I
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2366
To amend the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 to clarify the Act,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 28, 2001
Mrs. BIGGERT introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Education and the Workforce, and in addition to the Commit-
tees on House Administration and Government Reform, for a period to
be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider-
ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
A BILL
To amend the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 to
clarify the Act, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Family and Medical
Leave Clarification Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
(hereinafter in this section referred to as the ‘‘Act’’)
is not working as the Congress intended when it
passed the Act in 1993. Many employers, including
those employers that are nationally recognized as
having generous family-friendly benefit and leave
programs, are experiencing serious problems com-
plying with the Act.
(2) The Secretary of Labor’s overly broad regu-
lations and interpretations have caused many of
these problems by greatly expanding the Act’s cov-
erage to apply to many nonserious health conditions.
(3) Between 1996 and 2000, five congressional
hearings—two in the Senate and three in the House
of Representatives—documented numerous imple-
mentation problems with the Act due to the Depart-
ment of Labor’s misapplication of the Act through
some of its regulations and interpretations.
(4) Documented problems generated by the Act
include significant new administrative and personnel
costs, loss of productivity, scheduling difficulties, un-
necessary paperwork and recordkeeping, and other
compliance problems.
(5) The Act often conflicts with employers’ paid
sick leave policies, prevents employers from man-
aging absences through their absence control plans,
and results in most leave under the Act becoming
paid leave.
(6) Administrative problems associated with the
use of intermittent leave under the Act are a well-
documented issue. Approximately three-quarters (76
percent) of respondents to a 2000 survey by the So-
ciety for Human Resource Management said they
would find compliance easier if the Department of
Labor allowed covered leave to be offered and
tracked in half-day increments rather than minutes.
(7) In 1996, the Commission on Leave, estab-
lished by title III of the Act (29 U.S.C. 2631 et
seq.), reported few compliance difficulties with the
Act, but the Commission only based its findings on
leave taken between January 1994 and June 1995.
Only after the final regulations became effective in
early 1995, and after the issuance of contradictory
interpretations of what constitutes a serious health
condition, did employers begin to encounter most
compliance difficulties. As a result, the Commission
report failed to identify many compliance problems,
because the findings were primarily based on leave
taken before the final regulations became effective.
(8) A more recent Department of Labor survey,
released in January 2001 as an update requested by
Congress to the 1996 Commission on Leave report,
found that between 1995 and 2000, there had been
a 21.5 percent decline in the share of covered estab-
lishments reporting that it was somewhat easy or
very easy to comply with the Act.
SEC. 3. DEFINITION OF SERIOUS HEALTH CONDITION.
Section 101(11) of the Family and Medical Leave Act
of 1993 (29 U.S.C. 2611(11)) is amended—
(1) by redesignating subparagraphs (A) and
(B) as clauses (i) and (ii), respectively;
(2) by inserting ‘‘(A)’’ before ‘‘The term’’;
(3) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(B) Such term includes an illness, injury, im-
pairment, or physical or mental condition that in-
volves care or treatment described in subparagraph
(A), such as a heart attack, a heart condition requir-
ing heart bypass or valve operations, a back condi-
tion requiring extensive therapy or a surgical proce-
dure, a stroke, a severe respiratory condition, a spi-
nal injury, appendicitis, pneumonia, emphysema, se-
vere arthritis, a severe nervous disorder, an injury
caused by a serious accident on or off the job, an
ongoing pregnancy, a miscarriage, and a complica-
tion or illness related to pregnancy (such as severe
morning sickness, a need for prenatal care, child-
birth, and recovery from childbirth); and
‘‘(C) Such term does not include a short-term
illness, injury, impairment, or condition for which
treatment and recovery are very brief.’’.
SEC. 4. INTERMITTENT LEAVE.
Section 102(b)(1) of the Family and Medical Leave
Act of 1993 (29 U.S.C. 2612(b)(1)) is amended by insert-
ing before the period at the end of the second sentence
the following: ‘‘, as certified under section 103 by the
health care provider after each leave occurrence. An em-
ployer may require an employee to take intermittent leave
in increments of up to half a workday. An employer may
require an employee who travels as part of the normal day-
to-day work or duty assignment of the employee and who
requests intermittent leave or leave on a reduced schedule
to take leave for the duration of that work or assignment
if the employer cannot reasonably accommodate the em-
ployee’s request’’.
SEC. 5. REQUEST FOR LEAVE.
Section 102(e) of the Family and Medical Leave Act
of 1993 (29 U.S.C. 2612(e)) is amended by inserting after
paragraph (2) the following:
‘‘(3) REQUEST
FOR
LEAVE.—If an employer
does not exercise, under subsection (d)(2), the right
to require an employee to substitute other employer-
provided leave for leave under this title, the em-
ployer may require the employee who wants leave
under this title to request the leave in a timely man-
ner. If an employer requires a timely request under
this paragraph, an employee who fails to make a
timely request may be denied leave under this title.
For purposes of this paragraph, a request for leave
shall be considered timely if—
‘‘(A) in the case of foreseeable leave, the
employee—
‘‘(i) provides the applicable advance
notice required by paragraphs (1) and (2);
and
‘‘(ii) submits any written application
required by the employer for the leave not
later than 5 working days after providing
the notice to the employer; and
‘‘(B) in the case of unforeseeable leave, the
employee—
‘‘(i) notifies the employer orally of the
need for the leave—