Federal money helps states pay workers during leave from work.
S. 5017 — More Paid Leave for More Americans Act · Filed by John Boozman (R-AR) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Jul 16, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill gives states federal grants to start or grow paid leave programs. Workers can take at least 6 weeks off per year. Reasons include having a baby, serious illness, or caring for family. States must hire private companies to run the programs. The bill sets up a network to make rules the same across states.
Who it affects
Workers get paid leave benefits. Low-income workers get 67% of their pay while on leave. States get federal money to start programs.
One thing to notice
Private companies will run the paid leave programs with federal grant money. States must work with private companies, which could lock states into long-term deals.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Jul 16, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jul 16, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- paid leave — Time off work while still getting paid.
- federal grants — Money the U.S. government gives to states that does not have to be paid back.
- private companies — Businesses hired to run programs for the government.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (28,448 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 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.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
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