Congress Passes Family Leave Bill : Legislation: Measure expected to be signed by Clinton today. GOP effort to attach amendment that would ban gays in military is defeated in Senate.

Congress completed action on a family leave bill Thursday after the Senate decisively rejected Republican efforts to attach a controversial amendment that would have written into federal law a Pentagon policy barring gays from serving in the U.S. military.

The White House scheduled a ceremony this morning for President Clinton to sign the bill. He made approval of the measure a top priority during his campaign.

The legislation requires firms with more than 50 employees to grant workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a newborn or newly adopted child or a seriously ill family member.

Adoption of the bill allowed Clinton to fulfill a campaign promise and demonstrate that legislative gridlock on Capitol Hill is easing, but the Senate vote on homosexuals in the military was significant for the new President as well.

In a voice vote, the Senate agreed to a six-month study by the Pentagon and the Senate Armed Services Committee of Clinton’s controversial plan to lift the prohibition on gays in the military.

In supporting Clinton, the Senate rejected by a 62-37 vote a proposed amendment by Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) that would have restored the Defense Department’s ban on service by gays. Fifty-five Democrats and seven Republicans joined to scuttle Dole’s proposal, which got the backing of 35 Republicans and two Democrats.

Once that debate was completed, the Senate swiftly passed the family leave legislation by a vote of 71 to 27. California’s Democratic senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, both voted for the measure.

The House stayed in session late Thursday to approve the Senate version--which differed slightly from its own. The House approved the final measure by a vote of 247 to 152.

The Senate vote on the Dole amendment, which ended two days of parliamentary standoff that delayed Senate action on the family leave bill, came after four hours of relatively low-key debate that contrasted sharply with the public firestorm that erupted in opposition to Clinton’s plan.

“A vote against this amendment is a vote to put homosexuals in our military,” Dole said shortly before the decisive roll call. “With the American people, with veterans’ groups, we’re going to win on this issue.”

But Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.), who had the strong backing of Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), chairman of the Armed Services panel, saw it another way.

“This is an effort to gain political advantage on a controversial issue--let’s call it for what it is,” he said in an emotional closing speech. “Let’s lift our sights.”

Former President George Bush twice vetoed similar family leave legislation in 1990 and again last year, and it became a major campaign issue for Clinton with women’s groups, organized labor and even some moderate Republicans, who said it would help working mothers.

Backers said only the largest 5% of the nation’s businesses would be affected by the bill, but 44% of the work force would gain family leave protection. The bill would apply to workers with one year of service, providing they were employed at least 25 hours a week, and the leave would be available once in a year.

Opponents argued that the measure would raise business costs and deprive workers of other benefits they might prefer. Advocates, however, said the additional expense would be minimal and contended that some firms would save money on recruitment and training by keeping experienced workers rather than allowing them to quit for family emergencies.

Late Wednesday might, the House, acting swiftly at Clinton’s request, had approved the similar bill by a vote of 265 to 163 in an effort to show that Democrats in Congress would work together with a Democrat in the White House on social policy legislation blocked by Bush vetoes in the past.

It was the Senate clash over the gays-in-military controversy, however, that overshadowed the familiar arguments on the family leave issue.

“President Clinton has declared war on his own armed forces,” said Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.), asserting that Senate hearings would be meaningless since the President already has made up his mind to drop the ban against homosexuals in the military.

But Nunn--who said the compromise he worked out with Clinton does not change the military policy of excluding avowed gays in the armed forces for the next six months--said Congress needs to know far more about the implications of the President’s proposed changes before it could act.

Many Republican senators seeking to restore the ban on gays in military service praised Nunn for getting Clinton to “slow down the runaway train,” as Sen. William S. Cohen (R-Me.) put it, by persuading the President to modify his original decision to strike down the ban by executive order.

Sen. J. James Exon (D-Neb.) said the period before July 15, when the Pentagon is expected to report the results of its review of the policy toward homosexuals, would provide a “much-needed cooling off period” on the issue.

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