PL+US launches ad campaign calling for federal paid leave policy as U.S. House begins Biden Rescue Plan hearings

Washington, D.C. —Today, as members of the U.S. House begin committee hearings on President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, Paid Leave for the United States (PL+US) has launched a TV and digital ad campaign urging Congress to prioritize and pass paid leave.
The campaign comes at a critical moment in the fight for paid leave, with congressional leaders set to decide if they’ll follow through on Biden’s COVID relief proposal by including emergency paid leave in their own legislation and Biden slated to introduce his framework for recovery legislation during a joint session of Congress on February 23.

As a part of the campaign, PL+US is putting $150,000 behind its ad “A New Normal” on cable news in Washington DC, with the spot appearing on key shows like MSNBC’s Morning Joe and CNN’s Situation Room. The ad features PL+US advocate Mai Ton sharing her own caregiving experience as she welcomed her new daughter into her family and said goodbye to her father, who passed away shortly after his granddaughter was born.

PL+US is also putting $25,000 behind a digital advertising blitz targeting legislative and political decision-makers inside the beltway over the same key, two week period.

This ad campaign is a major investment in promoting a core element of the care economy -- a broadly popular yet chronically underfunded policy space -- to leaders in DC.

“Emergency Paid Leave is an essential component of the American Rescue Plan that President Biden put forward last month that will keep working families safe and financially afloat as we continue to navigate through the COVID-19 crisis,” said Katie Bethell, Founder and Executive Director of PL+US Action.

“Congress let emergency leave expire in December, despite the simple fact that it saved lives and helped flatten the COVID curve. With new COVID variants surging across the country and families reaching the breaking point, working people need paid leave back and they need it back now,” said Bethell.

Polling released by Navigator last week showed that 79% of Americans support Biden’s proposal to reinstate emergency paid leave through the end of September. Also, a recent study by PL+US and allies showed that businesses, small and large, found paid leave critical to weathering the pandemic and are increasingly ready to join the fight for national paid leave legislation.

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About PL+US

PL+US (Paid Leave for the United States) is the national campaign to win paid family and medical leave for every working person in the US. PL+US has helped win paid family leave for nearly 8 million people through our transformative workplace campaigns at companies like Walmart, Starbucks, CVS and more in partnership with employees, employers, consumers, and investors. Learn more at: http://paidleave.us/