(1) The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 
(hereinafter 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 expe-
riencing serious problems complying 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 2002, six congressional 
hearings—two in the Senate and four 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, 
impairment, or physical or mental condition 
that involves care or treatment described in 
subparagraph (a), such as a heart attack, a 
heart condition requiring heart bypass or valve 
operations, a back condition requiring extensive 
therapy or a surgical procedure, a stroke, a se-
vere respiratory condition, a spinal injury, ap-
pendicitis, pneumonia, emphysema, severe ar-
thritis, a severe nervous disorder, an injury 
caused by a serious accident on or off the job, 
an ongoing pregnancy, a miscarriage, and a 
complication or illness related to pregnancy
(such as severe morning sickness, a need for 
prenatal care, childbirth, 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—