Statements On Introduced Bills And Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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By Mr. MERKLEY:

S. 1244. A bill to amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect breastfeeding by new mothers, to provide for a performance standard for breast pumps, and to provide tax incentives to encourage breastfeeding; to the Committee on Finance.

Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss a bill to help promote and protect breastfeeding in the workplace.

The science is undisputable--babies who are breastfed the first 6 months of life have a greatly reduced risk for acute and chronic disease--yet only ten percent of all infants receive this nourishment that they need to remain healthy. One of the primary reasons for this is that working moms face real and serious challenges to expressing milk when they return to work.

Well, today is a day to change that. In Oregon, we have enacted strong legislation to make sure that working moms are afforded the time and space they need at work to express milk. In fact, my first event as a candidate for U.S. Senate was at a luncheon celebrating the success of Oregon's breastfeeding promotion law. I said that day that I would work to expand Oregon's efforts nationwide, and today we take the important first step towards enacting legislation to protect working moms across the country.

First, I want to thank Representative Carolyn Maloney of New York for her strong leadership on this issue. For years, she has been a champion for working moms everywhere, and I applaud her determination to make it easier for women.

We know that 72 percent of moms work full time, and that number is growing. In fact, according to the Center on Work and Family at Boston College, the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. workforce is women with children under three years of age.

Women who decide to breastfeed often face unique challenges and at times, social stigmas, for trying to give their baby the healthiest start in life.

In an environment where mothers return to work as early as 3 to 6 weeks post-partum, often driven by economic necessity, it is simply an act of human decency to protect their right to continue breastfeeding after they return to work to help meet their basic needs with regard to the care and nourishment of their children. But for most, it is an unachievable goal.

If we are to have any hope of increasing the number of babies being breastfed, we need to implement a strategy that addresses workplace conditions.

The Breastfeeding Promotion Act that Representative Maloney and I are introducing today is a measured step in this direction.

It protects breastfeeding women from discrimination in the workplace, provides tax credits to employers who make accommodations for breastfeeding moms, and most importantly, it affords working moms with the time, space, and privacy they need to express milk.

Many of these changes have been successfully implemented in my home State of Oregon where we have seen a tremendous difference in the experiences of mothers, as well as positive impacts for employers, as a result of this type of legislation.

Tonya Hirte, a senior customer service representative in Portland, said that before the law took effect, she had to express breast milk in a bathroom on a separate floor from her worksite, but that after implementation of the law, her company converted a storage closet into a private, simply-furnished room, bringing dignity to her experience as a mother, and helping her feel valued as an employee.

A Lane County employee said that having a breastfeeding-friendly workplace allowed her to focus better on her work, knowing her daughter's needs were being met emotionally and physically because the work breaks to express breast milk facilitated their breastfeeding relationship when they were together.

But it's not just the employees who are seeing positive changes as a result of the Oregon law. Jim Rochs, General Manager of Carinos Italian Restaurant in Bend, Oregon, says that they create a better team overall if they take care of one another. The time and space his employee needed to express breast milk was not difficult to provide.

Gretchen Peterson, Human Resources Manager for Hanna Andersson clothing design, manufacturer and retail store, said that ``legislation to encourage longer-term breastfeeding by eliminating potential workplace barriers has been successfully passed and implemented in Oregon with no negative impact to business.'' She goes on to say, ``Without this opportunity, our employees may have made the choice to stay at home or choose to work for another company which would have caused a significant disruption to our business.''

Research from the Maternal Child Health Bureau demonstrates a significant return on investment when businesses support worksite lactation programs.

The Mutual of Omaha insurance company conducted a study that found health care costs for newborns to be three times lower for babies whose mothers participate in their company's maternity and lactation program. Per person health care costs were $2,146 more for employees who did not participate in the program, with a yearly savings of $115,881 in health care claims for the breastfeeding mothers and babies.

This is truly a public health issue. Encouraging breastfeeding for working mothers will help alleviate the negative effects of low breastfeeding rates, including a 21 percent greater infant mortality rate for babies not exclusively breastfed for 6 months, and greater risk over a lifetime for many illnesses including asthma, diabetes, obesity, and certain cancers.

Finally, the timing could not be better as we ramp up our efforts to reform our health care system and work to contain costs. A 2001 USDA study found that if half of the babies in the U.S. were exclusively breastfed for 6 months, we would realize a savings of $3.6 billion in health care costs for the three leading childhood illnesses alone. According to the U.S. Breastfeeding Committee, if we replicate that study based on current breastfeeding statistics, the savings could reach nearly $14 billion in health care costs for all childhood illnesses.

Colleagues, I look forward to passing the Breastfeeding Promotion Act to help make it easier for moms to breastfeed, which will lead to healthier babies, stronger families, and happier workers.

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