Today's bipartisan hearing is an important baby step forward on this issue.

American families can and should have paid family leave and a secure retirement.

Whatever the case is, no working American should ever have to choose between their family members and a paycheck.

The FAMILY Act would allow for working individuals to take paid time off, and would not discriminate based on gender or the nature of their job.

It also gives you about 66 percent of your wages guaranteed for up to 3 months with a cap.

This approach makes it more difficult to build major transit projects and could end up making those projects more expensive.

It does not cost a lot of money, and it covers everybody.

We are the only industrialized country in the world that does not guarantee some form of paid leave.

Here is the truth: at some point, every person here, every person you know, is going to have a situation where you have to take some time off from your work to meet and care for a family member.

But I urge them to support the comprehensive and fiscally responsible FAMILY Act.

If we truly value the dignity of work, we need to recognize that paid family leave is something all workers should have the opportunity to earn.

It is about the cost of a cup of coffee a week for you and for your employer.

Right now, 85 percent of all American workers don't have access to paid family and medical leave.

America's need for paid leave is well-established and clear--and need doesn't distinguish by political party, or family type, or care need.

The FAMILY Act is an earned benefit, meaning it travels with you, whether you are working full-time, part-time.

Any national paid leave plan should build on the Family Medical Leave Act, and reflect the well-established needs laid out in that law.

A small business today cannot compete with a Facebook or a Google or the Ernst and Youngs or the big law firms.

I am very concerned that this Administration is intentionally trying to make it more difficult for States and localities to use low interest Federal loans for major transit projects.

I urge them to support a comprehensive and fiscally responsible idea called the FAMILY Act.

This isn't a partisan issue--it affects every sector of the economy, and workers of all ages with all types of families.

Whatever the case, no working American should ever have to choose between their family and their paycheck.

We should be crediting time out of the workforce caring for family members towards the calculation of Social Security, not forcing women to reduce their earned Social Security benefits even further for the invaluable, but monetarily…

The FAMILY Act covers birth or adoption, taking care of an older family member, addressing one's own personal medical needs.

A plan that's a first step toward privatizing Social Security--the bedrock of our social safety net--is no place to start.

Parental leave is not even half of what's needed.