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Statement

With Omicron Closing Schools and Child Care Centers, Moms and Families Need the Build Back Better Act More Than Ever

January 5, 2022
Paid Family & Medical Leave, Maternal Mortality, Early Care & Education, Health Care, Immigration

Lisa Lederer, 202/371-1996

Statement of Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director and CEO of MomsRising, the online and on-the-ground organization of more than one million mothers and their families:

“2022 is off to a rough start for America’s moms, families, and businesses. The pandemic is surging, hundreds of thousands of people are becoming ill and being asked to quarantine each day, many schools and child care centers are operating remotely if they are open at all, transportation systems are compromised, and the already-high cost of food, medication, housing and energy is rising fast. For most working people, the struggles that result are worsened immeasurably by our lack of a care infrastructure, including paid family and medical leave, affordable child care, universal pre-K, and home- and community-based services. And for millions of families, the relief the expanded Child Tax Credit provided has ended at precisely the time their need for that relief is becoming even more urgent.

As the U.S. Senate returns this week, America’s moms are demanding speedy passage of the Build Back Better Act, which will help address inflation, lower family costs, create jobs, strengthen public health, and address the other crises so many families and businesses are facing. In 2021, MomsRising members took more than 1.4 million actions in support of a care infrastructure. They made more than 1 million contacts with their elected leaders, including writing 150,000 personalized postcards to their U.S. Senators – and they will continue to raise their voices until Congress passes the Build Back Better Act.

“Moms have spoken clearly and it’s time for the U.S. Senators on both sides of the political aisle to respond. We need to finally pass paid family/medical leave like every other industrialized nation has already done, advance child care and pre-K, move forward home- and community-based services, extend the Child Tax Credit expansion, cut the cost of prescription medications, make health care more affordable, improve maternal health, provide a pathway to citizenship and permanent protections for immigrants, and finally build the care infrastructure our country needs. Only if we do all that will we be able to manage this pandemic. Only if we pass the Build Back Better Act will it be possible for moms, families, businesses, and our economy to thrive.”

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.