Senate Committee To Vote On Advancing Key NLRB Official

Now that the Senate has voted to confirm two of President Trump’s nominees to serve on the National Labor Relations Board, the next step to restoring the agency to its original mission is confirming a new general counsel

October 12, 2017

Now that the Senate has voted to confirm two of President Trump’s nominees to serve on the National Labor Relations Board, the next step to restoring the agency to its original mission is confirming a new general counsel.

According to The Washington Free Beacon, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) will vote on October 18^th to advance the nomination of Peter Robb to fill this role.

In its report, The Free Beacon adds that the general counsel of the NLRB has a critical mission in the decision-making of the board and is “widely considered the most powerful position at the agency.”

The 3-2 majority at the NLRB gives Republicans an opportunity to decide on workplace disputes and set precedent in interpreting national labor laws, but the general counsel is widely considered the most powerful position at the agency. The general counsel sets the agency’s agenda in terms of workplace enforcement and unfair labor practice investigations and oversees its regional offices. Those investigations and their prosecution generate the cases the top board hears and decides upon.

Unlike the general counsel of the NLRB during the Obama Administration, Mr. Robb understands that the true purpose of the Board is not to give handouts to special interest labor groups and penalize employers. Instead, they know that it is their job to ensure that workers can find good-paying jobs and earn higher wages.

We urge all on the HELP Committee to support Mr. Robb’s nomination and hope that after he is voted out of committee, the Senate takes action and confirms him quickly, so he can get to work on reforming a previously out-of-control government agency.