The military family leave provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act will be amended, as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 which was signed into law by President Obama on October 28.

The changes in the law extends the 26 weeks of military care giver leave to family members of veterans for up to five years after a veteran leaves service, if he or she develops a service-related injury or illness that was incurred, or, in the case of an existing injury, was aggravated, while on active duty.

In addition, the law expands exigency leave available under the FMLA to eligible family members of active-duty service members; not only those in National Guard or Reserves in support of a contingency operation. (The Dept. of Labor FMLA regulations relating to qualifying exigency leave had limited access to the leave to Reserve and National Guard members only.) Qualifying exigency leave includes: short-notice deployment; military events and related activities; child care and school activities; financial and legal arrangements; counseling, rest and recuperation; post-deployment activities; and any other event the employer and employee agree is a qualifying exigency. The DOL is expected to amend the FMLA rules to reflect the new requirements sometime next year.