Wyden Firsts: Supporting Our Families

Ron endorsed marriage equality over 15 years before the tide turned in support of the issue and the Supreme Court’s historic ruling in the Obergefell v. Hodges case. Ron and Senator Edward Kennedy were the first Senators to support marriage equality, with Ron saying, “If you don’t like gay marriage, don’t get one.”

Unemployment insurance began in the 1930s, and Ron was the first to build a bipartisan coalition to modernize the program to include the self-employed, gig workers, and independent contractors. Negotiated during the coronavirus pandemic, the Wyden legislation also boosted unemployment payments by $600 per week--on top of existing benefits--to better help struggling families weather the COVID-19 crisis.

Ron was the first to recognize that families can best care for kids and authored a federal “kinship care” policy that allows and promotes family members, like grandparents, to care for at-risk children. With this, parents recovering from alcohol or drug abuse can get healthy so they can care for their own children again.