Recent Legislation
On January 28, 2008, President George W. Bush amended the FMLA when he signed into law H.R. 4986, the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2008. Under the new amendment, an eligible employee may take up to 26 weeks of leave in a 12-month period to care for a spouse, child, parent or next of kin who is a member of the Armed Forces and is undergoing medical treatment, recuperation, or therapy or who is on the temporary disability retired list because of a serious injury or illness. Additionally, employees may take FMLA leave for “any qualifying exigency” that results from having a spouse, child, or parent on active duty in the Armed Forces. Currently, these “exigencies” have not been determined by the Secretary of Labor, so employers are encouraged to provide this type of leave to qualifying employees on good faith.1
On January 16, 2009, the final regulations for this amendment go into effect. Notably, it states that employees can take one 26-week leave period per 12-month period to be a caretaker for a military family member instead of only one during their entire employment.
Related Legislation
On January 9, 2009, Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) introduced the Family Fairness Act of 2009 (H.R. 389). The legislation would eliminate the FMLA's current requirement that employees have worked at least 1,250 hours during the previous 12-month period in order to be eligible for leave under the Act. An employee would still be required to have worked for the employer for at least 12 months to qualify for FMLA leave. The current time requirement means that part-time workers are excluded so the new legislation would allow part-time workers to take time off under FMLA if they otherwise qualify for the leave. In 2007, almost 25 million people worked part-time and represented 16 percent of all workers. About two-thirds of part-time workers are women.
"As it is now, the Family and Medical Leave Act provides a good and necessary benefit to some of our working families," said Baldwin. "It's imperative that we make those benefits available to all of our working families and I'm hopeful we can do that in this session of Congress."2 The Bill was referred to the House Committees on Education and Labor, Oversight and Government Reform, and House Administration.3
Return to the Family and Medical Leave Act Resource Page
1 “The Family and Medical Leave Act and National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2008.” U.S. Department of Labor. n.d., http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/fmla/NDAA_fmla.htm (18 March 2008).
2 "Family Fairness Act of 2009 introduced in the House," CCH Aspen Publishers Technical Answer Group, 21 January 2009, http://hr.cch.com/news/employment/012109a.asp (21 January 2009).
3"Family Fairness Act of 2009," OpenCongress, 9 January 2009, http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h389/show (21 January 2009).
