Nov 01, 2021
Democrats are closing in on a deal to lower prescription drug prices that the party could potentially shoehorn into their reconciliation package.
But paid family and medical leave — a cornerstone of President Joe Biden’s campaign that was dropped from the spending agreement last week — has had no such luck.
The main reason? Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a key Senate holdout who has remained immune to a tidal wave of efforts attempting to sway him on the issue.
Advocates spent their weekend trying to move the needle in any way they could. Dozens gathered in Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s New York neighborhood Sunday morning armed with banners, signs and sidewalk chalk. And plans to fly a banner over a donor retreat Manchin was hosting at the Greenbrier resort Sunday were thwarted only when weather prevented the pilot from getting off the ground. A radio spot from Paid Leave for the U.S. started playing in West Virginia this weekend and will run into this week.