Sponsors (16)
Expands and harmonizes paid family and medical leave for federal and certain covered employees, adds victim-related leave and new parental/reproductive events, and requires conforming changes for several entities.
Official title: To provide paid family and medical leave to Federal employees, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 11, 2026 by Donald Sternoff Beyer · Last progress June 11, 2026
The bill substantially expands and clarifies job‑protected family and medical leave for many federal and related employees—improving support for caregivers and survivors—but does so at the cost of higher taxpayer and agency expenses, significant implementation burdens, and the potential for uneven coverage or reduced protections for some groups.
Federal and related employees (including USPS, PRC, GAO, Library of Congress, Executive Office staff, congressional employees, VA employees, non‑judicial court employees, and Public Defender Service staff) gain clearer and expanded eligibility for FMLA‑like paid family and medical leave, increasing job‑protected leave access.
Victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, sex trafficking, stalking, or dating violence among covered employees can take explicit job‑protected leave for safety and recovery, expanding survivor protections.
Employees experiencing combined qualifying events (for example, combining military caregiver leave with other qualifying leave) can access a combined total of up to 26 workweeks in applicable circumstances, providing substantially more protected time for long caregiving or medical needs.
Taxpayers and agency budgets face increased costs because expanded leave eligibility and longer leave periods raise potential leave payouts, overtime, and hiring of temporary staff to cover absences.
Agencies, employing offices, and local employers will incur administrative burdens—updating payroll/HR systems, verifying varied prior service records, creating new policies, and training staff—to implement the law.
Constituent services and operational functions could be disrupted if offices cannot backfill absences, leading to delays, increased reliance on temporary hires, or overtime for remaining staff.
Based on analysis of 9 sections of legislative text.
Expands and harmonizes paid family and medical leave rules for federal employees and certain legislative, judicial, and postal entities, adding new allowable reasons for leave and clarifying eligibility and calculation rules. The bill explicitly counts prior federal and military service toward eligibility, adds paid leave for victims of domestic violence/sexual assault/stalking/sex trafficking, broadens parental-leave events (including failed assisted reproduction and pregnancy loss), extends similar rules to covered congressional and other covered employees, and directs conforming changes for several federal entities and certain D.C. employee programs. The changes amend multiple statutes to standardize how 12- and 26-week leave entitlements are calculated, allow agencies limited authority to require medical certification and work-obligation agreements, require the Department of Veterans Affairs to conform its program, and require creation of paid leave programs for specified D.C. employees; the amendments take effect six months after enactment.