(CNSNews.com) – In a 13-10 vote along party lines, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved the nomination Thursday of Craig Becker to join the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), paving the way for a full Senate vote on the controversial nominee in the coming weeks.
But two Republicans on the committee – ranking member Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Ark.) – reversed an earlier vote in October in favor of Becker when his nomination passed out of committee on a 15 to 8 vote.
Before the vote, Enzi announced that he could no longer support Becker and urged his Republican colleagues to follow suit.
Enzi cited concern about pushing through a controversial nominee before the swearing in of Scott Brown, the Republican who was elected last month to take the seat of the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy.
In a last minute change of plans, Brown was sworn in Thursday – a week earlier than originally planned after Brown learned his election would be certified in time for a ceremony that he said would allow him to take part in a number of upcoming “important votes” facing the Senate.
“I also want to register my concern with hastily moving controversial nominees before the seating of Senator-elect Scott Brown,” Enzi said. “Earlier this week, the Senate invoked cloture on Patricia Smith by a vote of 60-32 – on a nominee that was voted out of committee on a straight party line.”
Enzi added that Becker’s ethics disclosure paperwork had not been updated with the Office of Government Ethics Office since July 2009, which he said was necessary ahead of any vote on his nomination.
Enzi said that the independent NLRB wields considerable power and that the board’s decisions and regulations “control a significant portion of our economy.”
Becker’s critics claim his ideas are out of the mainstream, including his outspoken support for the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that would allow unions to be formed with only 50 percent of workers signing union cards, bypassing the current requirement for a secret ballot vote. It would also require mandatory binding arbitration if a union local and an employer fail to agree on a first contract within 90 days.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce delivered a letter to the HELP committee on Thursday, expressing their opposition to Becker’s nomination.
“While the Chamber applauds you for holding a hearing on Mr. Becker’s controversial nomination, the Chamber opposes his confirmation,” R. Bruce Josten, executive vice president of government affairs with the Chamber, wrote in the letter. “The Chamber does not take this step lightly. This is only the third time in more than 30 years that this organization has opposed a nominee to the Board, most recently the 1993 nomination of William B. Gould.
“Mr. Becker has written prolifically about the National Labor Relations Act, the law he would be charged with interpreting and enforcing should he be confirmed,” the letter said. “Many of the positions taken in his writings are well outside the mainstream and would disrupt years of established precedent and the delicate balance in current labor law. These positions have raised significant concerns in the employer community.
“While this week’s hearing began to examine some of these important questions, too many concerns remain for employers to be comfortable with this nomination,” the letter said. “Among those concerns are the extent to which Mr. Becker would restrictively interpret employers’ free speech rights and the extent to which he would seek to expand the use of intermittent strikes and other forms of work stoppages that disrupt the right of employers to maintain operations during labor disputes.”
But Becker’s supporters on the HELP committee, including Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), said Republicans are “using extraordinary tactics to block the nomination of qualified people.”
“We owe it to hardworking Americans to act quickly on this nomination,” Harkin said. “There is no cause for further delay. I hope that all of my colleagues will join me in supporting Mr. Becker’s nomination so that we can complete this process and let him start his important work.”
Harkin called Becker “one of the preeminent labor lawyers in the country with decades of experience.”
Enzi said he did not have objections to the other three nominees President Barack Obama submitted to Congress, all of which were quickly voted out of committee on voice vote: Cynthia Atwood, to be a member of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission; Kathleen Tighe, to be inspector general for the Department of Education; and jazz trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, to be a member of the National Council on the Arts.
“I support reporting these nominees favorably from the committee and urge my colleagues to do the same,” Enzi said.
The committee could not say when the Senate will vote on Becker’s nomination.