CV NEWS FEED // A bipartisan group of six House members, three Republicans and three Democrats, unveiled a plan for expanding paid family leave across the country on Monday.
The Washington Post called the Paid Family Leave Working Group’s four-pillar legislative framework “a significant step in the quest for federal paid leave, which has divided Congress for decades.”
The six lawmakers have been working together on developing a plan since January of last year. The coalition is co-chaired by Reps. Stephanie Bice, R-OK, and Chrissy Houlahan, D-PA.
The group also includes Reps. Colin Allred, D-TX, Julia Letlow, R-LA, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-IA, and Haley Stevens, D-MI.
“Our mission is to provide more families with more paid leave,” the Paid Family Leave Working Group said in a statement announcing the framework Monday. “We look forward to collaborating and working through the options with stakeholders and Members across parties and chambers.”
The first pillar of the newly unveiled framework is the “Public-Private Partnership Paid Leave Pilot,” aimed at “[s]tates who want to set up a new paid leave program.”
The lawmakers wrote:
Fourteen states and the District of Columbia have built their own paid leave systems. To help more states establish a paid leave program that’s right for them, a public-private partnership to facilitate standing up and operating state-run programs is being considered by the Working Group. This option would be available to states that have existing paid leave programs and those seeking to establish a new one.
Secondly, the framework seeks to aid the “Coordination and Harmonization of Paid Leave Benefits Across States.”
This pillar would affect states “with existing programs who need to navigate providing a variety of benefits,” “Multi-state employers and employees who provide and utilize benefits,” and “Potential states who may want to provide benefits in the future.”
“Overall, this will help streamline all stakeholders, increase transparency, and modernize the delivery of benefits,” the lawmakers wrote.
The framework will also authorize “Small Employer Pooling for Paid Leave Insurance,” and “Paid Leave Tax Credits for Small Businesses and Working Families.”
>> READ THE ENTIRE FRAMEWORK HERE <<
“The United States is one of the few countries that does not offer a paid parental leave program for new mothers,” The Washington Post reported. “A growing number of nations are also now offering paid leave for new fathers, leaving the United States far behind most countries on that metric as well.”
The Post also indicated that “Bice and Houlahan, both mothers who got to know each other because they shared a hallway and sat on the House Armed Services Committee together, formed the group with low expectations” almost exactly a year ago.
“When you find somebody across the aisle who doesn’t dismiss you out of hand, then that’s a treasure, you know, that’s somebody to hold on to,” Houlahan said at the time, as quoted in The Post’s January 2023 report.
“And so I think that that’s kind of how we found each other on this,” Houlahan added.
