Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Clayton SinyaiJuly 22, 2013
NLRB

 

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) vacancies were not the only appointments addressed in the recent Senate compromise on the filibuster, but they were closely watched by business and labor alike. The NLRB is the federal agency responsible for protecting the rights of workers who want to form labor unions. Each year thousands of workers are fired or disciplined by their employers when they try to exercise that right, and it is to the NLRB they must go to seek redress when this happens. Vacancies on the board threatened to bring its work to a halt for lack of a quorum.

Republicans in the Senate had used the filibuster to keep President Obama’s nominees for the Board from reaching the Senate floor for a confirmation vote. President Obama tried to bypass the Senate entirely with a recess appointment, but the federal courts have been having none of it.

At this point, partisans on both sides believed the absolute worst of the others’ motives. Democrats believed that the Republicans wanted the Board to lose its quorum and leave workers completely unprotected. Republicans believed that the President was making an unconstitutional and dangerous power grab with his recess appointment power.

In the end, the Democrats agreed to drop the fight for the recess appointees to be made permanent and instead submit new nominees for the board; the Republicans agreed to a speedy vote on the new nominees. The compromise they crafted was interesting because each side, in so acting, took a step to refute the worst interpretations of their motives. The President affirmed that he did not intend to abuse the recess appointment weapon for executive aggrandizement; the Republican Senate promised a confirmation path for new nominees that would keep the NLRB in operation and doing its job.

There are plenty of hard cases on both sides who are furious with the compromise. But if it holds, the deal marks at least a cautious step back from the overheated partisanship that has become all too familiar.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Catholics across Texas and the world, including Pope Leo XIV, are offering their prayers and support after deadly flooding struck Texas on July 4.
Each year at this time, near the Fourth of July, we contemplate freedom. But maybe we are also being called to do an extended examination of our own fears.
George Drance, S.J.July 07, 2025
Is it possible to embrace the idea of a special, evenly divinely ordained mission for America without violating Christian ethical principles?
Thomas J. MassaroJuly 07, 2025
Pope Leo XIV arrived in the papal summer retreat of Castel Gandolfo on Sunday to start a six-week vacation, giving the hilltop town back its most illustrious resident after Pope Francis stayed away during his 12-year pontificate.