Understanding the (unpassed) FAMILY Act

In February 2019, Sen. Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [D-NY] introduced the “Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act” or FAMILY Act (S.463). It has been “read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance” AKA nothing has happened to it, despite Congress being in session for many many months after its introduction.

Along with 25 essential findings that the Bill signers put forward that are all clear as day reasons to support passing the bill, is this plain fact: “Without a national paid leave policy, the United States is missing out on substantial economic activity, which has been estimated at approximately $500,000,000,000 by the Department of Labor, as women in particular are held back from participating in the workforce in equal shares.”

The purpose of this Act—

(1) to help working people, including single working parents and workers in dual-earner families, afford to take time away from work to provide care for a family member;

(2) to provide workers with a reasonable level of wage replacement during time away from work for a serious health condition, for the birth or adoption of a child, for the care of a child, spouse, or parent who has a serious health condition, for the care of an injured servicemember, or for qualifying exigencies arising from the deployment of a servicemember;

(3) to address sex discrimination, promote the goal of equal employment opportunity for women and men, and to provide relief when employers violate the law; and

(4) to accomplish the purposes described in paragraphs (1), (2), and (3) in a manner that accommodates the legitimate interests of employers.

The main method of accomplishing these purposes is to establish the Office of Paid Family and Medical Leave, which would administer a family and medical leave insurance fund. This is BASELINE stuff that other high income countries assume as a given and our congress has not so far as considered it for a vote.

American Families can say FML about the FAMILY Act.