Key conservative lawmakers have proposed a unique leave program for new parents, including those who adopt, that will provide up to 70% of a poor parent’s income, and are thanking President Trump and first daughter Ivanka Trump for pushing the issue to the front burner.
The plan, dubbed the CRADLE Act, wouldn’t be a budget crusher because it would give natural and adoptive parents up to three months of leave benefits if they agree to delay activating their Social Security retirement by no more than six months.
Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst at a Ripon Society breakfast meeting this week cited the involvement of Trump and his daughter.
“The president’s been really intent on getting this done,” she told the group Tuesday. “I thank him. And I thank his daughter, Ivanka, for working on this issue with us. It has been really important.”
The administration is eager to bring Republicans and Democrats together on the issue. Several Republicans, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, and two House Republicans also have plans and the administration is encouraging all, though hasn’t endorsed a specific path.
The plan, put together by Ernst and Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee, is called the Child Rearing and Development Leave Empowerment. It provides one, two, or three months of benefits in return for delays in Social Security benefits of two, four, or six months.
A benefit sheet showed that some single parents could receive up to 70% of their income to stay at home in the first months of having a child. If the income is near $17,000 a year, the monthly payment would be over $900.
“We are probably the last developed nation that does not have a national paid leave plan,” Ernst said, adding: “So how do we address these issues, but do it in a conservative way? Sen. Mike Lee and I started discussions last year about how we could accomplish this. We want it to be conservative. We need it to be family focused. And we need to give parents a choice. We don’t need to create a massive mandate through the federal government. So we’ve introduced a proposal that would provide a budget-neutral paid parental leave plan.”
Ernst, up for reelection in 2020, also said that the plan is focused on a group that had doubts about the GOP in the 2018 midterm elections: suburban women.
“They were finding that the Republican Party wasn’t meeting their needs, and so they were seeking other opportunities and other options. And folks, we’ve got to overcome that,” said Ernst.
“We can’t just stare a problem in the face and not have a solution. What we want to do is step up, be at the table, look that problem in the face and come up with conservative solutions. So, that’s what we’re focusing on,” she added.
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