Congressman Colin Allred: 'We Can't Give Up' On Build Back Better Act

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Rep. Colin Allred said today that he was not ready to give up on President Biden's embattled Build Back Better Act.

"I'm going to keep fighting for kids and working families struggling to get by, just like mine did growing up. The Build Back Better Agenda has always been about families and our future and we can't give up now," said Allred.

Allred stressed that the bill would help North Texas families by "lowering prescription drug prices and expanding coverage to the nearly 1 million Texans who have been denied access to care because of our state's refusal to expand Medicaid," in a shot at Governor Greg Abbott's policies against the expansion of Medicaid in Texas.

"If we've learned anything from the past two years battling this pandemic, it's that we have to make health care accessible to every American and we must do better to support kids and working families."

Last month, Allred voted to pass the Build Back Better Act in the House, which included provisions like paid family leave and giving Medicare the ability to negotiate prescription drug prices. Allred has said that these two policies were priorities for him and worked to include them in the bill.

Allred's statements came after news broke earlier that Sen. Joe Manchin, WV, announced he was pulling support from the bill. Losing Manchin's vote is a significant political setback for Biden, but it was unlikely that the Build Back Better Act would have received the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster even with the West Virginia Senator's support.

Short of reforming the filibuster process in the Senate and getting Manchin back on board, there appear to be few paths ahead for the social spending bill in the Senate