, and public policy events in washington, d.c. and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. >> senator john mccain died on saturday at his home in the donut, arizona. on wednesday the senator will lie in date at the arizona state capitol, follow the next day by a funeral in phoenix. friday, senator mccain will lie in fate of the u.s. capitol, where he served since 1983. saturday, another funeral will be held at washington national cathedral. and on sunday senator mccain will be buried at the u.s. naval academy cemetery in annapolis, maryland. a senate subcommittee recently held a hearing on allowing them least to take time off work for the birth of a child or to take care of a sick family member. senators jodey ernst and kiersten gillibrand testified on

different legislative proposals. this is an hour and a half. senator: the senate finance committee will come to order. i rank and welcome everyone to today's hearing, examining the importance of paid family leave for american working families. i recognize distinguished

colleagues with us, senators ernst and gillibrand not here yet, but will be. i also welcome miss ivanka trump, advisor to the president and fervent advocate for children and working families. hearing, thankis you for joining, and after we make opening statements we will proceed with two panels of witnesses and two big colleagues will make comments and then a second panel of experts with testimony. my statement begins now. working families are the core of our social average and economic success. american workers have increasingly felt good about their prospects. a recent poll shows economic optimism at a full year high. for a decade, wages and growth have been stagnant. health are in education cost skyrocketing. over the past two years i have helped families to get better

money in the pocket books to changes of life. tax cuts have reflected in higher paychecks. i continue to work with colleagues on lowering health care cost. to consider another thing that may help, today we will examine for working benefit families. a 2017 q poll shows overwhelming majorities of americans support paid a second maternity leave. eternity leave and family leave have strong public support. yet views on the funding of the program very. by way of background, the family and medical leave act of 1993 provides most of workers with up to 12 weeks of job protected orve to care for a new child address and illness, but it does not cover all workers, such as some small business and part-time employees, and the guarantee is for unpaid leave. some workers cannot afford to take time off.

paid timeceive some off for illness and holidays, access toworkers have to find paid family leave as opposed other types of leave and paid family leave is rare in lower income households. there are three reasons to support paid leave for workers. first, improving health outcomes . i'm a doctor. i'm concerned about infant and maternal souls. infant mortality is higher in the united dates than in 25 of 28 other developed countries. a recent buddy reports that if a new mother takes paid leave, re-admittance rates for her and her infant decreased by 50%. second, helping families manage work and home responsibilities, particularly for lower income workers. among individuals taking family or medical leave, only 38% of families with incomes less than

$30,000 per year receive any pay and for families of higher .ncomes, 74% receive paid leave thirdly, creating incentives to stay in the workforce, supporting productivity and economic growth. long-term economic growth is a function of labor productivity. with an aging population it is essential the workforce remains strong. a 2012 run her's study found that women who worked 20 or more hours per week before childbirth and to take paid leave afterwards are 90% more likely to be working nine months postpartum compared to women who does not take leave. mothers who took paid leave for 10% higher than before paid leave was instituted. saw year's tax cuts bill workers getting some help. first it included a two-year pilot program audit -- offered by senators fisher in king,

offering low to moderate income employees at least two weeks of paid leave. numerous companies announced new or expanded a leave programs after the tax bill passed, including starbucks, walmart, and lows. as we shall see today there is bipartisan interest in expanding leave. i'm pleased to convene this initial conversation to concern -- consider trade-offs and policy options. preserving the retirement benefits promised to american workers is paramount. any proposal that relies on social security cannot weaken social security and ideally strengthens. the 2012 trustees report projects that social security in 2034nds go bankrupt and in order to close the shortfall, benefits today would have to be cut i-17 percent for all beneficiaries, including those already correcting. we can let that happen, doing nothing is not an option.

the windfall elimination provision impacts many state civil servants, though not directly related to today's topic it must included in today's discussion of preserving and strengthening social security in the future. i'm pleased to convene these panels of experts to consider policies that help working families and create incentives for americans to stay in the work and build the greatest economies in the world. senator: thank you, senator cassidy. welcome, senators. thank you for joining us for this important discussion. thank you, senator cassidy, for we can work ways together to expand the social security safety net to include paid family leave. it's a welcome glimpse of what we could achieve together if we focus on the needs of working families. right now it is a drag on the economy and it holds workers back. american families lose $21

billion in wages each year because they don't have access to paid leave. people that work in jobs like ours, the congress and the white house, where suits, some made in the united states, some made elsewhere in have the edifice, may not realize that the vast majority of american workers have no paid family leave at all areas for too many americans, hard work simply doesn't pay off . when i say we don't value work in this country at a talk just about wages, i'm talking about benefits people or more sugar. 85% of the work was, -- or should earn. 85% of the workforce, if a mother has a baby, she has no single day of time off. if she isn't back to work the day after giving birth, she doesn't get a paycheck. this is an just about new mothers. all sorts of workers face impossible choices. do they go to work knowing the risk to their own health and others around them? or do they stay home and lose a

paycheck? hundreds of thousands, probably millions of americans faced that choice every day. do they send a sick child to school knowing that they are risking the health of their daughter and the health of the entire classroom? or do they jeopardize their job and give up a by taking a day off? if they grow old, workers often have to care for aging parents. when sons over the age of 50 leave the workforce to care for a parent, they lose an average of $300,000 in earnings and retirement savings. daughters lose even more. average $320,000. if we truly value the dignity of work in this country, if we value the dignity of work we need to recognize that paid family leave is something that all workers should have the opportunity to earn. this is an important baby step forward, members coming together to recognize that this simply is on acceptable in a rich, modern economy, acknowledging that we have to band our social insurance to include paid family

medical leave. it shouldn't be a partisan issue . it affects every sector of the economy and workers of all ages with all types of families. paid leave is good for business. a recent survey found that the majority of large companies support the creation of aid family and medical leave programs on the state or federal level funded through tax contributions. such a program would be particularly good for small businesses, making these programs more affordable and putting small businesses on a more even footing with large corporations that can afford bigger benefit packages, allowing them for talent. today democrats have put forward a thoughtful approach that i believe should reach consensus. a common sense hill that builds the most successful and popular program we have in this country, social security, offering low-cost portable benefits that all american workers would earn, paid for by both workers and employers.

it's an approach that has already been adopted by five states, soon to be six, and the district of columbia. ideasublican shared some on the table. i have some and i want to thank them for their desire to work together on this issue. democrats are at the table ready to negotiate and reach a solution to become law. unfortunately the approach that some of our colleagues are currently proposing amounts to cutting social security for workers who need it most. using retirement security to fund paid time off from work when you have a child is not paid family leave at all, it's robbing from your retirement to be able to care for loved ones now. the wage workers in physically demanding jobs are more likely to be forced into early retirement because of the toll these jobs take on their bodies. that already means taking a social security cut and this would only make that bigger. two of p's the federalists, the president of the independent that sheorum wrote

views this plan as a first step to "transform the current pay-as-you-go system into one that pre-funds future benefits with assets that belong to individuals. in other words, some of the people pushing this planned view see it as the beginning of the process of dismantling social security as we know it. together, as both senators here know, with a plan that is a first step towards privatizing social security, the bedrock of our social safety net, that's no place to start. we know that only covering parental leave excludes the vast majority of workers. three quarters of americans who use the family medical leave act take time off to care for their an health and for that of seriously ill family member. any national paid leave plan should build on the family medical leave act and reflect the well-established laid out in that law. personal medical leave and military caregiving. must be able to have honest debate about these critical

issues. though we have different perspectives we are working towards the same goals. we want to help families navigate a changing economy and make sure that hard work days off. we believe that all work has dignity and that's an important thing to remember. senator: thank you, senator brown. before we go to the first panel, let me recognize house colleagues were here. peter king, lou barletta, and the ivanka trump. mr. trump, you have done so much to drive attention to this issue at this point. thank you all for being here and for your interest. now to our senate colleague. our first panel has two distinguished colleagues. first, let's hear from sen. of iowa, followed by senator gillibrand, of new york. they have both displayed leadership in their advocacy for american workers and families. we are pleased to welcome you here. senator ernst? sen. ernst: thank you. ranking member, chair cassidy,

think for inviting me to testify before you today. i also want to thank my dear friend and colleague, kirsten gillibran of new york. thank you for being an important voice on this issue. the issue of paid leave is incredibly important. fathers,of mothers, ran parents, and families across the country struggle with the realities of child birth and infant care, while hard to put food on the table and raise strong and healthy families. it is long overdue that congress not just have a conversation on these matters, but get serious about a path forward. thatmother myself, i know being a parent is never an easy task. additionally throughout my career i have worked with and heard from numerous working parents, and routing goes on my own staff who have troubled to navigate the challenges of alanson work with the need to provide safe and supportive care for their new babies.

toe are fortunate enough have paid benefits provided by their employers. however, many families in america do not have this luxury. to a list rate just a difficult it is for working moms and dads, i want to share the story of a can to chew and named jessica. jessica is the epitome of what it means to be in iowa and. .he has -- iowan she has been working since 16, from working in a call center to waitressing, her current position. she is also married and she and her husband are the proud parents of two and boys. they work day in and out to provide for their growing family. along the way it hasn't been easy. money at times has been tight and both jessica and her husband had to decide between working and meeting rent and taking time to care for everyone.

common sense tells us it's important for parents to spend time with their newborn. the bond born when parents first lay eyes on their child on the becomes stronger the longer the time they have to's and together. a recent study by the international journal of child care and education policy found the amount of time that new parents spend around the newborn has a direct impact -- influence on the quality of mother to child interactions, as well as childhood and adolescent outcomes. family leave policies have been shown to increase breast cap -- breast-feeding rates are in -- and are associated with better infant health outcomes and decreased rates of low birth weight and infant mortality's. when jessica had her son, carter, she was only able to take off two weeks before returning to work. despite the fact that she had a c-section that made it difficult and painful for her to work in the first few weeks after delivery.

she would go to work in the morning, but when her lunch break came she would rush to the bathroom, pump milk, and then run home to give it to her an hour.all within her husband works nights, so when she returned home at the only had aday, she few precious hours to spend with carter and her husband before he had to go to work. jessica is expecting her third child and is due in december. she is unsure how much time she and her husband will be able to take off. jessica's experience is a similar story in households around the country. as a nation we know that we can do better for our families. president trump highlighted paid leave during his state of the union address and his administration was the first the budget for a national paid leave program. leadership of a ivanka trump, the administration has worked closely to develop a dialogue with congress. i'm glad to see that the members of the house and the senate on

both sides of the aisle are both finally paying attention to this issue, recognizing that moms and dads across the country are trying to figure out how to ensure that their babies are well cared for and nurtured in those precious first few weeks of life. died paying attention to these needs, we are recognizing the important economic contribution give so families will much to our communities. our policy should reflect the evolving needs of this work that and reduce barriers posed challenges to those balancing work and family. i want to attract consensus paid leave policy and is liable for lawyers and the economy, recognizing that working parents by definition are an essential part of many businesses. few businesses can afford more taxes or cuts to their bottom line.

so, we have to find a solution that doesn't make the economy worse off or decrease the jobs available to working parents. i feel it's important to target a paid leave benefits to individuals that don't have access to these benefits, such as the two thirds of low income families that don't have paid leave. these families are also more likely to work on an hourly basis, where if they do not work , they do not get paid. leave,n't have sick vacation, or other forms of leave that can help to bridge the gap. for the past few months i have been working with senators rubio and lee on the issue of paid leave. we have been exploring how do parents could elect to receive through leave benefit social security. in return participants would defer the collection of social security benefits upon retirement. we are still working through the complexities but i am hopeful that we can craft a policy that

will benefit most families and those who need it most. thank you, again, chairman cassidy and ranking member brown for holding this hearing today. i look forward to working with .ou on the issue of a leave helping families is an issue that we can all the on and i hope you can have a productive dialogue on how congress can best help them. thank you very much. ms. o'boyle: -- sen. cassidy: thank you, senator ernst. senator gillibrand? sen. gillibrand: thank you. i want to recognize my colleague or her interest in this bill and having now we are about producing a real paid leave plan. here's the truth, at some point every person here, every person you know is going to have a situation where you have to take some time off from your work to meet and care for a family member. medical emergency. maybe a spouse is diagnosed with

ancer or you to take care of aging parent or someone diagnosed with alzheimer's. or maybe you are starting a new baby, or just had a new like your constituent, jessica. whatever the case, no american should have to choose between their family and a paycheck. but if you don't have paid leave, that's exactly the choice you have to make and it's especially true if you are low-wage job. that's unfortunately what millions of americans have to deal with every time there is a family emergency. right now 85% of workers don't have access to paid family medical leave and the lower income workers are less likely to have it. the only industrialized country in the world that doesn't guarantee some form of paid leave. reports show that this costs families $20 billion a year. and it also creates what we call the sticky floor, where too many women get stuck in low-wage jobs with no chance of advancement because every time there is a

family emergency and they feel the need to ramp off, they can only ramp icon with a lower wage job lower down the wrong and they never get off the sticky floor. congress desperately need to catch up. we need a national paid leave program now. the good news is that both sides of the aisle recognize that this is a national problem. individual states are taking the lead all over the country with bipartisan bills and state laws offering reeled -- real paid leave programs and i'm grateful to my republican colleagues committed to supporting the national paid leave program based on perhaps a social security model. but i urge them to support a comprehensive and fiscally responsible idea called the family act, and here's why. first, it is earned benefits, meaning it travels with you, whether you are working full-time, part-time, big companies, small companies, wherever you live or work. second, the way we have written it, it's really affordable. it's about the cost of a cup of

coffee per week for you and your employer. two dollars per week on average. not a great deal of money to know that if your mother is dying, you could be by her side. or if you have a new infant or special needs child, you could be there when they need you. it also guarantees or wages for up to three month. it's affordable, its comprehensive, it's an amount of time that can make a huge difference if you have an illness in the family or a new baby. all workers,ers which i think is really important for all the debates that we have. it's not just about women and new babies. we all have family emergencies. anyone of us, if our spouses were critically ill, we would want to be by their side and we have that flexibility but that's not true for most working people in this country. we want to make sure it covers all family members for all reasons. the family act covers birth or adoption, taking care of an older family member, addressing one's own personal family

medical needs. we know that we have been able to do that. we have that flexibility. let's sure that -- make sure that every worker has that. lowering the playing field for small businesses. i heard this over and over again, even from heidi heitkamp in north dakota. the people with the small businesses said that they never compete with the business, never be paying two payrolls at the same time or offer this. any incentive that is a tax cut doesn't help the small business owner, they will never have enough money to do it. if you are a small state like north dakota, your seat is never going to have a plan like california or new york. so, this type of idea, because alls comprehensive, covers states. small states, big states, small businesses, big is this is. small businesses today cannot google, or the ernst and young

law firms that offer paid leave. that is why the small business groups have endorsed this bill. it has also been endorsed by larger businesses, they know how good it is for their business. they know that paid leave is good for profits. oh good for productivity and former route. finally, the family act does not get a false choice between having to take money early from your social security count, it so that yourre retirement benefits are there for you. that is why i think this is the we could all get behind, it makes sense, doesn't cost a lot of money and covers everybody. it works with the gig economy, part-time workers, it works with everybody because it is an earned benefit like social security. i hope this is something that people can endorse. it has already been endorsed by a coalition of fortune 500 companies and small businesses because it is good for business,

good for the country, good for the economy and we know it is good for families. thank you. sen. cassidy: sen. cassidy: which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] thank you both. -- sen. cassidy: thank you both. could we have our second panel? i will now introduce our three witnesses. is the resident scholar at the american enterprise institute, studying public engine reform, retirement income policy and public sector pay and benefits. before joining aei he was the principal deputy commissioner of .he socials 30 administration he has also been an associate director of the white house

national economic council, a member of george w. bush's submission to strengthen social security and a member of president obama's financial oversight and management or puerto rico. he owns -- holds a bachelors degree from queens university belfast northern ireland, masters degree from cambridge university at the university of london and a phd from the london school of economics. is the vice president at the national partnership are women and families, focused on paid leave, fair pay and other work as policies. previously she tracked this law at a large international law firm and worked as a political strategist. she also worked on the hill as a staffer. she graduated with a bachelor of arts in politics and american studies from ramona college and has a masters degree in political science from the university of michigan and earn her law degree with high honors

from the university of north carolina, where she served as editor-in-chief of the north carolina law review. after law school she clerked for michael murphy of the u.s. court of appeals for the 10th circuit in salt lake city. is ay, carolyn o'boyle managing director in the deloitte operation, serving as a leader of the talent strategy innovation team. as a coo she is responsible for managing strategic operations for the talent function, which encompasses business advisory, alumni,ion mobility, total rewards, and a shared services function. she has been researching and topic ofn the generational differences in the workforce, including the role that hr organizations can play in managing differences. she holds a ba from bowdoin college and an mba from m.i.t., sloan school of management. we are now pleased to recognize mr. biggs, followed by sen. --st and sen. gillibrand:

followed by ms. shabo and ms. o'boyle. mr. biggs: thank you for the opportunity to discuss the paid parental leave and how it might be provided on an affordable basis by the social security program. it can provide important benefits to children while enabling mothers to remain attached to prior jobs, increasing earnings substantially once the mother has returned to the workforce. research in other countries and in the u.s. has found that allowing this paid leave allows them to remain attached to the prior job rather than feeling forced to quit to spend time with a newborn. in doing so mothers retain the seniority and job specific skills allowing them to earn higher wages once they return to work. analysis of the california paid leave program finds races in hours arebirth work lifted by 17% and most of the so-called gender wage gap is in

truth falling female wages after childbirth. if california's results held up on a nationwide basis, the gender wage gap already shrinking would narrow considerably. many large employers already offer paid parental leave as a way to attract and retain quality employees, however smaller lawyers and startups often lack the financial capacity to offer paid leave, placing them at a different -- disadvantage relative to larger firms. there is room for public policy to make paid parental leave more widely available. however, there are practical impediments to enacting it. some proposals would finance it through a new payroll tax. the political reality is that many americans would not favor such attacks. particularly those who could not or would not take parental leave and would be forced to subsidize those who do. opinion falls find the many americans believe that employers should provide a leave. research finds that when

employers are required to provide employee benefits they often react by reducing wages or hiring fewer employees eligible for those and if it's. this could hurt employment opportunities for women of childbearing age. others have proposed savings accounts where young workers to set aside money to fund paid leave. young workers often have low incomes and carry student loans and may have little time to say before the first child arrives. in an article for "the wall street journal" kristin schapiro and i designed an idea to work around these practical issues. such -- socialy security benefit but must agree to an increase in social security retirement age or some other offsetting reduction to future retirement benefits. for instance, if it were paid for 12 weeks, the beneficiary retirementt a normal age 25 weeks higher than other current laws. it does not prevent the person from claiming benefits as early as age 62 but results in a

benefit that is about 3% lower than it otherwise would be. it is easy to conclude that any reduction in future retirement benefits is unacceptable. however if paid parental leave produces anything like the post childbirth earnings increases found in california, the higher earnings would boost social security benefits by more than enough to make up for the increase in the normal retirement age. for a low income woman, the 10% higher earnings found in california would lead to a 5% to 9% higher net social security benefit even after the retirement age increase was used to pay back the parental leave benefit. pardon me. by using the progressive benefit formula of social security, the benefits would be targeted towards lower earners less likely to be provided with a leave at the urban institute basedted social security benefits would replace around 59% of prior earnings while lower income women could expect

a replacement rate of about 69%. finally, it's understandable to worry about adding a parental leave component to an already underfunded social security program. but the costs of this paid leave proposal should be put in perspective. on an annual basis social security benefit costs would increase by a maximum of 1% in the mid-2040's and later as individuals who claim leave as they were tired, total security benefit costs would be to percent lower than for a law. to close, it has benefits for parents, parents, children, and the economy. many are already eligible for paid leave through the employers but i create a policy makers we can extend this leave to new parents, all of them. thank you very much areas sen. cassidy: -- much. sen. cassidy: ms. o'boyle: -- ms. shabo? ms. shabo: the lack of paid

leave in this country is a real problem. creating ais part of thriving economy. there are a lot of numbers being thrown around here with a lot of confusion about how we might do this. it's not that confusing, jackson simple. the need for paid leave is clear and it doesn't distinguish by political party, family type or care need. no one should be forced to miss their baby's first smile, be prevented from helping apparent or god forbid a child it's cancer, or being kept away for caring for a spouse as she recovers from serious injury sustained in a military service. we fervently hope that today is the beginning of a congressional debate the thickly brings urgently needed change from more than 100 million working people that don't have paid family leave through their jobs. in my short time today am going to do my best to touch on three things, the importance of addressing family and medical leave, not just parental leave, the reasonable features of the

parental act, and grave concerns about the social security penalty approach that mr. biggs can described and i'm very grateful for the incredible research that he has shown the benefits of paid leave policies and we agree on those. first, to reflect on the needs of america, any plan must be comprehensive. three quarters of people who use the family and medical leave act do so to care for a seriously a loved one, their own serious careh issue, or military purposes. the parental leave only plan would leave millions of evil behind. health emergencies should never trigger financial emergencies, but for too many people unavoidable paid and medical leave means dipping into savings are marked for another purpose, taking on debt, putting up paying bills or using public assistance. an investment in paid family and medical leave is an investment work, responsibility, and independence. today 43.5 million people care for ill, injured, or disabled

loved ones and most of those folks are holding jobs and working full-time. the aging population means that demand for family there will row dramatically and in communities across the country being ripped apart by opioids and substance abuse, paid leave means family members can provide care and support recovery. people also need -- and most of them don't have, paid leave to address their own serious health issues. this exacerbates the disparities plaguing our nation today. these are new or expecting mothers with life-threatening complications, working people ,hat sustain a serious injury or older people who are forced to remain in the workforce longer than ever. the occupations with the most projected job growth are disproportionately low-wage low-quality jobs often held by women and the contingent and get workers face especially precarious or dances, taking me to my second point. as you consider policy options,

see that this is a modest and reasonable approach. many conservative voters in focus groups that we conducted seemedst fall thought it like a republican idea and they preferred it to the parents only plan that was proposed in the president's budget, personal tax-free savings accounts as part of the tax bill. six states and d.c. have passed paid leave plans and nearly all of them go beyond family leave act in more than one way. we have learned a lot i seeing how they work. this would provide personal, medical leave for up to 12 weeks , but the duration is modest compared to many of those states , replacing two thirds of a worker's wages, a minimum level genderordability and equity. new state laws that have passed with substantial my partisans of , including sen. cantwell: watkins date, would do more than that. people need to take time away from the jobs it would be protected from retaliation, especially critical for low --

low-wage workers. it would be celsus amy and cover all benefits. to anticipate and area of concern, one that mr. biggs addressed, i have never heard anything in the nine years i have been working on this to suggest he paid leave payroll deductions in those states are a real problem or low-wage workers. national state link shows that voters are willing to pay and businesses are two areas -- are, too. up family actp benefits. taking me to my third point, i will try to go quickly. there are four distinct and qualifying problems for taking social security penalties for paid leave. the cost people are not at all trivial. the plan described earlier would result in a 6% benefit cut or $12,000 for a mother of two bank . women and low-wage workers would be harmed the most.

any plan that only covers parents excludes 75% of leave takers and would create rule ironies for people who use it early in their lives and then needed later on. they would face reduced retirement either way. third, wage replacement and maximum benefit amounts are too low to help middle and working class people, could exacerbate rather than help gender inequities and it doesn't contemplate any new resources for an agency that needs them. it is not budget neutral and slightly would accelerate trust fund challenges. the family act is a real paid leave plan -- mr. biggs: kenny wrapup? -- sen. cassidy: kenny wrapup? -- can you wrapup? ms. shabo: yes. in this moment of intense divisions the plan has the moment to support and ring people together. i apologize for going over and look forward to answering your

questions. sen. cassidy: ms. o'boyle? ms. o'boyle: good afternoon, thank you for inviting me to testify this important hearing. i appreciate the subcommittee's attention to such an important issue and the opportunity to share with you our experiences in the program. my name is carolyn o'boyle and on the managing director of the anditte talent organization employees to bring you these policies like family leave. it's not just an abstract concept, i took advantage of the program when i had my own son, jack. as a professional services firm, people are our primary and greatest asset and their well-being is critical to our success. in 2015 we conducted a marketplace survey on parental leave and found 88% of the respondents would valuate broader paid leave policy beyond parental leave. this in addition to our focus on innovative well-being offerings

wanted our ceo and her leadership team to address shifting caregiving dynamics and emerging flexibility needs. with a workforce spanning five generations, we recognize men and women of all generations supportingnges in the well-being of their families. we recognize that if our people were able to balance caregiving needs with professional lives it would support the culture that we aspire to have, one where the people feel supported in managing their personal lives and building a meaningful career. september of 2000 extremely introduced our expanded family leave program, the fingers by several characteristics. recognizing that caregiving goes beyond welcoming a new child. it provides up to 16 weeks of a leave to eligible u.s. employees to some of life events. from the arrival of a new child or caring for an ill spouse or partner, child or sibling.

recognizing the oath parents , eliminatingiving the disparity between primary and non-primary designations. finally, it provides full with flexibility to schedule the leave needed for their families. before implementing this, we andfully assess the costs benefits of the program, evaluating incremental salary lost against benefits to attrition, productivity, and engagement. our arians has shown actual costs to be lower than we originally anticipated -- our experience has shown actual in knowing lower that they could take the time needed in life's challenging situations. since its inception, the deloitte family leave program has affected the lives of thousands of professionals and their families. consider marshall, who requested paid family leave when her son needed more intensive treatment for symptoms arising from

her elderlynd mother broke her pelvis at the same time. she noted that she was able for the opportunity to sit for her family to the program. "honestly, i don't know what i would have done without access to the program. it would have been incredibly stressful. if i had tried to in, my clients would not have had the best of me, that's for sure." another employee, one of the many men was able to participate in the program, he sent ceo thank you note, saying that his wife was able to return to medical racket he was able to stay home with their child. "it gave me the opportunity to spend a great amount of quality time at home with our new baby. we are also happy to have been afforded this opportunity and it will make a meaning impact on emily life. we have -- like." we have a note david, whose wife was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. "we had no one nearby. to be able to arrange support

options, i had the freedom to be there for my wife. take her to appointments and, when she was in the hospital, stay by her side the entire time ." further analysis and dissipation several shown interesting outcomes, such as women taking slightly longer leaves them previously. men are participating at higher rates and taking longer leaves. caregiver leave participation has remained consistent and, finally, creating a culture that empowers people to take advantage of the program has been as important as the program itself. every day professionals are to solve their greatest challenges and making a positive impact in their communities. leaders understand that they want the people to grow and develop in their careers, we need to support them in all facets of their lives. to put it simply, we don't want workforceleave the because of caregiving needs at home. it is our responsibility and commitment to make sure that our

people don't have to make that choice between family and career. thank you again, chairman and ranking member, for allowing me to share this information about the family leave program and i look forward to answering any questions you or the other members may have at this time. sen. cassidy: thank you. i am told that we have a turnout and by committee staff that we should begin with subcommittee members and then we will go to the normal in terms of the route of the time of arrival. i'm going to do for my questions and ask senator brown to go first. senator brown: thank you, mr. chairman. an interesting discussion. , i want to talk about how you came to this decision. as you heard the testimony on to proposals, they limited parental leave, you obviously did something more than that, parental leave, medical leave, caregiver benefits.

could you talk about that decision to do much larger decisions? allo'boyle: we realize that of our people were vulnerable to ,ome element of caregiving me it is of multiple factors, the changing nature of caregiving in the u.s. and shifting societal norms. that was supported by the market eta i referenced in my testimony , 88% of respondents would place leavee on a broader paid policy. while we think that the baby boomer generation is most impacted by caregiving needs, data from multiple sources point to how this impacts multiple generations. a recent study by the aarp shows millennials spend 120 hours per week on caregiving duties. if we wanted to truly said to people in the way they needed, we needed to broaden the sub -- the scope of our options. you for that. would you break down, if you

can, the usage among parental family caregiving and medical and the six, ia believe, six states and the district of columbia that now do it? ms. shabo: absolutely. one of the misconceptions is that fmla is just about new babies and it is not. saidf people use it, as i my testimony, for family caregiving and personal medical leave. 55% uses are for someone who has their own serious health condition and is something that daysfor more than three and requires ongoing treatment from a physician. at the state level it is closer temporary 85% for disability insurance in california, new jersey, and rhode island. leave portion,y the vast majority are parental states like rhode

island, for example, family caregiving claims are higher. so, this is why a comprehend the policy is so important and two millennials point, are thought of as just needing parental leave, but a full quarter of family caregivers are millennials. many of them are in the sandwich generation or aging into the sandwich generation. you.or: thank mr. biggs, thank you for being in front of this committee a number of times. i want to make a few comments nsu a number of questions. first of all, on the record that there is nothing bipartisan about privatizing social security, start with that. the opinion piece of the federalist i mentioned earlier theed that use this plan first step to transform the current pay-as-you-go system. into what?

i would assume that he was one of the architects of president bush's -- you never called theatizing social security, country pushed back on it because they saw it that way. i know you talk about personal accounts. i think i any fair analysis, the rubio ernst plan is a first step buttressed by the argument of .he independent women's forum independent analysis of that privatization -- my question, saysh, is this, the result that someone would only have to delay by half is much the amount of leave that they taken this was debunked by the urban to report, finding that someone 12 weeks of leave would have to delay retirement by 20 to 25 .eek your construction is narrow, , why do youl leave think we have to focus on a

trade-off or panel before taking paid leave as they near and enter retirement? why do you set this up as a trade-off it today, you will have less in the future when your needs are probably thank your. biggs: very much. i will try to answer those in order. for myself, i was not the author of the article you are citing. senator: i didn't say a word. mr. biggs: what i'm saying is that it would be mistaken to ascribe those views to me. in working on the proposal i never thought of it at all in played out with personal accounts and to be frank whatever side people may be on regarding personal accounts for social security, it's clear at this point that's not going to happen. they were proposed as a way of saving the social security surplus when we had one. and has solved that problem

i think to hear that this is the first step in privatization is a mistake in fear. thinking about why we worked with the idea of a trade-off between parental leave and retirement than if it's just it around some of the issues i looked at my testimony, in the sense that many people will not want to pay extra payroll taxes for financial leave. payroll tax is zero point or , so that's a reduction -- senator: can you hurry up with your answer? senator: i apologize, expand, you will find more public support for it. by definition you will have more people interested, more public support for it. mr. biggs: my thinking on this was to try to do something more

modest in more doable. sen. cassidy: leave it there, dr. biggs. you are one minute and a half over. sen. cassidy: sen. casey: senator casey: thank you for your testimony today and for the highlighting of this critically important issue. i will start with you. this question relates to children with disabilities. i know that in your firm you made some changes that led a better policy as a relates to some earning parents of children with disabilities. kidney walk me through that? >> through the policy? 16 week, i was mentioning earlier, for the need that they have. rollingweeks is on a

52-week basis so that employee can continue to take advantage of it over the course of their career as things change. we readily understand how it helps the workforce. i know you may have addressed this more broadly, the impact on your company overall? ms. o'boyle: we have seen improvements on employee attrition. there are many factors that influence turnover, mostly for women taking leave it has and this turns , rehiring,ollars retraining, etc. less quantifiable comedy and stress on our people experiencing caregiving needs to better productivity and performance, all positive benefits for the workforce.

again, in our experience we have found the benefits are not just limited to those taking leave. we surveyed the people around the program with unsolicited feedback from our people and we know that there is tremendous value were all officials. even if they don't spec to use ,he program, they feel secure translating to a larger trajectory in the work. thank you very much. i want you to a broader question that goes beyond family and medical leave. but i wanted to first start with we confrontof what today. i don't want to overstate this, but today we are facing a circumstance where the worker is at the mercy of the employer or whatever the employer will allow terms of time off. whether it is for a loved one or for the care of a child.

walk-through for us some of the economic benefits of a much family leave policy. i know that your testimony spoke to that, but if you could just itemize a few benefits? all ms. o'boyle: -- ms. shabo: absolutely. hundreds of millions of workers are subject to a boss lottery. the folks at work for deloitte, they don't live in silos, they live as families. their spouse may not have access. the parent need to be cared for. so her employee will go pay for the parent, rather than the sister across the country. we as a country are absolutely experiencing huge cost associated with the status will. and the benefits in contrast the great. today families are losing close to $21 billion in wages from a lack of paid leave. but we see that when those earnams are placedthey are moro

higher wages. folks are less likely to turn to public assistance programs. >> we leave this here to take you live to the u.s. capitol for a brief pro forma session of the u.s. house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a a communication from the speaker. the speaker's rooms, washington, d.c. august 28, 2018. i hereby appoint the honorable jim banks to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, paul d. ryan, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the prayer will be offered by the guest chaplain, monsignor stephen rossetti, catholic university of america, washington, d.c. the chaplaie'