NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULEMAKING (NPRM or Notice), and request for comments from interested parties.

Modifications to the rights and protections under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA), Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, as required by 2 U.S.C. § 1331, Congressional Accountability Act of 1995, as amended (CAA).

Background:

The purpose of this Notice is to propose modifications to the existing legislative branch FMLA substantive regulations under section 202 of the CAA (2 U.S.C. § 1302 et seq.), which applies the rights and protections of sections 101 through 105 of the FMLA to covered employees. These modifications are necessary in order to bring existing legislative branch FMLA regulations (adopted April 16, 1996) in line with recent statutory changes to the FMLA, 29 U.S.C. § 2601 et seq.

What is the authority under the CAA for these proposed substantive regulations?

Section 202(a) of the CAA provides that the rights and protections established by sections 101 through 105 of the FMLA (29 U.S.C. §§ 2611-2615) shall apply to covered employees.

Section 202(d)(1) and (2) of the CAA require that the Office of Compliance (OOC) Board of Directors (the Board), pursuant to section 1384 of the CAA, issue regulations implementing the rights and protections of the FMLA and that those regulations shall be “the same as substantive regulations promulgated by the Secretary of Labor to implement the statutory provisions referred to in the subsection (a) [of section 202 of the CAA] except insofar as the Board may determine, for good cause shown . . . that a modification of such regulations would be more effective for the implementation of the rights and protections under this section.” The modifications to the regulations issued by the Board herein are on all matters for which section 202 of the CAA requires regulations to be issued.