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Pennsylvania House of Representatives
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20150&cosponId=19219
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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

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House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: November 4, 2015 12:17 PM
From: Representative Dan Truitt
To: All House members
Subject: PA Family Medical Leave Act for Terminal Illness
 
Over the past three sessions, I have introduced legislation to expand the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Introduced this session as HB-429, my bill would simply expand the federal program to include siblings, grandparents, and grandchildren. I believe that this is good for families as well as individuals who are afflicted with serious illnesses as it would enable more families to “take care of their own” and keep folks, especially the elderly, in their homes as long as possible. I believe that this would also save families, insurance companies, and the Commonwealth, a significant amount of money.

Although this would be UNPAID leave, in HB-429, I limited eligible employees to only 6 weeks of this unpaid leave, even though the federal program provides 12 weeks of unpaid leave. I did this to extend an olive branch to business owners who would be inconvenienced by this expansion of the FMLA. Since HB-429 has not gained any traction, I’m going to try a different approach:

In the near future, I will introduce legislation establishing the PA Family Medical Leave Act for Terminal Illness. Like, HB-429, this legislation would extend the FMLA to include siblings, grandparents, and grandchildren. However, this legislation would provide the same 12 weeks of leave that is provided by the federal program, but would only provide leave when the employee needs it to care for a family member with a terminal illness.

I’m hopeful this version of the bill will gain some traction and you will join me as a co-sponsor. A copy of the proposed legislation is attached.

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Introduced as HB1697