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"Card Check" -- See You In September?

03/10/09 3:39 PM EDT

By SUSAN FERRECHIO
Chief Congressional Correspondent

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Tuesday afternoon opened the possibility of Congress putting off until September any consideration of controversial legislation that would ease the formation of labor unions by allowing them to bypass the secret ballot process.
House and Senate Democrats hours earlier introduced the Employee Free Choice Act with a much more optimistic timeline. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the main sponsor of the bill, suggested it could get done late next month. Harkin and House sponsor George Miller, D-Calif., said they believe the Senate can round up the 60 votes needed to prevent Senate Republicans from blocking the bill. Harkin and Miller said they do not believe Democratic support is slipping despite the fact that the bill has shed sponsors since last year and several Senate Democrats say they are undecided.
Later in the day, Reid assumed his typical, vaguely optimistic stance and said the 60 votes are "certainly doable" but that it would all hinge on a little more cooperation from those pesky Republicans, who are fiercely opposed to the legislation because it would allow union officials to intimidate workers into joining. They have nicknamed it the card-check bill.
"This is nothing more than an attempt by Democrats to drive democracy from the workplace," Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence, R-Ind., declared.
The legislation, which Democrats had hoped to pass early in the session, has instead become an increasingly volatile issue for Democrats. Earlier this year, Reid said the Senate would consider it by this summer.
Now, with support among even his own rank-and-file in question, that date is slipping.
"A lot depends on if the Republicans would cooperate with us just a little bit on some of the things we have to do, we could do it before the August recess," Reid said Tuesday, not addressing the undecided Democrats. "Otherwise, we'll have to wait until after the August recess."