Oklahoma Rep. Stephanie Bice Fights To Provide Americans Paid Family Leave

A member of the Oklahoma congressional delegation has taken a leading role in a bipartisan effort to provide Americans with a benefit that citizens of almost every other nation in world already have — paid family leave.

The only woman in the state’s delegation, and thus only mother, Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK5) has joined forces with fellow mom and Pennsylvania congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan in leading a bipartisan working group toward, they hope, a federal paid family leave law.

“I think we both also know that the American people are really looking for something,” Rep. Bice said in a recent interview, “we are one of seven countries in the world that doesn’t offer any sort of paid family leave, and this is important.”

Rep. Houlahan (D-PA6), an Air Force veteran, has served in Congress since 2019 and had some success in the 116th Congress in providing paid parental leave to members of the military, but she said she and Bice have their sights set higher.

“About 25 percent of the American public are able to take advantage and benefit from paid family leave,” Rep. Houlahan said in an interview last month, “and that’s obviously not enough. In a nation that is enormously well resourced, in a place where we should lead, we are not leading with our family values.”

The specifics of 'paid family leave' can vary from one jurisdiction to another, in terms of duration of benefits, who qualifies for coverage and funding source, but the general idea is that employed persons can take time off to care for a newborn, for an ill or injured loved one, or for their own well-being and still be paid and guaranteed employment when they return to work.

Rep. Houlahan said the lack of a paid leave policy when she was in the Air Force and becoming a mother was a key reason she decided to separate from the military.

"These things shouldn’t happen," Houlahan said, "we should be able to continue to have jobs protected, we should value additions to family, we should value when we have a sick family member, and we should take care of people."

"Republicans are pro-family," Bice noted, "and I think that this is a way for us to show that we’re trying to be supportive of the family."

Working across the hall from each other and serving together on the House Armed Services Committee last Congress, Bice and Houlahan became friends and discovered they are both raising multiple daughters and also share a belief that a federal paid family leave law is overdue.

"And so, when we found our common ground, we found our commonality in interest in paid leave," Houlahan said, "we were able to come together and create, with the help of our teams, a bipartisan group of people who want to do the same."

The group is in the fact-gathering stage right now. Among other things, they are examining how the 13 states that have passed paid family leave laws (Oklahoma isn't one of them) are doing it.

"Some states are using an insurance-type model, some states are doing it through payroll taxes," Bice said.

Both women admit that agreeing on how to fund paid family leave will be their biggest challenge.

"[Rep. Houlahan] recognizes that Republicans are not interested in another sort of entitlement type of program," Bice stated. "I think we will have some tough conversations around where the priorities lie and how we can get to a place that we both feel comfortable...but we both recognize that it’s going to take collaboration and consensus to be able to get something across the finish line."

"That’s also our job -- you know, our job is to try to figure out how to come together," Houlahan said. "We recognize that we are building on the work of lots and lots of people who’ve come before us who have had lots of really, really good ideas, and hopefully this will be the time.