III 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 85 

Expressing the sense of the Senate that it is the duty of the Federal 

Government to dramatically expand and strengthen the care economy. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 1, 2021 

Ms. WARREN (for herself, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. BROWN, and Mr. MERKLEY) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 

Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the Senate that it is the duty of 

the Federal Government to dramatically expand and 

strengthen the care economy. 

Whereas the preamble of the Constitution of the United 

States cites the duty to ‘‘promote the general Welfare’’, 

establishing care for the people of the United States as 

one of the pillars of our system of government; 

Whereas, even before the novel coronavirus disease 2019 

(COVID–19) pandemic, and the recession it triggered— 

(1) the United States was experiencing profound crises of care and well-being; and 

(2) critical public services and programs in the 

United States were underresourced or nonexistent; 


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Whereas we are interdependent and, at various stages of life, 

everyone will give or receive care; 

Whereas care work makes all other work possible, and the 

economy of the United States cannot thrive without a 

healthy and robust foundation of care for all people; 

Whereas over 3,700,000 children are born every year in the 

United States, and about 10,000 people in the United 

States reach retirement age each day; 

Whereas nearly 20,000,000 adults in the United States have 

long-term care needs arising from old age or a disability; 

Whereas, in 2019, more than 1 out of 5 adults in the United 

States had been an unpaid caregiver for an adult family 

member or friend, or for a child with disabilities, in the 

preceding 12 months; 

Whereas 60 percent of unpaid caregivers worked for pay outside the home, and most were women; 

Whereas over 3,000,000 children and young people in the 

United States had also been caregivers for adults; 

Whereas, in 2019, women in the United States spent an average of nearly 4 hours per day on unpaid care work and 

housework, 57 percent more hours than men; 

Whereas just as our country’s physical infrastructure is 

crumbling, the Federal and State programs constituting 

our care infrastructure are an outdated patchwork, and 

quality care is inaccessible for millions of people in the 

United States; 

Whereas the United States does not guarantee paid time off 

to give and receive care, and is the only industrialized 

country in the world without a national paid family and 

medical leave program; 


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Whereas, in 2018, only 17 percent of the United States workforce had access to paid family leave through their employer; 

Whereas the median cost of a private room in a nursing home 

facility is $105,850 per year; 

Whereas childcare is the highest household expense for families in much of the United States, and public childcare 

assistance is limited; 

Whereas Medicaid— 

(1) covers long-term care needs, but with strict income and asset eligibility requirements; and 

(2) has an institutional bias, requiring State programs to cover care in congregate facilities, while home 

and community-based services are optional and limited; 

Whereas Medicare generally does not cover long-term services 

and supports; 

Whereas only 7 percent of individuals in the United States 

aged 50 or older are covered by private long-term care 

insurance, which is often prohibitively expensive; 

Whereas, in 2019, nearly 30,000,000 people, including 

4,400,000 children, did not have health insurance in the 

United States, over half of them people of color, and tens 

of millions more people were underinsured; 

Whereas the median annual pay of childcare and home care 

workers is $25,510 and $17,200, respectively, leading to 

high turnover and reliance on public assistance; 

Whereas childcare workers are 95 percent women, and home 

care workers are 87 percent women, both disproportionately people of color and immigrants; 


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Whereas, in 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 8 percent of health care support workers and 3.6 

percent of personal care and service workers were members of unions; 

Whereas these conditions have historical roots, as— 

(1) in the decades following the abolition of slavery 

in the United States, Black people primarily worked as 

domestic and agricultural laborers; and 

(2) during the New Deal-era, domestic and agricultural workers were excluded from social programs and 

labor protections, particularly those created by— 

(A) the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 301 et 

seq.); 

(B) the National Labor Relations Act (29 

U.S.C. 151 et seq.); and 

(C) the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 

U.S.C. 201 et seq.); 

Whereas the COVID–19 pandemic has underscored that 

frontline work, including direct care, childcare, nursing, 

health care, public and community health, mental health, 

domestic, social assistance, education, service, retail, delivery, food, restaurant, agricultural, and other work, is 

essential to the functioning and flourishing of the United 

States, and to the care of all people; 

Whereas, during the COVID–19 pandemic, it has been necessary for frontline workers to engage in numerous 

strikes and work stoppages to obtain safe workplaces, 

personal protective equipment, the right to shelter in 

place, and other basic protections; 

Whereas domestic workers, mostly from the global South, 

were the most common victims of labor trafficking reported in the United States between 2007 and 2017; 


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Whereas care and domestic workers who are migrants or immigrants are especially likely to face wage theft, abuse, 

and other forms of exploitation; 

Whereas hospitals in the United States are understaffed, and 

most of the country does not require minimum nurse-topatient ratios that save lives; 

Whereas health care and social assistance workers suffer 

from the highest rates of injuries due to workplace violence; 

Whereas the closure of rural hospitals is accelerating, and 

135 rural hospitals have closed since 2010; 

Whereas Black, Latino, and Indigenous people have all been 

more than twice as likely to die of COVID–19 than 

White people; 

Whereas adults receiving long-term care in institutional settings represent less than 1 percent of the United States 

population, but account for more than one-third of 

COVID–19 deaths in the United States as of the date of 

introduction of this resolution; 

Whereas the decision of the Supreme Court of the United 

States in Olmstead v. L.C., 527 U.S. 581 (1999), established the right of people with disabilities to be independent and supported in their homes and communities; 

Whereas lack of access to technology and broadband internet 

among people of color, low-income and rural communities, older adults, and people with disabilities has negatively impacted the well-being of those people, particularly during the COVID–19 pandemic; 

Whereas, on any given night in 2019, well over 550,000 people were unhoused in the United States; 


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Whereas, in 2019, in the United States, 1 in 7 children, more 

than 1 in 4 Black children, and more than 1 in 5 Latino 

and Indigenous children lived in poverty; 

Whereas youth suicide rates are rising, and suicide attempts 

by Black adolescents increased by 73 percent between 

1991 and 2017; 

Whereas the Federal Head Start program reaches only 36 

percent of eligible low-income children, and Early Head 

Start reaches only 11 percent; 

Whereas 14,000,000 students attend schools with a police officer but no counselor, nurse, psychologist, or social 

worker; 

Whereas mental health professionals, such as school psychologists and counselors, are best equipped to maintain 

school safety without pushing children into the school-toprison pipeline; 

Whereas nearly 1 in 4 students, or up to 3,000,000 students, 

has been missing from school during the COVID–19 pandemic, and will need additional support both in and outside of school to accelerate learning; 

Whereas the youth mental health crisis has been exacerbated 

by the climate crisis, and has worsened due to the 

COVID–19 pandemic and economic collapse; 

Whereas Black, Brown, Indigenous, and low-income communities have borne the brunt of health impacts arising 

from fossil fuel use, industrial pollution, and crumbling 

infrastructure; 

Whereas, increasingly, climate disasters and extreme weather 

events are leaving behind communities suffering from 

widespread trauma and in need of mental health care; 


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Whereas nurses, care and social assistance workers, and educators— 

(1) have been first responders during climate disasters and extreme weather events; 

(2) are essential for responding to other forms of environmental harm; and 

(3) have taken grave personal risks to help the people they serve; 

Whereas worsening climate impacts will make care work more 

necessary and care more difficult to administer, disproportionately impacting children, older adults, and people with disabilities, who risk being separated from their 

regular care workers and caregivers; 

Whereas, despite the prevalence of low wages and difficult 

conditions, direct care jobs, including home care, residential care, and nursing assistant jobs, are already among 

the fastest growing in the the United States and represent the largest occupational group in the country; 

Whereas communities devastated by deindustrialization and 

disinvestment are particularly reliant on care and social 

assistance work for employment; 

Whereas many care, social assistance, and education jobs are 

relatively low-carbon occupations, and can quickly become 

green jobs as certain physical infrastructures decarbonize, especially transit systems, health care facilities, and 

public buildings; 

Whereas a robust care workforce will also be required to support a just transition to a healthy, zero-carbon economy, 

as other workers shift to new industries, move across the 

country, and develop new care needs; 


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Whereas the multiple crises now facing the United States require not only unprecedented investments in physical infrastructure, but also similarly sized investments in social 

infrastructure, including care infrastructure; 

Whereas public investment in care work supports care workers’ increased economic activity, creating additional jobs 

throughout the economy; 

Whereas we have a historic opportunity to finally build care 

infrastructure that is equitable and inclusive, and one in 

which all people can thrive, prosper, weather future disruptions, and age with dignity in their own homes and 

communities; and 

Whereas, in the context of addressing and defeating the 

COVID–19 pandemic, economic crisis, systemic racism, 

and climate change, and taking seriously the mandate to 

‘‘promote the general Welfare’’, bold investments in care 

can anchor the rebirth of the United States: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that— 

2 (1) it is the duty of the Federal Government to 

3 dramatically expand and strengthen the care econ4 omy, healing and supporting the country as we 

5 emerge from the COVID–19 pandemic and face the 

6 challenges of the 21st century and beyond; 

7 (2) the obligation described in paragraph (1) 

8 can only be met with far-reaching public invest9 ments, designed to achieve the goals of— 

10 (A) repairing the wrongs of history, includ11 ing by— 


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1 (i) acknowledging and addressing the 

2 legacies of exclusion and oppression faced 

3 by caregivers and care workers, particu4 larly women of color and immigrants; 

5 (ii) acknowledging and addressing the 

6 trauma of all those with unmet care needs, 

7 such as people of color, including Black, 

8 Brown, and Indigenous people and Asian 

9 Americans and Pacific Islanders, immi10 grant, LGBTQIA+, older, low-income, 

11 rural, and deindustrialized communities, 

12 people with disabilities, the unemployed, 

13 underemployed, unhoused, people who are 

14 incarcerated or who were formerly incar15 cerated, veterans, survivors of abuse, and 

16 children and young people coping with eco17 nomic and climate disruption; and 

18 (iii) approaching care policy as part of 

19 a broader agenda of dismantling systemic 

20 racism, sexism, economic inequality, and 

21 other forms of oppression, alongside efforts 

22 to achieve truth and reconciliation, repara23 tions, decarceration, restorative justice, In24 digenous sovereignty, a fair and humane 

25 immigration system, demilitarization, a 


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1 Federal jobs guarantee, and economic, en2 vironmental, and climate justice for all; 

3 (B) raising pay, benefits, protections, and 

4 standards for existing care workers, such 

5 that— 

6 (i) care jobs are family sustaining, 

7 paying substantially more than $15 an 

8 hour and offering generous benefits; 

9 (ii) all care workers have— 

10 (I) the right, and have pathways, 

11 to unionize; 

12 (II) the ability to engage in col13 lective action; and 

14 (III) full labor protections, in15 cluding those specified in the Domes16 tic Workers Bill of Rights Act; 

17 (iii) all care workers who wish to form 

18 worker-owned cooperatives have access to 

19 resources and technical support with which 

20 to do so; 

21 (iv) all care workers have access to 

22 ample training opportunities, apprentice23 ships, and career ladders leading to higher 

24 compensation, along with other resources 


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1 and support, including funding to facilitate 

2 those opportunities; 

3 (v) all care workers have the man4 dated employer protections they need to 

5 conduct their work safely in general, and 

6 in the event of a pandemic, infectious dis7 ease outbreak, or other disaster, including 

8 having optimal personal protective equip9 ment, optimal isolation protocols, testing 

10 and contact tracing, and paid days off due 

11 to exposure or illness; 

12 (vi) all care workers are safe from 

13 workplace violence, harassment, and 

14 threats to health; and 

15 (vii) all undocumented workers have 

16 pathways to citizenship and full and equal 

17 access to all public benefits, including 

18 health, nutrition, and income support; 

19 (C) creating millions of new care jobs over 

20 the next decade, including as part of existing 

21 and new public jobs programs, subject to the 

22 same principles in subparagraph (B), in the 

23 context of the COVID–19 pandemic recovery, 

24 the Green New Deal, and any similar efforts to 


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1 meet the challenges and opportunities of the 

2 21st century; 

3 (D) building and expanding zero-carbon, 

4 non-polluting, climate-safe infrastructure, in5 cluding physical infrastructure and social infra6 structure, to guarantee care to all people 

7 throughout the life cycle, moving the United 

8 States toward universal, public programs ensur9 ing— 

10 (i) high-quality health care, including 

11 comprehensive and noncoercive mental 

12 health care coverage, substance use treat13 ment, and reproductive care, free at the 

14 point of service; 

15 (ii) free, high-quality home and com16 munity-based services, without income or 

17 asset tests and without waiting lists, which 

18 would fix the institutional bias of the cur19 rent system, and allow people with disabil20 ities and older adults to receive needed 

21 support and live self-directed lives; 

22 (iii) free, high-quality childcare and 

23 early childhood education with a focus on 

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1 turally responsive, and diverse care set2 tings to achieve healthy child development; 

3 (iv) paid family and medical leave of 

4 at least 6 months, with full wage replace5 ment; and 

6 (v) additional support for unpaid care7 givers, people with disabilities, older 

8 adults, and children, with the goal of eradi9 cating child poverty; and 

10 (E) building and expanding other zero-car11 bon, non-polluting, climate-safe infrastructure 

12 and jobs that are intimately connected to the 

13 care infrastructure described in subparagraph 

14 (D), to meet the fundamental material, develop15 mental, emotional, and social needs of all peo16 ple, including— 

17 (i) clean air and water; 

18 (ii) public, permanently affordable, 

19 and dignified housing and transit systems, 

20 integrated with adequate social services to 

21 support residents of all ages and abilities; 

22 (iii) safe, accessible infrastructure, in23 cluding public accommodations, schools, 

24 workplaces, housing, transit, and streets 

25 allowing for full mobility for all people; 


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1 (iv) public education, with a focus on 

2 social and emotional learning, unleashing 

3 creativity in the arts and sciences, and 

4 educating and nurturing the whole child, 

5 and including fully funded programs for 

6 high-need students; 

7 (v) healthy, nourishing, and sustain8 able food systems that provide affordable, 

9 accessible, and culturally appropriate 

10 foods; 

11 (vi) comprehensive public health and 

12 emergency preparedness infrastructure, in13 cluding equitable, democratic response and 

14 recovery efforts during and after climate 

15 disasters; 

16 (vii) clear opportunities for, and the 

17 removal of barriers to, unionization and 

18 collective action in all economic sectors, in19 cluding the service, technology, and gig 

20 work sectors; 

21 (viii) a Federal minimum wage of at 

22 least $15 an hour, indexed to the cost of 

23 living, and the elimination of subminimum 

24 wages for people with disabilities, tipped 

25 workers, and all other workers; 


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1 (ix) expanded leisure time, with no 

2 loss in pay or benefits; 

3 (x) generous, paid sick days and vaca4 tion time; 

5 (xi) support for worker ownership, 

6 worker-owned cooperatives, and safety and 

7 democracy in the workplace, so that work8 ers have meaningful influence over their 

9 conditions of work and the decisions that 

10 affect their lives; 

11 (xii) adequate public services and pro12 grams to support all people in navigating 

13 economic and social challenges, including 

14 navigating life on a rapidly warming plan15 et, and to help all people unleash their full 

16 potential as human beings; 

17 (xiii) public libraries, community cen18 ters, and other spaces that foster cre19 ativity, connection, mental health, and 

20 human development; 

21 (xiv) support for practicing and aspir22 ing artists, as well as institutions, venues, 

23 and platforms that empower and fairly 

24 compensate artists, bringing their work to 

25 wider audiences, and integrating the arts 


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1 into community mental health, education, 

2 and resilience efforts; 

3 (xv) access to nature, public space, di4 verse forms of public recreation, and tech5 nology, including public broadband inter6 net; and 

7 (xvi) mechanisms for democratic over8 sight of data, algorithmic, and techno9 logical systems, along with worker and 

10 community participation in the develop11 ment and application of those systems, in 

12 service of expanding and improving care 

13 and social infrastructures; 

14 (3) any COVID–19 relief and economic recovery 

15 legislation must prioritize and invest in care infra16 structure as a down payment on building an inter17 connected, holistic caregiving system that— 

18 (A) is the backbone of the economy and es19 sential to all people; and 

20 (B) celebrates the interdependence of all 

21 people; 

22 (4) unpaid caregivers deserve support, care 

23 workers deserve quality, high-paying, union jobs, 

24 people with disabilities and older adults deserve 

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1 son, at every stage of life, deserves to live, work, 

2 play, and care with dignity; and 

3 (5) our ultimate aim is to build an economy and 

4 society based on care for people, communities, and 

5 the planet we all share. 

Æ 


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