[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 87 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 87

 Recognizing that the United States needs a Marshall Plan for Moms in 
       order to revitalize and restore mothers in the workforce.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 3, 2021

 Ms. Klobuchar (for herself, Ms. Duckworth, Ms. Smith, Ms. Rosen, Mr. 
 Wyden, Mr. Heinrich, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. 
 Brown, and Mr. Durbin) submitted the following resolution; which was 
  referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Recognizing that the United States needs a Marshall Plan for Moms in 
       order to revitalize and restore mothers in the workforce.

Whereas any relief and long-term recovery from the economic fallout of the 
        COVID-19 pandemic must recognize, rebuild, and return mothers to the 
        workforce;
Whereas women, and especially working mothers, are bearing the brunt of the 
        economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of existing 
        social barriers and policy failures such as--

    (1) the lack of a care infrastructure, including child care deserts and 
lack of care infrastructure caused by high child care costs;

    (2) the lack of family-supportive workplaces;

    (3) the lack of a national paid leave policy; and

    (4) gender and racial pay inequity;

Whereas, at the beginning of 2020, women made up the majority of the workforce 
        for the first time in almost a decade, even as women continued to face 
        unjust gender and racial wage gaps;
Whereas 2,300,000 women have left the labor force since the beginning of the 
        COVID-19 pandemic, including 275,000 who exited in January 2021;
Whereas participation by women in the labor force was less than 55 percent in 
        April 2020 for the first time since 1986, in part because of the child 
        care crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic;
Whereas participation by women age 20 and older in the labor force fell to a 33-
        year low in January 2021, hitting 57 percent;
Whereas women--

    (1) have suffered the majority of pandemic-related job losses; and

    (2) have lost over 5,400,000 net jobs since February 2020, and account 
for 55 percent of overall net job loss since the start of the COVID-19 
pandemic;

Whereas 86 percent of net jobs lost in December 2020 were jobs held by women, 
        with women losing 196,000 jobs during that month;
Whereas mothers in the prime of their working lives have paid an especially high 
        price, with mothers ages 25 to 54 experiencing a 5.7-percentage point 
        decline in employment since the COVID-19 pandemic began, compared to a 
        3.1 percentage-point decline for fathers in the same age group;
Whereas women are overrepresented in low-wage jobs and underrepresented in high-
        wage jobs;
Whereas employment in the bottom quartile of the wage distribution has declined 
        by 17 percent since February 2020, far exceeding the overall employment 
        decline of 6.5 percent;
Whereas wages for women are key to the economic security of the families of such 
        women;
Whereas women of color play a particularly vital role in the financial stability 
        of their families, and any disruption to their earnings can be 
        detrimental to the welfare of their families;
Whereas the absence of affordable child care exacerbates inequality by severely 
        inhibiting low-income parents from attaining promotions and higher 
        salaries;
Whereas child nutrition is strongly linked to the employment status of mothers, 
        such that almost 1 in 4 children experienced food insecurity in 2020 at 
        the same time that mothers experienced work disruptions or unemployment 
        that led to income loss;
Whereas work interruptions caused by school closures and child care closures 
        have disproportionately impacted women, forcing women to reduce work 
        hours, take a leave of absence, or permanently leave the workforce;
Whereas, without reliable and affordable child care, mothers who have left the 
        workforce will not be able to return to work, since such mothers often 
        cannot pay for child care without the income made from going back to 
        work;
Whereas essential workers who are single parents face additional challenges and 
        greater financial burden due to needing affordable child care;
Whereas the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing stigmas against working 
        mothers that falsely assume that their role as caregivers will 
        negatively impact their work performance;
Whereas mothers forced to permanently leave the workforce or reduce work hours 
        because of the COVID-19 pandemic are experiencing career trajectory 
        disruptions that lower their lifetime earnings potential and endanger 
        their future Social Security earnings and other potential retirement 
        income;
Whereas child care is a lifeline for working mothers, and over 75 percent of 
        mothers with children younger than age 10 say child care is one of their 
        top 3 challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic;
Whereas, in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States, there were 
        roughly 9,700,000 working mothers with a child younger than age 6;
Whereas 95 percent of the child care workforce is composed of women, and yet 
        nearly \2/3\ of child care workers with children report problems with 
        accessing public support programs and often struggle to afford high-
        quality child care for their own families;
Whereas 60 percent of businesses in the child care industry are minority owned;
Whereas a significant investment in child care would be simultaneously job 
        creating and job enabling, creating care jobs and supporting parental 
        employment, both of which would benefit women;
Whereas women of color are disproportionately represented in many frontline 
        industries that also lack critical benefits such as paid sick leave and 
        flexibility to telework, including food services, hospitality, retail, 
        and social assistance;
Whereas the unprecedented burdens of child care, work, and remote learning have 
        strained the mental and emotional health of mothers; and
Whereas access to paid leave during the COVID-19 pandemic has been linked to a 
        reduction in the spread of COVID-19 by as many as 15,000 new cases per 
        day where people were able to use the leave, such that paid leave has 
        prevented the compounded stressors of countless evictions, 
        hospitalizations, and hungry children: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) mothers, especially mothers of color, have been pushed 
        to the brink of economic, social, and emotional collapse during 
        the COVID-19 pandemic because of the existing economic and 
        social inequalities that women have long faced;
            (2) any relief and long-term recovery package to address 
        the COVID-19 crisis should recognize and rebuild moms in the 
        workforce, in order to secure meaningful and sustainable 
        economic recovery, by including, at a minimum--
                    (A) a robust paid leave plan, which is essential to 
                securing the physical health and financial health of 
                families, including emergency paid leave policies that 
                would create a path toward permanent paid leave 
                solutions;
                    (B) the means to rebuild and stabilize the child 
                care industry, which is essential to economic recovery 
                and bolstering women in the labor force;
                    (C) major investments in our education systems, 
                which must be made in order to safely reopen schools 
                and campuses, providing funding to support and protect 
                the safety and health of educators, support staff, 
                students, and families;
                    (D) recurring child benefits, and expanded and 
                improved child tax credit and earned income tax credit 
                to help reduce child poverty and provide economic 
                security for families;
                    (E) an expanded unemployment insurance program that 
                benefits struggling workers, including those 
                experiencing long-term unemployment; and
                    (F) access to mental health support for mothers, 
                which is essential to maintaining the health of the 
                family; and
            (3) employers and policymakers in the United States must 
        prioritize addressing the economic cliff facing mothers, and 
        make permanent the aforementioned policies so that mothers are 
        protected against any future economic calamities.
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