American Workers Are Waiting. Confirm the NLRB Nominees.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee voted on July 15 to advance James Macy and David Prouty to the full Senate. The clock is now running.

David Prouty's current term expires August 27. Under the National Labor Relations Act, the Board must have a quorum of three members to issue decisions and adjudicate cases. If confirmation does not happen before that date, the Board loses that quorum, and American workers and employers lose access to a functioning agency.

James Macy’s confirmation would give the Board a working Republican majority and the votes needed to begin restoring precedents that the Biden NLRB discarded by administrative fiat, without Congressional authorization and without meaningful input from American workers.

David Prouty has served on the Board since 2021, and his confirmation preserves the Board's operational capacity and keeps the quorum intact.

Together, their confirmations give the NLRB the stability to function and the majority to act.

Confirmation is the prerequisite, not the destination. Once Macy and Prouty are confirmed, the Board must move urgently on three issues that have caused the most direct harm to American workers.

Blocking charges allowed union leadership to freeze elections indefinitely, including votes to leave a union, simply by filing procedural charges when outcomes looked unfavorable. A Board with a working majority can restore the principle that workers, not union leadership, decide when they vote.

Cemex bypassed the secret ballot entirely, allowing union certification without workers ever casting a vote. That standard must be reversed. No worker should have representation imposed on them without the most fundamental democratic protection: the right to vote.

Employer Meetings on Unionization were effectively banned under the Biden NLRB, silencing employers while union organizers faced no equivalent restriction. Workers making one of the most consequential decisions of their professional lives deserve to hear from both sides.

"A Board without a quorum cannot protect workers, cannot resolve disputes, and cannot reverse the overreach that has stacked the deck against American workers for years under the Biden administration," said Gene Hamilton, Senior Advisor to CPAW. "Confirming these nominees is the necessary first step. Once they are seated, they must work quickly to reverse the Biden-era policies that harmed working Americans and handed unchecked power to union leadership."

CPAW urges the Senate to confirm Macy and Prouty without delay.