President Obama signed a presidential memorandum Thursday, ordering executive agencies to to give up to six weeks paid leave to federal employees on the birth or adoption of a child.

The memorandum, which has the same legal effect as an executive order, is the first of a three-part Obama strategy to expand paid leave for American workers.

Obama will also ask Congress to pass a law requiring companies to give paid sick leave to many part-time workers, and will propose $2.2 billion in grants to states and cities to implement their own policies.

House Republicans, including Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., who represents Covington County in Congress, pushed back.

Roby said she will introduce the Working Families Flexibility Act as soon as next week, allowing employees to take legally mandated overtime as compensatory time instead.

“We need to get Washington out of the way of how people use their time,” Roby said in a statement. “Employers are drowning in enough red tape as it is, and workers have seen their hours reduced thanks to this Administration’s attempt to dictate how the workplace operates.”