Bipartisan paid family leave bill advances in Pennsylvania House

Lawmakers on the Pennsylvania House Labor & Industry Committee voted along partisan lines this week to advance legislation that would create a paid family leave program in Pennsylvania.

House Bill 200, sponsored by Democratic state Rep. Dan Miller and Republican state Rep. Natalie Mihalek, was reported out of committee with a 14-12 vote, despite having sponsors from members of both political parties. 

Miller told colleagues that nearly 15 states across the nation have some version of a paid leave program, adding that paid leave “is a luxury for too many people.” According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, a nonprofit that promotes bipartisanship in the legislative process, 13 states and Washington, D.C. have developed mandatory paid family leave systems, while another 10 states have established voluntary paid family leave programs. 

“This is a bill that works in other states … that has lifted millions of people into paid leave, that has helped countless families be sure that they’re there when they need to be there,” Miller said prior to the committee vote on Tuesday. “This represents what will happen. It’s just a matter of time – and while we’re debating this, families are missing those opportunities to be there when they need to be there.”

The legislation, referred to by supporters as the Family Care Act, would task the state Department of Labor & Industry with creating and administering a paid family leave program that would provide eligible Pennsylvanians with between 12 and 20 weeks of paid leave, depending on the reason for eligibility. 

Those eligible for paid leave benefits under the proposal include parents and guardians caring for new children, people caring for family members with serious medical conditions, pregnant individuals and victims of violence. 

Paid leave benefits would be funded through mandatory payroll contributions and paid out of a new Family and Medical Leave Fund outlined in the legislation. 

Critics of the legislation expressed reservations about the Department of Labor & Industry managing the program after the agency oversaw the payout of unemployment compensation benefits and grappled with an unemployment case backlog during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I have a real problem with handing this large of a program over to an agency that has repeatedly failed in the unemployment compensation system, time and time again,” said state Rep. Seth Grove, the minority chair of the House Labor & Industry Committee. “Do I have to remind members of the complete hell we had to go through under the pandemic when our constituents couldn’t get access to unemployment compensation?”

“I’m always open to negotiation to try to put in a spot where we can all have a great ‘Kumbaya’ moment,” Grove added. “This is, by far, not it.”

While all of the Republicans on the committee voted against the bill, not all Republicans in the room opposed it. State Rep. Natalie Mihalek spoke in support of the bill prior to the vote, calling paid family leave a necessity. 

“I spent the majority of my life living paycheck-to-paycheck, including when all three of my children were born, and I didn’t have access to a single paid day off for any of them. So we made the choice that – I had a baby, had a C-section on Monday; I was back in the courtroom on Friday,” Mihalek said. “I wouldn’t wish that upon my worst enemy. This is not a luxury; it’s a necessity.”

Mihalek also credited President Donald Trump for taking action in 2019 to provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave for federal workers. Mihalek and Democratic state Rep. Jennifer O’Mara wrote in an op-ed last month that “access to paid leave would play a critical role in giving new parents a better opportunity to provide a more stable home for their babies from the start.”

As lawmakers on the Labor & Industry Committee considered the proposal, Mihalek framed the bill as a policy that would help families all across the commonwealth. 

“We talk a lot in this building about making life easier for families,” she added. “This is certainly one of the most impactful things that we could do as a legislature to make life easier for families.”

Mihalek also read a message from another Republican co-sponsor of the bill, state Rep. K.C. Tomlinson, who said the bill is “common sense for the world we live in today.”

With the bill now awaiting consideration from the state House of Representatives, proponents of the legislation plan to hold a rally day at the Pennsylvania Capitol on March 26, where state lawmakers and other supporters will call for passage of the bill.