Schumer, Gillibrand seek Senate passage of $1.75T infrastructure package

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand each sought to build support on Sunday for key provisions they are pushing to preserve in the proposed $1.75 trillion infrastructure package that cleared the U.S. House last Friday but still must be voted on in the Senate.

Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) appeared on CBS’ "Face the Nation" to make the case for the inclusion of a federal paid family leave program in the infrastructure package, asserting that it will allow "people to stay in the workforce even when there's a family emergency."

Schumer (D-N.Y.), at a news conference outside of his Manhattan office, called on Republicans to back a provision in the Build Back Better bill that would cap the cost of insulin at $35, calling it a "life or death" issue for millions of Americans diagnosed with diabetes.

House Democrats last week approved their version of the $1.75 trillion social spending bill known as the Build Back Better bill that focuses on so-called "human infrastructure" needs such as child care, elder care and addressing climate change. Schumer has said the Senate will take up the bill after lawmakers return to Washington from their Thanksgiving recess, with Democrats looking to pass the proposal through the budget reconciliation process, a technical maneuver that would allow them to pass the bill with a Democratic majority.

Gillibrand said she was "optimistic" a compromise could be reached with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a key moderate Senate Democrat, who has repeatedly blocked efforts to include paid family leave in the infrastructure bill.

Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), appearing on CBS’ "Face the Nation" said she has been in talks with Manchin, a critical swing vote in the evenly split Senate, and he "has come a long way" on his thoughts about the program that allows employees to take a limited amount of paid time off for medical reasons or to care for an ill family member or infant.

"I think Sen. Manchin and I can come together, hopefully in the next couple of weeks on something that could be included in this package," Gillibrand said.

Manchin and the majority of Senate Republicans have voiced opposition to the federal paid leave proposal, citing cost concerns. Congressional Republicans have instead floated a proposal that would offer incentives to businesses that provide paid leave to their workers.

Gillibrand, addressing some of the concerns, said the program "helps people get back to work."

"If you don't have paid leave and there's a family emergency, sometimes your only recourse is quitting," Gillibrand said. "If you have to quit your job, getting rehired is very difficult."

President Joe Biden had initially backed a Democratic proposal to include 12 weeks of paid emergency leave, but congressional Democrats, responding to concerns raised by Manchin and moderate Democrats over the long-term costs of the program, scaled back the proposal to four weeks.

Gillibrand also said she hoped the Senate would uphold a provision in the House version of the social spending bill that raises the cap on state and local tax deductions. The so-called SALT deduction was capped at $10,000 under former President Donald Trump’s tax plan that passed a GOP-controlled Congress in 2017. Under the current Democratic proposal the deduction will be capped at $80,000 for most households until 2030.

Gillibrand said the 2017 cap "hurt a lot of middle class families in New York, particularly in places like Westchester and Long Island, where a firefighter and a teacher would have been harmed by that deduction being reduced to such a low cap."

"What we're trying to do is restore that cap to covering all middle-class wage earners, and the House came up with a compromise to have that cap be at $80,000," Gillibrand said. "We hope to retain that in the Senate.

Schumer, at his news conference, claimed Senate Republican leaders want to kill the provision to lower the cost of insulin as negotiations over the social spending package continue.

The provision would lower out-of-pocket costs for insulin to $35 per month under Medicare and private insurance.

The current cost of insulin ranges from $300 to $600 per vial, Schumer’s office said.

Schumer called it a "life or death issue" for millions of Americans with diabetes, noting that his father-in-law died of the disease. He said the bill provides "the chance and the momentum to once and for all push down this price" of insulin, which nearly tripled between 2002 and 2013, according to the American Diabetes Association.

"To those in the GOP who want to say, ‘Kill this provision,’ I say, stand down. Stand with the American people, many of whom are your own constituents battling diabetes at tremendous cost," Schumer said.

A spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.

Schumer said he will fight to keep the provision in the bill, which he hopes to pass by Christmas.

He said, "I think that we're in very good shape to get 50 votes" needed to pass the bill by reconciliation, but there are several ways the Senate parliamentarian and Republicans "could try to knock it out."