30th Anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act

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Published

February 7, 2023

Signed

February 3, 2023

Issuing agencies

Executive Office of the President

Full Text

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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 25 (Tuesday, February 7, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 25 (Tuesday, February 7, 2023)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 8203-8204]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-02757]

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Vol. 88

Tuesday,

No. 25

February 7, 2023

Part IV

The President

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Proclamation 10520--30th Anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave
Act

Notice of February 6, 2023--Continuation of the National Emergency With
Respect to the Situation in and in Relation to Burma

Presidential Documents

Federal Register / Vol. 88 , No. 25 / Tuesday, February 7, 2023 /
Presidential Documents

___________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President

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Proclamation 10520 of February 3, 2023

30th Anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave
Act

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

For 30 years, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
has given American workers the right to take time to
care for themselves and their loved ones without losing
their jobs. When President Clinton signed it into law
on February 5, 1993, I was proud to have fought for it
as a United States Senator alongside tenacious
advocates and Members of Congress.

Before its passage, parents were not guaranteed time
off for staying home with a newborn or sick child, and
workers could lose their health insurance for taking
leave to fight an illness. The FMLA ended that for
millions of Americans, guaranteeing up to 12 weeks of
unpaid leave annually to care for a spouse, a parent, a
child, or themselves, and preserving their jobs until
they returned. The law has given countless Americans
peace of mind in their toughest moments. It has made
workplaces fairer and healthier. And it has made it
easier for millions of women--who still
disproportionately shoulder caregiving
responsibilities--to remain in the workforce,
benefitting our whole economy.

But it is not enough to just protect people's jobs; we
must also protect their paychecks so every American
worker can afford to be there for their loved ones. The
COVID-19 pandemic made this even more obvious. The
United States is one of the only countries in the world
that does not provide paid leave to its workers,
undermining the health and economic security of
families and our Nation. As millions more Americans
join today's so-called ``sandwich generation,''
struggling to care for both young kids and aging
parents, we need to help.

That is why, when I took office as President, I
proposed the first national paid family and medical
leave program in our history. Paid leave would help
bring more people back into the workforce--boosting
productivity, securing wages, and easing budgets for
working families. And it would give workers more
dignity and control over their own lives.

During the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, my
Administration expanded the Child Tax Credit to give
millions of families a little more breathing room,
helping cut child poverty to the lowest rate on record.
We gave 200,000 childcare providers the funding needed
to keep their doors open, serving over 9.5 million
children nationwide. We invested $145 million in the
National Family Caregiver Support Program, which gives
family and other informal care providers counseling,
training, and respite care to support loved ones. I
recently signed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to
ensure that employers make reasonable accommodations
related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical
conditions. And just yesterday, I signed a Presidential
Memorandum to make sure Federal employees are able to
access leave when they need it, to the fullest extent
possible.

I ran for President to restore the backbone of this
country--the middle class. My Administration is
fighting for working families across the board. We are
lowering health care costs and prescription drug costs.
We are reducing home energy bills. We have created
nearly 11 million jobs, reducing unemployment to a 50-
year low as wages keep rising. And we have protected
the pensions that over a million American workers and
retirees worked

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for their whole lives, making sure they can retire with
dignity and respect. Thirty years after the FMLA was
signed, we reaffirm that nothing is more important than
being there for the ones you love when they need you
most.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of
the United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws
of the United States, do hereby proclaim February 5,
2023, as the 30th Anniversary of the Family and Medical
Leave Act. I call upon Americans to honor those who
advocated for this crucial legislation and to join the
fight for the dignity and rights of workers across this
Nation.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
third day of February, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-three, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
seventh.
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(Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 2023-02757
Filed 2-6-23; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3395-F3-P

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