WASHINGTON D.C., (WENY) — U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand D-New York has been joined by politicians throughout Congress to propose funding for paid family leave for 2024. This February, the Family and Medical Leave Act will celebrate its 30-year anniversary, and Gillibrand is hoping to expand services for new parents and sick family members.
“Imagine how many parents could have been able to stay home with their children while they were learning to use devices. While schools still didn’t have PPE. While we still didn’t have testing up and running. It would have changed everything,” said Sen. Gillibrand
According to Pew Research Center, the United States is the only industrialized country without a national paid leave program. Gillibrand said she and other politicians have been working on the issue for a better part of a decade.
“(With paid family leave) We would have been able to have an economy continue to thrive. The five million women who lost their job during the pandemic, many of them would’ve been able to stay employed, stay with their employer. It would have been a very different outcome,” said Sen. Gillibrand of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gillibrand is part of a group of lawmakers proposing funding for paid family leave be included in the White House budget for fiscal year 2024.
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