Politics · Opinion
Congress Finally Did Something Right. Don't Let Them Off the Hook Yet.
A paid leave bill clearing the Senate is real progress. It is also twelve years late and full of loopholes.
I have written about paid leave for a decade, and I did not expect to be writing this sentence: the Senate did something right this week.
That said — read the bill. The twelve weeks are unpaid for employers under 50 people, which is to say, for most of the small businesses where American women actually work. Progress is not the same as enough, and Congress has a long history of confusing the two.
This is an argument, not a report. Our news coverage of the vote itself is labeled and published separately.