ST. PAUL, Minn. — President Donald Trump is moving forward with his plan to institute paid family leave and he has a surprising supporter in Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton.
Dayton, who has pushed for paid parental leave in the state of Minnesota, is supportive of Trump’s plan, telling the Star Tribune’s Maya Rao, “I would take that as a challenge and an opportunity to devise something that would be a model for Minnesota but also for the rest of the nation.”
The plan, which could come to fruition under Trump’s budget proposal, has been championed by his daughter and advisor Ivanka Trump since the campaign trail.
During the Republican National Committee Convention, Ivanka Trump’s speech centered around her father’s treatment of women in the workplace and promising to help her father pass laws for parental leave and equal pay.
According to the Washington Post, the Trump administration plans to carve out funds in the budget to create a program that would allow both mothers and fathers a total of six weeks of paid leave from their place of employment after the birth or adoption of a child.
The Governor and Lt. Gov. Tina Smith have been huge advocates for six weeks of paid family leave for state employees, with the Governor’s office stating it would save those families $6,200 on average.
Both Minnesota Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar have also worked in Washington to bring paid family and medical leave to the state.
In February, Franken and Klobuchar joined Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) to introduce universal paid leave which would include paid family leave and paid medical leave.
According to a press release from Franken’s office, the bill “would provide up to 66 percent wage-replacement for 12 weeks in the event of a birth of a child or a serious personal or family medical emergency.”
However, whether Trump’s plan for paid family leave will move forward is up in the air. According to The Hill in February, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Trump’s budget was “dead on arrival.”
Preya Samsundar
Preya Samsundar was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. She graduated from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities this Spring with a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology, with a minor in Strategic Communications. Preya has previously worked on several State Campaign Races.
