During an impassioned and emotional paid family leave advocacy day on Capitol Hill yesterday, hosted by Glamour and Paid Leave for All, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro told a packed roundtable: “Now we are close [to passing paid leave]. The president’s budget has $325 billion for paid family and medical leave. That is the direction. You don’t take no for an answer and you never give up. This institution has the power to transform people’s lives. We’re going to do it.”

Through tears, Representative Rashida Tlaib, cofounder of the Congressional Mama’s Caucus and longtime paid leave proponent, echoed DeLauro’s sentiments. She recalled the birth of her second son, and the impact of having to go back to work within a week: “I had him on Thursday. And I went back to work on Tuesday. Let’s be unapologetic about this. We are asking for what is right and moral.”

The United States is one of only six countries in the world without a national paid leave policy, and one in four women have had to return to work within two weeks of giving birth. These statistics are what inspired the Glamour to follow eight women through the first 28 days postpartum, to show the impacts of the lack of paid leave on families.

And the extraordinary roundtable marked the coming together of five of the mothers from Glamour’s now award-winning 28 Days paid leave project, with Representatives Rosa DeLauro, Dan Goldman, Jimmy Gomez, Chrissy Houlahan, Brittany Pettersen, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, and Lauren Underwood to discuss the urgency of passing paid family and medical leave.

During the hour-long meeting, Karina Garcia, Tiffany E. Mrotek, Diana Carhart, Stephanie Williams, and Shukura Wells shared their own experiences, noting how the lack of paid leave took away the rights of women and families to self-determine their own parenting journey. In particular, lack of paid leave forced Garcia back to work six days after giving birth, and Wells, 16 days.

Founding director of Paid Leave for All, Dawn Huckelbridge, said, “It is remarkable, and historic, for a women's outlet such as Glamour to take this kind of a role and to be fighting for paid leave alongside us.”

Besides the roundtable, Glamour and Paid Leave for All met with White House staff and senators including Chuck Schumer, Ron Wyden, John Hickenlooper, and Debbie Stabenow.

Senator Schumer told Glamour: “Paid leave would make an instant difference for millions—rural families, single parents, and people of color especially. As majority leader, I have fought tooth and nail to try to make paid leave for all a reality, because Americans shouldn’t have to choose between supporting their family and providing for them. We simply cannot give up, and I will continue to fight as long as it takes.”

And Senator Wyden, who met with 28 Days mom Diana Carhart, said: “Moms like Diana are exactly the voices that need to be heard in the fight for a national paid leave policy. Families across America are counting on us to get this done, and Congress has a responsibility to take action.”

This advocacy day comes on the heels of Glamour and Paid Leave for All’s provocative public awareness campaign, Get Your Sh*t Together, Baby, which launched in April alongside a nationwide petition to #PassPaidLeave.

The urgency of the paid leave crisis in this country should not be understated. Just 25% of workers in the country have access to paid leave through their jobs. In the lowest quarter of earners—disproportionately women and women of color—this falls to just 9%.

Despite the long and uphill struggle to pass paid leave in both the House and Senate—it was a casualty of the doomed Build Back Better bill in 2021, and Rep. DeLauro and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s FAMILY Act has failed to pass four times so far—there is a renewed vigor around the issue in the corridors of DC.

It has become a cornerstone of President Biden’s agenda—with the historic $325 billion provision for paid family and medical leave in his latest budget. The newly formed Congressional Dads Caucus (led by Rep. Jimmy Gomez) has passing paid leave as one of its key goals. The FAMILY Act is being reintroduced next week. And notably, 2023 marked the creation of the first ever bipartisan working group to pass paid leave led by Democrat Rep. Chrissy Houlahan and Republican Rep. Stephanie Bice.

Houlahan told Glamour, “I feel a sense of urgency. This is a working group that has had active meetings at least once a month, if not more, since its inception. Our mantra is: More paid leave for more people. And we’re trying to chip away at this to the best degree that we can. There is an opportunity, and there is momentum.”

When pressed on what the group intends with “More paid leave for more people,” Houlahan explained that “it’s looking like the appetite for the collective is focusing right now on parental [leave], but it’s a good and important start.”

While there still remains some skepticism about how quickly paid leave as a whole can be advanced in the current congressional session, there is undeniable progress and undeniable energy around an issue that for far too long has been deprioritized.

At an evening reception hosted by Glamour, Paid Leave for All, and Rep. DeLauro at her home, the congresswoman applauded the work of all the paid leave advocates, and recalled how she used to feel like “the crazy aunt in the attic” when she pushed to pass paid leave, but now there are roomfuls of people in DC behind her—and tens of millions of voters in support of a national policy (four in every five voting Americans, to be precise). Attendees at DeLauro's house included Senator Chris Dodd—the architect of the Family and Medical Leave Act that celebrated its 30th anniversary this year—Reps. Ayanna Pressley and Jimmy Gomez, and senior paid leave advocates and policymakers, alongside the women from Glamour’s 28 Days project.

The battle is, of course, far from won, but progress is coming. Let’s #PassPaidLeave.

Sign the petition to #PassPaidLeave here.

Originally Appeared on Glamour