Multipronged $50 million campaign backed by labor aims to prioritize child and senior care

A new labor-backed campaign plans to spend at least $50 million ahead of the 2024 election to put child and senior care legislation back on the priority list, after it fell out of President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda during his administration.

A new labor-backed campaign plans to spend at least $50 million ahead of the 2024 election to put child and senior care legislation back on the priority list, after it fell out of President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda during his administration.

The "Care Can’t Wait" campaign is focused on resurrecting parts of Biden's "Build Back Better" program, including universal child care and guaranteed paid family and medical leave that Democrats were forced to abandon due to opposition from Republicans and moderate Democrats. It will also push for billions in new spending for child and senior care.

The campaign is backed by some of the nation’s largest labor unions — including the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) — whose members stand to benefit from expanded federal spending, along with some major left-leaning advocacy groups and super PACs, like Priorities USA.

“Care work makes all other work possible, helping children learn and grow, protecting the injured, ill and aging, and keeping our neighborhoods safe,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the teachers union. “Unfortunately, care work remains largely invisible: unprotected by labor laws, and all too often, informal and unrecognized for just how important it is — and just how important care workers are to the fabric of our society and the functioning of our economy.”

Biden has pushed for more federal support for senior and child care, such as his proposal to invest $775 billion over 10 years. But his agenda ran into opposition on Capitol Hill from moderates, like then-Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, and was eventually set aside in favor of infrastructure and climate legislation, both of which passed Congress during his first two years in office.