Washington, D.C. — Paid Leave for All Founding Director Dawn Huckelbridge released the following statement in response to this morning’s passage of the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.” The bill was passed on a party line vote with two Republicans not voting because they slept through the vote.
“This bill is a betrayal of working families everywhere in America. It represents the biggest wealth transfer in history, gutting vital services at a time when we should instead be investing in policies like paid leave and affordable care. Republicans will now have to defend their cuts to programs like Medicaid and SNAP — and tell the voters why they’re taking away working families’ food and health care to give more tax cuts to billionaires.
This bill even expands and extends a tax credit they call paid leave — when it is actually just another tax giveaway to wealthy corporations. The “45S” credit does nothing to make leave more affordable for employers to offer or for employees to take, and has no accountability for the public dollars spent. Meanwhile House Republicans blocked efforts to make this credit actually reach working families and small businesses.
Republicans have been holding these markups and votes in the dead of night because they know how deeply unpopular their actions are. They chart this course at their peril — with Americans in record numbers calling for more, not less, taxes for the wealthy. Voters do not want to slash and burn the programs they rely on, in fact supermajorities in every party want to see increased corporate taxes to fund investments in paid leave and other supports that would help families thrive.
Despite claims that they want to create bigger families, House Republicans and President Trump seem hell-bent on only supporting policies that benefit their wealthy donors and punish hard-working Americans. We are watching, we have eyes on the Senate, and we will continue to fight for working families, the programs they need, and the future investments they deserve.”
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Press Contact: Andrea Purse, andrea@liletteadvisors.com