Core Provisions: This legislation includes provisions that extend the FMLA provision of 12 weeks of unpaid leave up to 26 weeks of leave for an employee who is the spouse, child, parent or next of kin of a service member. Extending FMLA leave to military families was one of the recommendations of the President’s Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors. The National Defense Authorization Act also increases whistleblower protections for employees of defense contractors. Disclosures by contractor employees are currently protected if such disclosures are (1) made to a member of Congress and (2) reveal information “relating to a substantial violation of law related to a contract.” The new provision protects disclosures to more government actors, including an inspector general and the GAO, and protects disclosures of information that employees reasonably believe indicate gross mismanagement or waste of defense contract funds, or unlawful activity related to a Department of Defense contract “including the competition for or negotiation of a contract.”

Status: On December 12, 2007, the House adopted the National Defense Authorization Act conference report by a vote of 370 to 49. On December 14, 2007, the Senate passed the conference report by a vote of 90 to three and sent it to the President for his signature. President Bush unexpectedly vetoed the legislation on December 28, 2007. On January 16, 2008, a modified version of the National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 4986) was introduced that addresses the President’s stated concerns with the original legislation. On January 16, 2008, the House passed H.R. 4986 by a vote of 369 to 46. The Senate passed the bill without amendment on January 22, 2008 by a vote of 91 to 3. The president signed the bill on January 28, 2008. In his signing statement, President Bush asserted that certain provisions of the bill - including the whistleblower protections for contractor employees - “purport to impose requirements that could inhibit the President’s ability to carry out his constitutional obligations to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, to protect national security, to supervise the executive branch, and to execute his authority as Commander in Chief. The executive branch shall construe such provisions in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President.”