Sens. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) were the only senators who did not vote on the amendment, which would have guaranteed two weeks of paid sick leave as well as 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave to all U.S. employees and independent contractors.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Fifty one] Republican senators just voted against an amendment\u2026 that would have expanded paid leave to millions of Americans left out of the package,\u201d\u00a0tweeted<\/a>\u00a0progressive advocacy group Indivisible. \u201cLet that sink in.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf one of these Republicans (or two!) is your senator,\u201d the group added, \u201ccall their office right now and tell them you saw their vote and you won\u2019t forget that they voted against the Murray amendment to expand paid sick leave to millions of Americans: 1-855-980-2355.\u201d<\/p>\n The full coronavirus relief package, formally known as the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, easily passed the Senate Wednesday afternoon by a vote of\u00a090-8<\/a>, and President Donald Trump subsequently signed the measure into law.<\/p>\n While calling it an urgently needed first step, progressives\u00a0criticized<\/a>\u00a0the legislation as woefully inadequate given that it only provides paid sick leave to about\u00a020% of the U.S. private sector workforce<\/a>\u00a0while excluding workers at companies with more than 500 employees.<\/p>\n In a\u00a0speech<\/a>\u00a0on the Senate floor ahead of Wednesday\u2019s vote, Murray pitched her amendment as a \u201ccommonsense step\u201d that would be good for both workers and small businesses. The amendment was a modified version of the PAID Leave Act, which Murray\u00a0introduced<\/a>\u00a0Tuesday alongside Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.).<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the right thing to do for our economy and for public health\u2014and we should get it done as soon as possible,\u201d Murray said. \u201cIf we don\u2019t do this, if we let this opportunity slip by, we are sending a message to scared people across the country that we still are not willing to acknowledge the scope of the tragedy we are seeing unfold.\u201d<\/p>\n