EFCA - Quick While No One is Looking
by JP Fielder
Quickie legislation for quickie elections? From Roll Call:
As Senate Democrats struggle to hammer out a compromise bill on union organizing, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is sketching a process for railroading the bill through the floor as quickly as possible to prevent Republicans from rallying a major campaign against it, senior Democratic aides said...Cutting off debate on the bill would likely ignite a major partisan firestorm, and top Democrats will look to make their move as fast as possible, according to the Democratic aides. "This is not the kind of thing where we could have a long, drawn-out rollout. We'd have to say, 'Here's the deal,' and then get to the floor and get it passed before anyone can mobilize against it," one leadership aide said.
...Progressives and union leaders have largely been cool to the idea of a compromise that doesn't include the union voting provision. When the latest proposal for moving an arbitration-only bill was floated, top union officials largely said they would support it, but only because they would reinsert the card-check provisions in conference...Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern who has participated in the Senate talks said in a statement earlier this year that no matter what deal clears the Senate, the voting provisions would be included "in the final bill or by amendment in both houses of Congress."
But Democrats said any deal that Harkin is able to get with moderates in the Senate will have to be the final word on the legislation at least for now and that no major changes could be made if it is expected to become law..."It's ... the kind of thing that the House would have to eat," a Democratic aide said, explaining that Democrats in the Senate will need union officials to make the case to Pelosi that she should pass the bill "as is." The hope is that union officials will accept an imperfect bill as better than nothing.
