[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3645]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1215
                       INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

  (Mrs. BUSTOS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mrs. BUSTOS. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to join so many of my women 
Members of Congress to recognize and celebrate International Women's 
Day. In my lifetime, women have made so much progress, but our journey 
toward full equality still has so far to go.
  More than five decades ago, a half a century, we began the work to 
achieve equality in the workplace when President John F. Kennedy signed 
the Equal Pay Act. We took another important step forward when 
President Obama signed his first bill into law, the Lilly Ledbetter 
Fair Pay Act. Even with those laws, women in my congressional district 
still only make 72 cents on a man's dollar. For women of color, the 
wage gap is even worse, 63 cents for African-American women and 54 
cents for Latinas.
  When you consider that women make up almost half of the workforce, 
and women are either the sole or primary breadwinner in 40 percent of 
the homes, this isn't just a women's issue; it is a family issue. This 
is why we must pass the Paycheck Fairness Act to give every woman 
additional tools to fight for equal pay they earn on each and every 
payday.
  In a country as great as ours, we must guarantee that our daughters 
have the same opportunity to earn a fair and equal wage.

                          ____________________