Yesterday, members of the Pro-Life Generation lobbied on Capitol Hill in favor of fiscally-responsible paid family leave. The legislation currently being considered would allow for Social Security flexible, avoid raising taxes, and would be pro-worker and pro-freedom!
With training from Patriot Voices, Students for Life Action lobbied on Capitol Hill to speak on the importance of paid family leave, and more broadly, why moms and dads need to have the time and money to spend those crucial first months with their kids. Many pro-life and conservative voices are working together to push for a fiscally-responsible paid family leave program, and Students for Life of America worked to reach out to members on Capitol Hill, hitting over 50 offices in just a few hours! Offices reached include:
- Senator Ted Cruz
- Senator Mitch McConnell
- Senator Joni Ernst
- Representative Dan Crenshaw
- Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
- Senator Lindsey Graham
- Senator Tim Scott
- Representative Dan Lipinski
- Representative Jim Jordan
- Representative Mark Meadows
- Representative Martha Roby
There are numerous reasons why pro-lifers should support paid family leave. Writing in RealClearPolitics, Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins noted, ”
This month, Students for Life of America will meet with key legislators in Washington, D.C., to support Sens. Joni Ernst (pictured) and Mike Lee’s CRADLE Act – in other words, paid family leave. The legislation, designed to give parents extra paid time with their new child after birth or adoption, is voluntary for employees and dovetails with research about positive outcomes regarding time spent as a family during those precious first few weeks.
According to the bill’s summary document, “The Child Rearing and Development Leave Empowerment (CRADLE) Act would allow both natural and adoptive parents to receive one, two, or three months of paid leave benefits in exchange for postponing the activation of their retirement benefits for two, four, or six months. The benefit would be calculated using the existing Social Security disability formula.”
So how would this actually work? At some point between six months and one month before the expected birth or adoption, the (qualifying) expecting parents would fill out an initial application to notify the SSA of their intention to draw on their Paid Parental Leave benefit. Then, as part of the new child’s application for a Social Security number, parents would inform SSA that they wish to begin receiving that benefit. As long as applications are submitted on time, SSA would direct-deposit the first month’s benefit within two weeks of receiving the second half of the application. The benefit amount would be determined by Social Security’s Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) based on their qualifying wages. They would repay Social Security by postponing the activation of their retirement benefits by two months for every one-month of parental leave taken.”
You can learn more about paid family leave at patriotvoices.com and studentsforlife.org.
