Federal Daily - January 26, 2009

Lawmakers Offer Bill to Give Feds Paid Parental Leave

A contingent of lawmakers on Jan. 22 introduced a bill that—if passed into law—would provide all federal employees with four weeks of paid parental leave. Federal employees currently must deplete their annual and sick time balance to take parental leave. “Amazingly, federal employees currently receive no paid family leave at all,” said Rep Carolyn B. Maloney, D-N.Y., one of the co-sponsors of the H.R. 626, the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act (FEPPLA). “Families should not have to choose between a paycheck and getting their newborn home and settled in, especially in these economic times.” In addition to giving federal employees four weeks of paid leave, FEPPLA would allow them to use any accumulated annual or sick leave to offset the 12 weeks of unpaid leave guaranteed by the Family and Medical Leave Act. By failing to provide paid parental leave, the federal government lags behind the private sector—53 percent of private-sector employers provide some form of paid parental leave, Maloney said. A similar measure passed the House in the last Congress by a vote of 278-146. A companion bill is expected to be introduced in the Senate by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va. Others who support the measure include; Reps. Frank Wolf, R-Va., Danny K. Davis, D-Ill., Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., and Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md. To see more, go to: http://maloney.house.gov/index.php?option=content&
task=view&id=1773&Itemid=61.

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CBP Looks to Fill 11,000 Slots

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials announced Jan. 22 that the agency next week will launch a year-long effort to fill about 11,000 CBP frontline and operations support positions. The multi-city recruitment event, called “A New Year, New Career,” will launch on Jan. 31 to raise public awareness of CBP career options, the agency said. Fifteen locations throughout the United States and Puerto Rico will hold open houses hosted by recruiters from the three branches of CBP: the Office of Field Operations, the Office of Border Patrol and the Air and Marine division. Top jobs in mission and operations support include: management and program analysts, sector enforcement specialists, investigative program specialists, mission support assistants, mission support specialists, contract specialists and IT specialists. At some locations, Air and Marine division recruiters will provide details on the role of the air interdiction agents who perform law enforcement aviation and work with other anti-terrorism detection and prevention operations. To see more, go to: www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/01222009_4.xml.

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DoD, VA Launch Expedited Disability Evaluation

DoD and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on Jan. 22 announced the launch of an expedited disability assessment process that will replace the standard Disability Evaluation System (DES) for those who are the most severely disabled. The expedited appraisal is intended to speed benefits to wounded servicemembers in three to four months, as well as ease their transition from military to veteran status, DoD said. The expedited process applies to servicemembers whose conditions are designated as “catastrophic” and whose injuries were incurred in the line of duty as a direct result of armed conflict, DoD said. A catastrophic injury or illness is defined as a permanent, severely disabling injury, disorder or disease that compromises daily life to such a degree that a servicemember or veteran requires personal or mechanical assistance to leave home or bed, or requires constant supervision to avoid physical harm to oneself or others. Disabled servicemembers who participate in the expedited process will be rated by DoD at a combined rating of 100 percent, and VA will identify the range of benefits, compensation and specialty care that it offers. The expedited policy differs from the DES pilot program currently underway to test a new process design that eliminates duplicative aspects of the current standard disability processes at DoD and VA. To see more, go to: www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12457.

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