Congress, White House Reach Tentative Deal Over Paid Parental Leave for Federal Workers

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Congress has struck a tentative bipartisan agreement that would authorize 12 weeks of paid parental leave for all federal workers, in a potentially historic deal negotiated with the White House.

To get the new benefit, employees must have worked for the government for one calendar year and stay for at least 12 weeks after taking the leave.

To become law, the language would have to be agreed upon by the leadership of both chambers of Congress and the chair and ranking members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees. It also will have to receive signatures from a majority of members of Congress tasked with negotiating the deal and survive floor votes in the House and Senate. But with sign-on from the White House, Democrats who’ve been pushing for paid family leave are optimistic it will pass.
The draft language of the annual defense bill, which authorizes the Pentagon’s budget, also would create a Space Force as a separate branch of the military, a White House request that had been included in the version of the bill that passed the U.S. Senate earlier this year. The House version had proposed to keep the Space Force under the Air Force.