Sponsors (30)
The bill expands and modernizes leave protections for servicemembers, veterans, caregivers, and families—providing substantial new recovery and caregiving time—while shifting higher costs, administrative burdens, and some legal uncertainty onto employers, federal agencies, and taxpayers.
Service members, veterans, and their caregivers gain up to 26 workweeks of federal leave within a 12-month period to care for or recover from serious service‑connected injuries or conditions.
Parents, covered servicemembers, and federal employees gain broader leave eligibility to include step, foster, and adopted children, in‑loco‑parentis relationships, domestic partners, and other close associates, increasing who can take leave for family care.
Military personnel (including National Guard members called for State active duty) and employers get clearer definitions and triggers for reserve and State active duty qualifying exigency and servicemember leave, reducing ambiguity about when leave protections apply.
Private employers, especially small businesses, will face increased leave burdens, scheduling challenges, and higher administrative and benefit‑cost obligations from broader eligibility and the new 26‑workweek entitlement.
Federal agencies and taxpayers may incur higher payroll, overtime, and administrative costs due to longer and broader federal leave entitlements.
Employers and certifying officials will face greater administrative complexity and burden (more certifications, notices, and benefit‑maintenance duties), increasing compliance costs.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Expands federal leave rules to broaden eligible family relationships (including domestic partners), extend active‑duty triggers, define servicemember health conditions, and reorganize 26‑week servicemember‑care leave.
Introduced May 8, 2025 by April McClain Delaney · Last progress May 8, 2025
Changes federal leave law to expand who counts as a family member and who qualifies for servicemember-related leave. It revises definitions in the Family and Medical Leave Act (federal statute) and in federal civilian employee leave rules to add domestic partners, broaden "son or daughter," expand covered active-duty triggers (including certain State active duty tied to national emergencies and Stafford Act disasters), create a servicemember/veteran serious‑health‑condition definition, and reorganize the 26‑workweek servicemember‑care leave entitlement and notice/certification references. The result is wider eligibility for up to 26 workweeks of leave to care for or because of covered servicemembers, clarified certification rules, and updated cross‑references that change which relationships and duty statuses trigger leave rights for both private‑sector/FMLA-covered employees and federal civilian employees.