Hill Briefing on the Need to Extend Domestic Partnership Benefits to Federal Employees

June 12, 2008

Caucus Co-Chairs, Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Barney Frank (D-MA), along with Vice Chair Henry Waxman (D-CA), sponsored a briefing on the need to extend domestic partnership benefits to federal employees, as well as legislative efforts to do so.  Speakers included:

• Michael Guest, former U.S. Ambassador to Romania
• Kurt Vorndran, Legislative Representative, National Treasury Employees Union
• Lara Schwartz, Legal Director, Human Rights Campaign (HRC)
• Victor Castillo, Secretary, Lesbian & Gay Congressional Staff Association

A large and growing number of American's major corporations, as well as state and local governments and educational institutions, have extended their benefit programs to cover employees' committed domestic partners.  For example, over half of Fortune 500 companies now offer health benefits to employees' domestic partners, up from just 25 percent in 2000.  Overall, more than 8,000 private-sector companies make such benefits available to employees' domestic partners, as do several hundred state and local governments and colleges and universities. 

In surveys, non-federal employers report that the reason they cover employees' domestic partners are to boost recruitment and retention of employees, as well as, of course, to be fair.  The Federal Government is in competition with these same companies and state and local governments for qualified personnel, yet federal agencies cannot match the domestic partner benefits offered by major non-federal employers.