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The Issues: Veterans - Military Families Leave Act I
believe we should support our military personnel and their
families, and continue to provide our brave men and women
in uniform the improved services and benefits they deserve.
In April 2005, I reintroduced legislation, the Military
Families Leave Act, which I introduced in the 108th Congress
as well. This bill, S.798,
would allow eligible employees -- those whose spouses, parents,
sons, or daughters are military personnel called to active
duty in current military operations -- to use their Family
Medical Leave Act (FMLA) benefits for issues resulting from
or related to deployment.
I cosponsored legislation to create family medical leave,
which requires covered employers to grant eligible employees
leave in a number of circumstances: for the unpaid leave for
the birth or adoption of child, the placement of a foster
child, to care for a newborn or newly adopted child or newly
placed foster child, or to care for an employee's own serious
health condition or that of a spouse, a parent, or a child.
This was a landmark piece of legislation that has helped millions
of American families deal with important life events.
In the ten years since FMLA's enactment, the country has relied
more heavily on the military for more and more deployments,
which are often of longer duration. The growing burden on
these service members' families must be addressed. The Military
Families Leave Act is one way to ease the burden on military
families because it would allow family members to use their
FMLA benefits to assist military personnel in taking care
of such responsibilities as child care, paying bills, contacting
their landlords or mortgage companies, and other things that
families deal with on a daily basis. This bill would not expand
eligibility to employees or to active duty military personnel.
Instead, it allows those already covered by FMLA to use those
benefits in one additional set of circumstances--to deal with
issues directly related to or resulting from the deployment
of a family member.
In an effort to pass this legislation, I have offered it as
an amendment to several other bills. I am pleased that the
Military Families Leave legislation has been supported by
the Military Officers Association of America, the Enlisted
Association of the National Guard of the United States, the
Reserve Officers Association, the National Guard Association
of the United States, the National Military Family Association,
and the National Partnership for Women and Families. The Military
Coalition, an umbrella organization of 31 prominent military
organizations, specified this provision as one of five meriting
special consideration during the debate over a supplemental
appropriations bill providing money for Iraq in the fall of
2003.
This bill has come close to passage in the past, but unfortunately
has not passed into law yet. I will continue to fight to bring
some relief to military families that sacrifice so much for
all of us.
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