Lawmakers force House vote on bill nullifying anti-union EOs

The bipartisan effort to unwind a pair of Trump administration executive orders aimed at stripping two-thirds of the federal workforce of their union rights succeeded Monday, after Reps. Mike Lawler and Nike LaLota, both R-N.Y., provided the final signatures needed to force a vote on legislation nullifying the edicts.

In March, President Trump signed an executive order citing a seldom-used provision of the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act to bar collective bargaining at most federal agencies under the auspices of national security. A second order, signed less than a week before Labor Day, added a half-dozen other agencies, including NASA and federal weather agencies, to the list.

The measures have been tied up in litigation ever since. While court decisions issuing broad-based relief to unions across government were subsequently stayed by federal appellate courts, later legal challenges have spurred a handful of still in-effect rulings restoring collective bargaining rights at several agencies, most recently the U.S. Agency for Global Media last week.

On Capitol Hill, a bipartisan coalition of House lawmakers have engaged in a months-long campaign to attract signatures for a discharge petition to force House leadership to schedule a vote on the Protect America’s Workforce Act (H.R. 2550). The legislation, introduced by Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine, and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., would nullify the executive orders; a companion bill in the Senate, introduced in September, has the support of all Democrats and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.

Last week, Politico reported that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries advised newly seated Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., to wait to sign the petition, in an apparent effort to derail Lawler's bid to be the deciding signature, which Democrats derided as an attempt to “claim credit” for the measure’s advancement. On Monday, LaLota signed the petition first, allowing Lawler to be No. 218 anyway.

“Every American deserves the right to have a voice in the workplace, including those who serve their country every single day,” Lawler said. “Supporting workers and ensuring good government are not opposing ideas. They go hand in hand. Restoring collective bargaining rights strengthens our federal workforce and helps deliver more effective, accountable service to the American people.”

In a statement Monday, American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley lauded the majority of House lawmakers for forcing a vote on the measure, which would restore union rights to more than 1 million workers.

“An independent, apolitical civil service is one of the bedrocks of American democracy,” Kelley said. “Today, lawmakers stood up together to defend that principle and to affirm that federal workers must retain their right to collective bargaining. This is what leadership looks like.”