[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13338-13339]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               PRESIDENT BUSH'S RECORD ON WOMEN'S ISSUES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I am joined tonight by several of my 
colleagues to do a short series of 5-minutes to help shed light on 
President Bush's record on women. We are very grateful to the National 
Women's Law Center that produced a report called ``Slip-sliding Away: 
The Erosion of Hard-won Gains For Women Under the Bush 
Administration,'' and the National Center For Research on Women that 
wrote a report called ``Missing: Information About Women's Lives.'' 
They compiled reports on the actions taken by the Bush administration 
that have eroded hard-won gains for women. These are rights and 
guarantees for equality that my colleagues and I, and those who came 
before us, have worked for years to gain in order that our daughters 
and our granddaughters would not have to endure inequality, violence, 
or lack of opportunity.
  During the last 3\1/2\ years, so many of those gains have been rolled 
back, chipped away and, in some cases, obliterated all together. My 
colleagues will elaborate on some of these actions, but let me at least 
provide my colleagues with a list of the administration's actions. I 
have only 5 minutes, so this list will be a sample rather than an 
exhaustive list.
  Despite a persistent wage gap and barriers to equal opportunity like 
sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination, the Bush administration 
has advocated policies that make the situation worse for women at work.
  The Bush administration has completely eliminated the Equal Pay 
Matters initiative.
  The Department of Justice has weakened enforcement of the laws 
against job discrimination and abandoned pending sex discrimination 
suits without notice or explanation.
  The Department of Labor repealed regulations that allowed paid family 
leave to be made available through State unemployment compensation 
funds.
  The Bush administration has proposed new regulations that would 
deprive millions of women the right to overtime pay.
  The Bush administration has been proactive in undermining title IX, a 
program that promotes equality for girls in education and sports, a 
landmark piece of legislation that our late dear colleague, Patsy Mink, 
had so much to do with passing.
  The Department of Education ``archived'' a guidance on sexual 
harassment in violation of title IX, making this guidance unavailable 
to victims of harassment, parents, schools, and the public.

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  The administration has tried to eliminate funding for the Women's 
Education Equity Act, which provides curricula and materials to help 
schools comply with Title IX and research on model programs to promote 
gender equity.
  The Justice Department urged the Supreme Court to strike down the use 
of affirmative action to achieve diversity in higher education, while 
the Department of Education encouraged colleges and universities to 
avoid using affirmative action instead of guiding them on ways they can 
permissibly do so.
  The Department of Education has proposed removing existing safeguards 
that ensure all girl and all boy classes and schools do not perpetuate 
stereotypes and second-class status for girls.
  President Bush's most recent budget proposal would result in 300,000 
children losing child care assistance by 2009.
  The Bush administration has proposed modifications to the welfare law 
that would impose harsh new work requirements on mothers in poverty 
while opposing increases in their child care assistance.
  The Bush administration has proposed privatizing Social Security 
which would hit older women especially hard by siphoning money out of 
the system, thus reducing benefits for poor women.
  The administration has proposed eliminating the savers credit that 
gives additional tax credits to low and moderate income individuals and 
families who contribute to retirement accounts. At the same time, the 
President has proposed weakening the protections for low and moderate 
income individuals in employer pension plans.
  President Bush signed a Medicare bill that prohibits the government 
from using its bargaining power to get lower costs on prescription 
drugs hurting the 80 percent of older women who use prescription drugs 
every day.
  The Bush administration has proposed changes in Medicaid that would 
result in the denial of health care coverage to many poor women who are 
now eligible for Medicaid.
  President Bush, for the first time since Roe versus Wade, was decided 
in 1973 signed into law a bill that unconstitutionally restricts a 
women's right to choose and that blatantly disregards any consideration 
for possible threats to a woman's health.
  President Bush has cut millions of dollars in funding for 
international women's family planning which is used to promote maternal 
and infant health and reduce unwanted pregnancies and infant death.
  Too bad I could not get through the long list which was just a 
summary in itself of the ways that women's rights have been eroded 
under this administration.

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