Recognizing that income and job security often constrain the amount of time that parents are able to spend at home with newborn, or newly adopted, children--and seeing that this time is extremely important to children and their parents--we petition the administration to consider proposing federal legislation requiring businesses to grant a minimum of 8 weeks of fully paid parental leave.
Parents would have the option to split the time between themselves (i.e. six weeks taken off by one and two taken off by the other).
The legislation must encompass all legally recognized living situations including, but not limited to, marriage, civil unions, and other registered partnerships as well as single parents. Pending repeal of the DOMA, the legislation must extend to same-sex couples as well.