In response to the increasing need for employees "to balance the demands of the workplace with the needs of families, to promote the stability and economic security of families, and to promote national interests in preserving family integrity," (Fish, Jr., 1999) Congress passed the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) in 1993. Without a policy such as the FMLA, many employees often had to choose to return to work prematurely, give up their jobs, or fail to provide the care and support their family member needed.

Since first being enacted, it is estimated that between twelve and twenty million workers have made use of the rights established in the FMLA. "The FMLA provides eligible employees with the right to an unpaid leave of absence to bond with a new child, to care for a family member with a serious health condition, or to obtain treatment and otherwise recover from an employee's own serious health condition." (Fish, Jr., 1999) An eligible employee can utilize this leave for up to twelve weeks. An employee who exercises use of the FMLA is entitled to continued health insurance coverage under the same terms as those supplied while regularly attending work and is guaranteed a reins

Although there seems to be quite a bit of support for broadening the scope of the FMLA, not everyone is in agreement. There are those who feel that before broadening the FMLA can even be considered, the existing act must be fine tuned. Representative Harris Fawell has introduced legislation (H.R. 3751) concerning the definition of "serious health condition." Deanna Gelak, the Society for Human Resource Management's director of governmental affairs supports him. She contends that short-term illnesses that were never intended by Congress to be covered under the FMLA, such as migraines, have fallen into the scope of coverage due to the vagueness of the definition put forth in the act.

With the ever increasing number of two income families and the needs for adult children to care for parents, who are living longer than ever before, the FMLA has become something of a necessity. Individuals today, tend to have less time than ever before to spend with family. Family time is an integral part of a child's life and it's time that we do whatever we can to increase not only the amount of time spent with family, but also the quality of that time. The FMLA is just one way of beginning to make this a reality.

The FMLA is currently available to about seventy percent of the nation's workforce. (Fish, Jr., 1999) However, there is currently proposed legislation to broaden its scope. Recently proposed legislation to broaden this act includes a bill (S.183) introduced by Senator Christopher J. Dodd in 1998, that would expand the FMLA to cover businesses with more than twenty-five employees as opposed to the fifty employee requirement. This bill has currently been referred to the Committee of Labor and Human Res

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