Parents’ ability to take paid family or medical leave has a real impact on child development, according to legislators and advocates who support the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act (H.R. 3712/S. 1810).
Advocacy groups Zero to Three, MomsRising, and the National Partnership for Women & Families held a briefing on Capitol Hill to inform legislators and their staffs about the importance of paid medical leave. They were joined by Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), the bill’s sponsors.
"Paid family and medical leave is an urgent imperative in this country. Workers, families, communities, and our economy are suffering because federal lawmakers have not put in place this basic protection to help families when babies are born or adopted, or illness strikes. It has been more than 20 years since the Family and Medical Leave Act became law, and it’s past time to take the next step and guarantee hardworking families paid leave," Debra L. Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, said in a statement.