Congressional Leaders Just Pledged to Pass Paid Leave This Year — Here’s How We Got Here

Washington, D.C., Aug. 4 — Pride. Gratitude. Awe. Friendship. Anticipation. That’s what I felt standing in the sun in front of the U.S. Capitol, holding a sign that said “Paid Leave for All” on one side and “Care Can’t Wait” on the other. Finally, this is momentum.

Surrounded by longtime colleagues across the paid leave movement on both sides, I teared up with many others as my friend, MomsRising’s Vice President Ruth Martin, described her mother’s recent illness and death and the caregiving choices she and her siblings were forced to make because our country’s care system is broken. And I marveled at the bravery of the Metropolitan AFL-CIO’s Dyana Forester as she talked about her own experience as a young mother navigating multiple, overlapping sources of hardship. The other movement-speakers were equally poignant.

As I took in the event, I thought about the road to this day — a day on which the most senior members of U.S. congressional leadership pledged to make 2021 the year that national paid leave becomes a reality and, in the words of Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), promised that paid leave would “not leave be left on the cutting room floor,” as Congress develops and passes a jobs and families plan this fall.

It has taken years — decades — to get here.

Twenty-eight years ago tomorrow, August 5th, 1993, was the first day that workers across the country had any federal work-family protections. That was the day that eligible workers could begin to use the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to care for a new child, a seriously ill or injured loved one, or their own serious health issue. But the FMLA guarantees only unpaid leave, it carves out some of the most marginalized workers, and it took more than nine years to pass.

Ten years ago, bolstered by the first-ever paid leave program’s success in California and on the heels of paid family leave implementation in New Jersey, advocates and longtime champion Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and the late Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), began drafting what would become the FAMILY Act, a bill introduced in 2013 by Rep. DeLauro and fierce advocate, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). The FAMILY Act proposes a national paid family and medical leave program, constructed as social insurance and modeled on state programs. At the time the bill was drafted, it reflected the best elements of the two existing state programs. In the years since we have learned a lot about what else is needed to ensure a policy promotes equity and maximizes accessibility.

When the FAMILY Act was first introduced, it was hard to build majority support in Congress, even among Democrats, despite already high levels of bipartisan public support. That first Congress, just six Senators cosponsored the bill, joined by 101 House members. Now, more than three dozen Senators and more than 200 House members cosponsored the bill. At the time of that first bill introduction, many members saw paid leave as a nice-to-have, not a must-have. They failed to appreciate its direct connection to gender, racial and economic equity, to health equity and to the country’s economic competitiveness.

By 2016, four more states had passed paid leave. Numerous studies showed its multiple values and benefits. Paid leave became a presidential campaign issue, with support from Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Even Donald Trump had a paid maternity leave plan.

The 2018 election marked a turning point, as more women, people of color, LGBTQ and younger people were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives than ever before. More members of Congress could personally relate to the need for paid leave and could understand the difference it makes in people’s lives.

Three years later, we are in the midst of a global pandemic that revealed how broken the country’s care systems are and how central care economy investments are to our national economy, as well as to individual families. President Joe Biden included national paid family and medical leave in his campaign platform and in his legislative economic jobs and families economic recovery plan. Paid leave is bolstered by a robust outside campaign and many, many partners from a diverse set of organizations, including philanthropy and the private sector — brought together after years of organizational building and collaboration. And the paid leave programs in place or soon to be launched in nine states and the District of Columbia show that paid leave works — as well as how it can work better.

To hear congressional leadership, including Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Finance Chair Wyden, Senate HELP Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and paid leave warrior Senator Gillibrand, pledge to enact paid leave here today is historic and meaningful. To know that staff in their offices and in the office of House Ways & Means Chair Richard Neal (D-Mass.) are working hard to craft the details of legislation and planning to fight hard for it is heartening. And to know that the Paid Leave for All bus and the movement around it will keep rolling until paid leave for all is won is inspiring.

If a reconciliation bill makes its way to the floors of the House and Senate this year, this is the year paid leave will win.

Visit PaidLeaveforAll.org and follow Paid Leave for All on Instagram and Twitter for more information on the bus tour and on ways to get involved in winning paid family and medical leave for all.

The views and opinions expressed by the authors of this series are their own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of New America.

Vicki Shabo, senior fellow at New America’s Better Life Lab, is also a volunteer advisor to the paid leave for all campaign. Here, and previously at the National Partnership for Women & Families, she has been working intensively on paid leave policy, advocacy and coalition-building since 2010.