Cory Booker on Families & Children Mayor of Newark; N.J. Senator; 2020 presidential contender (withdrawn)

New estate tax to fund "baby bond" program

Government funded savings account at birth

Opposes family separation policy at southern border

• The New Jersey senator is also a vocal critic of Trump administration immigration policies that led to the separation of thousands of families at the Southern border.
• He was one of 11 senators, including 2020 presidential candidates Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to request weekly updates from the administration about children who were separated from their families.
• Booker also co-sponsored the REUNITE Act, a bill to reunite separated families.
• He visited the border to see the impact of Trump's immigration policies, and later objected to the Pentagon sending troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in the run-up to the 2018 midterms."
• Unlike some Democrats, Booker has stopped short of calling for the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and instead believes Congress should take a "serious look" at the agency.

Paid family leave is a necessity

Society struggles without paid family leave

Where people have no paid family leave, or vacation days, a child's illness is so much more than the minor stress and inconvenience my mother endured when I got sick. There is the added stress of how to pay a doctor or a co-pay, how to make rent if you miss a day's work to stay home with your child, how to cope with not being there when your son, hospitalized for asthma, calls for his mother.

Job-protected time off for bereavement and illness

"Parents grieving the loss of a child shouldn't have to fear losing their job too," Booker said. "This bill is a common sense expansion of family protections that Americans rely on."

Booker also supports legislation that would provide paid family leave. Booker is an original cosponsor of the Healthy Families Act, which would allow workers to earn up to seven paid sick days per year to recover from illness or take care of a loved one. He also is a cosponsor of the Family & Medical Insurance Leave Act, which would establish a federal paid family leave policy.