Trump agenda pushes paid family leave, job training, ‘right to try’ bill

President Trump didn’t roll out big new initiatives in his State of the Union address but called for help clearing the decks of several popular and bipartisan goals that have been stuck in Congress for years.

Beyond immigration and infrastructure plans that dominate the 2018 agenda, Mr. Trump sought to break the Capitol Hill logjam on paid family leave, job training and a “right to try” bill to give terminally ill patients access to experimental drugs and treatments.

He also vowed action to lower the sky-high prescription drug prices Americans pay compared to what people in other countries pay for the same drugs. The efforts will include the administration, Congress and state governments, said White House officials.

However, the White House faces the same obstacles that blocked many of these ideas in the past, including legislative gridlock that has intensified under Mr. Trump.

The president reached across the aisle with a proposal for paid family leave, which also was a promise he made on the campaign trail in 2016. But the idea of guaranteed paid time off for parents to care for newborns will hit the same roadblock that stymied President Obama’s attempt: how to pay for it.

“The fact that [Mr. Trump] is now the second president to voice support for paid leave demonstrates the increasing visibility of the issue. However, I’m not optimistic that we will see much policy progress this year,” said Loyola University Chicago political science professor Megan A. Sholar, author of “Getting Paid While Taking Time.”She noted the problems in Mr. Trump’s campaign pledge to fund six weeks of paid family leave by reducing fraud in unemployment benefits and diverting the savings to the new program.

“It’s unlikely that [the savings] would be enough. Many worry that this means the plan will ultimately require a tax increase,” said Ms. Sholar.

Still, the issue is being pushed by Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and a top White House adviser. She was on Capitol Hill in December drumming up support.

“This is essential and long overdue. We must recognize the change in composition of our American workforce in which all parents work in the vast majority of American homes,” Ms. Trump said at a recent White House event.

The details of the plan remain sketchy, and the effort has not yet gained traction with lawmakers.

Job training is embraced on both sides of the aisle, but lawmakers split over GOP plans to retool or replace existing programs and Democrats’ call for costly new initiatives.

Democrats balked when Mr. Trump’s budget slashed 40 percent from the employment and training system, saying he was undermining his own stated goals.

Mr. Trump’s proposed spending on apprenticeships programs also was the same as under Mr. Obama: $90 million. But Mr. Trump last year did launch an initiative to expand apprenticeships and vocational training by eliminating federal regulations that could discourage companies from providing on-the-job training.

Mr. Trump said the one of the next steps will be to boost community colleges and vocational schools.

“We’re working very hard on vocational schools, so when all of these companies move into this country, we’re going to have a workforce that knows exactly what they’re doing,” the president told the Republican policy retreat in West Virginia last week.

The job-training agenda will be part of the infrastructure plan to be rolled out this year, said White House officials.

Getting behind the “right to try” legislation could be the easiest lift for Mr. Trump: The bill already is halfway through Congress.

The bill passed the Senate in August but has been stuck in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Senate Republicans expect it to break loose soon, and credit Mr. Trump’s plea in the State of the Union.

“The president has made it clear he supports giving terminally ill patients the ‘right to try,’” said Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican and a lead sponsor of the bill. “Hopefully, the House will pass the Trickett Wendler, Frank Mongiello, Jordan McLinn, and Matthew Bellina Right to Try Act immediately so that President Trump can sign it into law and give terminally ill patients the right to hope.”

The bill, named for terminally ill patents who championed the issue, has strong support from Vice President Mike Pence. He signed a right to try law as governor of Indiana in 2015.

Thirty-eight states have passed right to try bills on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis.

Opponents argue that the federal law would weaken Food and Drug Administration authority and could undermine drug development and endanger patents’ lives.

“People who are terminally ill should not have to go from country to country to seek a cure — I want to give them a chance right here at home,” the president said in his State of the Union speech. “It is time for the Congress to give these wonderful Americans the right to try.”