Dems propose paid family leave, push to reduce child poverty

WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats unveiled a far-reaching — and costly — plan for aid to American families Tuesday, including a guaranteed 12 weeks of family leave for most American workers and permanent extension of help to lowand middle-income families with children.

The proposal by the head of the House’s taxwriting committee, Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Mass., would go significantly further than the family assistance plan that President Joe Biden is expected to release Wednesday in a speech to a joint session of Congress.

The move marks the latest step in an intense debate among Democrats about how aggressively to use their narrow congressional majorities to push their top-priority social programs.

It sets down an important marker going into negotiations with the White House and Republicans over the next few months aimed at producing a final package by late summer or early fall. It also could have the effect of making the White House proposal appear as the moderate alternative, providing Biden some cover in the face of Republican attacks on his spending plans.

The congressional proposal would cost upward of $2 trillion over the next decade; Biden’s plan is expected to pencil out at just over $1.5 trillion, although final details remain in flux. That’s in addition to the roughly $2.2 trillion in additional spending over the next eight years that Biden has proposed for repairing roads and bridges, expanding broadband coverage, upgrading power grids and other infrastructure projects.

Neal’s plan, which incorporates measures offered by other Democratic leaders, has three centerpieces: a new paid familyleave plan, expanded aid for child care and a permanent extension of the near-universal child allowance of $3,000 per child that Congress adopted in March on a one-year basis.

The family leave plan is similar to laws in California and five other states plus the District of Columbia that provide paid leave for the birth or adoption of a child, family health crises and other major events. The benefit would cover at least twothirds of most workers’ incomes, although top earners would get a lower percentage.

The child-care plan includes a payroll tax credit to boost the pay of workers at child-care centers, a traditionally low-wage industry, and it would fund improvements in such facilities. It would also make child care more affordable by increasing the tax credit for those expenses.

“These are things I’ve always wanted to do,” Neal, who has served in Congress for more than three decades, said in an interview.

The “grimness” of the COVID-19 pandemic has focused public attention on the need for greater government assistance to working families, he said, adding that Congress should act quickly before the focus dissipates.

“This is the moment, and we’ve got momentum. In legislative life, momentum is everything,” he said.