Democrats paid leave proposal is on life support, with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) continuing to withhold the single vote Democrats need to implement one of the most popular policies in their agenda.

The policy would ensure all American workers have access to at least four weeks of paid family and medical leave, starting 2024. Manchin is opposed to including it in the Build Back Better bill, the sweeping spending and tax proposal Democrats are hoping to pass on party lines since Republicans have made clear they wont back it.

Manchin is not necessarily against the whole policy, but he wants it to be bipartisan.

That leaves Democrats and advocates with the potentially more difficult job of convincing the West Virginia senator that thats not going to happen.

Last week, after weeks of conversation with Manchin, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) reached out to Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), two Republicans she thought might be open to working on a bipartisan paid leave proposal.