Paid Parental Leave Fix Gets Cleared Through House NDAA Committee

The FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has passed out of the House Armed Services Committee with a provision extending paid parental leave benefits to all federal employees. Most federal employees were granted paid parental leave in the FY 2020 NDAA, but in what has been described as a technical error due to rushed drafting, several agencies were excluded from receiving the benefit. The provision within the FY 2021 NDAA would extend coverage to the excluded agencies.

The provision extends 12 weeks of paid parental leave coverage to employees at the Federal Aviation Administration, Transportation Security Administration, and Veterans Health Administration along with any other Title 38 employees who were not previously covered, according to reports from Federal News Network.

The provision also grants paid parental leave benefits to Congressional employees, Article I judges, presidential appointees and employees of the District of Columbia courts and Public Defender Service.

The previous year’s paid leave provision is slated to go into effect on October 1, 2020. The Office of Personnel Management has not yet released regulations relating to the provision’s implementation but has expressed that they are in the works.

The new provision would allow newly included employees to access the provision on the same date, meaning any employee expecting a new child on or after October 1 would likely qualify for the benefit.

Some House Democrats have called for retroactive expansion of the benefit going as far back as December 2019, when the provision was signed into law.

In a letter to House Leadership, several lawmakers noted, “It may seem like a small thing as we enact trillion-dollar relief packages, but in this public health crisis, all affected federal workers should be able to take advantage of our new paid parental leave policy.  We respectfully ask that you work with us to extend paid parental leave coverage to all covered and eligible federal workers in connection with a birth, adoption or foster care placement of a child that occurs between December 20, 2019, and October 1, 2020.”

A provision retroactively providing the paid leave as requested has not been submitted to the NDAA yet.

While the provision expanding access to the benefit to previously uncovered employees appears to be moving forward in the House NDAA, in order for it to become law it will require Senate approval as well. To that end, Senator James Lankford (R-OK) has included an amendment to the Senate FY 2021 NDAA to expand paid parental leave coverage to all the aforementioned federal employees.

Unlike in the House, where the provision is built into the legislation itself, the Senate will be taking up the provision as a floor amendment to the bill.