Biden administration rejects outgoing Trump appointees request to extend their family leave

A group of former Trump administration appointees is asking the Biden administration extend their paid parental leave, which they lost after Trump left office earlier this month.

When an administration turns over, political appointees typically lose their jobs and related benefits.

However, federal employee parental leave is a new type of benefit, passed into law by Congress in late 2019. It gives government employees up to 12 weeks paid time off after the birth of a child. 

"I got completely screwed. There were no caveats in that language saying anything about if the administration turns, you get nothing and of course, that happened and so I got nothing," said Vanessa Ambrosini, a former employee of the Commerce Department who had a baby in mid-December told Politico.

Politico said the Biden White House declined to speak on the record about the issue but that an unnamed official said it is generally well understood that political appointees "do not enjoy the promise of federal employment past the end of the administration in which they choose to serve."

The official also said the request were apparently made by a few appointees, including several on parental leave, and submitted at the last minute

"Because these requests were received so close to Inauguration Day ... there was no way to implement an exception to the rule in a way that is fair to all outgoing appointees, including many who resigned as expected without making requests for extraordinary benefits," the official said.