Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. It's really about time, because on the deathbed, very few people say, Boy, I wish I had spent more time at the office.

I've got to tell you, from being in business all my life--and I think maybe that's the problem in Washington, not enough of you have actually been on the floor of a business because you think it's always about some kind of a fair treatment. But your definition of ``fair'' is not fair.

When I look at men and women, I don't look at them as men and women. I look at them as moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles. They love to go to soccer games. They love go to baseball games, and they love to go to all those Cub Scout meetings. But you know what? We want to just give them the flexibility, the same as we do in the public sector.

What an odd concept to actually give people the freedom to do what they want with their time and to work a little overtime so they can pick up extra time. My gosh, what a confusing concept that would be.

And this is not by gender, by the way. If you think this is about working mothers, it's also about working fathers. Do you know how many times people don't have that time to go see their sons and daughters in a school play or a baseball game? You want to take that away from them with some kind of phony act today, and you'll line up 15 deep? Talk about insincerity and inflexibility; that's your party.

You're supposed to be the party of the women. We're supposed to be the ones that don't like women. We're giving them a gift that you can never give: the gift of time. Nobody has the ability to do that.

This bill makes it possible for people to spend that precious time with those precious few that they want to.

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