A bill (HR-626) to give federal employees four weeks of paid parental leave to
federal employees has cleared the House. The measure would allow employees to
substitute the new leave for part of the 12 weeks of unpaid leave currently
available for parents of newly born or newly adopted children; many employees
use sick or annual leave for part of that time. During floor voting, the House
rejected an amendment that would have required employees to use up their sick
and annual leave before receiving paid parental leave and that would have treated
parental leave as advance leave that the employee would have to repay by having
future earned leave docked. The bill now moves to the Senate, which so far has
not addressed the issue. The House passed a similar bill last year but the
Senate never took it up in the face of a veto threat from the Bush administration.
The Obama administration in contrast supports the bill although it has raised the
prospects of revising it. "The administration is currently reviewing existing
federal leave policies to determine the extent of their gaps and limitations.
The administration looks forward to working with Congress to refine the details
of this legislation to make sure it meets the needs of federal agencies and
employees, as well as their families," a statement said.
