Joint Economic Committee Hearing on Paid Parental Leave
Members of the Subcommittee, I am pleased to appear before you to discuss the importance of providing paid parental leave for all federal employees, including Legislative and Judicial Branch employees.
Currently new parents employed by Congressional offices can take up to 12 weeks off upon the birth or adoption of a child, under the Family and Medical Leave Act – provided they can afford it or have enough annual or sick leave to use. Congressional offices have the power to exercise their own discretion over leave. Because of this many House employees may not be able to enjoy the birth or adoption of a new child because they cannot afford to take time off without pay. Providing them with paid leave would help express our appreciation of the work they do and allow to promote a healthy work/life balance among our employees.
The Clerk of the House, the Sergeant at Arms, the Inspector General and the Chief Administrative Officer all offer their employees six weeks of paid family medical leave, which can include parental leave.
Providing additional paid leave for House employees would relieve employees of the burden of having to use their sick or annual leave when they have a child. Enhancing this benefit would also attract a greater number of potential employees to the House.
The average House employees stays for 18 months. Improving benefits would help ensure that employees, who drafting legislation, maintain order and security on House premises and provide the administrative, technical and operational support for the House would be more likely to stay.
This bill is an important first step toward giving every federal employee the opportunity to take care of their family members during difficult times.
Support for paid parental leave for House employees will continue to move the U.S. House of Representatives forward as an employer of choice.
The CAO organization was named one of the top 50 “Great Places to Work” by Washingtonian magazine.
The selection process is based on the assessment of several important elements of workplace culture including staff relationships, pay and benefits, personnel practices and policies and employee development. Using information gathered from a self-nomination application process, and random employee surveys, the Washingtonian emphasizes their commitment to selecting offices with truly exemplary workplace culture.
The CAO’s teamwork, strong leadership, impressive work flow, team spirit and inclusive environment were all cited as reasons for the office’s selection over 225 other applicants.
In the spirit of this commitment, I along with the other House Officers and the Inspector General have been making incremental changes in personnel policies over the past year.
- The Family and Medical Leave Policy provides up to six weeks of paid FMLA leave to a qualified employee. This paid leave benefit enhances and unifies the paid leave policy among all House Officers and the Inspector General.
- For the purposes of caring for a qualifying family member who has a serious health condition, the definition of family was expanded to include a sibling, defined as a biological, adoptive, foster, or step sister/brother.
- Annual leave accruals have been enhanced and employees will move up to 15 days of annual leave after 1 year of service, as opposed to 3 years of service. Additionally, employees will move up to 24 days of annual leave after 6 years of service, as opposed to 10 years of service.
- Employees can carry over to the next year up to 280 hours of unused annual leave, an increase of 40 hours.
- Supervisors may grant credit to new employees for leave accrual purposes, for prior related non-federal work experience.
- Restrictions on how many hours of sick leave can be used to provide care for a family member as a result of illness, injury or medical examination were eliminated and the definition of family member was expanded to include siblings.
- House Officers and the Inspector General may grant administrative leave not to exceed five days, to employees to make arrangements necessitated by the death of a family member and/or to attend the funeral of a family member. For these purposes, a family member is defined as:
- Spouse, parents, and grandparents
- Children, including adopted/foster children, and spouse
- Parents and grandparents
- Brothers and sisters, and spouses and
- Any individual related by blood or affinity whose close association with the employee is equivalent of a family relationship.
These policy enhancements recognize our employees’ need for greater work/life balance and income protection in the event of a qualified family or personal medical event.
Additionally, the House Officers and Inspector General held their inaugural Employee Years of Services Recognition ceremony in October 2007. It was an opportunity to acknowledge and thank our colleagues for their dedicated years of service to the House and their accomplishments and contributions over the years.
The group of employees that were recognized represented the full range of services provided by the House Officers. While these employees individually have anywhere from 25 to 50 years of service, the total years of service for the 129 employees is approximately 3,896. Their positions and job responsibilities are reflective of the breadth of functions that are performed, often behind the scenes, within each of the Officer’s areas – functions, tasks, activities and projects that are essential to support America’s legislative process and the day-to-day operations of the House. This group of employees also reflects the diversity and the range of the talents, skills, knowledge and experience of our workforce.
We continue our commitment to improving the workplace daily and see providing paid parental leave to our employees is critical to those improvements. By recognizing and emphasizing the importance of our employees and their greater need for greater work/life balance in the event of a family or personal medical event, we are continuing to create an environment where people want to work.
Again, Members of the Committee, I appreciate the opportunity to discuss the importance of providing paid parental leave for all federal employees and look forward to your questions.
