FMLA LEGISLATION AT RISK! - CALL TO ACTION

We had been hoping this week to be writing with the good news that our FMLA legislation FINALLY and easily cleared the U.S. Senate and ultimately making its way to the president's desk for his signature.  Unfortunately, that's not the case.  We've hit a bit of a road bump making it imperative to redouble our efforts to get this bill passed by Congress.

Earlier this past week, the lead Senator supporters of the legislation - Senators Patty Murray of Washington (D) and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska (R) reached agreement to use a Senate legislative procedure called "hotlining" to get the bill passed.  This is simply a procedure to quickly pass uncontroversial legislation which doesn't require scheduling Senate floor time - an often difficult thing to do with so much legislation demanding attention.  The short version is that an alert goes out from the Democratic and Republican Senate cloakrooms to all offices that the bill has been hotlined and that the Senate majority leader asks for "unanimous consent" to pass the bill.  The catch is that any one Senator can object and hold up the bill and prevent its passage.

We had assumed that everything was resolved to move the bill.  First, we introduced the bill with an impressive group of bipartisan cosponsor - Democrats Patty Murray (WA), Jim Webb (VA), and Chris Dodd (CT) along with Republicans Lisa Murkowski (AK), Sue Collins (ME) and Kit Bond (MO).  Since then additional Democrats and Republicans like Richard Burr of NC have signed on as cosponsors. 

On Tuesday of this past week, S. 1422, our FMLA technical corrections bill was "hotlined" and expect to pass at some point before the Senate adjourned on Friday for their month long August recess.  On Friday afternoon when the Senate adjourned we were told by the Senate Republican cloakroom that "That bill is going nowhere." we and Senator Murray's staff began to do some research as to what happened and prevented passage.

All we know at this time and have been able to confirm is that one Republican Senator's office has placed an anonymous hold on our bill. Placing a hold prevents a bill from moving forward to passage and could eventually block it.  The most frustrating thing is that this hold is anonymous and unless that Senator reveals himself, we don't know who it is.  We are determined to find who it is that is single handedly and cowardly trying to kill our bill through this anonymous hold.

In the meantime, we need to step up our activities regarding this bill through grass roots efforts by all of us.  We need the Senate to return after Labor Day with a large number of new cosponsor - especially Republicans and Moderate Democrats.  In order to accomplish that, EVERY SINGLE AFA member must make the effort and take the two minutes to pick up their phone and call their two Senators and ask that they cosponsor S. 1422.  Then they need to take a few minutes to write a letter and then sign a postcard.  We need to encourage everyone they know to do exactly the same.

This is a big hurdle, but one we can overcome if we all get engaged and fight to make this happen.

Please go to http://www.nwaafa.org/committees/govaffairs/ and print out the FMLA letter and also view the script you can use when calling your Senator. To find the phone number of your Senators, you may go to www.senate.gov or call the Congresional Switchborad at 202 224-3121.

Sample phone script:

Hello.  My name is __________________ and I am a registered voter in the state.  I live in (CITY).  I am calling to ask the Senator to cosponsor

S. 1422. This is bipartisan, common sense legislation which has already passed the House of Representatives on a unanimous voice vote.  It would fix a long standing problem and finally provide FMLA fairness for flight attendants.  Please make sure that the Senator stands with the nations flight attendants by cosponsoring S. 1422.

Current Senate FMLA cosponsors are as follows. If your Senator is already a co-sponsor a call thanking them would be appreciated.

Patty Murray [WA]

Sen Webb, Jim [VA]  

Sen Dodd, Christopher J. [CT]

Sen Murkowski, Lisa [AK]     

Sen Collins, Susan M. [ME]

Sen Bond, Christopher S. [MO]        

Sen Cantwell, Maria [WA]

Sen Schumer, Charles E. [NY]       

Sen Feingold, Russell D. [WI]

Sen Akaka, Daniel K. [HI]  

Sen Begich, Mark [AK]

Sen Burr, Richard [NC]      

Sen Mikulski, Barbara A. [MD]

Sen Cardin, Benjamin L. [MD]