Unanimous Consent Request--S. 247

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President.

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, let me just say that over the last year, we have heard constantly that you should ``stay home when you are sick.'' It is good advice, of course, and the right thing to do for public health, and I certainly encourage people to do it. But what I thought about every single time was, what about the workers who can't just stay home? There are a lot of them.

Right now, 32 million American workers do not have access to a single paid sick day. Let me repeat that. Thirty-two million people in the United States will lose pay if they stay home because they are sick or because they have to care for a sick loved one. Only 20 percent of private sector workers in the United States have paid family leave through their employer, meaning millions of workers will lose pay if they give birth or have a sick child, for just a few examples.

What I hear from workers in these situations is that they need to know they have the ability to take time off without worrying about losing their paycheck and without worrying about whether their boss will allow them.

That is why I am on the floor today to object in the strongest terms to the misleadingly titled bill the Senator from Utah just proposed. His bill would allow employers to offer workers' comp time instead of time-and-a-half pay when workers put in overtime.

Here is why this won't work when it comes to taking paid leave. Under this bill, the so-called Working Families Flexibility Act, workers would have no guaranteed right to use the comp time they have earned even when there is an emergency. And it actually gets worse from there. Under this bill, if a worker's claim is denied, their only option to fight back is to request that their comp time be cashed out, and the employer has a whole month to comply. As of March 2021, more than half of Americans said they were living paycheck to paycheck. A month is not going to work for them.

Anyone who is serious about making sure workers can support themselves and care for themselves and their families should reject this bill and work with my colleagues and me to pass Senator Gillibrand's FAMILY Act and the Healthy Families Act Congresswoman DeLauro and I introduced. Our legislation would actually truly give workers flexibility and the weight off their shoulders as they navigate the kinds of tough times we all encounter in our lives.

Look, when this pandemic struck, we saw how costly not having paid leave has been for our workers, for our families, for our businesses, and for our country. Millions of workers were forced to choose between the well-being of themselves and their coworkers and their families or their paycheck. Millions were infected, and millions more--especially women and workers of color--were forced out of their jobs in large part due to lacking paid leave or quality, affordable childcare options.

This pandemic has really made it more clear than ever: It is far past time we made paid leave a right for all, not just a privilege for some.

Now is not the time for more false choices and stress for our workers. It is a time to get real solutions over the finish line, so I object.

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