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March 25, 2026
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Download official Senate Record PDFReturn to issue contextSENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 31—RECOGNIZING THE DUTY OF CONGRESS TO
MEET THE NEEDS OF WORKING WOMEN
Ms. HIRONO (for herself, Ms. Blunt Rochester, Mr. Heinrich, Mr. Markey, Mrs. Murray, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Padilla, and Ms. Duckworth) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions:
S. Con. Res. 31
Whereas the Congress recognizes its obligation to guarantee
equal protection of the law to all workers;
Whereas this obligation requires the Congress to safeguard
workers from unequal treatment on the basis of real or
perceived sex, gender, or nonconformity to norms or
stereotypes thereof;
Whereas working families are working paycheck to paycheck
and deserve a quality, affordable life, which can only be
made possible by addressing the needs of the approximately
75,000,000 women in the workforce;
Whereas recent executive and administration actions have
caused disproportionate harm to women in the broader rollback
of workplace rights, freedoms, and protections;
Whereas women comprise nearly half of the Nation's
workforce, and are essential to the economic stability,
growth, and prosperity of the United States, and make
indispensable contributions across every sector of the
economy, serving as leaders in education, health care, public
service, caregiving, and other vital industries;
Whereas persistent wage disparities, loopholes in section
6(d) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (commonly known
as the “Equal Pay Act of 1963”) (29 U.S.C. 206(d)),
occupational segregation, workplace discrimination, and
gender-based violence and harassment continue to
disproportionately burden working women, particularly women
of color;
Whereas recent progress toward pay parity and gender equity
has been undermined by deliberate, coordinated opposition,
including legislative, administrative, and judicial actions
weakening civil rights enforcement, removing workplace
protections, limiting access to essential health care, and
destabilizing programs that support working families;
Whereas the administration has specifically targeted for
elimination such Federal programs which advance gender equity
in the Nation and abroad;
Whereas actions of the President have threatened to
eliminate the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor,
which was established by Congress in 1920 and is the only
Federal agency tasked with advancing economic opportunity for
working women and which, for more than 100 years, has
concretely worked to improve the wages and working conditions
for women across the Nation;
Whereas the targeted elimination of equal opportunity
obligations under apprenticeship programs of the Department
of Labor has undermined women's pathways to high-paid careers
in the trades traditionally dominated by men;
Whereas the rescission of the “Enforcement Guidance on
Harassment in the Workplace” of the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission has created intentional confusion and
left women vulnerable to harassment in the workplace;
Whereas reductions in staffing, funding, and enforcement
capacity at Federal agencies charged with protecting workers'
rights and enforcing civil rights laws have weakened
oversight of workplace discrimination, harassment, wage
theft, and retaliation;
Whereas women are disproportionately represented in public
sector employment, and cuts to public programs and services
disproportionately threaten women's employment, wages, and
retirement security;
Whereas the administration has undertaken reckless mass
layoffs which gutted Federal agencies with majority-women
workforces, including the Department of Veterans Affairs,
Department of Education, Department of Health and Human
Services, Department of the Treasury, and Department of
Housing and Urban Development;
Whereas not only are women of color and immigrant women
overrepresented in care work, but the critical caregiving
services women provide are often otherwise taken on as unpaid
labor by women;
Whereas the lack of Federal actions to create a robust,
well-paid care industry harms women's economic opportunity
and directly exploits some of the most vulnerable women;
Whereas the administration has unjustly sought to push
Federal contractors, grant recipients, and even private
employers to abandon efforts to promote gender and racial
equity at work;
Whereas the administration has sought to erode workers'
ability to form unions and collectively bargain for their
rights, who organized as such have won a narrower gender pay
gap;
Whereas, consequently—
(1) data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate
volatility in women's labor force participation in 2025, with
more than 455,000 women exiting the workforce in the United
States and the steepest declines among mothers of young
children, especially Black mothers;
(2) unemployment among women, especially Black women, has
increased under the Administration, with Black women's
unemployment greater than 7 percent; and
(3) the wage gap between women and men has increased for 2
consecutive years, highlighting the compounded effects of the
policy failures described herein;
Whereas women continue to face barriers to economic
advancement, and disproportionate caregiving
responsibilities, all of which are exacerbated by the cost of
living crisis and rising costs of housing, health care,
childcare, food, and education; and
Whereas Congress, the first branch of the United States
Government, has a duty to act decisively to advance the
rights and freedoms of working women in face of these
barriers: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives
concurring), That Congress—
(1) recognizes an affirmative duty to ensure women have
equal opportunity within the workforce, as a prerequisite for
economic security, democratic participation, shared
prosperity, and full participation in public life;
(2) recognizes that the workforce of the Nation is
stronger, more innovative, and more competitive when women
are able to contribute and lead across all industries;
(3) affirms its commitment to economic prosperity for all,
including—
(A) equal pay for equal work;
(B) pay transparency;
(C) workplaces free from discrimination;
(D) workplace safety standards and regulations designed to
protect the health of the Nation's workers;
(E) comprehensive and accessible health care, including
reproductive health care;
(F) affordable, high-quality childcare and early education;
(G) paid family and medical leave;
(H) paid sick days;
(I) predictable scheduling and fair labor standards; and
(J) access to affordable housing, education, and workforce
development opportunities;
(4) affirms its commitment to ensuring that all women,
regardless of race, immigration status, language, or
occupation, are able to work with dignity, free from
violence, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and abuse;
(5) recognizes the value of all work, especially domestic
and part-time work, and recognizes its obligation to ensure
that such work is dignified with fair pay, benefits,
protections, and working conditions;
(6) condemns actions and policies that weaken civil rights
enforcement, undermine workplace protections, reduce access
to health care and essential services, or otherwise threaten
the economic security of working women;
(7) commits itself to restoring and strengthening Federal
agencies that combat discrimination in the workplace,
including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the
Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs;
(8) reaffirms its commitment to ensuring all people can
live a life with dignity by raising wages, including by
raising the Federal minimum wage, and eliminating tipped and
subminimum wages;
(9) reaffirms its commitment to expanding access to high-
paying jobs across gender lines by strengthening programs
that dismantle occupational segregation;
(10) recognizes the right of every worker to join a union,
free from interference and intimidation, and bargain
collectively for fair wages and working conditions;
(11) calls upon Federal, State, and local governments,
employers, labor organizations, and community institutions to
work collaboratively to ensure that all working women have
the opportunity to thrive and be free from harassment and
discrimination; and
(12) declares that addressing the immediate needs of
working women is essential to the prosperity of the United
States.