Sen. Duckworth calls for paid family leave, child care in next recovery package

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D., Ill.) says she hopes to see paid family leave, universal Pre-K and help with childcare in the next economic relief package that President Biden is expected to roll out in the coming weeks.

The proposal, known as the American Families Plan, is expected to address economic inequities in childcare, education and health care.

"I don't think a family should spend more than 30% of its income on childcare," said Duckworth in an interview with Yahoo Finance. "We should not be forcing families to choose...do I work? Or do I stay home? Do I work outside the home and make more income? Or do I stay home because it's a wash because childcare is so expensive."

In 2018, Duckworth became the first U.S. senator to give birth while in office. She made history again when she became the first senator to cast a vote with her newborn at her side. Duckworth said the pandemic has exacerbated struggles for working moms, many of whom are juggling longer hours without childcare or in-person schooling.

"I hope that as we work on the nation's infrastructure, which we need to invest in, we also work on the nation's human infrastructure," said Duckworth.

In her new book, "Every Day is a Gift," Duckworth describes her childhood and her family's struggle with poverty — including teetering on the verge of homelessness when she first moved to the United States. Duckworth was born in Thailand, and lived in southeast Asia until her American father moved the family to Hawaii when she was a teenager.

"Those struggles just made me stronger...much more able to face challenges I had in later life," said Duckworth. "Those childhood struggles with poverty really do inform the work that I do. I do a lot of work on hunger issues, and food insecurity."

Republicans have already expressed doubts about the upcoming American Families Plan and have largely rejected his infrastructure plan due to the tax increases on businesses, the $2.2 trillion cost, and because it goes far beyond traditional, physical infrastructure.

"We need that human infrastructure put into place that will support our families, but also our economy — the way there's a human infrastructure in place in other developed nations like Germany and the Sweden," said Duckworth.

While Democrats are preparing for the possibility of pushing legislation through the Senate without Republican votes through the reconciliation process, Duckworth said she's open to negotiating and potentially breaking up the package into smaller bills that might gain bipartisan support.

"I just want to make sure we actually have a legitimate effort at passing this legislation — and I don't want it to be 'okay, we just want to pass this piece, but we're going to block everything else.' If that's the case I would not support breaking it up," said Duckworth.

Democrats cannot afford to lose a single Democratic vote if they try to pass legislation without any Republican support. Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W. Virg.) — a key moderate vote — has said he opposes raising the corporate tax rate to 28%, as Biden has proposed. Duckworth told Yahoo Finance she is willing to negotiate that piece of the plan.

"I just want to make sure that when we do that, if there's repatriated dollars or anything like that, that we take care of the American people first, and corporations and billionaires — they can wait in line for a change," said Duckworth.

Biden told reporters Wednesday he was willing to negotiate on the corporate tax rate, but would not entertain ideas that would raise taxes on people making less than $400,000 per year.

Jessica Smith is chief political correspondent for Yahoo Finance, based in Washington, D.C. Follow her on Twitter at @JessicaASmith8.

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