[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12503-12504]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           EXECUTIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

                     EXECUTIVE CALENDAR--Continued

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
resume executive session.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, for months the American people have been 
gripped by the sideshow surrounding President Trump. It seems like 
every day another shoe drops on the Russia investigation, another White 
House staffer is fired, and President Trump tweets something that 
upends the government and causes our allies to move even further away 
from us.
  Despite all of this commotion, all of the drama, and all of the 
disorganization, there is one thing that Trump and the Republicans in 
Congress have carried out since day one with complete precision. They 
have carried out a comprehensive all-out assault on American workers. 
Day by day, week by week, month by month, President Trump and 
congressional Republicans have acted to undermine the safety and 
economic security of hardworking Americans.
  Just observe what they have done. On December 8, President Trump 
nominated Andrew Puzder, who was then CEO of fast food giants Hardee's 
and Carl's Jr., to lead the Department of Labor. That is right. His 
first major announcement affecting workers was to nominate a man who 
made his fortune on the backs of hard-working Americans to the top 
position in government charged with protecting American workers.
  On February 1, just days after he was inaugurated, President Trump 
delayed a rule protecting workers from workplace exposure to a lethal 
cancer-causing substance called beryllium. On February 3, President 
Trump stood with big bank CEOs to announce an Executive order to make 
it easier for investment advisers to cheat hard-working Americans out 
of $17 billion a year in retirement savings. On March 1, the Trump 
administration delayed the rule protecting workers from lethal cancer-
causing beryllium a second time. On March 6, congressional Republicans 
followed the directive of big business lobbyists and voted to make it 
easier for government contractors to steal wages from their employees. 
On March 16, President Trump released his budget blueprint, proposing 
to slash funding for the Labor Department, whose job is to stand for 
American workers, by 21 percent. On March 22, congressional Republicans 
voted to make it easier for employers to hide injuries and deaths that 
their workers suffer on the job. On March 24, the Trump administration 
delayed a rule that required mine operators to conduct safety 
inspections and tell miners about any hazardous conditions they 
discovered before the workers go into the mines. On March 30, 
congressional Republicans voted to block cities from offering 
retirement accounts to more than 2 million employees who don't have 
access to a retirement account at work. On April 4, President Trump 
delayed the rule preventing investment advisers from cheating hard-
working Americans out of their retirement savings. This 60-day delay 
alone cost Americans an estimated $3.7 billion. On April 6, the Trump 
administration delayed a rule protecting construction workers from 
deadly silica poisonings. On May 3, Republicans in Congress voted to 
keep State governments from offering retirement accounts to employees 
who don't have access to accounts at work, yanking access away from 15 
million Americans. On May 23, President Trump called for massive budget 
cuts to the Department of Labor, including the complete elimination of 
workers' safety training programs, programs for older workers, and 
funding for workers with disabilities. And on June 23, President Trump 
proposed exempting the construction and shipbuilding industries from 
the rule to protect workers from lethal cancer-causing beryllium, a 
move that could prove fatal to workers in these industries.
  That is a pretty despicable record--despicable but consistent. 
Workers get slammed over and over. Today, Senator McConnell has brought 
us down to the floor to sock it to American workers one more time 
before he sends us home for summer recess. Today, we are voting on the 
nomination of Marvin Kaplan to serve on the National Labor Relations 
Board.
  Pause here for just a second. The NLRB is probably the most important 
independent Federal agency that you have never heard of. They are 
responsible for protecting the legal rights of workers to come together 
and bargain with their bosses for higher wages and better working 
conditions.
  Starting a union is not easy. Large employers fight union organizing 
campaigns tooth and nail. They hire armies of union-busting lawyers to 
run smear

[[Page 12504]]

campaigns against the unions or to delay or kill organizing efforts.
  That is why the NLRB is so very important--to serve as a referee that 
ensures employers play by the rules and workers get a chance to 
exercise their legal rights. It is the NLRB's job to stand up for 
workers--workers like the nearly 4,000 workers at the Nissan plant in 
Canton, MS, who, beginning tomorrow, will vote on whether to elect a 
union to represent them. That is what the NLRB has traditionally done--
stood up for workers. Just last week, they filed a complaint against 
Nissan, alleging that the corporation has violated the law by running a 
union-busting drive, warning workers that they would lose wages and 
benefits if they took the step of joining a union.
  It is also the NLRB's job to do the routine but important work of 
overseeing the elections. Just last month, the NLRB conducted a secret 
ballot election at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, MA, where 
nearly 300 service workers elected to be represented by SEIU 1199.
  With a Republican Congress and President determined to deliver the 
knockout blow to the middle class, hard-working Americans need an NLRB 
that is on their side. President Trump's nominee to the NLRB, Marvin 
Kaplan, has no experience practicing labor law, but we actually know 
where he stands on protecting workers.
  As a Republican House staffer, here is what he has done. He spent 
years actively working to strip workers of their right to organize 
under the law. He spent years working to overturn rulings by the NLRB 
that would protect workers' rights. He worked on the legislation to 
delay union elections by at least 35 days, giving employers and their 
armies of lawyers and lobbyists more time to fight off organizing 
efforts. He worked on legislation to make some workers ineligible to 
join unions at their workplaces. He even fought efforts to ensure that 
Americans get paid the overtime they deserve.
  So after 8 months, the Republicans are about to go on vacation, but 
not before they jam the NLRB with a new anti-worker nominee. The 
biggest problem in Washington is that this place works great for giant 
employers and for giant corporations with armies of lawyers and 
lobbyists. But workers and their families just get ignored. President 
Trump doesn't seem to have any problem turning his back on millions of 
hard-working people, but that is not what we are here for.
  I will be voting against Marvin Kaplan, and I urge my colleagues to 
do the same.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Under the previous order, all postcloture time is expired.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the Kaplan 
nomination?
  Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the 
Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Burr) and the Senator from Arizona 
(Mr. McCain).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lee). Are there any other Senators in the 
Chamber desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 50, nays 48, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 184 Ex.]

                                YEAS--50

     Alexander
     Barrasso
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Cochran
     Collins
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Flake
     Gardner
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hatch
     Heller
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Lee
     McConnell
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Paul
     Perdue
     Portman
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott
     Shelby
     Strange
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Wicker
     Young

                                NAYS--48

     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Donnelly
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Harris
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Hirono
     Kaine
     King
     Klobuchar
     Leahy
     Manchin
     Markey
     McCaskill
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Peters
     Reed
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Udall
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--2

     Burr
     McCain
       
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motion to 
reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the President 
will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

                          ____________________