Clinton Heralds Plan To Expand Paid Family Leave

By BENJAMIN SARLIN, Special to the Sun | October 17, 2007

Speaking in New Hampshire, Senator Clinton yesterday announced a plan to expand paid family leave laws on the state and national level.

"Too many Americans feel trapped between being a good parent and being a good worker," Mrs. Clinton said. "It's about time we stopped just talking about family values and started pursuing policies that truly value families."

Under Mrs. Clinton's proposal, the federal government would spend more than $1 billion a year to encourage states to operate their own paid family leave programs with a goal of having a program in every state by 2016. In addition, Mrs. Clinton also hoped to expand the Family Medical Leave Act to cover an additional 13 million workers. The act provides unpaid leave to new parents, workers caring for sick family members, and those recovering from illness. In addition, the presidential candidate said she would increase funding for child-care programs. A spokesman for the Republican National Committee, Danny Diaz, criticized the proposal's cost, saying, "Hillary Clinton's agenda for working families is pretty clear: higher taxes to pay for outrageous spending proposals totaling more than $750 billion." A policy advisor to Mrs. Clinton, Brian Deese, said the proposal's $1.75 billion-a-year cost would be covered by closing a loophole on tax shelters, which he said would raise $26 billion dollars in revenue over 10 years, according to congressional estimates.

"With sound policies and sensible investments, we can give parents more choices to make the decisions that are best for them," Mrs. Clinton said of the plan. "We can make life a little easier for everyone — for mothers and for fathers — to do the most important job there is in any society: raising and nurturing the next generation."

The campaign of one of Mrs. Clinton's rivals, Senator Dodd of Connecticut, issued a statement praising Mrs. Clinton and asked that she co-sponsor related legislation this year with Mr. Dodd, who was an author of the original Family Medical Leave Act.