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House Committee Takes an Axe to Job-Killing Union Measures

By: LaborUnionReport (Diary)  |  September 29th, 2011 at 03:00 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

This morning, the House Committee on Appropriations issued a press release regarding its Draft Fiscal Year 2012 Labor, Health and Human Services Funding Bill.

Within the text of the release, there are some specific union-payback items that the Committee knows are harmful to the creation of jobs and are, as a result, taking an ax to.

If the appropriations bill is passed, with their oxygen supply cut off, both of the unions’ main weapons in their war on job creators—the Department of Labor and the NLRB—would be significantly curtailed.

Here are the relevant sections [with emphasis].

Reducing Harmful Red Tape and Increasing Oversight – To increase oversight over taxpayer funds and improve the effectiveness of DoL programs, the legislation requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct two studies: 1) an evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of job training programs; and 2) an evaluation of the “skills-mismatch” problem within these programs to ensure that the training provided is adequate to meet the employment needs of local businesses and the demands of the current marketplace.

In addition, the legislation includes several provisions that are designed to foster a pro-job growth environment by reducing or eliminating the Administration’s aggressive regulatory overreach. Some of these include:

  • A provision prohibiting the use of Project Labor Agreements (PLA) for federal construction projects.
  • A provision prohibiting the “Right to Know under the Fair Labor Standards Act” regulation that requires employers to meet excessive documentation requirements when hiring contractors.
  • A provision that prohibits federal employees from participating in union activities while “on the clock” for their official duties.
  • A provision prohibiting the implementation of the so-called “Persuader” regulation that would interfere with employers’ access to specialized, legal counsel during union organizing campaigns.
  • Several provisions related to the H-2A and H-2B Temporary Worker Visa Programs to reduce unnecessary regulations and costs to employers.

[snip]

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) – The bill includes $234 million for the NLRB – a decrease of $49 million (-17%) below last year’s level and $54 million (-19%) below the President’s budget request. In addition, the legislation includes several provisions intended to stop the NLRB’s harmful anti-business regulations that would impose additional and excessive costs on American businesses, increase job loss, and further hinder economic growth. These provisions include: a prohibition on establishing micro-unions; a prohibition on eliminating secret ballot elections; a prohibition on “quick-snap elections”; a prohibition on the implementation of “e-Card Check,” which could promote coercion in union elections; and a prohibition on aggressive regulatory overreach on the small business community.

Read the entire release Committee on Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives release here.

While Congress has been, thus far, unable to stop the job-destroying regulatory overreach of the union appointees within the Obama administration, since Congress does hold the nation’s purse strings, it does have the ability to cut off the oxygen of these job killers by cutting off their funding.

It’s time to put pressure on the Congress to do the right thing and cut off these job killers.

Call on your representatives to make sure they don’t drop the ball on this one.

________________

“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

Cross-posted on LaborUnionReport.com.

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COMMENTS

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  • d_lamar

    He doesn’t want to offend his union buddies.

    • romeg

      To convey to him an understanding that he is taking a very big career risk by making it clear to our representatives that his failure to get this passed is THEIR failure to do their jobs.

      • d_lamar

        And further, if he doesn’t care what conservatives demand of Congress, conveying to him a message regarding his career will most definitely fall on deaf ears.

        The only remedy we (conservatives) have is to vote him out, but that seems highly unlikely to happen. The end result is that Republicans can be rightfully attributed with the blame for the overspending that is now occurirng.

  • GregInFla

    The House controls the purse-strings. Thus, it is innately more powerful than the Senate for government funding and tax bills. The Senate has its own separate powers, such as advise/consent/approvals of appointees. But the House has the purse-strings, and the Founders set it up this way for a reason: to control government growth, for without money, there is no growth in government. Sorry Harry Reid, but you’ve got to compromise now.

    • d_lamar

      Under our Constitution, all spending must originate in the House of Representatives. So that means that Boehner and co. are just as responsible as Obama, perhaps more so, for all the stupid spending.

      • florajo

        I blame Boehner for the August debt ceiling bill that neutered the House Freshmen. They are pretty much locked out of deficit reduction for the remainder of the session. McConnell was public about his intentions in that bill, and Boehner gladly accepted an end to his freshman troubles.

        • snowshooze

          Boehner, IMO did not push nearly hard enough.
          I think he had them on the ropes and should have stood his ground.
          I was very dissappointed.

          • http://punditpawn.wordpress.com punditpawn

            Republican leaders used Ryan to defend to the media that they had a master plan, but then they let Ryan dangle at every critical opportunity.

            Then passed cut, cap, and balance only to let that die on the vine of history.

            Yes, the Tea Party’s main failure was not preventing Bush-Republicans from ascending in to power where they could puppet the freshmen.

  • florajo

    I wonder if we’ll reach September 30, 2012 having cut any money at all during this House session. It’s a very close call. The Libya money may push the current fiscal year into negative cuts. The August deal had single-digit cuts for the next fiscal year, but who knows if a disaster will suck that up. The Super Committee is our only hope. Yikes!!!

  • drfredc

    Ok, the title is mostly about a troll..

    The reality is the House, Senate, and WH could do all that’s the House has proposed and it really won’t change much as much as add more distortion to the process.

    The proper diagnosis to unions they live too much outside of market forces, especially with their pensions. To fix this, one needs to focus upon bringing union membership to be more sensitive to market forces so they don’t support government policies that work to kill or hamper the marketplace. If you have a cancer, you can’t get healthy by wearing a girdle that just forces corruption and distortions against the free flow of reasonable market forces to pop up elsewhere.

  • dajeeps

    There’s a bill to read and I see it all for myself in black and white. There’s been way too much propaganda around some of these bills that amount to nothing but pushing around of papers to make it look like something important is being done.

    Really, I did not expect this congress to accomplish much of what we’d like to see happen. I expected them to have to pick which battles they want to fight. That much is very clear. But they shouldn’t go around saying they’re going to do something and try to slip a “do nothing” bill under the door, like they did with the TRAIN Act – all hype and no teeth. They tried to sell it as something that fights back, which is quite humorous, unless a stack of papers really scares the EPA.

  • ag8tor

    Boehner and friends will never bring it to a vote. If by some strange turn of events it actually did pass the house, the senate would never approve it. Just more talk from the Republican House majority…NO ACTION.