Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I thank Dr. Foxx for yielding me time to speak on this important issue. As a mother and a physician, I understand the tremendous value that nursing an infant brings both to the mother and the child. As the director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, I attended conferences and spoke on the need to encourage mothers to consider breastfeeding and the benefits of breastfeeding, be they nutritional, immunological, or the tremendous bond that occurs through breastfeeding. It is also why, despite being a working mother who was doing a general surgery internship and ophthalmology residency, I breast-fed both of my children. Because I was a working mother, that included expressing breast milk by pumping. I understand and I am supportive of the collaboration between employers and nursing mothers to have a private place to do so at their place of employment. I recognize that H.R. 3110 is trying to address this issue and provide accommodations for nursing mothers, which I wholeheartedly support, however, I feel the bill needs improvement. As it stands, H.R. 3110 puts a one-size-fits-all treatment of nursing accommodations for different businesses and industries. The bill also puts excessive penalties for minor or technical violations of the nursing-accommodation requirements in the Fair Labor Standards Act.…”