The House has passed legislation (HR-5871) that would make four of the weeks under the parental leave program paid time off without charge to other types of leave. Under current law, employees are eligible for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for the birth or adoption of a child, but employees commonly use sick leave and/or annual leave for part of that time, if they have such leave time available. The measure earlier was altered from the original proposal that would have made eight weeks of parental leave payable, in part to draw more bipartisan support; however, passage was still largely along party lines, 278-146. The benefit would not be available until six months after enactment and postal employees would be excluded, although many congressional employees would be included. The bill also authorizes OPM to extend the paid leave period to up to eight weeks, and permits employees to use sick leave for parental purposes without demonstrating medical necessity. It now moves to the Senate.

Before the vote, the White House issued a statement threatening to veto the bill, saying it would "provide a costly, unnecessary, new paid leave entitlement." It said that on average, employees aged 20 to 45 have a combined balance of sick and annual leave of more than seven weeks and that employees may use sick leave to care for a family member with a serious health condition, which includes pregnancy and childbirth. It argued that for employees who do not have sufficient paid leave, the better course would be to create a voluntary short term disability insurance program. OPM earlier this year proposed creating such a benefit, presenting it as an alternative that would cover parental needs plus other conditions that might cause employees to miss work that don't qualify for workers' compensation benefits. However, enrollees would have to pay a premium that OPM has estimated at about $1,000 a year and the benefit likely would not cover fathers. The OPM plan has not been introduced as legislation, and language in the leave bill that would have ordered a study of such a benefit was dropped in the House voting