On parental leave, a bipartisan strike for progress

For the whole of my public service career—and for a long while before that—our nation’s leaders have struggled to navigate the boundary that separates government and family. Conservatives and liberals, both acting with good will, have adopted very different points of view. But that chasm need not doom them to fight about the issue in perpetuity. This month, despite being obscured by a whole variety of other stories coming from Capitol Hill, Senate and House Democrats and Republicans together introduced a bill adjusting the tax code to help families cover the costs of caring for a newborn or a newly adopted child during the baby’s first months at home.

Sens. Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Reps. Colin Allred (D-Texas) and Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) deserve a lot of credit for what they’ve managed to do. In a moment of nearly unprecedented political rancor, they came together to craft a workable solution to a very complex challenge. This is the hard and unappreciated work, of being a public servant. That is exactly what the Framers intended for Congress to do. We should celebrate it, and see how we can apply the lessons to other vexing American challenges.

Some history. The first bill President Bill Clinton signed after assuming office was the Family and Medical Leave Act, which guarantees employees of firms above a certain size time off to care for a child or sick family member. But that leave is not necessarily paid time off—it simply provides that the person taking leave won’t lose their job. In the early 1990s, even that was a stretch. Today, by contrast, some states are using workers compensation funds to replace some of the income families lose during an extended leave.

Despite that progress, Washington today remains largely divided on this important issue. At a moment when deficits are out-of-control, budget hawks are averse to the additional spending (or tax expenditures) and proposals to invest substantial additional sums in paid leave are a non-starter for some. At the same time, the need is greater than ever. With many more women in the workforce and many more children being raised in single-parent homes, fewer new parents can afford to lose their salary in the early months, or cover the costs of early daycare.

Sens. Cassidy and Sinema and Reps. Allred and Stefanik worked collaboratively with other senators and members of the House of Representatives to see if they could find a way forward—a way to help parents without further entangling the federal government. After a great deal of study and some tough negotiation, they emerged with a remarkable and bright, new idea. Their bill would change the way families access the newly expanded Child Tax Credit, letting new parents front-load the benefit during the period they’re deluged with new bills, like those associated with daycare, diapers, and all the other expenses of caring for a small child.

Some will complain that the bill doesn’t go far enough—that more should be done for young families. Others will complain that it goes too far—that Washington has no place entering family life in this way, and that parents should be expected to cover the costs of a newborn on their own. But most Americans, I expect, will take a different view, namely that these conflicting priorities should be balanced. And this bill, by expanding benefits beyond those who have to take off work, expands the potential benefits offered through an existing credit to a much broader universe of parents.

This is what the exhausted, angry majority of Americans want Washington to do. Here, members of both parties have identified a problem, and then worked collaboratively to craft a solution that will make life better. This model can and should be followed on other issues where the left and right disagree. Let’s hope our leaders take notice, and apply the lessons of this collaboration to the range of challenges now caught in the crossfire.

Joseph I. Lieberman, a former senator from Connecticut, is co-chairman of No Labels.