The Ground Shifted
I didn’t become a caregiver advocate because I had extra time or because I wanted a new identity. I became one because of a moment when the ground shifted under my feet-quietly, bureaucratically, and without warning.
For two years, my organization understood the reality of my life. In 2022 and 2023, I received formal remote-work accommodations that allowed me to care for my mother with dementia while continuing to perform at a high level.
Then, in April 2024, my mother-in-law joined our household-with Type 1 diabetes and reduced heart and lung capacity. The caregiving responsibilities intensified dramatically.
Leadership had recognized that this wasn’t a lifestyle choice-it was a necessity. They understood that chronic illness and dementia are not episodic, not temporary, not something you “take leave” from. They understood that remote work wasn’t a perk; it was the only way the system held together.
But later in 2024, everything changed.
A new Return-to-Office policy arrived.
A blanket rule.
A top-down directive.
A one-size-fits-all mandate that erased two years of documented accommodations as if they had never existed.
Suddenly, the stability of my entire household was treated as irrelevant.
Suddenly, the caregiving network my wife and I had built was invisible.
Suddenly, the leadership that had supported me was overruled by a policy written far above their heads.
“You Can Always Use FMLA”
When I pushed back, I didn’t argue from entitlement. I argued from necessity. I explained the daily realities of caring for two elders-one with dementia, one with Type 1 diabetes and reduced heart and lung capacity-the routines, the medications, the supervision, the emotional scaffolding that keeps them both steady. I explained that this wasn’t a temporary situation or a short-term crisis.
This was the structure of our lives.
And HR’s response was the same every time:
“You can always use FMLA and FAMLI.”
As if that solved anything.
FMLA gives you twelve weeks of unpaid leave-useful for a broken leg, meaningless for dementia.
FAMLI gives you twelve weeks of paid leave-useful for childbirth or surgery recovery, impossible for a caregiver who cannot stop working for three months without collapsing the entire household.
But the sentence that changed everything wasn’t about policy.
It was about culture.
“We ALL have family obligations, but we need to suck it up.”
Emotional Echo: I Wasn’t Alone
That line hit me harder than any memo.
Because it revealed the truth: I wasn’t the only one. I wasn’t the exception. I wasn’t the outlier.
If everyone has family obligations, and everyone is being told to “suck it up,” then this isn’t a personal problem.
It’s a structural failure.
And if millions of us are experiencing the same thing, then the real question is: Why don’t we fix this?
The Unsaid: There Is No Law
So I did what any responsible person would do: I went looking for the law.
I spoke with lawyers.
I read Colorado’s CADA statute-§24-34-402-which mentions “caregiver” but offers no protected status.
I reviewed FMLA-unchanged since 1993, built for a world that no longer exists.
I looked at the ADA-only to learn that it protects disabled workers, not the family members who care for them.
I examined Colorado’s FAMLI program-only to realize it was designed for temporary leave, not the long-term, daily caregiving that defines multigenerational households.
And the truth was unavoidable:
There is no law that protects long-term family caregiving.
Not in Colorado.
Not at the federal level.
Not anywhere.
That was the moment everything shifted.
Because if the law doesn’t exist, then caregivers have no leg to stand on.
If the law doesn’t exist, then employers can erase accommodations with a policy update.
If the law doesn’t exist, then families like mine live in permanent precarity.
If the law doesn’t exist, then the stability of a household caring for two elders with chronic conditions can be undone by a memo.
And if the law doesn’t exist, then someone has to write it.
The Realization
I am not a lawmaker.
I am not a lobbyist by training.
I am a caregiver in a multigenerational home trying to keep two elders safe, stable, and dignified.
But in that moment, I understood something that changed the trajectory of my life:
No one is coming to fix this.
No one is writing the law caregivers need.
No one is building the guardrails.
So I decided to learn how to do it myself.
That is why I drafted the Colorado CARE Act-the Caregiver Accommodations and Rights Enhancement Act.
That is why I became a volunteer lobbyist.
That is why I joined Professionals Who Care.
That is why I helped build CASI.
That is why I spend my limited time fighting for a law that should have existed decades ago.
Because the system told me the truth: “There is nothing in the law that protects you.”
And I decided that was no longer acceptable.
I. When Congress Walked Away From Caregiving
The moment I realized the law didn’t protect me wasn’t just a personal crisis. It was a political revelation. Because when I went looking for the law, what I found wasn’t a loophole or a technicality.
What I found was a vacuum.
**Congress hasn’t updated the Family and Medical Leave Act since 1993.**¹
That was before smartphones.
Before remote work.
Before the caregiving crisis.
Before the aging boom.
Before dementia became a defining feature of American family life.
The law that governs caregiving today was written for a world that no longer exists.
What FMLA Was Written For
It was written for:
Short-term medical events
Nuclear families
Single-earner households
Temporary disruptions
Predictable recoveries
What FMLA Was NOT Written For
It was not written for:
Dementia
Multigenerational households
Chronic illness
Long-term disability
The collapse of the long-term care workforce
The 53 million Americans providing unpaid care²
And Congress has done nothing to modernize it.
No federal caregiver protection.
No job accommodation requirement.
No recognition of long-term caregiving.
No national caregiver benefit.
No statutory right to remote work.
No legal framework for multigenerational households.
Congress didn’t just fail to act. Congress walked away.
And when Congress walks away from a domain of policy, something else always fills the vacuum.
In this case, it was the executive.
II. The Executive Didn’t Seize Power-It Absorbed What Congress Abandoned
When people talk about “executive overreach,” they often imagine a power-hungry president grabbing authority that doesn’t belong to them. But that’s not what happened in caregiving policy.
The executive didn’t seize power. It absorbed it-because Congress left it lying on the floor.
In the absence of modern caregiving laws, the entire system now runs on:
Agency guidance
Administrative memos
Emergency rules
Waiver approvals
Budget instructions
Regulatory reinterpretations
Enforcement discretion
These are not laws.
These are not statutes.
These are not democratically debated decisions.
They are the administrative scaffolding that keeps the system from collapsing entirely.
And because Congress has not legislated, the executive branch-federal and state-has become the de facto policymaker for caregiving.
The Power Shift
This is the power shift:
Congress writes almost nothing.
Agencies write almost everything.
Presidents rewrite everything every four to eight years.
Caregivers live inside that churn.
What this looks like in real life:
CMS changes a definition → your mother’s eligibility changes
HCPF issues an operational memo → your weekly schedule changes
A budget directive tightens HCBS hours → your household stability changes
A federal reinterpretation of “medical necessity” → your care plan changes
A new administration revises guidance → your entire caregiving network changes
None of these are laws.
None were voted on.
None were debated in Congress.
None were designed with multigenerational households in mind.
But they govern your life.
This is the rise of the executive state:
Not because presidents wanted more power, but because Congress abandoned its role.
The executive now:
Defines caregiving
Regulates caregiving
Funds caregiving
Restricts caregiving
Expands caregiving
Contracts caregiving
Interprets caregiving
Enforces caregiving
And it does all of this through rules, not laws.
Rules that can be changed.
Rules that can be reversed.
Rules that can be erased.
Rules that can be ignored.
Rules that can be rewritten by the next administration.
Caregivers live in a system where the most important policies are temporary by design.
This is the instability at the heart of American caregiving:
Congress abandoned the field.
The executive filled the vacuum.
Families live with the consequences.
And when I realized that my own household was being governed by rules no one voted on-rules that could be undone by a memo-I understood the stakes of this power shift in a way I never had before.
III. The Caregiver’s View of Executive Power
Caregivers don’t experience the executive state the way policy analysts do. We don’t see it as a constitutional debate or a separation-of-powers issue.
We experience it as:
A sudden change in hours
A new requirement for documentation
A shift in eligibility
A new case manager interpretation
A waiver renewal that alters services
A budget cut that reduces stability
A guidance letter that changes everything
Caregivers live in the administrative state because Congress left us there.
And that is why the executive feels so powerful-not because it is inherently overreaching, but because it is the only branch still doing the work.
But the executive is not built for stability.
It is built for responsiveness.
It is built for speed.
It is built for crisis.
It is built for interpretation.
It is built for discretion.
Caregivers need stability.
We need predictability.
We need continuity.
We need durable rights.
We need laws, not memos.
And that is why the imbalance between Congress and the executive is not an abstract constitutional problem-it is a daily lived reality for millions of families.
IV. Taming the Executive
When people hear the phrase “taming the executive,” they often imagine a fight against presidential overreach. But from a caregiver’s vantage point, the problem is not that the executive branch is too strong.
The problem is that it is the only branch still doing the work.
The executive didn’t take power from Congress.
Congress abandoned the field.
And the executive filled the vacuum because someone had to.
Caregivers live inside that vacuum every day.
The executive governs caregiving because Congress refuses to.
Every part of my caregiving life-every hour, every accommodation, every eligibility rule, every service definition-is shaped by:
Agency guidance
Operational memos
Emergency rules
Waiver approvals
Budget instructions
Regulatory reinterpretations
None of these are laws.
None were debated in Congress.
None were designed with multigenerational households in mind.
But they govern my life.
They determine whether I can work.
They determine whether my mothers receive care.
They determine whether my household stays stable.
They determine whether my employer can erase accommodations with a policy update.
This is the executive state-not as a constitutional abstraction, but as a lived reality.
The Executive Is Fast, Reactive, and Improvisational. Caregivers Need Stability.
The executive branch is built for speed:
It can issue guidance overnight.
It can reinterpret rules with a memo.
It can tighten or loosen eligibility with a budget directive.
It can reshape entire programs through waiver renewals.
This is useful in a crisis.
It is catastrophic for long-term caregiving.
Caregivers need predictability.
We need continuity.
We need durable rights.
We need laws that cannot be erased by a policy shift or a new administration.
But because Congress has not legislated, the executive is forced to improvise-and caregivers live inside that improvisation.
Taming the Executive Means Rebuilding the Branch That Abandoned Us
The solution is not to weaken agencies.
The solution is to strengthen Congress.
Caregivers don’t need fewer rules.
We need better laws.
We need Congress to:
Modernize FMLA for long-term caregiving
Create a federal caregiver protection
Recognize multigenerational households
Establish a national caregiver accommodation standard
Build a stable HCBS framework that doesn’t swing with administrations
Fund caregiving as infrastructure, not charity
Taming the executive means giving the executive something to execute.
It means Congress doing its job so agencies don’t have to invent policy on the fly.
It means replacing memos with statutes.
It means replacing waivers with rights.
It means replacing emergency rules with durable frameworks.
It means replacing improvisation with stability.
Caregivers Are the Canary in the Constitutional Coal Mine
We feel the imbalance first because we live in the part of the system where:
Congress has done the least
The executive has improvised the most
The stakes are the highest
The consequences are immediate
When Congress fails to legislate, caregivers don’t get think-tank debates or constitutional essays.
We get instability.
We get precarity.
We get erased accommodations.
We get “suck it up.”
We get “use FMLA” for a disease that lasts a decade.
We get “there’s nothing in the law that protects you.”
Taming the executive is not about shrinking the presidency.
It is about restoring the branch that left caregivers behind.
It is about building guardrails where none exist.
It is about writing the laws Congress refused to write.
It is about ensuring that no caregiver’s life can be undone by a memo.
It is about making sure that what happened to my family never happens to anyone else.
V. Creative Dismissal: The Quiet Engine Behind Workforce Churn
When HR told me, “We ALL have family obligations, but we need to suck it up,” it wasn’t just dismissive.
It was revealing.
It exposed a deeper truth about the modern workplace-one that caregivers know intimately but rarely name out loud.
Employers don’t need to fire caregivers.
They just need to make staying impossible.
This is the quiet, legal, socially acceptable mechanism known as creative dismissal-the lived reality behind the formal legal term constructive discharge. It is how organizations push out workers without ever saying the words “you’re fired,” and without ever violating the letter of the law.
And caregivers are one of the primary targets.
How Creative Dismissal Works in Practice
Creative dismissal is not dramatic. It is incremental. It is procedural. It is polite. It is couched in policy language and framed as “business needs.”
It looks like:
Revoking previously granted accommodations
Ignoring documented caregiving responsibilities
Forcing Return-to-Office despite years of successful remote work
Restructuring roles to eliminate flexibility
Assigning schedules incompatible with caregiving
Slow-walking or denying accommodation requests
Creating performance pressure through impossible expectations
Using “policy changes” as a shield for discriminatory outcomes
None of these actions violate the law on their face.
All of them achieve the same outcome: the caregiver leaves.
Why Caregivers Are Uniquely Vulnerable
Caregiving is long-term, unpredictable, and non-negotiable. Employers know this. They know that if they remove flexibility, the caregiver will eventually break. They know that if they revoke remote work, the caregiver will be forced to choose between job and family. They know that if they tighten schedules, the caregiver will fall behind.
**And they know that the law does not protect caregivers.**³
So they rely on the absence of law as a strategy.
The Financial Logic Behind Creative Dismissal
Creative dismissal is not just about convenience. It is about money.
Employers know that pushing out a mid-career caregiver:
Reduces salary costs
Reduces pension obligations
Reduces long-term benefit liabilities
Opens the door to hiring a younger, cheaper worker
Avoids the “burden” of accommodations
Shifts churn costs onto the worker instead of the organization
This is not a conspiracy.
It is a business model.
A model built on the assumption that caregivers are expendable.
The Cost of Losing Institutional Knowledge
What employers rarely calculate is the cost of losing:
Decades of institutional memory
Deep technical expertise
Cross-functional relationships
Historical context
Continuity of operations
Mentorship capacity
Organizational culture stability
Replacing a caregiver-employee is not cheap.
It is expensive, disruptive, and destabilizing.
But because the law does not protect caregivers, the churn is easier than retention.
Creative dismissal is the predictable outcome of a system with no guardrails.
When Congress refuses to legislate, and when states fail to protect caregivers, employers default to the path of least resistance:
Protect the organization
Externalize the cost
Push out the caregiver
Hire someone cheaper
Repeat
This is not a moral failure.
It is a structural one.
And it is why the Colorado CARE Act is not just a policy proposal-it is a necessary intervention.
VI. What a Modern Caregiver Rights Framework Should Look Like
A modern caregiver rights framework begins with a simple premise:
Caregiving is essential labor, and essential labor requires legal protection.
Right now, the United States treats caregiving as a private matter, a personal burden, or a moral obligation. But caregiving is none of those things. It is infrastructure. It is workforce stabilization. It is public health. It is economic continuity. It is the backbone of long-term care in this country.
A modern framework must recognize that reality and build guardrails accordingly.
1. Caregiver Status Must Become a Protected Class
This is the foundation.
If caregiving is not a protected status, then:
Employers can revoke accommodations at will
HR can say “suck it up” without consequence
Remote work can be erased by policy mood
Long-term caregiving is treated as optional
Families live in permanent precarity
Protected status is not about special treatment.
It is about equal footing.
It is about ensuring that caregivers are not punished for doing the work that keeps elders alive, families stable, and the healthcare system afloat.
2. Caregivers Need a Right to Reasonable Accommodations
Not unlimited accommodations.
Not guaranteed remote work.
Not a blank check.
Just the same standard the ADA gives disabled workers: reasonable accommodations unless it causes undue hardship.
For caregivers, this means:
Flexible scheduling
Remote or hybrid options when feasible
Predictable hours
The ability to attend medical appointments
Protection from retaliation
Continuity of previously granted accommodations
This is not radical.
This is basic fairness.
3. Long-Term Caregiving Must Be Distinguished From Temporary Leave
FMLA and FAMLI were built for:
Childbirth
Surgery
Recovery
Discrete medical events
They were not built for:
Dementia
Parkinson’s
Alzheimer’s
Chronic disability
Multi-year decline
Multigenerational households
A modern framework must create a separate category for long-term caregiving—one that does not require workers to stop working entirely, and one that does not expire after twelve weeks.
4. Caregivers Need Due Process When Accommodations Are Denied or Revoked
Right now, caregivers have no recourse.
If an employer says:
“We go by the law.”
“There’s nothing that protects you.”
“We all have family obligations.”
“Use FMLA.”
“Your accommodations are revoked.”
…that’s the end of the conversation.
A modern framework must require:
Written justification for denials
A clear appeals process
Documentation standards
Anti-retaliation protections
Continuity of accommodations unless circumstances materially change
This is how you prevent what happened to you from happening to others.
5. Caregiving Must Be Recognized as Workforce Stabilization
Caregivers are not a cost center.
Caregivers are a workforce retention strategy.
A modern framework must acknowledge:
53 million Americans provide unpaid care²
1 in 5 workers is a caregiver
1 in 3 caregivers leaves the workforce
Turnover costs employers billions
Remote work keeps caregivers employed
Accommodations prevent resignations
Caregiver protections are not charity.
They are economic policy.
6. Federal Baselines Must Be Paired With State Innovation
Congress must set the floor.
States must build the ceiling.
A modern framework should mirror:
The ADA (federal baseline)
Plus state-level expansions
Plus employer-level innovation
This is how civil rights frameworks are built.
VII. How the Colorado CARE Act Fits Into the National Blueprint
The Colorado CARE Act is not just a state bill.
It is a prototype for the national framework Congress has refused to build.
It contains the core elements every state-and eventually the federal government-will need.
1. Caregiver Status as a Protected Class
The CARE Act does what federal law has never done: It makes caregiver status a protected class in employment.
This is the cornerstone of a modern framework.
It means:
No more “suck it up”
No more discretionary accommodations
No more revoking remote work without cause
No more treating caregiving as a personal failing
It creates the legal foundation caregivers have never had.
2. A Right to Reasonable Accommodations
The CARE Act requires employers to:
Engage in an interactive process
Consider remote or hybrid work
Provide flexible scheduling
Avoid retaliation
Maintain continuity of accommodations
This is the ADA model-finally applied to caregiving.
3. Due Process and Documentation
The CARE Act requires:
Written justification for denials
Documentation of the decision
A clear appeals process
Transparency in employer reasoning
This prevents the exact situation you faced: accommodations granted, then erased by policy mood.
4. Recognition of Long-Term Caregiving
The CARE Act explicitly covers:
Chronic conditions
Dementia
Long-term disability
Multigenerational caregiving
Ongoing care needs
It fills the gap FMLA and FAMLI were never designed to address.
5. A Model for National Policy
The CARE Act is not just a Colorado solution.
It is a national blueprint.
It demonstrates:
How to define caregiver status
How to structure accommodations
How to balance employer needs
How to create due process
How to stabilize the workforce
How to protect multigenerational households
It is the first modern caregiver civil rights bill in the country.
And it exists because you wrote it.
6. A Pathway for Federal Reform
The CARE Act points directly to what Congress must do:
Modernize FMLA
Create a federal caregiver protection
Establish national accommodation standards
Stabilize HCBS funding
Recognize multigenerational households
Treat caregiving as infrastructure
This is how you tame the executive: by giving the executive something to execute.
This is how you restore balance: by rebuilding the branch that abandoned caregivers.
This is how you build guardrails: by writing the laws that should have existed decades ago.
VIII. The Difference Between Writing a Law and Building Good Policy
One of the most dangerous myths in American civic life is the idea that “writing a law” is the same thing as “creating good policy.”
It isn’t. Not even close.
A law is a sentence.
Policy is a system.
A law is a rule.
Policy is the architecture that makes the rule work.
A law is a starting point.
Policy is the scaffolding, the enforcement, the implementation, the culture, the accountability, and the lived experience that follows.
Congress can write a law in a week.
Good policy takes years of design, iteration, and refinement.
And this is where caregiving has suffered the most.
Congress Wrote a Law in 1993. It Never Built the Policy.
FMLA was a beginning, not a framework.
It created a narrow right to temporary unpaid leave.
It did not create:
A definition of long-term caregiving
A right to accommodations
A recognition of multigenerational households
A protection against creative dismissal
A mechanism for enforcement
A system for continuity
A cultural shift in the workplace
Congress wrote a law. It never built the policy.
And because Congress walked away, the executive filled the vacuum with:
Guidance
Memos
Waivers
Emergency rules
Reinterpretations
These are not policy.
They are patches.
They are temporary, reversible, unstable, and dependent on the political mood of the moment.
Caregivers live inside that instability.
Good Policy Requires Three Things Congress Has Not Provided
Durability - rights that cannot be erased by a memo
Predictability - standards that do not change with administrations
Enforceability - mechanisms that give caregivers recourse
Without these, a law is just a sentence on paper.
This Is Why the Colorado CARE Act Matters
The CARE Act is not just a bill.
It is a policy framework.
It defines caregiver status.
It establishes rights.
It creates due process.
It requires documentation.
It mandates an interactive process.
It protects continuity of accommodations.
It prevents creative dismissal.
It stabilizes the workforce.
It preserves institutional knowledge.
It aligns employer needs with caregiver realities.
It builds the architecture Congress never built.
The CARE Act is what good policy looks like:
Clear
Enforceable
Durable
Balanced
Economically rational
Socially stabilizing
Grounded in lived experience
It is not a mandate.
It is a modernization.
It is not a burden.
It is a workforce retention strategy.
It is not a special privilege.
It is a civil right.
And it is not just a Colorado solution.
It is a national blueprint.
IX. A Call to Action: We Know What’s Right-Now We Need to Build It
There is urgency in this moment, and it is not theoretical. It is lived. It is happening in workplaces, in households, in HR offices, in hospital rooms, in kitchens where adult children are sorting medications at midnight. It is happening in every family that is quietly holding up the long-term care system with their own bodies, their own time, and their own income.
The crisis is here.
The vacuum is here.
The consequences are here.
But so is something else-something that gives me more hope than any statute or memo ever could.
People know what is right.
When I talk to coworkers, neighbors, legislators, case managers, nurses, teachers, and even HR professionals, I hear the same thing:
“I’m caring for someone too.”
“My parents are aging.”
“My partner has chronic illness.”
“My child needs support.”
“My family is multigenerational.”
Caregiving is not a niche issue.
It is the human condition.
And because of that, I have faith-real faith-that people understand the stakes. They understand that no one should lose their job because they care for family. They understand that remote work is not a perk for caregivers; it is a lifeline. They understand that dementia does not fit into a 12-week leave box. They understand that “suck it up” is not a policy.
They understand that we need guardrails.
And they understand that guardrails do not appear on their own.
They are built-deliberately, structurally, and collectively.
That is what the Colorado CARE Act represents.
Not a mandate.
Not a burden.
Not a political wedge.
A blueprint.
A blueprint for how to protect caregivers without harming employers.
A blueprint for how to stabilize the workforce without sacrificing families.
A blueprint for how to modernize policy without creating chaos.
A blueprint for how to restore balance between Congress and the executive.
A blueprint for how to build durable rights in a system that has run on improvisation for too long.
The CARE Act is not the end.
It is the beginning.
It is the first step toward a national framework that finally acknowledges the reality of modern caregiving. It is the first step toward a world where caregivers are not punished for doing the most essential work in the household. It is the first step toward a system where accommodations are not favors, but rights. It is the first step toward a future where no one is told, “There is nothing in the law that protects you.”
Because that sentence should never be spoken again.
The Pattern Repeating Today
As I write this on February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel have launched joint military strikes against Iran-Operation Epic Fury-without congressional authorization, without debate, without the deliberative process the framers designed.¹¹
This is not a partisan observation.
This is a structural one.
President Trump called for regime change. Prime Minister Netanyahu declared an existential threat. Iran retaliated with strikes across the Middle East. And Congress-once again-was absent from the decision.
This is the same pattern that has repeated for seventy years:
Korea.
Tonkin.
Post-9/11.
Today.
In moments of crisis, the executive acts. Congress debates. Courts review slowly. Caregivers absorb the consequences.
Because when military conflict erupts:
Budgets shift
Agencies redirect resources
Administrative priorities change
Domestic programs get deprioritized
HCBS funding becomes “non-essential”
Caregiver supports become “discretionary”
Families are told to wait
We’ve seen this before.
We’re seeing it again.
We will see it again.
Unless we build the guardrails that protect families regardless of which crisis dominates the news cycle.
This is not about opposing military action.
This is about recognizing that families need protections that survive moments when the executive branch-any executive branch-is focused elsewhere.
The Colorado CARE Act is designed for exactly these moments.
It creates rights that don’t disappear during crises.
It establishes protections that don’t depend on administrative mood.
It builds stability that doesn’t evaporate when the executive’s attention turns to foreign policy.
This is why durable law matters.
We Are at an Inflection Point
We can choose to keep improvising-or we can build.
We can choose to let caregivers fall through the cracks-or we can create a foundation strong enough to hold us all.
We can choose to let the executive continue governing by memo-or we can give it the laws it needs to execute.
We can choose to let families collapse under the weight of caregiving-or we can recognize caregiving as the essential labor it is.
We can choose to do nothing-or we can act.
And acting does not require perfection.
It requires courage.
It requires clarity.
It requires the willingness to say: “We know what is right, and we are going to build it.”
Take Action Now
If you believe caregivers deserve legal protection-act now.
1. Sign the Colorado CARE Act Petition
Add your name. Strengthen the case for legislative sponsorship.
Current: 673 supporters, 751 signatures
Help us reach 1,000.
2. Share Your Story
Your experience matters. Personal stories make policy real.
Email: mark_fukae@casiadvocacy.org
3. Join the Movement
Professionals Who Care:
https://professionalswhocare.org
CASI (Caregiver Advocacy Support Initiative): Follow legislative updates and policy analysis
4. Talk to Your Legislators
Find your Colorado legislators: leg.colorado.gov/find-my-legislator
Tell them: Caregivers need workplace protections. The CARE Act provides them.
5. Subscribe
If you believe caregivers deserve stability, I hope you’ll join me here.
Subscribe to The Revenue Neutral Caregiver: https://substack.com/@therevenueneutralcaregiver
6. Share This Post
Visibility is power. If this story matters to you, share it with someone who needs to read it.
Human Truth
Caregivers built this country.
Caregivers sustain this country.
Caregivers are the invisible infrastructure of American life.
It’s time the law recognized us.
It’s time the policy caught up.
It’s time the guardrails were built.
And we are the ones who will build them.
References
1. Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
Public Law 103-3, 107 Stat. 6 (Feb. 5, 1993). The core provisions of FMLA have remained substantively unchanged since enactment. The law provides only 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons.
Bipartisan Policy Center, “The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA): The Basics” (2024): “Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) with bipartisan support in January 1993. More than three decades later, FMLA remains the primary protection for millions of workers who need time away from work to care for themselves or a loved one.” Currently, only 56% of U.S. workers are eligible due to employer size and tenure requirements.
National Center for Biotechnology Information (PMC), “The Family and Medical Leave Act: A Policy Analysis and Recommendations to Address Employed Caregiver Burden” (2020): “As it has been nearly 30 years since FMLA was enacted, updated policy is vital to continue supporting employed caregivers in their roles... FMLA is largely inadequate for employed caregivers, as only 60% of the workforce are eligible and unpaid leave restrictions create considerable financial hardship.”
2. Unpaid Family Caregivers in America
AARP & National Alliance for Caregiving, “Caregiving in America 2020” (2020). National data shows 53 million Americans serving as unpaid family caregivers, representing approximately 1 in 5 adults. This number increased by 9.5 million between 2015-2020 (from 43.5 million to 53 million).
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, “What Is the Caregiver Crisis?” (July 2025): “There are 53 million unpaid caregivers—people providing care for their loved ones in the home—in America. They provide over $870 billion a year in service to society in terms of caring for these people.”
SeniorLiving.org, “Family Caregiver Annual Report and Statistics” (February 2025): “53 million Americans are unpaid caregivers; 59% are women. 43% are sole caregivers, often working full-time, with 47% lacking formal support.”
National Partnership for Women & Families (2025): Family caregivers provide services valued at over $870 billion annually—nearly twice what is spent on homecare and nursing homes combined.
3. Americans with Disabilities Act and Family Caregivers
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “Questions and Answers: Association Provision of the ADA” (2008). The ADA’s “association provision” protects against discrimination based on stereotypes, but explicitly does NOT require reasonable accommodations for caregivers.
Job Accommodation Network (JAN), “Caregivers” resource: “According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), workers with caregiving responsibilities are not entitled to receive workplace reasonable accommodations to care for a person with a disability under the employment provisions of the ADA.”
EEOC guidance explicitly states: “Caregivers of individuals with disabilities are not entitled to receive workplace reasonable accommodations under the ADA to care for a spouse, child, family member, etc.”
The association provision only prevents discrimination based on unfounded stereotypes; it does NOT grant accommodation rights for caregiving responsibilities. Only qualified applicants and employees with disabilities themselves are entitled to reasonable accommodation under the ADA.
4. Colorado CADA Statute
Colorado Revised Statutes §24-34-402 (Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act). While the statute mentions “caregiver,” it does not establish caregiver status as a protected class or provide accommodation rights for family caregiving responsibilities.
5. Colorado FAMLI Program
Colorado Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) program, effective January 1, 2024. Provides up to 12 weeks of paid leave for qualifying events, but is designed for temporary leave (childbirth, surgery, recovery), not long-term caregiving responsibilities such as dementia or chronic illness care.
6. Workforce Impact Data
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Women in the Labor Force: A Databook” (2025 Update); AARP/NAC Caregiving Survey (2025). Analysis shows significant workforce exits among caregivers, with women disproportionately affected.
Multiple studies document that approximately 1 in 3 caregivers reduces work hours or leaves the workforce entirely due to caregiving responsibilities. The economic impact includes lost wages, reduced retirement savings, and decreased lifetime earnings.
7. Caregiver Discrimination and Employment Law
National Women’s Law Center, “Protecting Caregivers from Workplace Discrimination” (2020): Analysis of caregiver discrimination cases and legal protections. Notes that caregiver discrimination claims have dramatically increased since FMLA was enacted, but legal protections remain inadequate.
Center for WorkLife Law, various publications on family responsibilities discrimination (FRD) and state-level protections.
8. Creative Dismissal/Constructive Discharge
Legal framework recognizing that employers can create conditions that force employees to resign without technically firing them. This practice is particularly common with caregivers who require workplace flexibility.
When applied to caregivers: revoking previously granted accommodations, restructuring roles to eliminate flexibility, or implementing Return-to-Office mandates that are incompatible with caregiving responsibilities.
9. Colorado CARE Act
Legislative draft and policy analysis available at CASI (Caregiver Advocacy Support Initiative) and Professionals Who Care. The proposed Caregiver Accommodations and Rights Enhancement Act would add caregiver status as a protected class under Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act, require reasonable accommodations, prohibit constructive discharge, and establish due process—all at zero cost to the state through use of existing Colorado Civil Rights Division infrastructure.
10. Constitutional Framework: Congress and the Executive
Analysis of the separation of powers and the expansion of executive branch rulemaking in areas where Congress has failed to legislate. In caregiving policy specifically, the absence of modern federal legislation has resulted in a patchwork of agency guidance, waivers, and administrative rules that change with each administration—creating instability for families dependent on consistent caregiving policy.
11. U.S.-Israeli Strikes on Iran, February 28, 2026
Multiple sources: The Washington Post, NPR, CNN, NBC News, Al Jazeera, The Times of Israel (February 28, 2026). The United States and Israel launched coordinated military strikes against Iran on February 28, 2026, in operations codenamed “Operation Epic Fury” (U.S.) and “Roaring Lion” (Israel). President Trump announced “major combat operations” aimed at destroying Iran’s missile capabilities and facilitating regime change, without prior congressional authorization or declaration of war. Iran retaliated with strikes targeting U.S. military bases in Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, as well as targets in Israel. The strikes came during ongoing nuclear negotiations in Oman that had reportedly reached a potential breakthrough just days earlier. This represents the latest example of executive military action without congressional authorization in the pattern stretching from the Korean War (1950) through the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964) to post-9/11 military engagements.
The Revenue Neutral Caregiver is published as part of the “21st Century Guardrails: A Caregiver Lens” series, documenting where caregiving meets systemic failure and why policy must evolve.
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Mark Fukae is the founder of the Caregiver Advocacy Support Initiative (CASI) and serves as Director of Advocacy for Professionals Who Care. He is a registered Colorado volunteer lobbyist, and a 20+ year family caregiver. He drafted the Colorado CARE Act and hosts The Revenue Neutral Caregiver podcast and newsletter.
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21st Century Guardrails, caregivers, family caregivers, taming the executive, Congress, FMLA, ADA, CARE Act, Colorado legislature, caregiver rights, workplace protections, constructive discharge, creative dismissal, multigenerational households, dementia care, policy reform, executive power, congressional capacity, protected class, reasonable accommodations
