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D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson (I-At large), chair of the council’s Committee on Health, told The Informer that the legislation should address the challenges that healthcare professionals often encounter. “I hope it would streamline processes for licensure and licensure renewal and streamline the process for disciplinary processes and investigations regarding a particular provider,” Henderson said, later pointing out what she’s heard from healthcare professionals in council testimony. It’s [also] just been more difficult for smaller professions within the health landscape that are all piled into the Board of Medicine,” Henderson continued. “Acupuncturists didn’t have a seat at the board [so] we’re moving acupuncture to its own board with other professions. It gives them a chance to have a voice and a bigger role in shaping policy.”

Councilmember Christina Henderson became emotional in opposition to eliminating a program that helps with pay equity for child care workers and another program that’s getting deep cuts that helps with subsidies for day care for low-income families. “It feels as though we are proposing to balance this budget on the backs of Black and brown women and the child care sector with the elimination of the early childhood pay equity fund,” she said. “There is no other group of women who we are saying, we told them, there’s a career path for you in early childhood, go get your associates degree, go get your bachelors degree, but now we are telling you you have to go back to making minimum wage,” she said tearfully.

“It feels as though we are proposing to balance this budget on the backs of Black and brown women,” At-Large Councilmember Christina Henderson said Wednesday as Bowser presented her budget, briefly choking up. “This is at odds with our overall goals and what we claim to care about.”

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser released her budget proposal on Wednesday calling for some tax increases and hefty cuts, including to the Early Childhood Pay Equity Fund. The cuts were met with pushback from some councilmembers, including Christina Henderson who made an emotional plea to save the fund. She explained to Kojo and Tom why paying a fair wage to caregivers and teachers who work with babies and toddlers goes beyond equity. “Child care is not just about care and education. It’s not just about a woman’s issue. It’s an economic issue. It’s a workforce issue. And I felt there was a contradiction here. We say we want people to come back to work. We say we want folks to come downtown. I don’t see how you do that if you don’t have any place safe, stable, and affordable for young people to go.” She also explained why she voted in favor of the District committing $515 million to renovate Capital One Arena.

Between the first and second reading of the Street Vendor Advancement Amendment Act last year, D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson (I-At large) crafted an amendment in the nature of a substitute that created a new licensing category for vendors who sell home prepared food.

"We made a promise to these early childhood educators a few years ago. It was a lot to get them to trust us to say that the government is going to do what they said they would do. But also when we think about the child care sector in general, it's super important to the economy ... [and] to the workforce. It's super important as it lays the foundation for all the education that might happen, and yet these workers are the lowest paid on the totem pole, usually making minimum wage. I strongly believe if you're taking care of the workforce and everybody else's children, you should be able to earn enough to take care of your own families as well."

Added At-Large Council member Christina Henderson, “I do disagree with this ‘shared sacrifice’ part because it feels like we’re proposing to balance this budget on the backs of Black and brown women.”

The child care subsidy is top of mind for many lawmakers, including Council member Christina Henderson, who became emotional reacting to the cuts the council chamber. The fund enables early education providers to be paid on par with public school teachers. ""It feels as though we are proposing to balance this budget on the backs of Black and Brown women in the child care sector," Henderson said.

Council member Christina Henderson (I-At Large) pinpointed Bowser’s decision to slash the Pay Equity Fund, adding that she disagreed that the budget proposal represents a “shared sacrifice”...It feels as though we are proposing to balance this budget on the backs of Black and Brown women in the child-care sector with the elimination of the early childhood pay equity fund,” Henderson said. She added later: “If you want people downtown, if you want people in their offices, there has to be a stable, affordable child-care system in order for it to all work."

On Wednesday, a teary-eyed D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson (I-At large) spoke on the council dais in support of the equity fund. She described the proposed cut as an affront to Black and brown female early childhood educators for whom adequate compensation had long been an issue. “Childcare is not just about education, it’s an economic issue. It’s a workforce issue,” Henderson said. “We’ve limped along for years with minimal government assistance and the bottom fell out in the pandemic. Women left the childcare market because the math didn’t work. In the District, we said we would do something different. We’re the envy of the country. It’s not perfect but the suggestion that we go back to Square One is disappointing.”

D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson, I-At large, was overcome with emotion during her opening statement, castigating the proposal as balancing the budget "on the backs of Black and brown women and the child care sector." Bowser's budget slashes the District's Pay Equity Fund, which would cover pay raises for child care workers, the Washington City Paper reported.

Council member Christina Henderson, at-large independent and a former D.C. Public Schools employee, said some expenditures will be difficult to trim. She noted that the police department’s 2023 overspending resulted from overtime pay for an understaffed force and the State Superintendent for Education’s overspending came from increased special education needs as the city’s immigrant population grows. “The public school system is one agency that’s required to serve children, no matter how many show up after we budget for it,” Ms. Henderson said. “With the migrant crisis, we’re a very transient city.” On the other hand, she said, she has worked to “level expectations” among constituents for other funding requests and the council must adjust to reduced revenue “and be responsible about it.”