Daily Dose: Extending Federal benefits to partners of same-sex employees

According to an article over at The Washington Post, a bill that seeks to extend benefits to the same-sex partners of Federal employees was reintroduced last week.

The Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act was reintroduced by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine). If passed, the act would make same-sex partners of federal employees eligible for federal health benefits, long-term care, Family and Medical Leave and federal retirement benefits.

Gay federal employees and their partners would be subject to the same standards that apply to married federal workers, including anti-nepotism rules and financial disclosure requirements, according to Lieberman and Collins’s offices.

Lieberman has said that offering benefits to same-sex partners of Federal workers is one way to compete with the private sector, where virtually every Fortune 500 company offers domestic partner benefits.

“We want to attract the best men and women possible to serve in federal government,” Lieberman said in a statement. “One way to do that is by offering competitive benefits to the family members of gay federal employees.”

What do you think? Should the Federal government offer same-sex partner benefits?

***************************************************************************************


“Daily Dose of the Washington Post” is a blog series created by GovLoop in partnership with The Washington Post. If you see great a story in the Post and want to ask a question around it, please send it to [email protected].

Leave a Comment

Leave a comment

Leave a Reply