•HRES 1617 IH 
Whereas mental health professionals, such as school psycholo-
gists and counselors, are best equipped to maintain 
school safety without pushing children into the school-to- 
prison pipeline; 
Whereas the youth mental health crisis has been exacerbated 
by the climate crisis, COVID–19 pandemic, increased so-
cial isolation, and economic collapse; 
Whereas Black, Brown, Indigenous, and low-income commu-
nities 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; 
Whereas nurses, care and social assistance workers, and edu-
cators— 
(1) have been first responders during climate disas-
ters and extreme weather events; 
(2) are essential for responding to other forms of en-
vironmental harm; and 
(3) have taken grave personal risks to help the peo-
ple they serve; 
Whereas worsening climate impacts will make care work more 
necessary and care more difficult to administer, dis-
proportionately impacting children, older adults, and peo-
ple 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, residen-
tial care, and nursing assistant jobs, are already among 
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•HRES 1617 IH 
the fastest growing in the United States and represent 
the largest occupational group in the country; 
Whereas estimates indicate that, globally, adequately invest-
ing in care work and expanding care services could create 
nearly 300,000,000 jobs by 2035; 
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 decarbon-
ize, especially transit systems, health care facilities, and 
public buildings; 
Whereas a robust care workforce will also be required to sup-
port 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; 
Whereas the multiple crises now facing the United States re-
quire not only unprecedented investments in physical in-
frastructure, but also similarly sized investments in social 
infrastructure, including care infrastructure; 
Whereas public investment in care work supports care work-
ers’ 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 dis-
ruptions, and age with dignity in their own homes and 
communities; and 
Whereas in the context of addressing and defeating the last-
ing repercussions of the COVID–19 pandemic, future 
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•HRES 1617 IH 
public health emergencies, compounding economic crises, 
stark income and wealth inequalities, systemic racism, 
and climate change, and taking seriously the mandate to 
‘‘promote the general Welfare’’, bold investments in care 
can anchor the rebirth of our country: Now, therefore, be 
it 
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that— 
(1) it is the duty of the Federal Government to 
dramatically expand and strengthen the care econ-
omy, healing and supporting the country as we con-
tinue to recover from the COVID–19 pandemic and 
face the challenges of the 21st century and beyond; 
(2) the obligation described in paragraph (1) 
can only be met with far-reaching public invest-
ments, designed to achieve the goals of— 
(A) repairing the wrongs of history, includ-
ing by— 
(i) acknowledging and addressing the 
legacies of exclusion and oppression faced 
by caregivers and care workers, particu-
larly women of color and immigrants; 
(ii) acknowledging and addressing the 
trauma of all those with unmet care needs, 
such as— 
(I) people of color, including 
Black, Brown, and Indigenous people; 
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•HRES 1617 IH 
(II) Asian Americans, Native Ha-
waiians, and Pacific Islanders; 
(III) immigrant, limited English 
proficiency, LGBTQIA+, older, low- 
income, rural, and deindustrialized 
communities; 
(IV) people with disabilities; 
(V) people who are unemployed, 
under-employed, and unhoused; 
(VI) people who are incarcerated 
or who were formerly incarcerated; 
(VII) veterans; 
(VIII) survivors of abuse; and 
(IX) children and young people 
coping with economic and climate dis-
ruption; and 
(iii) approaching care policy as part of 
a broader agenda of dismantling systemic 
racism, sexism, economic inequality, and 
other forms of oppression, alongside efforts 
to achieve truth and reconciliation, repara-
tions, decarceration, restorative justice, In-
digenous sovereignty, a fair and humane 
immigration system, demilitarization, a 
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•HRES 1617 IH 
Federal jobs guarantee, and economic, en-
vironmental, and climate justice for all; 
(B) raising pay, benefits, protections, and 
standards for existing care workers, such 
that— 
(i) care jobs are family sustaining, 
paying substantially more than $17 an 
hour and offering generous benefits; 
(ii) all care workers have— 
(I) the right, and have pathways, 
to unionize; 
(II) the ability to engage in col-
lective action; and 
(III) full labor protections, in-
cluding those specified in the Domes-
tic Workers Bill of Rights Act; 
(iii) all care workers have access to 
adequate paid family and medical leave 
that includes paid safe leave and paid sick 
time; 
(iv) all care workers who wish to form 
worker-owned cooperatives have access to 
resources and technical support with which 
to do so; 
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•HRES 1617 IH 
(v) all care workers have access to 
ample training opportunities, apprentice-
ships, and career ladders leading to higher 
compensation, along with other resources 
and support, including funding to facilitate 
those opportunities; 
(vi) all care workers have the man-
dated employer protections they need to 
conduct their work safely in general, and 
in the event of a pandemic, infectious dis-
ease outbreak, or other disaster, including 
having optimal personal protective equip-
ment, optimal isolation protocols, testing 
and contact tracing, and paid days off due 
to exposure or illness; 
(vii) all care workers are safe from 
workplace 
violence, 
harassment, 
and 
threats to health; and 
(viii) all undocumented workers have 
pathways to citizenship and full and equal 
access to all public benefits, including 
health, nutrition, and income support; 
(C) creating millions of new care jobs over 
the next decade, including as part of existing 
and new public jobs programs, subject to the 
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•HRES 1617 IH 
same principles in subparagraph (B), in the 
context of the Green New Deal, public health 
and emergency preparedness needs, and any 
similar efforts to meet the challenges and op-
portunities of the 21st century; 
(D) building and expanding zero-carbon, 
non-polluting, climate-safe infrastructure, both 
physical infrastructure and social infrastruc-
ture, to guarantee care to all people throughout 
the life cycle, moving the United States toward 
universal, public programs ensuring— 
(i) high-quality health care, including 
comprehensive and noncoercive mental 
health care coverage, substance use treat-
ment, and reproductive care, free at the 
point of service; 
(ii) free, high-quality home and com-
munity-based services, without income or 
asset tests and without waiting lists, which 
would fix the institutional bias of the cur-
rent system, and allow people with disabil-
ities and older adults to receive needed 
support and live self-directed lives; 
(iii) free, high-quality childcare and 
early childhood education including appro-
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•HRES 1617 IH 
priate attention to the unique needs of 
children and families in the first 1,000 
days of life, and robust, culturally respon-
sive, and diverse care settings to achieve 
healthy child development; 
(iv) paid family and medical leave of 
at least 6 months, with full wage replace-
ment, job protection, and a recognition of 
all types of families, as well as paid safe 
leave and paid sick time; and 
(v) additional support for unpaid care-
givers, 
people 
with 
disabilities, 
older 
adults, and children, with the goal of eradi-
cating child poverty; and 
(E) building and expanding other zero-car-
bon, non-polluting, climate-safe infrastructure 
and jobs that are intimately connected to the 
care infrastructure described in subparagraph 
(D), to meet the fundamental material, develop-
mental, emotional, and social needs of all peo-
ple, including— 
(i) clean air and water; 
(ii) public, permanently affordable, 
and dignified housing and transit systems, 
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•HRES 1617 IH 
integrated with adequate social services to 
support residents of all ages and abilities; 
(iii) safe, accessible infrastructure, in-
cluding public accommodations, schools, 
workplaces, housing, transit, and streets 
allowing for full mobility for all people; 
(iv) public education, with a focus on 
social and emotional learning, unleashing 
creativity in the arts and sciences, and 
educating and nurturing the whole child, 
and including fully funded programs for 
high-need students; 
(v) healthy, nourishing, and sustain-
able food systems that provide affordable, 
accessible, 
and 
culturally 
appropriate 
foods; 
(vi) comprehensive public health and 
emergency preparedness infrastructure, in-
cluding equitable, democratic response and 
recovery efforts during and after climate 
disasters; 
(vii) clear opportunities for, and the 
removal of barriers to, unionization and 
collective action in all economic sectors, in-
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•HRES 1617 IH 
cluding the service, technology, and gig 
work sectors; 
(viii) a Federal minimum wage of at 
least $17 an hour, indexed to the cost of 
living, and the elimination of subminimum 
wages for people with disabilities, tipped 
workers, and all other workers; 
(ix) expanded leisure time, with no 
loss in pay or benefits; 
(x) generous paid sick time, paid safe 
leave, paid family and medical leave, and 
vacation time, with full wage replacement, 
job protection, and a recognition of all 
types of families; 
(xi) support for worker ownership, 
worker-owned cooperatives, and safety and 
democracy in the workplace, so that work-
ers have meaningful influence over their 
conditions of work and the decisions that 
affect their lives; 
(xii) adequate public services and pro-
grams to support all people in navigating 
economic and social challenges, including 
navigating life on a rapidly warming plan-
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•HRES 1617 IH 
et, and to help all people unleash their full 
potential as human beings; 
(xiii) public libraries, community cen-
ters, and other spaces that foster cre-
ativity, connection, well-being, and human 
development; 
(xiv) support for practicing and aspir-
ing artists, as well as institutions, venues, 
and platforms that empower and fairly 
compensate artists, bringing their work to 
wider audiences, and integrating the arts 
into community well-being, education, and 
resilience efforts; 
(xv) access to nature, public space, di-
verse forms of public recreation, and tech-
nology, including public broadband inter-
net; and 
(xvi) mechanisms for democratic over-
sight of data, algorithmic, and techno-
logical systems, along with worker and 
community participation in the develop-
ment and application of those systems, in 
service of expanding and improving care 
and social infrastructures; 
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•HRES 1617 IH 
(3) all public health, care-related, and economic 
legislation must prioritize and invest in care infra-
structure as a down payment on building an inter-
connected, holistic caregiving system that— 
(A) is the backbone of the economy and es-
sential to all people; and 
(B) celebrates the interdependence of all 
people; 
(4) unpaid caregivers deserve pay and support, 
care workers deserve quality, high-paying, union 
jobs, people with disabilities and older adults deserve 
independence and self-determination, and every per-
son, at every stage of life, deserves to live, work, 
play, and care with dignity; and 
(5) our ultimate aim is to build an economy and 
society based on care for people, communities, and 
the planet we all share. 
Æ 
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