Alex Brandon/AP
- Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday that four weeks of paid leave is back in Democrats' social-spending bill.
- Paid leave was not included in Biden's initial $1.75 trillion framework released last week.
- But Pelosi and other Democrats said they would keep working to get the measure in the final version.
President Joe Biden unveiled a $1.75 trillion social-spending framework last week, and it was significantly scaled-down, leaving many progressive priorities like free community college and paid family and medical leave out.
But Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and some other Democrats, made clear the framework was not final. On Wednesday, Pelosi informed her colleagues she is requesting four weeks of paid leave be added back into the bill, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to Insider.
"As we are reviewing priorities and at the urging of many Members of the Caucus, I have asked the Ways and Means Committee for its legislation for Paid Family and Medical Leave to be included in this morning's hearing," Pelosi wrote in a Dear Colleague letter. "Chairman Richie Neal and the Committee staff have worked on this priority for a long time and were ready."
In Democrats' initial $3.5 trillion proposal, they sought to include 12 weeks of paid leave, but due to opposition from centrist holdouts Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, the measure got cut. But Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand – a Democratic lawmaker that has advocated for paid leave – wrote in a statement after the unveiling of the framework: "Until the bill is printed, I will continue working to include paid leave in the Build Back Better plan."
Pelosi also indicated last week that she still wanted to see paid leave in the final version of the bill.
This story is breaking and will be updated.