[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5310 Introduced in House (IH)]








109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5310

 To amend the National Labor Relations Act to establish deadlines for 
 the National Labor Relations Board to render decisions, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 4, 2006

  Mr. Shays (for himself, Mr. LoBiondo, Mr. Simmons, Mr. Gerlach, Mr. 
English of Pennsylvania, Mr. LaHood, Mr. McHugh, Mr. Walsh, Mr. Weldon 
of Pennsylvania, Mr. Boehlert, Mr. Schwarz of Michigan, Mr. Murphy, and 
Mr. McCotter) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                Committee on Education and the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the National Labor Relations Act to establish deadlines for 
 the National Labor Relations Board to render decisions, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``National Labor Relations Board 
Reform Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) in 2005 the median time from a pre-election regional 
        hearing to a decision by the National Labor Relations Board was 
        13.3 months; and
            (2) in election cases, the length of time for cases pending 
        a Board decision was 18.9 months.

SEC. 3. TIMETABLE FOR NLRB DECISIONS.

    (a) Issues of Representation and Elections.--Section 9(c)(1) of the 
National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 159(c)(1)) is amended by 
striking the last sentence and inserting the following: ``If the Board 
finds upon the record of such hearing that such a question of 
representation exists, it shall, not later than 6 months after a 
petition is filed, direct an election by secret ballot and shall 
certify election results not later than 12 months after a petition is 
filed, unless both the employer and the employee, group of employees, 
or labor organization acting on their behalf, shall mutually agree to 
waive such a deadline.''.
    (b) Unfair Labor Practices.--Section 10(c) of the National Labor 
Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 160(c)) is amended by inserting after 
``Provided,'' the following: ``That any such order shall be issued by 
the Board not later than 6 months after the date on which the initial 
complaint was served pursuant to subsection (b), unless, in the opinion 
of the Board the evidence or testimony raises a novel question of law, 
in which case the Board shall have an additional 6 months in which to 
issue an order, or unless the complainant and the person so complained 
of shall mutually agree to waive such a deadline: And provided 
further,''.

SEC. 4. TERMS OF BOARD MEMBERS.

    Section 3(a) of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 153(a)) 
is amended by inserting after the third sentence the following: ``Any 
member may continue to serve on the Board after the expiration of the 
term of such member until a successor has been appointed.''.
                                 <all>