BUDGET/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump’s budget proposal next week will include a new benefit for America’s working parents, one Democrats have long championed and Republicans have long opposed: paid family leave.
The president’s first detailed budget request on Tuesday [5-16-17] will seek funds for the creation of a program to grant mothers and fathers six weeks of paid leave after the birth or adoption of a child, two senior White House budget office officials said.
The proposal for a family leave program was one of the few relatively large ticket items in a budget which is expected to contain sweeping reductions in spending on nondefense measures.
The White House officials said details of the program still had to be worked out through negotiation with Congress.
But Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who also acts as an assistant to the president and has been a chief advocate for the policy inside the White House, is expected to play a central role in discussions about how to construct it.”
-Danielle Paquette and Damien Paletta, “U.S. could get first paid family leave benefit under Trump budget proposal,” The Washington Post online, May 18, 2017 9:00pm