House Republicans will vote this week on a rules package that will prohibit congressional staffers from collective bargaining, a provision enacted under outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Lawmakers say the push is needed to make sure that the staffers are "accountable to the elected officials they serve," rather than organized labor, reports The Washington Examiner.
"Congress' unique office structure, fluctuating partisan balance, unpredictable schedule changes and unavoidable turnover due to elections make unions impractical in our offices and committees," said outgoing Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., who had served as the top Republican on the House administration committee but lost his primary bid.
However, Democrats are saying that the Republicans, who took control of the House Tuesday, will not have an easy time rejecting the unions, as they will have to push through changes to the Congressional Accountability Act, passed in 1995, which allows congressional staff to unionize if each chamber of Congress passes a resolution that authorizes the formation of collective bargaining unions.
Rep. Andy Levin, a retiring Michigan Democrat who was behind the effort to unionize House staffers, commented that under the law, "rights that have been implemented can’t simply be taken away absent new legislation to change the act itself."
Changes to the law would require approval from the House and Senate, where Democrats expanded their majority hold during the midterms.
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Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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