House Members Want Bipartisan Paid Leave In Trump’s ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill’

Democratic Pennsylvania Rep. Chrissy Houlahan and Republican Oklahoma Rep. Stephanie Bice introduced bipartisan legislation focused on paid family leave Wednesday with hopes to get it secured in the forthcoming GOP tax bill.

The More Paid Leave for More Americans Act has two parts: the Paid Family Leave Public Partnerships Act and the Interstate Paid Leave Action Network Act (I-PLAN Act) that Houlahan and Bice hope to secure in the upcoming bill, which President Donald Trump has called “one big, beautiful bill.” The congresswomen are co-chairs of the Bipartisan House Paid Family Leave Working Group, and their legislation has been a “culmination of two years of collaboration” between the two women and Republican Iowa Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Randy Feenstra as well as Louisiana Rep. Julia Letlow, and Democratic Reps. Haley Stevens of Michigan, Don Beyer of Virginia and Jimmy Gomez of California.

The Paid Family Leave Public Partnerships Act is a three year pilot program overseen by the Department of Labor and provides states with grants to establish paid family leave programs. To qualify for the grants, states must offer between 50% and 67% of wage replacement based on income with a benefits cap at 150% of the state’s average weekly wage. They also must offer at least six weeks of paid leave after childbirth or adoption, have a public-private partnership model, and participate in the I-PLAN for uniformity across the nation.