The Care Economy
Floor Speech
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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.
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.
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.
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