President Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (H.R. 1319) into law (Pl 117-2) on March 11. As part of the massive Covid-19 relief effort, the bill includes $570 million for emergency paid leave, a new paid leave benefit for federal employees. FMA supported this effort in our 2021 Issue Briefs.

The new law provides 15 weeks of paid leave at $1,400 per week to all federal employees subject to a Covid-19 quarantine order, experiencing symptoms, or caring for a family member, through the end of Fiscal Year 2021. The paid leave also applies to feds unable to work when caring for children, a family member with a mental or physical disability or who is 55 years of age or older and incapable of self-care. The new paid leave will also apply if a fed is unable to work due to “obtaining immunization related to COVID–19 or is recovering from any injury, disability, illness, or condition related to such immunization.”

This Covid-19 paid leave is in addition to any other leave provided to an employee and “may not be used by an employee concurrently with any other paid leave.” The bill also notes, “any paid leave provided to an employee under this section shall reduce the total service used to calculate any federal civilian retirement benefit.”

To read more, please visit Congress.gov.