I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 656
To improve parental leave for members of the Armed Forces.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY23, 2025
Mrs. B
ICE(for herself and Ms. HOULAHAN) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services
A BILL
To improve parental leave for members of the Armed Forces.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Military 4
Parental Leave Evaluations Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. IMPROVED PARENTAL LEAVE FOR MEMBERS OF 6
THE ARMED FORCES. 7
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 8
(1) In December 2022, Congress expanded the 9
paid parental leave for members of the Armed 10
Forces to 12 weeks during the 12 months after the 11
‘‘birth or adoption of a child of the member and in 12
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order to care for such child’’ or the ‘‘placement of 1
a minor child with the member for adoption or long- 2
term foster care’’ (10 U.S.C. 701(h)(1)(A)). 3
(2) The expansion of parental leave raises con-4
cerns that members who take such leave may receive 5
lower evaluations compared to those who do not. 6
(3) There is currently no provision to exempt 7
members from evaluations due to parental leave, po-8
tentially deterring eligible members from taking this 9
leave. 10
(4) Each Secretary of a military department 11
has been given authority to implement the leave poli-12
cies but have not provided explicit guidance on how 13
to characterize such leave for the purposes of evalua-14
tions. 15
(5) All Armed Forces have non-rated codes or 16
not observed evaluations to exempt members from 17
evaluations during periods where their performance 18
is not observed, but these do not align across the 19
Armed Forces and do not specifically apply to paren-20
tal leave. 21
(6) Members who are parents face unique hard-22
ships, and the 12 weeks of paid family leave for both 23
mothers and fathers, for birth and adoption, is de-24
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signed to balance the care needs of their children 1
with the demands of their unit. 2
(7) Excessive paperwork required to extend the 3
use of the 12 weeks of military family leave beyond 4
one year additionally burdens members and de-5
creases flexibility. 6
(b) R
EQUIREMENTS.—Not later than 180 days after 7
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 8
Defense shall— 9
(1) prescribe regulations— 10
(A) that exempt a member of the Armed 11
Forces who is taking parental leave, under sub-12
paragraph (A) of paragraph (1) of section 13
701(h) of title 10, United States Code, that ex-14
ceeds 31 consecutive days, from a performance 15
evaluation; and 16
(B) under subparagraph (B) of such para-17
graph, to authorize a member to take leave 18
under such section during the two-year period 19
beginning on the birth, adoption, or placement 20
described in such paragraph without having to 21
request a waiver from the Secretary concerned; 22
and 23
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(2) submit to the Committees on Armed Forces 1
of the Senate and House of Representatives a report 2
regarding the implementation of this section. 3
Æ
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