After years of stalled efforts, a bipartisan paid leave bill is finally moving through Congress. The More Paid Leave for More Americans Act would create a federal grant program to incentivize states to offer paid family and medical leave—a shift from the current patchwork where only 14 states and D.C. have such programs.
Lelaine Bigelow, who helped pass the Federal Employee Paid Leave Act and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, argues the bill is imperfect but essential. “Lasting policy change is built through one imperfect step at a time,” she writes. The measure would require participating states to provide at least six weeks of paid leave with income-scaled wage replacement, covering caregiving and medical needs—not just parental leave.
Currently, the Family and Medical Leave Act guarantees 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave, but many workers don’t qualify due to employer size, tenure, or hours. “The workers who most need paid leave are often the least likely to have it,” Bigelow notes. For millions, taking time off to recover from illness, care for a loved one, or welcome a child means sacrificing income or their job.
Some progressive advocates prefer the FAMILY Act, a comprehensive Democratic proposal offering 12 weeks of paid leave to all workers. Bigelow acknowledges that goal but warns that waiting for a perfect bill risks another decade of inaction. “If we want universal paid leave to become a lasting national commitment, we have to think about how we build the bipartisan support needed to get there,” she says. The new bill, she argues, is not an alternative but a step toward a national program.
The strategy mirrors state-level history. California’s first paid leave law offered only six weeks at 55% wage replacement—criticized as insufficient. Yet hundreds of thousands gained benefits, support grew, and lawmakers later expanded it to eight weeks at 70–90% replacement. Similarly, the FMLA established the right to return to work after a crisis, and state programs built on that foundation. Bigelow sees the new bill as starting that cycle for the more than 30 states without paid leave.
She also points to evolving norms: when federal parental leave passed, some feared it would reinforce caregiving roles for women. Instead, data shows fathers are taking leave in greater numbers, slowly shifting cultural expectations. “Policy doesn’t just respond to culture—it helps shape it,” she writes.
The bill faces a divided Congress, but its bipartisan sponsorship signals potential for passage. Bigelow urges lawmakers not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. “We cannot build a paid leave system that only exists when one party governs,” she says. For now, the measure offers a rare chance for progress on an issue that touches nearly every working family.
Related: GLP-1 drugs cut long-term sick leave by 17%, and a new bipartisan AI bill would give DHS emergency shutdown powers. The paid leave bill also echoes another bipartisan effort to break the shutdown cycle.
