The House moved Thursday to undo President Trump's new limits on federal labor rights, approving a bill that would reinstate collective bargaining protections for government employees. Lawmakers voted 231-195 to pass the Protect America's Workforce Act, with 20 Republicans joining all Democrats in support, Politico reports. The measure would overturn executive orders Trump issued in March and August affecting large segments of the federal workforce—employees of any agency with a national security mission, per the AP. The bill now heads to the Senate, where it faces uncertain prospects.
Labor organizations backed the bill, viewing it as a chance to recover ground lost after Congress dropped a separate proposal to restore union rights for civilian Pentagon employees from the annual defense policy bill. Trump's order targeted the union rights of roughly 600,000 of the 800,000 federal workers represented by the American Federation of Government Employees, including those at the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense. Rep. James Comer argued on the floor that Trump had been elected to rein in the federal bureaucracy, return employees to offices, and boost accountability, and the Republican said the bill passed Thursday ran counter to that agenda.
"President Trump betrayed workers when he tried to rip away our collective bargaining rights," AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in a statement, per Politico. She praised the bipartisan support. The AFGE's president called the vote a "seismic victory." Regardless of what happens when the bill reaches the Senate, Thursday's vote represented one of the House's first formal rebukes of Trump and the flurry of executive orders he has issued during his second term, the AP points out.
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