A20 N THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONALFRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2020
our country says, “Hey, you’re on
your own now. Good luck. Hope
you can find something out
there.” That just makes it 10
times harder for every parent
who’s trying to juggle raising a
child and making a living.When you spoke about this in
Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada or
wherever, it seemed that most of
the people nodding along were
mothers themselves. Do you agree
with that assessment, and do you
think that would be different if you
were running now?
I would agree with you that
that’s who applauded. You asked
me if I think it’s different now. I
think more people have begun to
see how child care is an essential
part of making this economy
work and how child care workers
are among the essential workers
we must have to restart our
economy.
You may not have been in the
room the particular times this
happened, but people who didn’t
have children would ask me a
“Why should I care?” kind ofquestion. And that’s part of the
reason I have long made the
pitch that child care is basic
infrastructure. If you want this
economy to work, if you want to
boost our G.D.P., or now, during a
pandemic, if you want to get
people back to work, then we
need to make a national invest-
ment.
I always talked about it in the
combination with the wealth tax.
And I’d say, “What can we do for
two cents?” [Referring to a 2
percent tax on net worth above
$50 million.] And the first thing I
always said was universal child
care. And I would get huge ap-
plause. And then I would say
universal pre-K for every 3-year-
old and 4-year-old in America;
huge applause. But the third
thing was raise the wages of
every child care worker in Amer-
ica. And the applause volume
always went up.
Child care workers are now
essential workers. They are
mostly Black and brown women.
And they are putting their lives,
their families’ health, on the lineto care for children so that
nurses and grocery store work-
ers can keep the rest of this
economy going. So the economic
ties, I think, have become much
clearer than they were.When you ended your campaign,
you suggested you would talk
more about how gender bias
played out in the primary race. Do
you think there was sexism in the
race? And do you think that influ-
enced how your plans on child
care were perceived?
I appreciate the question. But
I’m just not ready to talk about
that yet. I’m just going to keep
out there and keep fighting.
That’s my job right now.
I should add: Notice that one
of the key economic pieces that
Joe Biden is pushing is child
care. He gets how these pieces
connect to each other. And that’sAmerica is in the middle of a
child care meltdown.
Millions of children are out of
school and unlikely to return any
time soon. Day care centers are
being pushed the brink of col-
lapse. And parents are trying —
and often failing — to balance
care with working.
None of this surprises Eliza-
beth Warren. The Massachusetts
senator — still under considera-
tion to be Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s
running mate — made child care
a centerpiece of her presidential
campaign, proposing one of the
most ambitious plans in the
primary field. Her Aunt Bee, an
older relative who helped Ms.
Warren care for her own children
when she was a young law pro-
fessor, became a staple of her
stump speech, a personal para-
ble of how few American families
can make it on their own.
Now, the problems Ms. Warren
described during her campaign
have hit a crisis point. And it
doesn’t seem as if help is coming
any time soon — at least not
from Congress or the White
House.
My colleague Jennifer Medina
and I recently spoke by phone to
Ms. Warren about what had
changed since she ran for presi-
dent, how she saw Mr. Biden’s
policy plans and why child care
is like building a transit system.
(As usual, our conversation has
been edited and condensed.)
Hi, Senator. We both heard you on
the campaign trail talking about
child care. We feel like we know
Aunt Bee personally! Do you think
the political momentum has
changed from when you were
running on this issue?
I sure hope it’s changed. Part
of the reason I told the story
about my Aunt Bee is that this
was a problem two generations
ago, and it’s a worse problem
today. Our roads are better. Our
access to electricity is better. But
our child care infrastructure is
worse.
We build roads and bridges so
that people can get to work. We
have communications systems so
people can communicate and
learn about jobs, right? All of
those things build an infrastruc-
ture that keeps this economy
going. Child care is a core part of
our infrastructure. But when
someone has a baby, in effect,
a real advance. That hasn’t been
there before. And he sees it as a
real difference between himself
and Donald Trump.How much of a role did you have in
shaping that proposal?
This is his idea, his plan. The
person I spoke with was Jill
Biden, because she’s been push-
ing on this issue for a long time.
But this is all Joe Biden. He
deserves full credit on this. And
he jumped in early on the issue.
That gives me real hope going
forward that this will be a pri-
ority in a Biden administration.
And, by the way, I hope you all
saw what happened in the House
of Representatives. They passed
the child care funding that I’ve
been talking about. Now, what
are we going to be able to do
with Mitch McConnell [the Sen-
ate majority leader]? But the
fact that it’s passed the House
puts it in a stronger position,
puts child care funding higher on
the priority list in the negotia-
tions over a Covid response.
I don’t want to oversell. But I
also want to note that movement.
We’re starting to see Washington
respond. It’s only the Democrats.
But at least it’s the Democrats.
They’re stepping in and doing
this.Even among liberal, two-income
couples, the question of “What are
you doing about the kids?” is often
still directed to the mom. What do
you think about that?
We have not yet reached a
world of true gender equality. It’s
just so frustrating, because it
means that women continue to
have to manage it all. They’ve
got the two hardest jobs in the
world: principal responsibility
for taking care of their children
and responsibility for helping
support their families. And that’s
tough.
We can all pretend that no, no,
it doesn’t work that way. And,
look, there are lots of daddies
who are actively involved. And
God bless them, every one. But
the truth is, in most homes
around this country, it’s still
falling on Mama. And it falls
hard.There Aren’t Enough Aunt Bees: Warren Assesses the Nation’s Child Care Crisis
On Politics
By LISA LERERJORDAN GALE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESA daily newsletter about the people, issues and ideas shaping
our political world. Sign up at nytimes.com/newslettersNEWSLETTER:ON POLITICStermined that Aiden’s death was
the result of neglect; his mother,
who declined to comment, was
found to be on methamphet-
amines the day after Aiden’s body
was discovered in her bed, and the
surviving infant was immediately
removed from her care. Ms.
Braden has not been criminally
charged.
Throughout California, child
welfare workers are deemed es-
sential workers with life-or-death
duties. But unlike police officers
or firefighters, most child welfare
workers are now working from
home in an effort to limit the
spread of the virus. As a result,
records and interviews show,
scores of investigations into alle-
gations of abuse or neglect have
been delayed or sharply curtailed
during the pandemic.
In Fresno County, where Toll-
house sits in the foothills on the
edge of the Sierra Nevada, about a
third of the child welfare staff
went on leave as the pandemic
spread. Even those who remained
on the job generally did work they
could manage without leaving
their homes.
Tricia Gonzalez, the head of
Fresno County’s child protective
services, said that as the outbreak
accelerated, the agency struggled
to maintain basic operations and
was “trying to figure out how to
basically turn everything around
immediately.” The slow response
to the Braden infants, she ac-
knowledged, is symptomatic of
the wider delays throughout the
system.
“That’s not my preference, it’s
not my expectation, but it is the re-
ality due to my work force,” she
said.
As the virus continues to rage
across the country, it is vital for
child welfare workers to have reg-
ular in-person contact with at-risk
children, those who study child
abuse say. The pandemic has cut
many children off from routine in-
teractions with teachers, counsel-
ors and doctors who are required
by law to report signs of abuse or
neglect. (Indeed, calls to child
abuse hotlines have plummeted
nationwide.)
Now many vulnerable children
are largely out of sight, many of
them cooped up in crowded apart-
ments, often cared for by parents
reeling from job loss and all the
other stresses brought on by a
pandemic with no discernible end.
Yet many child welfare workers
— who fear infection and often
lack adequate personal protective
equipment, including masks, face
shields, gloves and hand sanitizer
— have stopped performing a
broad range of essential duties
that typically require in-person
visits.
The shift has been encouraged
by the Trump administration,
which issued guidance to child
welfare agencies in March that re-
laxed a series of rules requiring
caseworkers to meet face to face
with abused or neglected chil-
dren. In interviews, child welfare
administrators in several states
said they still have struggled to
keep their caseworkers on the job,
and some have begun offering
hazard pay and free child care.
The consequences are now rip-
pling across California, which has
the highest rate of child poverty in
the nation when the cost of living
is taken into account, an envi-
ronment that research shows puts
children at an elevated risk of
abuse and neglect. One in seven
children in California is reported
to a child abuse hotline by age 5,
and at any given time nearly
90,000 children live under the
oversight of California’s county-
run child protective services
agencies.
Under pressure from the Serv-
ice Employees International Un-
ion, which represents child wel-
fare workers, the rules governing
this oversight were relaxed
throughout the state in March to
protect workers from the virus.
After lobbying from the union,
Gov. Gavin Newsom dropped a re-
quirement mandating in-person
visits by caseworkers to some
60,000 children in foster care, as
well as 14,000 children who re-
main with their own families after
being recently abused or ne-
glected. The policy was in place
for more than three months, until
Mr. Newsom recently reversed it.“You’re not going to get to the
truth if you do it over the phone,”
said Moses Castillo, a recently re-
tired Los Angeles Police Depart-
ment detective who spent more
than a decade investigating child
abuse cases.
In interviews, union officials de-
fended their efforts to limit direct
contact between child welfare
workers and at-risk children. The
virus, they argued, presents too
big a threat to workers and chil-
dren alike. “Obviously, this is the
new normal and we need to make
sure we’re assessing for abuse
and neglect and doing it in a way
that we can protect the social
workers that families depend
upon,” David Green, a lead negoti-
ator for the union, said.
At the same time, many case-
workers have complained about a
lack of personal protective equip-
ment for months. Critical supplies
have been rushed to hospitals and
other front-line essential workers,
but they have been slow to reach
those responsible for protecting
children from abuse and neglect.
Some have said privately that
they have been forced to buy their
own.
The union said it is trying to
meet the needs of all its workers.
Scott Murray, a spokesman for
Mr. Newsom, said the governor
was trying to balance the compet-
ing demands of preventing the
spread of the virus while also
keeping watch over vulnerable
children. “California will continue
to work to protect child welfare
and public health during these
trying and uncertain times,” he
said.
Since the start of the pandemic,
child welfare workers have beenexempt from stay-at-home orders
because they have the legal re-
sponsibility to take emergency
custody of abused children and,
when necessary, place them in
foster care.
Yet leaders at the federal, state
and local levels have pushed these
workers to carry out their duties
from home as much as possible to
limit the virus’s spread. The child
welfare agency for Los Angeles
County, the largest in the nation,
has locked its doors, cutting off
public access to the agency’s
headquarters and 19 field offices.
In addition to suspending public
access, the agency’s leaders sent
home virtually all employees.
Many abused children whom
the agency deemed to be living
under “high” or “very high” risk of
renewed abuse were not visited
for months, records and inter-
views show. Before the pandemic,
child welfare workers in Los An-
geles were required to at least try
visiting children within five days
of a new abuse allegation. Now
they are allowed to take up to 10
days to respond to most new re-
ports of mistreatment.
“We are in completely unchart-
ed territory, and it concerns me
greatly,” said Bobby Cagle, the di-
rector of the child welfare agency
for Los Angeles County.
“The difficulty here,” he added,
“is that we’re trying to balance the
need for making those visits with
the need to also protect our staff
and to protect the child and fam-
ily.”
A review of hundreds of pages
of internal records, as well as in-
terviews with dozens of child pro-
tective services workers, shows
how California’s labor leaders alsopressured key officials into letting
caseworkers stay home.
In March, the union represent-
ing child abuse caseworkers be-
gan pushing Mr. Newsom’s ad-
ministration to set aside long-es-
tablished rules to allow its mem-
bers to work remotely.
For a 10-week period ending
June 30, for example, casework-
ers were no longer required to fin-
gerprint people applying to be fos-
ter parents; instead they ran their
names through a database to
check for any criminal history.
And when older teenagers and
young adults in foster care needed
to change homes, caseworkers no
longer visited to make sure the
new residences were safe. A
phone check was considered suffi-
cient.
In interviews, some casework-
ers said they had bristled at the ef-
forts to get them out of the field,
and they questioned why more ef-
fort was not put instead into train-
ing and equipping them to safely
visit children.
Los Angeles County is still deal-
ing with the fallout from the 2013
death of 8-year-old Gabriel Fer-
nandez, whose caseworkers faced
criminal charges for failing to pro-
tect him until a judge dismissed
the case last month.
The lack of regular in-person
visits by child welfare staff gave
his mother and her boyfriend
more chances to torture him un-
noticed, court records show, and
the agency pledged to never allow
such a case to happen again. Ga-
briel’s mother and her boyfriend
were each convicted of first-de-
gree murder. Yet because of the vi-
rus, the division once responsible
for Gabriel was exempted from
the in-person visitation require-
ments.
The child welfare system that
made the decision to keep the of-
fices closed is overseen by the
County Board of Supervisors,
whose five members were all en-
dorsed by the service union.
One supervisor, Hilda Solis,
said in a statement that she was
trying to get caseworkers the pro-
tective equipment they need to do
more. The other four supervisors
referred questions to a county
spokeswoman. “There are no per-
fect answers to the questions we
have been dealing with,” Amara
Suarez, the spokeswoman, said.
“But we have endeavored always
to balance the needs of children,
families and staff in all decisions.”Abused Children at Risk
As the Pandemic Prevents
Caseworkers From Visiting
This article was reported with the
support of the Fund for Investiga-
tive Journalism and in partnership
with the University of California,
Berkeley, Graduate School of Jour-
nalism. Laurence Du Sault, Ricky
Rodas and Alyson Stamos contrib-
uted reporting.
From Page AThe headquarters and regional
offices, left, for Los Angeles
County’s child welfare agency
have locked their doors, keep-
ing most caseworkers home.JENNA SCHOENEFELD FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES‘You’re not going to get to the truth if you
do it over the phone.’
MOSES CASTILLO, a retired police detective in Los Angeles who
investigated child abuse cases for over a decadeWASHINGTON — A federal
judge on Thursday dismissed a
suit filed by congressional Repub-
licans against Speaker Nancy
Pelosi that sought to block the
House of Representatives from
using a proxy-voting system to al-
low for remote legislating during
the coronavirus pandemic.
Judge Rudolph Contreras, of
the U.S. District Court for the Dis-
trict of Columbia, wrote in his
opinion that “the House unques-
tionably has the authority, under
the Constitution, to ‘determine the
rules of its proceedings.’ ” He also
said that legislative work under-
taken by Ms. Pelosi and other top
Democrats was “immune from
suit under the speech or debate
clause.”
The dismissal means the court
did not rule on the merits of the
claims Republicans made, instead
finding that they lacked the
grounds to bring the suit.
Ms. Pelosi quickly hailed the de-
cision.
“Remote voting by proxy is
fully consistent with the Constitu-
tion and more than a century of le-
gal precedent, including Supreme
Court cases, that make clear that
the House can determine its own
rules,” she said in a statement.
“The nation is in the middle of a
dangerous pandemic, and the
House of Representatives must
continue to work.”
A spokesman for Representa-
tive Kevin McCarthy, Republican
of California and the minority
leader, who brought the suit, said
he would appeal the ruling.
In addition to Ms. Pelosi, the
lawsuit named the House clerk
and the sergeant-at-arms as de-
fendants. Mr. McCarthy and
roughly 20 other Republicans ar-
gued that rules promulgated by
Democrats allowing lawmakers to
vote from afar during the coro-
navirus outbreak would be the
end of Congress as it was envi-
sioned by the nation’s founders.
Democrats pushed through the
changes in May over unanimousRepublican opposition, marking
the first time Congress had al-
lowed for remote legislating. The
new rules allow lawmakers to
name a colleague to vote in person
on their behalf during periods des-
ignated by the sergeant-at-arms
as a public health emergency.
The ruling comes as Congress,
which has continued to meet dur-
ing the pandemic in defiance of
public health guidelines discour-
aging large gatherings and fre-
quent travel, is drawing new scru-
tiny over its lack of consistent vi-
rus safety protocols. Neither test-
ing nor mask-wearing is required
on Capitol Hill, even though law-
makers continue to come and go
from their states across the coun-
try, some of which are experienc-
ing outbreaks. The proxy-voting
system was an attempt by Demo-
crats to allow the House to contin-
ue to function while permitting
lawmakers who were unwilling or
unable to take the risk of attend-
ing in person to participate.
Judge Contreras raised some
concern about the Constitution’s
blanket protection of all legisla-
tive speech and debate, writing
that the “implications of the broad
immunity conferred by the clause,
while important for ensuring an
independent legislative body, may
be troubling.”
Still, the judge wrote that that
was what the drafters intended.
He cited a 1972 Supreme Court rul-
ing, in the United States v. Brew-
ster, that stated the clause was “a
very large, albeit essential, grant
of privilege.”
“It has enabled reckless men to
slander and even destroy others
with impunity,” he said, “but that
was the conscious choice of the
framers.”
Ms. Pelosi said she hoped Re-
publicans would now stand down
from challenging decisions meant
to ensure the safety of lawmakers
and staff members in the Capitol.
“The dismissal of the House
G.O.P. lawsuit is welcome news
and hopefully the end of this sad
Republican effort to obstruct the
House from meeting the needs of
the American people during the
coronavirus crisis,” Ms. Pelosi
said.G.O.P.’s Suit
Against Pelosi
On Voting Rule
Is Dismissed
By LUKE BROADWATERSpeaker Nancy Pelosi said
proxy voting was essential for
the House to continue its work.GABRIELLA DEMCZUK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES