SOURCE: www.maloney.house.gov
Government should follow majority of private employers, Reps Say
WASHINGTON, DC – In the 18th Anniversary month of passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) in 1993, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Gerald Connolly (D-VA) and Steny Hoyer (D-MD) today introduced the “Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act” (FEPPLA), H.R. 616, legislation that would provide all federal employees with four weeks of paid parental leave. Federal employees currently must deplete their annual and sick time to take parental leave.
“Unlike the majority of large private-sector employers, Federal employees currently receive no paid family leave at all. Yet raising a child is the most important task in our society,” said Rep. Maloney. “Families shouldn’t have to choose between a paycheck and getting their newborn home and settled in, especially in these economic times. With FEPPLA, the Federal government can make ‘family-friendly’ more than a buzzword and ensure that both newborns and the government benefit—especially as government needs to attract new workers to replace retiring baby boomers.”
“To recruit and retain the next generation of civil servants the federal government must have personnel policies that are competitive with the private sector,” said Rep. Connolly. “As the baby boomer generation of federal workers retire in great numbers over the next decade, we need to provide incoming federal employees with sensible options that make federal service competitive with the private sector.”
“Currently, the Federal government does not provide their employees with paid parental leave – this bill would correct that,” stated Congressman Hoyer. “With FEPPLA, the Federal government has the opportunity to set a valuable and lasting example for a responsible leave policy. It is time for America to catch up with the rest of the world on this issue and realize that a right to paid leave is more than a family matter – it is a public good that means healthier families, more productive children, and a stronger economy for all of us.”
In addition to giving federal employees four weeks of paid leave, FEPPLA would allow them to use any accumulated annual or sick leave to offset the 12 weeks of unpaid leave guaranteed by the Family and Medical Leave Act. By failing to provide paid parental leave, the federal government lags behind both the private sector and many industrialized nations.
In 2008, the FEPPLA bill was determined by the Congressional Budget Office to have no “PAYGO” implications.
In the 111th Congress, a version of this legislation passed the U.S. House of Representatives, with bipartisan support, by a margin of 258-154.