Washington, (EFE).- Former US President Bill Clinton (1993-2001) returned to the White House to celebrate, together with the current president, Joe Biden, the thirty years of the Family and Medical Leave Act that he approved when he governed.
That rule allows many American workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to recover from a serious illness, a childbirth or to care for a sick family member, and was signed into law by Clinton on February 5, 1993, immediately after taking office.
“After all these years, I still have more people mention the Family Leave Law to me than any other specific thing I did,” said the 76-year-old former president, who told several of the stories that some of the beneficiaries have been telling him. of this legislation.
In the celebration he was accompanied by Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as several legislators of the time and congressmen from the current chamber.
Now, Clinton added, “we are here compelled to celebrate the fact that some 400 million times in the last 30 years Americans have benefited from the law.”
Biden also spoke at the event, acknowledging that the legislation “was an incredibly important step.”
However, he recalled, the United States is one of the few countries in the world that does not protect the wages of workers who need to take leave and “can only take the time to care for their loved one if they can afford to give up his salary.”
“I remain committed to changing our framework,” said the president, who in 2021 unsuccessfully tried to get Democratic senators to include paid leave among their proposals.
The Biden Administration has recently taken steps to extend leave for some federal employees, and last month the Department of Defense issued a memo expanding programs so that members of the military are allowed up to 12 weeks leave after discharge. give birth, adopt a child, or begin a long-term foster care situation.
