PCS Leave for Military Spouse Federal Workers Act

Subchapter II of chapter 63 of title 5, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

Consistent with paragraph (2), an employee shall be entitled to at least 40 hours of paid leave because of the permanent change of station of the employee’s spouse. With respect to an employee with a part-time or uncommon tour of duty, such employee shall receive a proportionally equivalent number of hours of paid leave under this section based on the hours in the employee’s established tour of duty.

An employee may receive additional paid leave under this section as the head of the employee’s employing agency deems appropriate.

Paid leave under this section—

(1) is in addition to any other leave provided to an employee;

(2) may be used only while the employee is engaged in activities directly related to facilitating the employee’s move to a new geographic location where the employee’s spouse will be assigned to work;

(3) may be used only during periods when the employee would otherwise be scheduled to be in duty status;

(4) may be taken by an employee intermittently or on a reduced leave schedule, but no later than 1 month after the employee’s move that is the basis for use of leave under this section;

(5) may not be converted to a cash payment for any unused amount; and

(6) shall be available for each instance of a permanent change of station but shall not accumulate for subsequent use.

Each employee shall provide their employing agency a copy of their spouses permanent change of station on the date the employee requests leave under this section.

In this section—

(1) the term employee means an individual who—

(A) is an employee (as that term is defined in section 2105), including—

(i) individuals employed on a temporary or term basis; and

(ii) notwithstanding any other provision of law, any officer or employee—

(I) of the United States Postal Service or the Postal Regulatory Commission;

(II) appointed under chapter 73 or 74 of title 38, notwithstanding any other provision of that title including section 7425(b); or

(III) occupying any other position in the civil service;

(B) is the spouse of—

(i) a member of the uniformed services or the Foreign Service (as that term is defined in section 3902 of title 22); or

(ii) an individual who is employed by an agency other than the Department of State and who is subject to the Foreign Service personnel system pursuant to section 3922 of title 22; and

(C) relocates because such spouse is subject to a permanent change of station; and

(2) the term permanent change of station means, with respect to a spouse described under paragraph (1)(B)—

(A) a permanent change of duty station; or

(B) a change in homeport of a vessel, ship-based squadron or staff, or mobile unit.

The table of sections for such subchapter is amended by adding after the item relating to section 6329d the following: