House Passes Parental Leave Bill

On June 4, the House passed, 258-154, the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act (H.R. 626), after defeating a motion to recommit by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), 171-241. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee approved the legislation on May 6 (see The Source, 5/8/09).

During consideration of H.R. 626, the House approved:

• an amendment by Rep. Al Green (D-TX) to direct the Office of Personnel Management to take into consideration the impact of increased paid parental leave on lower-income and economically disadvantaged employees and their children when evaluating whether to promulgate regulations increasing the amount of paid parental leave offered to federal employees, by voice vote; and
• an amendment by Rep. Bobby Bright (D-AL) to clarify that federal employees, including those in the executive branch, legislative branch, Library of Congress, and Government Accountability Office, who are called into active duty as members of the National Guard or Reserves, will be allowed to count the time of that service towards their total time of employment, for purposes of receiving benefits created in the underlying bill.

  The House rejected, 157-258, an amendment by Rep. Issa to require employees to use all accrued leave before receiving additional paid parental leave and would require additional paid parental leave to be treated as a repayable advance.