Thanks to AFGE’s hard work, the Senate dropped all anti-worker provisions AFGE opposed in its final version of the Big Retaliation Bill released June 27. But the fight is not over as the Senate is still considering amendments to the bill.
The provisions AFGE lobbied against and were eventually dropped from the bill include:
At the urging of AFGE, the Senate parliamentarian earlier ruled that most of these provisions violated the Byrd rule, which prohibits non-budgetary provisions and policy changes in a reconciliation bill, a streamlined process that makes legislation easier to pass in the Senate. In the end, the only provision dropped based on a parliamentarian ruling was the MSPB filing fee. Republicans dropped everything else on their own due to internal opposition.
AFGE President Everett Kelley thanks pro-federal worker Democrats and Republicans in the Senate for their unwavering support.
“I want to personally thank Democratic Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Ranking Member Gary Peters, D-Mich., for their tireless work to disqualify bill provisions that would have forced federal employees into at-will status, cut their take-home pay, and siphoned off their hard-earned union dues,” said Kelley. “Without their efforts – and those of pro-federal worker Republicans – this bill could have been the death knell for the U.S. civil service.”
What will happen next?
The Senate is still debating amendments to the bill and could vote on it again as soon as June 30. It could still adopt one of the three amendments offered by Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, that would effectively end federal unions’ use of official time and threaten the future of unions to perform their mission to represent federal employees in the workplace.
The AFGE Legislative Department has been fighting her amendments all weekend, and we are hopeful none of them will be adopted, but anything is possible between now and the end of the day.
After the bill passes the Senate, it will be sent to the House to be reconciled with the House version of the bill. Both chambers will have to vote again for final passage of the bill. AFGE has successfully removed major anti-worker provisions from the House bill:
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