latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-pn-nlrb-senate-votes-20130730,0,2102979.story
Senate confirms Obama choices for National Labor Relations Board
By Michael A. Memoli
4:43 PM PDT, July 30, 2013 - Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON — The National Labor Relations Board had five confirmed
members for the first time in more than a decade Tuesday after the Senate took a
series of votes approving a full slate of nominees.
The status of two of President Obama’s choices for the panel, which is
charged with hearing disputes between unionized private-sector workers and
management, was a key component of a bipartisan agreement reached this month.
Under the agreement, Republicans dropped objections to a slate of executive
branch nominations and Democrats backed off threatened changes to Senate
filibuster rules.
As part of the agreement, the White House agreed to appoint two new
candidates to replace ones that Obama had attempted to install through his
recess appointment power before federal courts struck down the move.
The new nominees, Kent Hirozawa and Nancy Schiffer, each were confirmed, 54
to 44, with just one Republican vote. Mark Gaston Pearce, the NLRB chairman, was
confirmed for a new term, 59 to 38.
Two Republican members, Harry I. Johnson III and Philip A. Miscimarra, were
confirmed by voice votes.
Without the agreement, the NLRB would have lost of its quorum of three
members late next month, jeopardizing its ability to function. All five new
members will serve for the remainder of Obama’s term.
“Today’s votes are another reminder that making the Senate work means real
things to real people,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), one of the lead advocates
for changing Senate filibuster rules, said in a statement after the votes.
“Timely up or down votes on executive nominations should be the new normal.”
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the lead Republican on the Health, Education,
Labor and Pensions Committee, said the president’s agreement to replace his
original nominees, whom Republicans considered illegally appointed, was “an
important moment in the history of our ability as a country to maintain checks
and balances and a certain separation of power among the various branches of
government, and especially to restrain the executive.”
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called the confirmation votes “good news for
all workers seeking to exercise the rights they are guaranteed by law.”
“With today’s vote, our country has qualified public servants on duty
to defend America’s workers, businesses and families," Trumka said. "We
congratulate all of the nominees and look forward to having a functioning NLRB
that will fairly and impartially oversee the workplace rights of millions of
Americans.”
Later this week, the Senate will move on to other pending nominations,
including Todd Jones, who is seeking to become the first confirmed director of
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in seven years.
michael.memoli@latimes.clom
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