Providing for Consideration of H.R. Protecting the Right to Organize Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. Bipartisan Background Checks Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. Enhanced Background Checks Act of and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I am so glad he is back.

Madam Speaker, I rise to speak in support of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or the PRO Act.

I am the daughter of a garment worker. So the fight for workers' rights has always had a special place in my heart. My mother toiled and worked every single day in the sweatshops in New Haven, Connecticut, sewing shirt collars and dresses. She was piecework, which meant she got pennies on the dollar.

As chair of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, I work every day to ensure that her early struggles were not in vain.

I am proud to be an original cosponsor of the PRO Act, introduced by the chair of the Committee, Congressman Bobby Scott. It strengthens the right of working people to come together in unions to secure better wages and better working conditions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed the single biggest economic challenge of our times, which is that people's pay does not keep up with the rising costs of healthcare, education, and childcare.

And from 1980 to 2017, average incomes for the bottom 90 percent of households stagnated to a 1.1 percent increase, while skyrocketing more than 180 percent for the wealthiest 1 percent in this country. It is no coincidence that at the same time, union membership fell for a record low to 10 percent.

Economists at Princeton found that the alarming rise of income inequality since the 1970s can be at least partially attributed to the decline in union membership.

The PRO Act is about leveling the playing field for working people. It would directly address the issues facing workers across the entire economy and give equal access to the collective bargaining process. In sum, it would ensure workers' rights keep pace with the new economy.

As Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has said: ``Inequality is not inevitable. It is about the public policy choices we make, not globalization, not technology.''

Madam Speaker, we have the opportunity today to choose a public policy that, in fact, will defend and protect working people in this country. Pass the PRO Act.

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