On May 9, White House chief of staff Joshua Bolton issued a memorandum to the heads of all executive departments and agencies setting June 1 as the deadline to propose any new regulations, and November 1 as the deadline to issue final regulations. The memo mentioned that exceptions to these deadlines could be granted. The purpose for establishing these deadlines was to avoid the appearance that the Bush administration was rushing the implementation of new rules on its way out the door. President Clinton imposed a similar timetable during the last year of his administration.
FMLA Impact
The DOL issued proposed changes to the existing FMLA regulations on February 11, 2008. The DOL would appear to have until November 1 to issue final regulations implementing those proposals.
The DOL has also indicated its intention to skip proposed rules and move directly to the issuance of final regulations implementing the recently enacted military family leave amendments to the FMLA. As such, the DOL would appear to have until November 1 to issue the final military family leave regulations.
Presumably, the OPM will follow the DOL's lead on the timing of new military family leave regulations. Unlike the DOL, the OPM has not proposed to make other changes to the existing FMLA regulations.
Comment: New/revised FMLA regulations will be here sooner than you think. Stay tuned!
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