House Passes Paid Parental Leave for Federal Employees

June 08, 2009

Saul Schniderman, President of AFSCME Local 2910, speaks with Rep. Carolyn Maloney at a press conference in support of H.R. 626.

The House passed the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act (H.R. 626) by a vote of 258 to 154 on June 4. Saul Schniderman, President of the Library of Congress Professional Guild, AFSCME Local 2910, joined the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), for a press conference and spoke in support of the bill.

A potentially harmful amendment submitted by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) was also defeated. The amendment would have required that parental leave be made available only to those who have exhausted their sick and vacation leave, and that the paid leave is treated as an advance on additional sick/vacation leave rather than additional days of paid leave. This would have eliminated the additional benefit of paid parental leave proposed by the bill.

The Senate version of the legislation, S.354, was reintroduced in the Senate on January 30 by Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA).