As an economically crippling national rail shutdown hangs in the balance, progressive resistance is mounting in both chambers of Congress, threatening to derail President Biden’s maneuvers to secure legislative implementation of the tentative agreement his administration helped craft last month.  Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) encouraged his upper chamber colleagues to “stand with rail workers” on Sunday, and in the House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), among other progressive voices, insisted that lawmakers should intervene only to “have workers’ backs and secure their demands in legislation.”  Interestingly, the rail workers have mobilized a limited degree of bipartisan support, as Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) indicated that he, too, would oppose a deal that “doesn’t have the support of the rail workers.”

Congression leaders have proven undeterred, however, swiftly advancing their plans to use the legislative power to forestall a shuttering of the nation’s railways.  The House is poised to approve legislation implementing the agreement as soon as today, and Senate leadership has signaled they have the votes to overcome a filibuster.  All told, then, President Biden conveyed confidence on Tuesday that his plans would prevail and his maneuvering would manage to avert a rail strike. 

In regulatory news, the Senate HELP Committee voted on Tuesday to advance Biden’s nomination for Administrator of the DOL’s Wage and House Division, following a series of procedural delays. President Biden nominated Jessica Looman, a former labor lawyer and union official, to the role — the top enforcer of the FLSA and other major workplace laws — in July, after the Senate rejected his first pick.  Looman has been leading the agency as Principal Deputy Administrator since January 2021

Lastly, the NLRB extended the deadline for submitting comments on its rulemaking concerning blocking charges to next February.  The rule would rescind a regulation promulgated by the Trump Board in 2020, thereby restoring the traditional approach to so-called “blocking charges” supplanted by the Trump rule, under which RDs are empowered to delay the processing of election petitions in the face of pending charges.