So Many Updates
Thanks to those who have already taken our survey, in which we ask for your thoughts on the possibility of creating a practical support network for feds who need to travel for abortion care. The results have already been incredibly helpful as we decide how to proceed. If you haven’t taken the survey yet, you have until Monday, November 1, 2022, to do so. You can find it here.
We have updates about new fertility benefits in federal health insurance plans, an expansion of gender-affirming care coverage, a renewal of COVID-19 vaccine-related admin leave, DoD’s new benefits for service members who need to cross state lines for abortion care, an allegation that hundreds of FBI officials avoided accountability for sexual misconduct, and a new amicus brief arguing that salary history doesn’t justify pay discrimination in federal hiring.
Let’s dive in!
Fertility Benefits Updates
New coverage of fertility benefits for federal employees! This is big. In 2023—for the first time—we’ll all be able to choose a federal health insurance plan that covers Artificial Reproductive Technology (ART) services, including IVF. Only a limited number of plan options will cover it, so if ART is something you may want to pursue in 2023, consider whether making insurance adjustments during the upcoming open season (it runs from Nov. 14 to Dec. 12) makes sense for you.
We want to thank DOJ GEN’s awesome Fertility Treatment Working Group for the work it’s done on this issue—in particular, Cameron Bell. We’ll be in touch soon with more information about this new coverage.
Coverage for Gender-affirming Care
Expansion of gender-affirming care coverage. More good news about changes to federal health care plans in 2023—they’ll all be required to offer gender-affirming care for transgender and gender-diverse people. You can read about it on pages 6–7 of OPM’s overview of coverage benefits.
Admin Leave for COVID-19 Booster
Administrative leave available for the COVID-19 booster. On October 4, OPM directed agencies to again grant employees up to four hours of paid administrative leave for them or their family members to obtain the new COVID-19 booster or the primary vaccine. Additionally, employees may use up to two days of administrative leave to recover from any adverse effects. If your request for this leave is denied, please let us know.
Pentagon Benefits for Abortion-related Travel
The Pentagon offers important benefits to troops who need to travel for abortion care. Huge kudos to the Pentagon, which announced last week that it will soon begin providing administrative leave and travel reimbursements to troops (and their dependents) who must travel out of state for abortions. (Here is an October 3 opinion from DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel, finding that the Pentagon may reimburse travel for troops’ abortions that the Pentagon itself couldn’t perform due to the Hyde Amendment.) As you may remember, these benefits are part of what DOJ GEN asked the Administration to provide to all federal employees in our May letter and again in our August letter to the White House, DOJ, and OPM.
As the Pentagon demonstrates, these are vital accommodations that the federal government can provide, and we’ll keep pushing for the extension of them to civil servants until it happens. The Pentagon will also provide privacy protections for members of the military seeking abortion care and assurances for military health care providers that they won’t suffer legal repercussions if they provide abortion services, when federal law permits, in states that ban them.
FBI Sexual Misconduct
Hundreds of FBI officials allegedly avoid accountability for sexual misconduct. News broke this month that 665 FBI employees, including 45 senior-level officials, allegedly resigned or retired between 2004 and 2020 following a misconduct probe but before discipline could be issued. Sen. Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, indicated that “hundreds” of those cases involved sexual misconduct. Sen. Grassley sent a letter to Attorney General Garland and FBI Director Wray about this matter, including a series of requests for answers about FBI’s handling of sexual misconduct.
Salary History Litigation
Amicus brief argues against using salary history in federal hiring. This month, the National Women’s Law Center filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, arguing that under the Equal Pay Act, the use of salary history as a pay-setting criterion—which, as we know, perpetuates the gender pay gap—isn’t a legitimate justification for pay discrimination in federal employment. The arguments reflect what DOJ GEN has asserted for years, include in our letter to OPM last year. In the case, Boyer v. United States, Dr. Leslie Boyer—a pharmacist at the VA—learned that she was paid significantly less than a male coworker in the same position because he’d been making more at his previous job, even though he allegedly came to the VA job with less experience than she did. Of course, this wouldn’t continue happening if OPM would promulgate a regulation prohibiting the use of salary history during the hiring and pay-setting processes—something we’ll continue pushing for.