{"bills":[{"photos":{"featured":"https://assets.causes.com/bill/photo/s242-114/featured_wounded-warriors-federal-leave-act-of-2015-1450779526.jpg","featured_large":"https://assets.causes.com/bill/photo/s242-114/featured_large_wounded-warriors-federal-leave-act-of-2015-1450779526.jpg","shareable":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/bills/s242-114.png"},"introduced_on":"2015-01-22","title_override":"Should Disabled Vets Employed By The Federal Government Have Access To Medical Leave?","summary_override":"

This bill would allow veterans who have a disability and work for the federal government to take up to 104 hours (or 13 eight-hour days) of medical leave from their jobs.

These veterans would have to have a service-related disability rated at 30 percent — a percentage determined by a VA rating system used to calculate benefits — or more. Those 104 hours of leave would be guaranteed without a loss or reduction in pay in the first 12 months of employment.

After the first 12 months, employees would not be able to carryover their unused medical leave hours from the original 104. This bill aims primarily to offer disabled veterans the time they need for hospital visits and doctors appointments that in other jobs might threaten their job security. Currently, new federal employees do not get sick or medical leave and have to accumulate it over each pay period.

","official_title":"A bill to amend title 5, United States Code, to provide leave to any new Federal employee who is a veteran with a service-connected disability rated at 30 percent or more for purposes of undergoing medical treatment for such disability, and for other purposes.","short_title":"Wounded Warriors Federal Leave Act of 2015","popular_title":null,"short_summary":"(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The expanded summary of the Senate reported version is repeated here.)\n\nWounded Warriors Federal Leave Act of 2015\n\n(Sec. 2) Entitles any federal employee who is a veteran with a service-connected disability rated at 30% or more, during the 12-month period beginning on the first day of employment, to up to 104 hours of leave, without loss or reduction in pay, for purposes of undergoing medical treatment for such disability for which sick leave could regularly be used. Requires the forfeiture of any such leave that is not used during such 12-month period.\n\nRequires such employee to submit to the head of the employing agency certification that such employee used such leave for purposes of being furnished treatment for such disability by a health care provider.","summarized":true,"cost":null,"cost_commentary":"A CBO cost estimate is unavailable. However, a CBO estimate of the House version of this bill projected that the Wounded Warriors Federal Leave Act would cost $55 million to implement over the next five years — or about $11 million per year. These costs are mostly related to the additional paid medical leave that federal agencies offer disabled veterans in their first year on the job. It is anticipated that in some instances a worker’s absence will lead to additional spending by the agency, and that in other instances the agency would simply lose the value of the missed work. 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PatrickMurphy

Should Disabled Vets Employed By The Federal Government Have Access To Medical Leave?