PHOENIX — A Scottsdale father's love for a daughter who died 20 years ago is helping other grieving parents.
For the last decade, Barry Kluger has pushed Congress to give parents time off after the death of a child.
On Wednesday, parents won.
The final passage of the annual, multibillion-dollar defense bill includes a provision, tucked on Page 1,051 of the 2,000-page bill, that gives federal employees two weeks of paid leave after the death of a child.
The bill awaits President Joe Biden's signature.
"The driving thing behind it was my memory and my recollections, and my unwavering and undying love for Erica," Kluger said in an interview Wednesday.
Erica Kluger was killed in April 2001 when her car was T-boned near the intersection of Pima and Jomax Roads in North Scottsdale. She was 18.
Kluger misses her every day.
"My wife, Hope, knows that if I'm sitting around and I just let out a sigh, she comes over. She knows at that moment I was thinking about Erica," Kluger said.
Kluger is a former public relations executive and senior executive with MTV Networks.
The legislation that passed Wednesday wasn't the legislation Kluger and a fellow grieving dad, Kelly Farley, had promoted for years in Congress.
They wanted the Family and Medical Leave Act to include up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave after the death of a child.
Several Arizona lawmakers - Democrat and Republican - had sponsored the bill over the years. But the bill couldn't get a vote.
Democratic Congressman Brad Schneider of Illinois had a connection to the cause - and an idea.
"I know what the experience of losing a child is like. For me it was a nephew," Schneider said in an interview.
It was Schneider's idea to include parental leave as an amendment to the mammoth National Defense Authorization Act.
The new legislation - two weeks of paid leave after the loss of a child - applies only to federal employees.
"Politics, they say, is the art of the possible," Schneider said. "We are constantly looking for ways to move legislation."
For Kluger, the new law will be a start. "Washington has not seen the last of me."
"There are parents out there who - I hope they don't - but will someday take the journey," Kluger said. "And somehow the path is going to be easier. That's why I do it."
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