Coronavirus - Congress Must Act to Support Working People Now

Coronavirus has exposed the cracks in our social safety net for today's families. Our society is only as healthy as its most vulnerable members.

Our short and long term caregiving systems and social safety net are broken and must be transformed. Year after year, Congress has underinvested in working families putting entire communities at risk. Today that has never been more clear.

Our country’s social safety net can’t continue to be patchwork and spotty. Support shouldn’t depend on your zip code and who you work for. Like paid family and medical leave, paid sick days are often least accessible to the people who need it the most.

With coronavirus impacting people today, Congress must act immediately to protect the health of our communities and ensure all working families get immediate support. This support must include paid sick days and improved unemployment benefits for working people who lose hours or jobs.

Congress and the White House must ensure a stimulus package reflects the needs of all working people, not just businesses impacted. A payroll tax cut only helps those who are receiving pay - not those who are hourly workers that are missing work or have lost their jobs, excluding a critical part of the working population.

In this time of crisis, we must ensure that no family has to choose between caring for themselves, their loved ones and a paycheck.

Coronavirus is an inflection point: we can fix a broken system that isn’t adequately supporting today’s working families and creating long term costs. We can rebuild the continuum of care systems, from paid sick days to paid family and medical leave for every working person so our systems are responsive to what people actually need.