Ivanka Trump, President Donald Trump’s daughter and a senior adviser in his administration, says she’s hopeful that her push for paid family-leave legislation will come to fruition next year.
While the president has talked about paid family leave since early in his campaign, it hasn’t been part of the “lexicon” of establishment Republicans, Ivanka Trump said. She’s worked for a year to convince the GOP to back a “fiscally prudent” version of the measure.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Aug. 1 introduced one such option that would allow parents to draw Social Security benefits during family leave in exchange for postponing retirement by three to six months.
Ivanka Trump said “several other Senators” also plan to introduce legislation.
She noted there’s now “unprecedented opportunity” for Americans wanting to find or change careers as the booming economy offers more jobs than there are unemployed people, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The trouble, she said, is that job seekers can’t learn from the bureau in what locale the jobs are available and what skills are necessary to land them.
The council should work with companies to collect the data and make it available, she said.
The council will also make changes to what the government currently does to help. She noted there are over 40 training and education programs across 14 federal agencies, but “there’s no real accountability, there’s no real rationalization of these programs.”
She said the council should redirect the resources to programs that show results.
She also promoted the president’s push for more vocational education.
College, however valuable, “is not the right path for everyone and should not be perceived as the only path for everyone,” she added.
“To be able to service the cloud may require 18 months of post-secondary credentialing, not a four-year college degree,” Ivanka Trump said. “We also, in this country, have a great need for plumbers and electricians and welders, and these are occupations that are incredibly lucrative and in high demand.”
As a side note, she was asked about her views on the media. She said she received a “fair share” of reporting that she knew “not to be fully accurate.”
Still, she said, she didn’t feel “that the media is the enemy of the people.”
The president chimed in on Twitter:
Trump has specified on multiple occasions that he considers some of the largest media outlets—CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, The New York Times, and The Washington Post—to be what he identifies as “fake news.”
