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After clearing its way in the U.S. Senate over the weekend, today the U.S. House of Representatives passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. The sweeping measure, which now heads to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature, will deliver important relief to families, child care providers, and small businesses.

Tina Tchen, president and CEO of TIME’S UP Now, provided the following statement:

“At a time when low-paid workers — majority of them women, and disproportionately women of color — are suffering economically in unprecedented ways, the American Rescue Plan offers much-needed emergency relief to ensure our workers and small businesses can weather this storm and that our communities come out of this stronger.

“This legislation is a monumental first step, but the structural barriers that women workers have faced for generations aren’t going away. If we do not act now, we are on the verge of erasing decades of progress we have made towards gender equity in the workplace. And our inadequate caregiving system has been strained to a breaking point. 

“That’s why the next step must be comprehensive and permanent care solutions, including national and permanent access to paid leave, affordable child care and in-home elder care, and fair wages and protections for caregivers. We know these measures have overwhelming bipartisan support from voters across the country. A public and permanent investment in a robust care infrastructure will not only help women get back to work — it is the kind of infrastructure investment we need to create millions of jobs and build a more just and sustainable economy for everyone.”

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND

According to a TIME’S UP Foundation report, investing $77.5 billion annually in the care economy would: 

• Support over 2 million new jobs at an average cost of $34,496 per supported job. 

• Translate into $220 billion in new economic activity annually and create 22.5 million new jobs over 10 years.

• Create or support over 81,000 jobs in food services and 45,000 in retail — industries predominantly made up of women of color and low-paid workers who lost over 500,000 jobs in December 2020.

An investment in a bold care infrastructure is not only smart economic policy; it’s also smart politics:

• Ninety percent of registered voters agree that providing support and services for people with children and aging, ill, or disabled family members will provide economic stability for millions of people and 8 in 10 voters say unsupported caregiving is a huge burden for families, according to a recent poll commissioned by TIME’S UP Foundation, Caring Across Generations, and Paid Leave for All Action.

• Over two-thirds of Biden voters recognize care policies as very important and a plurality of Trump voters agree, according to a November exit poll commissioned by TIME’S UP Now, the National Partnership for Women and Families, and the National Women’s Law Center.
• That poll also found that voters view care policies, such as safe and affordable child care and long-term care for elder relatives or those with disabilities, as an important part of a broad issue agenda to recover and build back from the COVID-19 crisis — even more important than reducing the deficit and national debt and cutting regulations on businesses.

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TIME'S UP Now