Catherwood LibraryILR School

Overturning a rule promulgated under the Clinton Presidency, the Bush Administration intends to disallow states to use unemployment insurance funds to assist parents who take leaves to care for newborns or newly adopted children, it announced yesterday. Although the Labor Department under conservative Bush appointee Elaine Chao has supported the repeal as necessary to deal with the depletion of state unemployment funds in the recent economic downturn, the fact that that no state has to date made use of the law’s provisions calls into question the necessity of a repeal. While business groups---who have opposed the two-year-old law since it was passed---were pleased by the announcement, family rights and women’s advocacy groups have blasted the decision to eliminate legislation that could have finally put the U.S. on track to become the last of 130 advanced industrial countries to provide paid family leave (see WIT for Aug. 29, 2002).