[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 184 (Wednesday, October 20, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H5714-H5720]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
{time} 1730
THE CARE ECONOMY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 4, 2021, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Speier) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
General Leave
Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include
extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from California?
There was no objection.
Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, I am astonished by the last hour. It is
like they are living in a different universe. If you look at the
economic growth in the United States under this administration, it is
actually growing at such a rate that by the end of the year it will
have reached 6 percent in growth. So all of that blather that went on
on the other side of the aisle should be registered as what it is:
False.
But we are here to talk about something much more important than a
bunch of lies. We are here to talk about what 90 Members of the
Democratic Women's Caucus are concerned about, and that is the care
economy. The question that we want to ask is: Why does America not
value our families or our children?
Why is it that France has provided 8 weeks of maternity leave to
working women since 1913--yes, since 1913--yet we struggle to provide
paid family leave?
Why is it that Germany 30 years ago was able to decide children have
the right to quality childcare, yet some of my colleagues call
universal childcare and pre-K a handout?
Surely if our European counterparts can understand that childcare and
pre-K is not babysitting, it is education that fuels the brain and
emotional development in the most formative years of a child's life so
that children can grow and thrive, we certainly can grasp that.
Surely my colleagues who stand here and preach about the sanctity of
life can understand the hypocrisy of advocacy for birth but not
advocacy for life. After they come out of the womb is when we should be
investing in them.
And surely, they can understand that the she-cession that happens to
both Republican women and Democratic women is real in this country and
has resulted from a pandemic that isn't just a burden on working women
and families, it is a burden on all of us. It is an issue that touches
every corner of our society and government from national security to
economic growth, and most importantly, the health and well-being of our
children and the progress of our country as we work to build back
better.
Now, I am just getting started here, but I have got many colleagues
who are here and want to speak to this issue.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New Jersey (Ms.
Sherrill).
Ms. SHERRILL. Madam Speaker, I thank Chairwoman Speier for yielding.
I appreciate it.
I rise today to talk about the childcare crisis facing our Nation,
and by extension, our national economy.
I rise today to share the stories from working mothers in my
district, to outline the disastrous impact maintaining the status quo
will have for families and communities and businesses, and to instill a
sense of urgency for addressing this childcare crisis, because prior to
COVID, women represented over half the working people in this Nation.
Over half.
So let's be clear, when working moms are losing ground, that is the
American middle class losing ground. And the current reality of the
American childcare system is endless waitlists for spots that may never
open up.
The current reality is unreasonable costs that eat away at 20, 30, 40
percent of a working parent's paycheck.
In fact, I have a constituent who has two children in childcare and
pays over the amount of their paycheck in childcare. And in over half
of the States in this Nation, center-based infant care costs more than
in-State college tuition. That is what is facing families today.
And the current reality is to make it work, often for families--
including my own family--the only way you make it work is with the help
of grandparents or friends. So God help you, if you don't have that
safety net in place.
The current reality is that too many moms are being forced to leave
their jobs because they simply can't make it work. And if we don't act,
too many of those moms will not be able to re-enter our workforce.
Two weeks ago, I convened a round table to have an in-depth
conversation with working women in NJ-11. The stories I heard on that
call mirror the experiences of women across my district, of the women
serving alongside me in this legislative body, and they mirror my own
experiences over the past 16 years as a working mom raising my four
children.
Anyone who has had a child in the last few decades knows that the
barriers to entry for childcare in America begin before your first
child is even born. You are only pregnant for 9 months, but mothers
have told me about 2-year waiting lists and a dearth of available
options.
That situation got worse during the pandemic, with many centers
closing down or going out of business.
And that is the current reality when things go according to plan.
During that round table, we heard from too many people who had
changes in their lives which upended their whole childcare plan. During
that round table, I heard from a professor who told me about how her
search for childcare became twice as hard when she and her wife found
out they were expecting twins. It got even harder than that when they
were born premature and had health concerns that required in-home care.
She and her spouse were forced to make the impossible choice to cut
their income in half so one of them could stay at home or to incur the
astronomically high cost of in-home care. That is the catch-22 our
families are facing too many times today.
I have a working mom and a councilwoman in my district who faced a
similar dilemma. When she had her son, she was lucky enough to find a
great childcare center with space for him, but the price of quality
care was steep. She was in the position where her salary was just above
the cost of care. Like far too many women, she considered leaving the
workforce simply because the costs were unjustifiable. But in her case,
she couldn't afford not to work. And she is lucky she didn't stop
because we know that for women who quit the workforce for even 1 year,
that is a 40 percent pay cut over the next 15 years.
This issue is about the family budget, the bottom line, the ability
to make ends meet. And for too many families, the exorbitant costs of
childcare place them just steps away from financial ruin.
[[Page H5715]]
My councilwoman was lucky to find good childcare near where she
lived, but what happens when you move?
Well, we heard from another working mom about that. She and her
husband had great daycare for their 1-year-old that they really loved.
They were one of the lucky ones. Unfortunately, when they decided it
was time to move, they couldn't find anywhere with space near their new
home. So for months before they got off the wait list at a new center,
they left their house every day at 6:30 a.m. to drop their child off at
the old daycare center before starting their own long commute to work.
But even with that daycare system, she still needed help from a
family member to pick up her son when the daycare center closed hours
before she and her spouse finished work. And this dilemma has only
gotten worse during COVID with childcare centers scaling back their
hours due to workforce shortage issues.
All of these barriers come with a direct economic cost. This isn't
just a woman's issue. This isn't just a children's issue. This is a
critical economic issue facing our Nation.
In September alone, 26,000 women lost jobs while more than 200,000
men gained jobs. And that is not to mention the more than 300,000 women
who left the workforce entirely that month.
We are leaving hundreds of billions of dollars of potential economic
growth and improved GDP on the table by failing to fix this crisis and
continuing to force women out of the workforce.
And we are certainly not solving the workforce crisis facing
communities all across this country.
Tonight, you will hear from many of us outlining the stories that we
ourselves and our constituents face, the concerns that the very real
obstacles and challenges with childcare across this country are
hampering too many women in the workforce. We are jumping through hoops
and making tough financial decisions, calling on friends and family
members just to find and maintain affordable and quality childcare. And
as a result, our families are suffering.
The progress women have made in the workforce and in our society is
suffering.
Our economic recovery post pandemic is suffering.
But it doesn't have to be this way.
We have the opportunity to make crucial investments in our childcare
system to ensure that no family in this Nation pays more than 7 percent
of their income on childcare. This budget plan represents an important
start to helping working women stay in the workforce after having a
child, help those who left re-enter, and keep more money in the pockets
of hardworking families across this country.
And we can do all this as we ignite our economic recovery and build
back better.
Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, I would ask the Congresswoman, before she
leaves, she has also served in the military, and as she called upon
this being an economic issue, is it not also a national security issue?
Ms. SHERRILL. Will the gentlewoman yield?
Ms. SPEIER. I yield to the gentlewoman from New Jersey.
Ms. SHERRILL. Madam Speaker, it truly is. And as you know, as you
chair your subcommittee and hear, I'm sure, from far too many families
about as the difficulties of childcare grow, the difficulties of being
a fully deployable force like our United States Navy grow.
So certainly, it is a national security issue, as well.
Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for participating
today.
I yield to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Lois Frankel), my friend
and colleague, and co-chair of the Democratic Women's Caucus.
Ms. LOIS FRANKEL of Florida. Madam Speaker, I thank Representative
Speier for her leadership today.
Madam Speaker, I have this speech and all that, but I don't want to
make a speech. I told my friend I was just going to rant. She said:
``Go to it.''
I am listening to the cable news and all that, and they say the
Democrats are fighting and they are talking about the moderates and the
progressives, and I just want everyone to know this: We are fighting.
We are fighting for you. We are fighting for the American people. And
especially we are fighting to make sure that women and children are on
this train when it pulls out on build back better.
First of all, I am a very proud member of the Florida delegation, but
I am not really here as a Representative. I am here as someone who was
a working mother and now I say I am a working grandmother. And I
remember those days of having to juggle and make sure my son was in
good, nurturing care as he was growing up and I was working full time.
And now I have grandchildren whose parents both have to work full time,
and I think about them all the time. Who are they going to be left
with? What about when they have their colds?
I had forgotten, Representative Speier, that your first year of pre-K
you are constantly sick. So not only do they go to school, then they
have to have someone to take care of them when they have that cold. And
I think my colleague from New Jersey gave a really good summary of what
it is like for the parents struggling to make ends meet.
We know that parents are really making the least amount of money
usually when their kids are the youngest. And it is really a stretch
for so many parents to even afford childcare, and then for the sandwich
generation to have to take care of the elderly or the disabled loved
one who needs home care.
But I want to talk about also, Representative Speier and Madam
Speaker, about the worker, the people in whose care we are leaving the
people we love the most.
Representative Speier, did you realize that the average salary for a
childcare worker or a home care worker is about $27,000 a year?
Ms. SPEIER. It is about $11 an hour, isn't it?
Ms. LOIS FRANKEL of Florida. Will the gentlewoman yield?
Ms. SPEIER. I yield to the gentlewoman from Florida.
Ms. LOIS FRANKEL of Florida. So you think about it. After you pay
your rent, your car payment, your insurance, your food, you buy your
clothes, it doesn't leave much, if anything.
And think about the responsibility of these workers, as I said,
taking care of our precious children.
And I want to give you an example, because the average income of all
workers in the United States is $68,000. I would like that to be
higher, too, and I am not saying that other people don't deserve good
salaries, but just to give by comparison, a truck driver, $46,000; a
schoolteacher, $64,000; an accountant, $79,000; a plumber, $60,000. I
can go on and on. A salesperson, $64,000.
I am not saying they don't deserve that money, but don't the people
who take care of our loved ones also deserve to make money so they can
have a decent life?
Ms. SPEIER. Isn't it stunning that we will pay those who watch our
money six times as much money as we will pay those who take care of our
children?
Ms. LOIS FRANKEL of Florida. Well, how about parking your car in a
parking lot? We pay more to have someone watch our car than we do to
watch our children.
And it is not only not fair and not right, but it also mostly affects
women of color because that is who predominantly are our caretakers,
and as a result, Madam Speaker, of this paying so little, there is a
tremendous shortage.
Would you tell us, Representative Speier, what this means today in
terms of the childcare and the home care industry in terms of getting
people to even work the job?
Ms. SPEIER. Well, that is why we have lost so many slots in childcare
centers around the country. That is why 60 percent of our families live
in childcare deserts now. Think about that.
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There is no childcare available, even if they have the resources to
pay for it because the infrastructure doesn't exist anymore because we
paid them so little. And the Build Back Better plan, as you know--and
you can articulate--is going to change all of that.
Ms. LOIS FRANKEL of Florida. Right. Because we are going to build
back better for our children, and especially our working parents, for
the elderly, who we love, and the disabled, by not only making it more
affordable,
[[Page H5716]]
but also raising the wages of our care workers. We are talking about a
transformational bill with Build Back Better.
Madam Speaker, I know you appreciate this, and those here today, is
that we are fighting in this bill to have universal pre-K for all 3-
and 4-year-olds in this country, getting our children off to a good
start.
Representative Speaker, I know you can tell us, what does it mean
when a 3- and a 4-year-old gets off to a good start, and how does that
equate to how they are going to do later in life?
Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, we all know that from 1 to 3 is when the
brain is developing. That is when the resources need to be made
available to these young infants and toddlers so that they will be
prepared to then go into pre-K and then into school. If you don't have
that experience, you are not going to have the children being able to
do well in school and then to be able to be persons in our communities
who are working very important jobs. So if it is truly about the
children, let's make it about the children and build back better.
Ms. LOIS FRANKEL of Florida. Madam Speaker, this is a declaration in
the United States of America: That getting children off to an early
start at ages 3 and 4 is as important as getting them into kindergarten
or 6th grade, or whatever.
Madam Speaker, I know I said one last thing, but I do have one last
thing, because we are talking about taking care of our families. If
anything we learned from the pandemic, is the importance of being able
to take care of a loved one when they are sick or disabled, or
whatever. That is why the paid family leave provision of Build Back
Better is so important.
In fact, is it true that we are the only industrialized nation in the
country that does not have a paid leave policy?
Ms. SPEIER. That is correct. In fact, as I pointed out earlier,
France had it back in 1913. Think about that. We are a century later
and we are still struggling with parental and medical leave.
It is important to point out, the vast majority of this money, in
terms of who takes advantage of parental and medical leave, it is for
the individual. Fifty percent of the paid leave goes for an individual
who is sick and who needs that particular benefit to be able to have
the surgery or be provided the healthcare during a time of sickness.
So when we say paid parental and medical leave, the big beneficiary
of that benefit is probably an older American who is in the workforce
who, without this, would have to use their sick leave up and then
probably go on unpaid leave.
Ms. LOIS FRANKEL of Florida. Madam Speaker, I am glad I got to do my
little ranting and raving. I know I have colleagues who are going to
add a lot to this.
The American people should know that the Democratic Women's Caucus
right here, and we represent people all over the country--
Ms. SPEIER. Ninety of us.
Ms. LOIS FRANKEL of Florida. There are 90 of us. We are fighting for
you. We are going to build back better for our women, our children, our
parents, our grandparents. We love them all. I have two grandsons; I
want them to have the same rights as every little girl.
Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman and dear friend,
Ms. Frankel.
Madam Speaker, I would also point out that as we look at the
infrastructure bill that everyone is supporting, that trillion-dollar
package is going to create 2 million jobs over the next 10 years. That
is great, but 90 percent of those jobs are going to men.
Meanwhile, the pandemic has created an environment where 1.6 million
women have left the workforce. That is the lowest participation of
women in the workforce since 1988. We are going back. We are not going
forward, unless we have the Build Back Better plan, which is going to
provide the infrastructure for childcare and pre-K and the opportunity
for women to get back to work.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms.
Schakowsky), my dearest friend.
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
The Democratic Caucus--and I see that now we have all three of the
leaders of that caucus that I am so proud to be a member of.
Madam Speaker, my daughter is a childcare worker. She works in a
childcare center, and I am so proud of her and just the effort and the
creativity and just the energy that she puts into this very low-paid
job. If it weren't for someone else earning money in the household, she
could not really afford to live on that pay.
I quote from a scholar who said, ``most developed countries in this
world have some kind of a robust social safety net. The United States
has women.'' And when it comes to taking care of those in need, either
as workers or as family members, it is mostly women.
I want to tell you that in the eighties, I was director--and proudly
so--of the Illinois State Council of Senior Citizens. And as part of
that, I was a cochair of the Long-Term Care Coalition that we had in
Illinois.
At that time, there was no long-term healthcare policy in the United
States of America. And guess what? There is no long-term care policy in
the United States of America right now. Families are left to figure it
out.
What are we going to do? I am getting older. I don't have family.
What am I going to do to take care of myself? I am getting older and
my family is the only one available to take care of me.
I have to move in with my children, or they have to move in with me
to take care of me because there is no other choice.
Or you end up--I don't know--in some kind of an institution where
people, again, are poorly paid--often women of color, often low-income
women. In fact, for home care, the average worker does make about $12
an hour, with no benefits. And if you have to travel from one place to
another, there is no payment for that kind of transportation or getting
there. It is not really doable. And so we have made pretty much no
progress until now. And then the President of the United States, Joe
Biden, said we are going to have Medicare, home- and community-based
services in this country.
Now, he announced a very big amount of money to go for that. I don't
know if that is going to be able to be paid for fully right now in the
Build Back Better plan, but we are going to make a start. We are going
to say yes. It is not just that we are going to leave families, women
at home, not being able to go back to the workplace themselves. We are
going to have a home care policy. And that is where people want to be,
in their homes, in the United States of America.
I believe that we will see billions and billions of dollars that are
going to be able to go to long-term care. And we are going to pay
attention to these workers. It is not right. It is not possible to
depend on workers who, themselves, live in poverty; don't have someone
to care for them when they get older; often can't even afford to get--
we talk about paid sick leave--have no health insurance, have no
backup, if they get sick.
This is absolutely not working in this country. If we are going to
build back better, we have to build back better for women. We have to
build back better for women toward the end of life, as we age. We have
to take care of women and children in this country.
It is really embarrassing, in a way, when we look at the rest of the
world, how far behind the richest country in the world is in taking
care of our families, the most in need in our country. But we are
finally at a tipping and turning point right now. We have an
administration, we have leaders in the House and the Senate who are now
saying those days are gone.
We are now going to be a country that, as the President says, is
built from the bottom up and the middle out. We are going to take care
of workers. We are going to take care of families, and we are going to
take care of women and children. I am just so proud to be part of a
caucus that is determined to make this a reality, to transform the
United States of America into a place that is safe and healthy and has
opportunity for all of us.
Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her rousing
speech and making the case, once again, that women are the backbone of
this country. If we build back better in the Build Back Better plan,
what we
[[Page H5717]]
will have is a situation where 2 million more jobs will be created.
There will be $24 billion more in take-home pay for women, which will
then move through the economy and benefit all of us, as well.
It is my great pleasure to introduce one of our newer Members, but
one of our feisty new Members.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms.
Wild).
Ms. WILD. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman. It is an honor to
be part of the Special Order hour, it is an honor to be called feisty,
and it is an honor to follow my good friends and colleagues,
Representative Frankel and Representative Schakowsky as they talked
about different aspects of the care economy. Representative Frankel was
focused on childcare. She, of course, has grandchildren and is very
focused on the care that they are receiving.
Madam Speaker, I want to tell a personal story, because it is
something that I, frankly, having had this experience, this issue of
the care economy might not resonate as much with me as it does.
In 2014, my mother was diagnosed with brain cancer. She was an
incredibly independent woman, had always had a career until she
retired, lived alone, gardened, took care of her home, and was, in all
respects, somebody that, quite frankly, my sister and I thought was
going to live to be 100. She was 82 at the time. Everything changed on
a dime.
She was diagnosed with brain cancer in the summer of 2014. We, her
daughters, were told that she had a pretty short time left to live. And
it was a shock, nothing that we could in any way have planned for or
anticipated or made prior arrangements. But we knew that it was
incredibly important that we bring her to one of our homes for the
remaining weeks or months that she had to live. So she was transported
to my home where we had home hospice care for her.
I worked full-time as a lawyer at the time. My sister worked full-
time. Obviously, our first concern was our mother, but both of us also
had careers and bills that had to be paid, that we had worked for for
so many years. And so what ended up happening was that we engaged home
healthcare workers to help us take care of our mother. It was only
because of those tireless home care workers that were with her at her
bedside during the night so that I could sleep, providing essential
care, and it was only because of them that my family and I could rest
somewhat easier knowing that mom had the help and the resources that
she needed around her.
I can tell you, quite honestly, that we would not have made it
through those months had we not had the benefit of home healthcare
workers. And I have to tell you, again firsthand, watching a parent or
a loved one suffer is hard enough, but those workers--and they were all
women, I might add--who came into our home, made it just a little bit
easier for me and for my sister and the rest of our family, knowing
that she had a team of hardworking caregivers by her side through her
sickness.
We know that home care workers have been on the front lines this past
year. We have heard a lot about it. Quite honestly, until the pandemic,
I don't know that we ever really heard much about home care workers,
but they cared for our most vulnerable population. They put themselves
and their families at risk. They did this while earning near poverty
wages.
{time} 1800
We know that home care workers are three times as likely to be living
at or near the poverty line, with many of them struggling to afford
their own healthcare while they provide essential services to the
elderly and disabled Americans.
One home healthcare worker in my district who cares for a young man
who is disabled told me that she has not taken a single day of vacation
time in more than 10 years. She is a young woman, but she has been
working for a long time. She hasn't taken a single day off. This kind
of thing is completely unacceptable.
I stand with them in their call for a long-overdue raise, improved
worker benefits, and the opportunity to organize and collectively
bargain.
None of us are able to anticipate when we are going to need this kind
of care for somebody in our family. It happens, as it always does, when
you least expect it.
This is the smart thing to do. We have the opportunity now at a
pivotal time. By the way, as our Nation grows older, the need for this
critical workforce is only going to grow.
The commonsense investments that we are talking about as being part
of the Build Back Better Act are absolutely commonsense investments
that will create jobs but will also provide the necessary support both
in terms of healthcare support and emotional support for families that
our aging population is going to require.
For too long, this population of workers has been underpaid and
undervalued, and that has to end with the Build Back Better Act.
Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her comments.
I think it is important to point out, as she did, that when we are in a
situation where we want to bring our family members who are dying home
and keep them at home, and bring in home healthcare, we are actually
saving money for the Medicare system because if they were hospitalized,
the cost per day would be prohibitive.
I had my mother-in-law, my father, and my mother all living with us
at the end of their lives, and it was a great source of solace to know
that they could stay home and bring in a home healthcare worker.
Ms. WILD. Madam Speaker, that is what we experienced. She was
hospitalized for a full month before we brought her home for hospice
care, during which she underwent all kinds of, frankly, unnecessary
interventions that the facility was required to do. She was in daily
physical therapy, which was almost ludicrous for a woman who had just
weeks left to live. Yes, the cost factor to Medicare is significant as
well.
Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Michigan
(Mrs. Lawrence), a co-chair of the Democratic Women's Caucus, an
outspoken advocate for so many of these issues.
Mrs. LAWRENCE. Madam Speaker, I want to recognize the strong
leadership of our co-chair, not only just now in her leadership role in
the Democratic Women's Caucus, but throughout her tenure in Congress,
Jackie Speier. I thank her for this Special Order hour.
Since the start of this pandemic, women have lost more than 2 million
jobs, and our labor force is down, for women, to 57 percent. Why does
that matter? It is because women's labor force participation--please
hear this number--contributes more than $7 trillion to the U.S. GDP
every year. So when you talk about building back with women, there is
an economic incentive for us to do that in America.
The reality is there are far too many women in the United States who
care for their children and the elders in their families. They are
looking at situations where it is far too expensive.
We heard the description of my two colleagues caring for their elder
parents. Do you know what that would mean if they didn't have a
childcare or elder care system to take care of them?
In reality, in America, there are women who call in sick and who take
off from work because they have a child that is suffering from cancer
or a parent who is dying, and they are the only ones to do this. And
they cannot afford to pay for it. We know that caring for our loved
ones should not force women to make a choice between the two.
In Michigan, 44 percent of the Michiganders live in a childcare
desert. As we talk about this, some people go like, you know, let them
figure it out. In some scenarios, there isn't even a childcare facility
for the parent to even consider or try to figure out how to pay for it.
The reality is that there is such a large number of women who work two
jobs, one to pay for childcare and one to put food, shelter, and
clothing on their children, because there are not other options. They
can't afford the childcare. So, do I lose my home and have childcare?
They work two jobs, and being away from home for an extended period
of time has its own built-in problems.
I want you to know that the Build Back Better agenda increases access
to
[[Page H5718]]
affordable childcare. How amazing is it to say that every family in
America would not have to pay more than 7 percent of their income for
childcare? We talk about childcare workers--and I just want to go back
to the page that my colleague was just talking about.
Disproportionately, when we are at that point where we have needs, it
is a woman who knocks on our door to provide the childcare, and it is a
woman who knocks on the door to take care of our elderly. And,
disproportionately, they are women of color, Black women, Hispanic
women, Asian women who are the majority of caregivers in this country.
What do we do? We say our children and our elders are our most
precious in our family. I will walk through fire for my child. There is
nothing I won't do for my parents. But we disrespect these workers
every day with these pathetic salaries that we have in America. In the
Build Back Better agenda, we will be boosting the compensation for our
care workers so that they can feel the respect and the honor and go
home and take care of their own families.
Madam Speaker, I was a dear friend of Aretha Franklin, and every time
I talk about this, I think about that song: All I am asking for is just
a little respect.
In America, how can we say something is so precious to us but we
disrespect those who show up, hold the hands, wipe the noses of our
children, who tuck in our elders, and sometimes they are there when
they take their last breath. America, we can do better.
I want you to know that building back better--and we have coined the
term, and we will not walk away from that--and our colleagues are
working because we can build back better in this country with human
infrastructure. You can't do it unless you build back better with
women, and that means paying attention to the service, to the need for
care, for the need to invest in our human infrastructure.
If you want to improve poverty in America, invest in jobs and invest
in women. The majority of those in poverty in the United States of
America are women heads of households who have children. We make an
effort to ensure no one goes hungry in America, but we disrespect those
who care for our loved ones.
Madam Speaker, I want you to know that I am standing here today
locking arms with my colleagues. I want to, and I will, demand that
America build back better. I know that my colleagues in the Democratic
Women's Caucus are fired up and ready to go because we know this
opportunity to put our thumbprint on the values of America, of what we
are going to do, is laid out in Build Back Better.
We know that we are negotiating and fighting, and we will not step
down, just like the suffrage women who fought and knew it was time to
stand up, march, chain ourselves to the fence, whatever we have to do
to continue to build back better, and we are making this investment.
We have a President who has joined in. We have a Speaker of the House
who has joined and locked arms with us and the Democratic Caucus. We
are saying that Build Back Better will build back families, and it will
transform the lives of women in America.
We can't wait any longer. On infrastructure, a pothole is an
inconvenience, and we need to fix our potholes. We need to make sure
that our children are not drinking lead-poisoned water. We need to make
sure that our bridges and all those are fixed. But we also need to know
that the human beings in this country deserve our passion, our work in
the build back better agenda.
Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, I thank my co-chair for that passionate
speech. I think you pointed out, as heads of households, that the
feminization of poverty that was dubbed some 30 years ago is still, in
fact, what we are dealing with today.
Mrs. LAWRENCE. Yes.
Ms. SPEIER. That is part of what we are trying to do with Build Back
Better.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms.
Houlahan), my colleague on the Armed Services Committee and the
Military Personnel Subcommittee, and someone who has served our country
in the military.
Ms. HOULAHAN. Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Speier for
yielding. It is a pleasure to be standing by her side and on the
shoulders of so many powerful women who have gone before me and who
have had this important conversation over and over and over again.
It is time that I have the opportunity to rise next to them in this
Chamber for a couple of reasons. One, we do have the opportunity to
celebrate some strides that we have recently made in securing the
historic paid family and medical leave for some people. My part of this
conversation will talk about that.
We also need to recognize where our Nation falls woefully short on
delivering that promise to support all workers and families in
Pennsylvania and beyond in this matter.
Like many of you all, I have pictures of my family in my office. For
me, seeing the faces of my husband of almost 32 years and our beautiful
daughters always buoys my spirit and is a constant reminder of the
story I bring to Congress.
As a parent, my own story begins with the birth of my first child
while on Active Duty serving in the Air Force. This chapter of my story
is important, and it drives my commitment to this critical issue of
work and paid family leave. In part because of the lack of affordable
childcare and limited time for my own maternity leave, I separated from
the service 30 or so years ago.
Sadly, my story is not unique. In fact, still to this day, we know
that there are problems, particularly with childcare issues on bases
that have wait lists as much as 6 months to a year. It is that story
that continues to play out in households, not just military households,
but all households across our country.
Too many people are faced with the impossible choice of caring for
their family or caring about their employment. The people in my
district and all of our districts deserve better.
As an empathetic, compassionate country, we need to be able to
understand and act on the repeated calls from the American people to
help one another. In this great Nation, people should not be forced to
choose between their kids and work or their aging parents and work.
It may be that you have not heard from any of those most affected, so
I will share a couple of stories from my own community.
Susan, in Pennsylvania, told us that not having access to paid leave
forced her to liquidate her retirement assets so she could care for her
newborn.
Lynn, also from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a home care
health worker, and she shared with us that without a single day's sick
leave, that meant that she is stuck with the choice between protecting
her own clients and having a short paycheck and unpaid bills as a
result.
When I think about the hardships of people like Susan and Lynn, I
know that is not who we are as a Nation. We can't allow mothers and
fathers to go into debt to raise their newborn babies and children. We
cannot accept a system that forces those who are sick to choose between
paying their rent or exposing their coworkers and clients to illness,
especially as COVID continues to wreak havoc on our country.
We cannot ignore the crystal-clear research that confirms what we
already know to be true, that paid leave is an overwhelmingly
bipartisan and popular idea. Democrats, independents, and Republicans
agree that family-centered policy strengthens our economy and small
businesses; it does not weaken them. We can, in fact, be both pro-
business and pro-family.
{time} 1815
So while my story is deeply personal, I am also an engineer, so I
would like very quickly to share some data and facts with you, Madam
Speaker, in addition to these stories. And here they are: Policies like
paid family leave will lift up the middle class. Sixty-two percent of
workers earning less than $30,000 a year received no pay during leave
for family caregiving or personal health issues compared to only 26
percent of those earning more than $75,000 a year. These policies will
bring more equity to our workforce. Over a 2-year period, 26 percent of
Black workers reported needing to take time for family or personal
health, but not being able to take that time, and 13 percent of White
workers reported the same.
[[Page H5719]]
These policies like paid family leave and paid medical leave will
strengthen our economy. Research shows that women have a greater
attachment to the labor force if they are allowed paid leave, and with
an economy that needs every single worker, we cannot neglect 51 percent
of our workforce.
These policies will also help small businesses. Over 60 percent of
the executives in a recent Bipartisan Policy Center survey believe that
paid family leave has a positive impact on employee morale, employee
retention, and their company's ability to attract new employees.
Lastly, these policies will modernize our U.S. economy. As many of my
colleagues have mentioned, we rank dead last--number 35 out of 35--
amongst advanced economies offering competitive paid leave for mothers
and others.
We simply cannot delay any longer, and the time is now to invest in
paid family and medical leave.
I would like to say that we are making progress. In 2019 I worked
with Chairs Maloney and Smith to successfully pass into law 12 weeks of
paid family leave for 2.1 million Federal workers, and I led
legislation through the Foreign Affairs Committee to harmonize parental
leave policies for State Department employees around our country and
around the world. This year, I helped to write a bill through the Armed
Services Committee that codifies 12 weeks of parental leave for all of
our uniformed servicemembers regardless of their branch of service.
This summer I championed an effort with over 100 of my colleagues
urging House leadership to include paid family leave in Build Back
Better, and, just yesterday, I co-authored this letter to President
Biden, again, with more than 100 of our colleagues asking him to do
everything in his power to protect these critical investments in our
Build Back Better Act.
This comes at a time when we are making progress for the people. As
House Democrats we are centering on you, the hardworking, sensible
families of Pennsylvania, as we deliberately invest in our shared
future.
As a member of the Democratic Women's Caucus, whom I am very grateful
to stand here with today, I stand united with my colleagues tonight,
and I assure you that we are ensuring that our economy is robust.
So when I see that picture of my family in my office and I remember
what is at stake for my family and for yours, I will continue to work
hard, along with all of my colleagues, to make sure that we are
protecting these interests and these dreams for our American future and
our people.
Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania
for her comments.
I do believe that today a woman serving in the Air Force would have
the benefits of 12 weeks of paid parental leave and, hopefully, in the
very near future a childcare system that will not speak of some 9,000
who are waiting for childcare slots that don't exist in childcare
centers in the military.
It is shameful that we have to legislate that, but we are in the
process of doing it.
I now will join my colleagues in welcoming our colleague from the
great State of Illinois, one of our new but very effective members,
Congresswoman Marie Newman.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Newman).
Ms. NEWMAN. Madam Speaker, I am so pleased to be here with all my
colleagues from the Democratic Women's Caucus. I thank Representative
Speier for hosting this Special Order hour tonight.
Madam Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the millions of parents
struggling to pay for childcare each and every day. It has become
abundantly clear: our current childcare system is absolutely untenable.
Just this past September more than 300,000 women left the workforce.
As we all know, women are more likely to be the primary caregiver in a
household. With a growing lack of affordable childcare options, we are
seeing more women forced to quit their job in order to stay home and
watch their kids.
Let's be clear: no parent should be forced to quit their job because
they cannot find childcare they can afford. But the reality for too
many families is that this is definitely the case. They cannot afford
childcare in their area, period.
Just this week, NPR reported that one in three American families are
struggling to find childcare they desperately need. I repeat: one-third
of America's families cannot find affordable childcare.
In Illinois, 58 percent of residents live in a childcare desert--58
percent. That is more than half. In fact, infant care in Illinois costs
just $168 less than in-State tuition for a 4-year public college. So
think about that, Madam Speaker. If you are a mom and a dad and you
have kids of various ages, or you are getting prepared to have kids of
various ages, you are thinking about childcare now, Madam Speaker, and
you are paying effectively what you know you may have to pay for
college in later years for your children. It is astonishing. We can and
must fix this.
Under President Biden's Build Back Better Act, we can finally ensure
every American has access to quality, affordable childcare. This will
provide mothers with the support they desperately need to return to the
workforce.
This is not only the morally right thing to do, but it is actually
one of the strongest ways we can further boost our economy. I am tired
of hearing some colleagues complain about a labor shortage while at the
same exact time they are trying to block families from receiving the
affordable childcare they need to return to work. I think that you
don't have to go too far, Madam Speaker, to understand wherever you go
on any block in America, women are saying: I can't afford childcare
which is why I am going back.
We have to stop blaming it on these fictitious things. Women need to
have childcare so they can go back to work.
Enough is enough. For far too long our country has worked for the
largest corporations and the ultra-wealthy while working families have
been left behind. Let's change that by passing the Build Back Better
Act for working families, and let's deliver universal, affordable
childcare. Let's get this done.
Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her comments
and for her great leadership.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from the great State of
California (Ms. Barragan).
Ms. BARRAGAN. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
I am here to talk about the Build Back Better agenda and two specific
aspects that I want to highlight, some of which have been covered
today, and to share some of my personal story.
The investments in home care and paid family and medical leave are
personal to me, to my constituents, and to the American people.
Not just American workers get paid family medical leave benefits from
their jobs. My sister, a Federal worker, is a nurse. She helps deliver
babies at a military hospital in Colorado. Last November she was
diagnosed with cancer. We are about the same age. She is a couple years
older than I am. All of a sudden, we learned there is no paid family
medical leave.
So what do people have to do?
They either have to leave their job, or go without pay, or in this
case ask co-workers to donate their leave and their time so that
somebody who is fighting cancer can actually focus on fighting cancer
and getting better. And that is just wrong.
In America we need to take care of our workers. That is why I think
it is so critically important that we include in reconciliation the
paid family and medical leave. Unfortunately, most workers are forced
to give up their wages and leave work to deal with health crises for
themselves or loved ones. And this is true especially for women and
women of color.
My sister's story is not unique. It is happening to workers across
the country. So I am committed to making sure that we fight to keep
these provisions in the Build Back Better agenda.
Secondly, caregivers, the home- and community-based care system is so
critically important, especially for those on Medicaid and the
disabled. This very year my own mother was able to qualify and get it
after being on a waiting list for 8 months. It's not easy though, when
you need that in-home care. This is a program that helps patients stay
in their homes, as many older Americans wish to do and can't, so this
program will be expanded.
[[Page H5720]]
But we also need to increase wages for those who are providing the
care, because the wages just don't cut it. We know there is a shortage
of healthcare workers now and providers. I have been dealing with this
every day. Just last night I had to get on a red-eye.
Why?
To help provide some of that care.
So we need this human investment in people and to provide that care
in home.
We saw what happened with COVID and what it did to those in
institutions and nursing homes. If we can avoid that and have people in
their homes, then we should expand this program and support it.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the American economy has lost
more than 500,000 jobs in the caregiving industry, and we are seeing
firsthand how hard it is to hire. So investing in this is going to
expand that. It is going to make this available to more Americans and
those in need, whether you are an older American, Madam Speaker, or you
are disabled.
In conclusion, by investing in families and our care economy, we will
show compassion to those in need, improve care, and help women get back
into the workforce. The investments in the Build Back Better package
will be meaningful for our families and transformational for our
economy.
Let's keep them--not cut them--for people like my mother who has
severe Alzheimer's and for the rest of Americans who need that care.
Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, I am very impressed that my colleague took
the red-eye because she was caring for her family and she is here
tonight caring for her constituents. I hope the gentlewoman can go home
and get some rest.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson
Lee). My colleague is a great advocate for all those in her State and
throughout the country.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
I am delighted to be with the gentlewoman and as well to be fighting
for what is right, and that is what we are doing here today. We are
fighting for what is right.
I am amazed when I hear people want to try to understand whether or
not we are on the floor of the House talking about a safety net or
whether we are on the floor of the House trying to create a care
economy.
Well, let me be very clear. The clearness of my point is that the
care economy is alive and well. It may be called by many names, but it
is millions of women who have in the decades--some without names, some
without categories--have been working to take care of people. They have
been layered from those, as we have heard my sisters and my colleagues
indicate, that they have been parents who were in the last stages of
life, they are working mothers who need childcare, and they are
particularly care workers themselves who don't have childcare.
So the Build Back Better Act is what you want, America.
Many people say: What is in the bill?
This is what you want. You already have gotten portions of the child
tax cut. It is a credit, but I like to call it a child tax cut. That is
in there to be continued.
And I have heard the stories from my constituents, making ends meet,
getting diapers and formula, and paying rent to be able to keep a roof
over the head of toddlers and babies of single parents, mostly women.
So we know how important the child tax credit is.
But then we talk about childcare and when we talk about kindergarten
that will be universal. These are in the early stages of life. So I am
excited.
Let me just mention one deviation, Madam Speaker. Let me just mention
one deviation, and that is that in Texas we have got a compounded
problem, people without childcare and people without healthcare because
we never opted in--I say we--the State Government never opted into the
expanded Medicaid. So we have working parents with 766,000 who are
uninsured in the State of Texas.
Can you imagine, Madam Speaker, working parents with children who
have no childcare; and they are not insured, and they have no
healthcare?
So can we ease their burden?
Can we ease their burden?
Quickly let me ease their burden and ensure that--very quickly let me
pay tribute to a school in Humble, Texas, where I met a young woman by
the name of Aquila Gillespie who runs a subsidized childcare facility
who desperately needs this childcare program which is going to allow
her working parents--they are working parents in the care industry--who
come to her with children at night, who have children who are, in fact,
in early education, meaning that they are first and second grade. She
works hard to open this school because most of the parents who enroll
them in the school cannot afford childcare. These men and women are
working people, and they work at night.
{time} 1830
I stand here to join with my colleagues to say, what does America
want? They want to know that this bill is going to help them. You can
see how colorful it is, Creative Kids.
And that is Aquila. I want her to be known on television because she
did this as a young woman, a young woman who was a single parent at the
time. She hires and employs mothers and others who are in the working
class.
Let me say childcare, America, is what you will get with the Build
Back Better Act.
Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Texas for her
comments, and I thank Madam Speaker for allowing us to have this
Special Order hour to talk about families in America and what the Build
Back Better plan will do to make sure that families have childcare,
have pre-K, have the opportunity to go back to work.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________