She was able to enroll her twins into four, fourday kindergarten next year and start friday fun days this summer. Not only is jamie getting to spend time with her kids, she is, she also has peace of mind that every monday she wont with to catch up on a days worth of missed meetings. Rei was another company that participated in the discussion. They allow for flexible commuting to employees can go in earlier and miss rush hour. Im sure that is something everybody here can relate to coming into washington. As an Outdoors Company they also want their work place culture to encourage employees to live healthy lives. What they refer to as nature nutures. So they encourage employees to get outside, go for a hike, and engage in activities that they enjoy outdoors. Pretty nice, huh . The participants also discuss other ways to address many of the challenges every working family faces offering on site day care, providing a set amount of paid leave and connecting workers with elder care programs. Underscoring all of these policies was another theme. Employers should trust employees and trust that these Solutions Make workers happier and productive. It is important that businesses adopt policies that recognize life is rarely simple and that the American Family has changed. When we think of caregivers, we often think of a mother caring for her child but that image simply does not reflect todays realities. Particularly those in the sandwich generation, individuals who are caring for their children at the same time they are caring for their parents. Like so Many Americans both my husband joe and i have had firsthand experience of caring for our parents in the final years of their lives. I can vividly recall how caring for joes parents, both of whom came to live with us in the last months of their lives. But the role of caregivers in Todays Society is, is expanding far beyond children caring for parents. A role that remind me of two brothers i met last fall, kyle and bret pletky. Kyle is an Army Specialist who was injured in his first deployment to afghanistan in late 2012. During his recovery brets employer encouraged him to make the most of the companys leave policy. They kept his job open that he could go and care for his brother. Stories like theirs are why this convening is so important. Everyone participating in this important discussion can contribute innovative ideas to help make life a little better for our working families. Whether its resources and flexibility for employees who are acting as caregivers or mentoring for women, or offering Flexible Working arrangements all of us must continue to think creatively about the work place of the future, so that we can insure that every working american has an equal opportunity to succeed and care for our children. Thats what i know our next speaker wakes up every morning thinking about. [applause] it is my great pleasure to introduce my husband, Vice President joe biden. [cheers and applause] thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Before jill leaves the stage, let me say im sure glad she took me to work today. [laughter] tom, i think you have, i dont know, i was just outat starbucks headquarters, i think you get the double jolt in the morning here, i dont know, man. By the way he is that way at midnight too. Thats why i love working with him on the work he and i are doing about jobs for the future but, valerie, thank you, kiddo. Youve been a great, great friend to me personally but youve also, you and tina have never left up on this subject. You have from the moment we took office been focusing on and it matters. [applause] it matters a great, great, great deal and and neera, you do an incredible job at cap but you do an incredittable job of everything you touch and its a pleasure to work with you. Look, let me begin by stating the obvious. Sometimes its not, not always so obvious. Every, every single circumstance is different. Everyone of you in this audience has a different circumstance. Different opportunity, different problems. How many of you have children out there, raise your hand . Okay. In everyone of your cases there are different pressures. Theyre not all the same, theyre not all the same and the fact is that, the fact that youre here, the vast majority of you, youre among the lucky ones. Like jill and i, youre among those who are educated. Youre among those who have, have options mostly. Youre the ones who generally make enough money that you can get some help in caring for your children or your parents. Even if you dont have the salary to do that, youre the ones that know your way around. You know the existence of programs to help your elderly parents. Or your children. Youre the ones in your communities who have, were not going to speak about it much today, as i looked at the agenda, but for example, theres a whole lot of things that are going on and weve been working on for, in my case, for over 35 years to to ameliorate the pressure on families and that is, you know, everything from afterschool programs. They mike a gigantic difference. That is a government program. But when mom and dad [applause] i mean we have millions of turnkey children going home after school. No one there. 3 00, 3 30, and circumstances sometimes that are not always, theyre, i was raised in the grade school bit nuns of the they say, you know, you know, temptation. Well, you know, it, i dont care how good your child is but 12yearold going home turning on the key to get in the house even in a safe neighborhood, there is still concern. So there is a whole lot of things were not going to be talking in detail about but the vast majority of single moms and, i might add dads, dont have these opportunities. [applause] each one of you here, if youre honest and you all are honest, you know, i mean this sincerely, you know how difficult it is to do your job, advance in your job, and be the parent or caregiver for your parents that you want to be. Youve been raised, 99 of you, with the notion that your first and foremost obligation is to your family, whether it is your parents in distress, or your children. And it is really difficult. A lot has to do with the personal choices that we make as to how we allocate our time versus relative to our careers. I dont think anyone participating here is, makes any moral judgments about any of the choices people make as long as theyre conscious choices with real opportunities and our job it seems to me is to provide as many opportunities so that the choices that are always going to be difficult, the choices that have to be made, are at least more rational, at least have more options but there are a lot of factors and a lot of players that can have a ameliorating impact on difficult choices, women primarily but men also have to make in raising their children. If you have, do you have an extended family that can help you . Well, thats a big factor. Can you afford safe and nuturing daycare . What organizations including out side of your school are available from your community from a ywca to boys clubs and girls clubs. No, by the way, we owe you. You do an incredible i spent of bulk of my career chairing the judiciary committee. There is an absolute direct correlation between children getting in trouble and having access to boys and girls clucks, ywcas, ymcas. It matters. You have to give children choices. Children basically [applause] children basically want to do the right thing. But the peer pressure is overwhelming. Sometimes they need an escape, they need an excuse when mom or dad are not present. But look, you all know all of these things. But one of the factors were talking about today is, also the can be incredibly ameliorating, not just the policies but how understanding is your employer . How understanding . You know, lastly, what if anything can the federal government do to help . I say lastly. All the other things out there in the community if theyre working really well including your employers, less others there is need for minimum wage and whole range of things we discussed and equal pay and things weve been working on our whole careers but there is an awful lot to be done to change the atmosphere. The examples jill gave. You know, you will get to discuss all of these things today and more but if you excuse, as we used to say in the senate, a point of personal privilege i can speak a little bit from my own experience. The first thing i was going to say, look at biden, man. He got, has a mildly expensive suit on. [laughter]. Hes Vice President of the United States of america. He makes, notwithstanding, this is poorest man in congress he still makes a lot of money as president of the United States and i do by the way, i do. Dont hold it against me that i dont own a single stock or bond. Dont hold it i have no savings account. I have a good pension and i have got a good salary. And, for real. For real. [applause] sometimes we talk about this stuff about struggle. My struggle, my god compared to where i grew up and where people are trying to go through things. But heres the point i want to make. Ive been really, really fortunate. Jill is a Community College professor. She has seen the struggle of working parents trying to secure an education while earning a living and raising a family and many times being victim of Domestic Violence in the process. As a military mom and through the great work she and the first lady have been doing in joining forces she knows the stress on military families face and struggle through multiple deployments, caring for returning veterans, coping with financial, emotional pressures. These are real. These are real. And you know, she knows what you know. That no family is alike, no struggle is the same, no opportunities are identical but all families, whether headed by two parents or single mom or single dad, share the same basic dream and same goals for themselves and their children. We cant equalize it all but we sure in heck can do a lot better. So i want to support look, they want to support their families. They want, they want to feel comfortable. They want to feel safe. They want to be in a secure home and a secure neighborhood. They want to send their kids to college. They want to care for their mom and dad if they have to. And put aside this, a little bit, maybe they will have enough for their own retirement. They want to achieve these goals without having to sacrifice all of the moments that really matter. My generation, and obviously im a lot older than you, you can see that, but all kidding aside, in my generation, as i was getting in college, coming out of college in the late 60s, it was, you know, its not quantity time. It is quality time. Give me a break. Give me a [applause] theres not one important thing my sons or daughter have said to me that came about, when i said, now, we have quality time. Lets go fishing. Lets discuss this. Every, and as parents you know that to be the truth. The most incredible things your children say to you, ask of you, reveal to you, are in those moments that you dont anticipate. Moments that occur when youre reading them a story at night. When you get home and climb in bed with them even though theyre already asleep and you pet them. No. [laughter]. One of the great memories of my daughter, who is a grown woman and a social worker, as i stroke her hair, she says, daddy, you know what i miss most . How you used to smell coming home from work, lying down in bed with me. You and i, you know what im talking about. They are the things that matter for gods sake. Not all of us have the kind of flexibility that i had. Not all of us had the opportunity. Not all of us had the outside help. There is no substitute for being there. No amount of compensation to replace being physically, emotionally or mentally present when your child needs you but we all know there is going to be those times were not going to be there. It is just a fact of life. When i lost my wife and daughter in a car accident, shortly after i got elected before i was sworn into the United States senate, i had a whole heck of a lot of help. I have got an incredible family. My sisters is the origin of a phrase in our family, if you have to ask, it is too late. I mean that sincerely. If you have to ask it is too late. So i came home from the hospital and my sister had already moved into my home. No, with her husband. Gave up his job. No, im serious. Who has that . Who has that kind of help . My mother, who is nearby, my brothers, they all helped me raise my children. But i was a single father for five years. And i want to tell you, with all the help i had, and i was making a good salary. I was a u. S. Senator. I was making a lot more salary than average guy. I was making 42,000 a year. That was then. The average salary was close to 19,000. I was doing well and i had all this help and overwhelming goodwill of an entire state that wrapped their arms around me and my children. I used to think to myself, i give you my words, i used to think to myself, i have a secretary in delaware who had three children and is single and her child will be held to the exact same Standard Mine is, the exact same standard under the law. And how in gods name could she do what i was able to do . And i was finding it hard, really hard. But i got lucky. I still, i still had to find my way to be there for my boys. My son hunter was three. My son bowe was four. Still in full body cast, both arms, both legs, up to his neck. When i would leave for washington every day i could almost hear the fear in their voices, are you going daddy . They wanted to know if i was coming back. They wanted to know if everything was okay. To demonstrate, for them, i need ad point i thought i was openly going to stay for six months, i started to commute back and forth every day. 8,000 round trips later, not a joke. 8,000. [applause] no, no, no, no. Really and truly, by the way, it was, i needed to do that. I needed to do that, just for me. They helped raise me as much as i helped raise them. But heres the point. What i found out and employers can help in this, that it really matters that, even if it is only i get home at night and after five years, no man deserves one great love, let alone two, five years later jill came along and basically saved all of our lives, what happened i would come home and i used to get home late. Not real lay. I get home usually by 8 00. She would keep the boys up and have their dessert and i would have my dinner. I know jill would not like giving them dessert but it was healthy dessert. [laughter]. Look, look, but, you do it. You go up and, and, you lie in bed with them. Whatever your tradition is. My case we would say prayers. Like my grandpa finnigan would do with me. And they works you know, there are things they remember. When you woke up in the morning, it was no ozzie and harriet, all in the family kind of stuff where we all had breakfast together. When i was shaving they come in and they had whatever was on their mind that day. Im having cup of coffee theyre eating their breakfast. Young kids, young kids can only hold an important idea for about 12 hours. No, no, for real. You missed it. Its gone. You miss it, its gone. It matters to them and to you. Look, nothing is more important to me than being able to, being able to be there but i had this overwhelming luxury. I didnt have anyone boss. I had a Million People in delaware that were my boss. They were pretty understanding. I sincerely mean it. I missed my first six years, i was one of the lowest percentages of people voting. 87 , i think it was voting record. I never missed a vote that was a deciding vote and most were procedural votes. So everybody said, he came up with all these explanations. The other team was doing the right thing. They were attacking me on tv, made sense. Would you hire a man only showed up 87 of the time, et cetera . So i, over the advice of my, my, and i tell you this to tell you what i think about how people think. Over the advice of the experts i did one ad. I looked into the camera and i said, look, its true. I missed whatever it was, 13, 15 of the votes. And if you elect me again, i will do it again. No, im serious. And i said because i never, i will never miss a vote that will make a difference but if i have a choice between a procedural vote and my childs Parent Teacher meeting, im going to the meeting. [applause] no, no. But heres the point. It is not about me. Look at the luxury i had. How many of you would like to be able to do that . [applause] i am no different than anyone of you for real. Im not trying to say, oh, this is joe biden, he did the good i ad the ability to do it. You all want to do it. And i could make a choice and i was confident that the people in my state would understand because i was confident, and the reason i tell you this story, i think that is how almost every american thinks. They think, if they only could, if they only could they would. So, folks, look, the fact of the matter is, there are too many people who where it comes down to making a choice between doing that Parent Teachers meeting or going to that championship game or showing up at that debate or being there just when your child is sick, having to choose between doing that and their job, not one time, but like many of you, i, my family has been an incredible consumer of health care costs. My sons were critically injured. My daughter had her verb bringing in traction a long time. Both jill and i teaching. But we had the option. We could choose who had to stay home. I could operate from my home, assuming there werent a critical vote. But the point is those kind of choices, most times it comes down to not losing your job or not, it comes down to subtle things. It is about, if i dont stay and help finish the project, and not go to my daughters parents night, theyre going to think i dont really want to work hard. Theyre going to think i really dont care about my job. So damn it, your employer is not demanding to do it, but if i dont stay, look, ive had, i have some really incredible people work for me over the years. I forget one time we counted on, i had Something Like 25 roads scholars, more marshall scholars. I had a law firm of 65 people as chairman of the judiciary committee. Almost everyone graduating the top 5 of their class. Really, smart, smart people, ambitious people. I remember during the, during really difficult hearing, a hearing having to do, that i was conducting on the Supreme Court and a very controversial hearing, judge bork. And the young man who, and im not going to mention his name, one of the young men who had done most of the research and background on judge bork and he was having difficulty at home. He was having difficulty