New Federal Protections for Pregnant Workers
President Biden Highlights Care Agenda in SOTU
Economic Justice for Women|October 01, 2024
On March 7, the need for care policies took center stage in President Biden’s State of the Union address. Speaking to a joint session of Congress, the president asked us all to envision a future where public policy fully invests in care:
Imagine a future with affordable child care so millions of families can get the care they need and still go to work and help grow the economy.
Imagine a future with paid leave because no one should have to choose between working and taking care of yourself or a sick family member.
Imagine a future with home care and elder care so seniors and people living with disabilities can stay in their homes and family caregivers get paid what they deserve!
That care policies were so intentionally elevated during one of the most consequential speeches of President Biden’s career is no accident. This is the result of years of dedicated advocacy and movement building by organizations across the country, including many of our partners and grantees.
The Biden administration’s commitment to care is evident beyond the president’s speech. In the leadup to the State of the Union, the Biden administration announced new federal actions to lower the cost of child care for 100,000 families as parents across the country continue to grapple with the high cost of child care. And this week, President Biden published a sweeping budget proposal that includes $325 billion allocated to paid family and medical leave, $150 billion to increase access to care for the aging and disabled, $424 billion to address the child care crisis and $200 billion dedicated to a universal pre-K program.
Nearly ten years ago, in 2015, President Obama highlighted the need for paid sick days in his own State of the Union, saying:
Today, we’re the only advanced country on Earth that doesn’t guarantee paid sick leave or paid maternity leave to our workers. Forty-three million workers have no paid sick leave. Forty-three million. Think about that. And that forces too many parents to make the gut-wrenching choice between a paycheck and a sick kid at home.
Obama’s highlighting of sick leave in that address directly followed several years of rapid fire passage of state and local paid sick leave laws across the country – an effort we were all proud to be involved in. RFF has made much progress over these past ten years in elevating the full care policy agenda that families need in order to thrive. We strongly believe that progress in the states, where policies like paid leave have been successfully implemented, is part of the reason we’re seeing continued federal momentum around care policies.
