Family Leave Insurance Act of 2007

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For those not familiar with it a copy of the text can be found here:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s110-1681

For those not interested in the text of the bill itself and looking for a press release:
http://dodd.senate.gov/index.php?q=node/3953

So... My first question - Is this legislation necessary? Do we, the people, have a responsibility to pay people for their decision to have a family?

And then beyond that - is this the best way to achieve the bill's goal?

By that what I mean is is there a better way than creating a new Fund and a new commission to administer that fund?

The proposal is to levy a tax which I assume would be similar to Worker's Comp or Unemployement Insurance. A dollar or two on the employee, a dollar or two on the employer. All withheld from the paycheck and sent in to the fund.

Sounds easy enough but my question is do we really need ANOTHER fund for this? Would it make more sense to take the items that qualify a person for FMLA absences and make those qualifications for temporary Unemployement or Workman's Comp coverage?

If the government is going to mandate benefits then shouldn't the government be responsible for the administration of those benefits?

What say ye?

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Hmmm. I'm very familiar with FMLA, not with this one though. Will read and come back to it.

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Re: Family Leave Insurance Act of 2007

fishin wrote:

So... My first question - Is this legislation necessary? Do we, the people, have a responsibility to pay people for their decision to have a family?

It's not just for children -- it's also for taking care of spouses or parents, for example. Most everyone has family of some kind.

I agree with Dodd and Stevens that while the FMLA was a great step in allowing people to keep their jobs if a crisis hit, for many people the loss of income during that time is crushing, even if they can go back to a job at the end of it.

I have to read more to figure out what I think about this bill vs. some sort of temporary unemployment or workman's comp coverage.

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Re: Family Leave Insurance Act of 2007

sozobe wrote:

fishin wrote:
So... My first question - Is this legislation necessary? Do we, the people, have a responsibility to pay people for their decision to have a family?

It's not just for children -- it's also for taking care of spouses or parents, for example. Most everyone has family of some kind.

Yeah, I understood that but... fair enough. My guess is that FMLA is used more for birth events than anything else but I'd conceed that there are other uses. :wink:

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Of the people I know who have made use of it (maybe 6 total, not much of a sample), about half used it to care for elderly parents... to help with things after a major event (like breaking a hip), then arrange for assisted living, moving, dealing with the old house and its contents, etc.

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Heh, just as an FYI (Since it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things here) the Dept. of Labor 2000 FMLA survey listed uses of of FMLA as:

Employee's own heatlh reasons: 38%
Maternity and Care of newborn (and adoptions): 34%
Care of ill child: 13%
Care of ill parent: 11%
Care of ill spoouse: 0%

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Howdy Fishin':

1) Your avatar looks like a cat after my own heart! Laughing

2) Probably should be handled as a form of Unemployment Compensation. At least that would be, probably, the most efficient. I have always thought that much more oversight should be placed on organizations that have the power to dispense the taxpayer's money, however.

3) Interesting to note that Spouses are dead last on the list of "Important persons I would take off from work to take care of...." :wink:

Halfback

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Family Leave Insurance Act of 2007

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