National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010

Floor Speech

NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2010 -- (Extensions of Remarks - June 26, 2009)

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Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Chair, while I cannot support H.R. 2647, this legislation does contain important provisions regarding family and medical leave for military families.

Last session, Congress passed--also in a Defense Authorization bill--legislation to provide military families with up to 26 weeks of leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to care for injured servicemembers. I had introduced this bill in the House, and its provisions implement one of the recommendations of the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors, chaired by Secretary Donna Shalala and Senator Bob Dole.

Also included in the final legislation was an amendment introduced by Representative Altmire (with then Representative Udall) to provide up to 12 weeks of leave for military families who need this leave to deal with qualifying exigencies arising out of the deployment of a servicemember to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Once this legislation became law, and the Bush Department of Labor issued regulations, we realized that corrections needed to be made to these FMLA provisions to truly effectuate their purpose to assist military families when these families need time off from work. Section 585 of H.R. 2647 does just that; and clarifies:

That family members of certain seriously ill and injured veterans are entitled to the 26 weeks of leave; and

That the family members of regular active servicemembers (and not just reservists and members of the national guard) are entitled to 12 weeks of leave for ``exigencies'' when they are deployed away from home.

Finally, Section 585 provides that exigency leave will be available when a servicemember is to be deployed anywhere overseas and not just overseas in support of a contingency operation (e.g. Iraq or Afghanistan).

The FMLA is intended to help individuals balance their family and work obligations. Millions of working people are now eligible for unpaid job protected leave. When the Act was passed in 1993, it was a giant step and is of great importance to working families.

Since a majority of military spouses work, they too must balance work and family. They work to put food on the table and support their families. But they face additional challenges because their lives are disrupted by multiple deployments, involving not only reservists and members in the National Guard, but those servicemembers in regular active duty as well.

The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have resulted in over 34,000 casualties with many servicemembers being seriously wounded. These injured warriors need substantial support and care from their families, often for long periods of time, and some permanently. In addition, a recent Pentagon study found that 11 percent of Iraq veterans and 20 percent of Afghanistan veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome, an often disabling condition.

The expansion of the FMLA to include leave for military families was much needed. The provisions of Section 585 in H.R. 2647 help clarify the original intent of the law.

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