[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 143 (Wednesday, September 6, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S4213]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     National Labor Relations Board

  Mr. President, on another matter, this week, Senate Democrats are 
attempting to tip the partisan scales and weaponize a regulatory 
authority that impacts millions of American workers and businesses.
  The Senate's longstanding practice is to fill Democratic and 
Republican vacancies on important Boards and Commissions in tandem. But 
instead of pairing Gwynne Wilcox, President Biden's choice for a 
Democratic seat on the National Labor Relations Board, with a 
Republican counterpart, our colleagues would like to create an 
artificial liberal supermajority.
  Washington Democrats' runaway inflation continues to send headwinds 
through the American economy. Credit card debt is at an alltime high.
  In historic numbers, workers are concluding that Democrats' Big Labor 
allies are not in their corner. Fewer and fewer employees want to hand 
their hard-earned money over to union bosses. Last year, just 6 
percent--6 percent--of the private sector workforce belonged to a 
union.
  Just this year, one major union had to fire its president for 
misusing workers' dues, and officials from at least two other 
organizations are facing lengthy prison terms for embezzlement. All the 
while, committed partisans like Ms. Wilcox and liberals at the NLRB 
have made it their mission to run roughshod over American employers, 
stack the deck for Democrats' Big Labor allies, and keep corrupt and 
failing unions on life support with a tangled mess of regulations.
  The last thing our country needs is an emboldened partisan majority 
at the helm of the NLRB; but, unfortunately, that is exactly what we 
will get if Democrats confirm Ms. Wilcox's nomination all by itself. So 
I would strongly urge my colleagues to join me in voting no later 
today.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.