OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Six years ago, Washington state lawmakers approved a program giving parents five weeks of paid time off to be with a new child.
But the question of how to pay for the program was never answered, and now some lawmakers are looking to remove it from the books, while the senator who introduced the bill is looking to expand the program. Its start already has been delayed until 2015.
The bill, passed with much fanfare in 2007, was supposed to start paying benefits of up to $250 a week starting in October 2009. But without an agreed-upon funding source, the Legislature has postponed its implementation twice.
"It may have seemed like a good idea, but we don't have the money to do it," said Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, who is sponsoring the measure to repeal the law. "We need to face the reality and deal with it."
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