President Biden’s Encouraging Budget – Strongest Ever for Working Families

Family Values @ Work (FVAW) is encouraged by President Biden’s budget which includes the strongest investment ever in funding for working families, particularly funding for paid family and medical leave, and paid sick and safe days. The President is showing his continued commitment to put working families first.

 “No one should have to go to work sick. Parents should not have to send ill children to daycare. No one should have to choose between staying home to care for a sick child or going to work to keep a roof over the head of that same child,” said Family Values @ Work Executive Director, Josephine Kalipeni.  “Working caregivers, especially Black working women caregivers, power our economy and, quite frankly, power our Democracy. It is time our needs are explicitly put first. Paid family and medical leave, affordable child care, and paid sick and safe days are good budget policy, good economic policy, good gender and racial equity policy, and good political policy.”

Budgets are not only documents that reflect our values, but they are documents that reflect our priorities. The FVAW Network has been relentless in demanding that all elected officials put the needs of working caregivers first by enacting a national paid family and medical leave benefit. In addition to a robust and comprehensive national paid leave benefit, this budget includes efforts to expand access to child care and reduce its cost, and funding to invest in aging and disability care. 

The President’s budget is an active response to the urgent needs of workers and our families. We at FV@W applaud the President and his Administration for recognizing that workers need paid leave in order to thrive and we urge Congress to fully fund care and paid leave for all by adopting his budget. We urge all members of Congress, from every party, to put politics and party aside and enact solutions that match the scale of the problems our country is facing.