Congress Trades Paid Parental Leave For Space Force

Space News reports:

The leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees on Dec. 9 unveiled the conference agreement they have reached for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020. The conference report includes language to authorize a U.S. Space Force as an independent military branch under the Department of the Air Force.

“The FY20 NDAA recognizes space as a warfighting domain and establishes the U.S. Space Force in Title 10 as the sixth Armed Service of the United States, under the U.S. Air Force,” says a summary of the report released by the committees Dec. 9.

The language in the NDAA marks a key victory for the Trump administration. In a Dec. 6 deal, the White House agreed to grant 12 weeks of paid parental leave to all federal workers in exchange for the Space Force authorization.

Lawmakers release bill giving federal workers 12 weeks of paid parental leave in exchange for Trump’s space force https://t.co/jt9uRWHWbj pic.twitter.com/rqEfk4Pgcf

— The Hill (@thehill) December 10, 2019