S. Res. 87 (117th Congress) — Recognizing that the United States needs a Marshall Plan for Moms
Summary
S. Res. 87 is a Senate resolution submitted March 3, 2021 by Klobuchar, for herself and the other senators named in the heading, recognizing that the United States needs a Marshall Plan for Moms in order to revitalize and restore mothers in the workforce. It was referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Its preamble states that 2,300,000 women have left the labor force since the beginning of the COVID–19 pandemic, including 275,000 who exited in January 2021, and that women have lost over 5,400,000 net jobs since February 2020.
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Cite this document
“S. Res. 87 (117th Congress) — Recognizing that the United States needs a Marshall Plan for Moms.”
Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/bills-bills-117sres87is-bills-117sres87is/
, SHA-256 2bb63d635e34b746b630d086ad5ac59bd44bf1524d334dae64b02d7d27faeec6.Full text
III
117TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
S. RES. 87
Recognizing that the United States needs a Marshall Plan for Moms in
order to revitalize and restore mothers in the workforce.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH 3, 2021
Ms. KLOBUCHAR (for herself, Ms. DUCKWORTH, Ms. SMITH, Ms. ROSEN, Mr.
WYDEN, Mr. HEINRICH, Mr. MERKLEY, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Mr.
BLUMENTHAL, Mr. BROWN, and Mr. DURBIN) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions
RESOLUTION
Recognizing that the United States needs a Marshall Plan
for Moms in order to revitalize and restore mothers
in the workforce.
Whereas any relief and long-term recovery from the economic
fallout of the COVID–19 pandemic must recognize, re-
build, and return mothers to the workforce;
Whereas women, and especially working mothers, are bearing
the brunt of the economic fallout from the COVID–19
pandemic as a result of existing social barriers and policy
failures such as—
(1) the lack of a care infrastructure, including child
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care deserts and lack of care infrastructure caused by
high child care costs;
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(2) the lack of family-supportive workplaces;
(3) the lack of a national paid leave policy; and
(4) gender and racial pay inequity;
Whereas, at the beginning of 2020, women made up the ma-
jority of the workforce for the first time in almost a dec-
ade, even as women continued to face unjust gender and
racial wage gaps;
Whereas 2,300,000 women have left the labor force since the
beginning of the COVID–19 pandemic, including 275,000
who exited in January 2021;
Whereas participation by women in the labor force was less
than 55 percent in April 2020 for the first time since
1986, in part because of the child care crisis caused by
the COVID–19 pandemic;
Whereas participation by women age 20 and older in the
labor force fell to a 33-year low in January 2021, hitting
57 percent;
Whereas women—
(1) have suffered the majority of pandemic-related
job losses; and
(2) have lost over 5,400,000 net jobs since February
2020, and account for 55 percent of overall net job loss
since the start of the COVID–19 pandemic;
Whereas 86 percent of net jobs lost in December 2020 were
jobs held by women, with women losing 196,000 jobs
during that month;
Whereas mothers in the prime of their working lives have
paid an especially high price, with mothers ages 25 to 54
experiencing a 5.7-percentage point decline in employ-
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ment since the COVID–19 pandemic began, compared to
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a 3.1 percentage-point decline for fathers in the same age
group;
Whereas women are overrepresented in low-wage jobs and
underrepresented in high-wage jobs;
Whereas employment in the bottom quartile of the wage dis-
tribution has declined by 17 percent since February
2020, far exceeding the overall employment decline of 6.5
percent;
Whereas wages for women are key to the economic security
of the families of such women;
Whereas women of color play a particularly vital role in the
financial stability of their families, and any disruption to
their earnings can be detrimental to the welfare of their
families;
Whereas the absence of affordable child care exacerbates in-
equality by severely inhibiting low-income parents from
attaining promotions and higher salaries;
Whereas child nutrition is strongly linked to the employment
status of mothers, such that almost 1 in 4 children expe-
rienced food insecurity in 2020 at the same time that
mothers experienced work disruptions or unemployment
that led to income loss;
Whereas work interruptions caused by school closures and
child care closures have disproportionately impacted
women, forcing women to reduce work hours, take a leave
of absence, or permanently leave the workforce;
Whereas, without reliable and affordable child care, mothers
who have left the workforce will not be able to return to
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work, since such mothers often cannot pay for child care
without the income made from going back to work;
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Whereas essential workers who are single parents face addi-
tional challenges and greater financial burden due to
needing affordable child care;
Whereas the COVID–19 pandemic has exacerbated existing
stigmas against working mothers that falsely assume that
their role as caregivers will negatively impact their work
performance;
Whereas mothers forced to permanently leave the workforce
or reduce work hours because of the COVID–19 pan-
demic are experiencing career trajectory disruptions that
lower their lifetime earnings potential and endanger their
future Social Security earnings and other potential retire-
ment income;
Whereas child care is a lifeline for working mothers, and over
75 percent of mothers with children younger than age 10
say child care is one of their top 3 challenges during the
COVID–19 pandemic;
Whereas, in 2019, before the COVID–19 pandemic hit the
United States, there were roughly 9,700,000 working
mothers with a child younger than age 6;
Whereas 95 percent of the child care workforce is composed
of women, and yet nearly 2⁄3 of child care workers with
children report problems with accessing public support
programs and often struggle to afford high-quality child
care for their own families;
Whereas 60 percent of businesses in the child care industry
are minority owned;
Whereas a significant investment in child care would be si-
multaneously job creating and job enabling, creating care
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jobs and supporting parental employment, both of which
would benefit women;
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Whereas women of color are disproportionately represented in
many frontline industries that also lack critical benefits
such as paid sick leave and flexibility to telework, includ-
ing food services, hospitality, retail, and social assistance;
Whereas the unprecedented burdens of child care, work, and
remote learning have strained the mental and emotional
health of mothers; and
Whereas access to paid leave during the COVID–19 pan-
demic has been linked to a reduction in the spread of
COVID–19 by as many as 15,000 new cases per day
where people were able to use the leave, such that paid
leave has prevented the compounded stressors of count-
less evictions, hospitalizations, and hungry children: Now,
therefore, be it
1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that—
2 (1) mothers, especially mothers of color, have
3 been pushed to the brink of economic, social, and
4 emotional collapse during the COVID–19 pandemic
5 because of the existing economic and social inequal-
6 ities that women have long faced;
7 (2) any relief and long-term recovery package
8 to address the COVID–19 crisis should recognize
9 and rebuild moms in the workforce, in order to se-
10 cure meaningful and sustainable economic recovery,
11 by including, at a minimum—
12 (A) a robust paid leave plan, which is es-
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13 sential to securing the physical health and fi-
14 nancial health of families, including emergency
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1 paid leave policies that would create a path to-
2 ward permanent paid leave solutions;
3 (B) the means to rebuild and stabilize the
4 child care industry, which is essential to eco-
5 nomic recovery and bolstering women in the
6 labor force;
7 (C) major investments in our education
8 systems, which must be made in order to safely
9 reopen schools and campuses, providing funding
10 to support and protect the safety and health of
11 educators, support staff, students, and families;
12 (D) recurring child benefits, and expanded
13 and improved child tax credit and earned in-
14 come tax credit to help reduce child poverty and
15 provide economic security for families;
16 (E) an expanded unemployment insurance
17 program that benefits struggling workers, in-
18 cluding those experiencing long-term unemploy-
19 ment; and
20 (F) access to mental health support for
21 mothers, which is essential to maintaining the
22 health of the family; and
23 (3) employers and policymakers in the United
24 States must prioritize addressing the economic cliff
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25 facing mothers, and make permanent the aforemen-
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1 tioned policies so that mothers are protected against
2 any future economic calamities.
Æ
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