Political Quotes

“H.R. 5781, the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act, gives dedicated civil servants a long-overdue benefit: parental leave on the birth or adoption of a child. Under this bill, Federal employees will, for the first time, be offered 4 weeks of paid parental leave on the birth or adoption of a child. If needed, employees will also be allowed to use their accrued sick leave for additional paid leave. I was taken aback by the arguments from my colleague from California (Mr. Issa) that we run the risk of people becoming foster parents each year presumably to get this extra 4 weeks of paid leave. I think that foster parents do an enormous good in providing a home to children who otherwise would not have a place to live. And they, by the way, under existing Federal law, can have paid Federal leave under their sick pay. But if a parent has a natural-born child, they may not use their sick leave nor do they get paid leave for that period of time to bond with the newborn. Federal employees are entitled to those 12 weeks of unpaid leave under the existing Family and Medical Leave Act. What this bill does is say for the first 4 weeks, this leave will be paid.”