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Floor Speech

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Mrs. FISCHER. Madam President, over the past few months, we heard from both sides of the aisle about how American families need more support. We have heard discussions about the child tax credit, childcare costs, and dozens more issues that affect parents and their children.

Earlier this year, Senator Vance summed up nicely what could be a mission statement for Republicans to use on this issue. He said:

We want to provide more options so that people are raising families in a thriving and happy way in this country.

Madam President, my colleagues and I are here today to talk about Republican solutions. And I want to talk specifically about one solution to the family leave problem that has not just Republican but also bipartisan support.

Across America, only 27 percent of workers in the private sector have access to paid family leave. The other three-fourths have to choose between making ends meet and taking care of their families, whether that is welcoming a newborn or nursing an aging parent. That is not a choice that Americans should have to make.

My colleagues on the other side of the aisle have proposed a few ideas to solve this problem. Some of them advocate for a new nationwide government entitlement program, some advocate for a mandate that would force businesses to pay out of pocket for their employees' leave.

Neither of those options is practical or politically realistic. Our Nation is already trillions of dollars in debt and a mandate, well, that would squash small businesses that simply don't have the resources to survive while paying an employee who is not at work.

But there is a solution, a way to offer employees paid time off without creating a new mandatory program or forcing businesses to suffer huge losses. What I am talking about here are the mom-and-pop businesses especially, Main Street businesses that maybe they have one employee, two employees, maybe five.

And we have a solution. There is a way to offer employees paid time off without creating a new mandatory program or forcing those small businesses to suffer losses. We can provide tax benefits to businesses that offer employees paid leave, which will, in turn, free up resources that businesses can use to pay the salaries of their workers on leave. This is a tried-and-true method. It works. I know because I have done it before.

In 2017, Senator Angus King and I created the first nationwide paid family leave policy in the history of the United States. We created a tax credit for employers who voluntarily offer up to 12 weeks of paid leave to their employees, and President Trump signed it into law. But that tax credit is going to expire, and it is going to expire at the end of 2025.

To ensure that businesses can keep offering paid leave, we need to make sure that we make that credit permanent as well as make it easier for businesses to qualify for it and to use it. So that is why Senator King and I have, again, introduced the Paid Family Medical Leave Tax Credit Extension and Enhancement Act. Our bill makes that credit permanent, and it also expands it. It supports additional options for financing paid leave, such as paid family leave insurance. It also allows employers to begin offering paid family medical leave to workers sooner after being hired.

Our bill also includes a strategy for educating businesses and employees about the option to receive this credit so that more people know about it. It requires the Small Business Administration and the IRS to conduct targeted outreach and technical assistance for those who need it, which will raise awareness of the credit and expand the number of Americans who have paid leave.

This is a Republican solution, and it is one that everyone can get on board with. It already has a track record of bipartisan support here in Congress, and we have the perfect opportunity to pass this tax credit yet again in the new year.

As my colleagues on the Finance Committee begin working on tax policy for 2025 and onward, I would urge them to remember America's families; remember how much they need access to paid family leave and remember what they voted for this past November--an administration who will look out for parents and for kids. We have a solution for America's paid leave problem. It is just a matter of expanding it and enacting it.

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