This has been a hard year for everyone, but especially brutal for those of us with young children. The absolute chaos of school going remote last spring, the economy shutting down, agonizing about whether it was safe to send our kids back to school, all happened against a backdrop where for many the usual help from grandparents, after-school programs, and sitters was cut off.
Last week, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on SB 64, which extends the protections of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act to workers who need to be out of work for COVID-19 related reasons. That not only includes positive cases and quarantines, but also absences related to kids having to quarantine or being home from school for remote schooling.
To be clear, the protection here isn’t paid time off. It’s really just that you won’t be fired from your job, lose your health care and be tossed onto public assistance because these things happen to you or your kids. There was no testimony against the bill, but three business lobbyists signed in as opposed. That was apparently enough for Sens. Harold French, Jeb Bradley, and Bill Gannon, who voted to prevent the bill from advancing.
This was an obvious protection for workers and their families, but they were casually brushed aside. The silk-tie lobbyists who opposed it didn’t even have to make a public argument for their case.
I am begging the Senate to reverse the committee’s recommendation on this bill.
DAVID BATES
Warner