Bill Clinton pushes paid family leave in White House appearance
Misty Severi
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Former President Bill Clinton returned to the White House on Thursday and advocated paid family leave. His remarks come days before the 30th anniversary of his signing of the historic Family and Medical Leave Act.
Clinton claimed that although his law was a good starting point in giving people safe time off when they or a family member are sick, it did not go far enough.
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“There are still a lot of problems that cannot be solved without some form of paid leave,” Clinton said.
Two weeks into his presidency, Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act. It guaranteed 12 weeks of unpaid time off for individual sickness, childbirth, and taking care of family members who are sick. Employees that have worked for their employer for at least 12 months and work at a location where the company employs 50 or more employees within 75 miles were qualified for the time off.
“After all these years, I still have more people mention the family leave act to me than any other specific thing I did [as president],” Clinton said during his remarks.
Clinton pushed for bipartisan lawmakers to update the legislation and placed his support behind President Joe Biden, who tried but failed to garner support for additional paid leave during a worker strike last year.
Biden signed a memorandum Thursday that called for federal agencies to give employees unpaid leave even if they have worked for the agency for less than a year. Currently, an employee must work for an agency for a year before they gain access to leave, according to the law.
“No American should ever have to choose between a paycheck and taking care of a family member or taking care of themselves,” Biden said.
Biden has also directed the Office of Personnel Management to provide recommendations on developing policies for workers to seek safety or recover from domestic violence, dating violence, and sexual assault or stalking, which are not covered by the family leave law. Biden did not specify whether it should be paid or unpaid leave.
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A group of Democratic lawmakers has reintroduced the paid family leave law. They are led by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who said she is talking to Republicans on Capitol Hill to help update the legislation, according to the Associated Press.