As part of our 50th anniversary celebration we continued doing the thing that makes us who we are – advocating for issues that directly impact working women of color and our families. 9to5 members and staff traveled to Capitol hill to speak to our representatives about what our members and partners need.

Here are some of the bills we focused on:

Child Care Stabilization Act 

COVID-era funding for childcare ended on September 30th, 2023 ending grants that have kept 220,000 child care providers afloat over the last few years. As many as 10 million children nationwide and their families  may be left without reliable childcare which could devastate working families.  

The Child Care Stabilization Act would prevent this crisis by providing $16 billion in mandatory funding each year for the next five years to continue the successful Child Care Stabilization Grant Program. This investment would ensure child care providers continue to receive a stable and reliable source of funding to help them deliver high-quality child care for working families.

Childcare for Working Families Act

This bill would tackle the crisis with three key programs: 

  1. The Birth Through Five Child Care and Early Learning Program would ensure all working families have access to high-quality, affordable child care.   
  2. The Building an Affordable System for Early Education (BASE) Grants to ensure every

State receives funding to support child care providers, increase worker pay, and improve

access for families; and

  1. The Universal Preschool Program to expand access to high-quality preschool programs.

Family Act 

The Family Act would provide paid family and medical leave to workers across the country. Paid leave is a bipartisan policy that all families need access to. It should not matter where you live, where you work, or who you love – all families need access to paid family and medical leave.

Healthy Families Act 

More than a third of working people — and more than three-quarters of those who handle our food or care for our frail and elderly — still do not earn a single paid sick day. The Healthy Family Act would guarantee that people who work for businesses with 15 or more employees would earn seven paid sick days a year, and those who work for smaller businesses would have seven job-protected unpaid sick days.  

Green New Deal 

The Green New Deal is a set of goals to be accomplished through a national 10-year mobilization to achieve a green economy. It aims to: 

  • Achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions through a fair and just transition for all communities and workers; 
  • Invest in the infrastructure and industry of the United States to sustainably meet the challenges of the 21st century; 
  • Secure clean air, clean water, climate resiliency, community resiliency, healthy food, access to nature, and a sustainable environment for all people of the United States for generations to come;
  • And promote justice and equity by stopping current, preventing future, and repairing historic oppression of indigenous peoples, communities of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural communities, the poor, low-income workers, women, the elderly, the unhoused, people with disabilities, and youth.