[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 2 (Monday, January 15, 2001)]
[Page 63]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on the Family and Medical Leave Act

January 9, 2001

    The first legislation I signed as President was the 1993 Family and 
Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which allows workers to take up to 12 weeks of 
unpaid leave to care for a seriously ill child, spouse, or parent; a 
newborn, newly adopted, or newly placed child; or for their own serious 
health problem, without fear of losing their jobs. This law was an 
important step forward in helping America's working families balance the 
competing demands of work and family. Since then, I am proud to say that 
more than 35 million working Americans have taken leave for family and 
medical reasons since 1993.
    In 1996 the bipartisan Commission on Family and Medical Leave issued 
a report assessing family and medical leave policies. The Commission 
found that the FMLA was working well for both workers and employers. 
Today the U. S. Department of Labor released the results of its new 
surveys, which updated the Commission's work. Once again, the data show 
that the Family and Medical Leave Act remains a balanced approach to 
meeting the needs of workers and employers. We know that when needed 
most, covered and eligible workers were able to take this benefit--in 
fact, more than 15 million have done so since January 1999, the period 
covered by this survey.
    FMLA has given millions of workers the ability to care for their 
seriously ill child, spouse, or parent, or stay home with their newborn 
child, without worrying about whether their job will be there when they 
return. Our work is not done, however. We must now build on the success 
of FMLA by giving more workers the protections of the act and finding 
new ways to provide paid leave to those workers who need to take off but 
cannot afford to do so.