Hold onto your hats, folks—House lawmakers just pulled off a rare bipartisan maneuver to force a vote on restoring union rights for federal workers, thumbing their noses at GOP leadership in a move that’s got Washington buzzing.
According to The Hill, this saga, centered on overturning a Trump-era executive order, sees a coalition of Democrats and a handful of Republicans securing enough signatures to bypass Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and bring legislation to the House floor that could reinstate collective bargaining for hundreds of thousands of federal employees.
Let’s rewind to March, when President Trump signed an executive order stripping union bargaining rights across 18 federal agencies, including heavyweights like Defense and Homeland Security, claiming it was a matter of national security.
Critics, though, aren’t buying the security excuse, pointing out that many of these workers support critical sectors like border protection and the armed services.
Fast forward to June, when Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., launched a discharge petition to sidestep GOP resistance and force a vote on reversing Trump’s order.
For months, the petition languished, stuck at 216 signatures—tantalizingly close to the 218 needed—until Monday, when two New York Republicans, Reps. Nick LaLota and Mike Lawler tipped the scales by signing on.
This victory, though, barely made a ripple in the news cycle, overshadowed by the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein drama that’s hogging the headlines.
Still, it’s a stinging rebuke to Trump, Johnson, and other GOP leaders, especially hot on the heels of another discharge petition success forcing the release of Epstein files—talk about a rough week for party control. With five Republicans, including Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., backing Golden’s petition, questions are swirling about Trump’s grip on the House GOP conference.
“I think we have to force the issue on the president and the leadership. … It’s for the president’s own good,” said Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb.
Now, Bacon’s got a point—strong-arming labor agreements isn’t exactly a winning look for a party claiming to champion the working man, and tearing up established deals risks alienating a key voter base.
Meanwhile, bipartisan negotiators are hustling to tuck the bargaining rights language into the National Defense Authorization Act, the Pentagon’s annual budget bill, which many see as the safest bet for passage given the Senate’s likely resistance to a solo bill.
“Right now, the language to restore those rights is in the NDAA, but there’s still negotiations [over] whether it’s going to stay in,” said Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y.
LaLota’s caution is well-founded; if GOP leaders manage to yank the provision from the NDAA, they’ll face a reckoning on the House floor, where labor supporters are confident the votes exist for a stand-alone win—hardly the outcome Johnson wants.
Golden is poised to call for a vote as early as December 2 if needed, and with an extra signature cushion against procedural shenanigans, this bipartisan coalition isn’t backing down. While some might scoff at union protections in a time of fiscal restraint, there’s a principle at stake—agreements should mean something, even in Washington, and forcing this issue could remind leadership that workers aren’t pawns in a political chess game.