February 5, 2013, the U.S. Department of Labor issued its final rule rolling out new amendments to the FMLA regulations that correspond with military related leaves of absence.  The FMLA was amended in 2008 and 2010 to provide leave rights for military families.  The amended regulations implement changes made to the FMLA.  In addition, the prior FMLA regulations included appendices with model forms.  The appendices were removed from the revised regulations to allow the DOL greater flexibility to make non-substantive changes to the forms.  Although the forms will no longer be in the regulations, they will still be available from the DOL.  You may need to amend your current practices, posters, and/or your employee handbooks to comply with the new regulations.  The new regulations will take affect March 8, 2013.