Federal paid leave program guarantees income during caregiving, with strong job protections.
S. 2823 — FAMILY Act · Filed by Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) · 38 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 16, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill creates a federal paid family and medical leave insurance program administered by the Social Security Administration. Eligible workers who take qualifying leave—for their own serious health condition, to care for a family member, or due to family violence—receive partial wage replacement (50–85% depending on income level) for up to 12 weeks per year, funded through payroll taxes. States with existing paid leave programs ('legacy States') receive federal grants to continue their own programs instead.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is the creation of a federal insurance program providing wage-replacement benefits to workers taking qualifying leave. It is a social insurance expansion, not a tax measure, regulatory reform, or commemorative act.
What the text implies
- Legacy State carve-out (Section 5) allows states with existing paid leave programs to receive federal grants instead of having workers participate in the federal program, creating a two-tier system where some workers remain outside federal coverage.
- Benefit reduction for workers receiving unemployment or workers' compensation (Section 4(b)(5)) may create gaps in income support for workers with overlapping claims.
- Retroactive benefit eligibility (Section 4(c)(2)) allows claims up to 90 days after leave begins, creating administrative complexity and potential for fraud if caregiving hours are difficult to verify.
- Presumption that applications are true unless Commissioner proves otherwise (Section 4(f)(3)) shifts burden of proof favorably to claimants but may increase fraud risk if certification requirements are weak.
- GAO reporting requirement (Section 7) mandates demographic analysis of utilization by race, ethnicity, and income—useful for equity monitoring but also creates data collection burden and potential for disparate-impact findings.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill directly expands worker protections and income security by guaranteeing paid leave for caregiving and serious health conditions, with strong anti-retaliation provisions and civil remedies. The wage-replacement formula is progressive (higher replacement for lower earners), and the program covers a broad range of qualifying reasons including family violence. Costs are borne through payroll taxes on all workers and employers, not through general revenue or cuts to other programs.
Who stands to gain
- workers taking qualifying leave (wage replacement)
- employers in legacy States (federal grants reduce state program costs)
Named in the bill
Social Security Administration, Commissioner of Social Security, Office of Paid Family and Medical Leave, Legacy States (states with existing paid leave programs), Federal Family and Medical Leave Insurance Trust Fund, Department of Labor, GAO (Government Accountability Office)
Where it stands
38 cosponsors: 37 Democrats, 1 Independents.
- Sep 16, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 16, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Finance · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
6 lobbying clients named this bill on 7 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,852,649 in lobbying spend. A filing names 54 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 82% of bills with at least one filing.
Kirsten Gillibrand, the sponsor, reported $163,678 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- AFL-CIO — $760,000 on 1 filing
- Human Rights Campaign — $439,908 on 2 filings
- American Heart Association — $400,000 on 1 filing
- United Automobile Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers — $230,000 on 1 filing
- Oxfam America Inc — $22,741 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (44,996 characters) on Sep 21, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,522 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-21.
“Federal paid leave program guarantees income during caregiving, with strong job protections.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s2823 Report an error