Joe Biden fails to fulfill promise guaranteeing 12 weeks of paid family leave

President Joe Biden promised in 2020 that he would "create a national paid family and medical leave program to give all workers up to 12 weeks of paid leave."

That didn't happen.

Biden's Build Back Better plan ultimately included a scaled-back version of what Biden promised: four weeks per year of paid leave. That version of the bill passed the House in November 2021 but in the Senate, a few Democratic lawmakers objected to the measure's scope, and the provision was removed.

The bill that eventually passed both chambers, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, didn't address paid family and medical leave. (A 12 week paid leave provision was considered at some point, but did not make it into a bill.)

The United States remains the world's only industrialized country without national paid family and medical leave that guarantees compensation when workers take time off to have children or care for a family member. It's been over 30 years since President Bill Clinton signed the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which guarantees 12 weeks of unpaid family leave for workers at companies with more than 50 employees. 

We rate this Promise Broken.

RELATED: The U.S. is the only industrialized nation with no paid family leave plan