119-hres735

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 735 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
H. RES. 735

Supporting the designation of the month of July as ``American Families 
 Month''.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 September 18, 2025

 Mr. Cloud (for himself and Mr. Moore of Alabama) submitted the 
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Education 
 and Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

 RESOLUTION

Supporting the designation of the month of July as ``American Families 
 Month''.

Whereas parents are the first and primary caretakers and educators of their 
 children;
Whereas the 2022 Joint Economic Report states that ``the most intimate and 
 central form of social capital is the family--an institution with 
 primary responsibility for nurturing and transmitting societal values to 
 the next generation of children. Strong families enable investment in 
 the human capital of children that increases their skills and 
 productivity as adults, leading to increased long-run economic 
 growth.'';
Whereas parents equip the next generation with the skills, morals, and ideals 
 necessary to create a functioning society;
Whereas family structure is the basic building block of society upon which 
 civilization rests;
Whereas former Chair of the Boston University Department of Sociology, Brigitte 
 Berger, has written that ``the nuclear family provided the emerging 
 democratic capitalist societies of the West with their organizing 
 principles and moral charter'' and ``the degree to which this particular 
 type of family gave shape and meaning to the political and economic 
 institutions of modern democratic societies is so pronounced and lasting 
 that family and culture have become inextricably intertwined'';
Whereas healthy marriages between a man and a woman are an unmitigated good for 
 families and society;
Whereas the nuclear family is an integral part of American society;
Whereas Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in 1831, ``There is certainly no country in 
 the world where the tie of marriage is more respected than in 
 America.'';
Whereas the stability and security of the nuclear family have contributed to and 
 are the most effective at providing a social safety net;
Whereas the social safety net a healthy family provides contributes to a culture 
 of entrepreneurship and risk-taking which has resulted in unprecedented 
 innovation and enterprise;
Whereas healthy families contribute to safer neighborhoods, towns, and cities;
Whereas Harvard sociologist Robert Sampson concluded that ``family structure is 
 one of the strongest, if not the strongest, predictor[s] of variations 
 in urban violence across cities in the United States'';
Whereas University of Virginia sociologist Brad Wilcox and colleagues found that 
 ``the share of single parents in a neighborhood, it turns out, is a 
 bigger predictor of incarceration in adulthood than race, education, and 
 poverty in a neighborhood'';
Whereas family stability is the best predictor of outcomes for children;
Whereas former Princeton professor and sociologist Sara McLanahan concluded in 
 her study ``Fragile Families and the Reproduction of Poverty'' that 
 ``non-marital childbearing reproduces class and racial disparities 
 through its association with partnership instability and multi-partnered 
 fertility'';
Whereas the ``Fragile Families and the Reproduction of Poverty'' study also 
 states that ``children who live with stably single mothers and children 
 who live with mothers who experience multiple partnership changes show 
 higher levels of aggression and anxiety/depression than children who 
 live with stably married parents'';
Whereas stably married families provide the optimal conditions for positive 
 outcomes for children;
Whereas marriage and the nuclear family are among the most effective means to 
 combat poverty;
Whereas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, marriage 
 rates fell to an all-time low in 2020; and
Whereas declining marriage rates and family formation pose a threat to the 
 social and economic well-being of the United States: Now, therefore, be 
 it
 Resolved, That the House of Representatives--

    (1) recognizes that stably married mothers and fathers 
 provide the best outcomes for children;

    (2) recognizes the importance that the nuclear family has 
 played in the success and prosperity of the United States;

    (3) acknowledges the far-reaching detrimental impacts that 
 declining marriage rates have on the United States;

    (4) calls for policies that support nuclear families and 
 remove barriers to family formation; and

    (5) supports the designation of ``American Families Month'' 
 to raise awareness about the importance and benefits of strong, 
 stably married families and to call the general public to 
 actions that support and build strong, stably married families.
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