Ex-congressman disputes Clinton boasts on medical leave legislation

The former congressman who shepherded the Family and Medical Leave Act through Congress sought Thursday to debunk Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) claim to the legislation, saying she “never had anything to do with it.”

Former Rep. William Lacy Clay, Sr. (D-Mo.) is circulating an email disputing Clinton’s claim that the law is one of her more meaningful domestic accomplishments. The presidential candidate says she helped lobby for the bill’s passage and signing in 1993.

But Clay, who was joined by Senate sponsor Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), said the bill had already passed by large margins when it passed in 1990 and 1992 before it was vetoed on both occasions by former President George H.W. Bush.

{mosads}“All we needed was a president to sign it,” Clay said. “The president signed it, and we’re grateful for that but there was no lobbying by him or her.”

The Hill has obtained a copy of the Clay email rejecting Clinton’s claims to have been instrumental in bill’s becoming law. The former congressman writes, “If Hillary played a role in its passage, it was without my knowledge.”

Clay conceded that Clinton might have helped Dodd in the Senate, but given the large margins by which the bill had passed before, Clay said Dodd “just wouldn’t need” the help. Dodd could not be reached for comment.

“She never had anything to with it,” Clay said. “I just don’t think you ought to play games with that kind of stuff.”

{mospagebreak}Clay said he is not supporting either candidate although his son, Rep. William Lacy Clay, Jr. (D-Mo.) is a supporter of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

Judy Lichtman, who led the FMLA effort on behalf of the Women’s Legal Defense Fund (WLDF) – now the National Partnership for Women and Families – disagreed with Clay’s assessment.

“I would say her help was important, it was strategic,” Lightman said.

Lichtman told The Hill that Clinton had been instrumental in making FMLA a high priority in former President Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign after Lichtman and the WLDF approached Clinton during the primary season.

In her memoirs, Clinton remembered discussing the act during her speech at the Democratic nominating convention in 1992.

{mosads}“Without her approaching her husband, we would’ve never had his strong support and making it such a high priority,” Lichtman said.

Lichtman said that Clinton and Vice President Al Gore did in fact lobby Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill prior to the bill’s passage to ensure they wouldn’t “stall” the bill by adding an “anti-gays in the military” amendment, which she said can be supported by contemporary press accounts.

Lichtman conceded Clay’s point that the bill had passed by wide margins in previous votes, but she said that “didn’t matter.”

“They weren’t veto-proof,” she said.

Lichtman also said that Clinton helped pursue expansion of the act in her capacity as First Lady, an assertion Clinton also made in her memoirs.

“For the Obama campaign or anybody else to claim that she didn’t have any leadership on these important [issues] is just untrue,” she said. “I don’t have any interest in exaggerating her role.

“We didn’t say she single-handedly led the effort. Let’s get real.”

Clinton has come under fire recently for exaggerating her contributions to the Clinton administration. Earlier this week, the New York senator said she "misspoke" when she said she had to run across a Bosnian airstrip because of threats of sniper fire.