U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 

1 

49–010 

" ! SENATE 

114TH CONGRESS

1st Session 

REPORT

2015

114–89 

Calendar No. 160 

WOUNDED WARRIORS FEDERAL LEAVE 

ACT OF 2015 

R E P O R T 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND 

GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

TO ACCOMPANY

S. 242 

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 

JULY 23, 2015.—Ordered to be printed 


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(II) 

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin Chairman 

JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona 

ROB PORTMAN, Ohio 

RAND PAUL, Kentucky 

JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma 

MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming 

KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire 

JONI ERNST, Iowa 

BEN SASSE, Nebraska 

THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware 

CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri 

JON TESTER, Montana 

TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin 

HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota 

CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey 

GARY C. PETERS, Michigan 

KEITH B. ASHDOWN, Staff Director 

CHRISTOPHER R. HIXON, Chief Counsel 

PATRICK J. BAILEY, Chief Counsel for Governmental Affairs 

GABRIELLE A. BATKIN, Minority Staff Director 

JOHN P. KILVINGTON, Minority Deputy Staff Director 

MARY BETH SCHULTZ, Minority Chief Counsel 

KATHERINE C. SYBENGA, Minority Senior Counsel 

LAURA W. KILBRIDE, Chief Clerk 


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Calendar No. 160 

114TH CONGRESS REPORT " ! SENATE 1st Session 114–89 

WOUNDED WARRIORS FEDERAL LEAVE ACT OF 2015 

JULY 23, 2015.—Ordered to be printed 

Mr. JOHNSON, from the Committee on Homeland Security and 

Governmental Affairs, submitted the following 

R E P O R T 

[To accompany S. 242] 

The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 

to which was referred the bill (S. 242) 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, having considered the same, reports 

favorably thereon without amendment and recommends that the 

bill do pass. 

CONTENTS 

Page 

I. Purpose and Summary .................................................................................. 1 

II. Background and Need for the Legislation ................................................... 2 

III. Legislative History ......................................................................................... 2 

IV. Section-by-Section Analysis .......................................................................... 3 

V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact .................................................................. 3 

VI. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate ................................................ 4 

VII. Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported ........................... 6 

I. PURPOSE AND SUMMARY

S. 242, the Wounded Warriors Federal Leave Act of 2015, seeks 

to provide federal employees who are veterans with a service-connected disability rating of 30 percent or more with up to 104 hours 

of leave to undergo medical treatment for such disability during the 

first year of their employment with the federal government. The 

additional leave does not roll over and the employee must certify 

that the leave was used in connection with treatment of the service-connected disability. 


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1 5 U.S.C. § 6307. 

2 5 C.F.R. § 630.402. 

3Mooney, C., et al. Is travel distance a barrier to veterans’ use of VA hospitals for medical 

surgical care?, Social Science & Medicine, 50(12), 1743–55 (July 2000). 4 Bureau of Labor Statistics News Release: ‘‘Employment Situation of Veterans—2014,’’ Mar. 

18, 2015, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/vet.pdf, last accessed May 22, 2015. 5 Id. 

6Federal Managers Association Issue Brief: ‘‘Investing in the Federal Workforce—2015,’’ 

http://www.fedmanagers.org/FMA/files/ccLibraryFiles/Filename/000000000608/ 

Investing%20in%20the%20Federal%20Workforce%202015.pdf, last accessed May 22, 2015. 

II. BACKGROUND AND THE NEED FOR LEGISLATION

Under current law, full-time federal employees accrue four hours 

of sick leave for each full bi-weekly pay period, amounting to a 

total of 104 hours, or 13 days, of annual sick leave.1 While unused 

sick leave may be carried over from year to year, first-year fulltime federal employees start their careers in the federal workforce 

with no hours of sick leave available. A federal agency may grant 

advanced sick leave to a federal employee, up to 240 hours, yet this 

leave must be paid back by the employee.2

The lack of initial sick leave for full-time federal workers can be 

onerous for disabled veterans. At the Marine Corps Air Station in 

Cherry Point, North Carolina, for example, a federal manager 

noted that an employee within his or her first year of federal employment with a disability rating from the Department of Veterans 

Affairs (VA) used 30 hours of sick leave within the first three 

months of the year. If this rate were to remain constant, 120 hours 

would be required for the entire year. Moreover, VA medical facilities are not always centrally located, forcing patients to drive hours 

to seek medical attention.3

Federal agencies employ nine percent of the veteran workforce.4

According to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), in fiscal 

year 2013, 7.6 percent of the 162,839 new hires, including parttime and full-time, as well as seasonal and non-seasonal, were 

rated by the VA as having disabilities connected with their military 

service that make them 30 percent or more disabled.5

The Federal Managers Association has reported that ‘‘[w]hile federal employees can be advanced leave and banks are available, it 

often does not cover what is needed to meet these medical requirements for chronic disabilities and they are forced to take leave 

without pay.’’ 6

The Wounded Warriors Federal Leave Act of 2015 would address 

the lack of initial sick leave for disabled veterans by providing up 

to 104 hours of additional sick leave for federal employees who are 

disabled veterans during their first year of employment for the 

treatment of conditions related to their prior service in the military. The additional leave may only be used during the first year 

of employment with the federal government and does not rollover 

into succeeding years. 

III. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

S. 242, the Wounded Warriors Federal Leave Act of 2015, was introduced on January 22, 2015, by Senators Tester and Moran and 

the bill was then referred to the Committee on Homeland Security 

and Governmental Affairs. The Committee considered the bill at a 

March 4, 2015, business meeting and ordered the bill reported favorably en bloc by voice vote. Members present for the vote were 


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Senators Johnson, Portman, Lankford, Ayotte, Ernst, Carper, 

McCaskill, Baldwin, Heitkamp, and Peters. 

IV. SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS OF THE BILL, AS REPORTED

Section 1. Short title 

This section provides the bill’s short title, the ‘‘Wounded Warriors Federal Leave Act of 2015.’’ 

Section 2. Additional leave for federal employees who are disabled 

veterans 

Section 2(a) adds a new section (6329) to Subchapter II of chapter 63 of title 5, United States Code, to add a category of ‘‘Other 

Paid Leave’’ referred to as ‘‘Disabled veteran leave’’ and to govern 

its use by federal employees. 

New Section 6329(a) defines the terms employee, service-connected, and veteran. 

New Section 6329(b) provides that during the first 12 months of 

employment with the federal government, a veteran with a serviceconnected disability rated 30 percent or more by the VA is entitled 

to leave without loss or reduction in pay, but only for undergoing 

medical treatment for such disability that sick leave would normally be used. 

New Section 6329(c) limits such sick leave provided under 

6329(b) to 104 hours and provides that such sick leave is not carried over at the end of the first year of employment and is forfeited. 

New Section 6329(d) requires the employee to certify that they 

are using the leave for treatment of their service-connected disability in order to receive it. 

Section 2(b) provides a technical and conforming amendment to 

the tables in chapter 63 of title 5, United States Code. 

Section 2(c) provides a timeline for implementation of one year 

after the date of enactment of this Act. 

Section 2(d) requires that within one year of enactment, the Postmaster General and the Director of OPM prescribe regulations to 

provide the additional leave and to brief Congress on a quarterly 

basis during the first year after enactment. 

V. EVALUATION OF REGULATORY IMPACT

Pursuant to the requirements of paragraph 11(b) of rule XXVI of 

the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee has considered 

the regulatory impact of this bill and determined that the bill will 

have no regulatory impact within the meaning of the rules. The 

Committee agrees with the Congressional Budget Office’s statement that the bill contains no intergovernmental or private-sector 

mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act 

(UMRA) and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments. 


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VI. CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE COST ESTIMATE

MARCH 30, 2015. 

Hon. RON JOHNSON, Chairman, 

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 

U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. 

DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: The Congressional Budget Office has prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 242, the Wounded Warriors 

Federal Leave Act of 2015. 

If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be pleased 

to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Dan Ready. 

Sincerely, 

DOUGLAS W. ELMENDORF. 

Enclosure. 

S. 242—Wounded Warriors Federal Leave Act of 2015 

Summary: S. 242 would provide additional sick leave to veterans 

with a disability rated at 30 percent or greater who are newly 

hired by the federal government. That additional leave would have 

to be used for treatment of the employee’s disability and would expire one year after it became available to the employee. CBO estimates that implementing S. 242 would cost $55 million over the 

next five years, subject to appropriation of the necessary funds. 

That cost represents the value of the additional sick leave that 

CBO estimates would be provided to newly hired veterans. In some 

cases that additional leave would lead to additional spending by 

agencies; in other cases agencies would lose the value of the work 

of the people using the additional days of leave. 

Pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply to this legislation because 

it would not affect direct spending or revenues. 

S. 242 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates 

as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and 

would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments. 

Estimated cost to the Federal Government: The estimated budgetary effect of S. 242 is shown in the following table. The costs of 

this legislation fall in all budget functions except function 900 (net 

interest) and 950 (offsetting receipts). 

By fiscal year, in millions of dollars— 

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2015– 

2020 

CHANGES IN SPENDING SUBJECT TO APPROPRIATION 

Estimated Authorization Level ..................................... 0 3 14 15 15 16 63 

Estimated Outlays ....................................................... 0 2 9 14 15 16 55 

Basis of estimate: For this estimate, CBO assumes S. 242 will be 

enacted late in fiscal year 2015 and the amounts estimated to be 

needed will be appropriated each year. 

The legislation would provide a maximum of 104 hours of additional sick leave to veterans with a disability rated at 30 percent 

or greater who are newly hired by the federal government. The bill 

specifies that the additional leave would become available for employees hired one year or more after the date of enactment. That 

additional leave would have to be used for treatment of the employVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:30 Jul 25, 2015 Jkt 049010 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6659 Sfmt 6602 E:\HR\OC\SR089.XXX SR089

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ee’s disability and would expire one year after it became available 

to the employee. 

In 2009, President Obama signed an executive order establishing 

the Veterans Employment Initiative, which was designed to increase federal hiring of veterans. According to the Veterans Employment Council, the proportion of newly hired federal workers 

who are veterans increased from 35 percent in 2008 to 46 percent 

in 2013 (the most recent year for which data are available). During 

those years, the proportion of hired employees who are veterans 

with a disability rating of 30 percent or greater also increased, 

from 5.5 percent to 10.7 percent (from 7,000 to 11,000 employees 

per year). The rate of increase in hiring of disabled veterans has 

slowed recently, but CBO expects that about 8,000 to 9,000 disabled veterans will continue to be hired by the federal government 

each year through 2020. 

The potential budgetary effects of this bill derive from the use of 

additional sick leave. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) 

calculates that the average salary of new hires who are veterans 

with a disability rated at 30 percent or greater is $51,000. Data 

from OPM and research by the Congressional Research Service indicate that disabled veterans use more sick leave than other employees and that the temporary nature of the additional sick leave 

would encourage employees to use the benefit at a higher rate than 

regular leave. On average, CBO estimates that 60 percent of the 

leave made available under the bill would be used. Based on the 

anticipated number of new hires of disabled veterans, their average 

hourly rate, and their projected use of the additional sick leave 

that the bill would make available, CBO estimates that the legislation would cost $55 million over the 2015–2020 period. 

How that additional cost would affect the federal budget is difficult to determine. Some of the disabled veterans who would be 

aided by this bill would, under current law, use annual leave to receive treatment for their disability; the provision of additional sick 

leave under the bill could mean that they have more accumulated 

leave when they separate from the government, which would lead 

to larger cash payments by the government at that time. Some government agencies might hire additional people or contract for additional services to make up for the lost output of the disabled workers who would take additional leave under the bill; that would 

raise federal costs in the near term, subject to the availability of 

appropriated funds. Some of the affected veterans would take more 

sick leave in total, and the agencies for which they work might not 

hire additional people or contract for additional services; in those 

cases, there would be no direct budgetary effect, but the government would lose the value of the work of those people on those additional days of sick leave. Therefore, although the additional cost 

would appear in different ways for disabled veterans and agencies 

in different circumstances, the government would nonetheless bear 

a cost for the additional leave that was taken. 

Pay-as-You-Go considerations: None. 

Intergovernmental and private-sector impact: S. 242 contains no 

intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in UMRA 

and would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments. 


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Previous estimate: On March 4, 2015, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for H.R. 313, the Wounded Warriors Federal Leave Act of 

2015, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Oversight 

and Government Reform on January 27, 2015. H.R. 313 is similar 

to S. 242, and the estimated budgetary effects are the same. 

Estimate prepared by: Federal costs: Dan Ready; Impact on 

state, local, and tribal governments: Jon Sperl; Impact on the private sector: Paige Piper/Bach. 

Estimate approved by: Theresa Gullo, Assistant Director for 

Budget Analysis. 

VII. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED

In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the Standing 

Rules of the Senate, changes in existing law made by S. 242 as reported are shown as follows (existing law proposed to be omitted 

is enclosed in brackets, new matter is printed in italic, and existing 

law in which no change is proposed is shown in roman): 

TITLE—GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS 

AND EMPLOYEES 

* * * * * * * 

PART III—EMPLOYEES 

* * * * * * * 

SUBPART E—ATTENDANCE AND LEAVE 

* * * * * * * 

CHAPTER 63—LEAVE 

* * * * * * * 

Subchapter II—Other Paid Leave 

* * * * * * * 

§ 6329. Disabled veteran leave 

(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 

(1) notwithstanding section 6301, the term ‘‘employee’’— 

(A) has the meaning given such term in section 2105; and 

(B) includes an officer or employee of the United States 

Postal Service or of the Postal Regulatory Commission; 

(2) the term ‘‘service-connected’’ has the meaning given such 

term in section 101(16) of title 38; and 

(3) the term ‘‘veteran’’ has the meaning given such term in 

section 101(2) of title 38. 

(b) LEAVE CREDITED.—During the 12-month period beginning on 

the first day of the employment of an employee who is a veteran 

with a service-connected disability rated as 30 percent or more disabling, the employee is entitled to leave, without loss or reduction 


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in pay, for purposes of undergoing medical treatment for such disability for which sick leave could regularly be used. 

(c) LIMITATIONS.— (1) AMOUNT OF LEAVE.—The leave credited to an employee 

under subsection (b) may not exceed 104 hours. 

(2) NO CARRY OVER.—Any leave credited to an employee 

under subsection (b) that is not used during the 12-month period described in such subsection may not be carried over and 

shall be forfeited. 

(d) CERTIFICATION.—In order to verify that leave credited to an 

employee under subsection (b) is used for treating a service-connected disability, the employee shall submit to the head of the employing agency a certification, in such form and manner as the Director of the Office of Personnel Management may prescribe, that the 

employee used the leave for purposes of being furnished treatment 

for the disability by a health care provider. 

Æ 


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