| | | | |  | | By Nick Niedzwiadek | | | GONE FISHIN': House Republicans came into power in 2022 with big plans to tackle the proliferation of remote work among government employees in the federal workforce after the onset of Covid-19. They may end the 118th Congress with little to show for their efforts. GOP appropriators included several provisions this year aimed at getting agencies to take stock of how pervasive telework or other alternative arrangements are — and, in some instances, tried to force their hands into changing course. For instance, the House would have required the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to detail all personnel allowed to “work remotely, whether part of the time or full time, on a permanent basis”; directed the Labor Department to document the number of employees who’ve received the D.C.-area pay rate but haven’t shown up to the office more than once a week; barred the Defense Department from defraying the costs of teleworking for any employee or contractor; and chopped the Social Security Administration’s budget for its capital branch. Such policies have faced strident opposition from the collection of labor unions that represent federal workers, even as the White House and Democratic D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser have, at times, tried to nudge government employees back to their offices. “It’s sort of a ridiculous strategy,” said Jacqueline Simon, public policy director of the American Federation of Government Employees, referring to the GOP effort. “These are the same people who are great advocates of the federal government following the private sector, and a smaller percentage of the federal workforce does telework than the private sector.” It was always going to be an uphill climb for Republicans to win these and numerous other conservative priorities with Democrats in control of the Senate and White House. But GOP in-fighting imperiled lawmakers’ ability to pass the always-contentious Labor-HHS-Education bill and several others, sapping their leverage further and prompting leaders to send members into the traditional August recess early rather than risk more failed votes. “It’s unfortunate that some House Republicans would rather question the commitment and dedication of our nation’s public servants than adequately fund their agencies,” National Treasury Employees Union President Doreen Greenwald said in a statement. “It is time to accept the data that telework works and focus on funding the government, so it has the resources to properly deliver for the American people.” Still, there is some concern in Washington that remote work could be hurting service delivery — as highlighted by this Bloomberg Tax story on unanswered IRS calls — meaning the issue is unlikely to go away entirely. GOOD MORNING. It’s Monday, July 29. Welcome back to Morning Shift, your go-to tipsheet on labor and employment-related immigration. Send feedback, tips and exclusives to nniedzwiadek@politico.com and lukenye@politico.com. Follow us on X at @NickNiedz and @Lawrence_Ukenye.
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| | DEALER’S CHOICE: National labor union leaders are generally amenable to everyone on Vice President Kamala Harris’ Democratic shortlist and have yet to publicly coalesce around a favorite, your host reports for Pro subscribers. “There are a lot of strong candidates because part of Joe Biden’s legacy is transforming the party into a pro-union party at every level,” said Stuart Appelbaum, the president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. “Our priority has to be to focus on how we will have the best opportunity to win.” At the same time, local unions are definitely trying to boost their hometown guy and familiarize labor powerbrokers with some contenders who are lesser-known nationally. “A lot of our leaders here are trying to educate their national leadership about what Gov. [Roy] Cooper has done for our state,” North Carolina AFL-CIO President MaryBe McMillan said in an interview. — Related: “High-stakes veepstakes: How top VP contenders are wooing the Harris campaign,” from our Jared Mitovich. More union news: “Apple Reaches Its First-Ever Retail Union Contract Deal in U.S.,” from Bloomberg.
| | | A federal judge in Texas has halted the Biden administration’s expanded fiduciary rule on retirement investment advice from taking effect this fall, your host reports for Pro subscribers. Judge Jeremy Kernodle issued a stay Thursday and ruled that the regulation, slated to take effect in September, echoes an Obama-era rule that was struck down in court in 2016. He said that “[t]he 2024 fiduciary rule suffers from many of the same problems.” DOL’s response: “When investors get advice from a trusted financial professional about their retirement savings, they expect that advice to be in the customer’s best interest, not the financial professional’s,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement. “The Department continues to believe that this rule is essential to ensuring that retirement investors are protected.” NLRB ROLLS DICE ON ROLLBACK: The National Labor Relations Board on Friday finalized a regulation aimed at wiping away a set of union-recognition changes issued late in the Trump administration. The rule makes three alterations to how the agency handles various election-related procedures, your host reports.
- Rekindles the ability of NLRB regional directors to order a delay, rather than hold an election, in situations where unions have accused employers of tainting the process via unfair activity.
- Limits workers' ability to contest the legitimacy of a union that has been voluntarily recognized by their employer. The 2020 rule created a mandatory 45-day window allowing employees to call for a formal election.
- A construction-industry specific change that removes evidentiary requirements on unions to demonstrate majority support from workers before entering into a bargaining relationship with a given employer.
Finalizing this rule so late in President Joe Biden’s term could open it up to being reversed if Republicans win the White House this November. | | | | JUST DON’T CALL IT EMPLOYMENT: College sports authorities and antitrust attorneys unveiled a sweeping deal Friday that would pay players billions of dollars in damages, creating an unprecedented athlete compensation model, our Juan Perez reports. The deal, if approved, could heap more pressure on Congress to step in and establish new rules for big-money college athletics. However, the tight calendar and ideological divides remain chasmic gaps that interested lawmakers would still need to bridge. Deal details: Schools should be allowed to share a portion of revenue generated by major programs with players, as well as pay nearly $2.8 billion in damages to past athletes over a 10-year span. Additionally, it imposes caps on the number of scholarships college programs can offer while limiting overall roster sizes. More workplace news: “The New Threat to the Chip Industry: Worker Unrest,” from The Wall Street Journal. Even more: “Krispy Kreme ‘doughnut specialist’ claims she was fired for wearing religious bracelets,” from The New York Post.
| | | FIRST IN SHIFT: The House Education and the Workforce Committee is pressing the IRS and California’s public pension administrators for information about the Biden administration’s attempt to leverage large investment funds to bolster labor standards. Chair Virginia Foxx, in letters to the agency and CalPERS, said that the committee is probing whether the commitments made during this spring’s meeting between the White House and leaders of five major pension funds may violate federal tax law and ERISA. “To the extent that CalPERS is using plan assets for the benefit of social or political causes, the plan’s qualified tax status is no longer valid,” Foxx wrote, giving both groups until Aug. 12 to respond to a set of questions.
| | | | The space economy is already woven into our lives in ways we don't always appreciate, creating a global backbone for communications, media, data, science and defense. It's also becoming an increasingly competitive zone among nations - and a venue for complex and important public-private partnerships. Join POLITICO on July 30 for a conversation about what Washington needs to understand is at stake – which sectors of the global economy see their growth arc in space, and what the role of government leaders is in both growing and regulating the explosion of orbital ideas. REGISTER | | | | | | | | LAST-DITCH EFFORT: Republicans on the Senate HELP Committee are trying to delay a meeting Thursday to vote on a pair of NLRB nominees. The GOP remains peeved that it has been denied a chance to grill Chair Lauren McFerran over the agency’s union-friendly direction under her leadership prior to the vote. (Joshua Ditelberg, who would fill a Republican vacancy on the five-person board, is also on the docket.) “It is only prudent for the Senate to exercise its role to advise and consent in a public forum as we examine nominees that, if confirmed, would have significant power over our nation’s labor policies until nearly the end of this decade and an impact that would likely last much longer,” states the letter, signed by six of the committee’s 10 Republicans. “We respectfully request the Committee make the necessary logistical plans to provide for both a hearing and a markup to take place in a public forum on these critical nominations.” More hill news: “Hill Dems believe this VP contender would help address Harris’ biggest weakness,” from our Sarah Ferris, Ursula Perano, Adam Cancryn and Anthony Adragna.
|  | what we're reading | | — “‘We Feel Stuck’: Child Care Needs Limit Women’s Work Force Gains,” from The New York Times. — Opinion: “Trump’s second-term agenda plans a purge of the federal workforce,” from the Washington Post. — “Unpacking Kamala Harris' record on federal workforce issues,” from The Government Executive. THAT’S YOUR SHIFT! | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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