ABSTRACT
Between 1993 and 1999, almost twenty initiatives were put forth by members of Congress to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act. Some wanted the law to apply to smaller companies, others wanted to include additional hours to address basic family needs, such as taking children to dental appointments or for attending parent-teacher meetings. Still others proposed that the coverage be expanded to include domestic partners, parents-in-law, and grandparents. Several proposals were extremely narrow in focus and specific in structure, such as allowing employees to take leave for literacy training, to make living organ donations, and to prevent employers from requiring employees to take FMLA disputes to arbitration instead of court. All legislative proposals failed, however (Gladstone 1999; Jordan 1999).
