Paid Family Leave Pilot Extension Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1628 To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend the employer credit for paid family and medical leave, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MAY 23 (legislative day, MAY 22), 2019 Mrs. FISCHER (for herself, Mr. KING, and Ms. COLLINS) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance A BILL To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend the employer credit for paid family and medical leave, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Paid Family Leave 4 Pilot Extension Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. EXTENSION OF EMPLOYER CREDIT FOR PAID FAM- 6 ILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE. 7 (a) PROGRAM EXTENSION.—Section 45S(i) of the In- 8 ternal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking ‘‘De- 9 cember 31, 2019’’ and inserting ‘‘December 31, 2022’’. 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:03 Jun 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1628.IS S1628 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 1628 IS (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 1 this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after 2 December 31, 2019. 3 SEC. 3. EMPLOYER REQUIREMENTS FOR RATE OF PAY- 4 MENT. 5 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subsection (c) of section 45S of 6 the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended— 7 (1) in paragraph (1)(B), by inserting after the 8 first sentence the following: ‘‘For purposes of deter- 9 mining the rate of payment under the program, any 10 family and medical leave which is paid by a State or 11 local government or required by State or local law, 12 determined as a percentage of the wages normally 13 paid to such employee for services performed for the 14 employer, shall be taken into account.’’, and 15 (2) in paragraph (4)— 16 (A) by striking ‘‘For purposes of this sec- 17 tion, any’’ and inserting ‘‘Any’’, and 18 (B) by striking ‘‘amount of paid family 19 and medical leave provided by the employer’’ 20 and inserting ‘‘wages taken into account under 21 subsection (a)’’. 22 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 23 this section shall take effect as if included in section 24 13403 of Public Law 115–97. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:03 Jun 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1628.IS S1628 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 1628 IS SEC. 4. TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS. 1 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 45S of the Internal Rev- 2 enue Code of 1986 is amended— 3 (1) in subsection (b)(1), by striking ‘‘credit al- 4 lowed’’ and inserting ‘‘wages taken into account’’, 5 (2) in subsection (c), by striking paragraph (3) 6 and inserting the following: 7 ‘‘(3) AGGREGATION RULE.— 8 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in 9 subparagraph (B), all persons which are treated 10 as a single employer under subsections (b) and 11 (c) of section 414 shall be treated as a single 12 employer. 13 ‘‘(B) EXCEPTION.— 14 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Subparagraph (A) 15 shall not apply to any person who estab- 16 lishes to the satisfaction of the Secretary 17 that such person has a substantial and le- 18 gitimate business reason for failing to pro- 19 vide a written policy described in para- 20 graph (1) or (2). 21 ‘‘(ii) SUBSTANTIAL AND LEGITIMATE 22 BUSINESS REASON.—For purposes of 23 clause (i), the term ‘substantial and legiti- 24 mate business reason’ shall not include the 25 operation of a separate line of business, 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:03 Jun 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1628.IS S1628 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 1628 IS the rate of wages or category of jobs for 1 employees (or any similar basis), or the ap- 2 plication of State or local laws relating to 3 family and medical leave, but may include 4 the grouping of employees of a common 5 law employer.’’, and 6 (3) in subsection (d)(2), by inserting ‘‘, as de- 7 termined on an annualized basis (pro-rata for part- 8 time employees),’’ after ‘‘compensation’’. 9 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 10 this section shall take effect as if included in section 11 13403 of Public Law 115–97. 12 SEC. 5. GAO STUDY OF IMPACT OF TAX CREDIT TO PRO- 13 MOTE ACCESS TO PAID FAMILY AND MED- 14 ICAL LEAVE. 15 (a) STUDY.—Not later than June 30, 2022, the 16 Comptroller General of the United States, in consultation 17 with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of 18 Labor, shall— 19 (1) complete a study that— 20 (A) examines the effectiveness of the tax 21 credit for paid family and medical leave author- 22 ized under section 45S of the Internal Revenue 23 Code of 1986 in terms of— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:03 Jun 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1628.IS S1628 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •S 1628 IS (i) increasing access to paid family 1 and medical leave among qualifying em- 2 ployees; 3 (ii) promoting the creation of new 4 paid family and medical leave policies 5 among eligible employers; 6 (iii) increasing the generosity of exist- 7 ing paid family and medical leave policies 8 among eligible employers; and 9 (iv) incenting employee or employer 10 behavior that might not otherwise have oc- 11 curred in the absence of the credit; 12 (B) provides recommendations for ways to 13 modify or enhance the tax credit to further pro- 14 mote access to paid family and medical leave 15 for qualifying employees; and 16 (C) provides suggestions of alternative 17 policies that Federal and State governments 18 could implement to increase access to paid fam- 19 ily and medical leave, particularly among quali- 20 fying employees; and 21 (2) prepare and submit a report to the Com- 22 mittee on Finance of the Senate and the Committee 23 on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives 24 setting forth the conclusions of the study conducted 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:03 Jun 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1628.IS S1628 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •S 1628 IS under paragraph (1) in such a manner that the rec- 1 ommendations included in the report can inform fu- 2 ture legislative action. 3 Such report shall also be made publicly available via the 4 website of the Government Accountability Office. 5 (b) PROHIBITION.—In carrying out the requirements 6 of this section, the Comptroller General of the United 7 States may request qualitative and quantitative informa- 8 tion from employers and employees claiming the credit 9 under section 45S of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, 10 but nothing in this section shall be construed as man- 11 dating additional reporting requirements for such employ- 12 ers or employees beyond what is already required by law. 13 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:03 Jun 01, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1628.IS S1628 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS