Sen. Patty Murray introduces bill for affordable child care, paid sick leave

Citing a growing child care crisis, Washington Senator Patty Murray reintroduced legislation Monday that would give working families access to affordable child care.

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Murray was in Seattle today to announce her bill, and discuss the urgency of tackling the child care crisis in Washington and across the country.

“Because of the a lack of child care, working parents are being forced to work fewer hours, turn down high-paying positions, or even quit their jobs because they can’t find child care,” Murray said.

Murray first introduced the Child Care for Working Families Act in 2017, and reintroduced it last month.

According to her, the bill would guarantee access to high-quality, affordable child care for working-class families living paycheck-to-paycheck. It would also create 770,000 child care-related jobs, and potentially allow 1.6 million parents to return to work.

Healthy Families Act

Murray also introduced a bill to guarantee workers at least seven days of paid sick leave.

The goal is to provide flexibility to care for children and loved ones, get routine medical care, and to seek assistance related to domestic violence or stalking.

“No worker should have to risk their health, their safety, or their paycheck when they need time off,” Murray said.

Under the bill, workers would be able to take up to seven paid sick days to “take care of themselves and their loved ones.”

No worker should have to risk their health or paycheck when they need time off. That's why I was proud to introduce the Healthy Families Act with Rep. @rosadelauro, which gives workers the flexibility to take up to 7 #PaidSickDays to take care of themselves and their loved ones. pic.twitter.com/X1bFqWNUPW

— Senator Patty Murray (@PattyMurray) March 18, 2019