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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers today called on Congress to approve bipartisan legislation that would provide federal employees with up to six weeks of paid parental leave after the birth or adoption of a child.

“Paid parental leave for federal workers is a proposal that is good for federal workers, good for management, good for newborn children, and a good example to the private sector,” President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said in a letter to every member of the House.

President Kelley noted that Congress already guarantees 12 weeks of unpaid leave for federal workers for these purposes. The measure before it would “simply allow part of that leave to be paid, making time off a realistic choice for many lower and mid-grade federal workers,” the NTEU president said.

She asked House members to add their names “to the growing and bipartisan list of members who are cosponsoring this important legislation.” The bill is H.R. 5148 and was introduced by Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Tom Davis (R-VA) and Steny Hoyer (D-MD).

With congressional approval of this bill, she said, the federal government would “be able to mirror the practices of leading American corporations…in helping to retain and recruit the best and brightest workers” in a tight labor market.