The Direct Care News 
For direct care workers and their allies December 17, 2013
|
|
How the FAMILY Act Will Help Direct Care Workers, Clients, and Our Economy
|
 | | Jessica Brill Ortiz |
December 12 was an important day in the fight to help direct care workers and their families and other hard-working people in the U.S. On that day, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) introduced the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act (FAMILY Act), a national paid family and medical leave program, into Congress. Under the bill, nearly all U.S. workers would be able to take a limited period of time off from work while receiving a portion of their wages in order to address a serious health condition of their own or of a parent, spouse, domestic partner or child. Workers would also be eligible for the leave for pregnancy, childbirth, to care for a new child and for certain types of military leave or caregiving for a military spouse. Read the rest of Jessica Brill Ortiz's blog post on the MomsRising website and DCA's press statement about the bill.
|
|
Direct from Washington, D.C.
|
Budget bill pending in U.S. Senate: The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 is currently pending in the U.S. Senate, following approval in the U.S. House of Representatives last week and support from President Obama. The bill includes $63 billion over the next two years in relief for sequestration cuts (the automatic, across-the-board budget cuts that went into effect this year), divided evenly between defense and non-defense programs. The bill would also reduce the deficit by between $20 and $23 billion.
Under the bill, there would be increased funding (relative to fiscal year 2013) to domestic discretionary programs such as Meals on Wheels, Head Start and the Women, Infants, Children (WIC) Nutrition Program, which are important to many direct care workers and their families. The bill does not, however, include an extension of Emergency Unemployment Compensation, which means 1.3 million long-term unemployed workers will lose their unemployment benefits by December 28 if Congress does not take action soon. Another 3.6 million workers will lose access to benefits by the end of 2014 if the program is not renewed next year. The Senate is expected to vote on the Bipartisan Budget Act this week. Learn more here and here.
|
|
Direct from the Headlines
| DCA's Carla Washington is among the experts quoted in this USA Today article about state efforts to regulate the home care workforce.
A study from the Economic Policy Institute documents high poverty rates among home care aides and other in-home workers, and ThinkProgress summarizes some of its most compelling findings.
Quick thinking and skilled action by home care worker Sophie Hopkins saved her client's life.
"There is a solution at hand," writes a Canadian of his country's punishingly low wages for home care workers.
A New Zealand home care worker explains why "Income, NOT budgeting, is the issue."
|
|
|
Quick Links
| 
|
|
|
|
Get Direct Care Workers Covered
|
 Select a health care plan by next Tuesday, December 23, to be covered on January 1, 2014. Help make the New Year a healthy and happy one! If you live in New York City, please join Hadas Thier of DCA's Get Direct Care Workers Covered campaign tonight at 7 p.m. for an informational forum at Flatbush Reformed Church, 890 Flatbush Avenue. For more information or to set up an appointment to get enrollment assistance, email Hadas at hthier@directcarealliance.org or call her at 212-730-0741.
|
|