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WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing to allow businesses and governments to deny sick leave to workers who fall ill with COVID-19.
As Congress negotiates a year-end pandemic aid bill, McConnell tries to block an extension of a paid sick leave program for people who contract COVID that expires in two weeks, according to several Hill sources familiar with the negotiations.
In March, Congress passed a law requiring workers to be able to benefit from two weeks of paid sick leave if they contract COVID, two weeks of paid sick leave to care for a quarantined relative, and until to 10 weeks of paid family leave to look after. for a child whose school or daycare is closed for reasons related to COVID.
These provisions will expire at the end of the year. Democrats initially sought to broaden the scope of the program and expand it. Those targets have been reduced to simply extending the program by several months due to Republican opposition, according to a Senate aide. Now the Republicans, led by McConnell, are totally opposed to an extension of the program.
Paid sick leave was already diluted to exempt large companies. Any business with more than 500 employees is exempt from the obligation to grant paid leave.
“It’s a concession the Democrats have made to the Republicans,” a Democratic aide said of the March negotiations.
Businesses with fewer than 50 employees can also request exemptions from the requirement. The federal government foots the bill for all paid vacation time by businesses through refundable tax credits.
But state and local governments are not eligible for the tax credit and must bear the cost of sick leave on their own. Senator Lamar Alexander, the powerful Republican chairman of the Senate Health Committee, said that is why he is opposed to an extension of the program.
“Paid sick leave is a good idea. We do it in my office, the federal government is doing it now, and many companies are doing it. Unfortunately, the current paid vacation proposals impose billions of dollars in an unfunded mandate on state and local governments, ”Alexander said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. “If the federal government wants to demand paid leave, the federal government should pay it.”
The federal government can’t pay for it, however, because Republicans are also blocking state and local government funding from being included in the bill. This funding was one of the main demands of Democratic negotiators. But it was pulled from the package, along with a Republican proposal for COVID immunity from prosecution for companies, as they were seen as the two most controversial negotiating points.
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Paid sick leave is expected to cost $ 105 billion, but by the end of October, companies had only claimed $ 1.3 billion in tax credits, according to a Health Department study. The study found that paid sick leave reduced the spread of COVID and projected that a four to six month extension would cost $ 8 billion to $ 13 billion. That’s a small fraction of the overall COVID bill, which is expected to be around $ 900 billion.
“There is absolutely no reason, nor any excuse, not to expand the bipartisan and life-saving paid vacation policy that is already in place. Anything less would make absolutely no sense and would be a disaster for millions of workers who shouldn’t have to choose between their health or their wages, ”said Senator Patty Murray, a senior Democrat on the Senate Health Committee.
McConnell’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Negotiations are expected to continue throughout the weekend.
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