BlogLine

An Update on Trump’s Nominations for the NLRB and DOL

7/20/17

By: Agne Krutules

Last Thursday, President Donald Trump’s two nominees, William Emanuel and Marvin Kaplan, to fill the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) testified before the Senate. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions also heard from Patrick Pizzella, Trump’s nominee for deputy secretary of labor.

Emanuel, a management-side labor attorney, has spent much of his 50-year legal career representing employers in labor disputes. Kaplan, an Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission attorney, has spent a decade in Washington, D.C., advising lawmakers and regulators on various employment-related issues. Pizzella has been twice confirmed by Senate committees to agency jobs, first as an assistant secretary of labor under President George W. Bush, and later to his current position with the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) under President Obama. 

If both Emanuel and Kaplan are confirmed (which is expected), the NLRB will have a Republican majority for the first time since June 2007. If Republicans re-establish control, it is expected that they will reverse some Obama-era policies and decisions, although employers should understand that such a movement likely will take some time.  

 For any questions, please contact Agne Krutules at akrutules@fmglaw.com.