Pregnant Workers Fairness Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for the recognition and for his leadership, and that of the committee in bringing this important bipartisan legislation to the floor.

I salute the gentleman; I salute Jerry Nadler, an author of this legislation, the chair of the Committee on the Judiciary; Mr. Katko for his lead cosponsorship; among other Republican members, to make this strongly bipartisan.

Mr. Speaker, I am excited about this legislation as a mother of five children--four daughters, one son--nine grandchildren. This is about a recognition of being family-friendly in our legislation, as more women are a part of the economic success of our country.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to support the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a strong bipartisan step to ensure that women are no longer forced to choose between maintaining a healthy pregnancy and paycheck--a choice that, for many, has serious health consequences.

This landmark legislation advances the health of women and children, the financial security of families, and, really, the dynamism of our American economy. And its passage--while long overdue--is particularly urgent, as the lives and livelihood of so many are under threat from the coronavirus.

Again, I thank the chairman and Mr. Katko, Mr. Nadler, and so many others for their leadership in passing this bill. And I thank all the cosponsors.

Again, as a mother of five, I am especially proud to support the bill. And I want to salute all the mothers and women who have spoken out, often risking professional retaliation, to end pregnancy discrimination in the workplace.

This is what this means: It means that too often when a pregnant worker asks for a temporary job-related accomodation, she will be fired or pushed onto unpaid leave, deprived of her paycheck and health insurance when she needs them most.

This is particularly true in many physically taxing jobs, which tend to be low wage and traditionally dominated by women. And that is why we must pass the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, putting in place a clear, explicit pregnancy accommodation framework, similar to the standard that has been in place for decades for workers with disabilities, which I was proud to be part of. Our distinguished leader, Mr. Hoyer, has been a major leader in that regard.

Mr. Speaker, this legislation is also a matter of justice. As nearly 300 groups from the ACLU to Zero To Three recently wrote to Congress-- from A to Z--``Discrimination affects pregnant workers across race and ethnicity, but women of color and immigrants may be at particular risk.

``Latinas, Black women and immigrant women are more likely to hold certain inflexible and physically demanding jobs that can present specific challenges for pregnant workers. . . . This can make reasonable accommodations on the job even more important, and loss of wages and health insurance due to pregnancy discrimination especially challenging.''

I think it is important to note that this legislation is important also from the standpoint of hiring. We want to make sure that employers who are hiring someone know there is a level playing field should the woman of childbearing age--or even already blessed with a pregnancy-- that this is a positive initiative for their workplace and their treating that person with respect is not placing them at any disadvantage if the playing field is level.

This comes at a time when--I mentioned about the pandemic--around 2 million women were pushed out of the labor force. One out of four women report they are still worse off financially than a year ago. Studies show it will take 18 months longer for the women's employment to rebound from the pandemic than for men's. And the reduction of women's work hours and labor force participation is said to erase tens of billions of dollars from our economy.

American women are part of the engine of America's economy and the key to building back better after this crisis. And again, as we all say: When women succeed, America succeeds.

And we can apply that to say: When women of childbearing age succeed, America certainly succeeds.

And for mothers and women who are pregnant, the challenges are even graver because our Nation still lacks sufficient workplace protections against pregnancy discrimination.

Mr. Speaker, that is why this legislation is so very important and is consistent with what we pledge--liberty and justice for all women.

I am very excited about this because, as we all know, pregnancy is a blessing to any family, and we do not want any intervention that can be avoided in terms of accommodating the needs of women who are pregnant.

Mr. Speaker, I salute all of you. I am very excited about this legislation and I am so glad it will have strong bipartisan support.

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