Policy Week in Review – January 30, 2026

NLRB Division of Advice Recommends Dismissal of Expansive Charges

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Division of Advice (“Advice”) released a series of memos that recommended dismissal of charges that appear to have taken expansive views of Biden-era Board precedents. Advice is a department of the Board that provides guidance to regional offices about novel or difficult legal issues. In these memos, Advice recommended that the regional officials dismiss three charges. The first involved a union’s claim for recognition in an expanded unit where the union didn’t file a failure to bargain charge necessary to get a bargaining order. The second involved a newspaper employee’s criticism of the employer on a Slack channel and a related work rule. The third involved an allegedly overbroad non-solicitation provision in a former employee’s employment and stock-option agreements. In each case, the charges appeared to expand precedent from the Biden Board to new territory. The memos were published on the Board’s website

Separately, NLRB General Counsel Crystal Carey this week issued a memorandum in which she indicated her immediate priority is to reduce the backlog of cases at the Board.

DOL/EBSA Proposes PBM Fee Disclosure Rule 

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration is proposing a regulation that would require providers of pharmacy benefit management (PBM) services and affiliates to disclose information about their compensation to fiduciaries of self-insured group health plans. The proposal states these disclosures are needed to implement President Trump’s Executive Order 14273 to lower drug prices and improve employer health plan transparency into the direct and indirect compensation received by pharmacy benefit managers. Comments are due 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. 

Although Government Funding Deal Reached, Brief Shutdown Expected

As of this writing, congressional leaders have agreed on a FY2026 funding package that would keep the federal government operating through September 30. The deal includes a two-week continuing resolution to extend current funding levels at the Department of Homeland Security to allow additional time to negotiate spending levels on immigration enforcement measures. However, pursuant to the current continuing resolution, federal funding runs out at midnight tonight. With respect to timing, the Senate is still reviewing various provisions included in the package and it is unclear when they will vote. The House is not in session this week. Therefore, it is most likely that final passage will be delayed until at least Monday or early next week when the House is back in session to approve the funding package and send it to President Trump for his signature. Therefore, it appears as if a short-term federal government shutdown is likely over the weekend into possibly early next week. 

The bill includes a total of $13.7 billion for the Department of Labor, with significant allocations to support President Trump’s Executive Order 14278, “Preparing Americans for High-Paying Skilled Trade Jobs of the Future,” by providing $285 million to support the administration’s goal to create one million new apprenticeships; $55 million for job training in rural areas; and $15 million to grow the nation’s cybersecurity workforce. Further, the bill reduces funding for the National Labor Relations Board by $5 million. 

Upcoming Congressional Hearings 

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee will hold a hearing on February 5 at 10:00AM ET on strengthening Americans’ retirement, examining the successes of the Railroad Retirement Board. 

The House Committee on Education Workforce will hold the second hearing of its series on artificial intelligence, titled “Building an AI-Ready America: Adopting AI At Work,” on February 3, at 10:15AM ET. 

The Committee will also hold a field hearing on Disability Employment in Wisconsin on February 13, at 10:15AM CST.