Over 2.6 million federal employees are not receiving paid leave for family caregiving, medical issues and military deployments. (Max Pixel / Creative Commons) In 2019, the Senate passed The Federal Employee Paid Leave Act (FEPLA), which permits federal workers up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave due to the birth, adoption or fostering of a child. This moment was “a huge step forward,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, at a recent hearing. “There were only two countries in the world—the United States and Papua New Guinea—that did not provide, at that time, paid leave for the birth of a child.”