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Rasoul Introduces Virginia Marshall Plan for Moms

Plan includes a package of policies aimed at getting Virginia moms and families back on their feet including child care for all, paid family and medical leave, and caregiver tax credit. Rasoul will reserve a senior position in the Lieutenant Governor’s office as Director of Mothers Advocacy

On Tuesday, Del. Sam Rasoul (D-11) announced that as Lieutenant Governor he would take bold action to get Virginia moms and families back on their feet with a Virginia Marshall Plan for Moms.

Rasoul’s plan comes as national data shows women, and particularly moms, are bearing the brunt of job losses during the pandemic. In July, almost one in three mothers ages 25 to 44 reported they were not working due to child care related issues. More than four times as many women as men lost their jobs last September, and a Bureau of Labor Statistics report found women accounted for all of the job losses in December 2020, with Black and Latina women being hit the hardest.

Rasoul is committing a senior staff member of his Lieutenant Governor’s office to be a Director of Mothers Advocacy, whose focus will be working with the Governor and General Assembly to enact these policies.

Sam Rasoul, Virginia General Assembly. Courtesy of Sam Rasoul

Following a movement led by mothers and their advocates calling for a National Marshall Plan for Moms, Rasoul is calling for a package of policies aimed at addressing the disproportionate challenges faced by Virginia moms and families, including:

Child care for all
Ensuring all workers have paid family and medical leave
Creating a caregiver income tax credit for $1000 in expenses incurred by an individual caring for a family member
Expanding access to sick leave
Increasing the minimum wage
Instituting fair scheduling to require that businesses have predictable schedules for their employees
Helping employers support moms through employer incentives for targeted career development that allow moms to make up lost ground

Read the Virginia Marshall Plan for Moms.

“Even before this pandemic, our economy did not work for families. We cannot accept any longer a status quo where having and raising children is a leading cause of poverty,” said Rasoul. “The way out of this problem, made much worse by the pandemic and economic crisis, is by following the data. And the data says: Invest in moms. Investing in moms is the surest, quickest path to economic recovery, and to creating a stronger, fairer economy than we had before.”

“Families thrive when mothers thrive. All of the data backs this up,” said Roanoke College Professor of History Ivonne Wallace Fuentes. “A Marshall Plan for moms is an opportunity to reimagine what a Virginia that works for mothers, and therefore works for families and works for children, might really look like.”

On Thursday, February 11, the Sam Rasoul for Lieutenant Governor campaign will host a discussion with Virginia moms, moderated by Roanoke College Professor and mother of two, Ivonne Wallace Fuentes, on our Facebook page starting at 7:30 p.m.

Watch the announcement video with Ivonne Wallace Fuentes and Layaly Rasoul.

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Ray Hanania is an award-winning columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

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