Senate Zeroes in on Blacklisting Executive Order

Employee Relations, Employment Law

This week, the Senate moved towards completing action on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which would exempt DOD contractors from the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces (a.k.a., Blacklisting) Executive Order, while a Senate subcommittee denied funding for a major component of the Order.  The NDAA measure has been weighed down with numerous other controversies so, to ensure timely passage, the Senate voted today by 68 to 23 to invoke cloture to enable final passage early next week.  This is expected to preclude amendments by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) to strike the DOD exemption from the Blacklisting Executive Order, and Patty Murray (D-WA) to apply the Order to certain Fair Labor Standards Act violators notwithstanding the exemption.  Meanwhile, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor-HHS again withheld funding for creation of a Department of Labor Office of Labor Compliance, which is intended to assist the various federal agencies in applying the Blacklisting Executive Order.