Senate Republicans block emergency sick leave bill as coronavirus threatens widespread need

Lamar Alexander

You’d think the desperate need for paid sick leave legislation would be undeniable in the face of coronavirus. But trust Republicans to do the wrong thing. On Wednesday, Democratic Sen. Patty Murray tried to speed the progress of an emergency paid sick leave bill to a full Senate vote, but Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander wasn’t having it.

Alexander blocked Murray’s procedural maneuver and stuck the bill in the Senate health committee. While the bill would have failed on the Senate floor thanks to Republicans, at least they would have been on the record against paid sick leave during a pandemic. Alexander’s block protected his fellow Republicans from taking that unpopular stance publicly.

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“For many of our workers―restaurant workers, truck drivers, service industry workers―they may not have an option to take a day off without losing their pay or losing their job,” Murray said, accurately. “That’s not a choice we should be asking anyone to make in the United States in the 21st century.” But we do, every day, and, thanks to Republicans, that’s a choice people will continue to make even while going to work sick presents a major threat to public health.

Senate Democrats aren’t going to quit trying to pass paid sick leave, House Democrats plan to pass it this week, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will doubtless be pushing it in her negotiations with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The fight isn’t over, but Republicans are once again showing us who they are.