[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18176]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   HONORING THE LIFE OF LEONILA VEGA

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. LINDA T. SANCHEZ

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, December 20, 2012

  Ms. LINDA T. SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, on November 19, 
2012, the movement to improve direct care jobs lost a fearless and 
spirited leader when Leonila Vega passed away after battling cancer for 
fourteen months. As an advocate for direct care workers--the more than 
four million workers who assist elders and people living with 
disabilities--Leonila fought to improve wages, access to benefits, and 
respect for the profession. Born in rural Mexico, Leonila came to the 
United States as a teenager eager for the opportunity to pursue an 
education. She taught herself to speak and read English, worked her way 
through college, and went on to earn a law degree. As a disability 
rights attorney in Wisconsin, Ms. Vega developed a reputation as a 
ferocious advocate for the elderly and people living with disabilities. 
Her cases exposed her to the plight of direct care workers--many of 
whom are immigrant women--and she saw firsthand the challenges they 
faced, working long hours for little pay and no benefits, entrusted 
with the lives of their clients while suffering an alarming lack of 
respect. Her desire to improve life for these caregivers led her to 
become the Executive Director of Direct Care Alliance. At Direct Care 
Alliance, Ms. Vega worked to eliminate the exploitation of direct care 
workers and its harmful effects on care quality by empowering numerous 
direct care workers to see the valuable role they play in society. As 
she said, it was her American dream to help others realize their 
potential. I admire Ms. Vega's work on behalf of direct care workers, 
immigrants and people of color, and am saddened that we have lost such 
a vivacious and dynamic leader.
  Among the issues that Ms. Vega championed was the extension of the 
Fair Labor Standards Act to cover home care workers. Sadly, this 
essential workforce is excluded from these basic protections. Such poor 
working conditions hinder recruitment and retention which, in turn, 
negatively affect the quality of care that millions of Americans 
receive. Troubled by this injustice, Ms. Vega ensured that the issue 
remained at the center of Direct Care Alliance's agenda. I was inspired 
by her passion to improve direct care jobs and introduced the Direct 
Care Workforce Empowerment Act in 2010 and reintroduced a similar 
bill--the Direct Care Job Quality Improvement Act in 2011. One year 
ago, President Obama announced the Department of Labor's proposed rule 
to extend minimum wage and overtime protections to home care workers. 
Sadly, Ms. Vega did not live to see the rule finalized, but we will 
continue to fight to make things right for direct care workers, just as 
she would have done. The values that Ms. Vega fought to advance--
respect and dignity for all people--are ones that everyone, regardless 
of political affiliation, shares and we must work together to move 
those efforts forward.

                          ____________________