Ro Khanna optimistic that ‘maybe one Republican’ would vote for standalone bill on paid family leave

Progressive Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on Sunday expressed optimism that “maybe one Republican” would vote for a standalone bill that provided paid family leave after the provision was dropped from the latest iteration of a budget reconciliation framework.

Appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Khanna acknowledged that losing key climate provisions in the bill was a “setback,” but pointed out that Democrats were currently working with a razor-thin majority, less than what former Presidents Obama and Clinton had when they were in office.

“I mean, they had 57, 60 senators. Here you’ve got 50/50,” Khanna told host Margaret Brennan, who noted that the reconciliation package had zero Republican senators behind it.

“And that’s the question Why isn’t there a single Republican who’s for paid family leave?,” Khanna asked. “Why is there no one asking the Republicans they claim to be the working class party? They’re not with us on paid family leave.”

“Why isn’t there a single Republican who for family paid leave?” @SecRaimondo questions, telling @margbrennan he wants a “single” standalone bill on paid family leave.

“Vote with us on paid family leave. Vote with us on child care,” he implores his colleagues. pic.twitter.com/ZGBn6AgrMh

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 31, 2021

Brennan asked Khanna if he believed paid family leave could be achieved after 2022, when Democrats may likely lose their overall majority in Congress and asked if President Biden had assured Democratic lawmakers as much.

“He said he will do everything he can on paid family and on community college,” Khanna responded.

“I’m an optimist to think maybe one Republican who gives speech after speech saying they’re for the working class, they’re for the forgotten American —  let’s do a single bill on paid family leave,” Khanna added. “They don’t want to vote for the bigger thing? Vote with us on paid family, vote with us on childcare, vote with us to help the working class. We are doing this because we don’t have a single Republican vote to help the working class in this country.”