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Fran k goes to bat
The congressman proposes domestic partner benefits for
federal workers and expects support of conservative colleagues
,
ederal workers may one day have do
mestic partner benefits, thanks to a bill
recently introduced by Barney Frank,
an openly gay Democratic congress
man from Massachusetts.
During an Oct. 29 news conference, Frank
discussed his Domestic Partnership Benefits and
Obligations Act of 1997, which covers all 1.9
million civilian federal employees.
If the measure passes, don’t think its impact
will be felt solely in the nation’s capital—only 14
percent of the federal workforce calls that region
home.
Many more federal workers are scattered across
the country, from isolated forest service watch-
towers to huge regional federal centers in urban
locales like Boston, Atlanta and San Francisco.
“My colleagues, especially on the conserva
tive side, tell us regularly that we should model
our practices after the private sector,” Frank said.
“So I have taken
them at their word.”
Domestic partner
benefits have been
sweeping through
private industry like
a tsunami. The trend
began in the high-
technology sector,
when com panies
sought to attract the
best talent, and now
has spread into many
other sectors.
R ecently
the
Texas-based Elec
tronic Data Systems,
a computer services
giant founded by
former presidential
candidate
Ross
Perot, announced it
will offer health ben
efits to dom estic
partners of gay and
Barney Frank
lesbian employees.
PacifiCorp, parent company to Utah Power and
Light, said the same thing from the heart of
Mormon country.
Benefits can constitute up to 40 percent of
compensation according to the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce. Most accrue directly to workers but
some go to employees’ families. Lesbians and
gay men are often excluded from those benefits.
Helen Gonzales, public policy director for the
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, offered
this example: “It's the same as advertising a job in
the newspaper saying, ‘Salespeople wanted: Sal
ary for married heterosexuals $12 an hour, salary
for unmarried heterosexuals and gays, lesbians,
bisexual and transgendered persons $7.20 per
hour.’ We would all recognize that as unfair,
illegal and discriminatory.”
U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) added, “All
Americans deserve equal pay for equal work. For
too long, gay and lesbian federal employees with
lifetime partners have received far fewer em
ployee benefits than their heterosexual cowork
ers with lifetime partners, simply because of their
sexual orientation. It is time for the federal gov
ernment to honor and recognize loving, commit
ted relationships—whether they look like Ozzie
and Harriet or John and Kevin.”
“We hear politicians talk about family val
ues,” said William Delahunt (D-Mass.). “Implicit
in that concept is responsibility. When people
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have made a commitment to each other, that
carries with it a sense of responsibility. It’s time
our federal government acknowledges that.”
Frank explained that 1978 civil service re
forms restricted hiring and firing decisions to
qualifications and job performance. Thus it was
possible to interpret existing law to end anti-gay
job discrimination in the federal workplace.
“[But] money cannot be paid out of the federal
treasury without statutory authorization. And no
one would argue that there is statutory authoriza
tion for domestic partnership benefits, particu
larly when you talk about the pension system,
which is very tightly regulated,” he said.
Frank also said opponents of domestic part
nership benefits “who tell us that it will be totally
disruptive to the social fabric and extraordinarily
expensive...have with unerring accuracy been
wrong.”
Tim Boggs, a senior executive with Time
Warner, said ben
efits have been an
“enorm ous su c
c ess” for his
company’s 70,000
employees, while
Jack Krumholtz, a
lobbyist
for
Microsoft, hailed
them as a “recipe
for success.”
Elizabeth Birch,
executive director
o f the Human
Rights Campaign,
added that domes
tic partnership ben
efit programs have
a been “running in
| the private sector
§ throughout the
> 1990s without one
0 documented case of
1 fraud. No company
with such a policy
has withdrawn it.
Moreover, in the private sector, the cost has been
minimal.”
“The reality is that personnel turnover and
recruitment expenses far exceed the cost of ex
tending benefits to domestic partners,” said Lowey.
She cited the example of New York City,
where fewer than 2 percent of city employees
have enrolled in the program.
As Frank explained, in many couples both
partners work, have benefits through their jobs,
and don’t need to take advantage of domestic
partnership benefits.
His staff had discussions with the Office of
Personnel Management in drafting technical as
pects of the bill. The Congressional Budget Of
fice will evaluate it, as it does every piece of
legislation, for its fiscal impact.
According to Frank, the Clinton administra
tion has not endorsed his bill.
“But I’m going to keep pushing. I intend to
make clear to the president and vice president
how important their support will be,” said Frank,
who also called the bluff of congressmembers
who last year voted for the anti-gay Defense of
Marriage Act. Some of those said they would opt
to support domestic partnership alternatives.
“This is a ‘put your money where your mouth
is’ issue,” said Frank. “There is absolutely no
reason for somebody who said that not to endorse
this bill.”
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