RNC Lists Bills for Working Families Supposedly Bipartisan White House Won't Support

The Republican National Committee is charging that the Obama administration’s day-long White House Summit on Working Families rings hollow.

“Democrats are not just ignoring the bills passed by the Republican-led House. They also refuse to consider bills sponsored by Senate Republicans to help working families,” RNC spokesman Raffi Williams emailed Breitbart News Monday.

The White House, in conjunction with the Department of Labor and the left-wing Center for American Progress (CAP), hosted the event in Washington, focused on providing Americans with family-friendly work policies.

In an op-ed detailing the importance of the day’s event, Obama wrote that “family leave, childcare, and flexibility aren’t frills.”

He further announced a Presidential Memorandum directing all agencies to “to expand access to flexible work schedules, and giving employees the right to request them,” called on Congress to pass the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, and directed the Department of Labor to spend $25 million on job training programs for people who do not have access to childcare.

“I’ll work with anyone – Democrats or Republicans – to increase opportunity for American workers. But in this year of action, whenever I can act on my own, I will,” Obama wrote.

According to the RNC, CAP’s participation is symbolic of the White House’s lack of seriousness in working with Republicans on the matter.

In an itemized list, the RNC highlighted bills sponsored by Senate Republicans that it says are family-friendly but that Democrats have failed to consider.

Via the RNC:

• Senator Tim Scott is sponsoring the Supporting Knowledge and Investing in Lifelong Skills Act, or the SKILLS Act, which would transform our broken workforce development and training system into a more responsive and efficient program to enable workers to compete in the 21st century economy. This bill already passed the House in a 215-202 vote.

• Senator Susan Collins has a bill to restore the 40-hour work week with her Forty Hours Is Full Time Act. The act would repeal ObamaCare’s 30-hour workweek rule, which has cut American workers’ hours and wages. It, too, has passed the House.

• Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska is working to prevent workplace discrimination with the Workplace Advancement Amendment. It would equip women with tools to fight discrimination in the workplace.

• Senator Marco Rubio’s Rewarding Achievement and Incentivizing Successful Employees Act, or the RAISE Act, would amend the National Labor Relations Act to allow employers to give merit-based compensation increases to individual employees, even if those increases are not part of a collective bargaining agreement.

• Senator Mike Lee’s Working Families Flexibility Act would help workers handle the constant challenge of work-life balance. It would allow private-sector employers to give employees who work overtime a choice between extra pay or extra comp time. This passed House in a 223-204 vote.

• Senator Mitch McConnell’s Working Parents Home Office Act would fix a flaw in the tax code that penalizes parents who work from home. Right now, women and men can’t claim a tax deduction for a home office if that office includes a baby crib. This ridiculous provision punishes parents who work from home and care for their kids at the same time; the act would change that.