Small Bipartisan Group Pushes To Change Lack Of US Paid Family Leave Policy

A small, bipartisan group of lawmakers in the nation’s capital is steadily plugging away at legislation to end America’s distinction as the only wealthy nation in the world not to have a national paid family leave policy.

Oklahoma Congresswoman Stephanie Bice is the lead Republican on the Paid Family Leave working group, which certainly isn’t the first to try and tackle this issue; it’s not even the first bipartisan attempt at paid leave, but Bice believes her group may have the best chance of succeeding.

“My goal has always been to start from scratch, to do the homework, the hard work, to really understand the challenges across every spectrum,” said Rep. Bice (R-OK5) in an interview this week.

And that's what Bice and the other five members of the working group are doing right now. She says they’re currently in the fact-gathering stage, engaging with potential stakeholders. Last week, the group sat down with experts in small business.

“So, we had chambers of commerce that came to speak to the working group to give us a perspective on what a sole proprietor may need, what a 5-person business may need,” Bice explained, “when looking at putting together he paid leave policy for the nation.”

Bice acknowledges this is no easy task -- different stakeholders have different needs, more than a dozen states already have their own programs in place, and members of the group differ on how paid family leave should be funded.

“I’d rather have this done through the private sector,” Bice acknowledged, “but that’s why it’s going to be challenging because some states do have state-run programs that are offering some type of paid family leave initiative.”

What this 5-woman, 1-man group has going for it, the leaders say, is a shared understanding — a conviction — that paid leave is a necessity, as well as a realistic understanding of their mission.

“Not necessarily to solve this problem, you know, once and for all,” said the group’s Democratic leader, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), “but at least have more people having access to paid leave than currently do now.”

That’s about 25 percent of all workers in the U.S.

Up next for the group is meeting with larger businesses, including some with multi-state operations. Congresswoman Bice says it’s possible they could have legislation ready to introduce by the end of the year.