Paid Family and Medical Leave

Floor Speech

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Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, I rise to speak in opposition to the Republican motion to instruct on paid family and medical leave.

Before I move to the issue at hand, I do want to address the very serious allegations against President Trump and the new information we are learning from the memo the White House released today.

It is deeply concerning to learn that President Trump asked Ukrainian President Zelensky to work with the United States to investigate Vice President Biden. Our democracy is at risk, and President Trump has betrayed our country. I support Speaker Pelosi in starting the impeachment inquiry she announced yesterday, and the revelations today make these investigations even more necessary. Paid Family and Medical Leave

Mr. President, I now want to talk about an opportunity that we have in the Senate today to serve the Nation by guaranteeing paid family and medical leave for 2 million Federal workers and their families through the Schatz motion.

Every other industrialized country in the world has some version of paid leave, which allows workers to take care of their loved ones when a medical emergency arises. Yet the vast majority of our workforce in America lacks access to paid leave. That means far too many of our workers are unable to take paid time off if they need to care for a new child, a sick parent, or their spouse. Sadly, this includes 2 million of our Federal employees--and I know the Presiding Officer is aware of this, given his own family situation--but we have a chance to fix that right now. I urge my colleagues to vote yes on the Schatz motion.

However, Senate Republicans have offered an additional motion that would block this benefit from every other working American. This is nothing short of an attack on all workers' access to affordable and accessible paid family and medical leave.

What my Republican colleagues are suggesting is that our workers should work overtime to compensate for family leave. Their motion would require workers to shift around their hours and take on more hours in order to receive the paid time off they need in an emergency situation or when welcoming a new child.

Let me be very clear. This is not a benefit. It is a cynical plan that would erode our American workers' abilities to make ends meet and harm their access to real paid leave. It would hurt those who need this the most, including women, communities of color, and low-wage workers.

Most workers living paycheck to paycheck will not be able to take extra shifts to earn paid leave. Too many families across the country don't even have $400 in savings for emergency expenses. Take Shelby Ramirez Martinez, for example. She found herself in the most untenable situation when her daughter and her father both had simultaneous surgeries scheduled. Shelby is a mom of two, caregiver to her father, and a full-time student and security officer. She didn't have access to paid leave, so she was forced to take 2 weeks off and forgo her pay. She couldn't have planned for that by working overtime and sacrificing time with her daughter or with a flex savings account. What Shelby and all Americans need is dedicated and extended time off for medical emergencies and births.

The Republican motion to instruct calls for employer tax credits that are handouts to large and rich companies like Google, which already provide paid leave and leaves taxpayers footing the bill. They are false incentives for small businesses that still will not be able to afford the leave.

My bill, the FAMILY Act, would provide 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for all workers. It is the only comprehensive proposal that is accessible and affordable for all working Americans. It is modeled off of very successful State programs like California's, ensuring that working Americans do not have to choose between their family and their paycheck.

It shouldn't be so hard. So many workers around the country have new children, sick spouses, or elderly parents, and they need access to paid leave. Today, let's stand together and reject fake paid leave by voting no on the Ernst motion to instruct, for people like Shelby and her family.

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Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment because, as it is written, it really rewards only companies that are very wealthy and successful with additional tax credits to do something they are already doing. By that measure, it will leave most American workers without basic access to leave.

The other potential idea is about shifting hours and suggesting that workers have to work overtime to be able to have paid leave. Every parent in America, every person in America, will have a time when they have a family crisis--whether it is a dying parent, whether it is a sick spouse, whether it is a new child--and we are still the only industrialized country in the world that doesn't have access to national paid leave. We should be able to come together around this commonsense solution that Senator Schatz has offered to create at least the first step to make sure our Federal workers aren't disproportionately harmed because they can't compete with the private sector.

I oppose this amendment, and I urge my colleagues to oppose it.

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