Here’s the bad news: Paid sick leave may not be something American workers get from the COVID-19 stimulus package after all.
The good news about the $ 1,400 Stimulus Checks and Stimulus Package? Democrats, still pointing out bipartisanism, seem unwilling to forget about Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 stimulus plan (as they did in the Obama administration).
But because Democrats are unwilling to abolish the filibuster, they are limited in what they can put into the law, and that means the bill’s paid sick leave regime that would have given over 100 million workers access to paid COVID- . 19 sick leave, may not be passable.
Three congressional aides involved in the negotiations told HuffPost that the paid vacation provisions in Biden’s proposal are unlikely to be included in the final bill, despite having been shown to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, help working parents keep their jobs and stay small Businesses in business – and business support for the programs.
The original $ 1.9 trillion proposal included federal government-mandated emergency paid vacation leave for 106 million Americans and removed rules that restricted employers on vacation under the (now-expired) rules of the Family First coronavirus passed last March Response Act had to offer. If this paid sick leave were made law, 106 million Americans would get 14 weeks of medical vacation if needed due to COVID-19. Workers would also be entitled to a benefit of up to $ 1,400 per week. Well that probably won’t happen.
Here’s what you need to know why paid sick leave is likely to be removed from the plan, making it far less effective than it should be.
Why Are Democrats Considering Ditching COVID-19 Paid Sick Leave?
Senate Democrats can currently pass laws in two ways. You can either go through the normal process of voting through the legislation, which in this case would almost certainly result in a GOP filibuster. To invoke Cloture and defeat the Filibuster it takes 60 votes, which means 10 Republican Senators would have to vote for this bill. It just won’t happen.
The other option is budget voting, a legislative process that only requires 50 votes to pass but is limited to certain types of tax laws that change federal spending, revenue, and the federal debt ceiling. Senate Democrats believe the mandate that employers pay their workers for the time they are not working is not one of the changes that can be passed through a budget vote.
Why is paid vacation so important during the pandemic?
Workers exposed to COVID-19 were able to stay at home with paid medical leave passed in bipartisan bill under the Trump administration and not risk exposing others without worrying about losing valuable income or theirs To make work. You could also take care of sick family members. Those who wanted to make an appointment for a vaccine during the working day could do so under the Paid Vacation Act.
The paid family vacation, which ended in January but was expected to be topped up in the new economic stimulus package, also made it possible for any parent with children whose school has to close to them to stay at home.
Some workers have had access to this paid vacation as part of previous recovery plans – and the extended paid vacation proposed by Biden is unlikely to endure.
What will the Democrats do instead?
As part of the reconciliation, Democrats can definitely add tax credits to the bill. They would give money back to some small businesses to give their workers paid time off to deal with COVID-19 issues. However, these credits are only a few years away from actual paid vacation and do not provide the same number of employees with access to the paid vacation they really need.
Could the Democrats still take paid sick leave?
If the Democrats decided it was imperative to have a vacation, they could get rid of the filibuster and pass the bill with those provisions by a simple majority. The fact that this very sensible, petty-democratic task is called the “nuclear option” is a sign of how dysfunctional the Senate is and how unlikely it is that this reform will be passed.
What’s next for paid sick leave?
The most likely scenario seems to be this bill, passed with the above tax credits, and the Democrats had to try again. That could mean eliminating the filibuster, but there is hope that with more lead time they can figure out some parliamentary maneuvers that include family and sick leave paid through the budget balancing process into law.
Meanwhile, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro are expected to reintroduce the Family Act, a law on permanent paid vacation that stalled at last Congress. It should find a more receptive audience now that both Houses of Congress and the Presidency are in democratic hands.
On the one hand, it is disappointing that the United States has not passed policies that do so much good (and that are so common around the world). On the flip side, the momentum for paid family vacations is growing significantly, and the US is likely closer to getting them off than ever before.
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