Kathie Lingle's Work-Life Blog

On Capitol Hill

June 6, 2007 - I’m in Washington, D.C. this week at the annual meeting of Corporate Voices for Working Families, a 6-year-old non-partisan, non-profit organization created to bring the private (corporate) and public (government) sector together to do what it takes to provide greater support for working families, who need all the help they can get.  The corporate members in attendance include many household names, such as Aetna, Allstate, Baxter Healthcare, Ernst & Young, GlaxoSmithKline, PNC Financial Services, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, MetLife, CVS Pharmacy, Office Depot, Marriott, KPMG LLP (my alma mater), Mass Mutual.  Collectively, these represent some of the best practice leaders in work-life and corporate social responsibility today. Other attendees are heads of major work-life institutions, such as yours truly. There are also work-life consultants, community leaders, service providers and researchers present. 

The agenda is peppered with speakers from Capitol Hill from both sides of the aisle (Republican and Democrat) with updates about public policy initiatives and/or legislation being framed to make it easier for workers to build a career and a family: early childhood education, after-school care, workplace flexibility, changes in archaic labor laws, and family economic stability.

This afternoon, a small group of us had the opportunity to visit Capitol Hill to meet with Catherine Graham Hildum, Sen. Christopher Dodd’s staff member who serves on the Subcommittee on Children and Families that he chairs. You might recall that Dodd spent a decade sheparding the (unpaid) Family and Medical Leave Act through Congress. Among other projects, Sen. Dodd and Sen. Stevens of Alaska are planning to introduce a bill that would provide funding (shared between employees, employers and the federal government) for some level of paid leave for workers whose employers don’t provide any whatsoever. The senator is keenly interested in hearing from groups like ours that gave him input today from a combination of corporate representatives and work-life experts about the pros and cons of such legislation.  We also learned from Catherine about the Dodd-Ensign Improving 21st Century Community Learning Centers Act of 2007, which would continue and enhance federal funding for this particular approach to providing after-school care.  It contains a new provision for addressing the childhood obesity epidemic by including physical fitness and wellness programs into the list of possible programming activities.

It’s been a stimulating, thought-provoking day of sharing ideas and experiences among employers, the home front, demographic and work-life experts, community agencies/advocates, government leaders and even a futurist.  There is a growing, vibrant sense of recognition at this annual get-together that none of our institutions alone can make every workplace a great place to work or every family successful. Working in collaboration, however, we just might be able to pave the way for a healthier, better-rounded life than our working parents led.    

The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of WorldatWork and its affiliate, Alliance for Work-Life Progress (AWLP).