Scott has spent his career fighting for policies that let families breathe easier. As a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, he authored the nation's first fully paid parental leave law — guaranteeing new parents their full salary for six weeks to bond with a newborn or newly adopted child, at a time when California's state program only covered a fraction of lost wages. It was a hard-fought, unanimous win that took on fierce opposition from the business community, and it's since become a model other cities and states have looked to replicate. In the state Senate, Scott passed California’s lactation in the workplace law and, as Senate Budget Chair, helped protect and expand access to child care. Scott co-authored SB 729, expanding insurance coverage for fertility treatment, including IVF, and redefining infertility to be inclusive of LGBTQ+ couples and single parents who had long been shut out of coverage.
Every family deserves the chance to grow, bond, and thrive without having to choose between a paycheck and time with a new child, or between building a family and affording the care it takes to do so. But federal policy hasn't caught up. The United States remains one of the only wealthy nations without any guarantee of paid family leave, childcare costs have outpaced wage growth for a generation, and the federal Child Tax Credit expansion that cut child poverty nearly in half was allowed to expire. Scott believes Washington should build on the models California and San Francisco have already proven work — and go further, so every family in America gets the support his own constituents have had for years.
