|
 Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and other top administration
officials took turns telling their personal stories about the
struggle to balance work and family at a campaign-style "summit"
stacked with cheering Democratic supporters at a posh Washington
hotel.
"I remember taking the night shift when Malia was born and when
Sasha was born and being up at two in the morning and changing
diapers and burping them and singing to them," Obama said, talking
about his daughters, who are now teenagers.
"The point is, I was lucky enough to be able to take some time off,"
he said. "I want every father and every child to have that
opportunity."
Obama issued an order requiring federal agency heads to expand
flexible workplace policies as much as possible. The goal is to make
it easier for parents or workers to take care of family needs and to
enable more people to find and keep jobs.
Praising businesses that have taken similar steps, Obama said family
leave should be available across the country.
 But the White House stopped short of making specific legislative
proposals to provide family leave. White House spokesman Josh
Earnest said there were "a lot of different ways for addressing this
problem" and the summit was more about having a "national
conversation."
Obama said the event was not just about promoting ideas that are
popular with women, who make up a big part of the Democratic base,
ahead of November midterms.
But he urged people at the event to push Congress to do more.
"As long as Congress refuses to act on these policies, we need you
to raise your voices," he said.
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Obama met with a group of chief executives from companies including
Goldman Sachs and Johnson & Johnson, chatting for about 45 minutes
about their strategies. PricewaterhouseCoopers, for instance, offers
employees an unlimited number of sick days that they can also use to
look after family members who are ill. Johnson & Johnson's health
encouragement programs lead both to healthier workers and more than
$500 savings per employee each year, a White House report released
Monday said.
"We need legislation, but we don't have to wait for Congress to act
in order to apply some of the lessons from some of these companies
who are doing outstanding work," Obama told reporters while he sat
with the CEOs.
Faced with a Republican-led House of Representatives, the
president's chances of passing legislation are slight. He has
declared that he will pursue his agenda through unilateral actions
such as executive orders and official memos.
But Republicans said Obama and his Democrats have ignored measures
they have put forward that would provide flexibility at work, such
one by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell that would allow
people who work from home to claim a deduction for a home office
even if they are caring for a child while working.
"Because of President Obama's failed policies, too many middle-class
families either aren't working at all or are barely getting by with
stagnant wages and higher costs on everything from gas to
groceries," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Republican
Speaker John Boehner.
(Editing by Nick Zieminski and Eric Walsh)
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