April 7, 2008

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), a senior Democrat on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), Chairman of its Subcommittee on Children and Families, and author of the Family Leave Insurance Act, legislation that would provide paid leave for employees, today praised the State of New Jersey for becoming the third state to adopt paid family leave after the State Senate approved a paid family leave bill that  New Jersey Governor John Corzine has committed to sign.

“I congratulate the State of New Jersey on becoming only the third state to adopt paid family leave, and sincerely hope that their work will spur more support for my efforts to make paid family leave a national policy,” said Dodd.  “Last year, I introduced the Family Leave Insurance Act, legislation that would allow American workers to take up to eight weeks of paid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, helping to make sure that no one is forced in a time of crisis to make the impossible choice between work and family.”

 

Dodd is the author of the landmark Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which has enabled more than 60 million Americans to take leave from their jobs for the birth or adoption of a child, and in order to care for their own serious illness or that of a spouse, child, or parent.