[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 40 (Wednesday, March 3, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1030-S1031]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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   SENATE RESOLUTION 87--RECOGNIZING THAT THE UNITED STATES NEEDS A 
 MARSHALL PLAN FOR MOMS IN ORDER TO REVITALIZE AND RESTORE MOTHERS IN 
                             THE WORKFORCE

  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:

                               S. Res. 87

       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

[[Page S1031]]

     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 comprised 
     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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