The Bill to Pass Paid Leave Is Back

Today, on Wednesday, May 17, congressmen and -women from the House and the Senate gathered on Capitol Hill to mark the reintroduction of comprehensive paid family and medical leave legislation—the FAMILY (Family and Medical Insurance Leave) Act—which would finally bring the United States in line with the rest of the world. 

The US is one of only six countries on the planet, and the only wealthy nation of those, with no national paid family and medical leave policy. Sen. Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, along with 41 colleagues in the Senate and 80 in the House of Representatives, today introduced legislation to pass paid sick leave, and reintroduced a bill to pass paid family and medical leave for workers across America. As an impassioned Representative Rosa DeLauro declared, “We do not take no for an answer. The time is now to do this.”

Rep. DeLauro was speaking alongside Senator Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, who said, “The time is long overdue for Congress to begin listening to the needs of working families and not just big money interests.” 

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the bill’s cosponsor, added, “Without universal paid leave, millions of Americans must choose between their livelihood and the health and well-being of themselves and their families.”