luther but allowed the renaissance to come out of northern italy. it's how the first high speed network, the railroad, created industrial -- the industrial revolution. and how the first electronic network, the telegraph, allowed for the creation of a national news media and a national financial system. >> watch "the communicators" tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span2. >> well, the u.s. house will be gaveling in in about 25 minutes for member speeches. this week the house will take up a nonbinding resolution that special counsel robert mueller's report should be made available to the public and to congress. live house coverage here on c-span at 2:00 p.m. eastern. the senate will be debating a resolution to terminate president trump's emergency declaration on the southern border.

that is expected on thursday. lawmakers will also take up several judicial and executive nominations. the senate is in at 3:00 p.m. eastern today. live on c-span2. the senate also is expected to approve that resolution on the emergency declaration, which president trump has said he will veto. the president, by the way, tweeting out about the senate vote, writing, republican senators have a very easy vote this week. it's about border security and the wall, stopping crime, drugs, etc., not constitutionality and precedent. it is an 80% positive issue. the dems are 100% united as usual on a 20% issue, open borders and crime. get tough r's. so while we wait for the house to come in, here's a portion of today's "washington journal." washington journal continues. in thisch week segment of the washington journal, we take a look at your money. this week, we are talking about

family leave laws in the united states. we are joined by a part of mathur.- aparna the four we get to paid family leave, remind viewers what is available when it comes to unpaid leave laws in the country. guest: since 1993, we have had the family and medical leave act .hat gathers these people yourself, the government tells you and the employer has to guarantee you 12 weeks of unprotected pay. host: was there a discussion at the time to make it paid leave? guest: there was definitely a lot of pressure to make it paid. there is this concern that if you just open it up to unpaid leave, who is going to have access? timenk the concern at that

was how our business is going to react to a policy that suddenly mandates that every business has to offer 12 weeks of paid leave to their employee? it is a more generous definition of who can qualify and all of the needs that you can have. . think there was this concern mothers are more likely to take up at leave, will they face more discrimination in the workplace? at that time, we left it unpaid. -- they left it unpaid. host: what time did it gain momentum? guest: over the past couple of decades, the states have been experimenting with paid leave policies. statesnia came up with a patently program in 2003-2004. since then, new jersey and rely don't -- rhode island have implement it policies.

policies in washington state and massachusetts. it is moving to the federal. host: i want to focus on new jersey. they passed an expansion of their paid family leave policy into law and it was signed last month. here is what that expansion would do for those who work in new jersey. it would expand paid time off from six weeks to 12 weeks. towould increase the pay $806 a week. 860 dollars a week. in new jersey, it can be used byer a birth and is funded annual payroll productions and will go into effect -- does not go into effect until july of 2020. focus on the payment side, when we talk about paid family leave, what are the different options and plans to paper expansions like that? guest: the way these programs

are working is that there is an employer.e and we had an insurance policy that allows people to take time off for medical leave. on parentalg benefits and those tend to be funded to employee payroll contributions. this is an earned benefit and employers are facing a cost of letting the employee take that leap. if the employee pays into the tax systems like we do for other insurance programs, this is something that they can build up to. they say for it and to some extent, they get the benefits from it. that is how it is working out at the state level. host: if you want to join this conversation, phone lines are split up by region. if your in the east, it is (202) 748-8000. if you're in the mountain or pacific time zones, it is (202)

748-8001. aparnaof mathur -- mathur is our guest. you came up with their own proposal that you think is a copper mise plan. can you walk through what that proposal would be -- compromised plan, what would that proposal be? guest: we would focus on not just the benefits of paid leave policy but what is the cost of having a patently policy? why are we not moving forward on it? we came up with a compromise plan. it was gender-neutral. there was a benefit of $600 per week. the reason we have focused in on that was that we wanted the benefits to be relatively well

documented toward the lowest wage workers. the ones who, across the country, have literally no access to paid leave. they are the ones who are unlikely to get the unpaid minimum leave because it is unpaid -- take the unpaid minimum leave because it is unpaid. our focus was on how do we expand access to the lowest wage workers and one way to do that was to make the benefits generous for the lowest wage workers. that is why we decided on that. host: that is your proposal part several other proposals that will go through during the segment. which one in your mind has the most momentum? guest: it is hard to say which one has the most bipartisan momentum. on the democrats, there is the family act. it provides 12 weeks of paid job protected leave. side, we havecan

a new proposal that says people should be allowed to have social security benefits and that is how they should pay for their paid leave. on what side you're talking to. there is a coming together. is the agency or the fund that -- how doo paid leave we improve access to the lowest wage workers? i think there is always the possibility of compromise. we tried to highlight that each side has its own plan but there is the potential to come together if you're willing to give up some details of each plan decide on a compromise. host: it (202) 748-8000 if you're in the

eastern time zone. if it is (202) 748-8001 you're in the pacific time zone. marco rubio was the driving force on the proposal that would allow people to use their future social security for paid leave. how much of that is being picked up by the white house and by other republicans in congress? guest: we see support for that proposal. i believe he ivanka trump has been in touch the senator. think what the white house is being careful about is not backing one specific proposal. i think that is smart because what they recognize is that what we need is a compromise. even for republicans, it is great to see this competition of ideas unpaid leave. you will have to say, maybe this particular design does not work. and i am willing to come forward and decide on something that is more universally acceptable. senator rubio's proposal is one

of them. withor young is coming up a proposal which i am hoping to see bills come out in the next couple of months. it is interesting to me that republicans are inking about these policies and thinking about new creed of ways to do this. -- to have this recognition new creative ways to do this. and to have this recognition. that is the most exciting aspect of what is going on. host: somebody on twitter rights in that it is being abused by some. does anyone think that it is mandatory? the abuse will drop. guest: we hear cases of employers saying people are misusing it because you are guaranteed job protection and we hear cases where people are saying they are calling up on a friday and saying i have backache and i cannot come into work.

piecean happen with any of legislation. i think the question is what do we put around paid leave legislation that mix it harder to do that? there is definitely this concern that more people will take it up for longer. that just means that you actually have a medical need. which, in many cases, it is easy to verify. it is a little harder to verify if you're doing family care leave. even there, i would like to point out that people are naturally using up the pieces of the fmla, which are harder to verify. the family care piece is the least used. it has the lowest rate. it is a mystery. you have access to paid or unpaid leave to take care of family members. the most used pieces are

parental leave and medical leave. there is concern about abuse but i would not want to blow it up and say this is the reason we should not move forward. way tos a structure -- structure the policy that would get us around that. host: if you have a question, it is (202) 748-8000 in the eastern times i. -- time zone. ares (202) 748-8001 if you in the mountain time zone. alyssa's question is about the cost and whether the government should be doing this in the first place. use common sense. can you talk about that concern that is out there, whether this is the proper role for the government to get into? guest: there is concern about what the costs are going to be and our people across the country expected to pay for this and should government get into it? i think that what we have realized since the fmla was

, employers are going to step in and make paid leave policies and everybody will have access prayed we should not worry about it. that has not happened. if you look across the country, about 15-16% of people have access to family care leave. a slightly larger number have access to medical leave policies. havepeople are trying to sick days. the reason i think you need government intervention is that there really are people out there who do not have the ability to save up and need help. if you can do that through an insurance program, that is the least costly for workers. a cost developed calculator for paid leave so that we can assess the costs for employee pay checks -- paychecks. cheap.l leave is very

it costs less than $100 a year for employees. if you made a generous program, the cost triples. we have to be careful of the cost registrations. we have to recognize that there are people out there that need help. if you can do that in the most cost-effective way possible, which is a social insurance program that the government scan can manage, which we do for all other types of insurance policies, like medicare and medicaid and so on. then, i think that that is one thing that we need to get the economy moving. here, there are good economic reasons to invest in these policies. who have access to these policies can take time off. we see good health for families and children's. -- children. i would look at the benefits side and say we need that trade-off. host: we would like to hear your stories and your comments about

paid family leave policies. we will start with virginia in waldorf, maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a simple question. if there -- they are considering putting down central programs such as medicare and medicaid, how in the world is our government going to support a family medical leave act? not only that, how will they apply to the federal employees who are already getting paid? it is the retail side of the economy that is hurting. how are we going to do that? guest: there is this concern about we have these social insurance programs that are running out of funds. and we will not be able to pay people what we owe them. i do think that that is a genuine concern. havewith the reports we seen that focus on social insurance, the idea is that at some point, we have to figure out how do we fund these investment programs and how do we make sure that they are guaranteeing the benefits that

we are projecting as a result of policies. of supportingnk those policies is by doing it through her taxes. if you want to find another program, you should do it through taxes. that is one way around it. there is also the conversation about how do we handle medicare and social security and the trust funds running out. that is a question that is being much discussed and is definitely there. i think adding on a small based parental leave program is not going to bring the program any further than it already is. attentionot a lot of in the d.c. area, where there , a groupal employees of house democrats proposing a federal employee paid leave policy, just impacting federal employees. ranting 12 weeks of paid leave

that could be used after the birth or care of a newborn. it allows paid time to place a tiled up for adoption -- child up for adoption. is this likely to go anywhere? this one focused specifically on federal employees? guest: i think the democrats are trying to start small and say that we do not have the family act which would make paid leave available to every person across the country. but we can start with federal employees. and start to build up that base of support. again, it depends a lot on what republicans and democrats are able to reach. i think that there is a potential for this to go somewhere. states will not be able to do this for all employees across the state. but are able to do it for the state employment -- government

employees. i think it is part of this broader conversation about how much are we willing to compromise? and how much do we do this for federal employees, is this opening the gateway for everybody across the country? as long as they are willing to copper mice on the larger piece, this will definitely work out. host: phone lines again, (202) 748-8000 in the eastern or central time zones. (202) 748-8001 in the mountain or pacific time zones. nelson in hollywood, florida, your next. caller: more government , unfunded mandates, and additional burden on the private sector, which employees -- employees the vast majority of people in this country. i can see this being abused, and set of -- instead of someone taking paid leave to have a baby, they may take paid leave

to have an abortion. i can see all kinds of problems coming up in the courts and cases of this great abuse that will take place if and when this nonsense should ever become law. thank you. guest: i think the concern is should the government legislate these policies? there are companies that are offering paid leave policies. some of them are very generous. they are offering paid leave. that is not -- there does not seem that there is this concern that employees will abuse this policy. employers are concerned about come -- providing competitive benefits. when it comes to the lower wage workers, these policies are the least likely to be available to them.

whether you're talking about the fmla or paid leave policies at the state or employer level. thane who make less $20,000 a year have little access. fewer than 5% of people have access to these policies. governmentyou need to step in. i also understand that we don't want the government to crowd out private sector policies. which is why when we had discussions within the working group, we did not want to have an openly generous federal policy that would be costly at the same time, it would tell employers that you do not need to be doing this because the government is going to be offering these policies on its own. we wanted a basic, uniform policy across the country that every employee, irrespective of rich or state would have access to. at the same time, it would allow employers to provide more generous policies.

that we of crowd out are seeing at the state and employer levels. host: barber is next in baltimore, maryland. good morning. [indiscernible] to me, it is always let's find a way to plug away. --er areas why isn't it that social security is not always included in this type of scheme? guest: that is a good concern. why do we always stop and do social security to try to fund these programs. there are genuine concerns about

are we hitting the lowest wage workers on their retirement security? are they the ones that are going to suffer the most? agency, the recent social security makes the most sense is that it collects the exact right information you need to compute things like paid leave benefits. you need information about people's work history. there payment history. payment history per how long they have been with an employment -- employer. to some extent, the social security, disability insurance program collects that kind of information. natural agency to housing it. there are concerned about why not >> we are going to leave this segment of "washington journal" at this point. a reminder, you can watch all of our "washington journal" programs at our "washington journal" website.

washingtonjournal.org. the u.s. house is about to gavel back in. members will be working on several financial services bills today. also on the agenda this week, a resolution that special counsel robert mueller's report should be made available to the public and congress. live now to the house. the speaker pro tempore: the house will come to order. the prayer will be offered by the guest chaplain reverend meg peery mclaughlin from burke presbyterian church, burke, virginia. the chaplain: let us pray. o god our health and ages past, our hope for years to come and you we live and move and have our being. amid these public servants gathered to govern, we invoke your presence, o god, greater than we can ever grasp and as near as the intake of our own breath.