Family Leave: Back on Congress' Radar?

By Rebeldad Brian Reid

The United States is so backwards when it comes to family leave that I am prepared to celebrate any successes. The fact that our world-lagging Family and Medical Leave Act hasn't yet been gutted is, in a certain twisted way, good news, and this month has brought additional reasons for optimism.

As Stephen Barr noted a couple of weeks ago, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), champion of the federal employee (and of the tortured, not-quite-right Internet-related metaphor), is pushing for a bill that would give federal employees paid leave -- eight weeks for moms, five days for dads.

There are a whole bunch of reasons why this is hardly the ideal policy or the ideal time to push it. Naturally, I would have been a lot happier if Stevens had introduced the bill a decade ago, when his party was in power, a Dem was in the White House and there was plenty of money still sloshing around the budget to pay for this sort of thing. Extending the law to all employees, and not just federal workers, would also be a good start. It would be nice if mothers could get paid leave for a full 12 weeks -- the amount of time off guaranteed under FMLA -- just like they do in Stevens's office. And, given my passion for gender-neutrality and the fact that paid leave quite literally changed my life, I would much rather have seen a bill that offered fathers more than just a token paid leave.

But beggars can't be choosers, and advocates for more enlightened leave policies in the U.S. tend to be beggars. Stevens' proposal may be the best we can do for now. In the meantime, I look forward to seeing more of these issues reach the light of day. As I noted back in November, there have been a number of really interesting and thoughtful pro-balance bills introduced to absolute silence.

Of course, I've lived here long enough that I have no expectation that we'll see actual legislation passed anytime soon, but I've also learned that good things happen when issues retain a certain level of visibility for long enough. And there's a part of me that hopes against hope that when the current crop of early-announcing presidential candidates goes looking for a warm-and-fuzzy policy stance that will unite all of the media-created voting demographics (NASCAR dads, soccer moms, etc.), they'll stumble across this one. After all, nothing is more American than supporting motherhood (or fatherhood) and apple pie, right?

Brian Reid writes about parenting and work-family balance. You can read his blog at rebeldad.com.

By Brian Reid |  January 25, 2007; 7:00 AM ET  | Category:  Flexibility
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