Abortion rights, women of color, and LGBTQIA+ people are under attack. Pledge to join us in fighting for gender justice.
NWLC Reacts to President Biden’s 2023 Budget; Monumental Investments in Child Care
The following is a statement from Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC):
“A country’s budget is a reflection of not only what it values, but who it values, and today, we applaud President Biden’s budget that prioritizes an economy that will work for all of us and provides economic security for those who have been without it for too long. We are living in unprecedented times – our leaders must take unprecedented action, and we are grateful to President Biden for doing so by proposing the largest investment in child care and early learning ever proposed by a president, and for proposing a national, comprehensive paid family and medical leave program. The budget also centers the women and families who continue to struggle by proposing expansions to the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) which will provide targeted, effective economic support, as well as important investments and supports for accessible and affordable housing that would begin to correct for decades of racist, sexist, and ableist housing policies, and invests in our nation’s health. This budget is also realistic, acknowledging the need to raise revenues, and doing so by creating a more progressive and equitable tax code that benefits all of us, not just the rich.
“It is also critical for workers’ and students’ rights to be protected not just in name, but in practice, and we applaud the proposed increase in resources for the agencies that enforce those rights and the included provision that calls for an increase in employer penalties for violating workers’ rights. And finally, we know that central to this country’s ability to thrive, and for people to be equal, is our ability to have reproductive freedom. The President’s Title X increase and increase for veterans’ health care including contraception and abortion is an important step in that direction, but it is not the end of the work that must be done. We call on President Biden to eliminate harmful anti-abortion appropriations riders in his full budget and take other steps to ensure the budget is part of his whole-of-government response to attacks on abortion and contraception since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. We hope that this budget is only the vague beginning of what needs to be a secure future for abortion access, workers rights, and housing access.”