Family-Leave Plan Is Halved

Waxman said he hopes to have a cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office before the legislation comes up for a floor vote. He and other Democrats stressed that cost should not be an overriding issue, suggesting that offering a benefit to keep people in government has to be balanced against the costs of hiring and training new employees.

The bill, as amended, was approved on a 7 to 3 vote by the subcommittee, with Issa, Jordan and Marchant, the three Republicans present, voting no.

In her statement yesterday, Maloney thanked Waxman and the subcommittee chairman, Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.), for moving the bill toward a full committee vote and a floor vote.

The American workplace, she said, has not kept pace with the changing needs of families, especially those that "no longer have a stay-at-home parent to provide care for a new child."

Outdated family-leave policies, she said, "are a talent drain on the government -- they're an incentive for skilled people to look elsewhere for work at the very time when our government needs them most."

The subcommittee also approved on voice vote a bill sponsored by Davis that would encourage greater diversity in the Senior Executive Service, in part by requiring the Office of Personnel Management to set up an office to oversee the recruitment and management of federal executives.

The bill, and a companion measure in the Senate sponsored by Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii), would order each federal agency to create three-member Senior Executive Service panels, each of which would include at least one member of a racial or ethnic minority and at least one woman.