[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 22 (Thursday, February 2, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S224-S225]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                  Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, it was 30 years ago to this very day that 
I came here to give one of my first speeches on the Senate floor, and I 
talked about a friend of mine back in Washington State. She was a mom. 
She had just gotten heartbreaking news. Her son was dying of leukemia. 
And then another gut punch: Her employer told her she had to choose 
between being in the hospital with her son or being at her job, and if 
she wasn't there, she was going to lose it.
  To this day, that makes me so angry. No one should face such a cruel 
decision. No one should ever be forced to choose between taking care of 
themselves and their loved ones and being able to make ends meet.
  So at the time, 30 years ago, I was on the floor to urge my 
colleagues to pass the Family and Medical Leave Act, which provided 
job-protected, unpaid leave to workers across the country, because the 
bottom line was that every worker should know that if they have a 
family emergency, they can prioritize their family's health without 
jeopardizing their family's economic security.
  I was so thrilled when, just a few days later, we won, and that bill 
became law. But even back then, it was clear that bill was just a first 
step. It was clear we needed to keep fighting for the next one. And I 
am still here, and I am still fighting because we are way behind where 
we should be. We are way behind our peers in the world when it comes to 
giving working families the support they need, and it is holding us 
back.
  For one thing, there are still too many loopholes that leave people 
without the simple promise of unpaid leave. Too many workers today in 
this country are denied the basic protections of the Family and Medical 
Leave Act that we passed into law 30 years ago. I have been fighting to 
close those loopholes and expand protections for decades so workers are 
not left out in the cold during an emergency just because they work at 
a small business or they work part time or just because their family 
might look little different--for example, if they are a caregiver for a 
niece or a nephew or a grandchild. No one should be punished for that. 
So it is time that we pass legislation to guarantee that those workers 
get the same protections as everybody else.
  Let me be clear. Passing bills to do this, that is just updating our 
laws to guarantee unpaid leave for all. That is just making good on the 
promise we made to workers 30 years ago. In other words, that is just 
the next step, but it is far from the last one. Our families need a lot 
more. They deserve so much better. There is no excuse for our utter 
lack of a national paid leave program. It is bad for families, as any 
working mom or dad can tell you or anyone who cares for a family member 
with a serious health condition. They know this all too well.
  By the way, it is bad for our economy because the lack of paid leave 
means that employees lose their wages and businesses lose their 
workers. We are facing serious workforce shortages in key sectors of 
our economy today. Let me tell you, the lack of a national paid leave 
program is not helping; it is hurting. We are the only Nation among our 
peers that has not figured that out yet. We are the only one that 
hasn't gotten this done. The reality is, it makes our economy less 
competitive on the world stage. But you don't have to look at other 
countries to see how urgent this is; just listen to people right here.
  I shared my friend's story all those years ago, but today, across the 
country, there are still so many families facing unthinkable choices. 
There are still so many people--working moms in particular--sharing 
their own deeply personal stories about this, stories of the painful 
recovery after giving birth and the incredibly special but, let's face 
it, pretty tough first weeks of bonding with a newborn child; stories 
of the grief and the pain of caring for a seriously ill child; sitting 
at a hospital bedside of a seriously ill parent recovering from surgery 
or coping with a cancer diagnosis; with the added stress, at that 
hardest time of your life, about how you are going to make your next 
month's rent if you have to take unpaid time off of work. Anyone who 
has been in those situations knows it is hard. You have so much you are 
worried about.
  Here in Congress, we should be working to make that an easier time 
for families. We should be taking that worry off of parents' shoulders. 
We should be making sure that no worker has to choose between their 
family and their job, between their family and their paycheck.
  So as we mark the anniversary today of the Family and Medical Leave 
Act, I want to urge my colleagues, let's celebrate the legacy of that 
bill, of course, by building on it. Let it be this Congress that we 
finally, at long last, take the much-needed next steps that families 
have been waiting for, that they have been calling for. Let's ensure 
that the Family and Medical Leave Act protects all working families. 
Let's establish a national paid leave program.

[[Page S225]]

Let's tackle the childcare crisis with bold reforms. Let's build an 
economy that actually works for our families here.
  Now, I want to end today with the same words that I actually said 30 
years ago right here on the Senate floor:

       If one mother is able to sit with her seriously ill son 
     without fear of losing her life savings, if one son is able 
     to hold the hand of his dying mother, if one of us--you or 
     I--is able to care for someone we love when they need us the 
     most, then the time and the energy spent on [these issues has 
     been] worth it.

  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader.

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