Lukas’s full testimony can be found HERE once the hearing begins.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Carrie Lukas, president of Independent Women’s Forum, will testify in front of the U.S. House Budget Committee at 11 a.m. EST tomorrow, March 16 on how to get women back into the workforce following the ill-advised COVID-19 “relief” policies that landed them without flexible work, child care, and the resources they needed to educate their children amid school closures. 

The hearing, entitled “Ensuring Women Can Thrive in a Post-Pandemic Economy,” will examine how the public health and economic crises brought on by COVID-19 have exacerbated underlying and systemic challenges facing American women.

Lukas, the only minority witness, will testify alongside majority witnesses: Dr. Stefania Albanesi, professor of Economics, University of Pittsburgh; Ms. Ai-jen Poo, executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance; and Ms. Rosa Walker, mother and MomsRising member.

In her testimony, Lukas states that “[b]efore we consider what policies we need to have in place to encourage women to re-enter the workforce, we need to be clear about why women left in the first place.” She explains, “women did not leave the workforce because of COVID, but because of the reaction to COVID and the policies that were put in place in response to COVID.”

Additional areas that Lukas focuses on in her testimony include four ways to help female workers succeed:

  • Transforming our K-12 public education system so that schools see parents and students as valued customers and never again fail families and our country so spectacularly.
  • Finding ways to make child care more affordable, plentiful and diverse, including eliminating unnecessary red tape that especially burdens home-based care facilities.
  • Making it easier for women to enter the workforce by creating an environment in which women can find jobs that meet their unique situations. 
  • Avoiding federal paid leave entitlement programs or mandates that leave workers worse off, with less income and less flexibility.

Lukas’s full testimony can be found HERE once the hearing begins.

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Independent Women’s Forum is dedicated to developing and advancing policies that aren’t just well intended, but actually enhance people’s freedom, choices, and opportunities.