{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://golden.house.gov/media/press-releases/golden-s-bill-to-restore-federal-workers-collective-bargaining-rights-passes-house-in-bipartisan-231-195-vote", "Golden\u2019s bill to restore federal workers\u2019 collective bargaining rights passes House in bipartisan 231-195\u00a0vote", "2025-12-11", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "House", "ME", "Jared F. Golden", "G000592", "golden.house.gov", "golden", "https://golden.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. House of Representatives today voted 231-195 to pass the Protect America\u2019s Workforce Act (PAWA), legislation by Congressmen Jared Golden (ME-02) and Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01) to repeal a presidential executive order that stripped union rights from roughly 1 million federal workers.\n\nTwenty Republicans joined all Democrats in supporting the bill\u2019s final passage. Companion legislation was introduced in the Senate in September with bipartisan support.\n\n\u201cFederal workers show up on the job every day to do the people\u2019s work, and their limited collective bargaining rights are critical to protecting them from unfair treatment and political interference,\u201d Golden said after the bill\u2019s passage. \u201cI\u2019m proud of the strong, bipartisan coalition that came together to pass the Protect America\u2019s Workforce Act in the House, and I urge the Senate to quickly take up this bill and join us in standing up for workers.\u201d\n\n(Click here for video of Golden\u2019s remarks on the floor during initial debate on Wednesday)\n\n\u201cToday, the House took an important bipartisan step on behalf of America\u2019s workers. The right to be heard in one\u2019s workplace may appear basic, but it carries great weight \u2014 it ensures that the people who serve our nation have a seat at the table when decisions shape their work and their mission,\u201d Fitzpatrick said. \u201cThis bill moves us closer to restoring that fundamental protection for nearly one million federal employees, many of them veterans. I will always fight for our workers, and I call on the Senate to help ensure these protections are fully reinstated.\u201d\n\nGolden and Fitzpatrick introduced PAWA in April. After months of inaction by House majority leadership, they shepherded the bill\u2019s passage via discharge petition \u2014 a legislative maneuver that allows members to bring popular bills to the House floor when House leadership refuses to schedule a vote. In November, the discharge petition obtained its 218th signature, clearing the threshold to bring PAWA up for a vote over the Speaker\u2019s objections.\n\nWhile successful discharge petitions are historically rare, members of the House are increasingly turning to them to call up legislation.\n\nLast year, discharge petitions on disaster relief and the Social Security Fairness Act led to successful passage of both by the House. Earlier this year, a bill to compel release of the Epstein files was brought to the floor and passed via discharge. This week, Golden and Fitzpatrick initiated a discharge petition to force the House to take action on expiring ACA tax credits \u2014 an issue that Speaker Mike Johnson has so far refused to address.\n\n\u201cRight now, leadership \u2014 no matter who they are in both parties, House and Senate \u2014 should pay attention to what\u2019s going on with the discharge petitions,\u201d Golden said Wednesday. \u201cIf you\u2019re not going to open up the process, if you\u2019re not going to give people the opportunity to at least take a vote one way or the other on where they stand on issues \u2026 then increasingly I think you\u2019re going to see rank-and-file members taking matters into their own hands.\u201d\n\nUnion leaders praised passage of the Protect America\u2019s Workforce Act:\n\n\u201cPresident Trump betrayed workers when he tried to rip away our collective bargaining rights. In these increasingly polarized times, working people delivered a rare bipartisan majority to stop the administration\u2019s unprecedented attacks on our freedoms,\u201d said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. \u201cWe commend the Republicans and Democrats who stood with workers and voted to reverse the single largest act of union-busting in American history. Americans trust unions more than either political party. As we turn to the Senate \u2014 where the bill already has bipartisan support \u2014 working people are calling on the politicians we elected to stand with us, even if it means standing up to the union-busting boss in the White House.\u201d\n\n\u201cToday\u2019s vote marks an historic achievement for the House\u2019s bipartisan pro-labor majority, courageously led by Rep. Jared Golden of Maine,\u201d said Dr. Everett B. Kelley, National President at the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). \u201cWe need to build on today\u2019s seismic victory in the House and get immediate action in the Senate \u2014 and also ensure that any future budget bills similarly protect collective bargaining rights for the largely unseen men and women who keep our government running for the American people.\u201d\n\nIn addition to the AFL-CIO and AFGE, the bill has support from a wide range of unions representing federal employees, including: the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU), National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the United Steelworkers (USW).\n\nBackground:\n\nPresident Trump\u2019s March 27 Executive Order, \u201cExclusions from Federal Labor-Management Relations Programs,\u201d sought to end collective bargaining with unions at the departments of Defense, State, Veterans Affairs, Justice and Energy, and some workers at the departments of Homeland Security, Treasury, Health and Human Services, Interior and Agriculture. The order affected hundreds of thousands of federal workers.\n\nThe Protect America\u2019s Workforce Act would repeal the executive order outright, and guarantee that the federal government honors any union contract in place at the time it was made.\n\nFederal workers\u2019 bargaining rights are already limited. Unlike private-sector unions, federal employees cannot bargain collectively over wages, benefits or classifications, nor can they strike under existing law. Their bargaining rights are limited to conditions of employment. Roughly one-third of all federal workers in unions are veterans.\n\n###", 1, "2026-04-04T05:28:40Z", "2026-04-04T05:30:10Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://golden.house.gov/media/press-releases/golden-s-bill-to-restore-federal-workers-collective-bargaining-rights-passes-house-in-bipartisan-231-195-vote"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5189861878752708, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}