President Barack Obama began his term with significant union support due to the many promises that he made about expanding workers' rights and benefits. Among these was Obama's pledge to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA).

The law, passed in the early days of the Clinton administration, requires that employers with 50 workers or more allow their employees to take up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave each year for a serious health condition, pregnancy, or caring for an ill family member. The law is designed to ensure employees cannot be terminated or reprimanded for taking leave for emergency or medical reasons.

During his 2008 presidential campaign Obama promised to expand the the act to cover more Americans by increasing the number of businesses that are fall under the law's purview. He planned to accomplish this by reducing the threshold from employers with 50 or more workers to those with 25 or more.

Representative Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., is particularly committed to the law's expansion and has submitted a bill entitled the Family and Medical Leave Enhancement Act on multiple occasions, with the most recent being in April 2011. The bill would fulfill President Obama's promise and also expand qualifying reasons for leave to include activities such as parent-teacher conferences. Previous versions of the bill died in committee, including a 2009 version that Rep. Maloney introduced in a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. Given that the bill could not pass in such a favorable environment indicates that it has little chance of becoming law in the present Republican-controlled House. In addition, no comparable legislation currently exists in the Senate.

In our previous update we held off rating this promise Stalled because at the time there was a possibility that same of the provisions could have found their way into other legislation. That approach now looks unlikely.

Given Republican control of the House, we find it highly unlikely that the Family and Medical Leave Enhancement Act will become law in the foreseeable future. Since President Obama cannot lower the threshold on his own, his hands are effectively tied in expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act. As a result we rate this Promise Broken.