Family Values @ Work Commends House Committee Chairman Neal for Bold Leadership on Care Infrastructure

(WASHINGTON, DC)––Family Values @ Work is a movement network of grassroots coalitions in more than two dozen states working to win paid family and medical leave, earned sick and safe days, and affordable, high-quality childcare at the state and national levels. Today, FV@W released the following statement on House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal’s Building an Economy for Families Act:

“The Family Values @ Work network thanks House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal and his colleagues for listening to working families and introducing a discussion draft with an inclusive, comprehensive paid family and medical leave program and provisions that boost the child care system. With the Building an Economy for Families Act, Chairman Neal is sending a clear message that investments in the care infrastructure benefit us all.

“For more than a decade, broad and diverse coalitions in the Family Values @ Work network have been fighting for and winning strong family policies like statewide paid leave programs to pave the way for a national policy. Our network centers those most impacted by lack of affordable leave and pushed for a model that is affordable and accessible for all families. We are delighted to see that Chairman Neal has used that model to inform his legislation.

“The Building an Economy for Families Act will provide universal access to paid family and medical leave that covers all kinds of care for all families, and includes public as well as private workers. It includes progressive wage replacement, ensuring that lowest paid workers receive a higher percentage of their pay while on leave.

“In addition, the bill has some critical components to bolster families needing child care and those who provide it, including a permanent extension to the refundable worker and family-focused tax credits––the child, earned income, and child and dependent care tax credits––included in the American Rescue Plan Act. A new refundable tax credit for wages will equip childcare providers to raise the incomes of their workers––workers who are disproportionately women of color.

“The pandemic spotlighted the need for immediate relief for working families and also the need for long-term policies and transformative systems that benefit our children, families and economy. This legislation is a next, bold step towards building a new American economy founded on an infrastructure of care, equity, and respect, with systems that ensure everyone is included in our nation’s prosperity and every working person’s contribution to that prosperity is given due respect and properly valued.

“Thank you to Chairman Neal, Ways and Means committee members and paid leave champions Representative Rose DeLauro and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand for your leadership and work toward passing paid leave and childcare legislation in America.

“We look forward to working with the Administration and Congress to create this permanent, inclusive paid leave program and to transform child care and early learning into the public good that we require to build back better. ”

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