Saving the Safety Net

As the nation careened towards yet another government shutdown, we were saved by a last minute deal in Congress that the president signed. Though it included over a billion dollars for border security, the president unleashed a temper tantrum in the form of a #fakefederalemergency. The president intends to divert billions from defense for a misguided and immoral wall rather than focus on programs and policies serving our nation. Not once has the president considered fully funding if not increasing human needs efforts, ensuring programs like Pell Grants, Low Income Home Energy Assistance, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Housing Assistance are available for those who need these lifesaving supports.

A few weeks ago I represented the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) on a panel focused on the social safety net. It is predominantly women — immigrant women, women of color, elderly women, differently abled women, women of childbearing age, trans-women, working women — who access these critical services. Women make up more than 50 percent of the US population, but still face systemic disparities in employment, wages, education, and access to health coverage. This translates to more women in poverty: one in eight women 18 and older, almost 16 million, lived in poverty in 2017. And, the poverty rate for elderly women was 11 percent in 2017; women made up nearly two-thirds of the elderly poor. Women of color and trans women fare even worse than white women.

And yet the panel was comprised of 3 men. And me.

The safety net is literally a system for providing support to the most vulnerable individuals. NCJW believes that the moral test of a nation is how it treats those most in need. For 125 years, NCJW has championed policies that improve the lives of those living in poverty — disproportionately women, children, transgender individuals, indigenous people, differently abled individuals, and people of color. All individuals have the right to live with dignity, have autonomy over their bodies, provide for their families, and fully participate in society. And, our workplace policies should ensure that workers can make a living wage, balance work and family responsibilities, and organize collectively in defense of their rights.

What follows are a greatest hits of many of NCJW’s proactive policy principles that I covered on the panel that would alleviate poverty for so many women and address systemic inequities:

Fully fund human needs programs

• Federal investments must provide for basic human needs. Programs that must be fully funded include healthcare, lifelong education, opportunities to work, income supplements when work is not possible, and affordable necessities, including food, housing, and caregiving for children, seniors, and individuals with disabilities — without imposing work requirements or other conditions for receiving assistance. Federal budgets represent our nation’s priorities, and they must reflect our moral commitment to protect low-income people, invest in broadly shared prosperity, increase revenues, and seek responsible savings from reducing waste in the Pentagon and elsewhere. So too should our tax plans help low and moderate-income individuals, instead of harming them by gutting critical human needs programs to provide tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans and corporations.

Ensure reproductive health, rights, and justice

• Since NCJW’s founding in 1893, we have supported access to family planning and reproductive health care. Our Jewish values teach us to respect the dignity and decisions of all people, and as such, we aim to create a world where everyone, regardless of race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, or immigration status, is able to control their body, sexuality, and future. When social systems prevent individuals from raising their families as they choose, they are being denied a reproductive right. NCJW’s approach to reproductive issues centers on the leadership of those who are most directly impacted by discrimination.
• And, we work to protect abortion access in practice, not just principle. Women with fewer resources shouldn’t have inferior access to health care. Funding restrictions that impede abortion access for low-income women — who are disproportionately women of color — are racist, discriminatory, and immoral. Abortion coverage bans force people to delay care and can push them deeper into poverty — studies show women denied abortion are likelier to end up below the federal poverty line compared to those who can obtain abortion care. NCJW calls for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment and all other restrictions on abortion funding for those who depend on federal programs for their health care.

Support comprehensive health care coverage for all

• The health of a nation depends on the health of its people. NCJW supports high quality, affordable, accessible, and comprehensive health care coverage for all. NCJW was proud to have played a role in the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, and supports efforts to build on and improve the law. NCJW continues to work towards universal access to comprehensive care, including reproductive health care services and mental health care as well as laws, policies, programs, and services that promote wellness and prevention of illness.
• NCJW opposes efforts to deny insurance coverage of abortion care, and we work to ensure that private and public insurers provide a full range of medical services, including abortion, contraceptives, and emergency contraception.

Provide comprehensive paid family and medical leave and paid sick days

• No one should be forced to choose between earning a paycheck and caring for an ill parent, child, or themselves, but only 15 percent of US workers have access to paid leave. Women in particular, especially single mothers, women of color, and low-wage earners, suffer from a lack of adequate paid leave policies. It’s time for our national workplace policies to recognize the needs of working families by providing 12 weeks of comprehensive paid family and medical leave and seven job-protected paid sick days per year.

Set the federal minimum wage at $15 for all workers

• Many individuals living in poverty work full time jobs but still do not earn a livable wage that covers basic needs. Minimum wage earners are disproportionately women and people of color, and nearly a third of minimum wage earners have children. Raising the minimum wage to $15 and eliminating the tipped minimum wage will lift incomes and benefit families.

Close the wage gap

• The average woman earns 80 cents for every dollar earned by a man, and the gap is even wider for women of color. NCJW advocates for measures that would help close the gap, including updating and strengthening existing equal pay legislation, barring retaliation against workers who disclose their own wages to co-workers, and prohibiting employers from seeking a job applicant’s salary history.

End workplace discrimination

• Thirty-one states do not have nondiscrimination policies protecting LGBTQ employees from being fired for their sexual orientation or gender identity. Pregnant workers are frequently pushed out of their jobs or denied reasonable accommodations. NCJW supports the Equality Act, which would explicitly protect individuals based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, and similar measures at the federal, state, and local levels.

See more of NCJW’s Vision for America here.