US Lawmakers Working On 2009 Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act

Lawmakers and witnesses at a hearing on Wednesday discussed how best to extend benefits to the partners of gay and lesbian federal employees and retirees, a conversation that involved occasionally pointed exchanges on the nature of discrimination. "It's baffling that this blatant inequity persists on the federal level, despite the significant expansion in the availability of employment-related benefits and equal treatment for domestic partners among other public and private sector employers," said House Oversight and Government Reform Federal Workforce Subcommittee Chairman Stephen Lynch, D-Mass. The 2009 Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act (H.R. 2517) would grant the partners of gay and lesbian federal workers access to the full range of benefits currently available to the spouses of heterosexual employees. Those benefits include enrollment in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and full coverage of relocation costs. The legislation also would require the partners of gay and lesbian employees to abide by anti-nepotism and financial disclosure rules, which Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., the bill's sponsor, pointed out her long-term partner has been exempt from throughout Baldwin's political career. Full Story from GovernmentExecutive.com

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