There’s a bill now, though it hasn’t gone very far

During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump backed an idea from his daughter, Ivanka Trump, to provide paid maternity leave, rather than the 12 weeks of unpaid leave offered by the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993.

This idea has now advanced into legislative form, though it hasn’t moved very far.

Trump reiterated his pledge in his State of the Union address, and included it in his proposed budget.

Then, on Aug. 1, 2018, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., introduced S. 3345, the Economic Security for New Parents Act, which would ” provide paid parental leave benefits to parents following the birth or adoption of a child.”

Broadly speaking, the measure would let new parents borrow from their future Social Security benefits in order to pay for their child-related leave. It was based on ideas backed by Ivanka Trump, who authored an op-ed about the idea on July 11, 2018.

Supporters like this approach because it is “budget-neutral” — it doesn’t require new revenue sources, such as taxes.

But critics have been unimpressed. “In the long run, this could be a disaster for lower-income workers and people of color hoping to take leave,” wrote Alan Barber, director of domestic policy at the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research. “For people without retirement benefits (primarily lower-paying jobs and people of color at higher rates than whites), Social Security is often the main source of income in retirement.”

Rubio’s legislation was referred to the Senate Finance Committee, a standard step for such legislation, but it did not see any other official action, and it did not attract any co-sponsors.

Now that the 115th Congress is over, the legislation must be reintroduced in the new Congress.

The introduction of actual legislation is a step forward, even though it’s a small one. It’s enough to rate this promise In the Works.