Womenstake

The Importance of Social Security

by Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security, 
National Women's Law Center 

Today I testified before the Senate Special Committee on Aging about Social Security. It was a welcome change from the past few years, when I testified at hearings that focused on plans to privatize Social Security and cut benefits. Today, I had an opportunity to discuss ways to strengthen and improve Social Security -- the foundation of older women’s economic security, and the effective way to increase retirement security for all Americans facing an environment of heightened economic risk.

It won’t take an extreme makeover to improve Social Security for women and economically vulnerable Americans. I presented some proposals, such as improving widow(er)s’ benefits and benefits for low lifetime earners and caregivers and modernizing Supplemental Security Income. I emphasized that these changes are especially critical for women, who face a higher threat of poverty in old age than men.

I also reminded the committee that Social Security is not just a retirement program --- it’s a family insurance program. Social Security provides disability and life insurance benefits to workers and their families, including children – over 1 million of whom are lifted out of poverty by this program. Read my complete testimony before the Senate Special Committee on Aging. 

To help better prepare women for retirement, the National Women’s Law Center is hosting a webinar series for service providers, advocates, and individuals. The first webinar, Planning for the Future: What Women Need to Know About Social Security, will take place on Tuesday, June 23 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. This online workshop is free to participants, but registration is required. Stay tuned for more information on the rest of the series.

Register Today: Webinar on Taxes for the Common Good

The debate is heating up on health care reform and other critical priorities for women and families. One of the challenges we face is finding ways to pay for these vital investments so we need to understand how responsible and fair tax policies can help provide the revenues we need.

To make sure you know about ways we can improve tax fairness and how you can be a voice for the common good, I’m helping to lead a free webinar hosted by the Coalition for Human Needs on Thursday, June 11, at 3:00 p.m. Eastern. Register today.

This webinar, Taxes for the Common Good: What You Need to Know, will give examples of fair tax policies and help you answer the special interests.

Presenters:

• Joan Entmacher, National Women's Law Center
• Alison Goldberg, Wealth for the Common Good
• Deborah Weinstein, Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs

Once you register for this webinar you will receive log in instructions and explanatory materials by email.

Register Today: What Women Need to Know About Social Security

How many women could use more information on Social Security and retirement?

During this economic crisis — just about all of them. Women have a higher risk of poverty in retirement than men, particularly women of color and single women (whether widowed, divorced, or never-married), and Social Security is the most important part of many women's retirement incomes. 

As women think about retirement, they may take stock of their savings and realize they don’t have enough saved — and they don’t know what to do with the savings they do have. They may not know what benefits they can get from Social Security, and how their decisions about when to claim benefits (and their husband’s, if they are married) can affect the benefits they receive.

Don’t panic! The National Women’s Law Center is hosting a two-part series of free webinars to help women prepare for retirement, for service providers, advocates, and individuals. The first webinar is about women and Social Security; the second is about pensions and savings.

Register today! This online workshop is free to participants, but registration is required.

Planning for the Future: What Women Need to Know About Social Security
1:00 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Featuring:

• Joan Entmacher, National Women’s Law Center
• Maria Freese, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare

Watch for our announcement of the second webinar. This webinar is part of the National Women’s Law Center’s Citi Education Series on Family Economic Security.

New Resource: NWLC Child Care Website

by Helen Blank, Director of Leadership and Public Policy, 
National Women's Law Center 

Last year, we released Developing America's Potential: An Agenda for Affordable, High-Quality, Child Care, a "blueprint" for the future of child care. Since then, several bills reflecting parts of the Agenda have been introduced in this Congress. We are happy to announce a new website to better help advocates continue to move forward on the systemic reforms found in the Agenda. 

Check out NWLC's new website based on the agenda.

The website is a one-stop shop for information on the Agenda, including ways you can get involved with our efforts. As you check out the website, you will see that our featured immediate action focuses on the appropriations process.

It's important that we work together and urge our Members of Congress to support a $1 billion increase for the Child Care and Development Block Grant and a $1 billion increase for Head Start in the FY 2010 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill. This would be an important step toward the long-term goals contained in the Agenda. While these programs received additional emergency funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, these funds do not compensate for the longstanding funding shortfalls in these vital programs.

Take action today by sending a message to your members of Congress.

Register Today: Call on Economic Recovery Funds for Child Care

How are states using their economic recovery funds to help boost support for child care?

To strategize about how to best utilize the economic recovery funds, the National Women's Law Center and CLASP are hosting a conference call.

An Economic Recovery Update: How States Can Use Economic Recovery Funds to Help Child Care will take place on Thursday, May 21, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.

Register today! This conference call is free to participants, but registration is required. 

More details about the key provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act are available on our website at www.nwlc.org/economicrecovery. 

The call will be moderated by Helen Blank of the National Women's Law Center and Danielle Ewen of CLASP. Presenters will discuss highlights of their states' plans and include:

• Bruce Liggett, Executive Director, Arizona Child Care Association
• Sessy Nyman, Vice President of Public Policy & Government Affairs, Action for Children
• Sheila Hansen, Policy Director, Child and Family Policy Center
• Patty Siegel, Executive Director, California Child Care Resource & Referral Network
• Clare S. Richie, Senior Policy Analyst, Georgia Budget and Policy Institute

We are grateful for the support of the Birth to Five Policy Alliance for sponsoring this call. 

We hope to speak to you soon!

Child Care and Early Education Policy Update

Last year, a broad group of national and state organizations crafted a shared agenda, Developing America’s Potential: An Agenda for Affordable High-Quality Child Care. Below are summaries of several bills that have recently been introduced in Congress that contain elements of the Agenda or that address other aspects of the broader early care and education agenda. To learn more about the Agenda, please go to NWLC's web site.

Starting Early, Starting Right Act

Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) and Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), introduced the Starting Early, Start Right Act (S. 1000), which would improve access to high-quality early learning and child care, especially for children in lower-income working families. Highlights of the bill include stronger training requirements for providers and monitoring requirements for states, increased rates for programs and providers serving low-income children, increased funding targeted to improve the quality of child care, encouragement for states to develop Quality Rating and Improvement Systems that support programs and providers in meeting gradually increasing standards, a special focus on infants and toddlers, and research designed to promote higher-quality care. For more information about this bill, please check out NWLC's summary.

Child Care Facilities Financing Act of 2009

The Child Care Facilities Financing Act of 2009 was introduced in the House (as H.R. 1685) by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) and was introduced in the Senate (as S. 1002) by Sen. Casey and Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR). This bill would address the significant need to improve early childhood facilities by creating a flexible pool of capital for early childhood facilities development in low-income communities. For more information about this bill, please check out NWLC's summary.

Policy Update: President Obama Releases Detailed Budget

President Obama’s detailed budget for Fiscal Year 2010 makes investments critical to the well-being of women and their families, especially in the areas of health care and education. Yet the fine print also retains restrictions on reproductive health.

Overall, the budget represents an important change in direction from the past eight years. However, given the enormous challenges that families and communities are facing, this budget could and should do even more to address rising needs. For more information, visit NWLC's website.

Some highlights of how the budget affects women and families include:

• Health Care: The President’s budget brings the nation one step closer to making health care reform that meets the needs of women and their families a reality this year. It creates a reserve fund of more than $600 billion, which will serve as a “down payment” on health reform.
• Reproductive Health: The budget eliminates wasteful abstinence-only programs and allows states to provide more support for contraception through the Medicaid program. Unfortunately, the budget retains harmful and unjust restrictions on the use of public funds for abortion care and provides only level or insufficient funding increases for several programs that provide essential services for women, including Title X family planning.
• Child Care and Early Education: The President’s budget funds several new early childhood initiatives. However, the budget provides only a modest increase for Head Start, and no increase in funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant to supplement temporary funding for 2009 and 2010 in the Economic Recovery Act. Full details are available on NWLC's website.

President Obama Releases Detailed Budget

by Melanie Ross Levin, Outreach Manager, 
National Women's Law Center

President Obama just released a more detailed view of his budget proposal, including state-by-state information on the impact of some of the budget provisions.

NWLC is going through the details to make sure we get you the information you need about child care and Head Start, education, public health, family planning, job training, housing assistance, battered women’s shelters, help for the elderly, civil rights enforcement, and a range of social and community services. Stay tuned.

Plugging an Off-Shore Tax Haven Leak

by Melanie Ross Levin, Outreach Manager, 
National Women's Law Center 

If your house has a leak, you call a plumber and get it fixed so you don’t waste water. If your tax system has a leak, you should figure out how to fix it so you don’t waste much-needed revenue. 

President Obama announced yesterday steps his Administration is taking to crack down on overseas tax evaders and avoiders -- both corporations and individuals that do not pay their fair share of taxes. The Administration estimates that the proposed reforms could raise $210 billion in revenue over 10 years. That’s a good chunk of change. During these tough times, our country could use these critical revenues for comprehensive health care reform, investments in education and additional supports for those most vulnerable.

Here at the National Women’s Law Center, we understand that generating sufficient revenue goes hand-in-hand with supporting investments for women and families -- and our nation’s future. By cutting corporate subsidies, closing corporate tax loopholes, and beginning to make the very wealthy pay their fair share in taxes, we move closer to a fair and responsible tax system. 

But, as you know, the devil is in the details. We will keep you posted on Obama’s proposal and Congress’s reaction. Without Congressional approval, we’ll still be in hot water.

Federal Budget Passes House

by Melanie Ross Levin, Outreach Manager, 
National Women’s Law Center 

The House just passed the 2010 budget resolution, 233 - 193. To find out how your Representative voted, check out the roll call vote. We expect the Senate will vote soon – and that the budget will get the majority it needs to pass.

Here at the National Women’s Law Center we have worked hard to make sure women’s voices are heard throughout the budget process. Thank you to the thousands who sent letters, made phone calls and participated in state and local actions around the budget!  

Thanks to your help, this budget sets the stage for action this year on comprehensive health care reform. It also calls for investments in education, starting with the first years of life, and additional supports for those most vulnerable - disproportionately women and children.

The budget also proposes changes in tax policies that have overwhelmingly favored the powerful few. It expands tax benefits for individuals and families who most need help – and begins to make corporations and the very wealthy pay their fair share of taxes.

But this framework is just a beginning. We still need further action by Congress and the President to achieve the budget’s goals. The National Women’s Law Center looks forward to working with the Obama Administration and Congress to enact legislation that will protect and promote women’s priorities. But we can only do this if you help to make this happen by taking action and holding your Members of Congress accountable.

UPDATED, 6:48 p.m.: The Senate has also passed the budget resolution.