Of all, theres a couple of committees that have jurisdiction. Its not just us. Ways and means and you got icea and the government reform committee. I dont know what is precisely going on in the senate, but were going to continue our oversight role as we showl. We have two subcommittees. One is the subsubcommittee. A lot of questions relating to the security of the individuals information that they put into the system as well knowing that they are changing a number of the lines to try make it work. So theres a lot of issues that are out there, and i dont know that we will do a hearing every week just on this. We have a lot of other issues as well whether they be energy, telecommunications, trade, etc. , so theres only so much time in the day. Did the contract ost have an affirmative responsibility to warn c. M. S. That more testing was needed . We heard one say, its not our job. Im not sure they offered the response, remember, they are under oath so they were a little careful in terms of how they answered the question, but clearly there was a communication breakdown between the contractors and the administration in terms of where they were. So one of my questions and didnt really get a straight answer was did you just not know that it was going to work or did you know that it was working and worked and not tell them . I mean, what is the answer . And in essence they said we thought their section of it worked but no one was in charge of the whole stream. More of that interview with congressman upton tomorrow at 10 00 a. M. And 6 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan and cspan radio. Next, economic schuss important to women including health care costs, minimum wage and equal pay. It included House Minority and Donna Edwards. Wow. Good morning. Good morning. So im congresswoman Donna Edwards and i represent marylands fourth congressional district. Welcome to the fourth district. [applause] i am really delighted, one to see this packed house, and it wasnt really difficult to do would you like w all the work we do around the community and in this region. Senator d, some of the most fabulous women. So thank you for joining us today. Tiff privilege of representing this district and state that the center for American Progress has said is the number one state for women in the country. [applause] now, of course we take great flied that, but we still know we have a lot of work to do. I am honored to be here today with our senior senator, our mentor, our friend. Barbara barb are mckul ski. And most delighted to welcome somebody who is not a stranger either to Prince Georges County or maryland or the fourth district, our democratic leader nancy pelosi. [applause] i want to take a special moment to thank even in his absence pastor john jenkins senior and i i First Baptist church of glen arden and the sha bot christian academy. We had a chance to take a tour of the academy and see some of the amazing learning being done at the earliest age here at the academy, so its our delight to be able to be here and share that with First Baptist of glen arden. Truly that youre such a great partner in our community on a whole range of things and at this church you dont view just what you do inside the walls but you say your service is outside the walls of the church, and it really shows in the academy and in the faces and energy of those young people. I also want to acknowledge and i see them. So many of our elected officials from the region and i want to take a minute to acknowledge them and know that were really delighted that you could join us, because whether youre mayors or in our county representing our county or youre statewide, you understand the importance of the work that were engaged in. And together. So i want to recognize our states attorney in Prince Georges County, i probably should have said first my good friend, dear friend Carmen Walker brown who is representing Lieutenant GovernorAnthony Brown here today. Welcome carmen. [applause] delegate aisha who represents the 25th legislative district in the american maryland house of delegates and is the chifere the black caucus. Maryland, the clerk of the Circuit Court here in Prince Georges County, thank you, marilyn for joining us. Lets see, around we have i am going down list but i should just actually look at you. Delegate Arianna Kelly from monday night football county. Thank you for joining us, delegate aruin ray miller also from monday night football county. Y friend, sister and childhood pprehend the member of the monday night countdown sill. And and jacqueline goodall. And i dont think that ive missed anyone, because im looking around but thank youall for joining us. You know, when the leader pelosi got together with the Democratic Womens working roup, i chaired the Democratic Womens gruned the Democratic House of representatives. We talked among us and with a lot of our allies out in the community and running grassroots organizations about what was needed in this next step to really fulfill a true economic agenda for women and we decided and knew if we could formulate that agenda, we know when women succeed, america succeed and theres a dwhaurt think many of us worked on different pieces over the years but we wanted to together. So visiting these 4yearolds and 3yearolds here today and seeing their energy reminded all of us of the importance of investing in Early Learning and accessible child care. Theres probably not one of us in this room who doesnt have an sneerns we can recount about child care. Personly when i son he is now 25 but sometimes when you recount these stories it feels like yesterday. Yesterday of paying late fees when you show up late because youre rushing through rush hour traffic to pick up your child and seeing the look on his face but also the people who work at the child care facility, having made a bad choice like i did once about child care because it was all that i could afford and it turned out it was a safe that wasnt safe for him and he ended up with menen jithes and i almost lost him. So all of us strugglal with ways around this issue so we want an agenda that says if we invest in Early Learning and we invest in quality affordable accessible child care that it expands opportunities for women, opportunities for him to succeed in in success in business and aft home. We also know its important for us to have equal pay for equal work. Now leader pelosi and i know that in the house of representatives that we get the we get paid the same as our male counterparts but we also know oursters and women and our sisters and women around the world dont. When a family reduces 2r5 of their income because one Family Member is not paid equal to their counterparts at work. Then part of this agenda is when we struggle as care givers whether its caring for ousts and or for our Family Members and children and we may need to take a day off, if were not paid for our day off can you imagine the decision you have to make . I know i had to make it as a young mother to either go to work sick or take my kid with me sick, curl him up in a corner because i cant afford to take off and i couldnt afford to stay home with him. And these are the struggles that mothers and families face all around this country. So im glad that you have been able to join us today because we know if we make an investment in this agenda and thats an sthreament going to trier grars roots support of leaders like yourself all through our communities so we can make it a reality for women and families so i want to thank you again for being here, because this is about improving the lives of women and families and the health of our nations economy because when you doing vest in women in this kind of way then we invest in the Economic Health and success of our country. So id like to have you join me in welcoming some folks who are representatives frankly of a lot of stories that can be told really throughout our communities and i want to welcome to the microphone a good friend of ours and a real eader who is in Montgomery County, originally from egypt but she has been a resident of Montgomery County for several years and owns and operates three child care sners and what an amazing progressive woman. She provides paid sick leave for her employees. And id like for you to welcome her. [applause] so that she can tell us why and what it means. Imi . Good morning. Thank you very much. Thank you for that. Im aum about empowered women. Get our wings and fly. So yes my name is michigan and i do is mimi and i do own three child care and i have a story to share with you. It is an investment and youre right and afford nl child care can happen. I have in my child care i offer my staff sick days for leave. The reason i do that is because if that teacher who comes to my child care is sick, she is going to get the kids sick so its going to cost me money. If you think about business, its going to cost me more money that if i can get if i dont give her the sick day leave so i offer sick day leave for all my staff. Also what really breaks my heart and i have seen it on a daily basis. We have a policy in our day care. Children have to be free 24 hours of fever. So if your child have a fever, he cannot be attending the school for 24 hours. It breaks my heart when i see children come to me and say miss mimi can you please take care of me because my mom has to go to work and im sick. You know what these parents do . They give their children tylenol four hours so they can go to work and then they get a call hi mrs. So on your child is sick. You need to pick your child up. Well now the child is contagious so the germs spread and diseases infect and you hear about child care or schools close sometimes because child is sick and they go to school. So i am here to tell you it could be done. Im in business and nobody gets in business to lose money, is at right so even though i am oking sick day leave for my staff, i am still making money. So it could be done and happen so i wish we could work out together. Also when we have subsidize money i have parents who cannot afford to pay the copay because they cannot so i offer them a scholarship. Maybe im an exceptional maybe i just have a good heart but how can i have and get my message to every child care business so all the States Government and everybody who is involved in this to help this industry, to help those parents. We have all women working and remember we are going to be empowered and go so i am here to tell you please help us, everybody in this. It is an investment and you need invest money to get the results. Thank you very much and look forward to seeing you. [applause] thank you. I dont need this stool so im going to stand back a little bit. Senator mikulski, i heard that. I want to take a moment to introduce our next guest. Maureen evans arthur graduated in may from the university of maryland in Baltimore County with that b. A. In gender and womens studies and Political Science and was a First Generation College student then came back after being a stay at home mom but she had to engage in some important financial considerations. The tuition or fay day care so id like to welcome to the stage Maureen Evans arthur. [applause] good morning everyone. So yes my st. Maureen evans arthur and in may became the first northern my family to attend college. Thank you. But it wasnt necessarily easy and it almost didnt happen because of the extremely high cost of child care. So today i stand before you not only as a Research Fellow but also as the mother of a 7yearold boy named bello and the first two years of my life i was a stay at home mom and i loved it and when i decided it was time to go to school i played recommendation letters and essentially just went through a same process we all remember but then i had to look at child care and so i went to not one and not two but to eight day care providers where i live in howardld enough to at preschool that aligned with my schedule so i was able to pick him up and go to class when he didnt have to be in child care so if my son had been any younger i probably wouldnt have gone back to school so understanding the cost associated with child care remains one of the reasons why my husband and i will not be expanding our family which is unimportant to and too many smart and extremely motivated men end up having toeave a fulfilling career or end their hopes if they want a family so many need womens economic agenda to make sure these difficult choices become a thing of the past so thank you so much for having me. [applause] well, tuff very much maureen. I mean, you can see when you hear stories like that we just say we have to do it. We really do have to do it differently. And next to this stage i want to welcome danelle buckman. She is a 37year resident of clarksville, maryland after a pregnant nancyrelated incident bay small employer. She was not covered by the family medical leave act and studies show neither are 40 of the u. S. Workforce. Dinelle . [applause] thank you senator. Leader pelosi and the partners for inviting me to this inspiring event. Its a true honor to be here. My name is dinelle buckner. In june, 2010 i almost died during childbirth but the dangers surrounding pregnancy and childbirth still exist. Thanks to expert care and multiple blood transfusions survived and my daughter is well now. But it didnt come without significant costs it started when avery arrived unexpectedly a full eight weeks early, and i had to have an emergency csection and next a painful recovery for both of us. I was eventually discharged from the hospital but avery had to spend 28 days in i. C. U. Both my husband and i had jobs at the time and we planned for the child but the added and events pat tremendous financial and emotional burden on our family bringing me to the reason im speaking with you today because amid the chaos and challenges and repeated promises that my position was safe while i took job i lost the parttime loved and the fmla. The fmla was a groundbreaking and historic law when it went into effect 20 years ago and so thankful manyal fought for its passage because it meant tens of millions of families have been able to take time off ithout but a significant number of the workforce are not covered. A new proposal designed to support families when they are out of work for pregnancy or childbirth or to take care of Family Members. It can cause a huge financial strain for families and certainly did for my family even though i was ultimately able to find job after i lost mine. Ital resulted in we were important to to have family and friends support but many are not so lucky which is why i decided to speak up and tell my story to be a voice for women who may not have one. No woman or man should have the worry about Financial Security when serious medical issues or complications arrive for themselves or a member of the family that need their care. Stories like mine span the caund it just shouldnt be that way. Thanks so much. [applause] thank you very much. You know, i sat here and sometimes you can kind of skip lines but i didnt. I wanted to make sure we could hear from our guests here who really shared their stories and their own experiences which are repeated all across this country. Theres not been a greater fighter not just in maryland but all across the country for women. We get to call her our own. Senator Barbra Mikulski was elected to the United States senate in 1986 and she was the first democratic woman elected on her own rite and in her own rite. [applause] we had the great privilege of being able to celebrate senator mikulski as the longestserving woman elected in her own rite in the United States senate. These days we like to say that she is the chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations committee. We like to say that in maryland. She is a champion of women. She is the dean of the women in the senate. She is a mentor for women in the senate a mentor for women in the house and she truly does nurture us. You can tell senator mikulski when i first met her, the first thing she shared with me was not all that other stuff. She shared with me that she was a social worker and i think thats so fundamental about the way she thinks about the needs of women and families across our country and thats the leadership she brings in the senate. She will tell you and i will do it too that when the lilly led better fair pay act was signed into law, the first signed by newly sworn president barack obama, it was senator mikulski who led the fight in the senate, our leader who led the fight in the house. [applause] and so please join me in welcoming our great favorite enator, senator bar. Good morning everybody. Im just delighted to be here that the forum on making sure that americas children are taken care of in the best Child Care Program that the world can offer and shouldnt a great country be able to do that . [applause] and you know what . For me its just a delight to get through the last 17 days that we have been through of slamdown, shutdown politics and to be here with this wonderful turbo team of Donna Edwards and Speaker Pelosi working on real issues that the American Families have that we can come up with real solutions. And this is what i am so delighted to be here, during the last several days theres been a lot of focus on obama care. Well obama does care and thats what were going to talk about here today. And then its going to be well, what can we afford . Well dear friends somehow or another we can always afford war. N