Mr Obama to extend "benefits" to gay workers

[furrbear]

From Pam's House Blend:

A heads up from Dallas Principles co-author Paul Yandura via email:  

1. Chuck Todd on the Rachel Maddow show said that the benefits will not extend past this administration since it is a "memorandum" not an Executive Order-and will actually expire when Obama leaves office.

2. The Advocate is reporting that the "same sex partner benefits" will not include health benefits or retirement, the only benefit they have identified is relocation costs for a partner.  See the quote below from Len Hirsch, President of Federal GLOBE:

"Our analysis has been that it will take an act of Congress for the full suite of benefits such as health benefits and retirement benefits to be provided for same-sex couples and families," said Leonard Hirsch, president of Federal Globe: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Employees of the Federal Government. Hirsch said the executive branch has the authority to extend a suite of other benefits, which would include things like providing relocation costs for a partner.

A paltry pittance designed to buy our silence. I guess they can't do more because of DOMA, huh?

Too Little. Too Late. The Gheys Are Not Going to Stop, Mr President.

Comments

[cipherpunk.livejournal.com]

The relocation benefits are not worth very much. I haven't done federal relocation in many years, but if I recall it amounts to paying for your moving expenses plus hotel bills along the way — but not a dime to help with moving–in fees on an apartment or a down payment on a home. Federal relo is very limited. It’s very efficiently done, mind you, one of the most efficient government programs I’ve seen, but it doesn’t do much.

[garebear.livejournal.com]

No health benefits of or retirement benefits? What a shit dump movement towards equality.

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

No even a shit dump, merely a fart.

Enough to gain notice, but nothing of substance.

[joebehrsandiego.livejournal.com]

Educate me, please - what benefits could be provided w/o getting Congress involved? Thanks.

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

Most anything that isn't precluded by DOMA (which doesn't leave much) could be put in place by Exec. Order or memorandum to the Director of OPM (Office of Personnel Management). An EO would stay in place until revoked by a future administration or an act of Congress. Memos expire at the end of an administration.

Hopefully Dean (envirobear) will correct any errors I've made -- it's been sometime since I studied the Byzantine workings of the Federal bureaucracy.

Any benefit referencing a 'spouse'; i.e. most of them, would probably be precluded by DOMA.

Current press reports are all over the map on this one. I even caught the local NBC-owned station reporting it included health benefits. I'll wait until the morning to see what is actually presented, but at this juncture, I can't help feeling it will be mostly an empty gesture.

[jaybear.livejournal.com]

You can get a sense of that by checking out the benefits page for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. For some reason, their HR is not done through the Office of Personnel Management, and they offer a full private-corporation benefits suite to same-sex partners.

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

OPM sets the base HR policies and levels of benefits for the executive branch at large. Each agency has it's own HR unit. Agencies are allowed to supplant the OPM base in order to be competitive with private industry.

Previously some Federal agencies gave same-sex partners benefits.

Bush II decreed that the practice end during the end of his first term.

[jaybear.livejournal.com]

When I applied to the OCC in 2007 (under Bush), they offered full life, dental, and vision insurance and relocation benefits, as well as a health insurance subsidy, to domestic partners and their children. I applied there rather than the FDIC or the SEC specifically because of that.

[teddyb.livejournal.com]

Your last line says it all, man.

Obama needs to wake up and realize this is serious, and a little candy tossed our way isn't gonna fix it.

I'm offended that he and his advisors think so little of the damage caused by the DOMA brief, and so little of us as a vital part of his core of support.