From the Heritage Foundation, I'm Michelle Cordero, and I'm Emily Vanderbush, and this is a special edition of Mass Ave.

President Trump's latest budget includes a proposal to give family six weeks of paid leave after the birth or adoption of a child.

Meanwhile, we're also seeing more and more states enacting paid family leave programs. At first, especially as a woman and a mom,

this sounds like a win for American families. But there's another side to this story that the

mainstream media is not going to tell you. Today, we're going to explain at least three reasons why it would be a bad idea for the

government to force employers to pay for family leave.

We sat down with Rachel Gressler, a research fellow in the Heritage Foundation Center for

data analysis to help us break it down.

Hi, Rachel, can you start off by telling us a little bit

about the history around paid family leave in the United States? Sure. So as women entered the

workforce and increasing numbers throughout the past decades, starting in 1993, there was a

Family Medical Leave Act policy that said that any employer who has 50 or more employees

must provide them with

at least 12 weeks of unpaid leave.

And so that is something that is on the books right now, and anybody can take that

unpaid leave.

And additionally, a lot of employers that have fewer than 50 still will provide that leave

as an option, and some of them provide it paid.

Now, millions of our people will no longer have to choose between their jobs and their families.

The law guarantees the right of up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year

when it's urgently needed at home to care for a newborn child or an ill family member.

This bill will strengthen our families, and I believe it will

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