Federal employees working at at least three federal agencies aren’t covered by the new paid family leave law signed by President Trump on Dec. 20, according to a report from the Washington Post.
Employees at the Federal Aviation Administration, some medical staff at Veterans Affairs and some employees at the Transportation Security Administration aren’t covered under the legislation as written, the Post found. The Post also wrote that several financial regulatory agencies are also left out, as well as officers at the U.S. Public Health Service.
Federal employees received an early Christmas gift from Congress when both chambers passed legislation giving feds 12 weeks of paid parental leave to care for a new child, whether through birth, adoption or foster care. But the problem is that several federal agencies fall under different statutes than the one that the defense-spending bill amended to establish the leave benefit. The final number of federal employees left out is unknown.
The VA has figured out how it will handle the error. In a statement to the Post, a VA spokesperson said that once the Office of Personnel Management issues regulations and guidance to implement the legislation the agency plans to extend the benefit to its excluded employees thanks to a statute that allows it to extend benefits to employees governed under different statutes.
Bills to broaden the benefit certain categories that operate outside the initial language are pending in Congress, with no votes scheduled.
The benefit is set to kick in starting Oct. 1.
Andrew Eversden covers all things defense technology for C4ISRNET. He previously reported on federal IT and cybersecurity for Federal Times and Fifth Domain, and worked as a congressional reporting fellow for the Texas Tribune. He was also a Washington intern for the Durango Herald. Andrew is a graduate of American University.
