Last summer, President Obama issued a memorandum directing federal agencies to provide a slate of benefits to the same-sex partners of their employees and, last week, issued another order to include new benefits.
The memorandum, issued June 2, gives same-sex domestic partners of employees and their children access to family-assistance services, childcare, hardship transfers and relocation expenses, among other benefits. It also mandates that agencies that implement new benefits for opposite-sex spouses extend them to same-sex partners.
“For far too long, many of our government’s hardworking, dedicated LGBT employees have been denied equal access to the basic rights and benefits their colleagues enjoy,” Obama said in the memorandum. “This kind of systemic inequality undermines the health, well-being and security, not just of our federal workforce, but also of their families and communities.”
Same-sex partners are not eligible for the entire package offered to heterosexual spouses, including health and pension benefits, as the administration said the federal Defense of Marriage Act would prevent such an allowance.
In the memorandum, Obama referenced that the administration is restricted by DOMA but encouraged support for the Domestic Partner Benefits and Obligations Act, which would provide same-sex partners of federal employees the full slate of benefits enjoyed by heterosexual spouses.
Obama also directed the Office of Personnel Management to issue rules clarifying that children of a same-sex partner of an employee are also considered the employee’s children and that children and same-sex partner qualify as “family members.”
The original memo signed June 17, 2009, allowed for same-sex partners of federal employees to be eligible for long-term care insurance programs, and for the employees to use sick leave to take care of a domestic partner or non-biological, non-adopted child. Additionally, it allowed for same-sex partners of foreign-service employees to use medical facilities at their partners’ posts, qualify for medical evacuation from the posts and be included in family size when housing allocations are determined.
In the initial order, Obama instructed federal agencies to determine what other benefits they could, under law, offer to same-sex partners, and OPM, along with the Department of Justice, evaluated each agency’s reports and identified the new benefits that agencies can also provide.
Other new offerings include credit-union membership, access to fitness facilities, planning and counseling services, accidental death and dismemberment insurance and the inclusion of same-sex domestic partners and their children into the government’s sympathy policy, which provides a flower arrangement, fruit basket or charity donation of up to $80 in the event of a death.
Openly gay OPM director John Berry called last week’s extension “another major step forward for gay and lesbian federal employees.”
“But it’s also a good business practice,” Berry said. “This will help us retain valuable employees and better compete with other employers for top talent. President Obama has stated clearly that this is an issue of equality. But just as important, youth today, LGBT or not, see these benefits as a litmus test for determining high-quality employers.”
Some agencies, such as intelligence and federal-regulatory agencies, have greater authority to design their benefits packages, and some have already begun to offer dental and vision plans to same-sex partners, which Obama encouraged in all agencies that have such power.
Employees and their partners can begin applying for the benefits next month.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].