COMMENTARY: Congressman Jimmy Gómez advocates for families

For Los Angeles congressman Jimmy Gómez, it all started when he showed up earlier this year with his baby son Hodge on the House floor during the marathon-like sessions to pick a House Speaker. The father and son duo’s appearance went viral and caught many eyes. 

“People started asking me about my views on parenting and the struggles of finding childcare because he stayed with me a couple of days without my wife being there, and I talked about my work on paid family leave,” Gómez told CALÓ NEWS. 

Out of that came the first-ever Dads Congressional Caucus, created and chaired by Gómez with the support of several of his legislative colleagues and currently numbers 33 members. 

“It represents that men need to be in the fight for gender equality, we need to be in the fight for family-friendly policies, and we can’t allow just women to do the work at home or in Congress and we have to fight against preconceived notions,” Gómez said. 

He’s seeing changes over time that are breaking stereotypes about caring for children, such as when he visited his mother’s small hometown in Mexico over the summer and saw a man walking with a young one in a baby carrier.  “It’s becoming more widespread,” he said.

The Dads Caucus advocates for comprehensive paid family leave, expanding the Child Tax Credit, increasing access to child care, and expanding early childhood education, among other legislation considered “family friendly” and supportive of working families. In addition to supporting these types of legislative actions, the caucus sponsors briefings and events to educate and inform fellow legislators and the general public about the needs of working parents, including pushing for a national paid family and medical leave program and affordable childcare. 

In fact, a recent report by the business group ReadyNation found that the lack of access to affordable childcare has had a significant impact on the economy, costing $122 billion annually in lost earnings, productivity, and revenue. 

“Childcare is taking so much out of a family’s pocket that it’s impacting their ability to start a business, to save for college, save for retirement that it’s negatively impacting our economic growth,” Gómez said. “If you don’t have anywhere to drop off your child, it’s hard to do any work.This is an issue that impacts every part of our country and almost every demographic.”

Gómez recognizes that women have been fighting for these issues for decades. “We’re there adding our voice in a more visible way. We realize that we could do more as a federal government when it comes to childcare,” he said.

Gómez told CALÓ NEWS he remembers how impactful it was for his family when he got sick as a young boy and his working-class parents had to take off from work to care for him. 

“We didn’t have health insurance and my parents missed shifts of work and that put a big financial strain on the family. I’ve worked on paid family leave legislation when I was in the California state legislature, and when I got here I wanted to work on similar, pro-family issues. Helping kids shouldn’t be a woman’s job, or a man’s job, it should be a societal job. (However) people do see childcare as the woman’s job; if the child get sicks, the wife is the one missing work, if there’s a parent-teacher conference, it’s the mother that goes,” he said, adding, “A lot of those ideas are starting to break down to the extent that I’ve seen fathers say I’m a stay-at-home dad. You’re starting to see it more and more, and those statistics bear it out. But what happened in my case is that it was so visible as a member of Congress (bringing the baby to the House chamber) and people were intrigued by it. Those typical roles are starting to shift but we have to put it out there more. We have to make sure that people understand it, see it, and understand what it means.”

And it is his work on gender equality and supporting working families through the Dads Caucus and legislation supporting families – pushing for childcare assistance in particular – that netted him a honor recently: being recognized as a trailblazer and “ally” in this cause by the international nonprofit group Vital Voices Global Partnership, whose founders include Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright.

Gómez was a recipient of the 10th Annual Voices of Solidarity Awards, which the group describes as recognizing “remarkable men who have shown courage and compassion” advocating globally for women and girls and “tip the scales of justice” toward gender equality. 

“Men’s voices are absolutely critical if we want to accelerate the pace of change — and prove that nothing is impossible,” said Vital Voices President & CEO Alyse Nelson. “It’s been hugely encouraging to count more and more remarkable men as partners in this work.”

Gómez told CALÓ NEWS that while he is humbled by the recognition, he adds that there is still much to be done.

“It’s always great to be recognized for anything that you’re doing but I take particular pride in what we’ve been able to do with the Dads Caucus and what we’ve been able to do not only for gender equality but also for our families when it comes to childcare, the child tax credit, paid family leave. I’m proud that we’re recognized for the work but everything is about progress versus performance and progress versus politics, such as are we going to pass laws that make a difference in people’s lives and that’s what we’re striving for.”

Gómez added that he is pushing for affordable childcare and other “family-friendly” issues to be a major campaign issue next year. “We ask that if people are campaigning, that they should talk about affordable childcare and the strains it puts on families when they can’t get it,” he said adding those issues will be front and center in a new Democratic House majority.

“There are so many issues that need attention but sometimes you have limited political capital and I want to make sure that childcare is up at the top when it comes to using that capital and that it’s going to be a big deal. It will tell people, especially American families, that we care and we’re going to push to make it a top issue in 2025,” he said.