Protesters gather in front of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building on February 5, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday that would rescind President Donald Trump’s executive order stripping collective bargaining rights of about 1 million federal workers.
The 231-195 vote was a occasional bipartisan attack against the president. The bill was supported by Democrat Jared Golden of Maine and Republican Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania. Twenty Republicans joined all Democrats in supporting the initiative Bill.
It is now referred to the Senate, but it is unclear whether it will gain enough support to reach the 60-vote threshold in the chamber or even whether it will be put to a vote.
The move was also opposed by House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, who did not bring the bill to a vote on Wednesday. Instead, lawmakers could vote on the issue through a legislative maneuver called a discharge petition.
This procedure allows rank-and-file members to force the lower house to vote on solutions that are not proposed by the leadership of the majority party, which is how bills usually reach parliament.
In Wednesday’s vote to support the discharge petition, 13 Republicans joined all Democrats.
After Wednesday’s procedural vote, Golden said in a statement that the bill would restore the rights of federal workers.
“President Trump has said that ending collective bargaining is to protect our national defense,” he said. “But in my district, many of the affected workers are building our warships and caring for our veterans. If the majority we have built over the last few months sticks together, we can overturn this union-busting executive order and we can show America that this body will protect workers’ rights.”
House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, on Thursday opposed the bill, arguing that loose accountability for federal workers hurts taxpayers.
“Federal employee liability issues are legendary,” he said. “Firing a federal employee with poor performance or one who has engaged in misconduct requires a Herculean effort.”
Trump signed the executive order in March, which banned collective bargaining for federal agencies dealing with national security.
These agencies include, but are not narrow to, the departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, State, and Energy, as well as the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Coast Guard, most entities within the Department of Justice, and several pandemic response and refugee resettlement agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services.
Federal police and firefighters are exempt from this order.
Federal employees have narrow bargaining contracts compared to the private sector. Workers cannot strike or bargain for higher wages or benefits, but they can seek better working conditions, such as protection against retaliation, discrimination and illegal discharges.
