U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan and Sen. Tammy Baldwin introduced legislation Thursday that would extend federal employment benefits to domestic partners.

Baldwin and Pocan, who are both openly gay, said the federal government should help to lead the LGBT rights movement.

“We’ve made great progress for committed, same-sex couples in America but we still have work to do to move freedom and fairness forward,” Baldwin said in a statement. “This bill helps provide federal employees and their domestic partners equal access and opportunity to the benefits across our country are already providing.”

The bill would give federal employees and their domestic partners the ability to participate in federal retirement, life insurance, in addition to family and medical leave benefits extended to heterosexual married couples.

Benefits to federal employees would only be extended to those employees who live in states that do not recognize same-sex marriage.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine; U.S. Ileana Ros Lehtinen, R-Florida; and Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Virginia, also introduced the bill with Pocan and Baldwin.

Baldwin said she is proud to work across the aisle with Republican legislators on the bill.

Pocan said the bill would help to alleviate some discrimination federal employees and their partners receive.

“Passage of our bipartisan legislation will remove discriminatory practices that punish certain federal employees merely for whom they love and where they live,” Pocan said in a statement.

The bill would only apply to federal employees who live in states that do not recognize same-sex marriage, such as Wisconsin.

Julaine Appling, president of Wisconsin Family Action, an organization that advocates against same-sex marriage, said the bill shows how similar marriage and the domestic partnerships in Wisconsin are.

“This particular proposal just simply reinforces how much like marriage the domestic partnership registry is, and how our Congressman Pocan and Sen. Baldwin want it to be treated like marriage,” Appling said.

Calls to U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Ashland, were not returned.