A bill that would have extended breastfeeding protections at work to at least 9 million nursing parents during an ongoing formula shortage has failed to pass the U.S. Senate.
The formula shortage helped revive conversations around more breastfeeding support for parents, especially low-income people who are more likely to turn to formula because they work in jobs where they cannot safely pump and store milk, or which offer little or no paid parental leave — but it ultimately wasn’t enough to pass the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act. The bill had been sitting in the Senate for more than a year and passed the House in October.
The PUMP Act failed to pass via unanimous consent Wednesday evening after being introduced by Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, who helped pass similar legislation in 2010 and has been pushing since then for a more expansive law that covers more parents.
The bill would have closed a loophole first created when the Break Time for Nursing Mothers Law was passed in 2010. Because that law was signed as part of the Fair Labor Standards Act, it adopted some of the same exceptions in that law, which largely covers only hourly workers. As a result, the Break Time for Nursing Mothers Law left out employees in several salaried and professional occupations, including teachers and some nurses. About 9 million working women of childbearing age fall into that category, as well as an additional 3.7 million salaried workers who earn above the law’s salary threshold...
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