Gitis is pitching the plan as a less expensive, more limited alternative to the Family Act—the main Democratic proposal in Congress sponsored by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut. That bill would provide universal paid-leave benefits, allowing people to collect up to $4,000 or two-thirds of their monthly income for 12 weeks to cover time off for the birth or adoption of a child, a qualifying medical condition, or a situation in which an immediate family member is suffering from a serious illness. The program would be set up like Social Security, in which employers and employees each pay taxes into a government fund. Hillary Clinton has proposed a plan with similar benefits, but she would pay for it by raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy rather than setting up a system in which taxes would go up across the board. Clinton has repeatedly pledged not to raise taxes for the middle class or working families, making it difficult for her to support a proposal like the Family Act that calls for those groups to pay more.

Gitis estimates that the AAF proposal, which he has dubbed the Earned Income Leave Benefit, would cost between $1.5 billion and $18 billion per year, depending on how many people collected. That is much less than the Family Act, which he said would cost at least $85.9 billion a year. (Supporters of the Democratic proposal say his estimates are exaggerated, although the Congressional Budget Office has yet to perform a cost projection.)

The AAF plan is far from complete, and it has not been taken up by any Republican campaign or lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Gitis hasn’t suggested how to pay for it or even whether it should be administered as a tax credit or by a check from the government, as with Social Security or unemployment insurance.

Yet after years in which conservatives have steadfastly called for shrinking government and reining in entitlement spending, the proposal from a right-leaning group for a new government program is a significant moment in the debate over paid family leave. Founded by former Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota and the conservative mega-donor Fred Malek, the American Action Forum is led by Doug Holtz-Eakin, who served as an economic policy adviser to President George W. Bush and Senator John McCain’s campaign in 2008.

“I think it’s quite remarkable,” said Sarah Jane Glynn, the director of women’s economy policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. “That’s really fascinating and a positive step.”

The proposal is sure to be divisive on the right. And if Clinton wins the presidency, Democrats could use it as political ammunition—just as they were fond of reminding Republicans that it was the conservative Heritage Foundation which proposed an individual health-insurance mandate two decades before conservatives railed against its inclusion in Obamacare. That plan was floated as an alternative to much more expansive and expensive program the Clintons were pushing in the ’90s. The AAF is offering its proposal in a similar spirit: It’s an option that would compete with the proposals of the Clinton campaign and congressional Democrats.