John,

Just minutes ago, the House passed the Build Back Better plan!

This transformative bill contains the biggest investment in caregiving families in decades, including an unprecedented $150 billion for Home and Community Based Services (HCBS), plus significant investments in child care and early education, and four weeks of paid family and medical leave plan.

What does that mean? For starters, the bill will:

• Raise wages for care workers and provide more training for the direct home care workforce.
• Open up services to more of the nearly one million people on Medicaid waitlists so more older adults, veterans and people with disabilities can access high quality home and community based care and continue to live in their own homes instead of in institutions.
• Provide paid leave for family caregivers. The bill includes four weeks of paid leave so that people can take time off not just to care for their own health needs, but to also care for a child, parent or other family member.
• Promote more research on aging.

Women of color have mobilized, advocated, organized and voted to help make this historic moment of progress possible. Today’s vote brings us one step closer to realizing a future where America’s home care workers, the majority of whom are women of color, receive a family-sustaining wage and those who need care — veterans, older people, and people with disabilities — will be able to receive quality, affordable care services at home.

What’s next? Now we turn to the Senate.

The Senate’s quick passage of this historic legislation with all three pillars of the care economy — including HCBS, child care, and paid family medical leave — will enable us to start building the care infrastructure our families and economy need.

We have more work to do before it becomes law, but we're taking this moment to thank our Representatives who voted for the bill and to celebrate what's possible when we work together.

Help us continue the work and win a lasting change for caregiving families everywhere by making a contribution to Caring Across Generations today.

With care,

Ai-jen Poo, Executive Director
Caring Across Generations