On the recordMarch 7, 2019
I am a single mom. When I ran for Congress last year, I spent thousands and thousands of dollars on childcare. Running for Federal office requires 60- to 90-hour workweeks, and I worked every single day, including every single weekend. I also worked challenging hours, normally starting my day at 6:45 a.m. and ending with campaign events stretching late into the evenings. I juggled dozens and dozens of childcare providers for nearly 2 years, without whom I would never have made it to Congress. I have three children, Betsy, who is 7; Paul, who is 10; and Luke, who is 13. Leaving them alone while I was on the campaign trail was not an option. Bringing them along on the campaign trail was often impossible or inappropriate and sometimes could even have been dangerous for them. For the past two centuries, Congress has written many, many laws about what women may and may not do. But until this year, women's representation in Congress was less than 20 percent. With the election of my historic class, we hit 23.4 percent--102 women. But, Mr. Speaker, that number is still very low. There are even fewer moms in Congress and even fewer single moms, as in nobody but me. A major barrier to women running for elected office is their inability to afford the amount or type of childcare needed in a campaign. That is why I worked to include language in H.R. 1, the For the People Act, and introduced an identical standalone bill, the Help America Run Act.…
