Paid Leave Expert Praises President's Investments in Care: Funding and Passing Paid Family and Medical Leave and Other Essential Policies Is the “Great Unfinished Business of Our Time”

In response to the release of President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget, which commits $325 billion over 10 years to establishing a permanent, national comprehensive paid family and medical leave program and proposes other historic investments in care-focused policies, Vicki Shabo, Senior Fellow for Paid Leave Policy and Strategy at New America’s Better Life Lab, released the following statement:

“The Biden Administration is making history in its Fiscal Year 2024 budget by committing to the strongest commitment any administration has ever made to creating a national paid family and medical leave program and making transformational investments in child care, pre-K, and home- and community-based care. The administration’s proposals meet people where they are – at kitchen tables, in carpool lines, at their work stations, and by their loved one’s bedsides. This is the great unfinished business of our time.

President Biden’s budget rightly identifies care policies, along with other reforms to correct imbalances in the economy and the country’s tax structures, as essential to economic progress and growth. Investments in policies that enable people to care for themselves and their loved ones are integral to building a stronger economy and labor force. They advance gender, racial, and economic equity, promote short- and long-term financial security, and reduce health disparities, all of which will move the economy – and families – forward.

The President’s comprehensive paid family and medical leave proposal comes on the heels of the 30th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act, a landmark law which guarantees job-protected unpaid leave to just over half of the United States workforce. At a historic celebration at the White House, the President and Vice President shared their own personal family caregiving stories and reaffirmed their commitment to national paid family and medical leave for all.

This budget request solidifies that commitment by proposing a national program that reaches all working people, no matter where they live, work or their job, with 12 weeks of paid leave funded by creating more fairness in the nation’s tax system. It includes funding for states that are exploring paid leave programs. It also calls for Congress to guarantee all workers up to seven paid sick days per year.

Paid leave is – and has long been – a tremendously popular policy. It is exactly the kind of policy that lawmakers of all parties should embrace. It speaks directly to the challenges that new parents, family caregivers and all workers with serious health issues face - in rural and urban communities, across party lines, and across family circumstances. At a time of harmful divisions, this is a policy that brings people together.

Now is the time for bold action, and the Biden administration’s budget plan makes clear that the administration is committed to care.”

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About New America and the Better Life Lab
New America is dedicated to renewing the promise of America, bringing us closer to our nation’s highest ideals. We’re a different kind of think tank: one dedicated to public problem solving. Our team of visionary researchers, changemakers, technologists, and storytellers study and seize the opportunities presented by dramatic social and technological change. We search for powerful ideas, wherever they are, and collaborate with civic innovators around the country to develop evidence-based solutions.

The Better Life Lab is New America's gender equity program. The Lab works in solidarity with the movement for work-family justice to transform culture and policy so that people across race, class, ethnicity and gender thrive across the arc of their lives.