensive and noncoercive mental health 
                        care coverage, substance use treatment, and 
                        reproductive care, free at the point of 
                        service;
                            (ii) free, high-quality home and community-
                        based services, without income or asset tests 
                        and without waiting lists, which would fix the 
                        institutional bias of the current system, and 
                        allow people with disabilities and older adults 
                        to receive needed support and live self-
                        directed lives;
                            (iii) free, high-quality childcare and 
                        early childhood education with a focus on the 
                        first 1,000 days of life, and robust, 
                        culturally responsive, and diverse care 
                        settings to achieve healthy child development;
                            (iv) paid family and medical leave of at 
                        least 6 months, with full wage replacement; and
                            (v) additional support for unpaid 
                        caregivers, people with disabilities, older 
                        adults, and children, with the goal of 
                        eradicating child poverty; and
                    (E) building and expanding other zero-carbon, non-
                polluting, climate-safe infrastructure and jobs that 
                are intimately connected to the care infrastructure 
                described in subparagraph (D), to meet the fundamental 
                material, developmental, emotional, and social needs of 
                all people, including--
                            (i) clean air and water;
                            (ii) public, permanently affordable, and 
                        dignified housing and transit systems, 
                        integrated with adequate social services to 
                        support residents of all ages and abilities;
                            (iii) safe, accessible infrastructure, 
                        including public accommodations, schools, 
                        workplaces, housing, transit, and streets 
                        allowing for full mobility for all people;
                            (iv) public education, with a focus on 
                        social and emotional learning, unleashing 
                        creativity in the arts and sciences, and 
                        educating and nurturing the whole child, and 
                        including fully funded programs for high-need 
                        students;
                            (v) healthy, nourishing, and sustainable 
                        food systems that provide affordable, 
                        accessible, and culturally appropriate foods;
                            (vi) comprehensive public health and 
                        emergency preparedness infrastructure, 
                        including equitable, democratic response and 
                        recovery efforts during and after climate 
                        disasters;
                            (vii) clear opportunities for, and the 
                        removal of barriers to, unionization and 
                        collective action in all economic sectors, 
                        including the service, technology, and gig work 
                        sectors;
                            (viii) a Federal minimum wage of at least 
                        $15 an hour, indexed to the cost of living, and 
                        the elimination of subminimum wages for people 
                        with disabilities, tipped workers, and all 
                        other workers;
                            (ix) expanded leisure time, with no loss in 
                        pay or benefits;
                            (x) generous, paid sick days and vacation 
                        time;
                            (xi) support for worker ownership, worker-
                        owned cooperatives, and safety and democracy in 
                        the workplace, so that workers have meaningful 
                        influence over their conditions of work and the 
                        decisions that affect their lives;
                            (xii) adequate public services and programs 
                        to support all people in navigating economic 
                        and social challenges, including navigating 
                        life on a rapidly warming planet, and to help 
                        all people unleash their full potential as 
                        human beings;
                            (xiii) public libraries, community centers, 
                        and other spaces that foster creativity, 
                        connection, mental health, and human 
                        development;
                            (xiv) support for practicing and aspiring 
                        artists, as well as institutions, venues, and 
                        platforms that empower and fairly compensate 
                        artists, bringing their work to wider 
                        audiences, and integrating the arts into 
                        community mental health, education, and 
                        resilience efforts;
                            (xv) access to nature, public space, 
                        diverse forms of public recreation, and 
                        technology, including public broadband 
                        internet; and
                            (xvi) mechanisms for democratic oversight 
                        of data, algorithmic, and technological 
                        systems, along with worker and community 
                        participation in the development and 
                        application of those systems, in service of 
                        expanding and improving care and social 
                        infrastructures;
            (3) any COVID-19 relief and economic recovery legislation 
        must prioritize and invest in care infrastructure as a down 
        payment on building an interconnected, holistic caregiving 
        system that--
                    (A) is the backbone of the economy and essential to 
                all people; and
                    (B) celebrates the interdependence of all people;
            (4) unpaid caregivers deserve support, care workers deserve 
        quality, high-paying, union jobs, people with disabilities and 
        older adults deserve independence and self-determination, and 
        every person, at every stage of life, deserves to live, work, 
        play, and care with dignity; and
            (5) our ultimate aim is to build an economy and society 
        based on care for people, communities, and the planet we all 
        share.
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