Washington Lawmakers, Groups, Discussing Paid Family Leave

OLYMPIA  (AP) — As Washington lawmakers continue to wrestle with reaching agreement on a two-year state budget, another group of negotiators has been meeting regularly to discuss another topic: paid family leave.

Several bipartisan legislators — along with representatives from the labor and business communities —have been taking advantage of the extra time provided by Legislature's need to go into double overtime because of the ongoing budget talks.

Several family leave bills were introduced or drafted during the regular 105-day legislative session started in January, but none received floor votes. However, negotiators say that the two 30-day special sessions that have been called since the regular session ended in April have allowed them to have productive meetings.