National WIC Association Washington Update

President Issues Breastfeeding Workplace Accommodations Memo for Federal Government


Washington, DC, 21 December 2010 – President Barrack Obama issued a Memorandum yesterday to the Director of the Office of Personnel Management requesting that the Office develop new guidelines for "appropriate workplace accommodations" for federal employees who are nursing mothers.

The Order, required by the Affordable Care Act mandating new breastfeeding rights primarily for hourly workers in the private and public sectors, requests that the federal government take a further step by establishing new guidelines for all federal employees, no matter their status.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, established special nursing rooms in 2007 for House staffers. Senate offices and committees must make similar breastfeeding accommodations for staffers.

Much of the original Breastfeeding Promotion Act sponsored by NWA Leadership Award Recipient Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-NY, and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-OR, that ensured that women cannot be discriminated against or fired for breastfeeding or pumping breast milk during breaks or lunch and provided tax breaks to employers who establish special rooms for breastfeeding mothers or that rent lactation-related equipment was incorporated into the Affordable Care Act.