Time running out to nominate a Democrat to labor board

As Congress winds down, unions and Democratic lawmakers are still waiting for President Bush to appoint a Democrat -- as required by law -- to the governing body for federal labor-management disputes.

Carol Pope, the only Democrat on the three-member Federal Labor Relations Authority, will complete her five-year term at the end of this session of Congress. The 109th Congress technically does not end until early January 2007, but members are adjourning this week to campaign for November's elections. Congress will return for a lame duck session after the elections

FLRA is an independent agency with three Senate-confirmed presidential appointees who set policies and adjudicate disputes between federal labor unions and agencies. Law requires that only two of the three slots can go to people with the same political affiliation.

If the president does not fill Pope's slot before she departs, two Republicans could make the decisions alone. One of those Republicans, Dale Cabaniss, former chief counsel for the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on the Civil Service under Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, was confirmed by the Senate in October 2003.

In June, Bush nominated Wayne Beyer to fill the second Republican slot. Beyer currently serves as an administrative appeals judge at the Labor Department. The Senate has yet to confirm him and Democrats could potentially hold up his approval until the president nominates a Democrat.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, ranking member of its Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia, wrote Bush a letter Sept. 18 asking for a Democratic nominee.

"It is in the best interest of the federal workforce and the nation they serve that both a Republican and a Democratic nominee be confirmed by the Senate prior to the end of the 109th Congress," the lawmakers wrote.

The White House did not return a phone call on the status of the pending nomination.

FLRA recently oversaw one of the largest-ever federal labor elections when the National Treasury Employees Union won the right to represent about 20,000 Homeland Security Department employees in the Customs and Border Protection bureau. NTEU's competitor, the American Federation of Government Employees, filed a dispute over the election results, and the case is still under review.