Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff arrived on Capitol Hill Wednesday to tout the Biden-Harris administration’s accomplishments to help families across the country during a roundtable with the Congressional Dads Caucus.
Emhoff told participants that the role of “dad” is the lens through which he views his work.
“I approach everything I do, whether it was as a lawyer and now as the first second gentleman or the first man ever in a role like this, I approach it as a father and I really tried to look at this through the lens of what a parent would care about?” questioned Emhoff, who admitted he still regrets not taking family leave when his son, Cole, and daughter, Ella, were born.
“In those days, there was such a stigma for taking leave, and I didn't do it. And to this day, I regret it. So when I see young parents, especially men, just take the leave,” said Emhoff. “Clearly we need to do more in the government to make sure that we have family leave for all.
"If you do have it or have that opportunity to take it, please do it," he urged. "There's no stigma to it. You're never gonna get that time back.”
Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., launched the Congressional Dads Caucus earlier this year with a group of 22 other lawmakers to give members of Congress a place to "advocate for legislation that supports working families." The group aims to enact "policy solutions" to aid working families, including paid family and medical leave for all and expanding the Child Tax Credit, according to a statement at the time of the group's founding.
The group is now 30 dads strong, all of them Democrats.
“Five months ago, I took my son Hodge through the House floor during a record breaking speaker vote to show him off to my colleagues, and that moment went viral. But it did highlight the double standard that exists in our country,” said Gomex during Wednesday’s discussion. When men bring their kids to work, they're praised, but when women do it, they're often criticized or seen as not committed enough to their job.”
“It made me realize it's not just about dads stepping up at home, we dads also have a responsibility to advocate for our families in the halls of Congress, and I want to find a way to turn that moment into a movement.”
The roundtable featured participants such as Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y.,, Jessica Seinfeld of the Good+ Foundation, Gary Barker of Equimundo, Kenneth Braswell of Fathers, Inc., Vikki Shabo of New America at Better Life Lab, Heidi Murkoff of What to Expect Project, and Rodrigo Stein with La Clinica, who is also a new dad currently on paid family leave.
The goal of the roundtable, according to Gomez’s team, was to focus on “how the federal government can make systems more inclusive of co-parenting” as well as “the three core pillars of the caucus: paid family and medical leave policies, expanding the Child Tax Credit, and increasing access to affordable child care.”
“We need childcare, we need paid family, we need to work on this child tax credit. We need to allow parents to have that time with their children, and this is not controversial. This is something that goes on around the world everywhere and it's something that we need to do here,” said Emhoff. “One of the best accomplishments of this administration is that we are cutting child poverty basically in half, which is pretty good. These must be bipartisan issues.”
The roundtable was a bigger portion of the Dad’s Caucus week of action ahead of Father’s Day. The group helped to unveil Equimundo’s State of America’s Fathers report, and endorsements of two bills: Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s American Family Act to permanently expand the Child Tax Credit, and Rep. Lauren Underwood’s Black Maternal Momnibus Act to address racial disparities in maternal health. The group also introduced a resolution for Father’s Day to call for support for the three pillars of the group’s mission. “It’s time that every dad and every parent here in congress get behind these basic policies that help families thrive.”