Adam Kinzinger among 2 dozen Republicans voting against Republican amendments

Last night in an overly partisan vote, the House passed the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act by a 225-206 vote.

The media and PRO Act proponents are hailing last night’s passage as a “bipartisan vote”, and 5 Republicans did vote for H.R. 842 as amended. Those 5 Republican votes were insignificant given the Democrats had all the votes they needed from their own caucus, with only one Democrat, Congressman Henry Cuellar (TX-28) voting against the bill.

The 5 Republicans supported the PRO Act last year, but as Cuellar voted against the PRO Act last year, the other 3 Democrats who opposed it in 2020 and still in Congress (Congresswomen Lucy McBath (GA-06), Stephanie Murphy (FL-07) and Congressman Greg Schrader (OR-05)) switched and voted for it, after their two amendments were approved.

What jumps out at me was the Republican amendments, and the truly bipartisan rejection, per the voting grid:

Republican Amendments to H.R. 842

2. Allen (GA), Cline (VA): Strikes Section 111 in the bill, which overturns state right-to-work laws.
3. Comer (KY): Strikes Sec. 202 of the bill which codifies the Obama Administration’s “persuader rule” requiring attorneys and consultants to disclose to DOL arrangements or agreements they have with employers regarding unionization where the attorney or consultant will not be communicating with employees.
5. Fitzgerald (WI): Requires a labor organization to receive express consent from the employee before using his or her union dues for any purpose not directly related to the labor organization’s collective bargaining or contract administration.
6. Fulcher (ID): Codifies “vote-and-impound” process for blocking charges and 45-day decertification window for voluntary recognition as set forth in the NLRB’s August 12, 2019, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.
7. Good (VA): Amends section 302 of the Labor Management Relations Act to prohibit “neutrality agreements”, to allow for greater fairness and transparency for workers in their representation.
8. Hern (OK): States that the Act may not take effect until the Secretary of Labor certifies that the bill will not have an adverse impact on rates of employment in the United States.
10. Keller (PA): Strikes language in the bill banning employers from permanently replacing striking workers and language which permits intermittent striking. The NLRA currently protects the right of employees to replace striking workers permanently, and the NLRB has held that intermittent” strikes are not protected activity under the NLRA.
18. Walberg (MI): Strike the language in the bill requiring that a preelection earing begin no later than eight days after a notice of such hearing is served and replaces the provision with language ensuring at least 14 days between the filing of an election petition and a hearing taking place.
19. Wilson, Joe (SC), Allen (GA), Gohmert (TX), Burgess (TX), Weber (TX), Cline (VA), Norman (SC), Bishop, Dan (NC), McClintock (CA), Issa (CA), Timmons (SC), Mann (KS), Rutherford (FL), Lesko (AZ), Harshbarger (TN), Tiffany, Thomas (WI): Amends Section 111 to strike current language and insert the national right-to-work language erasing automatic dues clauses.

The two amendments highlighted were the protection for the 27 right-to-work (RTW) states, plus the territory of Guam.

The RTW protections explain why Congressman Cuellar was the lone Democrat in support of the Republican amendments.

The bill did not go through the regular committee process, through the House Education and Labor Committee. Therefore, a proper hearing on RTW, or discussion that the Midwest has seen the greatest proliferation of states passing RTW laws in the past 10 years, was not heard.

Indeed, outside of RTW Iowa, all of Illinois’ neighbors have seen their state legislatures pass and their governors sign RTW legislation into law. Missouri’s RTW law was defeated through initiative in 2018 and never implemented. Indiana returned to RTW in 2012, after repealing its RTW law in the mid 1960s.

The fight over RTW protections will be played out in the Senate, as 5 non-Republican senators have not co-sponsored the Senate version of the PRO Act.

The four Democrats not cosponsoring the PRO Act in the Senate: Mark Kelly (AZ), Joe Manchin (WV), Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) and Mark Warner (VA) all represent RTW states.

But among Illinois’ delegation, Congressmen Adam Kinzinger (R, IL-16), Mike Bost (R, IL-12) and Rodney Davis (R, IL-13) voted against the Republican amendments.

Both Congressman Darin LaHood (R, IL-18) and Congresswoman Mary Miller (R, IL-15) voted for the Republican amendments.

It’s on to the Senate, and a Senate filibuster looms large for passage of the PRO Act, where the Democrats likely don’t have the 50 votes for passage, let alone the 60 votes for cloture (breaking the filibuster).

If Democrats want to see the PRO Act pass, it will take major concessions to convince at least 10 Republicans to vote for cloture and stop a filibuster.

From the desk of John Lopez: I have too much to say about yesterday’s developments, but immediately, my biggest disappointment is with House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R, CA-23).

Knowing the Democrats had the votes to pass the PRO Act, McCarthy squandered the opportunity through the Republicans’ one motion-to-recommit (MTR) to force a stand-alone vote on the controversial “ABC test” embedded in the PRO Act.

Instead, a weak MTR to send H.R. 842 back to the Education and Labor Committee was presented for a recorded vote, and predictably, it was a straight party-line vote:

The use of the ABC test, in spite of the two amendments the Democrats approved to deal with the ABC test, including state laws determine the definition of an “employee”, in my honest opinion don’t go far enough.

House Republicans missed a golden opportunity to put all House members on record where they stand on the ABC test.

Predictably, the Democrats would have trotted out the AFL-CIO slide in defense had the MTR been to strike the ABC test:

And the Republicans blew their chance to pierce holes through the Democrats’ defense of the ABC test in discussion.

Put another way, the Republicans folded without a fight. Sad.