WASHINGTON – Days after President Joe Biden released a new framework for the Democratic Party's social spending package, lawmakers are angling to keep key policies in the bill and line up other avenues to pass long-held goals.On Thursday, Biden unveiled a proposal that focused spending on universal pre-Kindergarten, child care subsidies, eldercare, climate investment and housing."I know it’s hard. I know how deeply people feel about the things that they fight for. But this framework includes historic investments in our nation and in our people," Biden said in remarks about the plan.Struck from the new outline were programs like paid family leave, federal drug price negotiations, free community college and a major environmental policy known as the Clean Electricity Performance Program.Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. said Sunday on CNN he "absolutely" still wants to include federal drug price negotiating in Democrats' social spending package. That proposal would allow the government to negotiate prescription drug prices with pharmaceutical companies for programs like Medicare and Medicaid. The policy was cut from the package last week after a small group of Democrats raised objections.Sanders added the current package is "a very good bill" despite being significantly reduced from Democrats' original ambitions.The bill was trimmed after opposition from holdout moderate lawmakers, including Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. They took issue with the package's original topline spending, which would've paid $3.5 trillion over the next decade; the current proposal would spend $1.75 trillion over that same time frame.More:Biden drops paid family leave from proposed budget bill frameworkContinued fight for paid family leave Democrats are also looking for other ways to pass paid family leave after it was struck from the package. While Biden originally intended to give 12 months' paid leave to working parents, the proposal was reduced to four weeks, then removed altogether.“Until the bill is printed, I will continue working to include paid leave in the Build Back Better plan," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., a longtime advocate for paid leave, said in a Friday statement.Biden administration officials have signaled the White House will keep pushing for policies like paid leave and drug price negotiations, albeit through future legislation.Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said "we will continue to fight" for paid family leave during a Sunday interview on CBS News' "Face the Nation.""I don't think anyone expected that the president would pass his entire agenda in the first 10 months," Raimondo said, adding that both the social spending package and a bipartisan infrastructure package will "hopefully" pass in the coming week.Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told "Fox News Sunday" that "we're the closest that we've ever been" to passing the social spending package and that its passage would set up "major action" on other issues down the road.“While it is not in this framework, we’re going to keep fighting for it," Buttigieg said of paid family leave on ABC News "This Week." He added that lawmakers "shouldn't let Republicans off the hook on voting for the family provisions too," implying the GOP should support the policy in the future."A few Republicans will actually support paid family leave because they want to be pro-family," Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told NBC News' "Meet the Press" during a Sunday interview. Granholm continued that "the fight is not over" for the social spending bill, which she hoped will pass this coming week.While talks continue across Capitol Hill and with the White House, Democratic leadership is increasingly feeling pressure to pass the party's agenda. The House aims to pass both the infrastructure and social spending packages on Tuesday, according to Axios.Follow Matthew Brown online @mrbrownsir. Source link
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