White House opposes measure to extend parental leave

The White House announced its opposition Tuesday to a House bill that would increase paid parental leave for all federal employees.

In a statement, the White House said the measure "would provide a costly, uncessary new paid leave entitlement" and that President Bush's advisers would recommend he veto the bill.

Sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., the bill would provide four weeks of paid maternal or paternal parental leave for all federal employees for the birth or adoption of a child. It would, for the first time, let employees use their accrued sick leave for an additional eight weeks of paid leave. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., Monday introduced a companion measure in the Senate.

Like House proponents, Webb said the federal government does too little to compete with private sector firms offering increasingly generous leave packages to new mothers. "Paid parental leave will improve recruitment and retention for federal agencies," he said in a statement Monday.

But the White House statement said "federal employees aged 20 to 45 already have a combined paid leave balance of over seven weeks." The statement cited a 2006 federal human capital survey that found 86 percent of federal employees already say they are satisfied with paid leave offered by the government.

In addition, the statement noted that "employees may also use up to 12 weeks of accrued sick leave in a year to care for a family member." Arguing that the House bill will cost $87 million to $175 million a year, the White House said most federal employees can already take advantage of "generous leave benefits."

Those who cannot should be able to use a short-term disability insurance benefit proposed by the Office of Personnel Management, though it is not yet approved, the administration argued.

The bill passed the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in April with 10 Republicans opposing it due to cost concerns.