Since I’m only by a computer for a few minutes this morning — still vacationing — I wanted to just highlight a few points from my brief post yesterday afternoon on the expected veto of the bill that contained the expanded leave for military families.
First, if you haven’t done so, you should check out two blogs that commented on this blog and my post: Michael Fox’s Jottings by an Employer’s Lawyer (long my go-to-resource before I got into blogging myself) and Workplace Horizons (which is a critical resource on all the legislative bills addressing labor & employment laws). I’m grateful for their kind words this morning. Both have had detailed summaries of the Military Leave FMLA provisions and other significant bills and I urge you to check them out.
Second, in my haste, I failed to highlight that, with Congress out of session, President Bush is exercising his pocket veto — meaning Congress will have to take this issue up anew when they restart in January.
As the Washington Post reports:
Because Congress is not in session, Bush is barred by the Constitution from issuing a traditional veto and returning it to lawmakers, according to White House officials. Instead, according to a senior official, Bush plans to execute a "pocket veto," meaning he will not sign the measure — requiring lawmakers to write and pass an entirely new version of the bill when they return.
To block efforts by Congress to challenge the pocket veto, however, Bush is also going the traditional route, sending over to Congress his veto message and the unsigned bill.
Third, the White House’s statements and reasoning for the pocket veto — which has nothing to do with the FMLA provision itself — can be found at the website here. The veto took place this morning
(And for those who are interested, the photo is of a replica of Congress made out of natural materials now on display at the U.S. Botanic Gardens in Washington, DC where I’ve been visiting on vacation.)