The U.S. House has passed a bill, sponsored by Maine Congressman Jared Golden, that would restore the collective bargaining rights of roughly 1 million federal workers.
In a rare feat in Washington, Golden used a rarely successful procedure to force a vote on a bipartisan bill to nullify President Trump's executive order that eliminated collective bargaining rights for federal workers earlier this year. The House then voted 231 to 195 to approve the bill, with more than 20 Republicans joining a unified Democratic caucus to pass the measure.
“Federal workers show up on the job every day to do the people’s work, and their limited collective bargaining rights are critical to protecting them from unfair treatment and political interference,” Golden, a Democrat, said in a statement. “I’m proud of the strong, bipartisan coalition that came together to pass the Protect America’s Workforce Act in the House, and I urge the Senate to quickly take up this bill and join us in standing up for workers.”
The president's executive order used a national security exemption to curb collective bargaining rights for employees at more than a dozen departments, including the departments of justice, veterans affairs and homeland security as well as many agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services. About a half-dozen unions sued to try to block the change but courts have allowed the administration to move forward with canceling agreements while cases play out.
Golden, who represents Maine's 2nd Congressional District, and a Republican lawmaker from Pennsylvania, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, had introduced the bill days after Trump signed his executive order on March 27.
But House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, would not bring the bill up for a vote. So Golden and allies gathered the 218 signatures necessary — representing more than half of the House — to trigger a "discharge petition" to force a vote.
There have only been a handful of successful discharge petitions in the House during the past three decades, although several of them have happened in the past several years. Most petition efforts fail to garner the 218 signatures needed to move forward.
"The discharge petition process exists to give members of Congress some agency," Golden said Wednesday night in a floor speech after his discharge petition advanced. "It's a release valve to ensure good bills with broad support cannot be held up forever by leadership team. It gives us a fair shot at building a coalition to do the people's work and get an up or down vote on the floor."
Republican lawmakers who opposed the bill said collective bargaining with federal workers unnecessarily costs the American taxpayers money and robs a president of his or her right to run the executive branch as they see fit.
Labor union leaders cheered the House vote, although the fate of the bill remains unclear.
"Today’s vote marks an historic achievement for the House’s bipartisan pro-labor majority, courageously led by Rep. Jared Golden of Maine,” Everett Kelley, national president at the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement. “We need to build on today’s seismic victory in the House and get immediate action in the Senate — and also ensure that any future budget bills similarly protect collective bargaining rights for the largely unseen men and women who keep our government running for the American people.”
The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration.
Golden recently announced that he would not seek a fifth term representing Maine's 2nd District.
