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Washington, D.C.—With Mother’s Day just around the corner, Congress has the chance to provide mothers and families with a priceless gift, the head of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees said today.

The gift is time spent with their newborn or newly-adopted child, said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), in calling for congressional approval of H.R. 5148. Mother’s Day is Sunday.

“Talk about a gift that keeps on giving,” President Kelley said, adding that in terms of employee morale, satisfaction and the lasting benefits to both mother and child, “there is simply no downside” to the legislation.

H.R. 5148, introduced by Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Tom Davis (R-VA) and Steny Hoyer (D-MD), would provide federal employees with up to six weeks of paid parental leave after the birth or adoption of a child.

Congress already guarantees 12 weeks of unpaid leave for federal employees for these important occasions; but providing a portion of it as paid time off “would turn the promise of parental leave into a particularly meaningful reality for many lower and mid-grade federal workers,” Kelley said.

She added: “There is a lot of talk about making the federal workplace more family-friendly and making the government a more competitive employer in the battle to recruit and retain the best employees. This is precisely the kind of benefit that would help do that.”

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents some 150,000 federal workers in 30 agencies and departments.