OLYMPIA — The House has approved a measure that indefinitely delays implementation of an unfunded law intended to provide state parents with five weeks of paid time off to be with a new child until the Legislature finds a way to pay for it.
The bill was approved Friday on a 70-19 vote and now heads to the Senate.
Paid family leave for state residents was approved by the Legislature in 2007, and 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.
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The paid family leave measure is House Bill 2044.
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Online:
Legislature: http://www.leg.wa.gov
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