WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats failed Wednesday to confirm a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board after independent Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema opposed the nomination, thwarting their hopes of locking in a majority at the federal agency for the first two years of President-elect Donald Trump’s term.
A vote to move ahead with the nomination of Lauren McFarren, who currently chairs the NLRB, failed 49-50. Had she been confirmed to another five-year term, it would have cemented a Democratic majority on the agency’s board for the first two years of the incoming Trump administration. Now, Trump will likely be able to nominate McFarren’s replacement.
The NLRB oversees labor disputes, supervises union elections and has the power to investigate unfair labor practices. The partisan breakdown of the NLRB’s leadership is fiercely contested by businesses and labor groups, as the majority on the board sets the agenda and determines how readily the agency uses its power to investigate and enforce labor laws.
“It is deeply disappointing, a direct attack on working people, and incredibly troubling that this highly qualified nominee — with a proven track record of protecting worker rights — did not have the votes,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement.
The rejection of McFarren was yet another blow to Senate Democrats and President Joe Biden from Manchin and Sinema, who served as major brakes — and at times outright obstacles — to much of their legislative agenda the first two years of Biden’s term.
Manchin left the Democratic Party in May, while Sinema withdrew from the party in 2022. Both chose not to run for another Senate term and will be leaving the Congress in January.
Some congressional Republicans praised Manchin and Sinema for preventing the confirmation.
“This NLRB seat should be filled by President Trump and the new incoming Senate. Not a historically unpopular president and a Senate Democrat Majority that has lost its mandate to govern,” Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, said in a statement after the vote.
“Big Labor knows the days of having the federal government do its bidding are numbered,” Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., wrote in a statement. Foxx, who chairs the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, said that the incoming Trump administration would focus on “enacting a truly pro-worker agenda.”
Business groups also praised the rejection of McFarren. Kristen Swearingen, a vice president at Associated Builders and Contractors, a trade group, called McFarren’s policies “harmful” and said the process to nominate her was “flawed.”
“Under McFerran’s leadership, the NLRB has issued decisions and expanded interpretations of the National Labor Relations Act that have been rejected by the business community, Congress and federal courts,” argued Swearingen.
Labor unions decried the vote. Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest consortium of labor unions, said the senators who rejected McFarren’s nomination “voted against the working people of this country” and warned that the incoming Trump administration would direct the NLRB to side with management over workers.
“Make no mistake: This vote had nothing to do with stopping Chair McFerran’s renomination and everything to do with reversing generations of progress workers have made toward building a fairer and more just economy,” Shuler said.
Democratic lawmakers, like Schumer, took a dim view of the vote. Some directed their anger directly at Manchin and Sinema.
“Shortchanging workers is a bad way to leave,” Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., wrote on social media.
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