A Victory for Women! Senate amendment would reinstate data collection for women at the Bureau of Labor Statistics

October 27, 2005

Thanks to the hard work of Senator Kennedy (D-Mass) an amendment was added by voice vote to the Senate Labor-HHS Appropriations Bill requiring the Bureau of Labor Statistics to reinstate collection of the Women Worker data series. The Bureau of Labor Statistics had announced in August that it would discontinue collecting data on working women.

The reason they were able to proceed with an uncontested voice vote was because of the bipartisan support and HUGE number of calls that were made to the Senate. This is truly a great victory that could not have been achieved without your help. Special thanks to NOW members and activists, the leadership efforts of IWPR and Women's Prerogative and to NOW's coalition partners like the NWLC, BPW, AAUW, Women Work!, and many others who endorsed this effort and mobilized their field.

The next step in our efforts to restore the collection of data on women workers is to get the House-Senate Conference committee finalizing the Labor-HHS Appropriations Bill to maintain the Senate provisions in the final version. Sadly, there will be strong opposition from the Department of Labor so our work will be cut out for us. Enjoy this important victory and stay tuned for the next round.