House-passed NDAA expands paid leave benefit to excluded feds

The House voted to include several workforce provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 aimed at strengthening benefits such as paid parental leave for previously excluded federal workers.

The House passed the $731.6 billion defense authorization bill in a 295-125 vote on July 21.

A provision in the 2020 NDAA granted Title 5 federal employees 12 weeks of paid parental for the birth, adoption or fostering of a child. Title 38 employees, such as workers at the Transportation Security Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, and Federal Aviation Administration were not included in the original law. The 2021 bill extends the benefit to the excluded employees.

The provision is set to go into effect on Oct. 1 of this year.

The NDAA also requires that Defense Secretary Mark Esper submit a report by Oct. 31 to congressional defense committees outlining the conditions under which he would exercise an authority that President Trump granted to him in January that would allow him to suspend civilian DOD employees’ collective bargaining rights under the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations statute when such rights were deemed "incompatible
with the department's national security mission.

The provision would prevent the Defense Department from exercising that authority until 30 days after submitting the report.

The Trump administration issued a veto threat against the bill, in part because of provisions to rename military bases currently named after Confederate military leaders.