Obama to Renew Push for Paid Leave for Working Parents

President Obama is set to call on Congress, states and cities to pass measures to allow millions of workers to earn up to a week of paid sick time each year. Obama will also ask Congress for more than $2 billion in new spending to encourage states to create paid family and medical leave programs. Obama will also call on states and cities to adopt similar legislation. Some already have. Obama will propose legislation providing six weeks of paid administrative leave for the birth, adoption, or foster placement of a child, for federal workers. The announcement follows up on a White House Summit on Working Families the president held last June in Washington. It will also be the latest in a series of near-daily previews by Obama of initiatives geared toward the middle class and working families that he plans to highlight in next Tuesday's nationally televised State of the Union address.