Bice Introduces Bill To Improve Paid Family Leave For Military Families

Passage of legislation creating a national paid family leave policy remains a goal of a bipartisan group in Congress.

An Oklahoma member of that group, however, is also focused on improving paid family leave for men and women serving in the military.

While the military already offers paid family leave, Congresswoman Stephanie Bice and her Democratic colleague, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), believe the policy could be improved. Last month, they introduced the Protecting Military Parental Leave Evaluations Act.

"We've had great positive feedback," Rep. Bice (R-Okla.) said in an interview in her office Thursday.

Bice says one goal of the bill is to ensure paid leave is uniform across service branches and more flexible than the current policy.

"There's really not a lot of flexibility with families to be able to take time," Bice explained. "So we're extending the time frame that moms and dads can take family leave in the military from one year to two years."

In addition to extending the window for taking 12 weeks of paid leave, the bill would exempt service members from performance evaluations during parental leave, ensuring it does not hurt their chances for promotion.

"If you're off for 30 or more days," Bice said, "and you're up for promotion and maybe a counterpart has not taken that time, we don't want that to count against the service member."

Bice and Houlahan have been working for the past two years on legislation to provide paid leave to all families, not just those in the armed forces. Houlahan, who served three years of active duty in the U.S. Air Force, understands the unique pressures on military parents.

“Taking time to care for a newborn child should never impact a military member’s professional evaluation,” Houlahan said Friday in a statement. “I’m proud to introduce this bipartisan bill to ensure service members who take parental leave are evaluated the same as their peers who do not. We cannot provide this essential benefit to our armed services if people are less likely to use it out of fear of harming their professional growth and ability to best contribute to our collective defense.”

Bice says Houlahan’s military background makes their partnership on the legislation especially meaningful.

"She was a service member who happened to get pregnant while she was serving, and back then, 30 years ago, paid family leave was not a thing, and so she ended up having to leave the service," Bice said. "And she really, I think, regrets that because she enjoyed her time. These initiatives are really working toward making sure that men and women who are serving can also provide for and support their families."

The bill is unlikely to be acted on before the 118th Congress ends, Bice says, but they plan to reintroduce it next year in the 119th Congress.