A U. S. Senate committee heard testimony last week on a bill that seeks to provide domestic-partner benefits to LGBT federal employees and their partners.
The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee held a hearing Oct. 15 to consider the Domestic Partner Benefits and Obligations Act, introduced in May by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), committee chair, and committeemember Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
The legislation calls for committed same-sex partners of federal employees to be eligible for all the medical benefits currently afforded to heterosexual married spouses, such as Family and Medical Leave and retirement benefits.
President Obama signed a presidential memorandum in June that requires all federal agencies to provide same-sex partners of employees partial benefits, such as life insurance and long-term care, but said the federal Defense of Marriage Act prevented him from extending the full slate of benefits to LGBT employees and their partners.
Openly lesbian U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) introduced a companion bill also in May, and a House subcommittee approved the legislation in July.
Three witnesses testified during the hearing, billed as “Domestic Partner Benefits: Fair Policy and Good Business for the Federal Government”: Baldwin; John Berry, openly gay director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management; and Dr. William Hendrix, chair of Dow Chemical Company’s Gays, Lesbians and Allies employee network.
Baldwin spoke from her own experiences as an openly gay federal employee and reviewed the litany of benefits that her partner of 13 years, Lauren, is not eligible for, which she called a “significant inequality” and “disturbing.”
“The purpose of the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act is to ensure that hardworking Americans can no longer be denied equal compensation for equal work just because of who they love,” Baldwin testified. ”There is certainly nothing more American than ensuring that people have equal job opportunities and are paid fairly for a day’s work.”
Berry advocated for some clarifications he said are needed within the text of the legislation — including the role that OPM will play and an explanation that employees who opt for domestic-partner benefits will have to pay taxes on those benefits — but told Lieberman during his testimony that the bill has the full endorsement of his office.
“We welcome the introduction of this bill and strongly support its passage. By your efforts, you have provided a valuable opportunity for the federal government to not only enhance the benefits it can offer as a recruitment and retention tool but, most importantly, to prove that we recognize the value of every American family and are committed to the ideal of equal treatment under the law that our Founders envisioned,” he said.
Berry said his agency evaluated the cost of the implementation of this legislation and found it to be “negligible.”
Hendrix testified that Dow’s own domestic-partner policy has — without a hefty price tag — helped the company to attract and retain a diverse and highly qualified workforce, showing current and potential employees that the organization takes pride in each of its workers.
“Dow has found it a relatively easy transition to offer domestic-partner benefits,” Hendrix said. “The cost has been minimal, while the impact to daily culture has been immense.”
Lieberman, Collins and committemembers Sens. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) and Paul Kirk (D-Mass.) also spoke in favor of the bill during the hearing.
“This bill is the fair and right thing to do and makes practical sense for the federal government as an employer,” Lieberman said. “As we approach a generational change in the federal workforce that will see the retirement of one-third of all federal employees, we must do all we can to attract and retain the ‘best and the brightest’ to serve in the years ahead. This legislation will balance the scales of justice, but it will also help the federal government be the best it can be.”
Lieberman has introduced the legislation in the previous two Congressional sessions, and it died in committee both times.
The current Senate version of the bill has 24 cosponsors and the House bill has 121 cosponsors.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].