Manchin and Schumer Face Pressure From Paid Leave Advocates
Advocates are mounting a final push to ensure that Senate Democrats don’t strip the national paid leave program out of the party’s $2 trillion climate and social spending bill.
Their efforts are aimed squarely at Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), the lone Democratic holdout who has insisted that paid leave should be passed in a bipartisan way, and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who controls whether paid leave will be included in the Senate bill that will go to the floor this month.
Supporters of the paid medical and family leave program say it’s a hugely popular, slam-dunk policy that would boost both the pandemic-battered economy and Democrats’ election prospects. But they’re aware of the current political reality that its prospects are uncertain.
