KENNEDY ON NEW DOL REGULATIONS ON FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT

WASHINGTON, DC— Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Chairman of the Health,

Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, released the following statement in response

to Department of Labor’s new regulations on the Family and Medical Leave Act.

“The Act is a vital protection that has enabled more than 60 million Americans to take

time off to address a serious illness without fear of losing their job. Yet the Department’s

new regulations will make it more difficult for workers to use this leave when they need

it, and more difficult to return to work when their health crisis has passed. The

regulations also impose burdensome new paperwork requirements on both workers and

heath providers. In these difficult economic times, the last thing we should do is make it

even harder for parents to balance their job and their family. We should be building on

the Act’s fifteen years of success, not undermining it.”

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