House leaders have stripped a bipartisan provision aimed at protecting civilian Defense Department workers’ collective bargaining rights after Senate Republicans balked at the prospect of clashing with President Trump over his efforts to excise unions from most federal agencies.
Last July, the House Armed Services Committee voted to bar the Pentagon’s use of fiscal 2026 funds to implement Trump’s March executive order stripping two-thirds of the federal workforce of their collective bargaining rights, including the measure as part of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. The House voted 231-196 to pass the bill in September, leaving the provision intact.
But when the House Rules Committee unveiled compromise language for the annual must-pass bill on Sunday, the measure, originally proposed by Rep. Donald Norcross, D-N.J., had disappeared. A source familiar with congressional negotiations told Government Executive that despite 16 House Republicans urging their Senate colleagues to support the measure, only Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, ultimately pushed for its inclusion.
Matt Biggs, national president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers said the provision’s exclusion from the likely final version of the NDAA was a “disappointment.” Although there are other avenues for lawmakers to nullify the anti-union executive orders, like the Protect America’s Workforce act, which is slated for a vote on the House floor in the coming weeks, including the measure on an annual must-pass bill was seen as the most realistic.
“We put a lot of effort into [the NDAA provision] and our members made a lot of calls,” he said. “If it was part of the NDAA, the White House wouldn’t have vetoed it. If it passed on its own, they could have, but the NDAA’s too important.”
The American Federation of Government Employees on Monday called on lawmakers to vote against the bill. The House Rules Committee is set to consider the compromise bill on Tuesday.
“Congress should not be in the business of weakening national security by weakening the workforce that makes national security possible,” said AFGE National President Everett Kelley. “DOD civilians are patriots. They serve this country with skill, honor and sacrifice. Denying them collective bargaining rights is wrong, it is harmful to the mission, and it has no place in a defense bill. If lawmakers are serious about supporting our military, they must send this bill back to conference, fix it, restore these protections and then pass an NDAA worthy of the men and women who defend this nation every day.”
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