Ways and Means Republicans will hold a roundtable titled “Washington Control of Paid Leave & Child Care Strips Choice from Families and Harms Small Business” on Tuesday, November 2nd from 11 am to 12:00 pm ET.

The meeting will focus on how Democrats’ plan for massive government-run paid leave and child care entitlement programs fail America’s working families and harm Main Street businesses.

WITNESSES:

• Carrie Lukas, President, Independent Women’s Forum
• Rachel Greszler, Research Fellow, The Heritage Foundation

This meeting will take place virtually via Cisco WebEx video conferencing.

Members of the public may view the meeting via live webcast available on the Ways and Means Committee Republicans YouTube page HERE.

THEMES FOR MEETING:

• In what would be the largest expansion of the welfare state in our lifetime, Democrats want to create a welfare-without-work Universal Paid Medical and Family Leave program that sticks people in poverty and hooks a new generation on government dependency.
• Democrats’ benefits are untargeted. A new parent earning as much as $250,000 a year could be eligible for more than $1,000 a week for 12 weeks every year, while the neediest families are left behind.
• Republicans have better solutions. The Republican Protecting Worker Paychecks and Family Choice Act, introduced in May 2021, would provide greater flexibility to parents while focusing the greatest benefits on low-wage workers.

BACKGROUND:

• Democrats rejected bipartisan collaboration in favor of a shortsighted, one-size-fits all approach.
• Democrats want to spend billions on government-run paid leave and child care programs that put Washington in charge of every aspect of American life from cradle to grave, not parents.
• The “Protecting Worker Paychecks and Family Choice Act” provides common sense alternatives that ensure more Americans have access to family leave and flexibility that suits their workplaces.
• Republican’s proposal would:
  • Expand access to paid family and medical leave by incentivizing more employers to provide leave and focusing on gaps in coverage;
  • Preserve what’s working by expanding the employer-provided paid family and medical leave tax credit and creating new family savings accounts;
  • Incentivize and reduces costs for small employers to offer paid family leave by providing more generous tax credits and paving the way for pooling and cost sharing; and
  • Promote equitable access to paid leave by targeting policies to low-wage workers, who are least likely to receive paid leave through their employers.

A section-by-section of the discussion draft can be found here.