Texas Republicans Are About To Kill A Paid Parental Leave Bill

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan vowed to provide more resources for mothers following the U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down a federal right to abortion. Eric Gay/Associated Press When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal right to abortion last June, triggering a Texas law that makes the procedure a felony, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan tweeted that his legislative chamber would “double down on maternal health care and resources for women, children, and families.” Those resources apparently do not include paid parental leave for the nearly three-quarters of Texas workers who currently lack paid family leave of any kind. Last Thursday, Texas Rep. Angie Chen Button, chair of the state House International Relations and Economic Development Committee, informed Texas Rep. Penny Morales Shaw, the chief sponsor of a bipartisan paid parental leave bill, that the bill will not get a hearing and is thus effectively dead, according to a Democratic Texas House staffer involved in advancing the legislation. Morales Shaw’s Texas Family Act would guarantee Texas’ full-time workers 12 weeks of paid leave, up to $1,000 a week, upon the birth or adoption of a new child. Texas state Rep. Angie Chen Button may be protecting Republicans from having to either take an unpopular vote against the parental leave bill or cross the party’s big-business backers.