User:West1910/Parental leave in the United States

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Throughout President Joe Biden's current term and cabinet power, the issue of parental leave and improving benefits for parents and children has been a topic of interest for proposals of new legislation, which has been recently readdressed in his extensive budget plan for government spending in 2024. One theme for President Biden's budget plan is centered around parents and children in the United States, in which Biden proposed for a federally mandated, paid 12 week leave program for employees protected under the current Family and Medical Leave Act, as well as penalty free paid sick days off. In this $6.8 trillion budget package, $325 billion would be set aside to be able to fund for this paid time off in replacement of parents taking unpaid leave. This is in addition to other key plans for improving a parents ability to support their children through universal pre-k and making other childcare centers such as daycare cheaper, addressing issues debated around childcare affordability in the United States with rising costs placing a financial impact on working parents. President Biden's heavy budget proposal for the fiscal year of 2024 has sparked uncertainty, however, about the ability to be passed through the government's split Congress and approval from the Republican House. Even before President Biden officially released his laid out budget, Republican members of Congress were expected to be quick to reject this plan. This is in regards to dealing with the government's debt and raising the U.S. debt-ceiling; Biden's budget would increase taxes by 25% for the wealthy and large companies in order to support these programs without federal borrowing, which Biden believes will boost the economy by improving social programs without delving into the government's spending pocket, while the Republican party believes that the government must instead entirely limit spending without taxation to deal with the debt.

This is not the first time President Biden or Congress has proposed creating a mandated paid leave program, as there have been many trials and tribulations to get proposed bills off the ground. President Biden reflected similar program goals from his 2024 fiscal budget plan in his 2021 Build Back Better Plan. In President Biden's Build Back Better Plan, around $200 billion would be put into a paid leave program to allow for paid familial and sick leave for up to 4 weeks, which is revised from the original goal of the bill to have up to 12 weeks of paid leave. Nancy Pelosi and fellow Democratic Congress members were key to keeping the bill alive to pass through the House by cutting down the leave time, but drawbacks from the Senate, especially from Senator Joe Manchin, ultimately lead to hesitancies about winning the Senate vote and further discussion about a paid leave program from the Build Back Better plan had ceased. Prior to this, Congress members have also proposed paid leave programs such as the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act throughout the years. This program would provide employees with 12 week paid leave, in which they would receive up to 66% of their paycheck. Contrasting to President Biden's proposals for paid leave that would fund the program through tax collections, the FAMILY Act would reflect the Social Security model and deduct $2 per week from earnings. Further progress for the passing of the FAMILY Act have been unfulfilled.