Lauren McGarity McFerran was approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Tuesday to be the newest member of the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that enforces labor law.
The vote was 12-10 along party lines. She is expected to be confirmed in the full Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has blocked filibusters on presidential nominees.
The committee’s chairman, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa., pushed McFerran through quickly. McFerran was only nominated three weeks ago and had her first and only hearing before the committee two weeks ago.
“Our economy is stronger when workers are able to speak up for fair wages, benefits and safe working conditions. Businesses too benefit from having a fair venue for the neutral adjudication of employment disputes. Ms. McFerran is an extremely well-qualified nominee and I know she will do an excellent job in this important position. I look forward to her consideration by the full Senate,” Harkin said.
McFerran was previously a top committee aide to Harkin. She would replace current board member Nancy Schiffer, whose term expires Dec. 16.
Democrats are racing to get her confirmed before the Senate’s lame-duck session — and their control over the upper chamber — ends. If they don’t, the process will have to start all over next year when Republicans are in the majority.
Without McFerran, the five-seat board would have two Democratic and two Republican appointees and likely deadlock on controversial issues. Republicans have complained that the NLRB has tilted heavily pro-labor under President Obama and thus he would be tempted to leave the seat unfilled. Only the president can pick nominees but they must be confirmed by the Senate.
“The NLRB must be restored to its proper role as an umpire rather than an advocate, with board members who operate as impartial decision makers,” said a spokeswoman for Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who will assume the committee chairmanship next year.
Obama and Harkin are taking no chances to ensure the NLRB retains its current 3-2 Democratic majority. The president had originally nominated Sharon Block to replace Schiffer. He abruptly pulled her nomination on Nov. 12 after Republicans said they would fight the pick. While the GOP lacked the ability to filibuster Block directly, the lame-duck session’s schedule is so tight the White House feared that any disruption could sideline the vote.
Block had previously been one of Obama’s three controversial 2012 recess appointments to the board. Republicans objected to them at the time, calling the action an abuse of executive power. In June, the Supreme Court agreed, ruling the appointments unconstitutional in Noel Canning v. NLRB. The following month, Obama again nominated Block to serve on the committee, a move that was taken by Republicans as a gesture of contempt.
