Bill Would Abolish the National Labor Relations Board

The same week the House passed legislation limiting the National Labor Relations Board’s enforcement authority, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) introduced a bill that would eliminate the Board entirely. The National Labor Relations Reorganization Act of 2011 (H.R. 2926) would disband the NLRB and transfer its enforcement authority to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and its oversight of representation elections to the Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS).

In a press release, Rep. Gowdy stated:

The National Labor Relations Board has become a sycophant for labor unions and has lost all pretense of objectivity. The NLRB has outlived its usefulness and needs to be dissolved. The Department of Justice oversees a wide variety of civil, criminal, and administrative issues including anti-trust, voting rights, and major mergers and acquisitions; the DOJ can surely handle disputes between employers and employees and claims of unfair labor practices and do so without the bias and partisanship endemic to the NLRB.

This measure’s introduction is largely symbolic, as its chance of enactment is slim. The bill is evidence, however, of many lawmakers’ growing hostility toward the Board’s recent regulatory and administrative actions.