YOU. ARE. NEEDED! SIGN NOW

Dear Friend, you’re busy, so I’ll get right to it. Congress is FINALLY poised to take much-needed action on childcare, paid leave, taxes, living wages and more; but we need to send in as many signatures as possible to help make sure that these policies don’t get pushed aside and overlooked as the final national recovery and infrastructure legislation is being crafted this week and in the weeks to come.

YOU. ARE. NEEDED!

*Join us in urging Congress to: Build a Care Infrastructure ASAP! Why? Because childcare, paid leave, and living wages can’t wait!

There is A LOT going on right now, starting with the reality that we’re still grappling with a pandemic AND now it’s summer with kids out of school and all the added juggling that comes with it. And, in the midst of this unprecedented time, we also have the opportunity of a lifetime to help move forward much-needed legislation to finally, finally, finally, FINALLY build the Care Infrastructure that our nation needed long before the pandemic and still very much needs today. 

This is why we need you to raise your voice now (and a few more times in the coming weeks as we build momentum for real change!!).

*Click here to join us in telling Congress:

Moms, parents, and caregivers need you to act fast to build a care infrastructure. This means advancing universal childcare, paid family/medical leave for all, home-and community-based services, raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, making the expansions of the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit permanent, and creating a pathway to citizenship for care workers, other essential workers, Dreamers, TPS holders, and their families.

This is urgent: Building a care infrastructure is both job enabling and job creating--it will help boost our economy, lift businesses, create jobs, and keep moms and caregivers in the jobs we need. It’s time! The package that Congress pulls together must include the following and be passed immediately:

• A comprehensive, federally funded child care system (which estimates show will require a $700 billion dollar investment) that ensures all families have access to high-quality, affordable child care which is available when and where they need it and invests in the education and compensation of a diverse workforce.
• Ensuring that all care workers, as well as every person in our nation, is paid living wages of at least $15 per hour (and get rid of the harmful lower tipped minimum wage); and investing in communities by reimagining safety and divesting from punishment and policing. 
• Paid Family and Medical Leave that would ensure all working people have access to at least 12 weeks of paid leave to bond with a new child, address a personal or family related illness, or handle needs that arise from a military deployment.
• Make permanent improvements to the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
• Invest $400 billion to Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services to create over one million union protected direct care jobs, expand access to home and community-based services to people with disabilities and aging adults, support unpaid family caregivers to re-join the labor force, and advance a path to citizenship for essential workers, Dreamers, and TPS holders, and their families.

Our country has completely failed to do what most other industrialized nations take for granted: Build a care infrastructure. But it’s not too late! Our care infrastructure must include universal child care, paid leave for all, access to home- and community-based services for people with disabilities and the aging, living wages, a permanent child tax credit (CTC), health care for everyone, a path to citizenship for all essential and care workers, Dreamers and temporary protected status (TPS) holders and their families, as well as include investing in communities, reimagining safety and divesting from punishment and policing, and, importantly, a fair tax code to help pay for these vital investments. All are highly supported by Republican and Democrat voters alike. [1]

This is an emergency. Women, particularly women and moms of color due to structural racism, have borne the brunt of this pandemic. The White House itself has noted that 2.3 million women have been forced out of the labor force. In January alone, 1.4 million fewer mothers of school-aged children were working for pay than had been in the previous year. [2] Of those who lost their jobs —over 600,000 are Black and 618,000 are Latina. [3]

The data is in and has shown the pandemic has had an outsized impact on women and moms, with women and moms of color experiencing compounded economic and health harms [4]  

Importantly, the data also shows that investments in policies like universal paid leave and childcare for all can help combat systemic inequalities experienced by people of color. [5] The facts don’t lie -- for instance, child care right now is least affordable for Black and Latinx families with low incomes, [6] Native American and Latinx communities are more likely to live in child care deserts, [7] and Asian American and Latinx children have particularly low levels of access to child care subsidies. Increasing access and affordability to childcare and to universal paid leave -- especially in ways that include provisions such as job protection, progressive wage replacement, non-discrimination protections, and more -- will be part of combating systemic inequalities and helping to ensure that all families can thrive. [8]  

We can (and must!) build back better. Studies show that building a care infrastructure would create millions of new jobs for the women hit hardest by this crisis, [9] ignite hundreds of billions of dollars in economic activity and allow millions more women who have been pushed out of much-needed jobs to return. [10] In fact, building a care infrastructure not only enables parents and caregivers to work, it saves tax dollars (studies show high return on care infrastructure investments including big savings to families) and these investments also create good care economy jobs. [11]

The cost of inaction is high: Moms, especially moms of color, being pushed out of the labor force is amounting to an estimated $64.5 billion per year in lost wages and economic activity. [12]  

LET’S DO THIS! Help build momentum with members of Congress to make real change!

Seismic shifts happened in our nation during the pandemic, unmasking failures but also opportunities to do better. It’s been made clear that unless we rapidly build a care infrastructure, the aftershocks of the pandemic will hurt us all for decades. It’s also clear that hope is on the horizon. 

Now it’s time to turn that hope into real change by signing onto this petition -- and staying engaged as we email you in the weeks and months ahead -- so we can finally, FINALLY build the Care Infrastructure that our nation needs. So please forward this email to your friends and family -- and post the action link on your social media. 

*Here’s the link again to share: https://action.momsrising.org/sign/YouAreNeeded/

Thank you. Together we are an unstoppable, winning force! 

- Kristin, Nadia, Elyssa, Ruth, Donna, Tina, Beatriz, Jordan, Nate, Sili, and the whole MomsRising.org/MamásConPoder Team

References:

[1] "Poll of voters on COVID-19 relief package, February 2021" and "POLLING UPDATE: Pathway to Citizenship for Undocumented Immigrants Remains Overwhelmingly Popular"
[2] "The Employment Situation in February"
[3] PDF: "A YEAR OF STRENGTH & LOSS: THE PANDEMIC, THE ECONOMY, & THE VALUE OF WOMEN’S WORK"
[4] "Pandemic pushes mothers of young children out of the labor force"
[5] "America’s Child Care Deserts in 2018"
[6] "Child care affordability for working parents"
[7] "Inequitable Access to Child Care Subsidies"
[8] PDF: "Called to Care: A Racially Just Recovery Demands Paid Family and Medical Leave"
[9] "It’s Time to Care: The Economic Case for Investing in a Care Infrastructure"
[10] "Biden’s Proposed Child Care Plan Will Save Families $96 Billion in Year 1, $957B Over 10-years"
[11] "It’s Time to Care: The Economic Case for Investing in a Care Infrastructure"
[12] "How COVID-19 Sent Women’s Workforce Progress Backward: Congress’ $64.5 Billion Mistake"

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