Advocacy groups launch campaign in Washington calling for paid family leave

A number of advocacy organizations launched a new advertising campaign in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday aimed at pushing Congress to pass paid family leave legislation, according to a release obtained exclusively by The Hill. 

The campaign, led by Paid Family Leave for the U.S. and its partner organizations, includes a mobile billboard, online advertisements and social media promotion of U.S. caregivers and families calling for paid family leave. 

The mobile billboard is slated to travel along a route in downtown Washington from April 13-15, showing images of caregivers calling for the policy to be passed.

“By displaying the faces of real caregivers in need of real support from Congress, we are making it clear that this is not an isolated request. Millions in this country need paid family and medical leave, and they need it now,” Karin Roland, senior director of campaigns and d igital for PL+US, said in a statement. 

The effort is a part of the $20 million Care Can’t Wait campaign, which is calling for federal-level investment in the nation’s “care infrastructure.” 

The group’s partner organizations supporting the campaign include Supermajority, Paid Leave for All, Democracy for America, Ohio Women’s Public Policy Network, Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy, LUCHA, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Human Impact Partners, UltraViolet, Breastfeed LA, SEIU, Care Force, IATSE, Care Can’t Wait, the California Work and Family Coalition, Higher Heights, and Fight for $15.

Calls for paid family leave at the federal level have grown louder amid the coronavirus pandemic as many caregivers working remotely or from their workplace struggle to balance their own work with caregiving responsibilities. 

The campaign comes as President Biden works to get his $2.25 trillion infrastructure plan through Congress. He is also expected to roll out a families package that includes measures addressing child care and health care in the coming weeks, which is seen as a companion to his infrastructure proposal.

On Monday, 55 progressive groups urged Biden in a letter to include paid family leave, a permanent expansion of the child tax credit and other provisions in his expansive jobs package.