In a 377-48 vote, the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, on Wednesday evening. In addition to authorizing $738 billion in spending, the bill includes a genuine win for more than 2 million federal workers. It provides paid family leave to federal workers for the birth, adoption, or foster care of a child, starting Oct. 1, 2020.
That's 12 weeks of paid leave to more than 2 million people federal workers, or at least the ones who are growing their families. House Democrats tried to get all family and medical leave included in the package, so that workers could also get paid time off to deal with their own or a family member's medical needs. "It's really unfortunate the comprehensive leave was cut out,” Jessica Mason, a senior policy analyst for the National Partnership for Women and Families, told The Washington Post. Nevertheless, she called it "an exciting signal on both sides of the aisle there is finally an appetite to tackle the paid-leave crisis in this country."
In fact, Trump is all for it and will sign the bill after it passes the Senate sometime next week. He probably bought into because the House agreed he could have his Space Force, which is possibly the least harmful crazy idea Trump has come up with thus far.
Not everyone is happy with it. Sen. Ron Johnson, Republican tool from Wisconsin, took the most parochial view possible, saying he "doesn't think workers in Oshkosh will be happy they are subsidizing federal workers even more." He also said, "I think it’s unfortunate. I think it sets a very dangerous precedent." Johnson calls himself "pro-life," but believes giving the parents he would force to have children the benefit of three months to start raising them is a step too far.
Meanwhile, there's an Ivanka Trump-led "summit" this week at the White House to discuss her and Sen. Marco Rubio's hare-brained scheme to create "paid family leave" that consists of workers stealing from their future selves by taking their Social Security payments to pay for leave. By definition, this is not "paid family leave." It's theft. There are other modest leave programs that will be discussed at the summit, apparently, some of which are bipartisan. According to the Post, though, Democrats aren't invited to Ivanka's party.