John,

When we heard the White House was putting on a summit on paid leave and child care affordability later this week, we probably had the same thought you’re having right now, John: uh-oh. Because given this administration’s track record on working families, let’s just say we’re skeptical at best.

No number of White House summits dedicated to families can mask the reality of how the Trump administration has actually treated families. Here’s just a few stats that we have a feeling won’t make it into the summit’s agenda:

• Under this administration, over 5,400 children have been separated from their families at the border.
• 2 million people have lost health insurance coverage since 2017, including 400,000 children.
• 700,000 people will lose access to SNAP aka their ability to get the food they need thanks to a recent proposal from the administration (and the majority of adult SNAP recipients are women 🙃)

We’ve signed onto an open letter about the Trump administration’s anti-family policies. And while Trump continues to fight women and their families, we’ll continue to fight with and for them. And we’re glad to have you in our NWLC family, John.

SPOILER ALERT: A LOAN IS NOT PAID LEAVE

Not all paid leave proposals are created equal, John. In advance of the White House summit on paid leave and affordable child care later this week, there’s a new bill out proclaiming to help solve our country’s paid leave problem. And we do, in fact, have a problem: The United States is the only industrialized country without a national paid leave program. That causes its own host of other problems. Research has shown that paid leave improves health outcomes for people during pregnancy and after giving birth, improves child health, reduces racial and ethnic disparities in health outcomes, reduces the wage gap...the list goes on.

But instead of presenting a real solution to our paid leave crisis, this new bill simply... offers parents of a new child a loan? Parents of a new child would be allowed to borrow up to $5,000 and then pay it back over the next 10 years by having that money taken out of their Child Tax Credit. What this reminds me of: when your parent forgets to get you a gift for your birthday and instead rewraps a toy you already had. What’s more, this “solution” would only apply to parents of new children, meaning the three-quarters of people who take leave to care for anyone other than a new child would not be covered by this plan (no rewrapped toys for you, three-quarters of all people who take leave!).

• Read more: Working Families Need Paid Leave, Not a Loan
• The good news:There’s already a better solution out there, we just need to pass it. Read about it here.

FEATURED: Things that should include six in them: Six Flags. Things that shouldn’t include six in them: discriminatory school pushout rates.

Black girls are suspended from school at nearly SIX times the rate of white girls. Meanwhile, Latina girls are suspended 1.6 times as frequently and Native American girls are suspended three times as much. Every student deserves to learn in a safe environment without fearing they’ll be pushed out simply because of biased policies that criminalize Black and brown girls. That’s why last week we were proud to join Representatives Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar for the introduction of the Ending PUSHOUT Act, which would incentivize schools to end discriminatory dress codes and other tactics that disproportionately push Black and brown girls out of schools.

Must-Dos:

• Take action: We must create a federal safeguard for abortion.
• Tell Congress: It’s not too late to tax the patriarchy in your year-end tax code changes.

Must-Reads:

• From our blog: A Louisiana law would require abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. Louisiana couldn’t find a single case where this would have helped a woman’s health, but, oh, would you look at that, it sure would help end abortion access! We submitted a brief to the Supreme Court arguing the law is unconstitutional.
• Yikes: The American Bar Association unanimously declared Sarah Pitlyk “not qualified.” The Senate just confirmed her to a lifetime appointment on the federal bench.

Your Feminist Moment of Joy

Last week was Giving Tuesday, and it was our most successful Giving Tuesday EVER (talk about giving it your all!). Whether you donated to us or donate your time and voice by taking action with us, we’re thankful for you. We couldn’t do this work without you — and that’s why all of you are our feminist moment of joy this week.

Sincerely,
Hannah Finnie
Senior Manager of Campaign and Digital Strategies
National Women’s Law Center