As President Trump focuses on the United States’ role in NATO and foreign affairs this week, other members of the White House are focusing closer to home. Within the home, actually. Ivanka Trump recently wrote an opinion piece for Fox News to bring attention to the importance of paid family leave for American families.
Paid family leave has been one of Ms. Trump’s focus areas during her work as Advisor to the President. She has used her influence and prominence on the national stage to bring attention to the lack of support for working parents. Many are forced to choose between taking time off to care for their new child and returning to work to earn a much-needed paycheck to support their growing family.
According to a report published by the PEW Research Center in 2016, the United States was the only country of the 41 researched that did not have some paid parental leave guarantee. The next lowest country, New Zealand, offered around 2 months of paid leave to new parents. Ten of the other countries offered a year or more of paid parental leave, with Estonia offering the most at over a year and a half.
Support Across the Aisle
In her remarks, Ivanka Trump mentioned how the President has supported paid family leave in the United States since his days as a Republican candidate in 2016. It was a controversial talking point then, but has made some progress with conservative legislators since. It has certainly gained traction among the American public, as many start to look at other nations’ policies and see how ours is lacking.
But according to Ms. Trump, even that is not enough to make real change.
Ms. Trump calls for support from Republicans and Democrats on this issue. “We must recognize their failure to gain majority consensus within or across party lines,” she said of both parties’ attempts to pass paid-leave legislation.
In her role as Advisor to the President, Ms. Trump calls on leaders from both parties to rethink their plans in favor of making progress. “Our focus must turn to policy ideas that can secure congressional approval,” she said. This should include healthy debate and may include compromise, but Ms. Trump’s focus was on getting to a solution over party loyalties.
She recognizes that determining the specifics of a paid family-leave plan is not easy, but it is worth it. “If executed responsibly,” she said, “paid family leave is targeted government action with the right incentives—designed to increase the independence, health and dignity of our citizens.”
The overarching theme of Ms. Trump’s opinion piece was to urge legislators to work together to come up with a solution that improves paid family leave in America. As expected, she highlighted Republican-sponsored plans, but she still called on members of both parties to work together.
“As our lawmakers arrive to the negotiating table, let us applaud their efforts, encourage them to reach across the aisle, and create smart and lasting policy that does right by all,” she said.
Read my OpEd on Paid Family Leave in advance of today’s Senate Finance hearings:#PFL https://t.co/l1gbskngCA
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) July 11, 2018
Tax Incentives for Businesses
Ivanka Trump took the opportunity of her opinion piece to show support for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act sponsored by Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE) and passed in 2017. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act includes incentives for businesses that provide 12 weeks of paid family leave to eligible employees.
Ms. Trump continued to say that “a tax credit alone will not suffice.” She called on members of both parties to work together at a hearing, held by the Senate Finance Committees’ Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions and Family Policy.
The hearing was held this week. Senators Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) each presented their individual proposed legislation. Ivanka Trump was in attendance, along with policy experts, and even a crying baby, overheard early in the television coverage.
.@IvankaTrump attends Senate hearing on paid family leave … LIVE now on C-SPAN3 https://t.co/RGBxWxHmjI pic.twitter.com/8IQaNLSRW5
— CSPAN (@cspan) July 11, 2018
“The guarantee is for unpaid leave,” said Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Chairman of the hearing, when speaking of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, the current law of the land addressing family leave. This can be difficult for working families to factor into their budget and often makes them choose to return to work before they are ready because their family relies on their income.
Senator Cassidy continued to outline 3 important reasons to support paid family leave. They included “improved health outcomes” for babies and mothers’ “helping families manage work and family responsibilities” for lower-income families; and “creating incentives to stay in the work force” and ultimately strengthen the American labor pool.
Ranking Member Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) also opened the hearing with a statement supporting a paid family leave plan. “If we truly value the dignity of work, we need to recognize that paid family leave is something all workers should have the opportunity to earn,” he said. “Today’s bipartisan hearing is an important baby step forward. Members of both parties are coming together to recognize this simply isn’t acceptable in a rich, modern economy.”
The hearing marks the important bipartisan support efforts being made to create a sustainable, common sense paid family leave plan. Ms. Trump played a crucial role in making this step happen, which was acknowledged by the panel’s leadership.
“No doubt, members of Congress will have diverse opinions about how to structure the policy and how to pay for it. But rather than allowing differences to prevent progress, our lawmakers are coming together to find the best solution,” said Ms. Trump in her Fox News piece.
