{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://lawler.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=5042", "Lawler Advances Bipartisan Effort Restoring Collective Bargaining Rights for Federal Workers", "2025-11-17", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NY", "Michael Lawler", "L000599", "lawler.house.gov", "lawler", "https://lawler.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27", "scraper", "Washington, D.C.\u2013 11/17/25\u2026 Today, Congressman Mike Lawler (NY-17) became the 218th signature on Discharge Petition 6, which would advance H.R. 2550, the Protect America\u2019s Workforce Act, bipartisan legislation led by Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01) and Jared Golden (ME-02) to restore collective bargaining rights for tens of thousands of federal employees.\n\nThe bill would reverse a prior executive order that stripped collective bargaining protections from workers across multiple federal agencies, including the Departments of Defense, State, Veterans Affairs, Justice, and Energy, as well as certain employees in other key departments. The order affected roughly 67% of the federal workforce, many of whom are veterans or career public servants in non\u2013national security roles.\n\nWith Rep. Nick Lalota's (NY-01) signature as the 217th and Lawler\u2019s signature as the 218th, the discharge petition has reached the 218-member threshold required to force a vote on the House floor.\n\n\u201cEvery American deserves the right to have a voice in the workplace, including those who serve their country every single day. Supporting workers and ensuring good government are not opposing ideas. They go hand in hand. Restoring collective bargaining rights strengthens our federal workforce and helps deliver more effective, accountable service to the American people,\u201d said Congressman Lawler.\n\n\u201cAFGE thanks Congressman Lawler for his courage in compelling a House vote on HR 2550, the Protect America\u2019s Workforce Act, to restore collective bargaining rights across the federal government. Through the efforts of Congressman Lawler and his 217 like-minded bipartisan colleagues, the full House will get to vote on this critical measure that restores workplace rights first enacted nearly five decades ago. Collective bargaining gives employees a fundamental voice in making the government work better for the American people, and we thank Congressman Lawler for recognizing that America functions best when labor and management cooperate toward common goals. We urge House passage of the bill and swift approval by the Senate and the President,\u201d said Dr. Everett B. Kelley, National President, American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO (AFGE).\n\n###", 1, "2026-04-07T15:46:19Z", "2026-04-07T20:18:39Z"]], "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://lawler.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=5042"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0032628197222948, "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"}